Note, english is not my mother tongue, so this wall of text might be hard to read here and there, it is what it is, I try my best.
Recently I finished Ninja Gaiden Master collection. I completed the story mode in all three games and I have some thoughts.
This was my first time playing Ninja Gaiden. I have seen Ryu in Dead or Alive and I tried some Ninja Gaiden 3 demo back in the day, but now that all three games are available in gamepass, I got a chance to properly experience Ninja Gaiden.
I finished Sigma 1 on Normal difficulty. I really didn't like how game kept asking "do you wanna change difficulty", because there was some moments where I died alot. When games do this shit, it feels like game mocks you.
I think 90% of my deaths happened in Smaugan and Fiend Murai boss fights. Last boss Fiend Murai... I got really stuck in that fight, because I didn't have any healing items, I used all healing items in two previous boss fights.
Good thing I had backup save before those three last boss fights, so I did some grinding to get enough healing items that can last three boss fights in a row.
That plan worked, Talisman of Rebirth saved my ass while fighting Murai and then I killed him, GG.
Overall combat was pretty fun and it was fun to do certain moves like Flying Swallow and Izuna drop. Level design was allright too, but maybe little bit more checkpoints and shops on some areas would have made level design even better. Can't forget golden scarabs, it was fun to do some challenging wallrunning jumps to get those scarabs.
I think Sigma 1 was an allright experience, but the last chapter really bummed me, so I'm gonna give Sigma 1: 6/10
Then I started Sigma 2 on Acolyte and hour later I restarted the game on warrior, because it felt too easy. On warrior difficulty I didn't die at all during the game, even that was maybe too easy.
My biggest issue with the game was the camera. I don't think I need to go into details why camera sucks, but holy fuck is bad. Camera was already bad in Sigma 1, but now that there's more stuff happening in the screen, camera just sucks even more.
Combat is now even better and my fav move Flying Swallow got upgraded, now you can do it three times before landing, sweet. It just sucks that some enemies and bosses block flying swallow. Not even Murai from the first game blocked flying swallow if you time it correctly.
Weapon upgrading was really boring. Shops give weapon levels for free and it limits you from upgrading beyond lvl 3 until you reach certain chapter, meh.
Level design started strong, but later on levels became more and more corridors. Is like level designer ran out of ideas and just said "fuck it".
Sigma 2 was a solid 7/10 game, maybe even 8/10 if camera wasn't so bad.
Razor's edge. Where do I even start.
Razor's edge is like less epic Metal Gear Rising that has Ninja gaiden skin. Not the best comparison, cuz Rising came after Ninja Giden 3, but anyway.
While Sigma 2 was easy on Warrior (Normal?), Razor's edge on Normal was pretty hard. Sometimes game just spams more and more enemies to your face until you start to break. It's one way to make game more difficult, but it became a bit tedious.
Boss fights: you either fight really big boss that has Dark Souls 2 style hitboxes (fuck you dinosaur and robot fight on ship) or you fight normal size boss where you are waiting opening when to hit. Most boss fights were pretty boring.
Last boss was some bullshit, after dying million times I finally learned how to to beat it. It was really simple: don't do any combos or dodge enemy attacks, just stand still and spam quick attack with lvl 3 lunar staff, that was it.
Levels design? Is just straight corridors now, which sucks.
Is not all bad, core gameplay loop when everything hits just right, it can be fun.
Razor's edge imo is OK 6/10 game.
I have to mention one important thing about all these games. Other playable characters.
I personally really like when game changes the character you are playing, it's a nice way to spice up pacing. For example Nier Automata did this really well imo.
Rachel levels are meh (and what the fuck is her outfit), but Ayane and Momiji are great, yet you barely get use them in story mode.
Sigma 2 only has one Ayane and Momiji level while Razor's Edge has two ayane levels, but no Momiji. Now I don't know what Ninja Gaiden community thinks about these character levels, but I would have liked if there was more Ayane and Momiji levels in the story mode.
Yeah, you can use these characters in other game modes all you want, but is not the same thing.
It's a bit shame that there's no Kasumi or Momiji levels in Razor's edge story mode.
One last thing, it sucks how all these three games have 60fps lock. I have 165hz monitor, but no way to fully utilize it.
After playing this collection, now I wanna see Ninja Gaiden 4, we'll see if that ever happens. Ninja Gaiden still has potential.
To sum up this Master Collection: Fun, but sometimes frustating. Camera sucks and needs more Ayane/Momiji levels.
And no, I'm not Matt McMuscles,
I think...
