Não chega a ser nada muito horrível, mas em todos os sentidos, é um jogo inacabado; tem seus momentos, mas os sistemas e até mesmo os temas que busca trabalhar, claramente não tiveram o tempo devido para serem trabalhados. Grande parte do tempo o jogo é redundante e chato, mas vez ou outra consegue se segurar por reflexões interessantes que busca trazer para a franquia, a base sólida herdada de seus antecessores, e alguns poucos inimigos que conseguem aproveitar bem o combate. A questão, é que esses elementos nunca alcançam o potencial que almejam, as novas ideias que o jogo traz para o combate, como o sistema de assassinato em cadeia, soam desbalanceadas, mal polidas e pouco controláveis, utilizando de fatores randômicos onde não se encaixam, muitas vezes eu utilizava esse tipo de coisa acidentalmente e quando percebia, no meio do meu combo, eu estava matando 3 inimigos ao meu redor sem esforço algum, o que acabava quebrando os planejamentos que eu tinha para os encontros, e constantemente me tirava dos controles de minhas ações para ver um monte de animação de finisher com QTEs desnecessários no meio. Mas além das mecânicas, uma das coisas que mais me chamou atenção no jogo, foi a discussão central do jogo. Em uma franquia marcada por violência desenfreada e um Ninja que muitas vezes parece deslocado do local e época que se passa, a ideia de questionar a reputação do protagonista e suas tradições, me chamou bastante atenção. Porém, acaba que esse ponto não consegue escapar dos problemas do jogo e essa discussão não chega a nenhuma conclusão realmente satisfatória.

One of the worst action games of all time, and one of the worst games of the 2010s. Nearly everything this game does is an absolute affront to the action genre.

The animations and graphics of the game definitely deserve some amount of praise; Team Ninja has always been at the top of the industry when it comes to animations in action games that are fluid and believable, yet wonderfully stylized and over-the-top, and that's no different here. That's about where my positive comments for the game ends.

The gameplay is a borderline parody of Ninja Gaiden. 1 weapon in the base game, with 2 locked behind DLC. Upgrades entirely out of your control, and driven by story. Myriads of technical issues, from slowdown, to bugs, to dropped inputs, the works. An utterly broken instant kill mechanic with no clear triggers, while also being arbitrarily restricted in certain sections. Terrible bosses that make the chopper from Devil May Cry 2 look like Vergil by comparison. Endless quick-time events in and out of combat. A smaller, and less interesting roster of enemies than both 1, and 2. And of course, walking sections!

The game was also called out for being overly simplistic and mashy when it came out, and that's only half right. Because Master Ninja mode exists! And if you want to use the Dragon Sword on that version, I pray for your sanity. Master Ninja on this version of Ninja Gaiden 3 will absolutely change a person, and I only got through about halfway on there. A tedious, unrelenting nightmare that has to be among the worst higher difficulties of a game I've ever played.

What was all this even for, anyway? To focus in on a better story? Well, they even failed at that, because the story is utter nonsense. It's riddled with plot holes, the characters are flat, and has some of the most insane ludonarrative dissonance ever to be put in a game. This is most notably, and hilariously shown with the ending, which decides to try and outright spell out the moral of the game to the player and give THE answer to its central question (Ryu Hayabusa, hero or murderer?). But get this: It's straight-up wrong. I don't think I've ever seen any piece of media feature writing this blatantly, incompetently blind to what was shown and told directly on-screen. How the hell did Team Ninja consider this to be an improvement over the past game's stories?

All-in-all, just no. This was a complete misfire on Team Ninja's end, and I couldn't be any happier to say that they've redeemed themselves with Razor's Edge as well as their more recent, original output starting from Nioh. This game deserves to be remembered as one of the most embarrassing miscalculations in gaming, and a shining example of how NOT to change a franchise to appeal to a wider audience.

>Be terrorist
>Murder countless innocents and destroy cities
>No remorse
>Man with sword in ninja pajamas is somehow able to slaughter your entire squad
>Beg for your life
>Game is actually trying to make the player feel bad for killing a terrorist in a ski mask killing innocent people
>In an action game about killing bad guys

Ninja Gaiden for Xbox was considered one of the hardest games in recent gaming history, at least one of the hardest of the 6th generation. I had Ninja Gaiden Black and couldn’t get past the third level it was so hard. Ninja Gaiden 3 dumbs down the difficulty and concentrates on cinematic combat like God of War, but doesn’t pull it off as well. There is no reward for combat, the levels are highly linear, and the same patterns repeat often. This is a fun weekend rental but nothing more.

Usually, in a Ninja Gaiden game, you die several times in the first level. The game starts out pretty cinematic with Ryu jumping from heights and gliding down. The combat consists of light and heavy attack and dodges. The problem here is that the same moves and animations repeat constantly and just gets tiresome less than halfway through. There are no upgrades, no new weapons, no new Ninpos , nothing. Just hack away until everything dies. The game is still really tough with dozens of enemies being thrown at you at once, but you restore full health after every battle this time and there are no health potions, in fact, you can’t even shop at Muramasa’s anymore. Why they took such core elements away is beyond me. The only new gameplay element is using Ryu’s infected and cursed arm to instantly kill enemies. When you kill enough you can hold down Y and do this, and his dragon fire Ninpo will clear the entire screen. Seems like cheating when it comes to Ninja Gaiden and is hard to get used to.


A lot of people claimed NG3 wasn’t a true sequel and dumbed it down for today’s audience that is used to being handheld through games. This may be true, but I think the QTE’s are what got people so mad. You use them for everything like in combat and even climbing walls and wires. This is fun at first but grows tiresome quickly because they repeat so often. The same helicopter fight, spider bot, and other enemies repeat quite often and it gets boring and uninteresting. The only thing breaking up the monotony is the unique boss fights which are a lot of fun and challenging. I wish there was more to this game but that is about it. The locales are familiar at least with jungles, city landscapes, military bases, and various others. They change quickly so at least that doesn’t get boring.


The story is actually quite interesting despite how much people complained about it. Ryu gets a curse on his arm and it is rotting his arm away. The Lords of Alchemy is working on some plot to take over the world and eventually you find out how towards the end. The characters are at least likable in that quick satisfaction way. You won’t remember them long after you finish the game, but they are entertaining enough to keep you in the story, and at least the voice acting is decent.


The graphics are really good for the Xbox 360, but you will notice the gore factor is severely toned down. No longer do enemies slice in half and heads fly off. A bit disappointing, but there’s still buckets of blood. Overall, NG3 is a disappointment in a long-term way. You won’t be trying to master speed runs in this game, but there’s enough challenge here for a bargain bin purchase or weekend rental. The combat is so dumbed down that becomes repetitive and nearly boring, but at least the fear of death is always near, but there are frequent checkpoints to counter this. There are no upgrades or anything like that, but at least Team Ninja saw that most people never finished previous games and tried to make it easier, this isn’t the way.