This game is hard as fuck.

The shitty camera that gets bad when you fight bosses. The devs have a fully controllable camera that likes moving far more than it should and in other places doesn't move enough because it just can't stick behind Ryu. Then you have the invisible walls within certain boss rooms like Doku, Dark Murai and more that can block the players movement and/or viewpoint just by moving close to them.

In general, Ninja Gaiden doesn't have the best bosses in this genre.
Normal
17:07:22 - Ryu Hayabusa
1:34:19 - Rachel
7 million+ Karma

I think Ryu Hayabusa is a 10/10 action game character stuck in a 5/10 action game. Fighting grunts is the best part of the game because Ryu's moveset is so robust and killing stuff feels so good. Combos are fast and fluid while also not being too difficult to pull off and the Izuna Drop may be one of the best attacks in a video game. The enemies also all pose a threat to some extent so unlike in DMC you have to constantly be on your toes. The problems arise in literally everything else. While Ryu's fast far-reaching jumps are good in combat, they end up being a liability during exploration platforming sections. Countless times I intended to do a wall run and ended up running straight up the wall instead or I just wanted to jump forward and Ryu decides to cling to random nearby structures. The levels are fairly uninteresting both to look at and traverse and this is especially bad given the amount of backtracking you need to do. While fighting grunts generally is fun, the military level manages to make even that subpar by dumping you in an area full of enemies with guns so someone is ALWAYS hitting you. The ghost fish are absolute abominations and drag chapters 17 and 18 down tremendously. The bosses are typically either frustrating, unfun, short, or some mixture of the 3. Bosses lack any sort of personality and I wouldn't really describe any of them as fun or memorable. The way they seemingly decide when to block your attacks at random and nullify your techniques likes ninpo, flying swallow and izuna drops makes them intrinsically less fun to fight than grunts. I realize most people prefer ninja gaiden black so I poured over all the differences I could find to make sure I wasn't making some big mistake by playing Sigma instead and I can't say I would've liked Black much better. The Rachel missions are pretty lame but they're short and I didn't mind them too much. The ability to fire projectiles mid-jump is good and makes fighting flying enemies and the helicopter/tanks much more bearable. The new burning village chapter was pretty good as well. I also don't really like Rachel that much, I think her outfit looks really stupid and I would've much preferred playing as Ayane. I didn't really dislike the game and as much as I got frustrated, I still had plenty of fun thanks to how good the general combat is.

What if ninja gaiden was vivisected and remade into a lame port?

Ninja gaiden sigma is everything i despise in a port it understands very little about what makes the original a concise challenging experience but what's make it bad compared to the original? well its quite simple.
sigma instead of choosing to elevate the already excellent and tight foundation of ninja gaiden black instead goes back on its design choices and throws it in the fucking dumpster the game destroys 90% of the bosses alma awakend literally lacks her back hitbox and spirit doku's AI was completely butchered he seems to spasm out whenever he gets close.

The art direction and OST have taken a massive hit as well. tairon went from looking like a vaguely middle eastern village to looking like fucking london lmao the first chapter level is now set in autumn for some strange reason they also removed the waterfall in that area because ?? Tairon under alert also suffers a strange art direction choice as the skybox is bright as hell for some reason in black it was a nice early sunrise look showing the passage of time in a authentic way, and it seems they knew this as the very next chapter has the correct skybox albeit a lot darker.

They somehow managed to fuck up the excellent pacing of black as well for some reason they decided to throw in random Rachel chapters during the game in an extremely awkward manner I'll be brief on Rachel as there's not a ton to say about her (and it seems the developers thought this as they gave her half a move set) but frankly her inclusion here fucking blows Rachel in the story is a joke character one who jobs endlessly to basic bitch enemies and just sort of exists the new chapters don't help with this as the story placement of them is extremely boring and brief much like her character.

The pacing in the ryu levels is also butchered quite a bit in a very strange decision the entire game just lacks puzzles for some unknown reason the only puzzle I noticed left was the monk safe and that was a simple counting puzzle there's no pyramid puzzle nothing its gone for absolutely no reason other then they thought casuals would get filtered by them (they're right).

Now you would think that at the very least the new additions would be very welcome to ninja gaiden right? wrong. The new weapon the dragon claw and tiger fang is an absolute joke of a weapon the recovery on it is extremely poor and it seems like the game doesn't know how to handle it because you end up whiffing a ton of hits for absolutely no reason now this might be a master collection issue (as that port alone has thousands of them) but it seems like it's also in sigma as they fixed nothing about the game in the master collection.

One of the new additions/QOL is also quick heals now you would probably think that this is a welcome change? absolutely not quick heals undermines the entire point of potions and elixirs, They could turn the entire tide of a fight in a single move and you were encouraged to consume them in small amounts as the game barely gave you any and if you consumed them foolheartedly you would have to restock and that would cut into your essence supply that you would be better off spending on weapon upgrades it was a very well designed system and it was a good balancing act but now because the game also gives you an abundance of elixirs (gates of hell literally has a elixir after every room) you end up with more then enough essence to spend on upgrades and occasionally restocking this undermines the entire balancing act.

Also shout out to the composer completely butchering his tracks here they sound way too quiet and lack any punch the original OST had oh and they didn't bother changing the FMV music so you can hear the original alma awakened track before it transitions to that absolute dumpster fire of a remix.

It is absolutely incredible that team ninja even considers this version a replacement for the original two due in no part to them completely losing the masters for black and vanilla and its frankly an insult that this version was even considered acceptable by anyone could itagaki have saved this port? maybe but lets not deal in hypotheticals in the end sigma is an absolute mess and a extreme downgrade from the classic title.

(Played the PC version that isn’t exactly the same as Sigma as far as I know)

The first time you take control you are already in a battle. No button prompts, no combos explained, just smash the controller, play, discover, have fun. If somebody told me they did the Mario 64 thing of not developing a proper game until the main character felt amazing to play in an empty box I would believe it. This is so playful that, despite feeling designed to be able to go through with your first weapon only, they throw like a dozen of them more, why not, more toys.

There is no good action game with a moveset only, and the first 3 chapters of the game make sure to demonstrate how to make a top action game. The first common enemies are ninjas resembling Ryu, and will hunt his ass at every chance, actively and reactively. Not only will the enemies keep retaliating, but the surroundings will raise the tension too. In here constrained spaces have a special meaning, since yes, you are surrounded with deadly ninjas, but you are a ninja yourself, use that wall on your back and jump on it, run on it, redefine 3D action. And it doesn’t stop there, enemies won’t be waiting sitting, turning a corner could be a potential trap with a guy backflipping his sword towards your neck. The game even manages to play with your expectations, there is a section in chapter 3 where after killing some dudes from a distance you have to go where they were totally defenseless, with a single potential hit sending you to the void.

What is in chapter 4 and beyond then? The game losing inspiration. As new enemies are needed to keep the action fresh, ideas struggle. The most conventional enemies that supposed a big threat not long ago begin to be dispatched easily as a routine, expected after fighting the same guys a hundred times and with less challenging environments in every iteration. Worse than that, some demons seem to be incapable of holding up with Ryu’s incredible speed.

But when the game totally runs out of gas is at the middle of chapter 7. In here there is a scene where Ryu accidentally activates a curse. We see the dead rising, really big zombies accompanied by really big weapons. So, what is the defining characteristic of these guys that want to kill our lightspeed moving character so bad? That they move slowly. Like really slow, the slowest enemy that I can think of in any action game ever. It would pose some threat if you had to fight like surrounded by 10 of them I guess, but since this is the only time in the game where you can relax and prepare as many fully charged attacks as you want, Ryu’s deadliest technique, they just walk very slowly towards their death. Fortunately, after many endless fights with those guys, they stop appearing, but it has been made evident that inspiration is totally gone.

For the remaining 12 chapters, apart from bosses that already ranged from bad to very bad, the game introduces: bad first person shooting sections, bad water sections and even a bad 3D Zelda inspired dungeon gets its place too. Meanwhile some of the best new enemies are, new versions of old enemies but weaker? The best thing that can be said about the new things that keep being added desperately is that they don’t last too long, but a continuous sequence of the same lack of inspiration ends up tiring the same way.

I like how the game moves, a lot. I'm even thinking right now of playing again when I know that I will be let down after a few minutes. I just wish that the game constructed around such a character was just as good.

Let's talk about character action games. While not the most niche of genres, they never reached a mainstream audience until perhaps the release of Devil May Cry 5. However, these types of games always found their audience, with each different one bringing something to the table. Whenever character action games are a subject of discussion, the so called "Big 3" of the genre (DMC, Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden) will always end up being mentioned one way or another. Today, I wanted to share my take on the Sigma version of the original Ninja Gaiden.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma is, in a lot of ways, a product of it's time, a time when game design philosophy prioritized a fun experience, a time when the devs thought of the player as a person capable of performing complex actions and didn't need their hand held to reach the finish line.
While this is in a lot of ways a positive, it can also sometimes reflect negatively on the outdated design.
To put it bluntly, Ninja Gaiden is a hard game, and many times it threads the fine line between challenging and unfair.
To elaborate a bit on that thought, I'd like to present my biggest complaint when playing the game: The punish windows on some of the enemies and the outdated (and sometimes unfair) boss mechanics.
Frankly, the punish windows on some bosses straight up feel random. For example, when fighting Gamov, he has a very clear window to be attacked at the end of his combo. On the other hand, bosses like Spirit Doku and Awakened Alma have very strict windows where they can be attacked, almost frame perfect, making it seem like it has a random nature to it when it looks like you clearly punished the attack of the boss, just for you sword to bounce off them as the block VFX plays.
About the enemy design...Well, while most of them are fine, some just look downright goofy and out of place in the game, like the Red Dinosaur Fiends or the Catgirl Fiends.
As for enemy mechanics, most of them have a varied moveset with clear counters and tells, except for one common thing that most enemies share and that I've seen quite a few people complain about in this game: the grabs.
Since this game has more of an emphasis on good positioning and decision-making, a lot of Ryu's moves have different recovery frames, which makes some options like Flying Swallow very unsafe if not correctly performed. And by virtue of that more tactical combat, there comes the problem with grabs.
A lot of the aforementioned grabs are really fast, some of them pretty much unreactable, and can catch Ryu during any animation of his that has no Invincibility Frames, making it so the player takes a punish that most of the times they couldn't avoid, either because they were animation locked, or in recovery from an animation. Hell, some enemies can even armor through Ryu's combos to grab him, which while I understand comes as a warning to not spam attacks, due to the animation lock I mentioned before, it just feels like an unfair punish (and don't even get me started on the fucking Ghost Fish, contender for Worst Enemy in Gaming History right there).
While the combat does have these minor issues of animation locking and not having animation cancel for dodging, it's hardly ever a problem when the player starts to get familiar with the moveset of the enemies and his own, understanding what attacks have I-frames, what attacks have too much recovery, and what attacks can easily be cancelled into a block.
This formula coupled with the usually good enemy design makes for fun and engaging combat, with just the right touch of challenge, and with plenty of room for the players most familiar with the game to perform stylish and crazy combos, making Ryu look like a superhero at times.
However, there is one thing greatly holding back the combat in this game: the camera.
While not an issue most of the time, whenever it shows it's problems, it really shows them.
While the player has minimum control of the camera, it's turn speed is sluggish, making it a chore to control during combat. If it weren't for the button that centers the camera on whatever direction Ryu is looking at, it would doom the combat.
You can especially see this problem on some of the faster enemies, that require the player to constantly chase them as they evade.
A bit smaller gripe I have with the combat mechanics, is the lack of a hard lock-on.
While not as big a problem as the camera and a lot less common, it becomes a nuisance when it happens.
To explain further, this game has a soft lock on system, which means that Ryu's attacks will go towards the enemy in the general direction the player is poiting their attack towards, and it mostly works, but sometimes I saw my character attacking a completely different enemy than the one I wanted to target, which did bring me some frustration during the playthrough.
These are the few things holding back the combat of this game from being truly amazing, but I chalked it up mostly to the limitations of it's time and hardware.
Moving on to the story, there's not much to say about it. It's a pretty subpar story about searching for the MacGuffin the evil bad guys plan on using to dominate the world. As for the characters, well... Calling them "shallow" at most would be saying too much. Most of them only exist to give plot exposition, and barely interact with Ryu at all. This is especially noticeable on the game's main love interest, Rachel, who has the personality of a dried up newspaper left at the front porch for a week during summertime. Hell, even Ryu himself seems not to care about the characters, which could sometimes be interpreted as funny, due to how overly serious Ryu is about his mission, showing no interest in anything or anyone besides it.
As for graphics, I think Sigma did a good job of fixing the original's aesthethic, which had those "2000's game" aesthetic where the color palette is made only of browns and grays. This version of the game adds some much needed color and graphical improvements, which are not bad on the eye at all, considering just how old it is.
As for the world design, it feels pretty generic. Tairon doesn't really stand-out as far as videogame locations go, and besides a couple of outliers like the entrance to the Vigoorian Palace or the Monastery, most locations are really generic.
As for level design, it's decent for it's time I guess. The game has a semi-open world structure, with every few chapters the player returning to Tairon to backtrack in search of a door he can open with whatever new key he obtained at that moment. While the level design isn't anything to write home about, it doesn't distract from the game by being bad, so decent is really the word to describe, since it's after all just a stage for the action, and not a main selling point of the game.
The soundtrack also isn't anything to give a standing ovation for, but it complements whatever mood the game is currently going for at the moment (especially the combat tracks), and that's about enough to be considered good.

As for closing thoughts, I have some mixed feelings about the game. Sure I enjoyed it, and sure I had some fun with it, but I felt like the things that hold it back, truly hold it back from being a legendary piece of media to be remembered throughout the ages. While it is for sure an anchor of the character action genre and a memorable game, I think it would really benefit from a remake that fixes some of the gaps in the design, so the game can finally realize it's potential and take a spot in the Hall of Fame.

This one is pure power fantasy distilled, what a damn good hack and slash.

Though... I feel like the difficulty is actually holding this game back a bit. Here's the thing: I actually finished it on Easy (aka "Ninja Dog"), but there's not really a difficulty selection - if you die three times, you get a (vague) message that you can lower the difficulty.

This is a game that requires A LOT of the player. I was 8, 10 hours in, and still discovering new cool shit I could do. The AI is super aggressive, a bit unpredictable, and dish out a lot of damage - there's just very little room for error.

All Easy mode does, is just give you more room for error - it's not actually "easy", it's more like "normal". By playing it, I was becoming more and more comfortable with the game, to the point where I actually wanted to try Normal mode again. Unfortunately, there's no way to change back, and the only option is to restart the game from the beginning. Having either the option to change difficulties on the fly, or perhaps a dynamic difficulty like RE4, would greatly benefit the game.

I'm not even sure I'll try Normal mode on replays, as I'll need some time to get comfortable with everything again.

As a sidenote, the extra Rachel levels in this version hurt the pacing a little bit. I got used to it (and her over the top design), but it was weird.

اللعبه جيده لكن فيها مشاكل قاتله و بلخصها في :

الايجابيات
الجيمبلاي ممتع رغم قله تنوع الكومبو ف عندك ضربات خفيفه و ضربات ثقيله و عندك قدرات سحر تقدر تستخدمها و احيانا تفك ازمه لان لما تستخدمها محد يقدر يضربك اثناء ما انت تفعلها و عندك الضربات تقدر تنوع بين الخفيف و الثقيل رغم ان زي ما قلت مافي تنوع كبير بخلط الضربات


الاوستات رهيبه ومتنوعه


قدرات النينجا موجوده و تحس فعلا انك نينجا
تنوع الاسلحه رهيب و في انواع كثيره من الاسلحه و عندك اسلحه الرمي الي ترميها على الاعداء و برضو فيها تنوع كبير بين السهام و القنابل و الشوركن و غيره


السلبيات

اينما وجد البلاتفورمينج وجد الخياس حرفيا فوضى و بتموت موتات غبيه
بسببه

القصه ما بعتبرها سلبيه رغم انها سيئه لكن ما بعتبرها سلبيه لاني ما لعبت اللعبه بغرض القصه الجيده

تكرار الاماكن ف بتلاحض انك بتخلص مكان و بترجع له مره ثانيه بعدين و الموضوع تكرر اكثر من مره و في اماكن بتتكرر لثلاث مرات حتى

البوسز بشكل عام سواء من قتالاتهم او بتكرارهم ف البوسز هنا عاديين جدا و حركاتهم قليله و مكرره بس في بوسز رهيبين لكن قليلين
اما بالنسبه لتكرار البوسز ف في بوسز تكررو علي اربع مرات في البعض ثلاث مرات و في البعض مرتين

الصعوبه غير عادله نوعا ما اذا بتلعبها على اصعب شي

نظام السيف سيء جدا و مضيعه للوقت ف مافي اوتوسيف لازم انت تعمل سيف و ما تقدر تعمل سيف من القائمه لا لازم تروح لمكان مخصص للسيف و الي احيانا ما تلاقيه وقت احتاجك له و خصوصا قبل قتالات البوسز يكون مكان السيف بعيد و اذا قتلك البوس لازم ترجع لمكات السيف و تضيع وقتك و مشوار

بشكل عام لعبه تستحق التجربه لكن ما اشوف انها المفروض تكون من اولوياتك

I'm ultimately disappointed here. The combat is serviceable and the graphics and music are perfectly fine. However, the enemies are too tanky, constantly guarding or swarming you so you can't pull off sick moves, certain bosses are absolute bullshit that require you to grind for essence to buy items, and the final boss is outright impossible if you used too many items on the previous stage, because FOR SOME FUCKING REASON THERE'S NO SHOP IN THE FINAL STAGE. An absolutely sadistic game, play at your own risk.

One of the best action games I've played. It's tough and punishing yet mostly fair. Take the mechanics to heart, learn to utilize your combos techniques and ults, and fight smart. I enjoy that the game's more about being tactical and efficient than flashy. Ninja platforming was fun to play around with.

Main complaints:
- camera design is very functional but far from the best
- levels felt larger than they needed to be and had a lot of backtracking puzzles that kill the vibe of being a fast methodical ninja imo
- aerial bosses need more punishable attacks or should use those attacks more often than they do (looking at you Alma)
- could do with less small enemies. bats have too many spawns, wasp fiends like to stay out of reach and ignore guard, and ghost fish exist. tbh just remove ghost fish

Overall, phenomenal game that isn't without its flaws. Can't wait to dig into Sigma 2