In the first game, even in chapter one, even on normal, there were enemies that would overwhelm you, even destroy you if you weren't careful. Hell, even the first boss was hard. But, through all its difficulties, it only made you want to get better. Once you learned how to block, things became much easier. Then, on higher difficulties, you try to do the same thing and you learn that you can't play the same way you did on normal. Blocking an enemy too much will prompt him to vault over you and skewer you with a sword. So, now you have to learn a whole new way to fight. The same can be said with very hard and master ninja difficulties. In each one, there is something new you must deal with. Sometimes it something simple like, not getting a certain weapon until later in the game. Other times, it's something like, fighting enemies that you are not yet equipped to fight, sometimes even more than one of said enemies. The game was challenging, and difficult, and I'll admit, frustrating at times, but it was always something that you could work past.
In the first game there were two chapters in which you had to deal with grenade launching enemies. They would shoot out grenades at you, which would come in a burst of smoke, and explode. Sure, you could get caught in the blast, but there was only one at a time, and it gave you a chance to avoid it. Then, once you got close to the enemy, he would throw the weapon down and start fighting you in close quarter combat. Later in the chapter you had to use your bow to stop someone from rocketing you, but it was only one guy. Later still, in the next chapter, you have to stop another group of guys with your bow. At this point, however, you have access to exploding, and armor piercing arrows, which makes it feel more fair. After these two chapters, however, which by the way, make you fight in a completely different manner than you might have been accustomed to up to this point, the game goes back to "normal". It makes the game challenging, changing things up on you like that. Yes, there are moments where there's a lot of enemy fire going on, and your bow isn't great at aiming at times, but still, the game always felt fun.
Then came Ninja Gaiden 2. First off, let me say that I enjoy the game thoroughly. It is fun up to a point. After that point, however, it becomes tedious and irksome. That point, is chapter 11. It's Ayane's chapter in the sigma version. Maybe it was my lack of skill but I found it to be infuriating. After you get past it, which will likely take much longer than it needs to, then you get to play as Ryu for the rest of the game. The fun comes back, that is, unless you decide to play the game on master ninja.
Playing on anything higher than Mentor difficulty, isn't fun. In the first game there were, maybe, a hand full of enemies that could grab you. It was a quick thing. They'd pull you in and knee you to the face, pick you up and throw you over head, take you under arm and fling you to the ground, try to eat you alive, or vault over you and skewer you. That sounds like a lot, but it isn't. What's more, at least one of those attacks, you can break out of. In the second game, while you can break out of some of the grabs, you can't break out of all of them. This becomes increasingly difficult when, on mentor mode, these grabs take half of your health away. On master ninja mode it gets even better, because said unbreakable grabs will out right kill you. It doesn't matter if you health is full or not, once you are grabbed in master ninja mode you are as good as dead. Even those few grabs that you can break from take away half you health in the process.
It's even more frustrating in boss fights. They can grab you any second, even within the first second of the fight, and it's over before it even begins. It's frustrating because, I'm supposed to be a highly trained, highly skilled super ninja, taking down demigods and demons, and chopping of limbs, and you're telling me I can't escape from a fucking grab? That just seems ridiculous. If every enemy in the game is going to have a grab attack, then I need to be able to break free of said attacks. The fact that I can't is just so unfair. I get that having enemies with removed limbs more dangerous, and they are, but when he grabs me from off screen less than half a second after I land from completing an Ultimate Technique, that's not cool. I'm all for having enemies more dangerous, even giving them grabs, but I have to be able to see the enemy, so that I can at least try to avoid it. That way, if I fail, it's on me. This thing were enemies can grab you from off screen just makes the game feel cheap and unfair.
On the subject of cheap and unfair, many of the grabs were completely avoidable, if only I had been able to see the enemies there, but instead get a face full of rocket explosions as five guys on all sides simultaneously shoot me. That is what is most infuriating about this game. Enemies with rocket are all over the place. Often filling the screen with so many explosions that you can't tell what's happening. When you try to shoot these guys, you find yourself pelted by other rocket men, or otherwise, in the midst of a grab attack from an enemy hiding behind the explosion. What's more, should you decide to go up to these rocket enemies and fight them, they still will shoot you point blank, and while you're stumbling backwards, they'll shoot you again. In the first game the enemies, at the very least, had a reload animation, but not the case in this game. Like the grabs, rocket fire comes at you so quick, that you don't have time to react.
There were moments in the third game where you had to fend off rocket launcher guys, whether on snow/ desert mobiles or on rooftops. When all you are fighting are rocket guys, that's fine. I can enjoy that as frustrating as it may be. But, when yo throw normal enemies into the mix that gets tedious. Enemies I can't see shouldn't be able to grab me. That should be a rule. Now that we are on to Ninja Gaiden 3, I'll say that many of the enemy grabs have a "warning". This is a great concept, giving me a chance, at least, to avoid them. However, sometimes, there is now warning, you just get grabbed. This is reminiscent of the first game with one major exception. The attacks take a crap ton of damage. Even sometimes, when you think you've avoided the grab after getting a "warning" the enemies will still, somehow reach you, no matter how far away you seem to be. Again, very unfair. There's even one enemy in the game that is invisible until it tries to grab you. Now how am I supposed to avoid a grab from an enemy I didn't even know was there?
As if to add insult to injury, this game foregoes items and leaves you with a a health bar that retains lasting damage. This idea derived from the second game, of which I wasn't a fan of then, but I had items to use if I needed them. I also had essence to collect, some of which would even heal me. This game forgoes all of that in favor of the steal-on-bone, attacks which it wants you to do. The idea, I realize, is to use the steal-on-bone attacks to avoid loosing much health. Here's the problem though. Often times, while fighting an enemy, I see someone doing the "warning" and, I try to make it over there, but by the time Ryu reaches him, it's over. You have, literally, half a second to a second to initiate the attack. But when you are surrounded by hoards of enemies all trying hard to kill you, it makes getting there difficult, or as the case may be, impossible. This, of course means, that you can't do the steal-on-bone attacks.
That's not so bad in and of itself but when you don't have items to heal you, and your health bar retains any damage you may have taken, you end up entering many of the boss fights with a health bar the size of fingernail. Sure, you have ninpo to heal you in the game, but often times I find that using it, if the enemies aren't lined up right, the health you get back from it is next to nothing. Even sometimes, when enemies are lined up, you still don't get much health back. Then, of course there is the ability to meditate, but Ryu has to stop, put his hand on the ground, and use his Ki power to do this. But try doing it when you are being relentlessly attacked on all sides while rocket fire shoots at you from all directions and your more likely to die.
Lastly, though this isn't so much a gripe about game play, but about the solo ninja trials in the game, if I'm playing a solo mission, and I get logged out of the internet, which happens a lot, because my ps3 is so far away from my router, why do I get logged out? It's a solo mission. That means I am playing the mission by my self. I don't get logged out of the main game when I'm playing by my self, unless I'm playing Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, but that's another can of worms. Anyway, I could understand why it would happen in a multiplayer mode, but in a solo mission, really? What the hell?
So with all this said, I really want to like this game. I want to play it, have fun, and be challenged, like I was in the first game. The problem is, I'm not. With all the rocket fire, grab attacks, and lasting damage crap, I find myself becoming more and more frustrated with the game. As a fan of the series, I would like to see a return to Ninja Gaiden Black/ Sigma. Those games are what made fans of us all. That doesn't mean you'd have to give up on all the obliteration's and steal-on-bone attacks, in fact, I'd like to see them return in future titles, but, at the very least, take a look at Black and Sigma and see what made them great. Bring that back into play.
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