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[Zacfoldor]

I beat about half the game last night and can confirm this is my personal favorite game so far this year.

It's very, VERY good. Naturally fun and the combat scenarios seem polished and artisanal. The bosses are perfectly balanced. There are spoilers that are really cool I can't talk about. Not story spoilers. This game has oh snap moments. Must play. 10/10 almost a perfect game so far.

I'm playing on PS5 Pro. I'm a huge Switch fan and sorry the switch version is capped, but playing this game on PS5 Pro is a dream and it is excellent. Shinobi is gonna have to be 90+ meta to match this and I kinda doubt it.

This game is the king of side scrollers. It's better than you think. Watching it isn't as good as playing it. The controls being perfect and intuitive are what really make it fun. The bosses are balanced perfectly. The music is great.

 

[CrimsonTide]

I beat about half the game last night and can confirm this is my personal favorite game so far this year.

It's very, VERY good. Naturally fun and the combat scenarios seem polished and artisanal. The bosses are perfectly balanced. There are spoilers that are really cool I can't talk about. Not story spoilers. This game has oh snap moments. Must play. 10/10 almost a perfect game so far.

I'm playing on PS5 Pro. I'm a huge Switch fan and sorry the switch version is capped, but playing this game on PS5 Pro is a dream and it is excellent. Shinobi is gonna have to be 90+ meta to match this and I kinda doubt it.

This game is the king of side scrollers. It's better than you think. Watching it isn't as good as playing it. The controls being perfect and intuitive are what really make it fun. The bosses are balanced perfectly. The music is great.

The controls are indeed where the magic is and it has some pretty complex moves for you pro's who want hitless runs with cool looking moves.

 

[John Bilbo]

I love how snappy the movement in this game is. Very very responsive. I'm home.

 

[SkylineRKR]

PS5 struggles at the pirate cave waterfall. Its going at half speed there. CRT filter isn't on PS5, which is strange.

Game flows really well. If you use invis frames on the jump (like Sonic 3 flash) you can pretty much bounce of every enemy and projectile. Also bosses. This means you don't always have to evade away but rather jump on top of attacks (the iai strike guys essentially teach you, bounce them to make them miss and defenseless). Its also required to advance, many times you will need to bounce off an enemy or fireball to cross a gap.

I think you can bounce infinitely as long as you don't whiff the guillotine jump, panic it and you'll fall or eat damage.

You have to assess encounters, seek out the marked enemies and use those to ohko elites, sometimes more pop up with one being marked, target this one first which gives you another ohko. Otherwise its still not a problem, those enemies take about 5 hits or so. But the idea is not to stand still fighting.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

Weird. On the pc there is vibration and CRT filter. Also other settings like hit flash toggle, game speed toggle etc

I mean, you have got to be fookin' kidding me :

They literally forgot to put vibration in, that, or they ran out of time.
Again, coupled with the 30fps on switch fact, this reeks of incompetence and also being rushed...

Edit : CRT filter is also missing on PS4/PS5 - is it the same on XSX/XSS ?

 

[touchfuzzy]

Yeah I played about an hour last night and it kicks ass. I talk about 'game feel' a lot all the time, the kind of hard to define feeling of a game just being fun to control with great flow and pacing regardless if what you're doing is actually mechanically simple, and this is a 10/10 in that regard. Second game I'm playing in a row like that with Donkey Kong Bananza too.

Music is amazing. Challenge level is good, love the boss fights. Can't wait to play more!

 

[Madonis]

Stage 1 down. Game is awesome. Not really like previous NG games but its absolutely a worthy addition. Everything is very well done.

Music is not amazing but I kind of expected that.

I'd say a lot of the best songs are later in the game. The full soundtrack is out, but just to give more people a taste:







Of course, a lot is going to depend on your preferences. I dig they also got a few guest tracks from the original composers.

 

[Hayabusabruh]

Does this have combos like the new Shinobi?

 

[John Bilbo]

Does this have combos like the new Shinobi?

No. This is not a character action game. This is more a hack & slash platformer game. It has a kill count though and it can reset if you are too slow.

 

[Little Mac]

Does this have combos like the new Shinobi?

No. It's an action platformer. Most things die in one hit.

Shinobi is more of a 2D beat em up with combos. Very different games but both are awesome imo. Both games have demos so you can see if either are something you'd like. I bought both.

 

[Salz01]

So it's not as good on Switch 2?

 

[John Bilbo]

I wasn't sure about the talismans but now I see there are several talismans that make the game harder instead of easier! That is brilliant and gives the game added challenge if you are up to it.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

So it's not as good on Switch 2?

 

[John Bilbo]

I'm well into Act 3 now. The game is great. I think there is a lot of replay value here.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I can confirm this game is consisently great. I am in chapter 4 and its level design is just excellent. Some of those shadow sections in the side ops are ridiculous, they require perfect execution or you will run out of time. Its extremely sweaty but satisfying.

Its likely going to be one of my top contenders this year.

I hope they do a true sequel to Ancient ship of Doom like this one day.

 

[Walliwallipaloo]

I wasn't sure at first, but the more I see, the more I like.

 

[DeVeAn]

Give me games at this quality level all day! Hope we get some sequels to this, so good.

 

[BlackTron]

If there was an area of the game that slowed down the PS5, no wonder Switch is capped at 30, doesn't sound like a forgotten setting.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

If there was an area of the game that slowed down the PS5, no wonder Switch is capped at 30, doesn't sound like a forgotten setting.

A game with graphics like this shouldn't slow down on any modern system. This should be 1080p60 on an Xbox 360!

 

[Sub_Level]

I know that Ninja Gaiden 2D is home on Nintendo but this game is lowkey Genesis-coded.

Even though it wouldn't work with the Genesis' limited buttons lol

 

[BlackTron]

A game with graphics like this shouldn't slow down on any modern system. This should be 1080p60 on an Xbox 360!

I agree with you, I was shocked to hear the PS5 can't solid 60 this. But this is a deeper issue in the game than just exporting the versions too fast and forgetting to uncap it.

Not that it matters that much as the game itself seems good.

 

[crazyriddler]

A game with graphics like this shouldn't slow down on any modern system. This should be 1080p60 on an Xbox 360!

I think that even a 3DS should be able to run a game like this at 60fps.

 

[Kacho]

I was shocked to hear the PS5 can't solid 60 this.

For real? That's crazy. I don't recall Blasphemous having issues like this.

 

[Dev1lXYZ]

This game runs buttery smooth on the Steam Deck at 60FPS.
But damn, 33.3FPS on the Switch 2?
Steam Deck is now home of the ninja.

 

[dcx4610]

Happy to say that the game is great. That said, as someone who has wanted a 2D Ninja Gaiden sequel for decades - I maintain this doesn't feel like Ninja Gaiden. It feels closer to Strider mixed with Messenger which certainly isn't a bad thing. It also kind of reminds me if Tecmo or some other company tried to make a true sequel to Ninja Gaiden on the SNES and this is what they came up with. The slashes aren't quite as satisfying as I'd like them be and as mentioned, feels like Strider. The ceiling grab also feels a little sloppy and imprecise. Nitpicking aside, the speed and pacing of everything feels really good. Music is also solid.

It's not my dream 2D Ninja Gaiden game but it's a great game in its own right so far.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

It feels closer to Strider mixed with Messenger which certainly isn't a bad thing.

100% right, I'm midway through Act 3 and was thinking similar. Having said that, hard to find two better games to be inspired by lol, bottom line is it's genuinely great (though not the masterpiece some are making it out to be, at least not yet).

 

[Anthony Soprano]

Me after a few levels, realizing how cheap and effective a turbo button attack can be.

 

[Connificent]

Got a B on the first stage. Always been a dog. Liking it so far. More so than Blasphemous.

 

[Little Mac]

When going for S ranks, does redoing the challenges matter? Is the ranking primarily based on time, kills, and combo?

 

[John Bilbo]

Ooh the ranks go higher than S! They go at least up to S++!

 

[John Bilbo]

When going for S ranks, does redoing the challenges matter? Is the ranking primarily based on time, kills, and combo?

When you press the details button it shows how your performance affected the rank more clearly

Edit: So it seems the answer is yes, the challenges matter when going for S ranks.

 

[Roufianos]

I'm not really into 2D games but though it could be a fun handheld game. 30 FPS on Switch 2 though? Surely they must have known a lot of people would see this as ideal for their new console.

 

[Thief1987]

When going for S ranks, does redoing the challenges matter? Is the ranking primarily based on time, kills, and combo?

Yes you need to do everything for rank S and gather all collectibles too

 

[John Bilbo]

When going for high ranks I would recommend using the talismans which make the game harder but also up the rank.

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

Loving it but gotta be honest, Shinobi is fucking awesome as well... What a time to be gaming