Hi, everyone, hope you're enjoying the new video! This video was a real tough one to make and unfortunately due to the high levels of violent gameplay I wasn't willing to censor, this video has received limited ads. If you'd like to support this kind of content please consider backing me at: www.patreon.com/thegamingbritshow Thanks again!
I'm glad that you choose to keep the game as it is personally, censorship on videos like these just to make the please CZcams overlords would feel tacky, I'd much rather give you money for making a bolder choice then if you just blurred the image any time some of that spooky blood would show up on screen
@@CaptDnaDonut Well it isn't as if CZcams's administration and algorithm being incompetent and inconsistent about enforcing their arbitrary policy bs would exactly be news to anyone at this point.
NG3: "Do you not have a shred of empathy for these people you so mercilessly slaughter?" Me: "Please just help this dinosaur out, it keeps breaking it's own neck while trying to attack me"
First game: Have fun, shoot dudes. Second game: Do you hate yourself for shooting dudes while shooting dudes? Third game: If you are a dude you must shoot yourself to balance out all the dudes you shot in the last two games. Fourth game: We've remastered the first three games and bundled them together, but removed the scene with the woman's butt.
@@kawaki8436 Regent: Clones from fossil cells Ryu: Why? Regent: Why? Business, of course! How many children would like a dinosaur as a pet? And the technology even the richest man couldn't buy. However, there is another application.
@@deadlyninja112 that's the meme In his playthrough of the game, the game kept pestering him to buy the pixelizer, so even when he had the bolts, he would just not buy it out of spite.
So, that whole "I'm not scary" line doesn't even appear in the Japanese dub, where the conversation is VERY different. Mizuki basically refers to Ryu as "uncle" (ojisan), and in response Ryu is like "uh, uncle?" He doesn't deny being scary, but rather is surprised to be treated so casually as just another adult figure. As far as I can tell in the Japanese dub, Ryu is never in denial of his status as a murder machine; it's pretty clear he's at peace with that part of being a ninja in this universe. In fact, all the moralizing from the villains hilariously bounce off of him, and Ryu treats the Grip of Murder less like a moral dilemma and more like an obnoxious rash that comes with being a super good ninja, and just wants to get rid of it because it hinders the world-saving he needs to do. All the preachiness from the Alchemists and all the rationalizing from Ishigami and Mizuki seem like allegories for folks who opposed or struggled with video game violence, while Ryu represented Team Ninja sternly replying "We don't give a fuck about that, and you're crazy for thinking we care." As for being "socially adept", in Japanese, Ryu remains as disciplined and humorless as ever, but he does show a softer side to those he cares about, like Momiji, Sanji, and eventually Mizuki and Canna. But he's not giving any snarky one liners or smooth pep talks. He's a stone cold killer with zero remorse, but the "amazing" part is that he's still somehow human underneath it all, which is why he gets upset when he "kills" Theodore in front of Canna and she cries out "murderer!" He doesn't care about the murderer part, but he DOES care about the fact that he further traumatized an already traumatized innocent girl who he promised to protect. In short, the fact that Ryu comes off as this smooth-talking, hyper-normal, PR-coached bro deluded with his body-count is likely due to some very big liberties taken in localization. Edit: full disclosure, I'm basing my observations on the Razor's Edge version of NG3, which appeared to take a hard 180 on the tone and violence of the original, resulting in some stark thematic shifts that might not reflect what folks experienced in the vanilla iteration.
That actually makes a lot of sense. But I have a few questions since everyone of LOA is so jumpy about the prospect of Ryu enacting justice on the battlefield through murder. As a reminder these terrorists were about to end humanity as we know it and instilling their New World Order correct? So we're talking genocide on a global scale. The questions I like to be asked are, how many people did Ryu save? How many people would have died so the terrorists have their wish? How many people have LOA killed? And I'm not reffering simply trough their acts around the World I am talking about their experiments. LOA (and likely the localizers for the game), like to poke but they sure don't think a little bit ahead, had Ryu just simply laid down and hanged in the village, Canna, Mizuki and the rest of the World would probably be swimming in human bean juice by the end of the seven days.
i was on board with this comment post until it mentioned the 'bUt Hes SoMehOw HuMan uNderNeATh iT aLl' to present what it means to be a 'Human' by having a 'cOmPaSsIoNatE' side... this is becoming too too too overbearing, that i cant even properly elaborate or even go to my copied notes elaborating on how this Modern Ideological Dogma of setting a set of standards, can ultimately shift, twist and alter a perception of a Human being to what it's supposed to be as...
It’s funny because in Razor’s Edge, when the wizard dudes try the same thing on Ayane telling her about killing, her reaction basically amounts to “yeah, and?”
@@pessiopt9460The dude spends previous 2 games piling bodies of demons and some evil ninjas, even in this game the only bodies Ryu's piling are terrorists scums, and suddenly they pull the "you are a murderer Ryu Hayabusa !!"- argument ?
Ryu always striked as a "in the battlefield is either to kill or to be killed, and you should be willing to do both" kind of guy. This 'is Ryu a murderer' is so out of place
The biggest irony of the plot is that the people calling Ryu a murderer are planning to literally wipe out all of humanity. Ryu never unsheathes his blade unless it's to kill..... in order to avenge and protect.
@@HadesHatredEdge true, this dude preach on how Ryu is a murderer when they were the one that invade London and killed the Prime Minister, like "dude, you're a terrorist, stfu"
its the game trying to SOUND deep but without actually being deep or even thinking about what it's saying or how it's saying it. hell, this is like the first time Ryu actually murders normal ass people rather than anything supernatural or ninja
There could be something to the question of whether non-lethality could be a better solution in many situations, an examination of a character who views killing as a tool but asking "if all you have is a hammer won't you instictively see every problem like a nail?" Maybe even just a question of scale. If the game secretly had a bunch of non-lethal options that were more effective that would have been quite a shocker. Asking the player instead why their first instinct, as well as Ryu's, was murder. For example, non-lethal finishers that left opponents unconscious. Or maybe some harder to input combos that led to Arkham Asylum style takedowns. Hell, maybe even stealth which enabled entire pacifist playthroughs, where running, dodging and being sneaky was a viable way to play. Integrate it with the curse, with it consuming Ryu more as he kills more people. And the more you killed, the more often Steel and Bone triggered since killing just becomes that natural for Ryu. I dunno, feels like they had something going here but just half assed it
Terrorist cell: Kidnaps people, hold them ransom and kills them, threatens to destroy the world if they don't bend to their demands. *Ryu kills some terrorists* LOA: OMG, you're like so violent, I can't even right now.
I really like how he addresses the game's theme of Ryu's self reflection over his actions seriously, as a contained thing in the story and not with a hint of irony about it. Because what probably happened is that the early 2010s were the time for videogames to examine the violent interactions as part of the story (see Far Cry 3, the original NieR, Hotline Miami and Spec Ops The Line) and NINJA GAIDEN, of all things, decided to join in the "I don't have ludonarrative dissonance" train.
@@nyronarnold6024 That's just it, though. They WERE honestly trying to kill him, because that's just what his final test had to be in order be a proper successor and heir to the title of the Dragon Ninja. Ryu, as soon as he began training was drilled with the harsh reality of a ninja's upbringing - death is a natural part of their world even against friendly rivals.
I agree, the story of the game is kinda cool, is not great or good but it was a decent attempt into giving Ryu, a bland character some filling. All this games mayor flaws are the gameplay, specially if were an _early adopter_ and bought the vanilla version, not only is the gameplay just Ninja Gaiden 2 but bland (less interesting enemies, watered down mechanics, etc.) but the weapons Charlie mention were actually available in the OG release... as paid DLC. And it suffered another trend from the mid 2000 early 2010: _Let's put up a multiplayer mode the game even tough the target players don't care about it and/or the core gameplay does not fit in a multiplayer enviroment_
Ninja Gaiden doesn't need a story, just like Doom doesn't, people don't play Ninja Gaiden for story ,they play it for the high octane action, the 60fps, soundtrack and being a bad ass Ninja.
The whole dilemma of Ryu being a killer is just kinda stupid to me. Especially with the villains’ plan in mind. Remember in NG1 when the villain needed tons of murders to happen for their plan so they tricked Ryu by just telling him that the country he was going to was the ones who wiped out Hayabusa village? Remember when, instead of mocking him for killing, Murai’s note to him just says something to the effect of ‘blood will draw out the dark dragon blade, if you want to find the one who took it than start by destroying all in your path’ and Ryu just did it because he didn’t give a shit? I feel like they went with this story because it was more appealing on paper to casuals. I doubt most people who played 1&2 cared that much about how many monsters and underlings to a clearly evil villain they were killing. It just comes off really half hearted here.
I could see merit in the idea that taking the lives of even the lowest trash of people for a right cause would maybe start to take a bit of a toll on a seasoned warrior. Though the execution here? Ehhhh...
@@JoninJordan For as batshit goofy and memey as Metal Gear Rising did a great job with the idea in the part where Raiden is forced to hear the thoughts of his victims, the game ending with him accepting that his path may be violent and bloody, his actions questionable but he is ultimately fighting for what he sees as a better world. If Ryu were similarly questioning his actions, with a direct call back to how his path of vengeance in the first game unsealed the Dark Dragon Blade and now the curse being the manifestation of all the lives he's ended, it could be something. The segment with Hayabusa village and that kid who looks up to him representing the good Ryu fights for and the impact he's had. The True Dragon Sword curing him during finale when it's revealed ot cannot kill the innocent, confirming that Ryu is on the right path. Setting him up to be the Ryu of the classic trilogy. After NG 2 was bloody excessive butchery incarnate, probably wasn't the best idea for NG 3 to go the route it did, but that plot line could've been done a hell of a lot better than 3 did it.
I think ng games have a lot of parallels to the dmc series, ngb is the dmc1 of the series ng2 is the dmc 3 imo and ng3 is dmc 2, however ng3re is the dmc 4 imo. Yaiba would be the DmC dmc
I remember you mentioning you would cover NG3 a while back, only I didn't expect you to make an hour long fully detailed video. We appreciate your hard work, Brit. Don't overdo yourself.
I would argue that Ryu saying he isn't scary is simply him trying to comfort the child. It would be really weird if he was like "Don't come near me, I've murdered thousands" to a scared child
I've been sick lately and have been struggling to make the days go by. I was super happy to see this pop up in my subscription feed today. Your ramblings on video games mean more to people than you know. Thank you.
@@TheGamingBritShow yeah man you probably don't even realize how much of a positive impact your vids have on many people because of the honesty in them and good narrative. I can't even count anymore the times I've watched the SH2 vid or another horror slow paced review vid you uploaded so that I could relax or even fall asleep at times when I otherwise couldn't. This is the special about these vids that they are not just uploaded 2 months or 2 years ago and become forgotten, people come back to watch them again and again because of their quality. And of course we all thank you for that Brit !!
I'd honestly watch a wholeass first playthrough of that, especially if he started on the hardest available difficulty just to see how he approaches it.
I haven't played either versions but I have a theory: maybe the fact that enemies don't beg for mercy in Razor's Edge anymore is less about the uncomfortable nature of dismembered enemies begging and crying and more about the fact that those dismembered enemies still keep fighting you so it would be disingenuous of them to ask for your mercy but not show you any mercy of their own.
This game's story makes me appreciate MGR a lot more. That game also raises the ethical question that maybe the player character is a murderous psychopath but instead of some wishy washy half answer, Raiden embraces the fact that he's a deranged pyschopath and it becomes that games Devil Trigger
That game also fucking betrays all the character development he went through in both 2 and 4, so I really don’t think that’s the game that does this sort of question right. Honestly? The God of War series (PS4 game not included) did it best, especially since Kratos was never ‘redeemed’ or even capable of it.
@@JXZX1 If you keep returning to the battlefield after getting two chances to live a normal life, maybe you do enjoy killing, you know? The very nature of Rising happening after 4 makes that revelation a necessity. It also makes Riden a more compelling character to me. I'd say 4 betrayed his ending and the final message in 2 way harder than Rising does to 4, though that was likely done intentionally as an answer to the fanbase's reaction to Raiden as a character. Still, I like him in Rising, more than I like him in 4, where he's more like Gray Fox than Riden, with the whole wanting to die thing and no dorky moments which defined Riden in 2, and I still don't like that he was made a cyborg. Too bad we are likely never getting Metal Gear Rising 2: Lighting Returns, where his character arc from Revengeance could have been expanded upon.
@@genyakozlov1316 Some fair points here. 4 seemingly misses the point of MGS2’s ending. But I’d argue, by mechanically never allowing you to play as Raiden, and indeed still ending on the idea that Raiden is independent from both his past in war and his status as a tool of the player character, it ultimately still works for what Kojima intended. Rising, to me, would be ten times better if it simply weren’t a non-canon sequel to MGS4. Remember, Revengeance was the product of necessity: the original MGR was set in-between 2 and 4, explaining how Jack escaped the Patriots’ experiments. But because of development difficulties, Konami pawned off the scraps for Platinum to finish. I thus don’t think Raiden’s post MGS4’s return to the battlefield was artistically motivated. Platinum simply thought it’d be easier to introduce cooler, more advanced robotics to fight by setting it into the future, and they couldn’t think of a better protagonist than Raiden, even though the reason Raiden even exists is to highlight the dissonance between player and player character. In conclusion, Rising’s biggest fault is that it shoehorns Raiden into becoming just another action hero player character, thus depriving him of the agency that made him interesting in the first place. They could have avoided this fairly easily by simply creating an original player character: not one antagonist in MGR is extremely important to Raiden’s past, so you could easily write in some other cyborg ninja that actually would care about whatever Monsoon or Sam or Armstrong has to say.
@@JXZX1 MGS4 might as well be bad fanfiction, let alone MGR. Games are made to make money, not to end graciously. MGS2 works in such a way that you can literally pretend the canon ends there and it works.
GB keeps touching on something I call "Casualization." This is a trend that began with the 7th console generation. Here's how you can tell if your game was "casualized" *I'm sure someone else has used this term already, or another such term exists for this. 1) Adaptive difficulty (or options to manipulate difficulty) that punishes for playing well, or trivializes difficulty 2) Forced walking segments to make sure the player can't ignore the story 3) Incessant radio chatter so players can't forget the story 4) Characters that talk to themselves out loud so players know how to feel at any given moment 5) "Objective text" in a portion of the screen to make sure players don't forget what to do 6) Narrative centered around reprimanding or guilt tripping the player for having fun playing their game 7) Reduced skill ceiling for more "cinematic presentation" during moment to moment gameplay 8) Forced gameplay segments to reinforce point 6 --- Here are some NG3 isn't guilty of 9) Illusion of choice for a developer to project contemporary postmodern sensibilities onto the player 10) Limited on-screen enemy count because muh graphics 11) Forced moments of narration during gameplay of the developer trying to talk directly to the player about their opinions on a controversial topic, via an onscreen avatar 12) Product placement that doesn't serve the world of the game 13) A cast of characters, or a single character, that state(s) what they represent before introducing who they are 14) "RPG elements" to circumvent skill and incentivize grinding or microtransactions- a side effect of trivializing skill
Wait but Shinji Mikami uses adaptive difficulty all the time in his games. Even making it up front as a main mechanic/system in God Hand. But God Hand as everyone already knows is not a casual game.
But then again... God Hand doesn't punish the player for playing well with its adapted difficulty, it just makes the enemies be on the same level as a skilled player.
@@therentpursuer9869 You make a good point. I may need to adjust that. My favorite game of all time, the original Resident Evil 3, incorporates some degree of difficulty manipulation as well. In RE3's case, items and appearances of the game's main antagonist are altered in the background based on a number of variables- one of which is thought to be the amount of damage the player takes. Another zombie game, Left 4 Dead, does this, but to a degree that is- what I would consider- the abject version: playing on Normal but playing well ratchets up difficulty to the Expert level, only without adjusting the amount of damage enemies do. God Hand and RE4 incorporate aspects of casualization, the latter moreso with regards to items. Perhaps those three games are precursors to the more blatant stuff in western games.
Many years ago I had a minor argument on GameFAQs' NGS2 board. Someone said that moving forward NG should be more cinematic and have QTEs like GoW. I told him that that was a horrible idea and NG should stick to it's own style. Looking back on it now is a little funny.
@@Crit7k Tons, a lot of them for the worse. Stuff like lowering enemy numbers and upping the health of enemies, essentially getting rid of 2’s dismemberment system, censoring the violence, that sort of thing. The source code for Black and 2 are apparently lost/damaged enough they couldn’t use them for this trilogy release so they’re releasing the inferior versions instead (aside from 3’s Razor’s Edge but 3’s still not that good even with the update)
@@wildonionchase3934 Damn thats extremely disapointing to hear..... ill have to find a way to be able to play the ogs on my pc... no way in hell im playing sigma
From the looks of SOB alone, it almost makes me wanna excuse all of the game’s shortcomings. Every time I’ve seen it in the video, I can feel it doing something in my brain satisfying me.
Any Plans to do Reviews for Nioh? They are basically set in the same world, maybe Nioh3 will also have a part, where they tell you about the dinosaurs.
The dark age of AAA gaming. Walking segments, cinematic approach, QTEs, handholding... Looking back, it's safe to say that Indies brought back Game Design.
The indies, maybe even just the Japanese. Again. Hard for me to remember exactly when those crappy trends took over but I definitely remember which games ushered them in. Many western AAA games are still guilty of all these. Did it start with Gears of War?
I mean, said indie titles took inspiration from previous Japanese titles. So it could have just been western devs caring about making good games over derivative trend-chasing crap. Which then lead to the Japanese game design philosophy get a sort of resurgence by the time 8th gen consoles came around.
Let’s not forget the political and forced dark and more “emotional” stories that, while sometimes they can be good, more often than not lacked execution in the writing
Here’s an idea for how to fix the curse, though it would be a MAJOR rework. For combat scenarios, have it trigger when all enemies in the area are defeated. Once it’s active, the souls of the enemies Ryu just killed will come back as mangled corpses that have crazier moves than their standard counterparts. This could also lead to even crazier boss battles. One minute you’re killing a clumsy T-Rex, the next you’re fighting a T-Rex with giant arm blades and a split head. Another idea is that the souls of dead enemies will (rarely) pull Ryu into the weird limbo world in Razor’s Edge where they try to drive him insane, and he has to find a way out. It doesn’t really fit with the core gameplay of Ninja Gaiden, but I thought it would be something interesting that would catch the player off guard.
AS a full package I still feel NG3 Razor's Edge always gave a pretty big bang for your buck even allowing you to play any stage as any of the extra characters you wanted to once you beat the game as well as giving them their own upgrade paths. I would say at the very least it's Hayashi's best work on the franchise. Seeing as he improved vastly on his own design rather then arguably ruining or at least significantly altering the direction with the sigma games. Also I can't see anyone wanting the roll back instead of the far superior slide move in NG3 it just feels so much better. NG2 is still my favorite as a pure action game but I can at least offer grudging respect for NG3 RE and what it tried to do.
I just beat the collection and I am so upset at how wasted he was. Lol I thought it was going to turn out to be Cliff, which would have made more sense.
I take issue with the fact that all of a sudden Ryu is being labeled as "morally gray" when ALL of his opponents have either been irredeemable villains or literal fiends/demons. Like, besides the "Cana's father" thing, there was never a situation where he murders an innocent family, or some innocent bystander. Hell, he SPARES the scientists in the LOA facility in Razor's Edge. Lol
Would have been better if the quote towards the end of the game was was translated to. "Yes Ryu you are a murderer, but everyone you killed were also bad people who would have gone on to murder innocent people. So in that respect you are also a Hero to those who don't know of your existence. That's what it means to be a Ninja."
It's so weird watching Ninja Gaiden look more like Ninja Blade than Itself. Especially when the Combat in NG looked so tight anyway, with more scripted moments that looked like quick time events thanks to the Charge attacks and essence system. If the devs wanted to lower the barrier for entry, or just make doing the cool stuff easier, A Automatic (a la DMC) might have been a better fit. Edit: Oh Damn Razor Edge looks way interesting
Boss Health bars, more Ninpo, and upgrade functions, new weapons and collectibles are back in Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge (FYI) The reason why I like the enhanced versions of the Ninja Gaiden series (Sigma and Razor's Edge) because of extras and returning features. Oh yes and even amputations/dismemberment are back and even healing is easier by chaining Steel on Bone combos. There may still be no essence, but the Karma Points make up for that as the game's currency for upgrades and the Kunai Climb sequences are faster than the original. Rope mechanic is removed as well.
Dropping this in the middle of the might. One could say like a ninja would do it. Jokes aside I genuily love your content and listen to it like a podcast on the regulary. Thanks for all the work you buff british Gamer
A lot of Japanese games were suffering from this at the time, particular Capcom. However, unlike the Capcom examples, NG3 was actually developed in Japan and not outsourced to a Western developer.
@@NucleaRaptor To being honest, Ryu saying that instead would have been better considering that it's the reaction 90% of the players had to that awful scene. It would have also indicated the game had at least a bit of self-awareness of how pretentious the writing was.
@@jjtheenton Nah, Keiji Inafune (former capcom producer who infamously led the westernized influence on Capcom until 2013) already got that covered. It's called Yaiba: Ninja Gaizen Z. His Might No 9 dev team co-developed this game with an unknown western dev company, and this company got sadly closed down after the spinoff's failure. Everything Inafune touches becomes trash. (Except Dead Rising 1, which is only because its developed internally by Capcom devs)
I dont know........ if some points a gun at you and trys to shoot you is it murder to kill them in self defense or stopping them from destroying the world?
But I do kinda do that on anime with the demon brothers. You would think Dante will feel the same way because he did the samething too his bother but they don't do nothing with it.
In DMC, the story is grounded in being a family drama instead of being grounded in ethics. In MGR, the story is grounded in ethics and politics. In NG3, the story is about ethics but isn't grounded in it.
Ryu is a soldier in a war where there's no other alternative but to kill other soldiers. He isn't a guy like Punisher where you can argue about the political and social reasons the people he kills do what they do.
I'm honestly surprised that you didn't mention DMC even in areas where it was okay to do so, like the upgrade system for example. Nevertheless, loved the long analysis as usual :)
The whole narrative thta questions Ryu's motivation collapses immediately once you realized that on this game he specifically targets terrorists, the exact same people that have taken over London, experimented on humans, kidnapped a child later on and probably kills many already off-screen
The level design for this game is just boring and repetitive. Its literally jog for 5 seconds then BOOM a large battle arena to fight waves and waves of the same little variety enemies. Rinse and repeat for 90% of the gameplay.
Just realise he says "the stage should've been set" near the start of the vid to reference the fact that the characters mirror certain roles in the theatre, this vid is genius actually
Man,i Really hope the Masters collection is an indication for NG4 Announcement in the near future.And btw you should try the new Samurai Jack game which is apperently made by the Ex Team Ninja staff and supervised by none other than Tomonobu Itagaki himself,it's like a PG 13 Ninja Gaiden and a pretty good one at that.
Recently finished the first two of your reviews for Ninja Gaiden, been looking forward to this ! Stellar reviews overall and the quality, scripting and everything that goes in have always been amazing, looking forward to watching this now ! Keep up the amazing work !
The Hero vs Killer thing, when I think about it, feels like something that makes sense to think about if you've obly seen about 5 minutes of NG gameplay But personally Ryu's character in B&2 comes off as someone who understands the weight of what he does. He doesn't seem Naive about this to me, he just does it because it needs to happen, his whole bloodline just fought for justice because it's what they do. Just my headcanon though, but if I followed it, it makes 3's story even weaker to me. I think Karma mattering is cool, and having multiple ways to use Ninpo energy is cool and something I think could've been expanded upon, but yeah it misses the comeback potential of older games. And without blue essence or items, there's not nearly enough healing in other areas (like SoB, and Ninpo's not as easy to come by), so while I think the NG Dance is still here somewhat, it's not as refined Bloody Rage does keep you from spamming UTs, and it has a bit of a "How far can I go without using this?" element that isn't in others since you can use the BR State to get more Karma, but like the other changes, takes away the comeback potential
I'm thrilled you went and covered the fascinating NG3....rerelease? Re-make? Redo? Overhaul??? I'd never had an experience quite like how radically, fascinatingly different than NG3 and Razor's Edge and I'll be completely honest, I wasn't entirely sure I hadn't just hallucinated Razor's Edge existing.
31:10 Funny enough, I checked on the Japanese dub of this scene and she calls Ryu an ojisan (uncle or middle-aged man), and his response is just "ojisan??". The localizers probably thought they were cooking so hard changing a joke exchange like that.
Oh man, this game. This game single-handedly taught me to *never* do pre-orders again. I love the Ninja Gaiden series, having grown up on NGII on NES with a copy that was unstable at best and usually started corrupting the sprites by the fourth level. I played NGS for a year spamming ultimates and UF for karma. When this game was announced, I was all to happy to throw money at it, as I was young and naive. I played it on release and within three days, had beaten it on hard spamming chanin SoB and instant ultimates (when landing from a jump, if you time the ultimate input as you land, the startup frames are completely bypassed, a series staple). I never played it again;. The game condemns murder, but by the end of a run, Ryu has 2700+ kills.
Did you know you can absorb the essence rapidly by landing from a jump and pressing the heavy attack button works across all 3 games and really changes up haw you play
As a speedrunner of NG3: Razor's Edge I can't wait to sit down and watch this after work today, it's gonna be a long day of anticipation. Every now and then I will stream the Vanilla version and just sit back and watch people realize how bad it was and what a real upgrade RE was, though Vanilla does feel like it was an early beta that went to production, especially with RE coming out just 9 months later and drastically changed. You can't turn around a games mechanics that fast unless it was planned all along. Now if you will excuse me *Puts on tinfoil hat*
Razor's Edge might just be a glorified level pack, but Kasumi is my favorite Ryu weapon so that alone does a lot for me. I also kinda appreciate the enemy composition, in previous games i found there's a lot of opportunities for doing raw ultimate attack without essence by just getting some space and letting them get close, RE usually throws more ranged guys to stop your raw ultimate shenanigans so at the very least you have to take care of them first if you wanna abuse
They could've justified that half-ass Ryu characterization by just saying taking no prisoners is a specific tenet of his bushido or whatever and that the guy begging for his life had previously been shooting at him, therefore his life was forfeit no matter what, and maybe had Ryu question this ever so slightly but still kill the guy. Ryu is a very rigid, logical character, having him suddenly be presented as like a bloodthirsty emotionless murderer was a very poor choice. Not that a better version of the story would've saved this game.
Hi, everyone, hope you're enjoying the new video! This video was a real tough one to make and unfortunately due to the high levels of violent gameplay I wasn't willing to censor, this video has received limited ads. If you'd like to support this kind of content please consider backing me at: www.patreon.com/thegamingbritshow Thanks again!
Its weird that your video got limited ads when none of the ninja gaiden 3 razors edge videos i've uploaded have a yellow tag. they are all green.
I'm glad that you choose to keep the game as it is personally, censorship on videos like these just to make the please CZcams overlords would feel tacky, I'd much rather give you money for making a bolder choice then if you just blurred the image any time some of that spooky blood would show up on screen
@@CaptDnaDonut Well it isn't as if CZcams's administration and algorithm being incompetent and inconsistent about enforcing their arbitrary policy bs would exactly be news to anyone at this point.
@@jondoe7036 I'm not surprised. it's just weird.
@@CaptDnaDonut That it is.
NG3: "Are you a murderer or a hero?"
Me: "Don't know game, I'm just trying to fight this giant robot dinosaur."
Basically contemporary western AAA games even to this day.
NG3: "Do you not have a shred of empathy for these people you so mercilessly slaughter?"
Me: "Please just help this dinosaur out, it keeps breaking it's own neck while trying to attack me"
"Tell me about the dinosaurs"
*ryu has already saved the world twice, currently going for third
Ng3: "is he a hero or a villain?"
Such deep themes! Just the thing I want from my sci-fi wall hopping ninja action game.
First game: Have fun, shoot dudes.
Second game: Do you hate yourself for shooting dudes while shooting dudes?
Third game: If you are a dude you must shoot yourself to balance out all the dudes you shot in the last two games.
Fourth game: We've remastered the first three games and bundled them together, but removed the scene with the woman's butt.
Is that question more or less ridiculous than the game just saying "the answer is no"?
He is neither hero nor villain, he is just a man who needs to know about the dinosaurs.
Prof pic SSS
Ryu is a simple man: he sees a dinousaur, he asks about it.
Clones from fossil cells
tell me about the dinosaurs.
@@kawaki8436
Regent: Clones from fossil cells
Ryu: Why?
Regent: Why? Business, of course! How many children would like a dinosaur as a pet? And the technology even the richest man couldn't buy. However, there is another application.
I kind of like number 3 especially that mission
Tell me about the dinosaurs - everyone wanting Dino Crisis
I can't believe Charlie can't escape the Pixelizer even in Ninja Gaiden
I imagined he was sick of the meme by now but he brought it up himself lol
Legends say that hoarding bolts isn't helping the economy. So you should come and buy a pixelizer
@@theshadynorwegian6036 it’s a good investment they say
His ratchet and clank video was below this when i saw this comment...R&C ps4 has a weapon called the pixelizer lol
@@deadlyninja112 that's the meme
In his playthrough of the game, the game kept pestering him to buy the pixelizer, so even when he had the bolts, he would just not buy it out of spite.
Can't wait 3 years for the 2-hour long review of YAIBA: Ninja Gaiden Z
Unironically want this. That game was a beautiful dumpster fire.
Honestly I preferred Yaiba to 3. And I'll fight to defend that point
@@AlexGreat321 Nobody is willing to fight mentally disabled
@@bellinthedungeon4515 you can still be a functioning member of society. Don't worry about it
@@AlexGreat321 aint nobody trying to stress over either of those games anymore except maybe GamingBrit apparently. You already won that debate
"Tell me about the dinosaurs." -Ryu Hayabusa
🦕🦖
Hayabusa is secretly a Turok fan it seems
Ryu only asking the Important questions here
@@Doralga TUROK series review when?
@@Doralga And his favorite movie franchise is Jurassic Park🦖
So, that whole "I'm not scary" line doesn't even appear in the Japanese dub, where the conversation is VERY different. Mizuki basically refers to Ryu as "uncle" (ojisan), and in response Ryu is like "uh, uncle?" He doesn't deny being scary, but rather is surprised to be treated so casually as just another adult figure.
As far as I can tell in the Japanese dub, Ryu is never in denial of his status as a murder machine; it's pretty clear he's at peace with that part of being a ninja in this universe. In fact, all the moralizing from the villains hilariously bounce off of him, and Ryu treats the Grip of Murder less like a moral dilemma and more like an obnoxious rash that comes with being a super good ninja, and just wants to get rid of it because it hinders the world-saving he needs to do. All the preachiness from the Alchemists and all the rationalizing from Ishigami and Mizuki seem like allegories for folks who opposed or struggled with video game violence, while Ryu represented Team Ninja sternly replying "We don't give a fuck about that, and you're crazy for thinking we care."
As for being "socially adept", in Japanese, Ryu remains as disciplined and humorless as ever, but he does show a softer side to those he cares about, like Momiji, Sanji, and eventually Mizuki and Canna. But he's not giving any snarky one liners or smooth pep talks. He's a stone cold killer with zero remorse, but the "amazing" part is that he's still somehow human underneath it all, which is why he gets upset when he "kills" Theodore in front of Canna and she cries out "murderer!" He doesn't care about the murderer part, but he DOES care about the fact that he further traumatized an already traumatized innocent girl who he promised to protect.
In short, the fact that Ryu comes off as this smooth-talking, hyper-normal, PR-coached bro deluded with his body-count is likely due to some very big liberties taken in localization.
Edit: full disclosure, I'm basing my observations on the Razor's Edge version of NG3, which appeared to take a hard 180 on the tone and violence of the original, resulting in some stark thematic shifts that might not reflect what folks experienced in the vanilla iteration.
That sounds much better than the story we got. I wonder if there's a way have the subtitles reflect that and just switch it to Japanese...
That actually makes a lot of sense. But I have a few questions since everyone of LOA is so jumpy about the prospect of Ryu enacting justice on the battlefield through murder.
As a reminder these terrorists were about to end humanity as we know it and instilling their New World Order correct? So we're talking genocide on a global scale. The questions I like to be asked are, how many people did Ryu save? How many people would have died so the terrorists have their wish? How many people have LOA killed? And I'm not reffering simply trough their acts around the World I am talking about their experiments. LOA (and likely the localizers for the game), like to poke but they sure don't think a little bit ahead, had Ryu just simply laid down and hanged in the village, Canna, Mizuki and the rest of the World would probably be swimming in human bean juice by the end of the seven days.
Wow.
Jeez, that’s a million times better. We got robbed apparently.
i was on board with this comment post until it mentioned the 'bUt Hes SoMehOw HuMan uNderNeATh iT aLl' to present what it means to be a 'Human' by having a 'cOmPaSsIoNatE' side...
this is becoming too too too overbearing, that i cant even properly elaborate or even go to my copied notes elaborating on how this Modern Ideological Dogma of setting a set of standards, can ultimately shift, twist and alter a perception of a Human being to what it's supposed to be as...
Imagine how perfect it would be if Ryu, when being confronted about his innumerable body count, just let out a “You get used to it”
That'd be badass.
"I missed the part where that's my problem"
It’s funny because in Razor’s Edge, when the wizard dudes try the same thing on Ayane telling her about killing, her reaction basically amounts to “yeah, and?”
Like Jak X? Lol
@@pessiopt9460The dude spends previous 2 games piling bodies of demons and some evil ninjas, even in this game the only bodies Ryu's piling are terrorists scums, and suddenly they pull the "you are a murderer Ryu Hayabusa !!"- argument ?
Ryu always striked as a "in the battlefield is either to kill or to be killed, and you should be willing to do both" kind of guy. This 'is Ryu a murderer' is so out of place
The biggest irony of the plot is that the people calling Ryu a murderer are planning to literally wipe out all of humanity. Ryu never unsheathes his blade unless it's to kill..... in order to avenge and protect.
@@HadesHatredEdge true, this dude preach on how Ryu is a murderer when they were the one that invade London and killed the Prime Minister, like "dude, you're a terrorist, stfu"
its the game trying to SOUND deep but without actually being deep or even thinking about what it's saying or how it's saying it.
hell, this is like the first time Ryu actually murders normal ass people rather than anything supernatural or ninja
@@HadesHatredEdge So exactly like real life then?
There could be something to the question of whether non-lethality could be a better solution in many situations, an examination of a character who views killing as a tool but asking "if all you have is a hammer won't you instictively see every problem like a nail?" Maybe even just a question of scale.
If the game secretly had a bunch of non-lethal options that were more effective that would have been quite a shocker. Asking the player instead why their first instinct, as well as Ryu's, was murder. For example, non-lethal finishers that left opponents unconscious. Or maybe some harder to input combos that led to Arkham Asylum style takedowns. Hell, maybe even stealth which enabled entire pacifist playthroughs, where running, dodging and being sneaky was a viable way to play. Integrate it with the curse, with it consuming Ryu more as he kills more people. And the more you killed, the more often Steel and Bone triggered since killing just becomes that natural for Ryu.
I dunno, feels like they had something going here but just half assed it
"You're not a murderer"
Dragon Blade goes slice slice 🗡️
Honestly the best part of Razor's Edge for me is being able to play as Kasumi
"Tell me about the Pixelizer." -Ratchet Hayabusa
I'm dead. X'D
Terrorist cell: Kidnaps people, hold them ransom and kills them, threatens to destroy the world if they don't bend to their demands.
*Ryu kills some terrorists*
LOA: OMG, you're like so violent, I can't even right now.
Impaling that old guy and shutting him up was the only emotionally-investing part of the story.
@@Snacks256 I GOT SOMEONE TO SHUT UP! WHY AM I SLOWALKING HERE?
I really like how he addresses the game's theme of Ryu's self reflection over his actions seriously, as a contained thing in the story and not with a hint of irony about it. Because what probably happened is that the early 2010s were the time for videogames to examine the violent interactions as part of the story (see Far Cry 3, the original NieR, Hotline Miami and Spec Ops The Line) and NINJA GAIDEN, of all things, decided to join in the "I don't have ludonarrative dissonance" train.
It's stupid to think that he'd have a crisis of conscience after saving the world twice over now, from clear threats to innocent lives.
@@SilverNightbane He didn't have to murder Murai's Henchmen in NG1 if it was all "Training."
@@nyronarnold6024 That's just it, though. They WERE honestly trying to kill him, because that's just what his final test had to be in order be a proper successor and heir to the title of the Dragon Ninja. Ryu, as soon as he began training was drilled with the harsh reality of a ninja's upbringing - death is a natural part of their world even against friendly rivals.
I agree, the story of the game is kinda cool, is not great or good but it was a decent attempt into giving Ryu, a bland character some filling.
All this games mayor flaws are the gameplay, specially if were an _early adopter_ and bought the vanilla version, not only is the gameplay just Ninja Gaiden 2 but bland (less interesting enemies, watered down mechanics, etc.) but the weapons Charlie mention were actually available in the OG release... as paid DLC.
And it suffered another trend from the mid 2000 early 2010: _Let's put up a multiplayer mode the game even tough the target players don't care about it and/or the core gameplay does not fit in a multiplayer enviroment_
Ninja Gaiden doesn't need a story, just like Doom doesn't, people don't play Ninja Gaiden for story ,they play it for the high octane action, the 60fps, soundtrack and being a bad ass Ninja.
The whole dilemma of Ryu being a killer is just kinda stupid to me. Especially with the villains’ plan in mind. Remember in NG1 when the villain needed tons of murders to happen for their plan so they tricked Ryu by just telling him that the country he was going to was the ones who wiped out Hayabusa village? Remember when, instead of mocking him for killing, Murai’s note to him just says something to the effect of ‘blood will draw out the dark dragon blade, if you want to find the one who took it than start by destroying all in your path’ and Ryu just did it because he didn’t give a shit?
I feel like they went with this story because it was more appealing on paper to casuals. I doubt most people who played 1&2 cared that much about how many monsters and underlings to a clearly evil villain they were killing. It just comes off really half hearted here.
I could see merit in the idea that taking the lives of even the lowest trash of people for a right cause would maybe start to take a bit of a toll on a seasoned warrior.
Though the execution here? Ehhhh...
@@JoninJordan For as batshit goofy and memey as Metal Gear Rising did a great job with the idea in the part where Raiden is forced to hear the thoughts of his victims, the game ending with him accepting that his path may be violent and bloody, his actions questionable but he is ultimately fighting for what he sees as a better world.
If Ryu were similarly questioning his actions, with a direct call back to how his path of vengeance in the first game unsealed the Dark Dragon Blade and now the curse being the manifestation of all the lives he's ended, it could be something. The segment with Hayabusa village and that kid who looks up to him representing the good Ryu fights for and the impact he's had. The True Dragon Sword curing him during finale when it's revealed ot cannot kill the innocent, confirming that Ryu is on the right path. Setting him up to be the Ryu of the classic trilogy.
After NG 2 was bloody excessive butchery incarnate, probably wasn't the best idea for NG 3 to go the route it did, but that plot line could've been done a hell of a lot better than 3 did it.
@@zeroattentiongaming820 A shame really
If DmC resulted in Devil May Cry 5, then hopefully Ninja Gaiden 3 and Yaiba: NGZ can result in a Ninja Gaiden 4.
I certainly hope so. Cause we need a team that cares about the OG fans and even new fans to make a SOLID NG4 that rivals how good Black and NG2 was.
I'd be curious to see how they handle NG after focusing on Nioh.
I think ng games have a lot of parallels to the dmc series, ngb is the dmc1 of the series ng2 is the dmc 3 imo and ng3 is dmc 2, however ng3re is the dmc 4 imo. Yaiba would be the DmC dmc
They resulted in Nioh.
@@SoriduSnakeu The Hayabusa bossfights in both Niohs are a real pain in the ass.
>getting the positives out of the way first
>1 hr vid
Oh man, that bad, huh?
I remember you mentioning you would cover NG3 a while back, only I didn't expect you to make an hour long fully detailed video. We appreciate your hard work, Brit. Don't overdo yourself.
Haha thanks, I'll be taking a moment to recharge after this one.
@@TheGamingBritShow : )
@@TheGamingBritShow is that a recharge before "Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z" review? Lmao
not to worry, he hardly put any work into this at all
I would argue that Ryu saying he isn't scary is simply him trying to comfort the child. It would be really weird if he was like "Don't come near me, I've murdered thousands" to a scared child
"Here. Shake my blood soaked, veiny hand.
"A gang of wizards who caved and bought the PIXELIZER" - 3:26
I hated those guys! They're a pain in the back to deal with!
just helping the economy
Your not helping the economy by hoarding all those bolts come and buy a pixelizer
I've been sick lately and have been struggling to make the days go by. I was super happy to see this pop up in my subscription feed today.
Your ramblings on video games mean more to people than you know. Thank you.
That's awesome, glad it helped!
@@TheGamingBritShow yeah man you probably don't even realize how much of a positive impact your vids have on many people because of the honesty in them and good narrative. I can't even count anymore the times I've watched the SH2 vid or another horror slow paced review vid you uploaded so that I could relax or even fall asleep at times when I otherwise couldn't. This is the special about these vids that they are not just uploaded 2 months or 2 years ago and become forgotten, people come back to watch them again and again because of their quality. And of course we all thank you for that Brit !!
"Tell me about the dinosaurs"
You mean the Brain-eating Zombie T-Rex?
i've died and gone to nerd heaven
@@VideoMajima nerd
@@chumunga648 i like him
Hey, does anyone know if Ratchet can breathe underwater?
@@tomgillan5243 gay
Can't wait for TGB's next Ninja Gaiden review, Samurai Jack Battle Through Time!
I'd honestly watch a wholeass first playthrough of that, especially if he started on the hardest available difficulty just to see how he approaches it.
I haven't played either versions but I have a theory: maybe the fact that enemies don't beg for mercy in Razor's Edge anymore is less about the uncomfortable nature of dismembered enemies begging and crying and more about the fact that those dismembered enemies still keep fighting you so it would be disingenuous of them to ask for your mercy but not show you any mercy of their own.
It's bringing back a bit of the aggressiveness of the past games.
I think it kinda slowed down the pace of the fight back then.
I mean... Razors edge let me commit bloody murder as Kasumi.... soooo I don’t see this as a bad thing.
0:00 Introduction
0:45 Gameplay
25:56 Story
42:04 Razor’s Edge
56:07 Conclusion
This game's story makes me appreciate MGR a lot more. That game also raises the ethical question that maybe the player character is a murderous psychopath but instead of some wishy washy half answer, Raiden embraces the fact that he's a deranged pyschopath and it becomes that games Devil Trigger
That game also fucking betrays all the character development he went through in both 2 and 4, so I really don’t think that’s the game that does this sort of question right.
Honestly? The God of War series (PS4 game not included) did it best, especially since Kratos was never ‘redeemed’ or even capable of it.
@@JXZX1 If you keep returning to the battlefield after getting two chances to live a normal life, maybe you do enjoy killing, you know? The very nature of Rising happening after 4 makes that revelation a necessity. It also makes Riden a more compelling character to me.
I'd say 4 betrayed his ending and the final message in 2 way harder than Rising does to 4, though that was likely done intentionally as an answer to the fanbase's reaction to Raiden as a character. Still, I like him in Rising, more than I like him in 4, where he's more like Gray Fox than Riden, with the whole wanting to die thing and no dorky moments which defined Riden in 2, and I still don't like that he was made a cyborg.
Too bad we are likely never getting Metal Gear Rising 2: Lighting Returns, where his character arc from Revengeance could have been expanded upon.
sometimes you just gotta be the bad guy to get the job done.
@@genyakozlov1316 Some fair points here. 4 seemingly misses the point of MGS2’s ending. But I’d argue, by mechanically never allowing you to play as Raiden, and indeed still ending on the idea that Raiden is independent from both his past in war and his status as a tool of the player character, it ultimately still works for what Kojima intended.
Rising, to me, would be ten times better if it simply weren’t a non-canon sequel to MGS4. Remember, Revengeance was the product of necessity: the original MGR was set in-between 2 and 4, explaining how Jack escaped the Patriots’ experiments. But because of development difficulties, Konami pawned off the scraps for Platinum to finish. I thus don’t think Raiden’s post MGS4’s return to the battlefield was artistically motivated. Platinum simply thought it’d be easier to introduce cooler, more advanced robotics to fight by setting it into the future, and they couldn’t think of a better protagonist than Raiden, even though the reason Raiden even exists is to highlight the dissonance between player and player character.
In conclusion, Rising’s biggest fault is that it shoehorns Raiden into becoming just another action hero player character, thus depriving him of the agency that made him interesting in the first place. They could have avoided this fairly easily by simply creating an original player character: not one antagonist in MGR is extremely important to Raiden’s past, so you could easily write in some other cyborg ninja that actually would care about whatever Monsoon or Sam or Armstrong has to say.
@@JXZX1 MGS4 might as well be bad fanfiction, let alone MGR. Games are made to make money, not to end graciously. MGS2 works in such a way that you can literally pretend the canon ends there and it works.
GB keeps touching on something I call "Casualization." This is a trend that began with the 7th console generation. Here's how you can tell if your game was "casualized"
*I'm sure someone else has used this term already, or another such term exists for this.
1) Adaptive difficulty (or options to manipulate difficulty) that punishes for playing well, or trivializes difficulty
2) Forced walking segments to make sure the player can't ignore the story
3) Incessant radio chatter so players can't forget the story
4) Characters that talk to themselves out loud so players know how to feel at any given moment
5) "Objective text" in a portion of the screen to make sure players don't forget what to do
6) Narrative centered around reprimanding or guilt tripping the player for having fun playing their game
7) Reduced skill ceiling for more "cinematic presentation" during moment to moment gameplay
8) Forced gameplay segments to reinforce point 6
--- Here are some NG3 isn't guilty of
9) Illusion of choice for a developer to project contemporary postmodern sensibilities onto the player
10) Limited on-screen enemy count because muh graphics
11) Forced moments of narration during gameplay of the developer trying to talk directly to the player about their opinions on a controversial topic, via an onscreen avatar
12) Product placement that doesn't serve the world of the game
13) A cast of characters, or a single character, that state(s) what they represent before introducing who they are
14) "RPG elements" to circumvent skill and incentivize grinding or microtransactions- a side effect of trivializing skill
Wait but Shinji Mikami uses adaptive difficulty all the time in his games. Even making it up front as a main mechanic/system in God Hand. But God Hand as everyone already knows is not a casual game.
But then again... God Hand doesn't punish the player for playing well with its adapted difficulty, it just makes the enemies be on the same level as a skilled player.
@@therentpursuer9869 You make a good point. I may need to adjust that. My favorite game of all time, the original Resident Evil 3, incorporates some degree of difficulty manipulation as well. In RE3's case, items and appearances of the game's main antagonist are altered in the background based on a number of variables- one of which is thought to be the amount of damage the player takes. Another zombie game, Left 4 Dead, does this, but to a degree that is- what I would consider- the abject version: playing on Normal but playing well ratchets up difficulty to the Expert level, only without adjusting the amount of damage enemies do.
God Hand and RE4 incorporate aspects of casualization, the latter moreso with regards to items. Perhaps those three games are precursors to the more blatant stuff in western games.
The point may still stand given God Hand and RE4 were both on sixth gen consoles.
Many years ago I had a minor argument on GameFAQs' NGS2 board. Someone said that moving forward NG should be more cinematic and have QTEs like GoW. I told him that that was a horrible idea and NG should stick to it's own style.
Looking back on it now is a little funny.
Now it's time for him to miserably eventually crawl to make a YAIBA: Ninja Gaiden z video
>miserably crawl
yfw Charlie glows red and prepares to deliver a last-ditch finishing blow
Yaiba makes DmC looks like a masterpiece
@@kermitwithamustache3885 At least DmC got a re-release that made the game good
This game was such a limp way for the franchise to go out. Here's to hoping it comes back strong some day soon.
Well all of the games are being remastered for pc ps4 and xbox one and releasing on the 10th of june, so theres still hope :)
@@Crit7k Too bad they’re the Sigma versions of 1 and 2
@@wildonionchase3934 Whats the difference? I've only ever played the original xbox and 360 versions
@@Crit7k Tons, a lot of them for the worse. Stuff like lowering enemy numbers and upping the health of enemies, essentially getting rid of 2’s dismemberment system, censoring the violence, that sort of thing. The source code for Black and 2 are apparently lost/damaged enough they couldn’t use them for this trilogy release so they’re releasing the inferior versions instead (aside from 3’s Razor’s Edge but 3’s still not that good even with the update)
@@wildonionchase3934 Damn thats extremely disapointing to hear..... ill have to find a way to be able to play the ogs on my pc... no way in hell im playing sigma
From the looks of SOB alone, it almost makes me wanna excuse all of the game’s shortcomings. Every time I’ve seen it in the video, I can feel it doing something in my brain satisfying me.
Ninja Gaiden is like an inverse DMC; it's second game is awesome as all hell, but the third became it's downfall.
Only NG3 actually tried to get a fixed version in Razors Edge :P
@@youmeltube A pretty good fix
Any Plans to do Reviews for Nioh?
They are basically set in the same world, maybe Nioh3 will also have a part, where they tell you about the dinosaurs.
supposedly there wont be more nioh games
The dark age of AAA gaming. Walking segments, cinematic approach, QTEs, handholding... Looking back, it's safe to say that Indies brought back Game Design.
The indies, maybe even just the Japanese. Again. Hard for me to remember exactly when those crappy trends took over but I definitely remember which games ushered them in. Many western AAA games are still guilty of all these. Did it start with Gears of War?
I mean, said indie titles took inspiration from previous Japanese titles. So it could have just been western devs caring about making good games over derivative trend-chasing crap. Which then lead to the Japanese game design philosophy get a sort of resurgence by the time 8th gen consoles came around.
Let’s not forget the political and forced dark and more “emotional” stories that, while sometimes they can be good, more often than not lacked execution in the writing
GoW Sigmacock still does it... Trully a masterpiece.
Here’s an idea for how to fix the curse, though it would be a MAJOR rework. For combat scenarios, have it trigger when all enemies in the area are defeated. Once it’s active, the souls of the enemies Ryu just killed will come back as mangled corpses that have crazier moves than their standard counterparts. This could also lead to even crazier boss battles. One minute you’re killing a clumsy T-Rex, the next you’re fighting a T-Rex with giant arm blades and a split head.
Another idea is that the souls of dead enemies will (rarely) pull Ryu into the weird limbo world in Razor’s Edge where they try to drive him insane, and he has to find a way out. It doesn’t really fit with the core gameplay of Ninja Gaiden, but I thought it would be something interesting that would catch the player off guard.
AS a full package I still feel NG3 Razor's Edge always gave a pretty big bang for your buck even allowing you to play any stage as any of the extra characters you wanted to once you beat the game as well as giving them their own upgrade paths. I would say at the very least it's Hayashi's best work on the franchise. Seeing as he improved vastly on his own design rather then arguably ruining or at least significantly altering the direction with the sigma games. Also I can't see anyone wanting the roll back instead of the far superior slide move in NG3 it just feels so much better. NG2 is still my favorite as a pure action game but I can at least offer grudging respect for NG3 RE and what it tried to do.
Nioh 2 was one of my favorites last year, so I feel pretty confident they can make a solid action game again next time they return to Ninja Gaiden.
Regent deserves a much, much, MUCH better Ninja Gaiden game.
I just beat the collection and I am so upset at how wasted he was. Lol I thought it was going to turn out to be Cliff, which would have made more sense.
Just tell me about the dinosaurs already, goddamn!
I take issue with the fact that all of a sudden Ryu is being labeled as "morally gray" when ALL of his opponents have either been irredeemable villains or literal fiends/demons. Like, besides the "Cana's father" thing, there was never a situation where he murders an innocent family, or some innocent bystander. Hell, he SPARES the scientists in the LOA facility in Razor's Edge. Lol
Would have been better if the quote towards the end of the game was was translated to.
"Yes Ryu you are a murderer, but everyone you killed were also bad people who would have gone on to murder innocent people. So in that respect you are also a Hero to those who don't know of your existence. That's what it means to be a Ninja."
28:00 i never noticed that sigh from Ryu, thats such a funny reaction to the red guys shinanigans
It's so weird watching Ninja Gaiden look more like Ninja Blade than Itself. Especially when the Combat in NG looked so tight anyway, with more scripted moments that looked like quick time events thanks to the Charge attacks and essence system. If the devs wanted to lower the barrier for entry, or just make doing the cool stuff easier, A Automatic (a la DMC) might have been a better fit.
Edit: Oh Damn Razor Edge looks way interesting
It isn't.
Yeah, RE is pretty good from a gameplay perspective. Still flawed, but a game I keep coming back to.
Razors Edge is good. Though tainted with some stuff from the vanilla version
It's been awesome seeing your writing progress from your previous NG reviews. Gladly appreciate the level of depth and argumentation you now go to!
Thanks, I'm glad people are finding it worthwhile.
What a badass, Charlie is the king of action, horror and niche PS1 game analysis. Love your work as always.
Thanks for the high praise!
Boss Health bars, more Ninpo, and upgrade functions, new weapons and collectibles are back in Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge (FYI)
The reason why I like the enhanced versions of the Ninja Gaiden series (Sigma and Razor's Edge) because of extras and returning features.
Oh yes and even amputations/dismemberment are back and even healing is easier by chaining Steel on Bone combos.
There may still be no essence, but the Karma Points make up for that as the game's currency for upgrades and the Kunai Climb sequences are faster than the original. Rope mechanic is removed as well.
Just wanted to say this is a consistently brilliant channel. Thanks for your high-quality work examining action classics! :)
Thank you, the kind words are appreciated!
Action classics such as Silent Hill, Resident Evil and Kingdom Hearts.
"I think just letting the curse sap your health would have given it some menace"
So... Shinobi PS2?
My thoughts exactly
The Akujiki health drain/damage boost mechanic was really cool, I'm surprised non other games has tried ton copy it
Dropping this in the middle of the might. One could say like a ninja would do it.
Jokes aside I genuily love your content and listen to it like a podcast on the regulary. Thanks for all the work you buff british Gamer
Ninja Gaiden 3 tried hard to be more Western than Japanese
A lot of Japanese games were suffering from this at the time, particular Capcom. However, unlike the Capcom examples, NG3 was actually developed in Japan and not outsourced to a Western developer.
@@chrisossu2070 God, just imagine if Ninja Theory had developed NG3.
@@jjtheenton *Canna:*
"Y-you killed my daddy..!! MURDERER!"
*Ryu:*
"FUCK YOU!"
@@NucleaRaptor To being honest, Ryu saying that instead would have been better considering that it's the reaction 90% of the players had to that awful scene. It would have also indicated the game had at least a bit of self-awareness of how pretentious the writing was.
@@jjtheenton Nah, Keiji Inafune (former capcom producer who infamously led the westernized influence on Capcom until 2013) already got that covered. It's called Yaiba: Ninja Gaizen Z. His Might No 9 dev team co-developed this game with an unknown western dev company, and this company got sadly closed down after the spinoff's failure. Everything Inafune touches becomes trash. (Except Dead Rising 1, which is only because its developed internally by Capcom devs)
Props for surviving after playing this game, bro.
Awesome video. I still look back to how amazed out of my mind I was with the overblood 2 video. Masterpiece
Game: your not a murderer
Me: I'm pretty sure that ocean of corpses behind me would argue that
I dont know........ if some points a gun at you and trys to shoot you is it murder to kill them in self defense or stopping them from destroying the world?
3:25 was comedy gold. i love your channel and am glad i understood this joke for being a fan long enough xD
Lovely stuff, my man
What's going to get suggested or requested most here? Nioh or Yaiba?
Yaiba, dumpster fires are more fun to talk about i suppose
That's why I like DMC, no debates about someone being a hero or a villain, everyone agrees that everyone is fucking crazy.
It also helps that Demons are pretty much all evil so you can have some forced try hard morality nonsense
@@MILDMONSTER1234 If a demon even tried it'd be forced to admit it's a murderer too and Dante would just make some kind of pun anyway.
But I do kinda do that on anime with the demon brothers. You would think Dante will feel the same way because he did the samething too his bother but they don't do nothing with it.
In DMC, the story is grounded in being a family drama instead of being grounded in ethics. In MGR, the story is grounded in ethics and politics. In NG3, the story is about ethics but isn't grounded in it.
All the enemies are demons and Dante has no problems killing humans working with demons
Ryu is a soldier in a war where there's no other alternative but to kill other soldiers. He isn't a guy like Punisher where you can argue about the political and social reasons the people he kills do what they do.
I'm honestly surprised that you didn't mention DMC even in areas where it was okay to do so, like the upgrade system for example. Nevertheless, loved the long analysis as usual :)
Came here
earlier than we all came when DMC5 started up
Dropped everything to watch this. This was almost as anticipated as Overblood 2 for me.
The man is back, boys. Let's rock!
YAAAS!!! MORE GAMINGBRITSHOW! Been waiting foreveeerr. Been rewatching all of your old stuff lol
Did they ever tell Ryu about the dinosaurs?
The whole narrative thta questions Ryu's motivation collapses immediately once you realized that on this game he specifically targets terrorists, the exact same people that have taken over London, experimented on humans, kidnapped a child later on and probably kills many already off-screen
The level design for this game is just boring and repetitive. Its literally jog for 5 seconds then BOOM a large battle arena to fight waves and waves of the same little variety enemies. Rinse and repeat for 90% of the gameplay.
Wait, but did they ever tell him about the dinosaurs?
Just realise he says "the stage should've been set" near the start of the vid to reference the fact that the characters mirror certain roles in the theatre, this vid is genius actually
TGB tearing apart a Team Ninja game's bad character writing makes me very nostalgic for his original Other M video.
Any video criticizing Other M is bad.
@@genyakozlov1316 But Other M is bad lol
Man,i Really hope the Masters collection is an indication for NG4 Announcement in the near future.And btw you should try the new Samurai Jack game which is apperently made by the Ex Team Ninja staff and supervised by none other than Tomonobu Itagaki himself,it's like a PG 13 Ninja Gaiden and a pretty good one at that.
I'm not a big fan of this series, but I got to say seeing Ryu unmasked so much is just cursed
Recently finished the first two of your reviews for Ninja Gaiden, been looking forward to this ! Stellar reviews overall and the quality, scripting and everything that goes in have always been amazing, looking forward to watching this now ! Keep up the amazing work !
Featuring The Pixelizer from the Ratchet & Clank™️ Series.
The Hero vs Killer thing, when I think about it, feels like something that makes sense to think about if you've obly seen about 5 minutes of NG gameplay
But personally Ryu's character in B&2 comes off as someone who understands the weight of what he does. He doesn't seem Naive about this to me, he just does it because it needs to happen, his whole bloodline just fought for justice because it's what they do. Just my headcanon though, but if I followed it, it makes 3's story even weaker to me.
I think Karma mattering is cool, and having multiple ways to use Ninpo energy is cool and something I think could've been expanded upon, but yeah it misses the comeback potential of older games. And without blue essence or items, there's not nearly enough healing in other areas (like SoB, and Ninpo's not as easy to come by), so while I think the NG Dance is still here somewhat, it's not as refined
Bloody Rage does keep you from spamming UTs, and it has a bit of a "How far can I go without using this?" element that isn't in others since you can use the BR State to get more Karma, but like the other changes, takes away the comeback potential
Johnny Depp and Chris Hemsworth basically had their likeness stolen in this game lmao.
Love your content man! Always a good time
Your videos are always super awesome to watch! I can’t wait for your next Ninja Gaiden review! Yaiba Ninja Gaiden Z!
Click as soon as i saw the notification, time for some quality content.
I'm thrilled you went and covered the fascinating NG3....rerelease? Re-make? Redo? Overhaul???
I'd never had an experience quite like how radically, fascinatingly different than NG3 and Razor's Edge and I'll be completely honest, I wasn't entirely sure I hadn't just hallucinated Razor's Edge existing.
I’m a simple man.
I see Brit posting, I click like.
You're a simple boy. Highly doubt you're a man with that profile pic.
I heard steel on bone as steel trombone and now can't unhear it.
Razor's Edge addressed many of the flaws and I actually ended up enjoying it immensely
Thanks for coming back Charlie. I'd been itching for a new tgbs
Phantom of the Opera as viewed by someone who knows that story via Phantom of the Paradise.
Ninja Gaiden 3 : the Spider-Man 3 of the franchise.
Spiderman 3 is funny tho
That's disrespecting Spider-Man 3
More like The Amazing Spider-Man 2...
@@jamesvu5504 Hell both of those "Amazing" movies
RE probably, vanilla is the X-Men 3 of the franchise
31:10 Funny enough, I checked on the Japanese dub of this scene and she calls Ryu an ojisan (uncle or middle-aged man), and his response is just "ojisan??". The localizers probably thought they were cooking so hard changing a joke exchange like that.
Man the algorithm did a number on this video, didn't show up in my feed for an entire week! I wondered where you were!
Knowing that one day, Charlie will review Onechanbara, fills me with determination
Amazing video and highly detailed
Hope to see more and possibly more of the road to rocket launcher
Hey! It's the "I'm the Ninja Gaiden guy now"!!
Oh man, this game. This game single-handedly taught me to *never* do pre-orders again. I love the Ninja Gaiden series, having grown up on NGII on NES with a copy that was unstable at best and usually started corrupting the sprites by the fourth level.
I played NGS for a year spamming ultimates and UF for karma. When this game was announced, I was all to happy to throw money at it, as I was young and naive. I played it on release and within three days, had beaten it on hard spamming chanin SoB and instant ultimates (when landing from a jump, if you time the ultimate input as you land, the startup frames are completely bypassed, a series staple). I never played it again;.
The game condemns murder, but by the end of a run, Ryu has 2700+ kills.
Razors Edge is underrated
Did you know you can absorb the essence rapidly by landing from a jump and pressing the heavy attack button works across all 3 games and really changes up haw you play
As a speedrunner of NG3: Razor's Edge I can't wait to sit down and watch this after work today, it's gonna be a long day of anticipation. Every now and then I will stream the Vanilla version and just sit back and watch people realize how bad it was and what a real upgrade RE was, though Vanilla does feel like it was an early beta that went to production, especially with RE coming out just 9 months later and drastically changed. You can't turn around a games mechanics that fast unless it was planned all along.
Now if you will excuse me *Puts on tinfoil hat*
Super good content this is why your one of my fave game channels
Razor's Edge might just be a glorified level pack, but Kasumi is my favorite Ryu weapon so that alone does a lot for me. I also kinda appreciate the enemy composition, in previous games i found there's a lot of opportunities for doing raw ultimate attack without essence by just getting some space and letting them get close, RE usually throws more ranged guys to stop your raw ultimate shenanigans so at the very least you have to take care of them first if you wanna abuse
So glad i turned on notifications for this channel. Epic video as always.
They could've justified that half-ass Ryu characterization by just saying taking no prisoners is a specific tenet of his bushido or whatever and that the guy begging for his life had previously been shooting at him, therefore his life was forfeit no matter what, and maybe had Ryu question this ever so slightly but still kill the guy. Ryu is a very rigid, logical character, having him suddenly be presented as like a bloodthirsty emotionless murderer was a very poor choice.
Not that a better version of the story would've saved this game.