Im pretty sure that I heard in a interview that further into the game the QTE stuff goes away, and in say master it might not even be there. Its kinda like the QTE they put into story mode of DOA Dimensions.

From the gameplay demo that I saw of this during E3, it looked like the QTEs that appear during the combos really slowed the action down. Very disappointing.

"The reason I backed away from the original Ninja Gaiden was the realization Itagaki had designed something more akin to a fighting game than a traditional action romp."
 
That was the reason I really like Ninja Gaiden. I don't want a mindless God of War clone with ninjas. I hope that is not the direction they are going in.

@Hashy said:

@Hailinel said:

@HerbieBug said:

Team Ninja will kill Ninja Gaiden without Itagaki's supervision. I saw what they did to NG2 for the PS3 release. These guys don't get what makes Ninja Gaiden such a fantastic experience to play. QTE's? Fuck off. Fuck right the hell off.

Are you kidding? Itagaki nearly killed the series himself with Ninja Gaiden II. Shit camera angles and projectile-spamming enemies on platforms you can't see is not a good design combination.

Nothing about Ninja Gaiden II was unfair, though, once you learned which moves gave you invincibility frames and used them tactically. Bump the camera sensitivity and it was serviceable.

So how would you defend that giant boss monster that explodes when you kill it?

I gotta say being a hardcore ninja gaiden fan having finished all the Gaiden games on the hardest of difficulties and also posting numerous top 10 scores on the leaderboards I was extremely nervous about this game.    I did not like what Team Ninja did with Metroid Other M and was extremely paranoid that Hayashi would lose the vision of the game if he didn't have Itagaki's scraps to work off like he did with Sigma and Sigma 2. 
 
However, while the game his obviously not  a game Itagaki would make I'm still fine with it.  Every artist should have their distinctive calling cards to make their work their own.   It still seems to have the soul of a Ninja Gaiden game.   There seem to be some interesting systems at work in the game.    
 
The fact that it looks like you can effectively "store" the power in your arm and unleash a UT whenever you want sounds neat.  It also looks like (from what I saw of the demo) that  you power the arm with the blood of the enemies from doing the "Bone and steel" (A.K.A  QTE's) segments. This could lead to some interesting strategy when it comes to gameplay. 
 
 Most people on surface level wouldn't realize it but management of the glowing  "essence" orbs was a huge part of higher level play.   For instance if a blue (health)  essence popped out of a enemy and you still had multiple enemies you had two choices you could either consume the essence for a instant health boost potentially allowing you to survive longer.  However you could also absorb it with your weapon and instantly do a level 2 charged UT attack that could also potentially kill everyone if it  hit.   
 
These sort of on the fly  decisions  along with the fast paced  switching on a dime between defense/offense is what at least to me makes Ninja Gaiden great.     Ninja Gaiden 2 had some problems to be sure and it showed  Team Ninja was obviously under great stress and Itagaki leaving the company days after the release of NG2 was confirmation of that all. 
 
Hayashi smoothed some of the rough edges over with NGS2 but then created a few problems of his own.    Watching Hayashi create NG3 from scratch will be a very interesting thing to watch.  He can make a good action game  and he has with Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Sigma 2 but he hasn't reached the heights that Ninja Gaiden Black took the series. 
 
I'm at least willing to give him a chance and not instantly dismiss this.  There looks to be some interesting things going on.  I just hope the soul of what made NGB great isn't lost on him.

I am so fucking tired of quick time events.

Officially, is this game called Ninja Gaiden 3 and the NES one was Ninja Gaiden III? 
 
Am I the only one who thinks this is beyond retarded? Then again, Mortal Kombat...

I really liked the Itagaki Ninja Gaiden games, but I'm also apparently one of the few people who liked Other M, so I'll still be giving this a try. Even if it is just a button masher with loads of QTEs, it could still be good. Maybe.

are you sure it wasn't just putting the button prompts up to teach you what to do and show you how to play? maybe those button prompts wont be in the real game? ah what am i saying. im sure they are

@AjayRaz said:

@Terrents said:

are you sure it wasn't just putting the button prompts up to teach you what to do and show you how to play? maybe those button prompts wont be in the real game? ah what am i saying. im sure they are

in an interview, Yosuke Hayashi said that the button prompts gradually decrease as the game goes on. it's supposed to create a natural feel to the combat, and it's supposed to get you used to pressing specific buttons during a certain kill sequence.

That's an interesting way to teach the game. I wonder how well it'll work.

Shit, really? There are lots of ways the series could be improved, but adding quick time evens is definitely not one of them. Bummer.
 
Edit: Wait, so apparently they aren't QTEs so much as combo tips? I can deal with that.

@AjayRaz said:

@Terrents said:

are you sure it wasn't just putting the button prompts up to teach you what to do and show you how to play? maybe those button prompts wont be in the real game? ah what am i saying. im sure they are

in an interview, Yosuke Hayashi said that the button prompts gradually decrease as the game goes on. it's supposed to create a natural feel to the combat, and it's supposed to get you used to pressing specific buttons during a certain kill sequence.

That's an interesting way to teach the game. I wonder how well it'll work.  

@Hailinel said:

@Hashy said:

@Hailinel said:

@HerbieBug said:

Team Ninja will kill Ninja Gaiden without Itagaki's supervision. I saw what they did to NG2 for the PS3 release. These guys don't get what makes Ninja Gaiden such a fantastic experience to play. QTE's? Fuck off. Fuck right the hell off.

Are you kidding? Itagaki nearly killed the series himself with Ninja Gaiden II. Shit camera angles and projectile-spamming enemies on platforms you can't see is not a good design combination.

Nothing about Ninja Gaiden II was unfair, though, once you learned which moves gave you invincibility frames and used them tactically. Bump the camera sensitivity and it was serviceable.

So how would you defend that giant boss monster that explodes when you kill it?

I read about the solution to this in a review somewhere and so I was only fooled by it once. The bosses are far and away the weakest part of NG2, but the rest? sublime.

I don't think I like the sound of this, QTEs all over the place in an action game?

I rage quit the first game after getting stuck at alma. I barely beat Ninja Gaiden 2 on the bottom rung difficulty. I am a glutton for pain and frustration. I can't wait for the next game.

@Demoskinos said:

It also looks like (from what I saw of the demo) that you power the arm with the blood of the enemies from doing the "Bone and steel" (A.K.A QTE's) segments. This could lead to some interesting strategy when it comes to gameplay.

I was JUST thinking about this. Are the QTE's i-frames? Will they be the new lunar 360-UT?

My big problem is that Ryu seems slowed down and heavier. When he was moving, he looked more like Dante than his usual self. I'm also worried about stealth sections throwing off the rhythm of the game. And that kunai climb didn't seem very ninja at all. He can fly, but he can't wall hop?

Ninja Gaiden 1/Black was a masterpiece. It was difficult, and you needed quick reflexes, but it was never cheap. NG2 was similar, but some of the bosses were cheap. My guess is that Itagaki was forced to rush the game by Tecmo execs and put it out before he was happy with it.
 
NG3 looks like a total disaster. I'd rather play Ninja Blade.
 
The art design is a little uglier. The QTEs are abominations. Tecmo has no clue what they're doing.

At least its not a rail shooter.

I think the secret to the current action-romp-du-jour is QTE for every single button press, which makes something AWESOME happen everywhere, every single time.

Ugh, if you had paid attention, Patrick, you would know that even later in the demo, the prompts disappear which should make it feel a lot more natural.

And the Ultimate Technique with the arm is nothing new, in the other games you just did it by absorbing orbs from fallen enemies.

It looks OK but it's still too early to tell if it can topple the first one. I'm interested in how it handles the harder difficulties.

So psyched for this I played the hell out of 1 and 2

Finally a video game journalist saying what Ninja Gaiden fans have been thinking, even though it doesn't sound like the previous games were his thing. I love the NG games and Black (on Master Ninja!!!!) is my favourite game, but this just looks wrong. All the new design features just seem to get in the way of the gameplay. Makes me want to vomit. 
 
As another poster said, they could have made it more accessible without all the slow-down-scripted-events. The game didn't need to be cinematic, it was as intense as hell. Should have made it more like Black,  with platforming, puzzles, exploration etc. same gameplay (new weapons, moves etc. is fine) and just improved the level design. Could have been the best NG but this is an abomination.
 
Hopefully the Devils Third will fill the void that this game has inevitably left for me.

I personally loved Ninja Gaiden for it's difficulty. Games like that have their place.

I played THE SHIT out of Black and Ninja Gaiden II. And I got good at it. Damned good.

There are absolutely some cheap bosses and enemies but it isn't impossibly, frustratingly difficult along the lines of Street Fighter 4's Seth fight or MK's bosses and unfair tag team fights. It builds in difficulty at a nice and steady pace. Eventually you start cranking out insane combos without even thinking. The problem is people expect it to be more like God of War than a fighting game.

Honestly i wouldn't mind if this new one is. But I still dig the others.

I don't know why people want another GoW clone. They are a dime-a-dozen already and they all suck compared to NG IMO. There's only one Ninja Gaiden though and the only games which come close are Bayonetta and Dishwasher:VS (for me personally).

I really love NG2 and I will definately give it a chance. But I want my hard-ass Ninja Gaiden, and not another God of War clone.
Maybe an easy mode like in Bayonetta would be the right way if they don't want to exclude very casual play. 

edit: Also, fuck quick time events.

Watched a gameplay video where he did the same 3 second kill animation 15 times in a row and stopped watching because the sound effects were annoying me :S

Oh, screw this. Let's forget the last few games and just bring back Jaquio and Ashtar.

I've heard disappointment for this game from a few other media resources.  Well, maybe it will be better when it eventually arrives next year.  And, if it isn't we've still got The Devil's Third to look forward to, too.

I can press buttons real good!

QTEs in NG? Yes, this dude is gonna ruin it. I'll still play it but it sounds terribad.

Let's see if he goes all the way and makes Ryu a lovelorn wet diaper while he's at it.

Patrick adds a lot to the site, but it's a pity that Giant Bomb added a 5th main person and they still don't have anyone with the skills or the interest in the genre to really go in depth on games like this or Bayonetta.  All we can ever hope to get is the once over lightly treatment, whereas Brad can actually go in depth on Starcraft 2, and Jeff can go in depth on fighting games.
 
It's a shame.

Let's hope there will be a Kinect version where you have to yell 'QUICKTIME EVENT' everytime.

I enjoyed both Ninja gaiden's alot the old school difficulty of both of them is very appealing i hope they don't fuck it up by making it too easy.

I enjoyed both Ninja gaiden's alot the old school difficulty of both of them is very appealing i hope they don't fuck it up by making it too easy.

@Curufinwe said:

Patrick adds a lot to the site, but it's a pity that Giant Bomb added a 5th main person and they still don't have anyone with the skills or the interest in the genre to really go in depth on games like this or Bayonetta. All we can ever hope to get is the once over lightly treatment, whereas Brad can actually go in depth on Starcraft 2, and Jeff can go in depth on fighting games. It's a shame.

In depth tactical analysis of recent gen Ninja Gaiden series:

spam IZUNA DROP

In depth tactical analysis of Bayonetta:

spam/farm CH 7 BOSS

I'm clearly qualified. Sign me up thx!

                I enjoyed both Ninja gaiden's alot the old school difficulty of both of them is very appealing i hope they don't fuck it up by making it too easy.
           

Hate QTEs. I cant say ive ever enjoyed QTEs in any game. Its the video gaming equivalent of that electronic game from the 70s, 'Simon' concealed by a bunch of graphical jazz-matazz. I wish developers would realize these are not the gaming systems they are looking for. Then they can go about their business...

@Curufinwe said:

Patrick adds a lot to the site, but it's a pity that Giant Bomb added a 5th main person and they still don't have anyone with the skills or the interest in the genre to really go in depth on games like this or Bayonetta. All we can ever hope to get is the once over lightly treatment, whereas Brad can actually go in depth on Starcraft 2, and Jeff can go in depth on fighting games. It's a shame.

In depth tactical analysis of recent gen Ninja Gaiden series:

spam IZUNA DROP

In depth tactical analysis of Bayonetta:

spam/farm CH 7 BOSS

I'm clearly qualified. Sign me up thx!

I've always been a fan of the ninja gaiden series, I look forward to this one :)

It seems more like a button masher. Should be good for Patrick, or any other casual.

I really get tired of quick time events.  It's so overused.

@Curufinwe said:

Patrick adds a lot to the site, but it's a pity that Giant Bomb added a 5th main person and they still don't have anyone with the skills or the interest in the genre to really go in depth on games like this or Bayonetta. All we can ever hope to get is the once over lightly treatment, whereas Brad can actually go in depth on Starcraft 2, and Jeff can go in depth on fighting games. It's a shame.

In depth tactical analysis of recent gen Ninja Gaiden series:

spam IZUNA DROP

In depth tactical analysis of Bayonetta:

spam/farm CH 7 BOSS

I'm clearly qualified. Sign me up thx!

did it work?

If i wanted button queues to pop up and ruin the immersion of my game, i'd play Ninja Blade, or God of War for a well done version of a poor solution of a gameplay mechanic.

@s0mah said:

@Curufinwe said:

Patrick adds a lot to the site, but it's a pity that Giant Bomb added a 5th main person and they still don't have anyone with the skills or the interest in the genre to really go in depth on games like this or Bayonetta. All we can ever hope to get is the once over lightly treatment, whereas Brad can actually go in depth on Starcraft 2, and Jeff can go in depth on fighting games. It's a shame.

In depth tactical analysis of recent gen Ninja Gaiden series:

spam IZUNA DROP

In depth tactical analysis of Bayonetta:

spam/farm CH 7 BOSS

I'm clearly qualified. Sign me up thx!

Most of the enemies in both Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 can't be Izuna Dropped. Only human opponents, who pretty much dissapear after the first few chapters of the games. Spamming Chapter 7's boss in Bayonetta doesn't make the game easier, it just lets you buy things from the shop. Most of which won't actually help you play or will just make the game more challenging.

A gaming news site isn't the place to go for in-depth analysis of any games though. There're hundreds of sites dedicated to telling people how to do Dodge Offset in Bayonetta or 10% health runs with the Unlabored Flawlessness, but I would appreciate it if someone at GiantBomb would show some love to these kinds of games. It's kind of depressing when every review touts their disdain for character action games.

I also think its a shame these games don't get proper investigation.  I was a Ninja Gaiden Black lover and I heard NG2 was good as well.  Then I played it and found it had been asbolutely destroyed with a "kill" button requiring just a spam of Y.  Anyone who played both games could see this easily but in all the reviews I read I never saw mention of it.

I wonder how this will turn out?