Well, not officially yet but apparently Japanese retailers are listing the game for 360/PS3 with an April 4th release date. It also seems this version of the game will come with the free Kasumi/Momiji DLC already on the disc. I'm a goddamn sucker so I'll buy it because its fucking Ninja Gaiden and I woefully will purchase any Ninja Gaiden shit like the complete sucker I am. Still, excited to see if this pans out and if the WiiU version is the version we should have had all along.

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/edigi/jan-4988615051111/

God damn it. That's only game I bought for my Wii U. Now I didn't even need to buy a Wii U. What the fuck else am I going to play on it? Mario... Pfft.

EDIT: I would like to clarify that I do indeed have a copy of Mario U. And the above comment is not a statement regarding the quality of Mario games. Merely that I have always found Mario games pretty boring since its inception.

@LiquidPrince: Well you still have Bayonetta 2 man. Chin up...hopefully. >_>

well, there goes the main sticking point to buy a WIIU for the time being, especially if the kasumi dlc will be in this collection.

gonna tag @AjayRaz to this board as now dude wouldnt need to consider a WiiU anymore.

@Demoskinos said:

@LiquidPrince: Well you still have Bayonetta 2 man. Chin up...hopefully. >_>

I guess. When is she coming out?

Is Razor's Edge supposed to fix anything of what made 3 so... different? Or is it just some extra content stuff? D:

@aurahack: I haven't played it myself @Hailinel would be the one to ask. I believe they got rid of the Steel and Bone thing and changed some other combat bits. Also Ryu straight up has all his weapons in this version too. I wanna say they changed the way UT's work too but again... haven't had hands on.

@aurahack: its supposed to apparently?, as this version actually got better reviews from people.

I just hope they managed to iron out the frame rate to at LEAST a solid 30 frames. That was by far one of the worst offenses made by the original game was the absolutely insane fluctuating frame rate.

So are they still coming out with another sigma or is this basically it?

I still have to play the copy of 3 I got on clearance...

@I_Stay_Puft: id think this is it for ninja gaiden 3. with the next gen coming up, and they still have yaiba to finish up. and to do proper good by ninja gaiden for next gen systems.

@Demoskinos said:

@aurahack: I haven't played it myself @Hailinel would be the one to ask. I believe they got rid of the Steel and Bone thing and changed some other combat bits. Also Ryu straight up has all his weapons in this version too. I wanna say they changed the way UT's work too but again... haven't had hands on.

Yeah, they removed the stell-and-bone QTEs and made other combat changes. There aren't any cowering enemies anymore, dismemberment is back and enemies will flip their shit when they get an arm or leg cut off, there's pretty good enemy variety, and in general it just feels like a really solid game. I never played the original version of NG3, but given what I know of that versus Razor's Edge, Razor's Edge is a much improved version, though if you have complaints regarding the story, they're probably not going to be resolved here.

I have the game on Wii U and it's alright.

@LiquidPrince said:

God damn it. That's only game I bought for my Wii U. Now I didn't even need to buy a Wii U. What the fuck else am I going to play on it? Mario... Pfft.

EDIT: I would like to clarify that I do indeed have a copy of Mario U. And the above comment is not a statement regarding the quality of Mario games. Merely that I have always found Mario games pretty boring since its inception.

I poured a good 60+ hours into Warriors Orochi 3 on the Wii U, and I still need to go back and tackle the hardest difficulty.

@Hailinel said:

@Demoskinos said:

@aurahack: I haven't played it myself @Hailinel would be the one to ask. I believe they got rid of the Steel and Bone thing and changed some other combat bits. Also Ryu straight up has all his weapons in this version too. I wanna say they changed the way UT's work too but again... haven't had hands on.

Yeah, they removed the stell-and-bone QTEs and made other combat changes. There aren't any cowering enemies anymore, dismemberment is back and enemies will flip their shit when they get an arm or leg cut off, there's pretty good enemy variety, and in general it just feels like a really solid game. I never played the original version of NG3, but given what I know of that versus Razor's Edge, Razor's Edge is a much improved version, though if you have complaints regarding the story, they're probably not going to be resolved here.

How does it stack up vs. Ninja Gaiden Black and 2 in your opinion? Combat-wise, anyways.

@xobballox said:

@Hailinel said:

@Demoskinos said:

@aurahack: I haven't played it myself @Hailinel would be the one to ask. I believe they got rid of the Steel and Bone thing and changed some other combat bits. Also Ryu straight up has all his weapons in this version too. I wanna say they changed the way UT's work too but again... haven't had hands on.

Yeah, they removed the stell-and-bone QTEs and made other combat changes. There aren't any cowering enemies anymore, dismemberment is back and enemies will flip their shit when they get an arm or leg cut off, there's pretty good enemy variety, and in general it just feels like a really solid game. I never played the original version of NG3, but given what I know of that versus Razor's Edge, Razor's Edge is a much improved version, though if you have complaints regarding the story, they're probably not going to be resolved here.

How does it stack up vs. Ninja Gaiden Black and 2 in your opinion? Combat-wise, anyways.

I can't really say. I never played Black and only part of NG2 Sigma.

Damn I just bought the 360 collector's edition 2 days ago....oh well, I might pick this one up too in the future.

If this is priced low enough I might buy it. I don't like Ninja Gaiden 3 but I am super curious what the changes did to the game overall. I'm guessing little.

Anyone play the Vita version of the first game? How does that one hold up?

@Bocam said:

Anyone play the Vita version of the first game? How does that one hold up?

I don't think that is the ideal way to play the original but the core of it I bet is still fantastic. I would say to play Ninja Gaiden Black over Sigma and ps3 version over vita version. That last one is just a personal choice, probably fine on vita.

@LiquidPrince: Bayonetta 2, SMT X Fire Emblem, Yoshi's Epic Yarn, Wind Waker HD, & Pikmin 3 make the WiiU a compelling purchase for me.

...some time in 2014, maybe.

@TooWalrus said:

@LiquidPrince: Bayonetta 2, SMT X Fire Emblem, Yoshi's Epic Yarn, Wind Waker HD, & Pikmin 3 make the WiiU a compelling purchase for me.

...some time in 2014, maybe.

*Turns and looks at the giant-ass stack of Wii U games he has yet to get through entirely.*

...I'm not picky.

So, new costumes are coming to the 360/PS3 versions and I don't know about anyone else but Ryu's costumes look fucking sick as hell.

Is this version actually worth playing for someone who's a huge fan of the series? If you'd told me me after 2 i would have zero interest in 3 I would have said you was talkin crazy.

@rebgav said:

I am not an experienced, knowledgeable Ninja Gaiden fan. I have recently purchased Black and 2 and I've played through two or three missions in each and really enjoyed them. However, my first hands-on experience with the franchise was a rental of Ninja Gaiden 3 of which I completed the first mission and played part of the second before giving it up because controlling the character felt odd, the auto lock-on seemed to have a really crappy prioritization system and the camera seemed incapable of giving a useful overview of the action so that even in the first few areas I typically found myself auto-locked to enemies who weren't even on-screen. I also thought that the QTE elements and kunai climbing stopped the game in its tracks and seemed like tedious and archaic nonsense. Since then I've seen a lot more gameplay from NG3 and was clued-in to the fact that the combat system is so poorly conceived that most encounters could be cheesed by simply jumping into the air and firing arrows which allows you to put out a lot of damage while remaining out of reach of the enemies.

Given that the game is so deeply flawed I don't see why the return of blood and dismemberment as well as packing in some dlc would make this game worthy of a purchase, nor why a publisher would want to release it a second time. If you also take into account Team Ninja's other recent releases, DOA5 and Other M, I fail to see why anyone would continue to be excited by (or even interested in) the prospect of future releases from the developer.

DOA5 reviewed rather well, from what I recall, and Other M wasn't exactly reviewed terribly, either, unless a 79 Metacritic score is somehow abysmal.

@Demoskinos said:

So, new costumes are coming to the 360/PS3 versions and I don't know about anyone else but Ryu's costumes look fucking sick as hell.

Those outfits are awful. Well the second Ryu is not bad. But kasumi and Ayane's are. Momijis I don't mind as much simply because I don't have any interest in that character. I agree with @rebgav that the problems with Ninja Gaiden 3 were massive and to it's core design. Would take practically making another game to fix it. The changes I have heard of are minor if the combat is not fixed.

@ImmortalSaiyan: Kasumi and Momiji's are bad. The rest look pretty awesome.

@TheSouthernDandy: Yes. It's almost exactly like the other two after the update. The flow of the combat significantly changes once you have multiple ninpo and weapons. The traversal and level design aren't that different either. If you enjoyed the first two, you will definitely enjoy this one.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@Demoskinos said:

So, new costumes are coming to the 360/PS3 versions and I don't know about anyone else but Ryu's costumes look fucking sick as hell.

Those outfits are awful. Well the second Ryu is not bad. But kasumi and Ayane's are. Momijis I don't mind as much simply because I don't have any interest in that character. I agree with @rebgav that the problems with Ninja Gaiden 3 were massive and to it's core design. Would take practically making another game to fix it. The changes I have heard of are minor if the combat is not fixed.

Disagree sir. I think Hoodless Ryu looks great. And while impractical for actually fighting in I think the girls costumes are just fine. Honestly, I think that Ayane costume is better than anything she got in DOA 5 (not counting DLC as I haven't been keeping up with that anyways)

@Demoskinos: Nah, the girls' new outfits displayed here don't look as good as the ones already in Razor's Edge on the Wii U. I have to imagine that these costumes will be making their way to the Wii U version in a content update, but they really do nothing for me.

@Hailinel said:

@Demoskinos: Nah, the girls' new outfits displayed here don't look as good as the ones already in Razor's Edge on the Wii U. I have to imagine that these costumes will be making their way to the Wii U version in a content update, but they really do nothing for me.

Thats, like, your opinion man.

@rebgav said:

@Hailinel said:

DOA5 reviewed rather well, from what I recall, and Other M wasn't exactly reviewed terribly, either, unless a 79 Metacritic score is somehow abysmal.

Yeah, I'm going to have to be that guy because there's no polite way to put it but so what? Along with NG3 they form a triptych of uninspired, wrong-headed and/or broken games which have diminished the Team Ninja mark. DOA5 was the best of those three games in my opinion but it still had problematic netcode, the fighting system seemed a very minor and inconsistent upgrade from the previous versions, it was lumbered with dlc and pre-order bonuses which were met mostly with derision, and the story mode - by far the best part of the game, I think - was at least poorly presented if not actually nonsensical. That's the best game of the three. Had those games been met with an overwhelmingly positive critical response it wouldn't mean a thing, the games speak for themselves.

Every fucking game these days has pre-order DLC so using that as a slight against DOA5 is dumb. And of course the story is nonsensical that is what makes it so goddamn fun. The entire lore of DOA is fucking entirely stupid in an awesome way.

@Demoskinos said:

@rebgav said:

@Hailinel said:

DOA5 reviewed rather well, from what I recall, and Other M wasn't exactly reviewed terribly, either, unless a 79 Metacritic score is somehow abysmal.

Yeah, I'm going to have to be that guy because there's no polite way to put it but so what? Along with NG3 they form a triptych of uninspired, wrong-headed and/or broken games which have diminished the Team Ninja mark. DOA5 was the best of those three games in my opinion but it still had problematic netcode, the fighting system seemed a very minor and inconsistent upgrade from the previous versions, it was lumbered with dlc and pre-order bonuses which were met mostly with derision, and the story mode - by far the best part of the game, I think - was at least poorly presented if not actually nonsensical. That's the best game of the three. Had those games been met with an overwhelmingly positive critical response it wouldn't mean a thing, the games speak for themselves.

Every fucking game these days has pre-order DLC so using that as a slight against DOA5 is dumb. And of course the story is nonsensical that is what makes it so goddamn fun. The entire lore of DOA is fucking entirely stupid in an awesome way.

And I actually found the story mode fairly coherent once I realized how the timeline was organized.

@Demoskinos said:

@Hailinel said:

@Demoskinos: Nah, the girls' new outfits displayed here don't look as good as the ones already in Razor's Edge on the Wii U. I have to imagine that these costumes will be making their way to the Wii U version in a content update, but they really do nothing for me.

Thats, like, your opinion man.

I'm with you I really like the new costumes.

@Demoskinos: Just because everyone is doing something doesn't make it right

As for the game I'm still not interested seeing as it is still NG3 just with legs popping off every now and then

@rebgav said:

@Demoskinos said:

Every fucking game these days has pre-order DLC so using that as a slight against DOA5 is dumb.

The fact of the dlc wasn't the problem as I recall, it was that the content was retailer specific bikini costumes or something equally asinine.

Which was exclusive for a few months and now is up for download for anyone. So, again don't see the issue.

@LiquidPrince: Cool, that's good to hear. That particular itch hasn't been scratched in a while.

@rebgav said:

@Demoskinos said:

Every fucking game these days has pre-order DLC so using that as a slight against DOA5 is dumb.

The fact of the dlc wasn't the problem as I recall, it was that the content was retailer specific bikini costumes or something equally asinine.

DOA5 isn't the first game to feature retailer-specific costume DLC.

@rebgav said:

@Hailinel: @Demoskinos: Why did it have to be (fuzzy bunny themed) bikinis? Apart from the obviously cynical and salacious reasons, it embraces the pre-existing perception that the game is not to be thought of as a legitimate competitive fighter as it's more concerned with boob physics and half-naked anime ninjas. What did they gain by confirming a bias against the game and what does it say about how the people involved in selling that game perceive their audience?

I'm not suggesting that the costumes shouldn't be in the game but it's one thing to maintain an established aesthetic and another to make a calculated decision to offer it as the bait which is supposed to bring in advance orders of their product, or additional profits after the fact. There are other, much more awesome alternate costumes in the game so why go straight to scrapping the bottom of the barrel and holding up the leavings as if they're supposed to be a desirous offering to the fans? Especially when you're actually selling the most legit fighting game in the franchise, it just seems ill-conceived to me.

Well, here's a question for you. Why not?

@rebgav said:

@Hailinel: @Demoskinos: Why did it have to be (fuzzy bunny themed) bikinis? Apart from the obviously cynical and salacious reasons, it embraces the pre-existing perception that the game is not to be thought of as a legitimate competitive fighter as it's more concerned with boob physics and half-naked anime ninjas. What did they gain by confirming a bias against the game and what does it say about how the people involved in selling that game perceive their audience?

I'm not suggesting that the costumes shouldn't be in the game but it's one thing to maintain an established aesthetic and another to make a calculated decision to offer it as the bait which is supposed to bring in advance orders of their product, or additional profits after the fact. There are other, much more awesome alternate costumes in the game so why go straight to scrapping the bottom of the barrel and holding up the leavings as if they're supposed to be a desirous offering to the fans? Especially when you're actually selling the most legit fighting game in the franchise, it just seems ill-conceived to me.

Because there is a sect of DOA fans that absolutely expect the fan-service that doesn't automatically exclude it from being a serious fighter. And its has more of a competitive scene so far that previous games. And they keep all of that fan-servicy stuff to the side you have to actively seek it out if you want it. Most of the default costumes are relatively conservative for DOA. That way you can appease the people who want to buy all the DLC and get school girl costumes without forcing it down the throats of people who don't want to see it because unless you have a costume pack downloaded you don't see it online.

@Demoskinos said:

@rebgav said:

@Hailinel: @Demoskinos: Why did it have to be (fuzzy bunny themed) bikinis? Apart from the obviously cynical and salacious reasons, it embraces the pre-existing perception that the game is not to be thought of as a legitimate competitive fighter as it's more concerned with boob physics and half-naked anime ninjas. What did they gain by confirming a bias against the game and what does it say about how the people involved in selling that game perceive their audience?

I'm not suggesting that the costumes shouldn't be in the game but it's one thing to maintain an established aesthetic and another to make a calculated decision to offer it as the bait which is supposed to bring in advance orders of their product, or additional profits after the fact. There are other, much more awesome alternate costumes in the game so why go straight to scrapping the bottom of the barrel and holding up the leavings as if they're supposed to be a desirous offering to the fans? Especially when you're actually selling the most legit fighting game in the franchise, it just seems ill-conceived to me.

Because there is a sect of DOA fans that absolutely expect the fan-service that doesn't automatically exclude it from being a serious fighter. And its has more of a competitive scene so far that previous games. And they keep all of that fan-servicy stuff to the side you have to actively seek it out if you want it. Most of the default costumes are relatively conservative for DOA. That way you can appease the people who want to buy all the DLC and get school girl costumes without forcing it down the throats of people who don't want to see it because unless you have a costume pack downloaded you don't see it online.

pretty much this.

So TecmoKoei released pictures of the BoxArt today... SURPRISE its the same box art.

In other more interesting news the game was confirmed to NOT be full $60 price point and instead it will retail at launch for $40. That $40 price point makes this easier to jump back into for sure even though I was going to buy it regardless.