In so some ways, Ninjagaiden 4 is precisely what I wished. This can be a collaboration between my all-time favourite builders, Staff Ninja and Platinum Video games. It builds off of the fight in Ninja Gaiden 2 and has the most effective motion within the collection in my eyes. And it is full of little touches to make it just a little extra approachable with out sacrificing the extraordinarily tough issue that longtime followers like me have come to anticipate. However whereas I might go as far as to say that this fight system is without doubt one of the greatest I’ve ever seen, Ninjagaiden 4 stumbles in lots of different areas, from its bland new protagonist to its uninspired stage design to its utterly flat and predictable story. The motion remains to be excellent, and whereas many of those shortcomings ricochet off like bullets towards Ryu Hayabusa’s sword, others slip by its defenses and take wounds, making it an unbelievable comeback for the in any other case grasp ninja.
Story has by no means been a promoting level of the Ninjagaiden collection up to now, so it got here as no shock to me that Ninjagaiden 4’s plot was certainly one of its weakest parts. Yakumo, the brand new protagonist, is a talented ninja from the Raven clan. The preliminary purpose of killing the Darkish Dragon Priestess shortly turns right into a mission to escort her to some magical seals to be able to really kill the Darkish Dragon as soon as and for all this time.
What follows is a really predictable 10-hour marketing campaign that makes an attempt huge emotional moments however falls flat as a result of the prep work to make these characters care isn’t achieved. There’s some banter that occurs between Yakumo, his handlers, and the opposite members of his little Raven clan, nevertheless it’s by no means endearing or endearing, and it by no means develops sufficient to get an actual sense that these characters had been really shut. More often than not, Yakumo is seen as only a bumbling edgelord, as he primarily communicates by grunts, growls, acknowledgments of mission aims, and indignant threats.
You get to play a number of chapters as Ryu in direction of the tip, which is a welcome reprieve, but additionally seems like an enormous missed alternative. In his stage, he follows in Yakumo’s footsteps, combating the identical environments, largely the identical enemies, and the identical bosses, however this time with fewer fight choices as Ryu solely has entry to at least one weapon, a far much less fascinating Greem type that replaces Yakumo’s Blood Raven type, and solely 4 returning Ninpo tremendous assaults. Think about Dante’s mission in Satan Could Cry 4. Nonetheless, he does not get any new weapons, and his playstyle is just about the identical as Nero’s, with none of Dante’s cool trash discuss.
It is okay if it is an motion sport. quite a bit Pretty much as good because the motion itself is, thankfully Ninjagaiden 4’s fight is not simply good, it is superb. It is extremely quick, your enemies are clever, and you’ll’t do the identical factor over and over. It is extraordinarily versatile to alter your strategy from battle to battle, and it appears to be like extraordinarily fluid, combining Staff Ninja’s trademark fluidity with the over-the-top craziness that Platinum Video games is understood for. Simply test all of the containers.
The key sauce right here is enemy assaults. The enemy is totally cruel They assault from off-screen, assault with unblockable issues, catch turtles while you attempt to wake them up, create armor with common assaults, and overwhelm you in sheer numbers so you do not politely wait your flip. This can be a combating fashion distinctive to the collection, and the stifling strain out of your enemies makes each battle an exciting battle for survival.
All of this will likely sound merciless, however Yakumo’s personal toolset can be very highly effective. The enduring Flying Swallow method lets you cost in direction of your enemy and probably decapitate them in a single blow. Izuna Drop’s aerial combo ends with a flying piledriver, immediately killing most enemies in a single hit. There are a lot of highly effective unlockable assaults for every weapon. And most significantly, an final method that lets you take in essence from defeated enemies and cost up flashy combos that will let you assault a number of enemies with full invulnerability and deal extraordinarily excessive harm.
None of that is new to Ninjagaiden 4, and in reality, it is only a fundamental overview of what is all the time been nice about fight on this collection. Nevertheless it’s necessary to speak about this. As a result of my largest concern going into Ninjagaiden 4 was that it felt extra like a Platinum Video games sport than Ninjagaiden. Not that there is something flawed with that. Nonetheless, it wasn’t what I wished for the return I had been ready for for 13 years. Thankfully, that is not the case. This can be a mild addition of platinum taste to completely improve the Ninja Gaiden sport.
That taste comes primarily within the type of one main addition to the fight system. It’s Yakumo’s Bloodraven Kind. By holding down the left set off, Yakumo transforms his weapon right into a slower, fancier model with an entire new set of strikes and the power to interrupt enemy guards or interrupt tremendous assaults. These assaults are terrible and positively remind me of Bayonetta’s Depraved Weave’s heavy assaults, particularly the rapier that turns into an enormous drill and the workers that turns into an enormous hammer.
However moreover trying cool, it provides a brand new dimension to fight as you must react to how the enemy offers together with your assaults. When you go on autopilot and spam mild assaults, enemies will block your assaults and provide you with their very own harm counters. Nonetheless, in the event you discover them flashing white and dodging their assaults, you may hit them with Blood Raven Kind’s assaults, dealing heavy harm in addition to probably much more punishment after breaking their guard.
Bloodraven Kind’s motion is tied to a meter that depletes in a short time, including an additional layer of useful resource administration that I loved. These blood-infused assaults are additionally typically very gradual, making it a bit dangerous to attempt to interrupt sooner armored assaults. So you must determine whether or not to danger losing meter by preemptively utilizing blood assaults to catch armor strikes through the first animation, risking well being by ready and making an attempt to react to one of many slower telegraphed armor strikes, or as a substitute use meter defensively and attempt to utterly block strategies you may’t in any other case block. Both manner, it is necessary in a sport like this to have a number of totally different choices to cope with tough fight, and Ninjagaiden 4 has loads of choices to play with.
One distinction from earlier video games is that as a substitute of upgrading weapons individually, with every enchancment accompanied by a brand new transfer or energy enhance, this time all upgrades have to be bought a la carte. A common improve that impacts the price of all weapons. Ninja Cash are a foreign money primarily earned as rewards for finishing facet missions, non-obligatory Purgatory challenges, and finishing chapters. Weapon-specific strategies, however, have to be bought utilizing weapon EXP, which might be earned just by combating enemies. The higher your efficiency, the extra weapon EXP you earn. Whereas I feel Ninjagaiden 4 is just a little stingy with its beginning set of upgrades, it was enjoyable to all the time have one thing new to unlock till the tip.
You possibly can’t take in essence to immediately cost your final method, cost instantly after touchdown from a bounce, and even cost to stage 2 by default. All of those strategies have to be bought together with staple gadgets such because the aforementioned Flying Swallow and Izuna Drop.. and The identical foreign money was additionally used to buy provides, making a brutal economic system within the early days. Particularly in the event you did not buy the Deluxe Version, which items gamers a whopping 50,000 Ninja Cash from the beginning. This is sufficient to purchase nearly all preliminary upgrades and fill your stock. When you solely have the Customary Version, the primary few hours might be fairly powerful as you slowly construct up an arsenal of strategies that deliver Ninjagaiden 4’s fight to life.
The ultimate new fight wrinkle is the addition of a Berserk meter that will increase when dealing and receiving harm, in addition to defeating debranched enemies with obliteration strategies. As soon as the Berserk meter is full, a charged-up Bloodraven type assault will set off a Massacre kill. That is mainly a cinematic one-shot kill. This was one other enjoyable factor of useful resource administration, and offered a satisfying technique to clear a whole display screen of powerful enemies in only a few seconds in the event you may survive lengthy sufficient to construct up a meter.
Platinum additionally injects a wholesome dose of fashion and inventive expression into fight by giving Yakumo the power to hot-swap weapons with the press of a button. So you are able to do cool issues like launch an enemy together with your twin swords, assault them twice within the air, change to a different weapon, assault them twice once more, change to your third weapon to maximise your aerial combo, and ship your enemy crashing down with an Izuna drop. We’re not speaking about Satan Could Cry ranges of combo creativity potential, however there’s nonetheless quite a bit you are able to do between the numerous strategies that unlock every weapon. There’s even a coaching mode the place you may apply optimizing your harm and classy combos. This type of selection may be very useful to me when it comes to holding fight feeling contemporary and thrilling all through the marketing campaign.
I did my first playthrough of Ninja Gaiden 4 on arduous. That labored greatest for me when it comes to issue, nevertheless it’s price noting you could change this setting at any time (besides in Grasp Ninja mode). This can be a nice characteristic for these fighting powerful challenges. Hero mode has additionally been added, permitting you to allow auto-block and auto-dodge while you’re low on well being, in addition to auto-assist, which helps you to carry out damaging combos with a single button press. Whereas this is not for me, I nonetheless admire the inclusion of this characteristic as a technique to let extra folks benefit from the spectacle and motion of the Ninjagaiden collection.
The motion is pure, and the fight enviornment itself has some good interactive parts that allow you to fly freely from level to level, chopping up enemies alongside the way in which, however the precise stage design is fairly uninspiring. A futuristic model of Tokyo, warped by the evil powers of a darkish dragon shell, is sprinkled with the occasional fascinating piece of structure, however way more usually you will simply be wandering by very bland rooftops, identical-looking hallways, and boring cityscapes. Issues do not get a lot better after leaving Tokyo. Simply commerce the awful streets for misty cliffs, ugly sewers, and navy bases that look the identical.
There are some enjoyable journey sequences to interrupt up all of the limb-freeing sword slashes, like Sonic-esque rail-grinding sections, components the place you must glide on wind currents to leap over mountain ranges, and sewer browsing, however they’re repeated all through the marketing campaign with little variation or evolution. Consequently, they find yourself feeling extra like filler than the rest.
A brand new sidequest system lets you earn further foreign money by finishing non-obligatory duties, similar to discovering and defeating secret mini-bosses, capturing hidden collectible monsters referred to as Gardi, or just defeating a sure variety of enemies in a sure space. This is not actually all that thrilling to discover as a result of its monotonous and really linear stage design, nevertheless it’s a pleasant addition that provides you further incentive to go throughout the non-obligatory battles fairly than simply grinding by them.
My favourite factor to seek out hidden within the ranges is the Gates of Purgatory. These are non-obligatory problem rooms, and a pleasant twist is you could determine how arduous you wish to problem your self. The better the well being handicap, the better the reward. These battles had been essentially the most intense and most enjoyable challenges ever, and I beloved pushing myself to beat the hardest obstacles and get properly rewarded for my efforts.
Bosses have by no means been the Ninja Gaiden collection’ sturdy go well with, however curiously sufficient, they’ve all the time been Platinum Video games’ sturdy level. Ninjagaiden 4’s bosses fluctuate broadly in high quality, so the mixture of the 2 appears to have gone as anticipated. There are some really nice scraps towards powerful enemies, with an adrenaline-pumping soundtrack that jogs my memory of the most effective battles in Metallic Gear Rising. In the meantime, different gamers are engaged in overwhelming battles towards large monsters with manner an excessive amount of well being and a few irritating gimmicks. From bosses that teleport obnoxiously round giant arenas everytime you strategy them, to massive demons that spawn annoying fodder enemies to distract you from their extraordinarily harmful assaults.
Finishing the marketing campaign unlocks the “Grasp Ninja” issue stage, permitting you to replay any stage, boss, or unlocked Purgatory Gate as Yakumo or Ryu, and most substantively, unlocks 18 fight trials that includes distinctive modifiers and a small variety of enemies by no means encountered in the primary sport. These fight trials might contain wiping out waves of enemies with out utilizing your Bloodraven type, or together with your well being continually dropping, and you will have to stability utilizing final strategies to wipe out enemies whereas additionally ensuring to select up the occasional life-recovery orb, which can be utilized to shortly cost up. Or perhaps the trial simply cannot heal everybody. Though I have not accomplished all of them but, I am having fun with every sport and looking out ahead to difficult my associates to beat my rating on the leaderboards.