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So I guess it's safe to assume you agree with me in that Shinobi blows Ninja Gaiden X out of the water.


Well, considering I think Shinobi is the best game I've played for this generation, while Ninja Gaiden X kinda sucks, I guess I'd have to say so.

I don't think I'm a big fan of the jaded gamer, but I believe they did tend to like Shinobi and not fall for the Ninja Gaiden hype, and I have to give them props for that.

The game could be considered to be a big disappointment (the only reason I'm qualifying that with "be considered" is that it's been a long time since I felt much anticipation for it). I at least didn't hate the demo when I played it. I guess I somehow thought (perhaps without a good reason) there might have been a chance it'd be like an improved DMC, but gameplay-wise I can't think of anything DMC doesn't do better. I earlier said that I wasn't sure if NGX was slower than DMC or not, but that didn't take into account two things: DMC has the devil trigger, in which Dante is absolutely faster than Ryu. And DMC lets you cancel out of moves with rolls, while as far as I know Ryu stays committed. Even when Dante is using the gauntlets, which makes him slow, it still doesn't feel as slow as NGX, maybe because of the relative speed of the enemies. DMC only lets you carry one healing item at a time, so there's no question that bosses are supposed to be more about skill (in any general sense, including strategy) than cheese-ing. DMC is also shorter, which I consider a positive in this case.

I even think DMC looks better than NGX.



As for NGX being too long, there are two related issues.

One, I think the game is unstructured. There's no particular progression to the levels. This was probably suggested by people saying the boss's difficulties are random, but even beyond the difficulty curve, it's not like whatever challenges there are are built on what came earlier. It's like, here's a stage where you use your arrows a lot. Here's a stage where you swim a lot. Here's a stage where you're attacked by piranhas in a maze. It's just random thing after random thing.

Secondly, I think the story is nonsense.

A few stages ago, I had to beat Doku to rescue Rachael. Then, Doku's ghost (?) still had Rachael prisoner (?!). The ghost was about to sacrifice her, but it was one of those "ending of Star Trek 6" moments where the bad guy waits just long enough to make the killing strike that they can be stopped. I guess what came next was supposed to be touching (spoiler, so I won't say what it was). I think Rachael's still kidnapped somehow, though I don't know how that's possible. Now, Ryu's turning into a demon because of Doku's hatred (???).

Anyway, long story short, you're running through all these stages, and I'm not even sure what the motivation is.

To be absolutely honest, at this point in time, off the top of my head, I can't remember why, in DMC, you had to leave the castle just to return to it later (it was probably just to get some item, not for a super compelling reason). But at the time when I was playing through that game, the lack of motivation didn't seem bluntly in my face. And I when I got back to the castle about 2/3 through the game, I was a little surprised. "Oh, I'm back here again?" Whereas in NGX, I've just been doing big figure 8s around the same town for the last 8 stages, and it's impossible to not notice that he's not really going anywhere.


Oh, yeah, so I beat the last stage and Doku's ghost as a boss. I thought it kind of sucked.

"Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood."
-Orwell