Difficulty: Dark Souls or Ninja Gaiden

[NastoK]

Hello escapist! So here's the thing. A friend and I have been arguing as to what game is harder, Dark Souls (or Demon's Souls for that matter), or Ninja Gaiden. Now, neither of us had played the games in question, though I've heard quite the tall tales about Dark Souls and Demon's Souls, whilst he heard the same for Ninja Gaiden.

Now, I may not have played those particular games, but I'd like to think I played similar games. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's my impression that Ninja Blade is similar to Ninja Gaiden. That said, I didn't find Ninja Blade difficult at all. Sure, a few frustrating quick-time events, especially at the end, but that pretty much covers it. On the other hand, I'd like to think that Gothic 2: NotR is similar to Dark Souls. No boss fights lurking around each corner, but you die anyway. The first time I played the game I kept dying and dying - it's the reason I quicksave every 5 seconds in each and every game.

tl;dr

So, escapist, which game is harder? Dark Souls or Ninja Gaiden?

 

[MisterShine]

So, escapist, which game is harder? Dark Souls or Ninja Gaiden?

From what I've read from various sources, I'm roughly 75% of the way through Dark Souls, but I beat Ninja Gaiden Black on Master Ninja so I know that game pretty well.

I'd call Dark Souls about as tough as Gaiden on Master, its all about knowing your opponents, timing with animations, learning weaknesses and being careful not to be overconfident. Or confident at all really. I've heard Dark Souls gets significantly harder at the end and the NG+ adds even more tactics and moves to the boss fights and enemies, so it could well surpass Gaiden. Right now I'd call them about even though.

 

[Ruwrak]

No, no no no no no no no.

The difficulty of Ninja Gaiden & Dark souls are two completely different things.

Dark souls is hard if you are impatient and want to rush through.
Ninja Gaiden is hard because combat needs to keep going fluently in order to survive.

I completed Ninja Gaiden (the original) on Master Ninja as well, and yes it was a ***** and I will -never- do that again. Didn't even try it on Ninja Gaiden II. Ninja Gaiden I ate 15 years of my life with the bloodpressure and all that.
Dark Souls is the game I am playing at the moment, and I Must say it gets easy once you know you can circle around people and backstab them.

Sure the bosses are still gigantically annoying, but hard? No. A matter of leveling more, getting some better gear and maybe most importantly, upgrading your weapons, armor and using magic (no not healing magic, I mean OFFENSIVE magic like pyromancy or the lightning types.)


In short, Ninja Gaiden is annoying because of the technique you need to deploy, Dark Souls is hard because of the maintaining of the gear, the levels and your general pace of approach.
I have had hardly any problems with Dark Souls after I figured out how to do a backstab.
Try it, the game because a total laugh after you know how to tackle most obstacles. Every enemy has it's way of defeating and the hard part is figuring that out BEFORE you get skewerd. (Allthough I must admit that Dark Souls is just unfair at times. Seriously unfair.)

 

[krazykidd]

First of all , which ninja gaiden? The nes version? The xbox version? Or the xbox360 version?

I played the nes versions . I would say dark souls is more difficult than ninja gaiden 1 and 2 . But easier than 3. Why? Because in ninja gaiden 3 you have continues. Meaning once you lose all your continues its back to the very begining where as in ninja gaiden 1 and 2 , you just start at the begining of the current stage.

 

[DBLT4P]

I havent played enough of ninja gaiden to have an informed opinion on which is more difficult in an absolute sense, but I would like to make a distinction in how they are each difficult:

Ninja Gaiden's mechanics emphasize twitch controls, fast reaction time, instinct, and speed.
vs
Dark souls is about patience, and judgment, resisting the urge for that extra sword swing, when do you spend your souls, and what do you invest them in? Do you buy what you can afford now, or save up for the big thing and risk lossing your whole wallet along the way?

they are really very different, almost opposing, and which one is more difficult will change depending on which play style each individual is better suited for.

 

[Josh Horton]

I've never played Dark Souls but I have to say from Ninja Gaiden Black on the xbox to Ninja Gaiden 2 (or 3 whatever you prefer) on the 360 is a huge difficulty difference, I beat Black on Master Ninja without dying, it was my 3 playthrough so I knew what to do and it was a breeze. But than on the 360 game, I played on Normal and died countless times... It was frustrating to go from master ninja to normal and losing on normal. So in my opinion the 360 version has potential to be harder but remember I'm saying this based on never playing any souls games sooo I'm a little biased, but my info could help the discussion.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Dark Souls.

why?

Ninja Gaiden, has difficulty settings, so the game is really only as hard as you want it to be, where as Dark Souls, has no settings, you just kinda have to deal with it.

besides the two are wildly different games, so ask 'which is harder?' is VERY subjective

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

No, no no no no no no no.

The difficulty of Ninja Gaiden & Dark souls are two completely different things.

Dark souls is hard if you are impatient and want to rush through.
Ninja Gaiden is hard because combat needs to keep going fluently in order to survive.

I completed Ninja Gaiden (the original) on Master Ninja as well, and yes it was a ***** and I will -never- do that again. Didn't even try it on Ninja Gaiden II. Ninja Gaiden I ate 15 years of my life with the bloodpressure and all that.
Dark Souls is the game I am playing at the moment, and I Must say it gets easy once you know you can circle around people and backstab them.

Sure the bosses are still gigantically annoying, but hard? No. A matter of leveling more, getting some better gear and maybe most importantly, upgrading your weapons, armor and using magic (no not healing magic, I mean OFFENSIVE magic like pyromancy or the lightning types.)


In short, Ninja Gaiden is annoying because of the technique you need to deploy, Dark Souls is hard because of the maintaining of the gear, the levels and your general pace of approach.
I have had hardly any problems with Dark Souls after I figured out how to do a backstab.
Try it, the game because a total laugh after you know how to tackle most obstacles. Every enemy has it's way of defeating and the hard part is figuring that out BEFORE you get skewerd. (Allthough I must admit that Dark Souls is just unfair at times. Seriously unfair.)

You took the words right out of me.

They're two totally different difficulties, but I will say Dark Souls is more masochistic since you force yourself to get to the next area and face more punishment.

Ninja Gaiden never played up it's difficulty and it was more of a challenge, whereas Dark Souls will laugh at you for thinking that you're safe and will murder you around the corner is you're careless.

So yeah, Dark Souls is harder, and I will love the game for it.

 

[NastoK]

Morning came, as did I!

Different games, hard to compare. I see. Well, if nothing else, it would seem that on default settings Dark Souls is harder. So I have that. Thanks for the replies everyone.