Ninja blade

Haven't much to say but birdman you have played this right? It was one of my first 360 games, I will buy it again soon.

Awesome game. The comparisons with NG are crap. The guy looks similar to Ryu at a glance, and is also a ninja. That's it.

It does share similar gameplay,it was clearly a response to the then popular ninja gaiden series. I haven't played it since I first had it but I remember the combat being a tad slow and unresponsive, not something ninja games tend to have, I don't have anything against it it's a fun game with some neat bosses. I liked those turret sections too. I'm not gonna bother comparing them though I don't care for that, ninjas be ninjas.

The gameplay has some visually similar things like wall running and having a sword. DMC3 has those too and it's nothing like NG.

NB is actually more similar to Chaos Legion with its enemy types and weaknesses. NB only has 3 weapons, but each is totally unique and serve specific purposes, much like CL's legions and metal/organic enemy strengths/weaknesses.

The katana is your all-rounder. The giant sword can break enemy armor, and those chain sickle things are fast and spin all around you.

In addition to enemy types, these weapons are also used for exploration/progression stuff like the giant sword being able to break walls, and the sickles allowing you to swing on pieces of the environment.

Ninjutsu has two variations; the quick version used in combat, and the aiming mode version.

Ninja Vision is a unique ability. You get that boost and can keep it active as long as you have meter, but once it ends, be it from ending it yourself or running out of energy, the screen will go all blurry, and it gets worse the longer you use it. You need to manage this carefully to use it effectively.

There's so much to say on this game. Guard cancelling, the dash, etc. It's not slow, it's just slower than NG, because the mechanics are different. It's not unresponsive, it just might seem so because you were used to something faster.

Turret sections are fun, but go on a bit too long. Bosses are great and have multiple phases. The QTE are fun rewards for winning, and are so insane. Like, they blow MGR's finishers away.

Yeh like I said I haven't played it since first time yrs ago, but I'm down to give it another go, I do look it up here and there since I find the varied bosses charming(slime chopper give me a chuckle). Levels are all city areas which I would have liked to see others. It's clearly a budget title and it has my respect. wonder if from soft will make another or another more flamboyant action game.

Budget or not, it beats damn near every AAA game out in terms or actual gameplay and mechanics. That's all that really matters and it's a shame that the industry has lost that.

Fromsoft has quite a few unique games, usually somewhat odd or unconventional but deliver great gameplay. Most are too stupid to see this though and we live in a world where people decide a game's value based on numbers on a website rather than experiencing it themselves.

Most people only know them from Souls, but they've been one of my favorite devs for years before Souls.

I would love to see a new Otogi or Metal Wolf.

Same sentiment here, metal wolf never even got a release outside of Japan, devolver digital asked if they could publish it in the west when some noise was made back in 2016 from the two best friends did an lp of it: https://mobile.twitter.com/devolverdigital/status/692330482176884736?lang=en

From soft I hope they keep being odd, they big now so I don't know what they will make will be excepted, I'd like them to move on from souls now, maybe revisit armoured core or echo night beyond.

So I got this and played to about past the giant crab boss(so many bosses) in level 3 I think(the level with the snake lady and dog man). Pretty fun, it's exactly as I remember quite vividly for some reason. I've noted as birdman mentioned that blocking can cancel almost anything, and dodging cancels less so, you can even block cancel a dodge. The animations are really odd, it's like they wanted to make the movements more natural and tactile as opposed to the spastic twirly ninja spinny gymnastics that ryu hayabusa performs.

As for moves I've noticed for the sword you have a straight up flying swallow and a stinger type move also. The 3 weapon types is a nice balance as they all have there uses.

One thing I love and hate is the QTE fest the game frequently indulges in, they are so frequent it's obnoxious but there so well choreographed and over the top it's a delite to see each one, they give you a free retry every time you fail so far and it has a good variety of qte types so it's fairly engaging, the screen gives you a heads up as to what type of inputs it requires(left stick for dodges, x or y for attack, b for ninpo, a for jump etc). I enjoy the turret sequences also, they are well designed and have a nice arcade type play to them.

I remember the game but also forgot a lot about it, might dive into it next week once I finish Bullet Witch. Because while I like it, I'm not sure if I can stomach playing the game another 4 times for all difficulty settings unless I get some music going on.

I really liked the fluidity of Ninja Blade, also Ninja Gaiden 3 took big inspiration from this title for whatever reason, especially in the art department.

I've noticed ninja blade dash can be spammed to become the same slide dodge in NG3, oh and EXCESS QTEs except really fun.
Art wise I can see that, more real world military stuff, but NB has an issue with all levels being set in the same night time city area which can get pretty bland at times, the pacing is fast since it's so chocked with B movie action packed ninja charm it's a moot issue.

Notably I had a chuckle at how a level 1 boss is just the armoured spider from demon's souls, but now you can smash its armour off but it regens its limbs. Each stage has so many bosses it's nuts, it's like a treasure game with all these boss fights in such short succession. Also the regular mutant mobs make the same growl as the crows in BB, pretty sure it might be a stock sound/running gag, Micheal Wilson the president of THESE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA from METAL WOLF CHAOS is a main character which took me by surprise now I know of said game(please release it in the west, maybe licensing is an issue)l

I'm not sure about the fps but I've noticed some massive slowdown during large group encounters and certain bosses, I think it's unlocked 60, but its responsive enough to not be an issue.

Finally booted up the game yesterday, played a bit of the first mission but it froze half way through. I'd forgotten that checkpoints are NOT save points so you can only quit once the mission is over.

EDIT: the game has bonkers canceling mechanics. You can pretty much cancel everything into everything, moves into different weapons etc, guard cancel a lot. Forgot how, probably unintentional, deep this game is.

The guard cancels are super useful since some attacks have a lot of startup, you can even cancel dashes with them or cancel the heavy sword air smash so it's faster. Sadly my disc got damaged by my 360, so i'll have to get it fixed. I stopped before the airplane level.

Also I love how you can customise ninja mans colours, like everything it's pretty detailed options. You can find preset colours in levels, along with life and ninjutsu meter upgrades, find 3 to increase them.