Xbox Direct Ninja Gaiden News

[Octopus]

Just found out Team Ninja shadow dropped a remaster/expansion type thing today of Ninja Gaiden 2, aka the best one, called fittingly Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. This is awesome since one, the games great of course, and two it was impossible to play the original best version (don't even look at Sigma 2) nowadays outside of a disk copy on a 360/Xbox One backwards compatibility.
They also announced Ninja Gaiden 4 but I'm a little torn on it. It's being outsourced to Platinum for development which is a little off-putting right away, Platinums track record lately has been a little hit and miss. It seems to also have a focus on a new protagonist (described as "a young ninja prodigy named Yakumo") when come on, just give us more Hayabusa damnit.

 

[Okashira]

It might be good, depending on how they "expanded" it. But other than Babylon's fall, I haven't really seen a pronounced drop in their games' quality. And I'd place most of Babylon's faults at Square's feet first until we see more games they develop not tied to Square's particular brand of greed to know if they've just lost the touch.

 

[Octopus]

It might be good, depending on how they "expanded" it. But other than Babylon's fall, I haven't really seen a pronounced drop in their games' quality. And I'd place most of Babylon's faults at Square's feet first until we see more games they develop not tied to Square's particular brand of greed to know if they've just lost the touch.

Fair enough, the only real major game they've done since then is Bayonetta 3 which was a bit of a mixed bag but at least it wasn't a Babylon's Fall. The fact they're outsourcing a flagship series like Ninja Gaiden not once but twice with this and Ragebound makes me think there must be something big cookin' at Team Ninja yet to be revealed; I hope at least.

 

[regnor]

Unfortunately the remake seems to be mostly based off Sigma 2. I played it a little bit on Warrior and then went back to the original on my 360, and the enemy counts are much higher on the latter in the first few encounters.

The remake also has this cheap soft UE5 look and is too dark. It doesn't look sharp and colorful like the original game. They also made Irene look like a teenager instead of a mature lady.

Sigma 2 is not a horrible game but they had a great opportunity here to combine the best of both versions and make the ultimate edition of the game.

I think Platinum making the new one is actually promising as Team Ninja is too big into RPGs these days. As a different developer they can also just have their own take on it without people comparing it to much to the original three games (which all play differently from each other). Maybe I'll buy it but the remake might get a refund.

 

[Octopus]

Unfortunately the remake seems to be mostly based off Sigma 2.

Unfortunate, I'm reading that same sentiment from a few different other places too. I decided to do some research before buying it which seems like it may have been a good idea.
Seems they took Sigma 2's enemy placements and numbers, but dialed back enemy health and delimbing to OG2 level. That's definitely an improvement over Sigma 2, but not quite what I expected being an actual remake/expansion/whatever of OG2. Apparently the tests of valour are gone, I can't remember if those were in Sigma 2 but it's sad regardless.

 

[regnor]

Yes...supposedly they also took out some good stuff/additions from Sigma 2 as well (like some bosses).

It's really too bad but the basic gameplay is good, so it might still get a Warrior playthrough from me to see all the differences.

 

[Octopus]

It's really too bad but the basic gameplay is good

The power of NG2 gameplay right there. I think I'm going to skip it entirely which is unfortunate but what can you do, you can't win them all. I'll hold out for 4, I have some mild caution from it being Platinum but the gameplay they did show off looked pretty good so we'll have to see. Hopefully it pulls a DMC4 and has two equally playable characters with the new guy and Hayabusa (hopefully without the infamous backtracking level recycling from DMC4) and Ryu isn't just playable in a few missions here and there or something.

 

[Jotaro]

ninja gaiden 4, ninja gaiden 2 black and the ninja gaiden 2d game, feels truly a ngaiden year

wow, they didnt shadow drop the fandom, they just izuna dropped us, lol, amazing news overall