I remember playing this game and being obsessed with its challenge. I never played the Ninja Gaiden games on the original NES. Kind of a shame because it was certainly the type of game I would have loved even if I probably would never have beaten them. Ninja Gaiden certainly upped the ante and served as an apt transition for a classic and demanding 2-D action platformer into the new foray of 3-D. It certainly takes notes from both Zelda and Devil May Cry (mostly from this game). Incorporating a heavy emphasis on action, platforming and light RPG elements creating a sense of progression.
For a game that's basically 20 years old, I got to say it ages surprisingly well. It certainly has jank and flaws but it's really easy to overlook them when the combat feels as satisfying as it does here. Not to mention that it was a surprisingly good looking game for its time as well. I remember being dazzled by the graphics. Really pushing the original Xbox to it's limits. Still one of the best Ninja fantasy games out there, though Sekiro has certainly surpassed it in every way (for me at least).
Combat is tight and responsive, for the most part. You can attack, dodge roll, jump, wall run, cast spells and used various ranged and melee weapons. Truth be told, I mostly just stuck with the Dragon Sword. It has such a great moveset, scales throughout the game and the Ikuana Drop is just awesome to execute. Launching an enemy into the air. Juggling them, then suplexing them WWE style into the ground for AOE damage. Then there's the flying swallow attack which is extremely effective at decapitating enemies who are agile. Or can be used to close the gap. Even the wall lounge attacks can be pretty effective. Enemies in this game are hyper aggressive as well. Bum rushing you constantly without relenting. Then you have ultimate attacks, which are charged powerful attacks that can often one shot an enemy. These can be charged faster with essence, which are various orbs (yellow for money, blue for health and red for magic) enemies can drop. Another trick the game never tells you is you can unleash a fast ultimate attack if you press Y the moment you land from a jump. Very useful.
There are two things that you will struggle with in a bad way with combat. The camera and the auto-lock system. The camera is mostly fine, with it following directly behind Ryu. It's possible to use the right thumb stick to move the camera, but you have to click the right thumb stick first which can feel a bit awkward. Otherwise the right thumb stick will pop you into a first person camera. Overall this is functional, but becomes a problem when fighting fast enemies that like to zip across the arena or you are fighting in narrow corridors. These two issues aren't too prevalent, though there are plenty of hallways with tight turns that can give you a headache. And the last boss fight can also feel a bit cheap with him dashing across the screen and the arena having pillars (which can block your vision resulting in cheap hits from the boss).
The auto-lock system forces Ryu to automatically target the closest enemy. This can be a bit of an issue when there's a pile of ninjas ganking you. You won't be able to control which target you want to focus. So typically AOE attacks are the best option in these situations. Another issue that happened to me a decent amount was wanting to use the Flying Swallow dash attack, but Ryu deciding "nah," and instead just jumping straight up and lunging down (which opened me to attacks). The reason this happens frequently is due to the context sensitivity required for the attack to execute. You basically need to be a certain distance away from the enemy and have the right angle. Otherwise the attack just won't happen. This becomes way more chaotic when fighting a crowd of enemies since you can't specifically target an enemy with it. Such as maybe an enemy away from the group to give you more space. Ect. Being able to manually lock on to enemies, particularly for Boss fights, would have significantly improved combat. Still this was an old game and DMC 3 hadn't been made yet.
Speaking of DMC 3, the game unfortunately is missing a convenient weapon swap mechanic. You basically need to awkwardly navigate the menu to select which weapon or support item you want to use. This sadly made me far less likely to experiment with different weapons since it was a hassle. DMC 3 incorporated a fluid weapon swap mechanic that added more depth to the combat and encouraged experimentation with weapons. Still this isn't really a deal breaker. Combat is still fun in spite of the lack of these modern conveniences. The Ninja Gaiden Sigma release of the game does address this a bit, though the game also is significantly easier in comparison to the original release.
The only other headache with combat is ranged weapons... there are a few encounters where you basically need to manually aim a weapon to take out a helicopter or target dishes on a radio tower. It's so awkward and with how aggressive enemies are, you are almost certainly going to get hit. The game does offer an unreliable auto-aim with ranged weapons, but it can have mixed results and sometimes you will just pop into first person anyways... There isn't a lot of ranged combat fortunately, but I never enjoyed it.
Levels overall have solid design with light focus on platforming and puzzles. Combat is still the name of the game. But the game does leverage it's wall running mechanics in some pretty clever ways. One of my favorites was a cryptic message hinting at a legendary weapon down a dark alleyway. You need to basically wall run from wall to wall to reach it. There's a fun Easter egg with a giant XBOX that will refill your magic and a boomerang throwing weapon as the main reward. There were a few places where I felt like a dummy because I thought I was stuck, but it turned out I just needed to wall run to get out. So it does become a pretty standard way to traverse the game.
There are a series of dungeons throughout the game and this is where the level design is at its best. These levels typically loop in on themselves and you organically unlock short cuts. The larger city of Tairon serves as a hub that you will loop back into as you explore the game. While this game does have a Chapter structure, the world itself still stays interconnected. With the ending of the game giving you a victory lap through all the levels of the game which was pretty neat.
None of the puzzles reach levels of complexity in a Zelda game, but they are still engaging and can make you feel clever for solving. The aqueducts in particular was well designed, also coincidentally the level that made me feel like a dummy because I thought I was trapped on the lowest floor. I just needed to wall run to get out. The caves feel like a more conventional Zelda dungeon. Where you need to acquire iron and keys to progress to the boss. The only thing I didn't like about this level is the amount of backtracking. Would have been nice if they added in a few more shortcuts to cut it down. For example, there's a cracked wall between where you make the key and collect it. Why not have the wall be destructible? Not a big deal or anything.
The real pull of the game is in the boss fights. There is a bit of an inconsistent difficulty curve with the bosses. With Alma, Ghost Doku and the penultimate chapter boss rush being very punishing. The last two chapters are rough and almost frustrating. Mostly because these fights are long and tough and there isn't a convenient shop nearby to replenish your healing items. So you will certainly run out of resources before beating the game. I did manage to beat this 20 years ago, but was still satisfying to beat it again.
It's an easy recommend if you have a hankering for a Ninja power fantasy game. Sekiro is certainly better in my book, but this game ages surprisingly well in spite of it's flaws.
