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Ninja Gaiden 2 Black Announced | Available Today on Console, PC, and Xbox Game Pass

Buggy Loop

Gold Member
Bought it on Steam and running super well even with RT.

First, the visuals, the youtube videos don't do it justice of course. The materials and PBR is pretty damn good, I mean for japanese devs. Ultrawide support too. Its like already outclassing Square-Enix FF games.

I played the OG and honestly I don't give a fuck at the differences with enemy placements.

The most important things :

• BLOOD EVERYWHERE

The blood shader and splats are fucking everywhere after a battle. Its way more gory than the OG.

• Dismemberment is as I remember. That was the biggest critique with Sigma as far as I recall. There's not a single limb that I've not cutoff so far. Finished the first 2 chapters.

Very happy with it.

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I didn't capture cutscenes because they are 16:9 and it would introduce black bars in my screenshots but the character visual revamp is out of this world. Team Ninja nailed the visuals here and still feels authentic.

The shader compilation at the start seems to be very efficient because its butter smooth during gameplay.
 

Fess

Member
Going by a 20min quick spin of the first level, it’s running without any hitches whatsoever with highest quality and Ray Tracing on a 4080 Super at 4K without super resolution. Nice! Might be the first UE5 game I’ve played with stable performance.

Other than that. The camera sucks and it’s weird to control it.
 

Radical_3d

Member
Finished chapter 3, this one actually had the biggest changes.
I'm not sure if the original chapter three was hated or something, but it almost seems like they want you to go through it as fast as possible now.
in NG2 this area is FILLED with fiends, they are just fucking everywhere and show up by the dozens, there are also tons of archers to make your life miserable.
in black the fiends are replaced by ninja dogs and claw spider ninjas; they only show up twice, once before going into the underground, and in the underground itself in that one long passage, they are just as relentless with their grabs and attacks as in NG2 though, but there are less of them and only two encounters.
Then there's entire corridors that are just empty now, like when you have to destroy the fans, nothing happens there, in NG2 it's filled with every enemy type, archers, ninjas, claws, fiends.
They also blocked off the two extra passages you can find by destroying the fans, so there's nothing to do in that area now, not even finding the incendiary shurikens (I guess they are removed entirely now? I don't remember if they were removed in sigma), you just destroy the fans and move on to the next area.

The boss of this area is complete trash in NG2, and while he still sucks in black, he's a less annoying now thanks to being able to lock on to his head with the bow.

So while the enemies are just as aggressive as in the original, this section of the game is actually drastically easier simply because all the fiends are gone and the projectile spam is lessened.
So, the game industry finally did it. They’ve released a game in 2025 that is worse that the one in 360.
 
finished chapter 4, and played 5 till the save point after the fountain back to back on NG2 and then I did the same on black.
A few weird things here, so chapter 3 was 100% the same as sigma, but the chapter 4 boss was harder than in NG2.
Then chapter 5 is the momiji chapter in black, which was much harder than the sigma version, enemy placements are about the same except for one spot where there's more, and the bosses do more damage with their grabs; I honestly think this was the hardest chapter I've played yet.
Then chapter 6 for black and chapter 5 for NG2 have a bunch of changes, the biggest one is the fountain area, this is a crazy encounter in black compared to NG2 or sigma, this encounter only exists for black.

Then when you get to the save point further on another exclusive encounter happens.
So it's very strange how some areas are a bit remixed, then others are identical to sigma and then suddenly you have these completely new encounters; very curious to see if this keeps up in later chapters, I mean why only, drastically, change this one?
Though for now I'll stop playing NG2, otherwise it will take too long to get through both lol.

Seen enough for now, will also start the download on xsx so I can see if it plays better there than on PC.
 

DeVeAn

Member
Bought it on PS5 for the Pro enhancements. Finished chapter 1

Downloaded it on GP on XSX and I think the response time is better on that version.

Obviously the Pro one looks better, but it seems to play better on the XSX.
What are the pro enhancements? Doesn’t say on PS Store.
 

peish

Member
They didn't do anything with the difficulty, there seem to be less enemies, but the enemies act 100% the same as in NG2, I'm literally playing both at the same time now and there's no difference, same amount of damage, same amount of aggression, same amount of bullshit grabs (so far, I haven't fought the fiends yet in black, but they are grabby assholes in NG2, if they are tuned down in black I'd actually prefer that, I never liked some of the grabs in NG2).

Does playing on hardest difficulty change anything? Since the AI seems intact, should not be difficult to just patch in more enemies
 

TheShocker

Member
Just downloaded the PC GP version and tried out the first area. I'm playing on a pretty beefy system, so I can brute force everything to the max at 4k/120....Still hoping that the lack of DLSS is a bug and gets patched soon. I'd like to get a little extra "smoothness" in the overall feel of the game as not matter the setting, it feels a little janky. The camera itself leaves a lot to be desired, but for what the game was on its original release, this is probably as good as its going to get.

Great game though and it does look great in UE5. Super clean.
 

FeralEcho

Member
The hair dithering in this engine is absolute garbage,throw this fucking UE5 trash in the garbage where it belongs.

Worst engine in gaming history,it tanks performance AND makes games look like a blurry mess. We live in the worst timeline that this garbage is the main engine powering this generation forward....
 
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Great game, great remake—there are some issues, but this is the Ninja Gaiden 2 I remember. The only issue I have with the game is that the action on screen is so chaotic, and the enemies are too similar to Hayabusa, making it hard to keep track of where he is. When the bloodbath is over, it’s often difficult to tell who won. I just wait to see if the death screen pops up—if it doesn’t, that means I won and can move on.
 

kindaGoth

Member
NG2 is to NG1 what “Aliens” is to “Alien”.

You take NG1, give it some crack/cocaine, and end up with NG2. Everything is faster, flashy, and hectic. The core gameplay is there but it leans into irreverence and popcorn-fun.

I prefer the first game for its methodical approach, overall polish and sense of adventure that comes with the pacing and level design. That said, I think this is the perfect approach for a sequel to the first game and now we have two distinct flavors.
 
NG2 is to NG1 what “Aliens” is to “Alien”.

You take NG1, give it some crack/cocaine, and end up with NG2. Everything is faster, flashy, and hectic. The core gameplay is there but it leans into irreverence and popcorn-fun.

I prefer the first game for its methodical approach, overall polish and sense of adventure that comes with the pacing and level design. That said, I think this is the perfect approach for a sequel to the first game and now we have two distinct flavors.
I prefer Aliens to Alien and Ninja Gaiden Sigma to Ninja Gaiden II...

Youtube Video GIF by tyler oakley
 

Larsowitz

Member
Then they'd have to remake it. Play the original, recreate the encounters, etc.

It would have required some effort and this is Team Ninja in 2025 so I know expectations are on the fucking floor, but if modders can make improvements what's stopping the devs?
This!!!
 

MMaRsu

Member
Bought it on Steam and running super well even with RT.

First, the visuals, the youtube videos don't do it justice of course. The materials and PBR is pretty damn good, I mean for japanese devs. Ultrawide support too. Its like already outclassing Square-Enix FF games.

I played the OG and honestly I don't give a fuck at the differences with enemy placements.

The most important things :

• BLOOD EVERYWHERE

The blood shader and splats are fucking everywhere after a battle. Its way more gory than the OG.

• Dismemberment is as I remember. That was the biggest critique with Sigma as far as I recall. There's not a single limb that I've not cutoff so far. Finished the first 2 chapters.

Very happy with it.

SvvqJsR.jpeg


AH38FvC.jpeg


xtMn63p.jpeg


1DmmpXL.jpeg


drOLXnq.jpeg


I didn't capture cutscenes because they are 16:9 and it would introduce black bars in my screenshots but the character visual revamp is out of this world. Team Ninja nailed the visuals here and still feels authentic.

The shader compilation at the start seems to be very efficient because its butter smooth during gameplay.
Agreed, it's pretty fucking awesome.

However I do miss some enemy placement and I dont understand why the "CENTER CAMERA" doesnt actually center the camera?? I changed it to R3, and put block on L2. However I cant change "Interact" from B/Circle to R1.. Annoying.

Game is awesome so far. On very hard it's still a challenge
 
OK, just completed the Mentor and played the Master Ninja for about 5 min

and it's safe to say that this game, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is a con, it's a fraud.

'We’ve meticulously incorporated some of the additions of NINJA GAIDEN Sigma 2 while 'staying true to the challenge and feel of the original 360 version'

THIS IS A BLATANT LIE, THIS GAME IS NOTHING LIKE THE ORIGINAL 360 VERSION.

IT'S 99% SIGMA 2!!

I'm sooooooooooo disappointed :messenger_angry:
 

Podge

Member
I’m not sure if someone has mentioned it already, but do we know how well this performs on Series S? Looking forward to playing it. I got into Ninja Gaiden Black last year and loved it.
 

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
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MMaRsu

Member
OK, just completed the Mentor and played the Master Ninja for about 5 min

and it's safe to say that this game, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is a con, it's a fraud.

'We’ve meticulously incorporated some of the additions of NINJA GAIDEN Sigma 2 while 'staying true to the challenge and feel of the original 360 version'

THIS IS A BLATANT LIE, THIS GAME IS NOTHING LIKE THE ORIGINAL 360 VERSION.

IT'S 99% SIGMA 2!!

I'm sooooooooooo disappointed :messenger_angry:
Fuck man
 

SkylineRKR

Member
OG NG2 is one of the best games of all time and one of the reasons I keep my Series S hooked up.

2 Black does feel similar so far. It has a lot of options, and small stuff like enabling auto use rebirth talisman. It does feel like remake of OG 2 we always wanted. The awful statue boss from Sigma 2 is gone, the enemy count is higher and they do have less health, their suicide bombs do less damage too. Not to mention the gore, its even better done than in the original. You also need to use essence to upgrade your weapons, its not limited to one per shop, you just need to have 10k or more in order to do it. I have talons and sword at lvl 2 in chapter 3.

2 Black feels like OG in terms of difficulty, I've played OG a ton over the past few years and this feels the same with added QoL features like a quick menu for weapon change and items. Just the projectile spam seems to have been reduced quite a bit. I guess I have to try OG these days as well.

What seems to have been carried over from Sigma is the infinite ammo. And there is no need to pickup a keycard in Ch1 so I guess those things have been removed as well.
 

Larsowitz

Member
OK, just completed the Mentor and played the Master Ninja for about 5 min

and it's safe to say that this game, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is a con, it's a fraud.

'We’ve meticulously incorporated some of the additions of NINJA GAIDEN Sigma 2 while 'staying true to the challenge and feel of the original 360 version'

THIS IS A BLATANT LIE, THIS GAME IS NOTHING LIKE THE ORIGINAL 360 VERSION.

IT'S 99% SIGMA 2!!

I'm sooooooooooo disappointed :messenger_angry:
They should have named it NG Sigma 2 black. At least that would have been honest…
 
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Spent everything on weapon upgrades, but couldn't upgrade them all.

In that regards, this game is slightly harder than the Sigma 2 since you can't afford to buy extra potions :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
I'll buy the game in the future if modders do something with the camera. i cant believe the devs went all the way to remake the game and didn't do shit about the camera

This isnt a remake, its Sigma 2 with a graphical overhaul.
The source code for the original game is lost to the annals.......atlaest you can still buy the original for Xbox BC.
 
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