I can certainly say, without a doubt, that this is a video game I played on Xbox360 10 years ago.
Preciso rejogar e terminar algum dia, mesmo sabendo que talvez eu não goste tanto quanto na época em que comecei.
This game has the audacity to exist.
The kind of game you want to root for—a generous, campy character action romp with a wide range of weapons and movesets, and an undeniable sense of style—but, it just isn’t very fun!
The QTEs are painful and there are tons of them, bosses are way too numerous and always sloggy, and combat with smaller enemies is a button-mashy, bloom-blinded mess.
It can look really cool, the sense of scale is superb (you’re almost always doing some crazy action-movie shit to massive kaiju), and there is a fun, admirable dedication to constantly switching up what the player is doing (gallery shooting mini game on a helicopter, wall-running down the side of a building, running AT the camera crash bandicoot style away from a huge monster)… but, again, sadly—none of it feels particularly good to execute.
The QTEs are painful and there are tons of them, bosses are way too numerous and always sloggy, and combat with smaller enemies is a button-mashy, bloom-blinded mess.
It can look really cool, the sense of scale is superb (you’re almost always doing some crazy action-movie shit to massive kaiju), and there is a fun, admirable dedication to constantly switching up what the player is doing (gallery shooting mini game on a helicopter, wall-running down the side of a building, running AT the camera crash bandicoot style away from a huge monster)… but, again, sadly—none of it feels particularly good to execute.
This game is fucking awesome???? I suppose the pc port leaves a lot to be desired and it's a bit visually dull and some of the levels are slogs but in a world where Asura's Wrath and EDF are beloved games I can't reckon the hate for this one! The cutscenes in this are all high camp and unbelievably hype, from baseball bat swinging wrecking balls to motorcycle aerial acrobatics, you can 1000% feel the Metal Wolf Chaos DNA running through it. And the in between sections are like, honestly mostly pretty good? I have played games with far worse imitation character action gameplay systems than this, this feels good and moves fast and has solid weapon variety, it's just really good!!! It's likely just cause I'm too casual for their old dungeon crawlers or mech games but this might earnestly be my favorite non Souls From game
Unofficial Earth Defense Force spin-off telling the story of government-employed ninja who fight primal worms trying to take over the world.
I had two issues with this game not counting that you have to manually unlock FPS every time you start it. First, there was no controller support for me at all. Surprisingly, the game runs absolutely fine on keyboard and mouse giving me no issues with it whatsoever. Second, random crashes after cutscenes. I have no idea why but it just happens. Anyway, that were all technical difficulties I remembered. Now, to game.
No, you don't have to only use heavy sword to fight enemies. I personally had more fun using double swords and found they dealt same amount of damage but with more style points. I'm sure the same could be said about ordinary katana but its moveset is too boring for me to be used. To my amazement I didn't feel like the gameplay was dragging for too long and the game was over before I started complaining. Alas, the bosses get reused near the end making you feel cheated of another over-the-top spectacle that could have been. Also timed ant-lion boss fight that does not work due to bombs not registering explosion when they are right inside his model (actually now that I think about it, it could be that the boss just has too much health for fun battle) can suck my telescopic ninja sword. And for some reason couple of snail helicopters just stopped in midair doing nothing mid fight. But I just assumed that snails piloting helicopters are not entirely the smartest and moved on with my fun. Ah, yes, turret sections are... there. It's definitely a thing that exists there.
Visuals are as varied as ubisoft's open worlds. You always will be fighting in some sort of grey box with only difference being visible skybox. Even level on a plane is just a grey box moving through the air. Seeing such masterfully crafted locations as grey box, grey box under ground, grey box that resembles mall and other variations of grey boxes makes you feel like you died and reincarnated in 2007 cover based shooter.
Even though this game was most likely slapped together in a week I had a lot of fun. Quick time events are constant, yeah, but they are anything but hard. Direction of cutscenes is still amazing and combat doesn't get in the way of enjoyment. I think I would like another game like this today but with actual level design. God bless Keiichiro Ogawa.
I had two issues with this game not counting that you have to manually unlock FPS every time you start it. First, there was no controller support for me at all. Surprisingly, the game runs absolutely fine on keyboard and mouse giving me no issues with it whatsoever. Second, random crashes after cutscenes. I have no idea why but it just happens. Anyway, that were all technical difficulties I remembered. Now, to game.
No, you don't have to only use heavy sword to fight enemies. I personally had more fun using double swords and found they dealt same amount of damage but with more style points. I'm sure the same could be said about ordinary katana but its moveset is too boring for me to be used. To my amazement I didn't feel like the gameplay was dragging for too long and the game was over before I started complaining. Alas, the bosses get reused near the end making you feel cheated of another over-the-top spectacle that could have been. Also timed ant-lion boss fight that does not work due to bombs not registering explosion when they are right inside his model (actually now that I think about it, it could be that the boss just has too much health for fun battle) can suck my telescopic ninja sword. And for some reason couple of snail helicopters just stopped in midair doing nothing mid fight. But I just assumed that snails piloting helicopters are not entirely the smartest and moved on with my fun. Ah, yes, turret sections are... there. It's definitely a thing that exists there.
Visuals are as varied as ubisoft's open worlds. You always will be fighting in some sort of grey box with only difference being visible skybox. Even level on a plane is just a grey box moving through the air. Seeing such masterfully crafted locations as grey box, grey box under ground, grey box that resembles mall and other variations of grey boxes makes you feel like you died and reincarnated in 2007 cover based shooter.
Even though this game was most likely slapped together in a week I had a lot of fun. Quick time events are constant, yeah, but they are anything but hard. Direction of cutscenes is still amazing and combat doesn't get in the way of enjoyment. I think I would like another game like this today but with actual level design. God bless Keiichiro Ogawa.
QTEs
This is certainly a video game.
I have to bring up the quality of the port first cause it's almost mythical at how bad it is. This is the kind of bad port where every single user will have a different set of problems. For me the game kept thinking my controller was a keyboard, so I had to manually make a config file (I made the file public too if anyone has the same problem) just to actually use a normal xbox controller.
For some reason, the game will not crash in big picture mode. Otherwise, the game will crash randomly, or when you skip a cutscene, sometimes when skipping cuscenes in big picture mode, it would alt tab to the big picture menu, you also need to close the game via big picture mode or the game will freeze other wise.
The game has some issues with audio desync as well, audio frequently cuts out after deaths and may take up to a minute to come back on.
Lastly, given that this is a Japanese game made prior to 2015. Boosting the FPS to 60 causes some issues, regular enemy QTE prompts move 4 times faster and are impossible to complete, platforming sections can randomly send you soaring straight up, using heavy attacks in midair can cause the game to lock up for a few seconds, and you have to manually unlock the framerate each time you launch the game.
Visually the game is ok, the textures for the environments are flat and blurry, but the character models look rather nice, Ken's costume for example has some really detailed mesh. What doesn't help is the lip sync being laughably bad. Characters 90% of the time won't start moving their lips until mid sentence for example.
The other animations sans the lip sync animations are quite good though. And the QTE sequences are where most of the budget went and are wonderfully over the top. If you like pure stupid fun, you'll probably enjoy those segments.
The art direction is very bland, you'll be going through the most lifeless looking Tokyo ever put in a video game, and 90% of the levels look the same.
The story is really nothing to write home about, but it does have some charm. It thankfully doesn't take its self very seriously and if you played some of fromsoft's older titles like metal wolf chaos. You'll get some enjoyment at the zany b movie tone the game is going for.
The music is very phoned in, it's either the same 4 orchestral songs over and over again, or some generic ninja themed songs to fit the theme
The gameplay is interesting in that it is chasing every 7th gen trend at the time but doesn't execute them well at all. You have three weapons at your disposal, but the only one worth using is the heavy stonerender sword as it's the only weapon that actually staggers enemies. The other two have no armour on the attacks what so ever, so encounters with mobs will be constantly interrupted if you chose to use them.
You also have 3 ninpo spells at your disposal, but they're only useful for getting objects that block your path out of the way. The one you'll be using the most is the wind spell because most of the bosses will cloak themselves in fire, and the most common obstacle is fire. The devs didn't properly balance what spells you'll need to use. Lighting and fire are only present a handful of times and feel like after thoughts.
The boss fights are just terrible, you'll be hammering away at them with the stone render sword since the majority have armour that can only be broken by it, and some of them have bizarre hitboxes, like one bloat fly boss being damageable regardless of if you're on the ground or air, or a crab like boss being immune to dash attacks, despite the player dashing to wards them during the fight
Some times it will take minutes for the QTE scripts to trigger, one boss took 3 minutes for me before he finally keeled over despite having an empty health bar.
The strategy for all but one of them does not change, you rush in, avoid their projectile volleys, smack them with the stone render, wait, repeat.
The one exception to this is a boss you fight in the sewers, you have to deflect his bombs back at him, but they barely reach him due to the size of the sand pit he's in. Due to this, the fight can last over ten minutes. And heaven forbid you run into one of the aforementioned script errors.
The level design is just straight hallways with some minor wall running platforming and the aforementioned spell obstacles. You'll be running forward and mashing X for about ten hours and boredem sets in quick. The game even starts reusing rooms from mission 7 onward, and you won't start seeing original environments again until the final boss fight.
There is also some turret sections and they're very boring and last way to long. If they're meant to feel empowering they sure dropped the ball here because they keep throwing enemies with bloated health at you during them.
If you're interested in Fromsoft's past before they went all in on Soulsborne, Ninja Blade is a "playable" place to start. But the port is the digital equivalent of a hand grenade and the gameplay leaves much to be desired. You're better off playing anything else they've made prior to 2009.
3/10.
I have to bring up the quality of the port first cause it's almost mythical at how bad it is. This is the kind of bad port where every single user will have a different set of problems. For me the game kept thinking my controller was a keyboard, so I had to manually make a config file (I made the file public too if anyone has the same problem) just to actually use a normal xbox controller.
For some reason, the game will not crash in big picture mode. Otherwise, the game will crash randomly, or when you skip a cutscene, sometimes when skipping cuscenes in big picture mode, it would alt tab to the big picture menu, you also need to close the game via big picture mode or the game will freeze other wise.
The game has some issues with audio desync as well, audio frequently cuts out after deaths and may take up to a minute to come back on.
Lastly, given that this is a Japanese game made prior to 2015. Boosting the FPS to 60 causes some issues, regular enemy QTE prompts move 4 times faster and are impossible to complete, platforming sections can randomly send you soaring straight up, using heavy attacks in midair can cause the game to lock up for a few seconds, and you have to manually unlock the framerate each time you launch the game.
Visually the game is ok, the textures for the environments are flat and blurry, but the character models look rather nice, Ken's costume for example has some really detailed mesh. What doesn't help is the lip sync being laughably bad. Characters 90% of the time won't start moving their lips until mid sentence for example.
The other animations sans the lip sync animations are quite good though. And the QTE sequences are where most of the budget went and are wonderfully over the top. If you like pure stupid fun, you'll probably enjoy those segments.
The art direction is very bland, you'll be going through the most lifeless looking Tokyo ever put in a video game, and 90% of the levels look the same.
The story is really nothing to write home about, but it does have some charm. It thankfully doesn't take its self very seriously and if you played some of fromsoft's older titles like metal wolf chaos. You'll get some enjoyment at the zany b movie tone the game is going for.
The music is very phoned in, it's either the same 4 orchestral songs over and over again, or some generic ninja themed songs to fit the theme
The gameplay is interesting in that it is chasing every 7th gen trend at the time but doesn't execute them well at all. You have three weapons at your disposal, but the only one worth using is the heavy stonerender sword as it's the only weapon that actually staggers enemies. The other two have no armour on the attacks what so ever, so encounters with mobs will be constantly interrupted if you chose to use them.
You also have 3 ninpo spells at your disposal, but they're only useful for getting objects that block your path out of the way. The one you'll be using the most is the wind spell because most of the bosses will cloak themselves in fire, and the most common obstacle is fire. The devs didn't properly balance what spells you'll need to use. Lighting and fire are only present a handful of times and feel like after thoughts.
The boss fights are just terrible, you'll be hammering away at them with the stone render sword since the majority have armour that can only be broken by it, and some of them have bizarre hitboxes, like one bloat fly boss being damageable regardless of if you're on the ground or air, or a crab like boss being immune to dash attacks, despite the player dashing to wards them during the fight
Some times it will take minutes for the QTE scripts to trigger, one boss took 3 minutes for me before he finally keeled over despite having an empty health bar.
The strategy for all but one of them does not change, you rush in, avoid their projectile volleys, smack them with the stone render, wait, repeat.
The one exception to this is a boss you fight in the sewers, you have to deflect his bombs back at him, but they barely reach him due to the size of the sand pit he's in. Due to this, the fight can last over ten minutes. And heaven forbid you run into one of the aforementioned script errors.
The level design is just straight hallways with some minor wall running platforming and the aforementioned spell obstacles. You'll be running forward and mashing X for about ten hours and boredem sets in quick. The game even starts reusing rooms from mission 7 onward, and you won't start seeing original environments again until the final boss fight.
There is also some turret sections and they're very boring and last way to long. If they're meant to feel empowering they sure dropped the ball here because they keep throwing enemies with bloated health at you during them.
If you're interested in Fromsoft's past before they went all in on Soulsborne, Ninja Blade is a "playable" place to start. But the port is the digital equivalent of a hand grenade and the gameplay leaves much to be desired. You're better off playing anything else they've made prior to 2009.
3/10.
imo people were pretty unfair to this game at the time, it is a QTE fest indeed but the combat system itself is pretty fine and it does manages to accomplish its goal of being fun over the top spectacle
NIe skończyłem grając. Finisz ograłem na YT aby ogarnąć fabułę.
Grę zacząłem na początku 2020 roku a kończyłem teraz.
Gra zaczynała ię rewelacyjnie ale przez 2020 rok ograłem tyle fantatycznych gier , które przyćmiły blask Ninja Blade
Grę zacząłem na początku 2020 roku a kończyłem teraz.
Gra zaczynała ię rewelacyjnie ale przez 2020 rok ograłem tyle fantatycznych gier , które przyćmiły blask Ninja Blade
might've been the only fromsoftware game i actually enjoyed playing
probably from software's easiest game to date, still had a lot of fun when i played it back then. play as a ninja and exterminate zombie abominations that infects your beloved city with 3 choice of weapons. the heavy sword, a normal sword, and two small swords (of course, i dont need to explain on how they play the cliche archetype of the heavy,medium, and low damage but fast attack speed right?) the combat is unbeliveably fluid back then and still holds its ground even today, a more fast paced DmC 4 if you may call it that. the first mission starts with you diving off a helicopter to be met with a QTE to slash a giant bug and serve execution ala sekiro style in the sky, and from then on young me had his eyes glued to the screen and hands tight on the controller.
but all good things come to an end especially here with its 9 short missions you may finish the game in one sitting
if you come from other from software games you probably wont like it, but if your just searching for a fun action rpg for a night this could be a good reccomendation
but all good things come to an end especially here with its 9 short missions you may finish the game in one sitting
if you come from other from software games you probably wont like it, but if your just searching for a fun action rpg for a night this could be a good reccomendation
Don't play at windows
Great World design but damn those QTEs
Better than God Of War.
I really liked this game when I was young, but damn, it sucks...
when you ask your mom for Transformers and she brings back Transmorphers
Quick Time Events: Yes
Optimization: No
Optimization: No
quick time events
Better than God of War
This game has a lot of flaws in its gameplay, but it's worth it for the spectacle alone. Some of the stunts are so fucking over the top and absurd that it makes Devil May Cry look tame as shit. I respect that.