Incline Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection coming to PS4/Steam/Switch/XB1

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Played a lot today, just stopped at first save in chapter 15. Ended up using flails for majority of the game and on bosses where it looked like I was doing damage too slowly I am switching to greatsword. Most bosses don't take more than 2-3 tries, but some of the big fucks took more. The lava turtle probably took most, close to 10. But then killed it on first attempt after switching to greatsword. Yeah Normal in NGS2S is so much easier than in NG1S.

Also downloaded NM mod which is restores gore effects, definite improvement. Anyone know if this "Sigma 2 Black" mod is worth playing? Thinking of maybe trying second run with it. *Looked up what people on reddit write about it and already decided to play it next.

 

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Finished up Sigma 2 Normal run and immediately restarted on Normal with Sigma 2 Black mod. Did 4 chapters. Enemy count was noticeably higher and the fact that weapon upgrades went from being free to costing 30k made me very stingy with health recovery items. Though I felt like I am dying too rarely anyway and I'm ready to go harder now. So restarted on Hard and did first two chapters just now. Ok wow, big increase in enemy count. I died a bunch of times even in first couple fights on chapter 1. Boss fights don't seem harder so far though, actually chapter 2 bosses went down faster than Normal, despite mid boss having minions added to him. Crowd combat is really hectic now, I'm loving it. I might end up lowering the cost of weapon upgrades later, if I have trouble affording potions. Went through config file and there's some shit that can be tweaked, I increased FOV by a little and that was a nice change.

I think at this point I can safely say I like this video game a lot. Some of the best combat feels, splattering enemies all over the place with that gore is quite entertaining.

 

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I should've read at least last couple pages of this thread before starting to post my impressions. I might've been playing with Sigma 2 Black from start. There's people talking about it on very same page I started posting about NG1S. Oops. Good thing Sigma 2 was still good enough to get me addicted. Though I wouldn't want to go back to it now. Just did chapter 3 on Hard, this is going to be a serious challenge for me. Dying quite a bit in crowd fights.

 

[sser]

The games really are significantly different. They had different directors, as Itagaki spunout and left the company. The new guy hated blood/gore or something batshit crazy considering what series he was leading, which is why the action gets pared down to goofy anime demon "blood" sprays and the body count drops. I *think* he was also involved in NG3, which had a layer of absolutely insane "but the bad guys are people too" morality bullshit. Apparently Razor's Edge fixed this but I've not really given it a try. From what I hear RE is just NG2 slapped on top of NG3.

There is a somewhat "famous" vid concerning the differences between NG2 and its Sigma spinoff:

 

[Tehdagah]

The games really are significantly different. They had different directors, as Itagaki spunout and left the company. The new guy hated blood/gore or something batshit crazy considering what series he was leading, which is why the action gets pared down to goofy anime demon "blood" sprays and the body count drops. I *think* he was also involved in NG3, which had a layer of absolutely insane "but the bad guys are people too" morality bullshit. Apparently Razor's Edge fixed this but I've not really given it a try. From what I hear RE is just NG2 slapped on top of NG3.

There is a somewhat "famous" vid concerning the differences between NG2 and its Sigma spinoff:

Having to fight huge swarms of enemies with explosives on tight corridors is questionable game design. Now add a painful camera system into the equation.

 

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Fight against mass Gajas in Aqua Capital chapter has me thinking that I was too arrogant in assuming I can do Black mod on Hard. Tried lots of times over last couple days, few times to the point of my right thumb starting to hurt and I just can't see an end to these fuckers. There's probably some mechanics I need to be utilizing that game didn't tell me about. Chain charging super moves with essence is clearly not enough because even after chaining about 10 supers in a row they still keep swarming me. Also can never get escaping from grabs consistently, sometimes it will happen almost immediately, other times I'm just left watching helplessly until nothing left of my health bar. And I know that even if I get lucky enough to finally get past that encounter I am likely to die to something else on my way to next save point.

 

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Fuck it, I am not saving healing items until chapter boss anymore. Got past that mass Gaja part using up most of my heals and then stocked up on them in the shop right after. It is clear now that I won't be beating this without using a lot of healing items, therefore I've lowered weapon upgrade cost to 10k. Probably still won't be able to complete all chapters lol, but at least I'll have more of a fighting chance. Stuck on mid chapter skeleton boss in Lycanthrope's Castle chapter for now. Those little skeleton minions are quite a nuissance.

 

[Anonona]

Fuck it, I am not saving healing items until chapter boss anymore. Got past that mass Gaja part using up most of my heals and then stocked up on them in the shop right after

I'll say, while is good to manage your resources and items, I wouldn't recommend saving them exclusively for bosses. While the bosses are challenging, NG's difficulty, imo, lies more on the levels and regular enemies. The hardest levels in NG2 like chapter 11 or the iconic stairs of Chapter 10 aren't considered so because of the bosses, but the regular enemies (the hordes of IS Ninjas specially).

 

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Well I was worried I wasn't going to be able to upgrade all weapons if I kept buying healing items. I've only used few weapons in my previous run and want to try them all, plus some weapons just seem better against certain enemies so it's nice to have them all upgraded. I should've just lowered upgrade cost from the start, didn't realize how hard it will actually be in later chapters. I had only Vigorian Flails fully upgraded until lowering the cost. Now I also have Lunar Staff and Claws maxed.

 

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Ok these small crawling skeleton things are by far the most annoying enemy in the game I've encountered so far. What the fuck were they even thinking? I finally beat the huge skeleton boss but after that I'm left in that arena with a massive swarm of those little fucks and they just rape me over and over. I guess I should be glad there's at least a checkpoint after this boss because otherwise I would be tempted to just abandon the playthrough. Especially annoying when one of them grabs me because how the fuck am I even supposed to see their moves? They're little skeleton fucks crawling on a big pile of bones, amazing visual feedback there. And of course I'm still incapable of reliably escaping grabs, sometimes it's actually just instant kill.

*Oh alright, my butthurt has blinded me to the fact that I could escape the area without fighting them. I forgot that it wasn't the big closed door in that room I need go through but a jump-able wall on the other side. Getting ready to rage at Volf now.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Even if I manage to finish this game I think there's about zero chance I'll ever want to replay on higher difficulties.

From my experience, the first playtrough is the roughest because you're still learning the ropes
My 2nd playthrough was considerably "smoother" and overall more enjoyable despite playing it on Hard

But then again, I've also seen people claim that NG2 is a lot worse than first one.

Despite not looking all that different, they're remarkably distinct games
I overall prefer NG1, but NG2 isn't bad - it's just a very mixed experience imo, with a huge disparity between its highs and lows

The ghost fish show up near the end of the first Ninja Gaiden, absolutely aggravating.

Flail for the win baby!
Specially helpful are the "Wide Heaven" and "Dragon Slaughter" techniques

questionable game design.

Original NG2 had alot of those...

 

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the hordes of IS Ninjas

Just went through "Submit or die" chapter and those dudes with their explosive shuriken spam can go fuck themselves. One fight in particular inside cathedral had me dying over and over, and then after that I do a bunch of platforming to get upstairs and suddenly a bunch of ghost fish are stuck in me and instantly deplete my health. Then I had to redo that fight bunch of times again just to get back to the fucking fish, flails prepared beforehand and fucking terrified of another instant kill. Also Zedonius fight at the end of it pretty much convinced me that Sigma 2 had the right idea in removing minions from bosses. Never liked bosses with minions and they tend to be especially annoying in this game.

*

The hardest levels in NG2 like chapter 11 or the iconic stairs of Chapter 10 aren't considered so because of the bosses, but the regular enemies (the hordes of IS Ninjas specially).

Ok just did the chapter with stairs, except for me it was chapter 13, since Black mod doesn't change Sigma 2 levels. I expected to get stuck on these stairs but actually didn't die once. Did have to use one of the stronger healing items though. I seem to have easier time vs those ninjas when using dual swords, something I figured out eventually while getting raped by them in that cathedral. And luckily Elizabeth fight didn't have any minions so also killed her first try. "Heart of Darkness" chapter previously was a lot more annoying to me, easily one of the worst levels. Maybe even the worst, level design is straight up garbage there. Those fucking rocket launcher enemies near water (hate the water parts in general) and that dragon fight at the end with stupid dog minions. Such annoying little shits, killed me with their grabs couple times while I was trying to get in the position to finish off the dragon.

 

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Started "A Tempered Gravestone" chapter.

This is going to take a while I think..

 

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This chapter is brutal, still cannot beat it. Getting raped by those big spider things, there are so many in that encounter and I'm completely out of heals. Is there even another game with big crowd fights where enemy AI is this aggressive? And that fucking projectile spam, my least favorite part of this combat.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

This chapter is brutal, still cannot beat it. Getting raped by those big spider things, there are so many in that encounter and I'm completely out of heals. Is there even another game with big crowd fights where enemy AI is this aggressive? And that fucking projectile spam, my least favorite part of this combat

The projectile spam is the most retarded aspect of NG2, that shit's utter lunacy. It encourages UT spam & poke run tactics, both are pretty lame.

 

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Well finally got through that chapter. This whining on Codex shit is so powerful, hope it doesn't get nerfed. Lunar Staff proved to be my best friend there.

 

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Finally Hard completed. Later chapters didn't give me trouble, mostly. Except for dual ninja boss fight in Underworld Abyss. I can't remember if it was there on my Sigma 2 Normal run, it might've been a change from the Black mod. Those two shits kept raping me with Izuna drops that take out like 90% of my health, until I finally managed to get a lucky enough run. This is definitely a flawed game and in some parts downright infuriating. But boy when it's good it's glorious. Not sure if I'm up for doing Very Hard though, might be more trouble than it's worth. Maybe I should retry first game, see if I find it any less annoying after this.