Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Comments by Christian Donlan

your what has one muscleblade?! O_o

Nice - the co-op ninja action makes me want to get a ps3. My xbox copyy seems so very very vanilla right now.

Meh. The 360 version was shite - not a patch on the first game.

I think it's wonderful, however, that they've fixed so many of the problems that shouldn't have been fucking there in the first place, and made them exclusive to the PS3 version. Not bringing the improvements to the 360? Fuck you then, Team Ninja. I won't be buying Ninja Gaiden 3.

Sorry for the cussing, but I found NG2 to be deeply, deeply frustrating.

It's a good game, a very good game....very replayable (i went though the thing 8 times!) due to the action being slick, fast...and rather enjoyable

Agree, NG1 was a total stunner - NG2 just didn't do it for me though. Still a reasonable game but the difficulty is hard to overcome.

/Looks at boobs
/Preorders

NG1 was hard, but (usually) fair. There weren't any bosses, for example, that took the final hit from your sword, then exploded and instantly killed you.

Yup, NG2 was a move to spectacle over skill and, whilst I enjoyed it (some bits immensely), it's still the biggest disappointment of the current generation. I loved NGB. I doubt that this, interesting as it all sounds, will move the balance back to what made the earlier game so special

I didn't mind the difficulty so much as the complete cheapness at times. Like that level where you fight that fire demon thing again, and straight afterwards go into the water with those exploding jellyfish things, which if they kill you, you have to do the incredibly hard bossfight again. That's brought back some painful memories. :'(

@Dr.Mott

That happened to you too? Yeah, fuck me. What bullshit. The stupid jellyfish hadn't even been introduced in the level up to that point. It's like "fantastic, I killed the boss, SURPRISE EXPLODING JELLYFISH DO IT AGAIN".

Again, sorry for the swearing. No game in recent memory has made me swear this much.

Yes, we Europeans find purple mist very palatable. I wish they'd put that in movies as well. Vin Diesel goes up to a baddie, shoots him in the face - cue purple mist! Also, it would be wonderful in novels. "Her face contorted as she drew the blade along her arm instead of across, like in so many bad teen movies. This was for real, she had done her research, and she hadn't told a soul about what she intended to do that night. Only sad attention-seekers did that. This was the end of the line for her, she knew it. She felt her heart slowing, the world growing dimmer. She saw a very moderate and non-disturbing amount of purple mist rising from her slightly hurt arm, and the pain was very inoffensive. And then pink bunnies came jumping into her room, and Santa Claus was also there, patting her on her shoulder, promising her everything she ever wanted for Christmas, which would be every day from now on. And then everything was better forever, and nobody was every hurt by anyone ever again, and all the people in the world had pancakes."

Yeah. Much better :)

At least the Germans will be able to buy this this time.

A purchase as I hope they have removed the cheapness from this version.. NGII made me scream at my TV, cheapness of the game. Shurikens hitting you in the back from about 2 miles away thrown by someone invisible.

Blood better be an option. F***ing purple mist? That is just stupid.

I loved the challenge even though it was a tad cheap at times. I resently completed Bionic Commando on the hardest difficulty and i found that a lot harder than NG2 on warrior difficulty tbh. I enjoy hard games tbh as long as they dont get tedious.

good story neonxaos... had a bit of a laugh with that... +1 :D

off-topic: I've just noticed the header: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Comments by Christian Donlan. seems a bit silly to me.

"GOTY for PS3. The first PS3 game i really want to play. Thank god my nabour has a PS3. Buying one just for this game would be ridicolus."

Someone who doesn't own a PS3 declaring what game will be GOTY is "ridicolus", pretty much like that entire post. The first one on the PS3 was decent if not a little dated when it came out. Definately gettin this.

I was interested until I read they took the gore out and EG, for some reason sees this as a good thing.

What good ninja themed movies or games don't have blood spurts, etc? You may as well say swap the dragon sword for a nerf bat, ffs.

It's part of the iconography. FAIL

I actually wouldn't mind if they toned down the blood a bit. There was so much blood spurting, limbs flying around in the game that it just got ridiculous. I do like the odd lopped-off limb, but I don't need to dismember something *every time I hit it with a sword*.

Changing the colour is a bit stupid, though. Hell, half the enemies didn't even have red blood anyway.

'nabour' - says more about your mental ability than anything you've ever written...

It's a real shame this isn't coming to the 360. I thought NGII had potential but felt rushed, flawed and very uninspired. The New York level in particular looked last gen with its dull textures and low poly models.

Considering Itagaki left not long afterwards I have to wonder if he just didn't have his heart in the game and just hung around long enough to get it out the door. If they did an update or re-release for the 360 I'd consider buying it, but I won't buy a PS3 just to play it.

I'm sorry but the whole point for me with Ninja Gaiden 2 was the gore and the over the top nature of the fights.

It was a great little game to play after a stressful day in work. Go up to an army of ninja, slaughter them all in any number of interesting ways (although most usually involved beheading) and then admire your handy work. Limbs, bodys and blood all over the shop - I am then at peace with myself once more (or at least till I go back to work the next day)

After the rage caused by the original censorship of Ninja Gaiden on the xbox ( in fairness it did eventually get re-released uncut) it does seem a little odd.

Is it just me, or are the pop-ups for the screenshots displaying *under* some of the Flash adverts? I can scroll the adverts out of the way with the pop-up open, but it is just messy.

I'm very interested to see how this turns out, since the original version had so many huge, underlying faults.

NG2 on the 360 was a severe disappointment. It felt like an imitation of the original rather than a sequel - all the elements were in place, but it fell apart with numerous design shortfalls. The combat system - fast and fluid, yes, but unfortunately each weapon had 2-3 moves that were so much safer and more powerful than the rest. Sure, on lower settings you can ignore those attacks, but on the 2 unlockable difficulties, where NGB came to life, NG2 simply forces you to be as cheap as possible to survive. And apparently someone at TN still thought that the Bow was a brilliant idea, not an annoying piece of shit.

NG2s biggest failing: it doesn't really let you fight the enemies. It was great fighting against ninjas in NG/B, they felt like they were fighting back. In NG2, they just swarm around and spam attacks from off screen, and you're basically forced to use the same moves over and over to keep a combo going. Each enemy has a few attacks that completely destroy it, so it's pointless using any other attack. Hell, if you use the Falcon's talons from the start, even on Master Ninja difficulty you can beat the game using only 2 different attacks, with the exception of 3-4 bosses which you can just use the Scythe's air attack (jump XXYYY iirc) instead and exploit the masses of invincibility frames.

Then there's the cheap enemy placement on harder settings (super accurate exploding arrow archers who can't be stunned with shurikens on the other side of large gaps or way off in the distance in packs), enemies pelting you with projectiles from off screen, terrible, terrible boss AI (seriously, you can beat 3/4 of them using the exact same tactics), lack of enemy variety... the failures just go on and on. The bosses in NGB took skill, in NG2 they just get a host of one hit kill attacks (The level 3 boss on MN can in fact simply kill you. There's no animation for the attack, it just kills you at random), and the dodge move makes them even harder to dodge than normal because of how hideously unresponsive it is, you might as well use the X+A jump instead.

Considering TN wanted to make the game so incredibly hard, it's interesting that it's not even that difficult in the end. Mentor/Master Ninja may force you into spamming the same attacks over and over, but they're so effective that only the first, second and 12th (the return to the village) are particularly difficult. A lot of people complained about the rocket guys who fire bursts of 10-15 rockets, but I actually didn't mind them, at least you can stun the bastards with shuriken unlike the arrow guys on MN.

How to make this game good: Rebalance the weapons, fix the boss AI, improve dodge responsiveness, improve frame rate, stop enemies who aren't on the screen, miles in the distance spamming huge damage projectiles at me, let me actually FIGHT enemies rather than spam attacks, and seriously, fix the damn camera. I didn't even notice NGB's camera, so NG2's must have been doing a lot wrong for me to actually notice it being bad.

Funny thing is if you play NG1 or Black right next to 2 they feel sludgy...it sped the action up and finessed something already really finessed....the bosses, arrow shooting et al....i can see people might like the 1st more, but the actual core action in 2 was actually improved....a lot....it's just sugar coated memories re 1 i think....best technique for the last boss in nr1 was one move, the flying swallow, and it was more difficult as well.

@ DUFFKING
maybe its me but I do not remember spamming a few moves in order to survive in NG2. I think it might be the difference in game play. In NG games I never stay on the ground for more than half a second. I am always constantly moving, doing my combo and setting up situations to do my ultimates. I had a lot of fun with NG2 and never felt it was lacking in the skill department that made me enjoy the first one.

The fact that they are taking the blood out of the PS3 version definitely make me pause in getting the game. I would have hoped they would have it as an option. No to many games actually make you feel like you are actually using a sword to hack apart demons than NG2

@notmyrealname

...not really...more a cat amongst the pigeons simulator...requires tactics, movement, picking which enemies to take out 1st, aaand timing, the best fighting engine of any 3rd person actioner imo

SFIV requires tactics right? and so does NG, especially on mentor + where they mix up the enemy types and make you work like a mo fo to get around and take out the hench

notmyrealname, you clearly never played Ninja Gaiden...

I hope there will be the option to turn gore on/off should you want to see it or not.

Regardless, I'll be getting this game. Difficult games are enjoyable...I recently played Demon's Souls...

Well, how nice is that. The people buying the long-awaited, but ultimately half-assed, product for the 360 sponsors a fixed version on the PS3. Yeah, that will definitely earn you a good rep, TN.

@Machiavellian

On the default settings it's not too much of an issue. It can still be annoying getting swarmed sometimes though.
If you put the difficulty on Master Ninja, from the very first fight in the game you are constantly pelted by explosive projectiles, making every single ground based combo completely useless. You basically have to repeatedly use a string of X+A (homing jump with lots of invincibility frames), air attack with lots of invincibility frames, repeat (or X+A, shuriken, head stomp then UT on landing). It was the only way to avoid exploding shuriken damage/archers nailing you from miles away. Admittedly it's not so bad on Mentor, but frankly, NGB was a much harder game and never relied on cheap rubbish either.

A few examples of ridiculously powerful moves include the Falcon's Talons' Flying Swallow --> Izuna Drop combo which made you completely invincible and was an instant kill on most ninjas, and the DCTF's -->YYYY move, which was just stupidly powerful.

Also amusing was the werewolf AI, where they refuse to attack you if you're charging up an ultimate technique :/ Made those stages very easy. The assault rifle carrying ninjas were also pretty amusing, they had a move where they jump over your head with a somersault, THEN grab you and shoot you. If you try and dodge when you see the ninja jumping over you, it won't work. It's basically an attack that's technically impossible to dodge, as there's no timing window to dodge out of it. Same for the undead ninjas, who stab you in the chest then blow their own arm off in the process.

I'd probably like it more if NGB hadn't been so ridiculously brilliant, NG2 just tried to copy the formula, but forgot the little balance touches that make huge overall differences.

Ninja Gaiden = Pink mist?

Nope doesn't works for me.... other is a question of whether TN will aggravates loyal X360 consumers of previous X360 games? I do understand reaching a new audience but as Konami had released MGS2 and Silent Hill 2 with revised version, they at least kept true to loyal PS2 purchasers.

This is how I see it, but delighted for PS3 owners to enjoy a more complete version of a disappointing but fun sequel.

I think Tecmo owe xbox owners some more DLC in the way of perhaps co-op options or at least release sigma 2 on the xbox, I paid full price for the xbox version which was plagued with bugs, and they even removed mission mode only charge for it later, only to have the DLC update break the game which wasn't fixed for a month!!

For them to turn round and say 1 year later, we're making a better fixed version with more content included which we charged extra for on last years version is pretty appalling, a discounted sigma version should be released for 360 owners who go screwed on last years version which was no doubt rushed out due to Tecmos' in house fighting over them trying to stiff Team Ninja employees of their pay.

I think any 360 owner who bought NG2 will have zero interest in sigma. The 360 version leaves a very hard to forget taste in the mouth.

It was litterally a lesson in Masochism. To illustrate the point I simply need to mention the exploding volcano boss. If you didn't psychicly remember to block after you killed him you died. No warning, no hint, no chance! Not to mention the stupid achievements like "Finish the game using only the ". Really! Because it was pretty much impossible to do such a thing. Especially when the last boss would spam you with flying skulls if you were using the moon staff weapon when you got to him! (yes I really made it that far with just the staff).

The PS3 version sounds infinitely more sane than the 360 version and I sincerely hope that's the case. Otherwise I would recommend that PS3 owners give it a miss! This is definitely going to be a game where the sane advice would be to wait for all the reviews to come in before even considering buyinjg it.

What a surprise, Itagaki leaves and a year later we get a T rated makeover. shame on Team Ninja