Ninja Gaiden / Ninja Gaiden Black

[shinku]

DMC is great it was the best action game but ninja gaiden has set a new standard where every enemy is smart n ready to fight hard

[Ravon]

Lets face it... DMC combo system Ownz.. if you *hardcore* gamers get your head around it... and as for shooting the enemys with the GL from a distance... go back and play on DMD mode...

I will agree that the level design in DMC is outstanding... NG is a little bit lacking...but not to much.. 8)

I like the enemies in NG but theres nothing that stands out for me other than Alma .. i like her character design..But Dante is the best character ever.. fact..

I think the CG in NG is amazing though ..

I am enjoying NG very much, but DMC is still the leader of the pack IMO

[Chadruharazzeb]

Devil May Cry eclipses any other action adventure. If you're having problems fighting more than one enemy, you aren't playing it right. The whole of DMC is far more than the sum of it's parts - and those parts individually are superb.

But Dante is the best character ever.. fact..

Beyond the Grave pwns Dante tbh

[MonkeyWrench]

For the love of god shinku, keep arguments like this in the playground. So what if most people here prefer DMC over NG, does this effect your life in any shape or form? Nope, so get over it and move on.

[Chadruharazzeb]

Finall managed to put some time into this yesterday, up to level 5 so far. Not finding it particularly difficult at the moment, but from what yous lot have been saying that'll all change quite soon.

One question - what's the best thing to spend cash on at first? I had around 15,000 on the last level and bought the Sun and Moon armlets (5k apiece) but they seem to do bugger all and I'm thinking about reloading and not pissing my cash away on them. Are they worth anything? I have upgraded my sword to level 2 already.

[PeteJ]

I wouldn't bother with the Sun and Moon armlets, I've done fine without either. You'll get a better one (imo) later on if you get enough Scarabs, so I'd just wait for that.

If you upgrade the Wooden Sword to level 7 it becomes very powerful (apparently), so you may want to spend money on that. Mine is on level 4 or 5 and it is still crap, so don't expect to be able to use it until it is maxed out - which will cost around 100k.

Other than that, don't spend your money unless you actually need too. Before going into level 9 I had no money and no health elixers, which made life very trickey

I'm on level 12 now, and it is the worst one yet by some way. Horrible. Bleh.

[edandersen]

I love this game. Stylish and fun. WINNAR!

Am I the only one who finds the Indiana Jones bits comedy? I almost **** myself at the Holy Grail (after running away from a rolling rock, dodging arrows and jumping over spikes).

Roll on the Master Ninja compo!

[Prine]

im going through it on hard, im on chapter 4 and spider ninjas are kicking my ass. Do the scarabs i collected from my previous game count towards my new game?

[taurusnipple]

I completed it last night on Hard Prine and you get nothing at all for it. Better off doing Very Hard mate. The scarabs only continue on the same difficulty under consecutive play.

[JRMacumber]

Are you actually supposed to be able to sell the scarabs? If so, how?

[Chadruharazzeb]

Just go to one of those statues, or the old git in the shop and "Talk" to him. He'll take them off you in exchange for something (occasionally). It depends how many you've given to him in total

1st Scarab - Life of the Gods
10 Scarabs - Spirit of the Devils
15 Scarabs - Armlet of Benediction (increases yellow essence from bodies)
20 Scarabs - Dabilahro (giant two-handed sword)
30 Scarabs - Armlet of Fortune (increases red essence from bodies)
40 Scarabs - Armlet of Tranquility (slowly increases Ryu's health)
50 Scarabs - Ninja Gaiden (original classic)

Does anyone else find the controls somewhat retarded on occasion? A few different scenarios really irritated me last night:

Using the flails - ripping into zombies and whatnot trying to build up a massive combo count, it seemed that using the standard XXXXXXX (etc) combo for maximum awesomeness, Ryu appears unable to change direction half the time, leading to very annoying vulnerability. Think I'll have to give up on building a beat count and just kill the ****ers.

The X interact/ attack button - don't like the way this button shares these attributes. Didn't really appreciate the fact that whilst I was pwning some black ninjas I just happened to roll near a door... I press X to attack and lo! he walks through the door and I have to repeat the process from scratch. Same if you happen to be standing near an "Interact" object and are in the midst of battle and the info box keeps popping up. Sod off!

Wall jumps - Ryun seems, on occasion, to make his own damn mind up what kind of wall jump he'll do, beit horizontal or vertical. Most annoying when trying to reach a platform or hidden whatsit.

<Rant> And I hate it (HATE it) when a game doesn't have the common courtesy to let you quit to the title screen, and you have to either find some enemies to kill you or reboot the console (and it would have been nice if the Xbox HAD a restart button, as consoles usually do). </Rant>

[mattfabb]

just press the four face buttons, and start +back together, dc like.
easy enough, quit moaning!!!

[Chadruharazzeb]

I like moaning

[PeteJ]

I finished the game earlier today, with my final result of Master Ninja. I've now decided that this is higher than Head Ninja.

My total play time according to the save is about 20 hours, but the final score sheet was 10 hours. Obviously the Save takes into account all the retries. Almost 3000 kills and over 6 million karma, if anyone cares.

The strange thing is, I thought I did rubbish throughout most of the game, yet I stlil end up with a high ranking. Level 13 I think it was especially, I did awful, but because I just hammered the X button repeatedly I ended up with a massive score. The game isn't very balanced when it comes to scoring, in my opinion, since it all comes down to combos, which can be increased massively with the easy-to-use-yet-dull Flails.

I finish the game with mixed feelings really. If the game was half the size I think it would have been greatly improved. The level design often smacks of trying to increase game time, which is at odds with what the hack-n-slash genre should be. Taking the game purely as it is, as you well should, the level design just isn't good enough to warrent massive backtracking. It's very clever how all the maps tie together, but beyond the technical side of the locations they are very uninteresting with limited scope for secrets and showing off the combat as well as it could do.

Some of the levels were just awful, the 12th level (fire and ice bits) was the low point of the game. Level 13 was also dreadful...as was level 7 and 16...
Yet, the first 5 levels were excellent, as was level 6 and level 9 and level 10. Level 15 was a nice one too, apart from the slightly poor boss encounters.

Other than the combat engine, which is virtually flawless and probably the best anyone has ever come up with, the game is actually quite average. A strange thing to say and I'm even confusing myself typing it, but I'd say that the game features a 9/10 combat engine in a 5/10 game.

Typical how Tecmo thank everyone for "creating one of the true classics of our time" at the end, also. I certainly don't think so.

[Prine]

I loved the fire and ice bits, like i said earlier it gave me a Metriod Prime vibe.

Ah well, cant win them all