Ninja Gaiden 3 Difficulty!

I am a huge Ninja Gaiden fan but I have to admit I have never finished any game in this franchise. Why? Because frankly I found them to difficult. Sure I got better at them and I did feel a genuine sense of accomplishment when I advanced past each level or boss, but in most cases their were just too many infuriating moments for me to go all the way.

I don't mind a difficult game from time to time but it has to be done right. Ninja Gaiden games have always been filled with way too many boss fights and the game has become too dependant on how you manage your inventory of health and magic. To some players NG was a mere challenge, but to most of us it was just plain cheap game design.

I have always enjoyed the cinematics, top notch handling, awesome moves and great graphics these games have had. Ninja Gaiden was bench mark on the original Xbox that still looks today. I was actually close to finishing that game until my Xbox crashed and I lost my game save. I could never build up the will to play it again after that.

I truely feel that a good game company can give players options in its menu to play the game how they want. Easy mode should be exactly that...easy and normal should offer a moderate challenge. According to the achievement statistics apparently a small portion of people who played NG2actually finished it so I am not the only one who apparently didn't have the patience to play through this. I got to level 9 and felt like smashing more than one controller so I eventually traded in my copy.

Lets hope Team Ninja get this one right and make a game that the average game can play and finish. Its not a good idea in this day and age for developers make a game that generally appeals to a smaller audience as it will limit sale or resale of a product. I for one am eagerly awaiting a Ninja Gaiden game that is rewarding and fun, not punishingly hard.

No they have to keep it as hard as they can. Getting your ass kicked is part of the Ninja Gaiden experience.

When I put that game into my console I am signing up for an ass whooping, and tbh there is really few games that challenge players the way Ninja Gaiden does; its a rare breed at this point so it better stay that way.

The PS3 versions of the games really aren't too difficult I find on the easiest settings. That's what I like about them, I start on the easiest and keep replaying it on highter difficulties and see how far I can go.

Though Sigma 1 does get pretty frusterating near the end. (Damn those Ghost fish!! :evil: ) I love Sigma 2 forgetting very difficult on the higher settings, and never feeling cheap. And the easiest setting is actually kinda easy.This is what I hope from Ninja Gaiden 3.

The only cheap design I ever saw what throwing an infinite number of explosive shurikens being thrown at the player from off-screen. Other than that, everything else in that game is about timing. It's actually not that hard. I say, keep the difficulty and get rid of those damn shurikens. I'd much rather fight a thousand enemies w/o those things than 5 who are consistently spamming them when I am fighting some kind of weird spider thing.

I wouldn't mind if they made the first difficulty a little easier, as long as they still have that brutal difficulty available from the get-go, I don't want to have to slog through the game twice on easy until I get to the harder modes.

No they have to keep it as hard as they can. Getting your ass kicked is part of the Ninja Gaiden experience.

When I put that game into my console I am signing up for an ass whooping, and tbh there is really few games that challenge players the way Ninja Gaiden does; its a rare breed at this point so it better stay that way.

alfredooo

this ...

The PS3 versions of the games really aren't too difficult I find on the easiest settings. That's what I like about them, I start on the easiest and keep replaying it on highter difficulties and see how far I can go.

Though Sigma 1 does get pretty frusterating near the end. (Damn those Ghost fish!! :evil: ) I love Sigma 2 forgetting very difficult on the higher settings, and never feeling cheap. And the easiest setting is actually kinda easy.This is what I hope from Ninja Gaiden 3.

'Ninja gaiden Black' was the first 'hack n slash' title I ever played.. Knowing that It would of left me with the feeling that somehow I cheated if I played through this particular title on the 'Ninja Dog' difficulty.. even though it took me a while to complete onmy first playthrough on normal difficulty, plus the fact that I was stuck on 'Alma' for five days.. The feeling I experienced on completion was great.. Personally I don't think this particular franchise should be dumbed down.. Like all good things in life, if we are to succeed, we must study !

I'm glad they're toning the difficulty down some. I think it'll make for a better experience.

To some players NG was a mere challenge, but to most of us it was just plain cheap game design.

tbs76

There is nothing cheap about NG or NG: Black.

Every death is the fault of the player, period.

The NG combat engine requires that you understand, master, and exploit it. It remains one of the most sublime and perfectly crafted action games ever made.

NGII on the other hand contains elements that could be described as cheap as hell.

The only cheap design I ever saw what throwing an infinite number of explosive shurikens being thrown at the player from off-screen. Other than that, everything else in that game is about timing. It's actually not that hard. I say, keep the difficulty and get rid of those damn shurikens. I'd much rather fight a thousand enemies w/o those things than 5 who are consistently spamming them when I am fighting some kind of weird spider thing.

clayron

i hate those things so much

No they have to keep it as hard as they can. Getting your ass kicked is part of the Ninja Gaiden experience.

When I put that game into my console I am signing up for an ass whooping, and tbh there is really few games that challenge players the way Ninja Gaiden does; its a rare breed at this point so it better stay that way.

alfredooo

OMG I agree. To complain that one game or series is too difficult nowadays is more like praise for it in my book. 99.9% of games you play today have a sure fire way to beat them you just have to do this or that to expose a certain weakness or cause a certain chain of events that will surely crush the boss or enemies you are facing.

Games like Ninja Gaiden however do not give you such a trivial way to progress. They demamnd you perfect your fighting in the levels particular surroundings before you may advance. Castlevania Lords of Shadow is similair in this regard, and should also be rightly praised for it.

Why?

Because the game is relying solely on the players skill and reaction times, just like in the old days of Links Adventure, MegaMan2 or any of the original Ninja Gaidens. Just because there are people who have a hard time with it and even find it frustratingly difficult here and there, I personally do not believe they should change the formula what so ever, As Alfredooo said "I'm signing up for an a$$ whooping" and thats the way I like it, If I want to play something easier I still can, like fable, or something but it is very difficult to find other games that can match the difficulty and challenge, of Ninja Gaiden's.

Ninja Gaiden Black's difficulty separates it from other games. If you have the ability, you can go through the entire game without getting damaged.

I read about this the other day and was a little upset about it. A lot of games these days have become so easy, and I think a lot of it is because it's easier to reel in the more casual gamers who aren't used to said difficulty... so much that it's custom for many games' difficulty levels to be pretty moderate in comparison to older games. Ninja Gaiden, however, is one of those few series out there that had stuck to being difficult. Ninja Gaiden and Difficulty are practically synonymous terms, so I'm not too pleased about the series becoming easier. Team Ninja, what have you become? ;_;KnightsOfHyrule

[QUOTE="tbs76"]

To some players NG was a mere challenge, but to most of us it was just plain cheap game design.

Grammaton-Cleric

There is nothing cheap about NG or NG: Black.

Every death is the fault of the player, period.

The NG combat engine requires that you understand, master, and exploit it. It remains one of the most sublime and perfectly crafted action games ever made.

NGII on the other hand contains elements that could be described as cheap as hell.

For the record people, I did progress through every NG game and almost finished the first until my save file was lost. I do appreciate the feeling of reward for sticking with the game and becoming a master ninja. I still firmly believe the developers are capable of makng a game with various difficulty levels that all gamers can play. For some of the less skilled, or less patient like myself I would love to play through this series from start to finish and enjoy the full experience not just the first few levels. If you are too proud to play on any difficulty less than normal so be it. You have the choice to play it or not. You will get a nice big fat achievement or trophy stating you beat the game on its hardest settings. Just give us less patient players the choice too play how we want. The Ninja Gaiden franchise deserves to be played by more gamers than just the niche hardcore and obviously if game sales do not stack up we may not see to many more NG games. Playability makes sales, and sales make sequels.

I quite liked the fact NG2 was so hard, it made finishing it all that more of an accomplishment. I don't like developers widening the goal posts so everybody can play, not being funny but if you want an easier game there are plenty to choose from, why change one of the elements that defines a franchise?

The difficulty of the series is something I loved, the challenge was good, was always able to finish on the lower difficulties but when you ramped up the difficulty the game changed, the enemies changed it as well as being more makes such a differance to just playing a games where you just have to hit enemies more to kill them and you lose more health for being hit.

For the record people...

tbs76

[QUOTE="tbs76"]

To some players NG was a mere challenge, but to most of us it was just plain cheap game design.

Grammaton-Cleric

There is nothing cheap about NG or NG: Black.

Every death is the fault of the player, period.

The NG combat engine requires that you understand, master, and exploit it. It remains one of the most sublime and perfectly crafted action games ever made.

NGII on the other hand contains elements that could be described as cheap as hell.

I think it's fine, there's a big difference between a game being challenging and cheap, and Ninja Gaiden games are cheap. That's not cool.

Also, the ghost fish :S

I think it's fine, there's a big difference between a game being challenging and cheap, and Ninja Gaiden games are cheap. That's not cool.

Also, the ghost fish :S

KillerJuan77

lol wut

Only NG2 is cheap and Sigma 2 to a lesser extent.

Don't see how the original can be cheap.

[QUOTE="Grammaton-Cleric"]

[QUOTE="tbs76"]

To some players NG was a mere challenge, but to most of us it was just plain cheap game design.

Bigboi500

There is nothing cheap about NG or NG: Black.

Every death is the fault of the player, period.

The NG combat engine requires that you understand, master, and exploit it. It remains one of the most sublime and perfectly crafted action games ever made.

NGII on the other hand contains elements that could be described as cheap as hell.

QTEs in Ninja Gaiden? where did you hear this? :(

I don't see why the easier settings cannot be made easier whilst keeping the harder settings just as hard as before. If people like the challenge then they can go straight for the hard settings and leave the easy mode for those that want to play it. Saying a certain game has got to be hard on all settings is like saying a film in Russian isn't allowed to have subtitles/dubbing so only the truly hardcore (in this case, those willing to learn Russian) can enjoy it.Nooberman2k

I don't see why the easier settings cannot be made easier whilst keeping the harder settings just as hard as before. If people like the challenge then they can go straight for the hard settings and leave the easy mode for those that want to play it. Saying a certain game has got to be hard on all settings is like saying a film in Russian isn't allowed to have subtitles/dubbing so only the truly hardcore (in this case, those willing to learn Russian) can enjoy it.Nooberman2k

Normal is not that hard, as it is. If you think it's too hard, play easy mode. The game even tells you how to exploit it; use the wall. Normal gives away so many blockable moves. Hard mode actually starts to get realistically challenging in that the opponents block a lot of the moves that normal allows.

It's like a fighting game.

[QUOTE="Bigboi500"]

[QUOTE="Grammaton-Cleric"]

There is nothing cheap about NG or NG: Black.

Every death is the fault of the player, period.

The NG combat engine requires that you understand, master, and exploit it. It remains one of the most sublime and perfectly crafted action games ever made.

NGII on the other hand contains elements that could be described as cheap as hell.

alfredooo

QTEs in Ninja Gaiden? where did you hear this? :(

[QUOTE="Nooberman2k"]I don't see why the easier settings cannot be made easier whilst keeping the harder settings just as hard as before. If people like the challenge then they can go straight for the hard settings and leave the easy mode for those that want to play it. Saying a certain game has got to be hard on all settings is like saying a film in Russian isn't allowed to have subtitles/dubbing so only the truly hardcore (in this case, those willing to learn Russian) can enjoy it.BranKetra

Normal is not that hard as it is. If you think it's too hard, play easy mode. The game even tells you how to exploit it; use the wall. Normal gives away so many blockable moves. Hard mode actually starts to get realistically challenging in that the opponents block a lot of the moves that normal allows.

It's like a fighting game.

I completed it by spamming the diving swallow attack which shows what a flawed, crappy game it is. The moment of invincibility made every other move, every other weapon redundant. Pathetic game, you people who obses over it I really look down on you. I know I'm being harsh but seriously, you need a slap to the face. I hate games that do that, it reminds me of the old beat um up games where you discover one crouching attack move that seems to get past your oppenents guard every time so you just spam it to completion. That was Ninja Gaiden 2.

Ok I only played Ninja Gaiden 3 for about 10 minutes on rental but I gave up due to the degrade it seemed over Stigma, they totally messed the camera up this time and the only difficulty this time was being attacked by offscreen enemies. That's your idol game? Heh, enjoy.

I completed it by spamming the diving swallow attack which shows what a flawed, crappy game it is. The moment of invincibility made every other move, every other weapon redundant. Pathetic game, you people who obses over it I really look down on you. I know I'm being harsh but seriously, you need a slap to the face. I hate games that do that, it reminds me of the old beat um up games where you discover one crouching attack move that seems to get past your oppenents guard every time so you just spam it to completion. That was Ninja Gaiden 2.

Ok I only played Ninja Gaiden 3 for about 10 minutes on rental but I gave up due to the degrade it seemed over Stigma, they totally messed the camera up this time and the only difficulty this time was being attacked by offscreen enemies. That's your idol game? Heh, enjoy.

Evil_Saluki

Also, do that on hard mode. Enjoy your ten seconds.

[QUOTE="BranKetra"]

[QUOTE="Nooberman2k"]I don't see why the easier settings cannot be made easier whilst keeping the harder settings just as hard as before. If people like the challenge then they can go straight for the hard settings and leave the easy mode for those that want to play it. Saying a certain game has got to be hard on all settings is like saying a film in Russian isn't allowed to have subtitles/dubbing so only the truly hardcore (in this case, those willing to learn Russian) can enjoy it.Nooberman2k

Normal is not that hard as it is. If you think it's too hard, play easy mode. The game even tells you how to exploit it; use the wall. Normal gives away so many blockable moves. Hard mode actually starts to get realistically challenging in that the opponents block a lot of the moves that normal allows.

It's like a fighting game.

[QUOTE="KillerJuan77"]

I think it's fine, there's a big difference between a game being challenging and cheap, and Ninja Gaiden games are cheap. That's not cool.

Also, the ghost fish :S

alfredooo

lol wut

Only NG2 is cheap and Sigma 2 to a lesser extent.

Don't see how the original can be cheap.

I should have specified that the new NG games are cheap, not the old ones.