Well, I beat Ninja Gaiden X. I knew I was close to the end, but I hadn't realized I was that close. I just had to finish the part where you have to reach Rachael (when I started tonight, I fell into the lava once -- I don't remember where, but I think it was a freak accident for an easy jump -- then beat it on my next try), and then beat the final boss. And, oh, yeah, the final boss sucked. I beat him on my first try, and, yeah, no strategy is needed.


This game's story sucked. The ending makes the story seem like a cross between a Scooby Doo plot and a Metal Gear plot.

On the one hand, the final boss's identity is a secret, and when it's revealed, it turns out to be a guy you saw for a brief period of time only at the very beginning of the game (the Scooby Doo component).

But, when you did see that guy, he was supposed to be like a friend (hence the Metal Gear component).

The final boss kills his henchman during an ending cinema, which had zero impact because the henchman didn't do squat during the game. There was also a mysterious female that was glimpsed during the ending (and occasionally throughout the game). She didn't amount to anything, either. I guess a 30 hour game just doesn't have enough time to give the characters any personalities.

And, like the scene where Ryu makes the floating platform, there's more random nonsense at the end: He somehow -- without explanation -- just turns himself into a bird and flies off. What the hell.

I was wrong about one thing: You *can* reverse the camera controls (for swimming or using the arrows). I didn't know that at first because the "Options" option isn't on screen by default; you have to scroll to it. When you beat the game, the "Movies" option is added, which pushed previously available options off screen. When I found those again, I also found the "options".




Anyway, FacilityPro said that he felt the game's biggest problem was its lack of focus (if I'm interpreting him correctly): It tried to have fighting, action, and adventure elements, and didn't do anything superlatively.

I agree that the game didn't have focus. Somehow it seems to me like a stronger complaint could be merited, though. Like, that the game's action (or adventure, or whatever) components suffered not only from being unfocused, but that the game just didn't have a clue what it should do or be, or why it should exist, or why anyone should enjoy it. The best answer I can imagine the game (imagining it could talk and justify itself) giving is that it's new and modern, and anything new and modern is better than anything that's old.

The game has modern, high tech graphics, with high resolution textures and no obvious polygon edges, to it must look good (even though it's ugly and brown).

The game has real musical instruments, so it must have better music than old NES "bleeps and bloops" (despite that much of its music is forgettable -- I will say, though, that its music is much better than its visuals)

The game gives you the freedom to move and fight in 3D, so it must be better than old games that constrained you to just move left and right (despite that this "freedom" implies a viewpoint so bad you often simply move out of frame during a fight).



I quoted in another thread, in the context of innovation, "Without a foothold in the past, you cannot step into the future" (from Vagrant Story). I think this game could have learned a lot from Ninja Gaiden for the NES. And, despite the reputation NGX has for being hard, the real NES Ninja Gaiden has a MUCH more climatic ending.

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