Besides the game’s story, two of the biggest issues I had with the original version that is still very much of a detriment here, is the overall level designs and bosses. Yes, you have your gliding off platforms, minor stealth opportunities, wall runs, swings, and quick-time event wall climbs. Thankfully these are much faster – though I’d rather they’d remove them entirely. The issue here is that they’re all bland and uninspired locales that (with one exception) are just extremely linear with little to no off-the-beaten-tracks exploration. Besides the newly added trials (which are basically wave after wave of enemies in a set challenge) that are hidden in each level, gold scarabs are mostly planted in plain sight with very little thought; most likely because they had no choice given the level designs.
And the bosses? Easily some of the worst bosses in any action game that I have played in a while, and easily the worst bosses in the franchise. If you thought DMC: Devil May Cry’s bosses were bad, this game takes it to a new low. Normal human-sized bosses are nothing to brag about, with most of them having limited move sets, becoming extremely predictable. The big, over-sized bosses are even worse; I can safely say the former at the end of the day are average to decent quality bosses, while the latter is just a horribly designed mess. Half the battles are quick-time events which has you taking chunks off their health bars and dodging their easy and predictable long animation attacks. So with the difficulty jump, it didn’t make any of the bosses better, it just made already uninspired battles last longer. One thing I did notice was that half the button prompts for the quick time events seem to be missing, which just causes cheap deaths since I couldn’t tell what was a quick-time event or not.
While the game is still short, having Ayane in the online co-op and being able to unlock her, Kasumi and Momiji to play throughout the story campaign in the newly added chapter challenge adds that much-needed layer. There is a plethora of costumes for each character, as well as tackling the newly-added crystal skulls scattered in the single player campaign that imitate valor tests. You will want to replay the game numerous times to get the most out of it, including unlocking the harder difficulties. Which, by the way are exactly what they claim to be; they’re extraordinarily difficult. So the hardcore fans should feel right at home. For those who want an easier time, but still a good game, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge has the easiest mode give you invincibility when you’re close to death, just like Ninja Gaiden Black. Cheap and even game-breaking, it’s still a good way to train up on your skills in the actual game.
On the plus side, the character models are looking better than ever with very well-animated clothing and facial expressions. A nice effect is going from cutscenes back to player control, making that sweet, seamless effect quite breathtaking the first few times you see it. Mostly used in the beginnings of the missions as our ninjas dive in from a high place, it goes hand-in-hand with the game’s graphical capabilities and animations. Of course, the violence is back and even more gory than the previous game; the blood effects that appear on the character models and some dead chopped-up bodies really do add to the game’s “oomph” factor; something I notice many developers tend to forgo to make sure the performance rate is stable. Using an Izuna Drop on an enemy, just to smash their head to the ground like a bloody tomato, never felt this satisfying.
Can’t say the same for the environments, however. While the nice weather effects give that sense for the actual locales, the linearity doesn’t do them many favors; it just looks dated. The framerate dips, long loading times, and the screen tearing that plagued the Wii U version has also been remedied for the 360 and PS3 versions. In fact, the game runs quite well, and I only noticed fps drops when I was in the caves fighting numerous illuminating insects at once. If you still find the load times a little too long, you can also install the game to make them less unbearable. The voice acting for the most part is decent, though thankfully the game has dual audio. So if you’re not a fan of the English dub work, you can always switch to the Japanese voices.
There’s also online play, and you unlock some more options throughout the single player campaign. You create your own character with limited options at the beginning until you start unlocking more clothing and gain karma to level up the character and gain more moves. While the cooperative Ninja Trials with a stranger or friend can be good fun, the clan battles are another story. It’s essentially the team deathmatch gameplay type that you see tacked on in many games. Assuming you can find any matches, here it has little depth, and only serves as a weak distraction from the main portion of the game. It is most likely a lot more fun after unlocking more moves, but by the time I got there, I had lost interest.
While Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge doesn’t set out to fix every single little problem, it does its job well enough for anyone who wasn’t too pleased with the results of the original release. It shows Team Ninja really did listen to the criticism and fan outcry, which makes me feel a lot more reassured about the future of the franchise. By no means does the game in my eyes surpass Ninja Gaiden 1 & 2 or their updated re-releases, but I can honestly say that it’s a good action game and well worth your time for both old fans and newcomers alike.
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Review copy was provided by the publisher.
