Beat in slow motion mode. This was pretty much Ninja Gaiden with some refined mechanics and no enemy respawning. Instead every enemy had patterns to learn and master as they often took several hits to defeat. Some enemies were placed in such a way as to make taking damage unavoidable. The biggest problem I had was not being able to cycle between weapons. Instead I had either the sword (fast, simple, long range waves with upgrades) or chain (diagonal up attacks, reach, slow without upgrades, and sometimes did not hit close enemies). Shurikens and bombs had limited number and were automatically used until depleted. If only there was a weapon select mechanic to allow tactical use of each. I used the chain for the 1st set of stages, switching to sword after checking a walkthrough to see if there was any way to switch weapons. The diagonal option of the chain was handy but it was noticeably worse at close range. Seemed like the weapon upgrades were lost upon taking damage. Bombs and homing shurikens were the only ways to attack down, which was sorely lacking. Sometimes I simply ignored the enemies and ran on. Bosses were mostly pretty good with patterns to learn. The only boss I did not like was the giant tank because its mortar shots seemed unpredictable. You would think for every auditory boom of it firing, a projectile would land at your current location. But that was not how it worked and I could not figure out how to properly avoid those shots. Final boss had a very predictable pattern, but as his hp went down he entered phase 2 and sped up to a ridiculous level. I could not keep up, but I did figure out a safe spot where all his attacks would miss and I only had to properly time dodging his 1 melee, which gave a split second to hit him once.

Good alternative to Ninja Gaiden that was more forgiving and less obnoxious but it would have been so much better with an inventory.

7.3/10