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[GrayChild]

Ninja Gaiden’s Revival Is the Perfect Antidote to the Soulslike Phenomenon - IGN

Dark Souls transformed the action game genre and it's never been the same since, but it's time for 'pure' action games to take centre stage once again.

www.ign.com

Where once games like Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry and the original God of War series ran the action scene, that style of game has been all but supplanted by the likes of FromSoftware entries such as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. We don’t dislike that type of game, to be clear, but there should be room in the AAA marketplace for both, and the return of Ninja Gaiden could be the balancing of the scales the action genre desperately needs.
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Playing Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is the breath of fresh air that the action genre has needed for quite some time. The lightning fast combat, wide variety of weapons, and the return of the blood and gore from the original release that the Sigma iteration dropped makes this the best version of Ninja Gaiden 2 you can play on modern hardware, and the perfect place for franchise newcomers to see what all the fuss is about. Some franchise veterans might decry the difficulty adjustments and enemy counts, but it’s important to remember that the original Ninja Gaiden II barely held together from a technical perspective and sometimes fell into cheap traps due to its unbalanced design. Of all the game’s iterations, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black works best as a complete package, maintaining a high level of difficulty and reinstating the gore absent from Sigma 2 while keeping much of the extra content that version added, such as the bonus characters and levels (although they thankfully dropped the statue boss fights no one liked).
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More than anything, replaying Ninja Gaiden 2 in its latest incarnation highlights why the experience of games like it can’t be replicated elsewhere. There’s a purity to action games like Ninja Gaiden where there are no real “cheats” to get ahead; no builds to copy off of a guide, no experience points to outlevel the enemies, no stamina bar to limit your abilities. It’s just you and the game, and you do the best with the small handful of tools you’re given. You either master the combat put in front of you or you find yourself staring at a Game Over screen over and over again. So while we don’t anticipate Soulslike games losing their hold on the gaming populace anytime soon, hopefully the return of Ninja Gaiden starts a new golden age for action games. Surely there’s enough audience to go around for both.

 

[Rheon]

Silly article.

It's like saying UFC games are the perfect antidote to fighting games. It doesn't make any sense.

 

[rm082e]

Dumb. They're not at different ends of a spectrum. They're different styles of games.

 

[Kacho]

I'm beginning to think IGN is out of touch

 

[Big Baller]

Real games are reviving

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

In a year where the action genre had Stellar Blade and Wukong the article is a joke, IGN seal of quality.

 

[Calico345]

I've been advocating for the return of traditional action games for years. Both can exist in the market. I like Soulsborne. I like traditional action games. All are welcome.

 

[diffusionx]

Silly article.

It's like saying UFC games are the perfect antidote to fighting games. It doesn't make any sense.

Dumb. They're not at different ends of a spectrum. They're different styles of games.

Did you guys read what the OP posted.

They literally say that. The point is that so many games are doing what Souls is doing and not much what NG/DMC/Bayo/etc. are doing. If this game brings in more games that don't just do what Souls does that is good.

 

[phant0m]

I'm beginning to think IGN is out of touch

 

[DeVeAn]

NG2 Black, sans the girl chapters, is all killer no filler.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Real games are reviving

This and Tokyo Extreme Racer in the same week

 

[saintjules]

Thought it was another Gamer79 thread for a second.

 

[proandrad]

IGN thinks all Japanese games look the same.

 

[yogaflame]

In a year where the action genre had Stellar Blade and Wukong the article is a joke, IGN seal of quality.

IGN completely ignored Stellar blade and Wukong as expected. Not shocking.

 

[intbal]

This insightful article brought to you by yet another Ziff Davis subsidiary.

 

[March Climber]

I'm beginning to think IGN is out of touch

The casual audience chose them in the end

They outlived so many other outlets including fan favorites like 1up, Old Giantbomb, G4, X-Play, Old Gametrailers, Gamepro, Electronic Playground, Game Informer, etc.

 

[Zacfoldor]

NG2 Black, sans the girl chapters, is all killer no filler.

So you're saying it does have filler, right?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of the game, but also no From game has filler that I've played. Not one single girl chapter. Are the Ninja Gaiden Black 2 girl chapters good? I'm seeing an awful lot of whining about this game across the zeitgeist.

It's weird, some of the metadata is pretty astounding, like the PSN review score but of course I checked it right after announcement before anyone had a chance to play it and it had a significant number of reviews with 4.99/5 average, so that is inflated(it has trended lower but is still high). Steam score is 78, lower than PSN.

I've heard:
1. Cut Content(just in passing, not sure what if anything was cut)
2. Too Easy
3. Not as good as OG NG2 due to a variety of reasons apparently(may be just 1 and 2)
4. Antiquated camera issues

Yet I've also heard from people who never played the 3D Ninja Gaidens and they all seem to be 100% sold, so I'm not sure where our average opinion is at the moment. Seems to be a great remake, about RE3 level but not RE2/4/SH2 level.

 

[coachmcguirk91]

The only part of "souls" games I'm tired of is Dark Souls combat. It's very slow and the constant relying on dodge rolling is enough at this point.

I don't think I'll ever dislike losing XP after death or relying on bonfires to progress. Those mechanics offer a great feeling of risk vs reward

 

[rm082e]

Did you guys read what the OP posted.

They literally say that. The point is that so many games are doing what Souls is doing and not much what NG/DMC/Bayo/etc. are doing. If this game brings in more games that don't just do what Souls does that is good.

Right, but that's not some top-down decision that's being made by the gaming overlords. It's a ground up trend because people stopped buying the old-school level based action games and gravitated towards more open-world slow combat like the Souls games.

We'll have to see how NG2B and NG4 do sales wise to see if they're a big enough impact to change trends. From the 2000 players on PlayStation number that was quoted the other day, I highly doubt it. And I say that as a huge Ninja Gaiden fan.

 

[DeVeAn]

So you're saying it does have filler, right?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of the game, but also no From game has filler that I've played. Not one single girl chapter. Are the Ninja Gaiden Black 2 girl chapters good? I'm seeing an awful lot of whining about this game across the zeitgeist.

It's weird, some of the metadata is pretty astounding, like the PSN review score but of course I checked it right after announcement before anyone had a chance to play it and it had a significant number of reviews with 4.99/5 average, so that is inflated(it has trended lower but is still high). Steam score is 78, lower than PSN.

I'm heard:
1. Cut Content(just in passing, not sure what if anything was cut)
2. Too Easy
3. Not as good as OG NG2 due to a variety of reasons apparently(may be just 1 and 2)
4. Antiquated camera issues

Yet I've also heard from people who never played the 3D Ninja Gaidens and they all seem to be 100% sold, so I'm not sure where our average opinion is at the moment. Seems to be a great remake, RE3 level.

Well, yeah! Loved all the Fromsoft games too.

As far as the girl chapters they aren't AWFUL, just breaks the pace with a retread of a level done with Ryu.

 

[touchfuzzy]

My hot take is both styles of game suck.

 

[viveks86]

Antidote? Soulslikes are poison now?

A Ninja Gaiden 2 article would barely get anyone's attention. But an antidote to soulslikes? I must admit, that title is dumb and genius at the same time. The title is Elon Musk!

 

[Giallo Corsa]

I'm beginning to think IGN is out of touch

Kacho, ngl, I expected better from you brother

In all seriousness now, the article IMO makes perfect sense :

replaying Ninja Gaiden 2 in its latest incarnation highlights why the experience of games like it can’t be replicated elsewhere. There’s a purity to action games like Ninja Gaiden where there are no real “cheats” to get ahead; no builds to copy off of a guide, no experience points to outlevel the enemies, no stamina bar to limit your abilities. It’s just you and the game, and you do the best with the small handful of tools you’re given

Now, one of the reasons IMO the souls-likes have taken off is exactly because of the reason explained above, everyone thinks they're l33t gamerZ/hot shit 'cause they mastered the masocore difficulties in those games, but, how many broken magic builds are there ? How many people grind stats ? How many OCD'ing about min-maxing ? How many use summons ? How many follow build videos as to finish specific bosses ?
THIS is what can't be replicated in a pure action game, you literally have to "git gud" or drop the game altogether - and it's not cause I want to shit on FROM games, heck, even one of their own games, Sekiro, managed to "filter" the Souls plebs 'cause they though that they could just side-roll through attacks...
Another example - and I'll use a personal one since I don't want to exclude myself here - was Black myth Wukong, after 50 hours I just had my fill and I just wanted to finish the damned thing, welp, I was still on chapter 4 and I stumbled upon Yellow Loong.
After 2 evenings of pure frustration, I decided to follow a tactics video and lo and behold, I managed to kill the fucker in 3 tries using the needle buff which I hadn't gotten yet upon reaching the boss - same thing with Erlang AND the final Sage fight...
Basically, if you know how to properly spec your character things become way easier, something which most definitely doesn't hold true for real action character games like Gaiden or DMC, shit, no online video or tutorial can make you better or even prepared for -say - the double Ransetsu fight in Hayabusa village the 2nd time you're visiting it on Master Ninja, it's just you, the game and its (bullshit) difficulty

In fact, while I LOVE FROM games, I'd go so far as to say that they've done more harm than good : Everyone and the grandmas make Souls likes nowadays to the point that many games out there feel like a reskin using the same limited and bullshit controls like "press right stick in to lock on", "press O/B to dodge roll", no auto-lock on sight and you might as well be blind even when trying to hit enemies right next to you and also, good luck with fights that aren't 1Vs1 if you're not properly specced/lvl'd up...

See, while FROM tried to do their own thing (and they made it work), unfortunately, people/devs started copying the formula but, besides the good parts they've also copied/ported over the bad ones like the dodge button being universally mapped to the O/B button, using the bumpers as attack buttons, the fact that you can't easily fight mobs, cameras that work against you , losing XP upon dying and all the other shit FROM has incorporated since Demon's souls...

Finally, one last thing that gets on my tits :
Games described as "Souls-likes" just 'cause of their difficulty
Motherduckers, has anyone of those gen Z players actually touched an 8bit game ? Now THOSE were tough as shit, but, if you wanna talk about more modern times, Ninja Gaiden on Xbox is the original motherfucking "Dark souls" when it came to the difficulty.

Nowadays, it's either about watching those HP bars dropping, getting XP/leveling up and making L33T builds, everything is either an "ARPG" or a Pure RPG and the character action game genre has died off exactly because of those reasons - cause people need that dopamine fix of watching numbers/stats and feel good about themselves, bahhhhh...

 

[EverydayBeast]

I would like an open world ninja gaiden

 

[SJRB]

Imagine being this retarded and actually getting paid for it too.

 

[Alexios]

Lol, nooblets have to target something they can't handle, like they couldn't put it opposite (I mean, if they must do this comparison at all to begin with of course) of, Idk, gaas, FPS or sandbox slop, nope, they love that shit. Looks like they crawl GAF for the most idiotic takes to make articles from, lol.

 

[Buggy Loop]

I didn't know Elden Ring was considered an action game in the vein of Ninja Gaiden and DMC

But I'll say this, there's clearly a criminal lack of games allowing you to kick someone's head with a 1 foot long spike and see the tip of it come out of his ears on the other side, then rip off the head.

I want more of that definitely.

 

[MagiusNecros]

Well yes the lack of a Stamina bar helps out quite a bit.

 

[HYDE]

My shit take is both styles of game suck.

Fixed. Dumbass driveby post

We don’t need an antidote to amazing Souls games IGNorant, we can have both!!

 

[nnytk]

If you're looking at Wukong, Stellar Blade, Lords of The Fallen, Jedi Survivor, and all the other recent action games out there; they're heavily copying parts of From Software's playbook. And games have been doing this for quite some time now.

It would be nice if studios would take some more risks again and try something new OR go back to the basics. Heck, I've been waiting for an Otogi game since the Xbox era. Having said that; Onimusha is back with a reboot and Dynasty Warriors Origins seems to be a success. NG2 Remake seems to be a success too (I bought it instantly). And RGG's upcoming pirate game seems to be going full Devil May Cry (not to mention the crazy setting).

It's almost as if the culture is ready to move on from Soulslikes and that people are ready for less intricate, more direct, no-nonsense action games again.

Sign of the times? Elden Ring was huge, we all loved it, but things are shifting - and I'm fine with that.

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

Well antidote is a strong word, and souls fanboys will not take it lightly, but i hate souls formula and missed on so much good games so that i will be happy if they trim out the amount of games using souls formula. (you can keep Elden Ring and Bloodborne and that's enough!).

 

[Giallo Corsa]

Alexios
Care to chime in guy besides doing the usual laughing emoji bullshit ? The schtick is getting long in the tooth now, what are you, 5 ?

 

[SkylineRKR]

Its not like Master Collection didn't come out during this same gen and I heard nothing from these outlets. There is a reason I kept my classic on Xbox and still fire them up, because its known many modern games don't really push you to get better.

 

[Calico345]

Can we get a Ninja Blade remaster, or a new entry?!

 

[diffusionx]

Its not like Master Collection didn't come out during this same gen and I heard nothing from these outlets. There is a reason I kept my classic on Xbox and still fire them up, because its known many modern games don't really push you to get better.

Its because the MC is lame; Ninja Gaiden Ligma games aren't as good.

 

[Rocky_Balboa]

I understand what they are saying. Soulslike genre took over and there are so many similar games coming out. Ninja Gaiden style action has been forgotten a bit and maybe NG2B and NG4 will revive the genre.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

The Dark Souls of overdone action subgenres.

 

[DrMano]

The casual audience chose them in the end

They outlived so many other outlets including fan favorites like 1up, Old Giantbomb, G4, X-Play, Old Gametrailers, Gamepro, Electronic Playground, Game Informer, etc.

They're funded by the kabbala conglomerate, same as all MSM.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I'm beginning to think IGN is out of touch

Can’t spell IGNorant without …

 

[mèx]

More games in the vein of Bayonetta / Devil May Cry / Ninja Gaiden is only a good thing. The Souls formula is objectively overdone at this point.