As always, playing as Ryu Hayabusa is a treat and the combat feels great. I like the new Steel on Bone mechanic too and aside from the final boss the bosses are generally fun to fight and don't feel too unfair. The story's lame but it's not like the stories of the other games were anything to write home about either. The cinematic walking segments could certainly be cut out at no detriment to the game though and there are a bit too many QTEs. Would've been nice to get a new weapon or two to try but I always just end up using the dragon sword anyways so I guess it's okay. Overall though it's probably the most enjoyable NG for me when compared to 1's archaic platforming and puzzles and 2's godawful bosses and general feeling of being unfinished.

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

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.

So this trilogy gets worse with every game, huh

At face value it's more of the same, and the moment to moment combat is still as satisfying and visceral as before, thanks to cool animations and a crunchy sound direction

Then you continue playing and realize: NG3 is a bit too much. You enter an arena, then a wave of enemies spawn out of nowhere. Then another. Then there's a good chance there's another. And enemies are damage sponges that keep blocking and dodging, I don't know why they have so much health, and some enemies are kind of aggravating.

Bosses are either a test of resistance with their enormous health bars, or you just bumble your way to victory through what feels like blind luck. Not a particularly great series for boss fights anyway, but here it feels truly absurd. In other games, you could eventually find a strategy, even a cheesy one. Here, it doesn't feel consistent, ever.

Then the boneheaded decision of removing health items, you can only heal using your magic meter, which replenishes sloooowly... and every time you take damage, you health bar actually shrinks, it fucking shrinks. So what happens is, you begin the level with a big bar, then reach the boss with a tiny one. To add insult to injury, your health bar actually gets pretty damn massive through upgrades, but it doesn't matter because it will shrink.

Did I mention that magic only replenishes by dealing/taking damage, and the bar is a binary thing that only allows casting magic if it's full? Gaming design is my passion.

After a while, I just bumped the game to easy. I did the same with NG1 tbf, but in that game, difficulty felt natural and skill-based, and easy mode just gave me a safety net (more healing items, basically). In NG3, easy mode actually auto-blocks, so it's more of a crutch lol

The story is some nonsensical stupidity that actually takes itself seriously.

I've enjoyed myself mostly on the back of the still immensely satisfying combat system, this series is fantastic as a power fantasy thing, but I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure if I actually like Ninja Gaiden 3. The thought of replaying this is completely exhausting to me, and by the end of the game, I just wanted to be done already.

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.

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.