NInja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge I think could have been on par with the rest of the series but bad designs holds it back.
Gameplay in like the previous game in the series, very fast paced and pretty fun. You have your weapons, swords, bow, ninja stars, all that to use against all the bad guys and fiends that you can chop up and decapitate in half. Not a whole lot of platforming is to be done in this game despite the fact that your a ninja, but that's probably a good thing because of the camera.
Ninja Gaiden games have some of the worst camera's in modern gaming and is one of the causes that make the game difficult. Also sometimes Ryu doesn't respond to some actions that I want, sometimes he'll attack in the wrong direction or not be locked on to a guy. Most of the time when I want to do a Flying Swallow it just misses but this may also be due to the camera. Another other is the enemies in the game.
The AI is hella insane, they will attack you in groups and all around you. Blocking is almost non existent when fighting cause they will chip your health off, you will die a lot in this game and for the most part it feels like the AI is very random. Bosses vary from duels to giant dudes and stuff flying around, QTE's are few and really only happen during bosses and climbing walls and maybe shake dudes off you. Now I'm fine with the random AI, I think..., but the major problem I have is the health system that they decided to work with.
What happens is as you take damage, you max health also depletes. This is the most stupidest thing I had to deal with and is I think the reason what makes this game is so hard. If you die you can retry again, but with low max health. Sure you can get it all back at a save point but because the nature of this game its very stupid. Ninpo is also now a meter gauge that you now fill up and is the only way you heal during combat. That's right, there are no Items anymore, they just decided to take that all away.
As you battle you earn karma points that you can use to upgrade various things like weapons, health, Ninpo and skills that you can do. You have scarabs you can collect which unlock costumes and skulls which are challenges where you will fight waves of enemies and a boss in one go. After you beat the game you can play an additional 3 characters, Ayane who had a playable part in the story, Momiji and Kasumi from the Dead or Alive series.
Graphics for the most part are pretty good, the game runs smoothly. I have ran into some very slight slowdown but only when there's too much going on at once. Music I guess is good, not very memorable but it fits the action going on.
I beat the game at around 13 hours and that's includes all the deaths and rage I went though, I think. Replayability comes from higher difficulties which is insane to think about but if you can do it props to you. Ninja trials where you can have a friend join in if you want to fight waves of enemies. A new online mode was made which is basically Ninja Gaiden but multiplayer which sounds bad cause of game games nature. I haven't played this mode yet cause I was never able to find a match, but from what I can tell you have a character you can customize to your liking and you duke it up with one other. Oh and this game has a Sixaxis feature. Now in previous games if you shake the controller during Ninpo you deal more damage but I don't know if that's true to this game too. Also you can shake the breasts of females in this game too so have fun with that.
I feel like this could have been a good action game which it is but not the best I've played, but things like very random and hard AI, a very bad camera which doesn't seem to have improved over the years, and a stupid health system holds that game back. If these issues weren't present I'd rate the game higher maybe like an 8 but they do so I give it a 7/10 cause of my playthrough but after doing some of the other things in this game I give it a 7.5/10
But from what I understand its a whole lot better than the original Ninja Gaiden 3.
Good thoughts:
- Lots of blood and bodies decapitated
- Very fast paced and fun gameplay
- Nice Sixaxis controls
Bad thoughts:
- Bad camera
- I feel like the AI is very random
- A stupid health system that should not exist