Ninja Gaiden 2
Release date: June 3, 2008
Genre: Action-Adenture, Hack and slash
Number of players:1
Developers: Team Ninja
Publishers: Microsoft/ Tecmo
Directors: Tomonobo Itagaki
Artist: Masahiro Nose
So, I’m just jumping straight into it with this one, Ninja Gaiden 2 takes place one year after the original series, the game begins in Tokyo with a CIA agent named Sonia who is looking for Ryu who is being pursued by the Black spider ninja. Whom wants to steal the demon statue the Hayabusa clan possess and protects. Ryu returns home to find his village in chaos and his father dueling the leader of the Black spider clan, Genshin, the Demon statue is still stolen regardless by the Queen of the Greater fiends who wants to revives the archfiend. Ryu must travel around the world to track down Elizabeth and kill dozens of fiends. Some fiends from the previous game and a lot of newer enemies such as werewolves for example. The reason Ryu must stop Vazdan (The Supreme archfiend) is because Vazdan would enslave the whole human race and kill those who refused to submit to his will. Honestly this Vazdan guy sounds like he really should’ve teamed up with Orxy or the Locust from gears cause, his plan is so cheese; If I was an archfiend I think I would be focused on galactic domination but no lets just settle on earth cause I guess “Star Wars” like galactic armies are hard to come by in a Ninja slaying demons kinda world.
Ninja Gaiden 2 is by far the best one in the trilogy, the new improved combat system where you can now dismember his enemies, covering everything in blood like a “Saw” crime scene. Dismembering also doesn’t out right kill your enemies but instead only weakens and slows them down, which in turn causes the enemies to be more prone to suicide tactics via pinning Ryu down and planting a incendiary shuriken forcing the player to remain on their feet at all times with new brutal obliteration techniques before your enemies can be taken down fast. The new feature can be used in the presence of boss characters and compare to other games Ryu is still vulnerable to enemy attack, while in the mist of attacks himself. While I believe Ninja Gaiden 2 tones down the difficulty, it makes up for it with smarter and more strategic A.I.
Ninja Gaiden 2 also offers the option of collectables in the form of crystal skulls which really is nothing more of a physical achievement hunt for gamers. Ryu through out gameplay and combos will collect orbs from defeated enemies with the colors being yellow (currency), red (Ninpo/ magic or ki), and Blue ( health). Yellow of course being the orbs you’ll mostly grind for to upgrade your numerous weapons you achieve throughout the game, these weapons being Eclipse Scythe (my personal favorite), Dragon’s claw, Tiger’s Fang swords, Tonfa, Kusari-gama and the Falcon’s Talons. As a quick side note, I recommend the Falcons talons as the best option if you favor dismembering your enemies and a note of detail within the game, Ryu also performs a chiburui which is the act of swatting blood off one’s weapon. Ryu is able to charge a powerful attack when unleashed by the player preforms a series of auto-combos on any enemy in the area, not really showcasing a range limit, so as long as there are enemies in the immediately area and if you can charge it up without the hit cancelation happening then you can stack up some rather decent number of orbs.
The replayability of Ninja Gaiden 2 is a game I place high on my list of personal favorite games, with the weapon upgrades which by admission are limited do give you something to grind for a while with the additional trials throughout the game and DLC mission and survival modes. For the ’08 era, survival I’d have to say was just part of what developers believed would make a single player game have a longer shelf life just look at Naruto clash of Ninja series, Devil May cry with Bloody palace, Dante’s Inferno, Resident Evil 5 and 6 or even Gears of war 2-4 Horde mode though this has genuine multiplayer. I quite love the pacing of the game for me it’s not too slow or too fast, and the combat is really intense especially in the harder difficulties with less health orbs dropping with stronger enemies, when enemies do those suicide attacks it’s even more “Dark Souls” before games Dark Souling players was a thing. I remember when I started doing the trials or geez the way I felt when I realized how many times I ran over the ruins before I figured out what they actually do.
My favorite game out of the three in the series, Ninja Gaiden 2 completely took the series to a whole nother level while the story doesn’t have the same depth the original game does, the action/ combat is more intense and faster paced. It’s like they went with the old theory “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, but they did tweak the few minor problems with the original game; all the while adding co-op, new weapons and ki spells to cast.
It’s Highly Recommended
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