I have always been a big fan of the 3D ninja gaiden games and have beaten NGB, NG2 and NGS2 on master ninja multiple times. Like most people I was hugely disappointed by vanilla NG3 and didn't even give razors edge a chance when it was released due to the sour taste and memory of the original version. Having played it casually early on in 2016, I found that they had made a lot of improvements incorporating a lot of NG2 mechanics, expanded weapons and an actually functioning steel on bone mechanic. However, all of the core problems were still there namely bland level and enemy design, badly designed boss fights, a strange focus on story and most importantly very large recovery times. A polished turd is still a turd and it took a 3/10 game to a 6/10. Still though, I had fun with it and decided to try out the harder difficulty settings once I had gotten a hold of the more advanced mechanics such as cicada surge.
Having just completed Ultimate Ninja mode was an exercise in frustration and tedium largely due to very poorly thought out game design that is made all the more apparent when played on master ninja and above:
-Silly healing system with lack of any healing or ninpo items. The only ways of healing are doing steel on bone attacks (which doesn't heal enough even with a full 4 to 5 chain) using ninpo or saving at the inconsistently placed falcons. This means that after prolonged battles your health bar becomes shorter and shorter.
-Large no of moves being unsafe due to recovery times (even shuriken cancelling), this has always been the case on Master Ninja in the previous games, but it is all the more exasperated by strange input lag and unresponsive/inconsistent controls in key moments. I can't even count the amounts of times I've gone for an OT, hit the triangle button like 10 times and he simply won't do it. And of course I get suicide grabbed.
-I can deal with input lag in games like witcher and the last guardian where they are focusing on other things but not in a character action game where combat is the sole and only focus.
-Enemies are either extremely tanky (van gelfs), dodge heavy (alchemists) or block heavy ( most enemies including regular grunt soldiers). This in combination with large recovery times means that combat devolves into baiting steel on bone attacks constantly. I still get chain grabbed coming out of it though.
-One hit kill grabs, these were present in sigma 2 as well. Cheap then and it's cheap now.
-Stupidly high Karma prices on ultimate ninja: I understand they want players to make meaningful choices in terms of buying upgrades but I ended the game with only one level 3 weapon. This was with me constantly using SOB chains which is the best way of gaining karma.
-The health upgrades are the only real replacement for healing elixirs and you only get 5 in the whole game!!! You better save some for that final boss. In the WiiU version, you can't even use these mid battle.
-Inconsistent checkpointing. Sometimes you'll won't see a checkpoint for 10 waves of crazy enemy combinations including 9 alchemists three at a time. Other times you'll get checkpoints after a small wave of two or three enemies.
-Camera still simply can't keep up with the fast pace which has been a problem since the first NG.
-Framerate problems, while not as bad the WiiU version, are definitely present in master ninja and above.
Ninja gaiden 2 was also cheap with its non-stop IS spam but NG3:RE is just cheap for the sake of being cheap. While I did this legit, if anyone tries this difficulty jus do yourself a favour and be cheap right back at the game by:
-Doing the infinite karma glitch.
-Spamming 360T scythe which gives you I-frames.
-Run away from most of the battles on day 5, day 6A and day 8.
-Manually target helicopter missiles on either side and then the nose using the bow slow motion in order the quickly take down the endless stream of helicopters in day 2.
-You can instantly delimb black alchemists using the kusari gama but it's inconsistent and just be prepared to be grabbed.
- Actually scratch that, just go play Ninja Gaiden:black instead.
