Finished it earlier today (I rented the game), and I also played a bit of the ninja trials.
For the single player:
Pros
- Tries something new for the series. Hayashi had the balls to at least try something different. Sure, it backfired horribly, but he tried, and that's more of what can be said about most developers.
- Graphics. Not that they really matter, but they are nice.
- Fluid combat. It's very easy to have a fluid battle, like water running, unlike NG2 and Black, where you had to understand more advanced techniques to achieve this.
- Steel on Bone chaining. Chaining SoB attacks can be very satisfying, specially if you do it to enemies that spam grabs or defend a lot.
- Characters. Not the characters themselves (I'll get to that later), but having an AI buddy is nice even if it's a rare occurrence. They distract the enemy and kill a bit too.
- Tributes to NGB and NG2. At times, you'll reach points in the game where you're brought back to places from the previous games, and even fight old enemies. It's a nice touch. It does have a bit of a problem in itself, which I'll cover later.
Cons
- 1 weapon. You only have a katana, and you expand its moveset as you progress through the story. This bring me to my next 2 points.
- Having one weapon, you would think that it would have a huge moveset. It does not. It's pretty much like using the Dragon Sword from NG2, with plenty of combos removed, and some others added. I dare to say that the True Dragon Sword in NG2 has more combos. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me, that's just how it felt for me.
- There will be DLC weapons. While they (just 2 confirmed) will be free, it makes the game look rushed (I already think it was), or as a way to "apologize" for all of the complaints. I'm guessing that if more weapons are released, they will cost some $. Personally, unless they give 5 for free weapons at least, it will just look like a cash grab.
- QTEs. As much as Hayashi said that there weren't QTEs in the game, there are. Some that did look like QTEs, are not, but there are still plenty of them.
Example: Sliding through a narrow area looked like a QTE at first, but really isn't. However, some enemies and most bosses require QTEs to be killed, and there are also cutscenes with QTEs. If you do like them... well, more power to you. I hate them.
- Kunai climb. It's one of the dumbest mechanics I've ever seen, and the game is littered with them. Not one chapter goes that you don't use this. And it's not just once per chapter. Why someone thought this would be fun, is beyond me.
- Story. This will be a bit long...
The story was marketed as something more important this time around. It wants to show the player the "meaning of killing" or something like that, or at least that's what I remember from the interviews. It fails horribly. It never really touches the subject, and what little it actually does, it does in a terrible way. It's just Ryu with his cursed arm hurting because of all the humans he has killed before, he doesn't really feel remorse, or anything at all about killing. It's his way of life, he kills. That's it, and the only way the story even tries to convey anything is how he is a murderer and he is cursed because of it. Not that he cares. Dumb dialog (Team Ninja trademark!), cliché and boring characters. Brother rivalry, orphan girl, nothing outstanding. And despite what I said, Ryu got Samus'd (not that I played Other M
). He's a murderer but cries and whines about a little girl he knows nothing about. Then he turns around and slaughters 100 guys.
That said, I never really cared about story or characters in NG.
- Unresponsivenes. Now, maybe I wasn't used to the PS3 controller since I mainly play on my 360, but sometimes my inputs won't go through. Messes me up plenty of times. If someone can confirm this, please do.
- Short single player. Not by all that much, but it was shorter than previous entries.
- Enemy design. I just don't like it, but that's highly subjective I guess. I thought most enemies were very meh, bosses included. Fun fights included the Black Spider Ninjas.
- Level design. It's just... if I didn't like the enemy design, I thought the level design was even worse. There were some nice areas here and there, but sadly the ones I liked the most were tributes to previous games. I can't really recall one area that had me drop my jaw in awe. Again, this is highly subjective.
- Frame rate issues. When playing Master Ninja Mode, the FPS drops by half, if not more. It reaches unplayable levels. Perhaps installing the game solves this, but I'd require confirmation.
- No new game+ It's a bit understandable. The only thing you would actually get out of it is a fully upgraded sword, but still, it's annoying.
- No chapter select either. I'm not really sure why none of these are in.
... and I got busy in something else. I'll finish this later if I get the chance. Just information for anyone on the fence about this game. Or you can just rent it.
For the single player:
Pros
- Tries something new for the series. Hayashi had the balls to at least try something different. Sure, it backfired horribly, but he tried, and that's more of what can be said about most developers.
- Graphics. Not that they really matter, but they are nice.
- Fluid combat. It's very easy to have a fluid battle, like water running, unlike NG2 and Black, where you had to understand more advanced techniques to achieve this.
- Steel on Bone chaining. Chaining SoB attacks can be very satisfying, specially if you do it to enemies that spam grabs or defend a lot.
- Characters. Not the characters themselves (I'll get to that later), but having an AI buddy is nice even if it's a rare occurrence. They distract the enemy and kill a bit too.
- Tributes to NGB and NG2. At times, you'll reach points in the game where you're brought back to places from the previous games, and even fight old enemies. It's a nice touch. It does have a bit of a problem in itself, which I'll cover later.
Cons
- 1 weapon. You only have a katana, and you expand its moveset as you progress through the story. This bring me to my next 2 points.
- Having one weapon, you would think that it would have a huge moveset. It does not. It's pretty much like using the Dragon Sword from NG2, with plenty of combos removed, and some others added. I dare to say that the True Dragon Sword in NG2 has more combos. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me, that's just how it felt for me.
- There will be DLC weapons. While they (just 2 confirmed) will be free, it makes the game look rushed (I already think it was), or as a way to "apologize" for all of the complaints. I'm guessing that if more weapons are released, they will cost some $. Personally, unless they give 5 for free weapons at least, it will just look like a cash grab.
- QTEs. As much as Hayashi said that there weren't QTEs in the game, there are. Some that did look like QTEs, are not, but there are still plenty of them.
Example: Sliding through a narrow area looked like a QTE at first, but really isn't. However, some enemies and most bosses require QTEs to be killed, and there are also cutscenes with QTEs. If you do like them... well, more power to you. I hate them.
- Kunai climb. It's one of the dumbest mechanics I've ever seen, and the game is littered with them. Not one chapter goes that you don't use this. And it's not just once per chapter. Why someone thought this would be fun, is beyond me.
- Story. This will be a bit long...
The story was marketed as something more important this time around. It wants to show the player the "meaning of killing" or something like that, or at least that's what I remember from the interviews. It fails horribly. It never really touches the subject, and what little it actually does, it does in a terrible way. It's just Ryu with his cursed arm hurting because of all the humans he has killed before, he doesn't really feel remorse, or anything at all about killing. It's his way of life, he kills. That's it, and the only way the story even tries to convey anything is how he is a murderer and he is cursed because of it. Not that he cares. Dumb dialog (Team Ninja trademark!), cliché and boring characters. Brother rivalry, orphan girl, nothing outstanding. And despite what I said, Ryu got Samus'd (not that I played Other M
). He's a murderer but cries and whines about a little girl he knows nothing about. Then he turns around and slaughters 100 guys.That said, I never really cared about story or characters in NG.
- Unresponsivenes. Now, maybe I wasn't used to the PS3 controller since I mainly play on my 360, but sometimes my inputs won't go through. Messes me up plenty of times. If someone can confirm this, please do.
- Short single player. Not by all that much, but it was shorter than previous entries.
- Enemy design. I just don't like it, but that's highly subjective I guess. I thought most enemies were very meh, bosses included. Fun fights included the Black Spider Ninjas.
- Level design. It's just... if I didn't like the enemy design, I thought the level design was even worse. There were some nice areas here and there, but sadly the ones I liked the most were tributes to previous games. I can't really recall one area that had me drop my jaw in awe. Again, this is highly subjective.
- Frame rate issues. When playing Master Ninja Mode, the FPS drops by half, if not more. It reaches unplayable levels. Perhaps installing the game solves this, but I'd require confirmation.
- No new game+ It's a bit understandable. The only thing you would actually get out of it is a fully upgraded sword, but still, it's annoying.
- No chapter select either. I'm not really sure why none of these are in.
... and I got busy in something else. I'll finish this later if I get the chance. Just information for anyone on the fence about this game. Or you can just rent it.
You can get some fun out of it, but don't think you'll be going back to it more than once or twice. It's at least worth a rent. Something important to consider is that the Ninja Trials are a bit fun, they are like small missions where you defeat a certain enemy composition. I played just about 10-15 of them so I can't go into detail about them.
