Video game equivalent of stepping outside the bar and getting jumped by four guys all kicking you at the same time while you're down (this is a good thing).

It's stunning how much depth NGB's high enemy aggression adds to the combat, even simple mob encounters are intense because it's all about managing their numbers, distancing yourself or closing in, deciding who to attack... Ryu's arsenal has a lot of simple moves and combos (usually just alternating weak and strong attacks) that are not often suited to crowd control, but rather to deal high damage against one enemy. Longer, more flashy combos would not fare as well since you'd be getting interrupted a lot. Instead, the approach is to find gaps, kill fast and get out.

Action is fast, and some opponents are just as agile as Ryu, but may outnumber you. Yet you can also dispatch enemies fairly quickly: chains often kill on their last hit (which generally do the most damage in a combo), especially fast foes which usually aren't tanky.

It demands your attention to everyone onscreen (and offscreen!) rather than have enemies that you're not fighting wait on you. Focusing just on who you're attacking means death. It also requires you learn their patterns, since it's essential to know which attacks are better to dodge, roll or counter; in order to find openings between the onslaught. Spamming block just means they'll grab you, and attacking mindlessly has them dodge.

That is not to say you're forced to play defensively, quite the opposite. There's plenty of moves and strategies for each situation, allowing you to guide the flow of the battle; and in general it's just as necessary to damage, stun or kill enemies in order to deal with numbers as it is dodging and blocking. So long as you know which attacks are suited best for the situation and react fast to enemies you can do almost everything.

There's also some weapons that are a bit better for crowd control, like the Lunar. Or heavy hitting ones like the Dabilahro. They're situational, may be faster but weaker, very good against a certain enemy, require a different type of playing... but the variety is good enough even though half of them are reskins.

The enemies though, fiends as a whole are a bit underwhelming. By the end I was a bit tired of the pink fiends, and non-humanoid fiends didn't really seem like a good fit: no room for aerial combos and usually best to stomp them with a heavy weapon, while I much prefer the fast paced exchanges with humanoid enemies such as ninjas. And bossfights are even more of a mixed bag; the most unremarkable ones are also the ones you fight the most. And in general, giant bosses do not flow well with the combat either. Worms, hydracubus, tanks, bone dragon, emperor... even if they're not hard it's like a chore. But the game does have some good challenges. I enjoyed fighting Alma and Doku, but they feel more like exceptions than anything.

There's other shortcomings for me. Water segments are boring and underwater controls very limiting. While platforming isn't the best it does feel good, especially wall running in combat or going around fast with your moveset. Yet there's not much fun to be found in water. In general level design is not too much of a pain but I don't particularly enjoy picking up every last secret in the game or missing out on an item or upgrade because I found only 49 out of 50. Not many 'puzzles' or exploring around or rather, it's simple enough, which I think is for the best. Just enough to break up combat segments while not trying to be another type of game.

Fiend challenges are ok, especially early on, facing the same enemy really helps you to know them, but then a bit boring when you see the best tactic is just to constantly use orbs and UT to kill every wave. And later on you're doing challenges against the same enemy in a different room.

There's some seemingly 'cheaper' tactics like izuna drop, charged UT, wind slash or wall attacks; but they still have you vulnerable at times, and they're less cheesy the more you advance in the game or in difficulty and meet new foes with tactics against it. Besides, it's just more fun to engage enemies than to constantly run up the fucking wall, if you want to not have fun go ahead.

And I must emphasize how much these faults are far outweighed by its strong points. Combat here is the focus and it does it extremely well. In addition to that, higher difficulties add a lot by really switching it up and if that's not enough there's also mission mode with a lot of content and challenges as well.