Leveling Down

Ninja Gaiden 2 is the bloodiest game on the 360. Screenshots don’t even do the blood justice.

I can’t remember the last time I spent one hundred hours on a single videogame. Some have been close – I spent about 80 hours on Call of Duty 4 due to its addictive multiplayer, and maybe 50 or so hours in Lost Odyssey. But I spent tons of time in those games because of the online play and natural length of an RPG. But when was the last time you spent 100 hours on a single-player only action/adventure game? I don’t think I ever have.

If I were to sum up Ninja Gaiden 2, I would say that the game succeeds in being the most hardcore and satisfying action/adventure game of this console generation, but it is slightly marred by poor design decisions and technical issues that could have been prevented.

Good:
- combat system is probably the best I’ve ever played for an action/adventure game
- excellent presentation
- carnage and gore that you makes you feel like a total badass

Bad:
- camera angle not ideal
- over-reliance on cheap projectile-based enemies for extra difficulty
- technical hiccups/glitches more prevalent than expected

Intro
To many, Ninja Gaiden (and its remake, Ninja Gaiden Black) was the pinnacle of the hardcore action-adventure game from last generation. The game scored very highly among reviewers and players alike, with the only issue people had was its difficulty. It was a game that sent many controllers flying, but the purists agree that Ninja Gaiden was never cheap. If you died or took damage, it was your own fault. It was perhaps the perfect game that really felt like what a versus fighter would play like if it became an action-adventure game.

Team Ninja, the developers behind Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden 2 (as well as the Dead or Alive games), is not without controversy though. The lead on the team, Tomonobu Itagaki, is well-known since he comes off extremely cocky and wears sunglasses all the time – he pretty much exudes the “rockstar” persona wherever he goes. He is also very vocal about how much he hates Tekken, as well as quoting that Devil May Cry’s fighting engine pales in comparison to Ninja Gaiden. Suffice to say, he is very outspoken but has always been very loyal to Microsoft with the Xbox and the Xbox 360.

Sadly, there may never be a Ninja Gaiden 3, at least, not from Tomonobu Itagaki or the core Team Ninja team. In the weeks leading up to Ninja Gaiden 2′s release, it was odd to hear Itagaki saying that the PS3 release of Ninja Gaiden Sigma (a remake of Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox) was terrible. Granted, Itagaki had nothing to do with it, but it was somewhat odd to hear an employee criticize a Tecmo colleage for making a crap game. And when asked if Itagaki would release a Ninja Gaiden 3, he declined, saying Ninja Gaiden 2 was perfect and would be his swan song.

Little did we know what was actually happening behind the scenes. At the release of Ninja Gaiden 2, Itagaki not only announced his resignation from Tecmo, but sued the company as well for back-wages that he was not paid for Dead or Alive 4. Many people thought he was just a big crybaby and it seemed fitting with his “rockstar” persona, but a few days later, pretty much the entire Team Ninja staff sued Tecmo as well for the same back-wages. With practically the entire team suing Tecmo, Tecmo stock dropped significantly and there were whispers all around that Tecmo was in some serious trouble. Japanese employees don’t sue left and right like in America, so such a lawsuit probably has a lot of merit. This may thus be the final Ninja Gaiden game ever released. Does it go out with a bang?

Bosses are plentiful throughout the game, with generally two bosses per stage.

Storyline and Premise
While the original NES Ninja Gaiden games had a great storyline told through cinematic style cutscenes (very rare on the NES), these newer iterations of Ninja Gaiden games on the Xbox and the 360 don’t have much. The female lead in Ninja Gaiden II is different from the first one on the Xbox, but it doesn’t really matter as the storyline is miniscule and its predecessor doesn’t have to even be played to enjoy this sequel.

The focus is on Ryu Hayabusa, the last of the Dragon Ninja clan, as he chases after a demon statue stolen from his clan by the Black Spider Ninja clan. As Ryu progresses through the game, he discovers that the Black Spider Ninja Clan is only a minor threat since the demon statue was stolen to pass on to demons. These demons end up as various bosses that Ryu has to fight in each level as he makes his way to the “ultimate demon boss.”

The game is a lengthy one – 14 chapters with each clocking in around 30-45 minutes. The 30-45 minutes also don’t even take into account the amount of time spent replaying every time you die. Counting retries and such, it probably seems more like about an hour per chapter, and this is just on the easiest difficulty. There are four different difficulty levels in Ninja Gaiden II: Acolyte, Warrior, Mentor, and Master Ninja. Each difficulty level increase generally marks up the price of healing items, as well as adds more enemies in various sections. For example, a boss on Acolyte level may appear by itself, but in Warrior, it may have two or three henchmen, making things more difficult.

Each weapon in Ninja Gaiden 2 has a completely different fighting style.

Gameplay Mechanics
Combat
The hallmark of Ninja Gaiden II is its combat system, one that has been refined since the previous one on the Xbox and unlike any other action/adventure game out there. While a typical ninja game would have you focusing on being more stealthy (i.e. Tenchu), Ninja Gaiden II eschews that by pretty much making you a ninja “superhero” starring in an explosive action game by pitting you against intense swarms of enemies.

First the defense: Ryu is very agile in Ninja Gaiden II, and while he spent a lot of the previous game blocking, that’s not really as much of an option in Ninja Gaiden II because the enemies throw you when you block. Instead, when you hold down the block button and move the left stick, he quickly darts in that direction. So you can find yourself darting all over the place very quickly, and it is vital to fight bosses this way. Most bosses will lunge at you to perform a combo, and you have to dart to dodge it and strike when there’s a small second opening after his attack misses. This is not unlike a traditional 3D fighter where you see open frames caused by an opponent’s missed attack.

For offense, there’s simply a weak attack and a strong attack, along with various combinations that can be performed based on the order that you attack. In addition, holding down the strong button long enough sends Ryu into a charge up motion where he can’t move or attack, but if he charges up enough he’ll have a blue vacuum (lvl 1 ultimate) surrounding him. Release the charged button and he’ll lunge at the nearest enemy, slicing away about ten times while being invincible with what is known as an “Ultimate Technique.” If Ryu charges up longer past the blue vacuum, he’ll eventually get into the red vacuum (lvl 2 ultimate), which is the strongest Ultimate Technique, hitting for about 16 hits and often times dismembering the enemy in the air at the end. Using Ultimate Techniques is the way to go in the game, as it’s practically an “instakill” on enemies but the only problem with that is that when you’re charging up and can’t move or attack, you can be knocked out of the charge by various incoming attacks.

One thing to note about enemies dying is they generally always leave behind an orb. The orb can be yellow, red, or blue. Yellow orbs are the currency in the game (allowing you to buy healing items and upgrade weapons in the game’s shop) while red refills the mana bar and blue refills the health bar. What makes the game possible to chain Ultimate Techniques is that by holding down the charge button, any orbs in the area will get drawn into Ryu. If a yellow orb is drawn in, it automatically brings him into a level 1 Ultimate Technique, while if he draws in a red or a blue one, it will give him the level 2 Ultimate immediately. Therefore, the optimal way to play the game is to kill an enemy, charge up and pull in the orb, release and kill the next enemy, charge up and get that enemy’s orb, and so on until you’ve cleared the room full of enemies. Of course, it becomes a lot more difficult when there are various enemies in the room shooting projectiles at you.

New to Ninja Gaiden II is the concept of limb dismemberment and Obliteration Techniques. Basically, any enemy that you attack carries with it a probability of one of its limbs being sliced off. If you manage to slice an enemy’s arm or leg off, they become even more dangerous, resorting to more damaging attacks because they already know they’re going to die. For example, they may jump on your back, and ram a sword through you and them, or jump on you and explode with their bomb. The way to counter this is with the new Obliteration Technique, which basically is a simple fatality you can pull in the game. Any enemy who has had a limb cut off (or in some instances, their head cut off but still walking around) is succeptable to the technique. Simply get near the enemy and hit the strong attack button. This brings Ryu into an invincible “finishing move” animation, where he’ll generally make sure the enemy is dead by doing something like cutting the legs off the enemy and then his head. It’s gruesome but totally cool at the same time.

Weapons
The great thing about the weapon system in Ninja Gaiden II (and the previous one as well) is that each weapon has its own moveset. It’s not like in some games where if you get a different weapon it simply does more damage or has longer reach but your moveset remains the same. In Ninja Gaiden II, each of the weapons has its own fighting style, with some being more effective against certain enemies than others.

The list of weapons for Ninja Gaiden II include:
- Dragon Sword
- Eclipse Scythe
- Tonfas (batons)
- Kusari-gama (chained blades)
- Falcon’s Talon (claws)
- Lunar Staff
- Vigoorian Flail (bladed nunchucks)
- Dragon’s Claw and Tiger’s Fang (dual-swords)

The Dragon Sword is still the most well-rounded weapon, but the Falcon’s Talon claws has much faster combos which are more effective for smaller, more agile enemies. The Eclipse Scythe, a massive weapon, is slow but optimal to slice into larger hulking demons that don’t get stunned as easily from Dragon Sword attacks.

Projectile Weapons & Ninpo
Besides melee weapons, Ryu has a choice of various projectile weapons and magic spells he comes across in the game. By default he starts with unlimited ninja stars, but they are generally weak and not useful. The bow seems to be the most used projectile weapon for him in the game, whether it’s to fight against bosses, shoot targets, or take on flying enemies.

The list of complete projectile weapons are:
- Shuriken
- Incendiary Shuriken
- Windmill Shuriken
- Fiend’s Bane Bow
- Gatling Spear Gun

The Shuriken, the Gatling Spear Gun (underwater use only) and the Windmill Shuriken (a large boomerange shuriken) have unlimited ammo while the Incendiary Shuriken and Bow’s arrows can either be found during play or restocked at item shops.

There are also four different magic spells that Ryu can learn, which are generally useful only for crowd control:
- Art of the Inferno
- Art of the Wind Blades
- Art of the Piercing Void
- Art of the Flame Phoenix

Once Ryu finds his first magic spell, a magic meter appears below his lifebar, which is defaulted to three blocks. Each time he casts a spell, one of the blocks is used. When enemies randomly leave behind red orbs, each red orb will fill one empty magic block up. Both the projectile weapons and the spells are actually not that powerful, and only useful once in a while. Ryu will spend most of his time killing with his melee weapons.

Karma
Karma points were introduced in Ninja Gaiden 1 on the Xbox and are still present in Ninja Gaiden II. Karma points are basically style points and used to compare “Ninja Gaiden II skill” on the leaderboards. Every time you beat a level, you are given a Karma score and asked whether you wish to upload your Karma score to Live. By doing so, you can see where you stand compared to others.

Higher Karma is achieved with high combos along with long chains of ultimate techniques. If you simply just run through the game slicing guys with no combos, your Karma score will be low. It’s neat to see videos of players with high Karma scores, because they’ll plow through enemies in a very impressive manner, often times playing quite skillfully for the most optimal scoring route.

Large weapons, like the scythe, are more effective against larger enemies like these werewolves.

Achievement System
The Achievement system in the game is pretty much perfect. There are simple progression Achievements that you get the first time you beat each of the 14 levels, but and Achievements for beating the game on any difficulty. Of course, in order to unlock the harder difficulties, you have to beat the game on the lower difficulties first. Besides the associated Achievement for beating the game on the hardest difficulty, there is also a Gamerpic reward, making many strive towards clearing the game multiple times for that elusive Gamerpic.

There are also Achievements for beating the game using only one of the eight weapons the entire game, so if you wanted all 1000 Achievement points, you would most likely have to go through the game around ten times or more – eight times for each of the different weapons and four times for each difficulty. I found this to be slightly excessive, but then again, the developers are getting you to try out each of the weapons, which at the end of the day is probably a good thing.

With the game being quite lengthy (and it doesn’t contain any artificial length due to “back tracking” like the previous game), expect players to spend nearly a hundred hours on this game to get all Achievements. That’s a serious amount of commitment for an action/adventure game, but Ninja Gaiden II is good for it. The game’s combat is so fun that I can’t imagine not enjoying multiple playthroughs.

Yes, that really is the guy’s leg you just cut off and it’s flying through the air.

Final Thoughts
While the gameplay is quite fun and challenging, it is perhaps too challenging at even the easiest difficulty. In a time where most games these days cater more towards “user friendly game experiences”, it’s somewhat refreshing to see a game like Ninja Gaiden II where it’s not only satisfying to play, but constantly challenging. It’s like you can play the easiest difficulty, which will be considered challenging, then it only gets worse from there. But once you get how to play the game, it all clicks into place and it’s beatable. You get frustrated at the game, but over time you get better. I beat the easiest difficulty and thought that was tough, but after putting in enough hours, I learned the nuances of the game and was able to even beat it on the hardest difficulty (of course, it took me about 100 hours, but I had fun all the way through).

I give the game an A-. It’s a hardcore game that is a lot of fun to play, a great length, tons of replay value, and well-thought out Achievements. It leans on the more difficult side for a game, and that can be arguably good or bad, depending on how the player is. The main issue preventing this game from being perfect is that I can’t help but feel it was somewhat hastily released, most likely because Itagaki knew he was going to quit the company right after.

It’s possible to see some glitches in the game or slowdown that should have been caught in QA such as monsters freezing, framerate dropping to a crawl in some areas, etc. Even the camera itself is a little too close to Ryu, making it hard to see who he is fighting at times because you can’t zoom out further. If the technical hiccups and camera were fixed, the game could have easily scored an A for me. The addition of an even easier difficulty than what is offered would have allowed for a broader audience, making this a serious contendor for the 360 game of the year in my book. Unfortunately, it falls a little short, which is disappointing, considering how polished and amazing the first game was. The second game is still amazing, or even more amazing in terms of combat, but it just lacks the overall polish the first one had. The game is still worth trying out though, for those of you that feel gaming has gotten too easy these days.

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