So in the first chapter, there's a spider tank for a midboss. No matter what I do, I can't seem to effectively beat him, or even make a dent. There's too much shit to pay attention to: cannons, rockets, machine guns, flamethrowers, and EMPs. I go online to see if other people had similar problems, and I find someone who has a strategy that feels more like exploiting the game's mechanics, rather than using what you know to come out on top in a satisfying battle. Then, in the next chapter, I get to the first fight with the mages, and let me tell you, I have NO idea how to handle these fuckers. Their Sonic Colors Cube(TM) magic deflects nearly all of my attacks, and their grabs suck both my health and my Ki. Just like last time, I go online and see if other people are experiencing the same frustrations I am. Yup, it's not just me. Everyone hates this shit.

It's just balls-to-the-walls action, constant sensory overload. There's no room to breathe here, just going from one combat arena to the next, fight a wave of 40 enemies only to move on to another wave of 40 enemies in the room next door. Nothing that needs explaining is properly explained, like the "steel-on-bone" system. The tutorials are incessantly telling you to push the "look, go here you dumb fuck" button, but it's not a good idea to turn those tutorials off because it'll hide the QTE prompts as well. Good luck guessing what buttons you're supposed to push in your constant life-or-death scenarios!

Remember the "lasting damage" system from Ninja Gaiden 2? It's still in this game, but somehow worse! The lasting damage portion no longer stays visible. As you progress through the chapter, you'll notice your health bar getting shorter, and shorter, and shorter still. You'll then come to realize another funny quirk about this game: There are no healing items whatsoever. The only way to recharge your health is to meditate, which is basically suicide to do mid-battle, and it spends your Ki. It feels kinda insulting that you unlock the ability to buy health extensions for collecting the golden scarabs in this game. Your health is never going to be full long enough for those to feel meaningful. Speaking of Ki, it's attached to a one-time use meter! If it's not full, you can't use ninpos. No way to extend it either! Does this sound like a well-designed experience to you? (Don't answer that.)

I have no fucking idea what's going on with the story. Why is Ryu working with the government? Why do I have an MGS-esque team of people tuned into my earpiece at all times? The game keeps droning on about Ryu being a killing machine, like it's some profound moral conflict, but are you just expected to not fight back against the thousands of enemies who want you dead? And then the story just starts going off the deep end with shit like mutants and dinosaurs, and it desperately wants you to take it seriously despite that.

It's hard to describe what compelled me to see this game through in the first place. Sometimes I want to know precisely what causes a series' downfall, and experience it firsthand. I don't go into games like this just to hate on them; Usually I try to find the bright side! This shit was just too much for me though. Here's my word of advice to you, if you've made it this far; Just go play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Fantastic action game where you play as a cyborg ninja struggling with inner conflict about being a killing machine. The big difference is that MGR is actually fun, and knows not to take itself too seriously.

The gameplay againts normal enemies is fun. The rest is not.

Level design is boring and the usual scenarios, Paris, a desert, a jungle and such.

ALL bosses are absolute trash, I will not remember then in 2 weeks.

If this is an improvement over the original I don't want to know what's on that game.

NG3 RE ended up being way better than I expected, but it's still really mediocre in most areas.

The one area where it definitely isn't mediocre though, is the story, because it's just plain terrible. To start with, Ryu feels like a completely different character here. NG3 is torn between portraying him as this nice guy who is admired by his village and an assassin, slaying any human he meets without any remorse. The problem with this is that it's impossible to get behind the latter portrayal when in the prior games, about 90% of the enemies he killed were demons. It's also said by Muramasa that the Dragon Sword only has the ability to kill evil creatures, so the plot point about Ryu being cursed by all the people he has killed just ends up making no sense. Also, Troy Baker just does not fit the character, he makes Ryu sound like any average guy and for a character that's constantly described as this inhuman badass, it just feels jarring. Then there's Canna, who is a plot device written in the most generic and cringeworthy way possible and I couldn't take any scene with her seriously. The only real highlight of the plot is Regent, I think he's the only character in the series to have some personality, and while he is very entertaining to watch, he's not entertaining enough to justify what a muddled, overly serious mess of a plot this game has.

Atleast the combat is still fun, all the weapons from NG2 make a return here besides the flail and tonfa and this time, they have a ton of moves for you to play around with so it never gets old. The new steel on bone mechanic is pretty cool, in RE, it works as a counter where you press heavy attack as the enemy is glowing red to cut them down. It's more of a reactionary, somewhat defensive tool which is cool to see after how offensive based NG2 was, and the sound design for it is extremely crunchy and satisfying, so it's a welcome addition. My favourite part though, is probably the fact that the bow has infinite arrows and has auto aim so the sections where you have to use it are fun for once. RE brings back purchasable upgrades but since there is no essence in 3, RE instead uses karma as currency which is a neat change since it means how much karma you get will be tied to how good you are performing. It also means that the end of chapter ratings actually serve a purpose now.

So yeah, I like the combat, but the one thing that drags it down for me is the enemy variety, of which there is none. You'll be fighting generic soldier type enemies for most of your adventure, and when you're not, you're usually fighting enemies ripped straight out of the previous games. It gets pretty old. The environments are equally bland, and I'll probably forget every level in a few days. The bosses are pretty hit and miss here, with the worst one either being the Dinosaur who has way too much health or the final boss which is the definition of anticlimactic since you spend half the fight just fighting the same enemies you've been fighting for the last 3 hours as a meter builds up and it just takes forever.

Then there's other stuff that just feels unnecessary, like the occasional walking segment or the climbing QTEs. Also, I wish the curse played a bigger role in the gameplay, in RE, all it does is have Ryu fight enemies in this demon realm. It's not really much of a curse if all it does is have Ryu doing what he's best at is it?

The OST also sucks and I can't recall a single theme from this game besides the menu one.

Overall, I wouldn't call NG3 RE a bad game, and I did enjoy parts of it. However, out of the 3 games, this one has the worst story, soundtrack, level design and enemy variety. Throughout the 7 hours that I spent playing this game, I couldn't stop feeling like I wished I was playing NG2 instead since that game, for all its flaws, atleast knew what it wanted to be.

good closure to the trilogy.

probably the best combat-system out of the 3 games, the gore and sound-design are satisfying and the movement feel smoother than ever and I really like the new "Steel and Bone" counter mechanic.

unfortunely the game can get repetitive after a while, the levels don't offer as much in comparison to previous games and most of them is just an slog of fighting multiple enemies through each arena.

the boss-battles and enemy design are generally frustating and spongey even more so than the rest of the trilogy.

overall if you except an non-stop bloodshed Hack n' Slash Razor's Edge is probably the best the series can offer but don't expect much of it in other departments especially level variety and design choices.

favorite of the trilogy. get far more character interaction, gameplay's tilted back towards sigma 1 difficulty with all the style and flow of 2, qte's are surprisingly a nice touch in this game after the reduction from 3 to razor's edge.

main complaints:
- all of the ch7 boss stuff, except for regent. will mention his double/triple projectile grab is kinda bull
- some of ryu's character feels like a different person than we got in 1 and 2. not against him talking more but what he says and does somewhat counteracts the image players have come to know him by