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.
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.