Was the OG THAT good?

[Arbor]

It’s wild to me that people are still hung up on a game that’s almost 2 decades old at this point. I’ve only played sigma 2 which was a great game in its own right at the time of its release (looks like crap now tho imo). Was the OG really that good?

[Terry86]

Originally posted by Arbor:

Originally posted by Cynical:

There's really nothing like the OG. It's the most intense 3D third-person action game ever made; the closest thing to it in that regard is Vanquish on God Hard, but OG NG2 is another step above that. It's not a perfect game (it's got a few *really* bad boss fights, and the jungle level is really terrible), but it hits peaks higher than any other character action game ever.

I feel like I missed out because the way people talk about the game now is the same way they talked about it back then.

you can go play the original ninja giaden 1, it's a very balanced game & see why ppl only praised about it at the time

I wouldn't call NG2 fun at the highest difficulty while trying to get "超忍" but NG1 felt like honing your sword & skill. I never played a game where i felt a constant improvement & sanctification as I become Ryu Hayabusa, 超忍 the Master ninja. *that's the grading system in the game.

[Morbis]

Originally posted by Arbor:

Originally posted by Morbis:

Did you watch the video with your eyes and ears closed?

You don’t even have the game. This goes back to the point I made here:

Originally posted by Arbor:

I’m just going to be honest I think NG2 fans are dumb or have severe autism.

Can't tell if you are a low iq troll or just low iq.

[Orionsangel]

I thought I wasn't going to like it and then I couldn't stop playing it. https://youtu.be/pDOsdGweKUM?si=K05U-zNgSObs27pI

[Kaiman]

Originally posted by Kenshiro3:

Originally posted by Puma:

Well, they made it easier all around not just in terms of amount of enemies or bypassing certain annoying segments. I don't think any of the changes made except maybe the blood were only for performance reasons. The Sigma version of the game look leaps and bounds better visually...... It also still had some slowdowns in MNM even in boss fights without lots of on screen enemies due to the upgraded visuals....


I think if your first introduction to Sigma was the Steam release of it, then that might be why you think the performance in Sigma was perfect by comparison to NG2.

No my introduction to Sigma 2 was my Collectors Edition copy I preordered for my PS3, and it DID run better. I said they made the sacrifices needed to make it to make it run better and more balanced. Meaning to make the gameplay less broken as well.

Yeah, it did run better. But it still had some annoying ass frame drops in boss fights and ♥♥♥♥ sometimes. I don't know that it was more balanced I think it was just easier, the amount of iframes and cheesing with them on some of the weapons made some boss fights in MNM kind of a joke.

I played a fair amount of sigma 2, I don't hate the sigma games they just could have been better is all.

Overall NG1/NGB/NGS1 are still my favorite out of the two. I'll see if this version of NG2 is worth putting that kind of time into.

So far it does seem like the definitive version of the game to me

[Kenshiro3]

Originally posted by Puma:

Originally posted by Kenshiro3:

No my introduction to Sigma 2 was my Collectors Edition copy I preordered for my PS3, and it DID run better. I said they made the sacrifices needed to make it to make it run better and more balanced. Meaning to make the gameplay less broken as well.

Yeah, it did run better. But it still had some annoying ass frame drops in boss fights and ♥♥♥♥ sometimes. I don't know that it was more balanced I think it was just easier, the amount of iframes and cheesing with them on some of the weapons made some boss fights in MNM kind of a joke.

I played a fair amount of sigma 2, I don't hate the sigma games they just could have been better is all.

Overall NG1/NGB/NGS1 are still my favorite out of the two. I'll see if this version of NG2 is worth putting that kind of time into.

So far it does seem like the definitive version of the game to me

Exactly… and same here.

[The Exile]

Originally posted by Arbor:

Was the OG really that good?

yes.

[Shirakani]

Originally posted by Ludus Aurea:

"Good" isn't really a measurable concept.

It was hard, that's about it.

Anyone acting like "it was he best ever" has never actually played . I have it. I can play it right now if I want and vividly relive how it's good, but it's not this amazing thing that's so much better than this release.

The only thing that made NG2 "hard" was that literally every level after a certain point was chock full of dudes with 80's GI Joe missile launchers spamming the ever living bejesus out of you with missiles.

This is basically what I keep saying. That sort of terrible game design is not 'hard'... It's just poor game design that deliberately artificially inflates the unfairness factor for the sake of "difficulty".

Itagaki is (in)famous for this ♥♥♥♥. He likes to call himself the greatest game designer ever but the reality is he gets about 75% of the way there, and the other 25% is just straight up garbage decisions that nobody can defend.

The difficulty in OG NG2 is a shining example of it... this is not how you do 'difficulty'.

Sigma 2 had its fair share of issues and downsides, like missing delimb/blood/guts/etc but I'm going to blame Sony for that. No idea what their policy was at the time on that... and the rest on the PS3's limitations which were a huge issue. But NGS2 has its upsides as well in fixing a lot of Itagaki's garbage "difficulty" decisions and also added content.

This game feels like a nice 'middle ground' without all the BS so I agree with the 'definitive' label as far as gameplay and design goes.

I'm not going to get into the missing costumes/censorship, that's another topic.

[Sanmaya Satoban]

here's my take on it from the prespective of someone who has play NG2 and its other versions across probably 1200 hours or so.

NG2 is kami kusoge and most of the problems are solved on playing on at least minimum a xbox one s and any console a higher tier than that. frame rate is much better and resolution from one x on ward make it run at 4k with a much more staple framerate and everything upscales incredibly well and really shows NG2 is actually an incredibly visually good looking game. most of the time. the animations are some of the best in the business and the way you cut through enemies and slice limbs off their the physics intact with how react to each sitution make it a visceral and cathartic game.

NG2 is basically what if something like mortal kombat 9, guilty gear +r and marvel 2 turned into an action game. everything is broken, glitchy in horrible ways and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up between unreactable grabs, projectiles everywhere especially because of IS ninjas being the gatekeepers they are, enemies attacking you off screen, getting stunlocked by blocking some bullets that leads to an unblockable, getting randomly TOD's by either a double connecting enemy attacks, or getting juggled to death, the absurd damage you can take especially getting wall splat. it borderline unfair and will make anyone suffer, whether just trying to beat it or doing insane challenge runs like no UT/Ninpo/heals. there is many stuff you will not find in nearly any action game moving forward period.

but Ryu is the most broken thing in the game and the beauty of the game is on how much insane ♥♥♥♥ the game throws at you and never, and i mean never lets up. new enemy types till basically the last level (if you wanna count the archfiend 1 ghosts i guess lol) while still being a technical and demanding game with the amount of knowledge you need to play at a decent level. the game wants you to constantly, and i mean CONSTANTLY, move and keep up the pace, your defense is your offense and vice versa.


knowing your invul frames, what moves have good delimb rates, what moves have good guard buffers, what moves shuriken cancel, knowing enemy hit reactions so you can get certain outcomes to work in your favor for hit confirms and so so so much more.

playing NG2 survival is peak. it will teach your the fundamentals of how NG2 feels and works as it is and throws even more insane stuff at you than the main campaign/story mode. not many people know due to it being a separate mission mode DLC sadly.

despite it being constantly compared to NGB, NGB is the second version of a game made prior, NG04. which pretty bare bones without its DLC, the hurricane packs. all the harder difficulties did was make enemies hit harder and have more health and be more defensive on top of certain staples not being implemented like self charging UTs and control the camera minus recentering it behind ryu. you couldn't do on-landing directional attacks till NGB. NG04 also had balance issues. you could loop a couple of bosses to death with flying swallow like dynamo and fiend murai. a number of moves like guillotine throw and flying swallow can be unsafe ON HIT, laser crabs were broken with hyper armor and a 14 frame grab. NG2 actually does some things more in line with NGB does but not to that game's extent.

i understand people wanted this game to have more time in the oven for more polish. but honestly if it did, considering from what old betas have shown, it would of been like sigma 2. and everyone hates sigma 2, even if it is mostly for surface level reasons.

[PabloPabloPablo]

NG2 is an awful awful awful game that is very fun regardless. It takes a lot of risks due to the insane amount of enemies they pile into levels at the cost of nearly every other aspect of the game. It's just that to call the amount of enemies they put into those levels as "good" would be laughable. It's not. It's not even really hard. It's just annoying most of the time. It's a game that demands perfection while also playing unfair as ♥♥♥♥. So while it's certainly fun, it's definitely glazed up more than it should be.

Sigma 2 has some good changes but the stupid weapon upgrade changes and waaaaay too little amount of enemies make it overall worse experience. But does that mean OG is a perfect game? No not at all. It's a really fun game, and Sigma 2 is less fun.

[BlueJin91]

For me, it's not so much that NG2 was that good; it's more that some of the changes made to NGS2 kind of ruin the pacing of the game, making me wish that some elements were kept more like NG2.

NGS2 addressed many of the annoying issues with NG2. Unfortunately, so heavily reducing enemy count and increasing their health really slows the pacing of the game. This also leads to balance issues where mentor difficulty is too easy and MN difficulty has to rely on cheap 1-hit kills (with many of them coming from off-screen) for "challenge."

Both are great games but both have their own issues.

[FredSassy]

Originally posted by Arbor:

It’s wild to me that people are still hung up on a game that’s almost 2 decades old at this point. I’ve only played sigma 2 which was a great game in its own right at the time of its release (looks like crap now tho imo). Was the OG really that good?

OG was not that good. Very unpolished- poor engine performance and unbalanced gameplay. The story felt very rushed and incoherent. All of this is highlighted even more if you've played Ninja Gaiden Black.

[FredSassy]

Originally posted by Kenshiro3:

Originally posted by Puma:

It was basically the perfect game in the genre that has never been matched, the only issue it had was hardware limitation.

You need someone who is a HUGE stickler with an uncompromising vision like Itagaki on any development team to create a nearly perfect product like that.

Unfortunately I've never had a chance to play Devil's Third, however, to be honest, it doesn't look that good. a personality like Itagaki needs an amazing team behind him like Team Ninja as well.

Perfect my ass. The game was flat out unfinished, ran like ♥♥♥♥, had godawful flat lighting and textures and was flat out broken in the balancing department, ESP the back half. That back half feels like nobody bothered to even playtest it… and they gave up on level design.

Yes. Totally agree. People suggesting that NG2 was the pinnacle of action games are delusional. The game was broken and not a patch on the first game in the series.

[Rezonus]

Originally posted by Ackranome:

Original Ninja Gaiden was so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard and the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ birds hit you off screen.

God I remember trying out Mentor difficulty back in the day. I forgot that part of the difficulty was they introduce stronger variants earlier, so on mentor the first enemies you run into are all capable of throwing explosive kunai at you.

[Nonexistinghero]

No one's saying NG2 is perfect. But it's still among the pinnacle of action games. It being so damn good despite having a few major issues is a testament to just how damn good it actually is.

[Kenshiro3]

Originally posted by Nonexistinghero:

No one's saying NG2 is perfect. But it's still among the pinnacle of action games. It being so damn good despite having a few major issues is a testament to just how damn good it actually is.

Like hell they aren’t…

Case in point.

Originally posted by Puma:

It was basically the perfect game in the genre that has never been matched, the only issue it had was hardware limitation.

You need someone who is a HUGE stickler with an uncompromising vision like Itagaki on any development team to create a nearly perfect product like that.

Unfortunately I've never had a chance to play Devil's Third, however, to be honest, it doesn't look that good. a personality like Itagaki needs an amazing team behind him like Team Ninja as well.