I really fucking hate difficulty boosts in localization. That shit is not necessary and only exists to make more money from more rentals. I will never understand why this was a normal acceptable thing before my time. Hell, some of my older friends don't even understand it either.
Anyway, Ninja Gaiden III is one such game affected by this, as I learned while writing something for it. For the western release they decided to make Ryu receive more damage at a time than in the first two games, as well as provide limited continues. Again, this is not at all necessary. You can't convince me that the first two games needed to be any harder.
It should also be noted that Act 7 is immensely stupid. The time limit is so insanely strict that you basically can't clear it without dying to reset the timer. Make sure not to do so in the final boss, though, because it will send you all the way back to 7-3A (though that's not as far back as in the previous two games, I have no idea why I failed to mention that previously it's awful). Did I mention the enemy placement problems still haven't been resolved by this game? Because they're at their worst yet in this level, somehow even worse than in the first game. There is no reason the level should be this hard, even for the standards set throughout the whole trilogy. It's completely insane.
Other than Act 7 and the stupid ass localization changes, it's not far behind the second game really. The music in particular is at its best in the whole trilogy here. I think it sits in between its two predecessors in terms of quality, but honestly, it shouldn't be that way and it only is because of aforementioned issues.
I have to wonder sometimes how crazy it must have been in very early internet forums, learning about games being much easier overseas and just how many cases of it there were. I could've brought this up in a worse example like Streets of Rage 3, a game actually fucking ruined by this, but I remember being too pissed off after completing it to say anything in depth about it. Maybe I should just start grabbing Japanese ROMs in these situations instead.
Anyway, Ninja Gaiden III is one such game affected by this, as I learned while writing something for it. For the western release they decided to make Ryu receive more damage at a time than in the first two games, as well as provide limited continues. Again, this is not at all necessary. You can't convince me that the first two games needed to be any harder.
It should also be noted that Act 7 is immensely stupid. The time limit is so insanely strict that you basically can't clear it without dying to reset the timer. Make sure not to do so in the final boss, though, because it will send you all the way back to 7-3A (though that's not as far back as in the previous two games, I have no idea why I failed to mention that previously it's awful). Did I mention the enemy placement problems still haven't been resolved by this game? Because they're at their worst yet in this level, somehow even worse than in the first game. There is no reason the level should be this hard, even for the standards set throughout the whole trilogy. It's completely insane.
Other than Act 7 and the stupid ass localization changes, it's not far behind the second game really. The music in particular is at its best in the whole trilogy here. I think it sits in between its two predecessors in terms of quality, but honestly, it shouldn't be that way and it only is because of aforementioned issues.
I have to wonder sometimes how crazy it must have been in very early internet forums, learning about games being much easier overseas and just how many cases of it there were. I could've brought this up in a worse example like Streets of Rage 3, a game actually fucking ruined by this, but I remember being too pissed off after completing it to say anything in depth about it. Maybe I should just start grabbing Japanese ROMs in these situations instead.
Reviewed on Feb 02, 2023
C_F
1 year ago