• Starts out okay.
• You're treated to way too many mediocre QTE's
• There's no exploration at all whatsoever. Pressing the right thumbstick to see where to go is a curse, not a blessing.
• No treasure chests.
• No item shop.
• No combo meter.
• Killing guys is pointless. I ended up running past everybody whenever possible because killing the same drab enemies is like a dumb grind with no reward.
• There's awkward "running away from that thing" gameplay sometimes where you're running towards the camera and can't see any obstacle until it's too late. These sequences made up the majority of my deaths, and it is cheap. That's a great mechanic, kudos to the developers.
• Block slide -> Izuna Drop -> shoot 2 arrows -> rinse repeat until projectile enemies are dead -> izuna drop until room clears. There. I just saved you money on the strategy guide. The devs accidentally mapped a button to throw shurikens. Ignore that button, you'll never really need it.
• Story is sooo bad. Like they tried to take a page from Asura's Wrath and just totally messed it up. Cutscenes are so boring. The only real personality is the masked bad guy and you'll end up rooting for him based on how abysmal the other characters are. Also, don't read too far ahead of this game, because you're probably 110% correct. Yes, it's that bad. Hell, if the quick look was 10 minutes longer, you'd probably know how the entire game pans out.

We need to put Ajay on suicide watch. Good luck, guys.

Oh god, Ajay will be sooooooooo depressed. I won't allow him to kill himself! he's my SFxT buddy!

This whole thing sure sounds like a step back from previous Ninja Gaiden games even though I'm not much of a fan.

@Cloudenvy said:

Oh god, Ajay will be sooooooooo depressed.

I won't allow him to kill himself! he's my SFxT buddy!

You should distract him by playing that until this game hits $20, which should probably be this Friday.

@Lunar_Aura: We both know he'll get it day 1 and nothing can stop him.

Well, I could try to stop him but he'd probably tear right through me.

I forgot to mention that the kunai climb mechanic is pretty cool as long as you forget that you're controlling a fucking ninja. They should've had a kunai poke out of his shoe heel so he'd climb hand to foot to hand to foot and so on. He'd climb much faster that way and it would look way more impressive. Maybe that's DLC, I dunno.

Oh, and Flying Swallow is useless since there's no decapitations anymore. I hope you like that Fiery Dragon ninpo because it doesn't seem to ever change.

Just beat the damn thing. So much slowdown on the final boss. Story got laughably bad and cheesy.

I kind of wish there was an extended quick look of this game, because the Bombcrew could really tear this one a magnificent new asshole.

I think you're right on with your points, Lunar.

My feelings as the game unfurled:

Oh, cool. That's fun. QTE. Oh, wait, you want me to do that again? Wait, what? running. Okay, yeah, slashy slashy. More slashing? More slashing... no real dismemberment?! more slashing... how could they... QTE QTE QTE oh gawd. running. Are the graphics supposed to be..? no way. fight with camera. running. aw man. Why is that... Oh no. QTE. slashing. where's the strategy...? Oh come on. running. What is this? ugh... more slashing... running... no... not more of this... why... ...

That's as far as I've gotten with my impressions. Yours are fantastically more thorough and I'm sure some people will get quite a bit out of them. :)

But, hey, despite... everything, I'm sure some people might find a way to enjoy it. I mean, if they decided to do all of this to the series, certainly it's meant to appeal to someone... Yeah, I'm sure some people will enjoy this.

Hard mode is kicking my ass, but I'm enjoying it so far! Just made it to Day 3 and unlocked the Ninja Trials for multiplayer mode. Can only do them solo for now though since the Online Passes don't work yet!

I was planning to buy this today but I have half a mind to get Blades of TIme instead.

And for some reason, the fact that no limbs are falling off is what turned me off on this game..

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I was planning to buy this today but I have half a mind to get Blades of TIme instead.

I was given Blades of Time and I'd gladly give it to you instead, it's that horrible. Thing is, I don't want to pay for shipping.

I still play NG 2 from time to time because it is just awesome and thus it´s a real shame that NG3 appears to be poor. I didn´t play the game yet but the gameplay videos I saw...man, it looks so bad.

@Lunar_Aura said:

Oh, and Flying Swallow is useless since there's no decapitations anymore. I hope you like that Fiery Dragon ninpo because it doesn't seem to ever change.

*looks at his copy of Ninja Gaiden Black, grabs a wrench*

Forgive me. You were too beautiful for this world.

@Lunar_Aura said:

• No treasure chests.
• No item shop.
• No combo meter.

@Klei said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I was planning to buy this today but I have half a mind to get Blades of TIme instead.

I was given Blades of Time and I'd gladly give it to you instead, it's that horrible. Thing is, I don't want to pay for shipping.

Why were you given it in the first place?

@ninkendo said:

Hard mode is kicking my ass, but I'm enjoying it so far! Just made it to Day 3 and unlocked the Ninja Trials for multiplayer mode. Can only do them solo for now though since the Online Passes don't work yet!

Yeah, same jumped right into hard mode. Its fun! There are some fights that can still really kick your ass if your not on top of your shit.

@Demoskinos said:

@ninkendo said:

Hard mode is kicking my ass, but I'm enjoying it so far! Just made it to Day 3 and unlocked the Ninja Trials for multiplayer mode. Can only do them solo for now though since the Online Passes don't work yet!

Yeah, same jumped right into hard mode. Its fun! There are some fights that can still really kick your ass if your not on top of your shit.

I too started on hard mode only to switch to normal half way though the first mission. Hard is boring as all hell. They just throw the same enemys at you in seemingly endless waves. The combat in this game is pretty bad so I prefer the path of least resistance.

I made up my mind after watching the quick look. The game looked awful and I am not going to be playing it.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@Klei said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I was planning to buy this today but I have half a mind to get Blades of TIme instead.

I was given Blades of Time and I'd gladly give it to you instead, it's that horrible. Thing is, I don't want to pay for shipping.

Why were you given it in the first place?

I review games for a french website.

Not going to get this then. Was going to wait for a demo or something, but from what you are saying I will steer clear of even that. Might have to beat Ninja Gaiden Black again soon though. Man, that was a game.

Y'know, I could never really get into...well anything about the previous 2 3D Ninja Gaiden games, so when the third one seemed to be aiming for something different I was interested. That quicklook though just made it seem like the changes all made it repetitive and easy instead, which wasn't what I wanted either.

But hey, turns out that Shinobi was recently released on PSN and that game was actually pretty cool.

Man........... they fucked that game up.

It seems like this is the result of someone wishing on a demonic Monkey's Paw that Itagaki would get kicked out of Team Ninja. Sure, he was a giant asshole and his games were infamous for their exploitative violence and the women with giant chesticles, but it was that sheer insanity that made the previous titles a blast to play even as the most basic enemies were capable of pinning you to the wall and wiping out half of your HP before you got back up. So he's gone, you got your wish, but the Itagaki-less Ninja Gaiden 3 is a sad, boring game in comparison that tries to add some "realism" to a franchise that never had nor asked for it before. I'm just hoping this isn't a bad omen for DoA5.

Been playing some more. Enjoying it alot now. The hurdle you have to get over mentally is that this game DOESN'T play like previous Ninja Gaiden games if you can get over that mental hurdle and judge it for what it is then you can enjoy it. Been plowing my way through the Solo Trials. Good Stuff!

Bummer, I had a blast playing through Ninja Gaiden 2. This sound terrible.

So that IGN review seems correct. I commend him for giving it such a terrible score - the fact that there are no chests, no combo meter, no item shops, no exploration, and pointless combat system takes away any sort of hope I have for this game. Totally probably never going to play it.

@DocHaus said:

It seems like this is the result of someone wishing on a demonic Monkey's Paw that Itagaki would get kicked out of Team Ninja. Sure, he was a giant asshole and his games were infamous for their exploitative violence and the women with giant chesticles, but it was that sheer insanity that made the previous titles a blast to play even as the most basic enemies were capable of pinning you to the wall and wiping out half of your HP before you got back up. So he's gone, you got your wish, but the Itagaki-less Ninja Gaiden 3 is a sad, boring game in comparison that tries to add some "realism" to a franchise that never had nor asked for it before. I'm just hoping this isn't a bad omen for DoA5.

This, and ironically, it makes me more excited for Itagaki's new game with his Valhalla Game studios, Devil's Third. Team Ninja members who were upset at the company at the time left alongside him and now they're continuing to make games together.