Tried Ninja Gaiden: Pride Injury Gained
As a downtrodden playing card once suggested, the best place to begin is the beginning. Ninja Gaiden 2 is an action game, so it would be completely unfair to begin by looking at the story.
All things being completely unfair, the story (apologies to the word-police if I?ve used the word too loosely) follows super-ninja Ryu Hayabusa, on the trail of a stolen statue capable of reviving a demon. The statue was hidden, as all things are, in the Hayabusa village. The statue is stolen by a bad ninja, and a woman with physical attributes that make me suspect Team Ninja has never met Ms. Real Life. Ryu pursues. Things attempt to obstruct him: all these things die or explode. The globe is hopped. He may or may not save the world, based largely on the player?s dexterity.
These [http://www.thenewstribune.com/ae/games/story/382178.html] chaps described NG2?s story as ?a total narrative failure?- quite generous, really, because it concedes the existence of a narrative. Text pops up during the plentiful loading screens, like ?Ryu pursued Elizébet to New York?? and suddenly he?s on top of the Empire State building; then ?Ryu pursued Elizébet to the Aqua Capital?? which might as well read ?The devs wanted to make a nice Venice level? heeeeere it is!?
Every part of the narrative, every character and setting, feels weirdly disconnected. Exacerbating this detachment is the absence of CGI pre-rendered cutscenes, now executed, quite presumptuously given the strength of the engine, with in-game graphics.
Venice The Aqua Capital
The engine wears its last-gen origins on its sleeve. The water effects are strikingly ineffective, barely improved from the prequel. The blood, plentiful though it is, splatters onto surfaces but fails to drip or pool, preferring to cling to invisible barriers. The overall impression is one of sterility. This was used to good effect in the first game- meeting that bouncer, a person who, bafflingly, didn?t want to kill you (although he did seem to think ninjas need invites to parties), invoked a spooky Uncanny sensation. It almost vindicated the sterility as an artistic choice.
See, I could definitely write blurbs. The addition of lashings of crimson to NG2?s colour palette is to its detriment, more of a surrender to teenage whims than an improvement. The Team Ninja aesthetic values clean-cut, elegant design. And tits. Tits are important to them, too. I know, I was calling it ?sterile? a paragraph ago, but let?s not faff over semantics- at least it had a discernible style. Having gore and viscera splattering everywhere tends to look, at best, incongruous, and at worst plain embarrassing. The juxtaposition of styles left me cold, a slightly juvenile gimmick which just makes you feel self-conscious playing the game while grown-ups are present.
Juxtaposition? Clash? Juxtapoclashion?
A new mechanic for use on dismembered opponents, ?Obliteration? moves, provide a flashy, crowd-pleasing canned combo and a guaranteed kill. These somewhat justify the introduction of all this bloody blood- it?d be a bit silly to have an arm lopped off and for Sloe gin to come spurting out. More significantly, they provide a few seconds of invulnerability to enemy attacks while the Obliteration animation is playing out- any other enemies are left standing about, looking impressed and eagerly awaiting their turn. The more cynical among you should be cocking an eyebrow about now-
?So, essentially, it?s a ?Kill Enemy Now? button which requires minimal player input for maximum effect??
It might sound cheap (because it is), but it?s an absolute godsend given the odds stacked against Ryu. A lot of these odds come in projectile form, with sharp, flaming or plain explosive things thrown or shot at Ryu. This has an effect somewhere between frustrating the player and flat-out breaking the game. It begins with archers using rocket powered, sniper-scoped bows to astonishing effect. Arrows slam into Ryu with infuriating persistence, seemingly from nowhere, sometimes clipping through trees and buildings such is their impatience to annoy the player.
If you find that annoying, then the ninjas toting repeating rocket launchers will strike you as plain infuriating. And strike you they will?frequently. If NG2 will teach you one, undoubtedly useful, life skill, it is how to cope with clusterfucks given limited resources. The most limited of these resources is NG2?s camera.
It?s difficult to emphasise how much trouble the camera causes. It?s an unforgivable hindrance, and the notion that the developers could not have been aware how erratically it behaves is nothing short of an insult to the audience. The fact that it makes the game a lot harder might well secure it an affectionate place in the hearts of the NG faithful; the rest of us will not be so enamoured.
The absence of lock-on function when fighting most enemies, and the eager bounciness of these enemies, is not a fortuitous cocktail. About three-quarters of the damage Ryu sustains comes from off-screen, either as a projectile attack or from an enemy leaping into sight to launch into a throw. If I were the type of person who believes in reviewing through numbers, I?d happily knock off 15% of the score for the camera. It was a problem raised in all the reviews of the prequel and the previews of NG2, yet, still?crapola camera.
The forums on Gamespot are generally an illuminating place to turn at moments like these. Short of dropping into an Opus Dei tea party, you?ll struggle to find a crowd more into denial and self-flagellation than on the NG2 boards. Full of people claiming to have ?never had a problem with the camera, it?s just you being lame?, generally propounding a ?have you tried sucking less?? approach to helping their fellow man, this enclave of irrationality is crammed with merriment. I was drawn to a thread with a title I could sympathise with (?I Hate This Game With Every Fibre of My Being and Want My Money Back?). These are some of the choicest respondents. Obviously, this is all sic, partially because I can?t be arsed to correct it, but mostly because I get my jollies off belittling the under-educated:
That?s?better?
Flying Swallow, Izuna Drop: these words induce a Pavlovian response in NG players. They make the player feel momentarily safe, and are the mainstay of a successful player?s arsenal. The Flying Swallow homes in on enemies, mainly used to attack foes the player could have no chance of seeing, because the camera didn?t deem it within its remit to display them. The Izuna Drop is a mid-air combo ending with a throw which plants the enemy head first into the floor, giving decent splash damage and almost guaranteeing a kill, particularly for the fellow whose face has just been pulped.
More importantly, the player is invulnerable while performing the Izuna Drop, much as they are when performing an Obliteration attack, negating for a few seconds the constant enemy assault.
The fans say you need ?skill? if you want to progress. You need to go ?practice?. They are in this instance, with all due respect, full of horseshit. The ?skilful? players readily admit that they have had to master a few tricks- someone in a bad mood might label these exploits ?exploits?. These include cancelling animation frames with shuriken throws, spamming the auto-lock projectile attacks, or just abusing the hell out of the Flying Swallow or Izuna Drop.
The advantage of these techniques is that they mitigate clumsy game mechanics. An important skill is to constantly throw explosive shuriken when you know enemies are in range, even if you can?t see them. Since Ryu locks on automatically, he can attack archers or rocket-launching ninjas with an accuracy the player could never hope to match intentionally. If he?s attacking the enemy with his projectiles, it means they aren?t reciprocating with theirs.
That?s where I take issue with ?skill? being cited. To my mind, being ?skilful? at a game should involve more than knowing how to beat it using the weird little idiosyncrasies left extant in its programming. A skilful virtual ninja should use all of Ryu?s moves and weapons and create a fluid, graceful cocktail of death: they should not spam the few techniques that work consistently until they?ve worn the enemy out through stubborn attrition.
Look at the ninja dog enemies in the Hayabusa village. These beasties carry swords in their mouths and somehow throw explosive shuriken. You won?t have time to ponder the mechanics of this (?But?no opposable thumbs! How? What??) because they are one of the fastest, cheapest, most annoying enemies I can remember encountering- the fact that they are presumably a hilarious little in-joke to the ?Ninja Dog? difficulty setting of the prequel makes it all slightly insulting. What, according to Gamespot forumites, is the best way to beat these things?
?Spam Flying Swallow?. Just keep on spamming that easy to perform, air-based homing attack until those puppies are dead. Do you feel heroic yet?
The time-tested response to criticism from less eloquent NG2 fans consists of four letter words: STFU and GTFO. More acronyms, really, but the sentiment is clear.
You got issues with the game? Join the queue. Now, man up or fuck off.
They are enjoying their game, so who are you to start pooping parties with your whinging? It?s a mass-market game, which sticks two fingers up at the masses. You?ve been invited to the NG2 party, but the host is just sitting in the corner, talking to his cliquey friends and ignoring you. Team Ninja will take your money quite happily; just don?t feel any sense of entitlement to enjoy what you get in return.
Apologies for the riposte?s ad hominem flavour, but it?s the best I could come up with at short notice on a low budget. Still, I stand by it.
There?s a lot of content in NG2. There?s a bevy of weapons (though you?ll only use three of them), each rocking an extensive move list. There are a lot of levels and a lot of enemies to fight. It?s not much fun doing so, though, and as such is difficult to recommend to any but the most tenacious of ninjas. Some people will like NG2, claiming that those who can meet the challenge it provides will already know who they are: they get a letter down the chimney, or something. For everyone else, have a barbecue and a nice bottle of wine; watch the sun filter through the leaves of a tree; read a good book. Like "Some Arse" said, "this game is not for you." I hereby promise not to call you a n00b, a wuss or a pussy for not wanting to play NG2.
Leave the ninjas to it.
Some chap not playing NG2, and enjoying it. There are twelve ninjas in this picture.
As a downtrodden playing card once suggested, the best place to begin is the beginning. Ninja Gaiden 2 is an action game, so it would be completely unfair to begin by looking at the story.
All things being completely unfair, the story (apologies to the word-police if I?ve used the word too loosely) follows super-ninja Ryu Hayabusa, on the trail of a stolen statue capable of reviving a demon. The statue was hidden, as all things are, in the Hayabusa village. The statue is stolen by a bad ninja, and a woman with physical attributes that make me suspect Team Ninja has never met Ms. Real Life. Ryu pursues. Things attempt to obstruct him: all these things die or explode. The globe is hopped. He may or may not save the world, based largely on the player?s dexterity.
These [http://www.thenewstribune.com/ae/games/story/382178.html] chaps described NG2?s story as ?a total narrative failure?- quite generous, really, because it concedes the existence of a narrative. Text pops up during the plentiful loading screens, like ?Ryu pursued Elizébet to New York?? and suddenly he?s on top of the Empire State building; then ?Ryu pursued Elizébet to the Aqua Capital?? which might as well read ?The devs wanted to make a nice Venice level? heeeeere it is!?
Every part of the narrative, every character and setting, feels weirdly disconnected. Exacerbating this detachment is the absence of CGI pre-rendered cutscenes, now executed, quite presumptuously given the strength of the engine, with in-game graphics.
The engine wears its last-gen origins on its sleeve. The water effects are strikingly ineffective, barely improved from the prequel. The blood, plentiful though it is, splatters onto surfaces but fails to drip or pool, preferring to cling to invisible barriers. The overall impression is one of sterility. This was used to good effect in the first game- meeting that bouncer, a person who, bafflingly, didn?t want to kill you (although he did seem to think ninjas need invites to parties), invoked a spooky Uncanny sensation. It almost vindicated the sterility as an artistic choice.
See, I could definitely write blurbs. The addition of lashings of crimson to NG2?s colour palette is to its detriment, more of a surrender to teenage whims than an improvement. The Team Ninja aesthetic values clean-cut, elegant design. And tits. Tits are important to them, too. I know, I was calling it ?sterile? a paragraph ago, but let?s not faff over semantics- at least it had a discernible style. Having gore and viscera splattering everywhere tends to look, at best, incongruous, and at worst plain embarrassing. The juxtaposition of styles left me cold, a slightly juvenile gimmick which just makes you feel self-conscious playing the game while grown-ups are present.
Juxtaposition? Clash? Juxtapoclashion?
A new mechanic for use on dismembered opponents, ?Obliteration? moves, provide a flashy, crowd-pleasing canned combo and a guaranteed kill. These somewhat justify the introduction of all this bloody blood- it?d be a bit silly to have an arm lopped off and for Sloe gin to come spurting out. More significantly, they provide a few seconds of invulnerability to enemy attacks while the Obliteration animation is playing out- any other enemies are left standing about, looking impressed and eagerly awaiting their turn. The more cynical among you should be cocking an eyebrow about now-
?So, essentially, it?s a ?Kill Enemy Now? button which requires minimal player input for maximum effect??
It might sound cheap (because it is), but it?s an absolute godsend given the odds stacked against Ryu. A lot of these odds come in projectile form, with sharp, flaming or plain explosive things thrown or shot at Ryu. This has an effect somewhere between frustrating the player and flat-out breaking the game. It begins with archers using rocket powered, sniper-scoped bows to astonishing effect. Arrows slam into Ryu with infuriating persistence, seemingly from nowhere, sometimes clipping through trees and buildings such is their impatience to annoy the player.
If you find that annoying, then the ninjas toting repeating rocket launchers will strike you as plain infuriating. And strike you they will?frequently. If NG2 will teach you one, undoubtedly useful, life skill, it is how to cope with clusterfucks given limited resources. The most limited of these resources is NG2?s camera.
It?s difficult to emphasise how much trouble the camera causes. It?s an unforgivable hindrance, and the notion that the developers could not have been aware how erratically it behaves is nothing short of an insult to the audience. The fact that it makes the game a lot harder might well secure it an affectionate place in the hearts of the NG faithful; the rest of us will not be so enamoured.
The absence of lock-on function when fighting most enemies, and the eager bounciness of these enemies, is not a fortuitous cocktail. About three-quarters of the damage Ryu sustains comes from off-screen, either as a projectile attack or from an enemy leaping into sight to launch into a throw. If I were the type of person who believes in reviewing through numbers, I?d happily knock off 15% of the score for the camera. It was a problem raised in all the reviews of the prequel and the previews of NG2, yet, still?crapola camera.
The forums on Gamespot are generally an illuminating place to turn at moments like these. Short of dropping into an Opus Dei tea party, you?ll struggle to find a crowd more into denial and self-flagellation than on the NG2 boards. Full of people claiming to have ?never had a problem with the camera, it?s just you being lame?, generally propounding a ?have you tried sucking less?? approach to helping their fellow man, this enclave of irrationality is crammed with merriment. I was drawn to a thread with a title I could sympathise with (?I Hate This Game With Every Fibre of My Being and Want My Money Back?). These are some of the choicest respondents. Obviously, this is all sic, partially because I can?t be arsed to correct it, but mostly because I get my jollies off belittling the under-educated:
Some Arse said:
Indeed. The next chap hits the nail on the head:A Different Arse said:
It most certainly isn?t a ?mash every button and win? game. It?s a game which requires you to mash very specific combinations of buttons to win.A Sympathetic Arse said:
That?s?better?
Flying Swallow, Izuna Drop: these words induce a Pavlovian response in NG players. They make the player feel momentarily safe, and are the mainstay of a successful player?s arsenal. The Flying Swallow homes in on enemies, mainly used to attack foes the player could have no chance of seeing, because the camera didn?t deem it within its remit to display them. The Izuna Drop is a mid-air combo ending with a throw which plants the enemy head first into the floor, giving decent splash damage and almost guaranteeing a kill, particularly for the fellow whose face has just been pulped.
More importantly, the player is invulnerable while performing the Izuna Drop, much as they are when performing an Obliteration attack, negating for a few seconds the constant enemy assault.
The fans say you need ?skill? if you want to progress. You need to go ?practice?. They are in this instance, with all due respect, full of horseshit. The ?skilful? players readily admit that they have had to master a few tricks- someone in a bad mood might label these exploits ?exploits?. These include cancelling animation frames with shuriken throws, spamming the auto-lock projectile attacks, or just abusing the hell out of the Flying Swallow or Izuna Drop.
The advantage of these techniques is that they mitigate clumsy game mechanics. An important skill is to constantly throw explosive shuriken when you know enemies are in range, even if you can?t see them. Since Ryu locks on automatically, he can attack archers or rocket-launching ninjas with an accuracy the player could never hope to match intentionally. If he?s attacking the enemy with his projectiles, it means they aren?t reciprocating with theirs.
That?s where I take issue with ?skill? being cited. To my mind, being ?skilful? at a game should involve more than knowing how to beat it using the weird little idiosyncrasies left extant in its programming. A skilful virtual ninja should use all of Ryu?s moves and weapons and create a fluid, graceful cocktail of death: they should not spam the few techniques that work consistently until they?ve worn the enemy out through stubborn attrition.
Look at the ninja dog enemies in the Hayabusa village. These beasties carry swords in their mouths and somehow throw explosive shuriken. You won?t have time to ponder the mechanics of this (?But?no opposable thumbs! How? What??) because they are one of the fastest, cheapest, most annoying enemies I can remember encountering- the fact that they are presumably a hilarious little in-joke to the ?Ninja Dog? difficulty setting of the prequel makes it all slightly insulting. What, according to Gamespot forumites, is the best way to beat these things?
?Spam Flying Swallow?. Just keep on spamming that easy to perform, air-based homing attack until those puppies are dead. Do you feel heroic yet?
The time-tested response to criticism from less eloquent NG2 fans consists of four letter words: STFU and GTFO. More acronyms, really, but the sentiment is clear.
You got issues with the game? Join the queue. Now, man up or fuck off.
They are enjoying their game, so who are you to start pooping parties with your whinging? It?s a mass-market game, which sticks two fingers up at the masses. You?ve been invited to the NG2 party, but the host is just sitting in the corner, talking to his cliquey friends and ignoring you. Team Ninja will take your money quite happily; just don?t feel any sense of entitlement to enjoy what you get in return.
Apologies for the riposte?s ad hominem flavour, but it?s the best I could come up with at short notice on a low budget. Still, I stand by it.
There?s a lot of content in NG2. There?s a bevy of weapons (though you?ll only use three of them), each rocking an extensive move list. There are a lot of levels and a lot of enemies to fight. It?s not much fun doing so, though, and as such is difficult to recommend to any but the most tenacious of ninjas. Some people will like NG2, claiming that those who can meet the challenge it provides will already know who they are: they get a letter down the chimney, or something. For everyone else, have a barbecue and a nice bottle of wine; watch the sun filter through the leaves of a tree; read a good book. Like "Some Arse" said, "this game is not for you." I hereby promise not to call you a n00b, a wuss or a pussy for not wanting to play NG2.
Leave the ninjas to it.
Some chap not playing NG2, and enjoying it. There are twelve ninjas in this picture.
