Ninja Gaiden II

Our definitive review of this anticipated sequel.

	Version Xbox 360	Developer Team Ninja	Publisher Microsoft	Genre Action

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So the two opening difficulty modes do a good job of opening up the game, though only just a little. What this does not explain though is where the nature of the game's difficulty comes from, on any difficulty setting - and Ninja Gaiden II is still what can only be described as an ugly case domestic violence: No matter how badly it treats you - and it really is horribly abusive - you forgive it because when it's nice it's REALLY nice. And because "you love it".

Let's just get one thing cleared up: if you're going to buy this game (and as we'll conclude later, you should) then if you only take one thing from this review, let it be this: TURN ON MANUAL SAVES. If you leave the game set to the Autosave setting, then each time you actually get to a relief-inducing save point and press RB to save, it will always overwrite - in other words you only ever have one game save position when it's set to Auto. With Manual, you can use multiple slots. I only realised you could do this when it was almost very nearly too late and the game was nearly completely ruined as a result, because just like in NG1, it is all too easy to leave yourself with too little energy and too few power-ups going into a very hard stretch of gameplay or boss battle, at a stage where the next save point is nowhere in sight. I shit you not, this happened once in NG1 and I had to tried to defeat a boss mid-way through the game over 80 times before succeeding - and in NG2 there were several occasions where I really dropped the ball and left myself with what I thought was literally an impossible stretch of gameplay with half an energy bar, no power ups, no money, and of course no way to go back to an earlier save point and do things a bit differently - be more sparing with Ninpo attacks in a prior fight perhaps, or try that bit extra harder to survive with minimal energy loss.

This is a design flaw in NG2 as it was in NG1. I am not talking about any particular boss and certainly not complaining about the extreme difficulty of any section of the game in its own right. But it is a simple, undeniable design flaw that the game does not have Manual saves set as the default or at least explain in explicit terms that it will allow such backtracking in scenarios where you've leave yourself in this sort of position. It's not cheating to store up a few backdated save positions 'just in case'; it's often simply a vital insurance technique to get through, although I discovered the option to do this too late to use it and somehow getting through the HARD-hard way.

Generally, NG2 is pretty good with its save point positioning, with a few stretches of gameplay that really do push you to your absolute limits. But one change I would absolutely encourage Microsoft to add in an update would be this: regardless of whether saves are set to auto or manual, you NEED to automatically store several of the player's previous saves positions in memory, and let players have the option to backtrack a save file or two if they need to. Otherwise a very difficult game runs the danger of becoming literally impossible, not due to lack of skill, but because this situation will inevitably crop up where players snooker themselves and they will be praying they could go back - instead they will give up and stop playing the game.

When the realisation hits you that you will not be able to complete the game as you're approaching the penultimate chapter, it is devastating. How am I going to do a credible review, I thought, when both Team Ninja and myself have made this blunder and the bit I have tried to pass 50 times is surely now unpassable with the resources I left myself with at the last save point? How can I ever do it, when even as I got to the limit of the problem-section on my previous attempt, there is no save point in sight, just loads more enemies who appeared and killed me straight away - and what comes after them, even if I beat them?

Of course, I tried again, and again, and again, and again. The thing with Ninja Gaiden is no matter how high the odds are stacked against you, and no matter how impossible it seems, it is probably never entirely impossible - and practice makes perfect. That explains how even Master Ninja difficulty mode might be possible to complete for a few unthinkably skilled players. The game is an extreme test of patience, skill and resolve, to the point where frustration ceases to be in your mind and only a meditation-like sense of calmness - no matter what the game spews out at you - will get you through. It's a bit like running a game site. I unlocked about forty Achievements in the game so far, but really my biggest achievement in Ninja Gaiden II - and I say this very seriously - has been learning how to control frustration and anger, how to breathe gently and remain calm in the face of absolute mockery. It has been an achievement to not once slam things or smash the controller; I don't know how I managed to control myself but it felt good to control my emotions. I'll admit the odd four-letter word was used a few hundred times though. But never shouted.

This is what is so appropriate about mastery of Ninja Gaiden - to master it on any level, often you literally have to master the same mind values practiced by an actual ninja. If the design objective was approachability for typical gamers then from this point of view they failed, and this should be fixed with a simple update.

So again a reminder, turn manual saves on, unless of course you want to deliberately run the considerable risk of winding up in one of these doomed situations where progress is nearly impossible and success is seriously a measure of strength, determination and repetition way beyond what the game intended the area in question to be. If only the game could detect you have done this and reward you for eventually coming out of a flawlessly executed near-impossible fight with no power-ups. Oh, and another tip - take part in the random Valor fights when you see them, represented by the glowing circle things, and do them again and again until you win. The power ups they dish out will be worth it sooner or later.

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