As you may know that when a new game is released for a franchise, developers always expand the gameplay, revamp old things or add something new.

Like Gears of War, the gameplay was so stale, it was always the same thing over and over again in the single player mode which were run, cover, shoot and chainsaw. Then we have Gears of War 2 that added tons of new things such as killing downed enemies in different ways or using them as enemy shield.

Same thing with Uncharted 2, with so much things you can do in the single player game.

As I am explaining, I'm talking about when developers makes a sequel to a franchise and add lots of news things. Now i'm also talking about cliche games, new sequels for a franchise that offers nothing new apart from graphical upgrades.

Games like Resident Evil 5, it's exactly the same thing with Resident Evil 4, the only differences is, it's Co-oP enabled and as a better graphic, just a step back in the series in form of Resident Evil 4.

Or Half Life 2 episodes. Nothing new, just new story that's all.



Anyway we have Ninja Gaiden franchise. Ninja Gaiden 1 was a ground breaking game with it's awesome graphics for a 6th gen title and insane gameplay (combat).
I mean you should know all the things Ninja Gaiden 1/Sigma had to offer in terms of gameplay and mechanics. And then you have Ninja Gaiden 2 and Sigma 2, which added some new things such as Obliteration Technique, cleaning weapon while sheathing it, Ninja Path, Obliteration moves on Mini bosses, Re-Tweaking control (using Arrows in FPS mode and better use in combing with shurikens), easy way of selecting weapons+ninpons, Health Regeneration system, playing as other females, and 6 axis to interact with character body.



Now my point of this article is to list out some things that Ninja Gaiden 3 gameplay needs or to be revamped. I'm not talking about the usual wishlist of NG3 or bullcrap like that.

I'm talking about ideas that could expand NG3 gameplay or by improving it. like does Ryu need a Projectile deflecting? (if Ryu could re-turn shuriken thrown by enemies back to them?)



I wanted to make this topic for months for couldn't be bothered, so now that I've done it. When I have more time, I'll put my ideas in and with more details (with pictures to explain too).

My first idea is

Ultimate Technique for all weapons

Every Weapons should have two types of Ultimate Techniques. Circle/Rotate/360 Analogue+ Hold Heavy Attack should cause all weapon to perform it's own unique crowd control Ultimate technique. And the usual Hold Heavy Attack for berserk Ultimate Technique. Like Dragon Claws+Tiger Fangs UT move in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 should be it's 360 UT while the normal Hold+Heavy attack would be NG2's UT attack.



Rapid Ultimate Technique

Just like Vigroorian Flail's Ultimate Technique that allows you to button bash the Heavy Attack for more combos, moves and damage.
What if you could do the same with every weapons? Imaging doing it with the Dragon Sword, button bashing the Heavy Attack, and Ryu performing so much quick strike attacks. Or with the Dabliharo, Ryu slams the sword, waves of energy rushes out, rapid pressing Heavy Attack. And Ryu will keep slamming Dabilahro on the ground with lvl 1 energy wave instead. it's like Dante's Inferno, when Dante's slams the Scythe on the floor multiple times.

Or doing it with Enma's Fangs, rapid presses will allow Ryu to keep spinning the move constantly, after that he'll release the final attack.
Or with the Kitsestu, Ryu perform so much bad ass moves, rapid pressing will allow Ryu to perform the Soul Binder. (absolve enemies soul while in UT mode!).


Bayonetta Style Gameplay.
Revamping the whole gameplay and allowing it to play like Bayonetta. Meaning you can mix up moves any how, like say I can mix up Izuna Drop following with a Flying Swallow. No stop, all in continuous motion.

you said Obliteration twice =)

In NGS 1, Murai deflects your shurikens with his nunchukus.
I tried doing the Cremator, and I believe I saw one shuriken thrown by a white ninja being deflected, but I'm not sure if that was really the case.

So if this was not possible in the previous games, it can be added to the next game. In fact, instead of Ryu blocking all the shurikens with one button, we have to input the right technique with each weapon to deflect them. If not, then at least make Ryu change the position of his weapon, like in Star Wars.

I would like more environment interactions, like in NGS 1 where you had to blow up walls, and stuff like that, secret pathways, more climbing (without ladders, but with grappling hooks and ropes, the Kusari-Gama could be used to interact with walls) . I seriously dislike the Ninja Path, that takes away the fun of figuring out the right way. Getting lost in NGS 1 was one of the fun things, that's why there are maps.

I'll return when I think of more stuff.

I know I said Obliterarion twice, because you can do it to enemies and mini bosses. Doing it to mini bosses is unique, because that's the only way to kill the boss.

I wasn't really expecting a discussion on the Projectile Deflect thing, I was just giving out an example.
Anyway to what you were saying, it would be cool to actually be able to deflect shurikens with the Cremator move alone.


I would like more environment interactions, like in NGS 1 where you had to blow up walls, and stuff like that, secret pathways, more climbing (without ladders, but with grappling hooks and ropes, the Kusari-Gama could be used to interact with walls) . I seriously dislike the Ninja Path, that takes away the fun of figuring out the right way. Getting lost in NGS 1 was one of the fun things, that's why there are maps.
Toshiro3 this is what I'm talking about. You are just listing out wishlist again, I'm talking about giving out in-details that can improve NG 3's gameplay or combat system or more that can be added to it.

I like your ideas Xino, but don't you think you're making the game easier?

the Flail and the Kusari-Gama, both have triangle bashing attacks, but they do take a second to get Ryu ready.
The Dual Katana triangle bashing isn't too long, but it deals lots of damage.

but that's it, if you want to bash triangle, you're limited to those 3 weapons. Same thing with the 360 UT, limited weapons only.

yeah, why didn't they do the 360 UT for the dual katanas? I just found out that you can do the 360 UT with the scythe. =D

if you want the continuous bashing, it must either be limited to 5 hits, or Ryu needs a stamina limit, like in GTA.

I want Ryu to sprint more, Ryu runs too slow, it's often annoying. this will require a stamina limit.

lol...back to the Making the game easier eh?

Yes I like this, Ryu should be able to run faster.

Oh wait, how about a Stamina meter? This meter will decrease everytime Ryu pulls off different moves each time (basically fights). Like Stamina meter will be under the health bar, anything Ryu performs that uses engery will cause the meter to decrease, if Ryu stops for a sec without moving, the meter will refill.

You can use this meter to allow Ryu to sprint faster than Running, when the meter finishes. You'll hear Ryu breath hard (just like he does when he's running low on health in Sigma 2). If Ryu pauses for a second or isn't attacking, the health meter will refill.

How does this help the gameplay? Well since Itagaki rushed NG2 and used the excuse for not including the Amulets and saying Ryu has each on equipped in NG2. Well the meter will allow Ryu to figh faster like so in NG2 and Sigma 2 (update), if the meter runs out, he'll be so slow like Ninja Gaiden 1.

Like look at the Flying Swallowx3 in NG2, it's slow right. Imagine fast forwarding it 1.2x, it will be faster right. This is how the Stamina meter will work, it allows Ryu to pull off faster moves and become faster physically.


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Well since you said those 360 UT and Rapid UT for every weapon will make the game easier.
How about Berserking/hyper Enemies? (not the Beserkers/Hell Knights).
As in, if a Ninja is close to dying, he'll transform into a fiend and you are forced to kill the fiend having 100% health.
Or normal fiends when close to dying will get angry and transform to a hyper fiend. Meaning they will be angrier,deadlier and can deal better damage than before.
Like Dante Must Die Mode in DMC 4, how if you don't kill enemies within 30sec, they'll go into devil mode. (also I've been watching too much Guyver)

that Hyper mode you're talking about, it's used in many games.
Aren't the suicide attacks supposed to be like that? they deal full damage in Master Ninja. The game already has enemies without limbs, so this Hyper thing, I don't think it can fit in.

there are actually 3 bosses that get more aggressive with low health, Alexi (even though its unnoticeable), the Armadillo, and the Black Dragon.

the Spider Fiends, they have the battle yell that restores some of their health.

usually, angry enemies don't block, so it won't be a problem to Ryu.

Street Fighter IV, Seth, the last fighter, he can turn into a black devil, and you're pretty much screwed, but he usually gets defeated before he does that, since he has so little life left.

that transformation, with 100% health restoration, reminds me of something, I just can't think of it.

The last Boss, in GameBoy NG, he turns into a different form after you hit him several times. He becomes harder to dodge.

noooo, the Hyper Mode isn't kamikaze, it's just a devil trigger mode for enemies. I even referenced it to Devil May Cry 4. In Hell mode or Dante Must die, when you encounter enemies, you have 30sec to defeat them. If you don't do it within the time limit, the enemies will transform into their Devil Trigger mode. They will be more aggressive, harder to kill and deal better damage.

So if NG3 does have this. If you don't Obliterate the useless ninja, it'll transform to a fiend or hyper mode (this Hyper mode could be linked to the story). Thus this mode will grant the dying ninja a evil body/monster body, regenerated health, better damage, more aggressive and harder to kill.


Alexi, Armadillo and Black Dragon are not the sort of examples I'm talking about. In fact every greater fiends have an aggressive mode just like Alexi. It's like this, but what if normal enemies could have this effect, instead of a limited time like the Greater Fiends. The normal enemies who would go in hyper mode will have 100% health, aggressive, better damage and harder to kill.
It's like the Berserkers in NG1, but this time the Berserkers will have back their 100% health instead of 50% health while in Raging/Berserk mode.



Yes hyper/raging mode enemies should not have a defence mode, or it will be too hard.

I don't know what transformation thing is trying to remind you. But I could take a guess it's like Bosses with 3 forms, like Sigma going into different forms in Megaman X games with new refilled healths each time.



and what do you think of the Stamina meter?

oh, ok, that works, if you don't obliterate in time, they transform, that's cool.

because the big Gargoyle fiends always jump back 2 times after having their limbs cut off. (it's annoying)

I'm all in on the Stamina meter.

Better Obliteration System

In NG2/S2, the obliteration Technique made the game too easy because once the enemy looses an arm or leg, you can push Heavy attack and Ryu instantly kills them.

The worst thing about this is, I can play Master Ninja, select Kurisagama weapon. Drag a ninja with the chain, slice of their arm or leg, and instantly press Heavy attack to obliterate them. I can keep this all day long and it just makes the game too easy.
Another fault with this was why Itagaki's team allow projectile spamming in NG2, since enemies lacked A.I and Obliteration Tech makes the game too easy.


Well to revamp the Obliteration Tech system. Why don't we say Ryu can only obliterate if the enemies only looses both legs or are just completely useless. I mean we shouldn't obliterate enemies just because they lost one arm, 2 arm or 1 leg. We should ONLY be able to obliterate them if they lost both legs and can't move properly, basically they are just useless.

I mean, one of the purposes of obliteration tech is to put the useless or dying ninja out of his/her misery. Obliteration Technique isn't just about style killing or Ryu showing off.

Since it also collides with Ryu being touched by darkness or Itagaki's concept of World of survival.
If you are in a war and your team won the war. You'll still hear injured enemies crying out in pain, this is the time you command your men to finish them off. So your men will finish off the useless soliders, (seen in war movies, 300 etc).

That's basically the concept of Obliteration Technique. Once I/ Ryu dispatches a group of ninjas, if there are 2 useless ninjas left. I have the choice to put them out of their misery or just leave them to die a slow death. And Ryu can only obliterate enemies if they looses both legs or are just useless to fight.

I just want NGS 1 gameplay back.

add some falling limbs (not just heads), keep the suicide attacks, but make obliteration techniques harder to execute. You will have to time it, like you have to time your counter attacks. And don't remove the bodies, or body parts from the screen immediately.

ok, I just thought of an idea. Xino, after reading your OT idea, I thought it would be a waste of time to OT useless enemies, but it's actually very nice if it was applied to what I have in mind.

so, imagine this, after killing like a dozen enemies, the completely dead ones (no head, or missing 3 limbs) will only stay on the screen for 30 seconds and disappear (this will help with slow-downs) but the barely surviving ones (missing 2 limbs) will stay there, moaning and screaming from pain, this is when you can eliminate them. (too many of those moaning enemies could slow down the game, so you might want to OT them instead of leaving them)

The enemies with one limb missing, will still be able to fight and will require one more missing limb to perform OT.
If you stand too close to the barely living ones, it will be a 50/50 if they choose to wait for death, or continue hurting you.

No arms- he could bite you and hold on.
No legs- they could still hurt you with their arms
No limbs on one side- trip you? (make you open to enemies)

and add more cut lines, like in the Muramasa video.
a list of cut lines: neck, shoulders, elbows, stomach, thighs, and knees. The stomach cut should be hard to hit, since it's a one chop kill. (like the neck, except fiends)

is this a bit much? can a blu-ray disk handle all this? would the installation time take too long?

LOL...i agree with the moaning ninjas..lol

Reminds me of Bad Company 2 beta. Instead of the soliders yelling when they take a hit. They actually say things like "die mother f...", "I spot an enemy", "enemy is on the run". Bad Company 2 just has so much voices to the game that even makes it more realistic to be a war game.

But this is NG we are talking about. If Team NINJA could make NGS2 realistic by adding voices to Characters when they are low on health, Ryu struggling to pull the Bow n Arrow etc. Then why not add weak ninjas to moan?
I would love this


I also agree with the dead bodies on screen disappearing. I mean I just played NGS2 again after a long time. In Chapter 5, I killed bunch of Lyncans, advanced and killed 3 Red Vipers and went back to the Lycan location. Though I still found their bodies. This was NG2's problem, it had bodies all over the floor that slowed the damn game down.

Instead of removed old dead bodies, they can be replaced with new ones.
(too many of those moaning enemies could slow down the game, so you might want to OT them instead of leaving them)How about they just disappear, instead of being forced to kill to avoid slow down.


Yes definitely more body sensitive cutting. I mean X-Men Wolverines Origin game had this and it was sweet n nice.
Nah the system mechanic can' take up Blu Ray space, but voices for moaning @ss ninjas can. Since Audio normally uses up more space than video for Blu Ray. Anyway Blu Ray is 25gb and Developers never use up all the spaces.


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Shadows of Tranquillity

Instead of using save points all the time or the Health regeneration thing via the Dragon Statue.
How about allowing Ryu to cast a shadow soul of himself, much like the Phantom Double (no it will not fight side by side or be controlled).
So when ever Ryu dies, the shadow that was casted at a location point will be revived and the player will continue from there on.

Imagine Splinter Cell's Conviction, the LKP "Last Known Position" that shows the transparent shadow of Sam Fisher's last known standing postion, so enemies will follow that after shadow. Imagine when Sam fisher dies, and you contiune the game from that LKP?

This is how the Shadow of Tranquillity will work. To use it may require like 1 bar of Ninpo slot or Talisman of the Thousand Gods.

Mind if I place some ideas in?

I just played the demo for Dante's Inferno and one thing I loved about that game was how they placed Evade with the right analog stick. This felt much more natural then how its been done in Ninja Gaiden, so why not move the dodge command to the right analog stick? And to help control the camera add a freaken lock on feature like you see in the boss fights? Seriously, the camera can get annoying. I never move the camera while in a fight, so why just lock on to an enemy and save me the trouble?

Also we see Ryu using his gliding ability in many cutscenes but never have we had the chance to perform it. So how about including this in the actual gameplay? It would be interesting to see this used as a puzzle tool, and to make it more interesting why not add some aerial combat as well?! Like Ryu can jump off buildings and mountains and slash enemy ninja and fiends while in the air? That to me would be sick to see.

we don't mind.



I just played the demo for Dante's Inferno and one thing I loved about that game was how they placed Evade with the right analog stick. This felt much more natural then how its been done in Ninja Gaiden, so why not move the dodge command to the right analog stick? And to help control the camera add a freaken lock on feature like you see in the boss fights? Seriously, the camera can get annoying. I never move the camera while in a fight, so why just lock on to an enemy and save me the trouble?

Sorry but this will not work!
First you have to think of the control scheme.
Left Trigger to Block, Right Trigger to Centre camera. Second Left Trigger -unused- and Second Right Trigger -Projectile-.

Right analogue stick is used to control the camera while Left is used to control badass beastly mother f... ryu.

If we allow Ryu to dodge attacks with Right analogue, how would we control the camera? Yet we have people who moan about the bad camera, so let's not go through that again.

I agree with using Lock On, but that wouldn't work. Because if I use Secondary Left Trigger to lock on-to enemies, how would I switch to another enemy? I can't use the right analogue because it's mapped to controlling the camera.



Though I agree with the Ryu's gliding thing. I don't think it'll be necessary to be used in-game. BUt I think it will be sick to be used as a gameplay. I thought of this idea once but thought it was gotten from Ninja Blade.
But why not have this interesting gameplay in NG? Like Sonia drops off Ryu off her plane on air, Ryu glides down and you have to tear apart those purple flying dragons.

Use it as an aerial combo? I don't get it or can't imagine it:/

Xino, you said L2 is unused? it's for aiming your projectile, I'm sure you knew that but forgot. I use it all the time, it automatically makes Ryu face the enemy. (and I don't have to jump every time I shoot the bow)
L2 is required when using the Howling cannon. But I never use L2 with Ayane

no, I played games where the character is dropped from the sky, the game play isn't much fun. I don't think you can glide and fight at the same time, it'd mess up Ryu's balance. The only way is to free fall and fight and open the parachute when all enemies are gone, but that's kind of stupid.

I knew L2 is used, but I don't like the FP shooting mode. I love the ability of using both shurikens and projectile together, but L2 should be used for something else.
This is hack n slash not FPS:/

quote:

Originally posted by xino:
Sorry but this will not work!
First you have to think of the control scheme.
Left Trigger to Block, Right Trigger to Centre camera. Second Left Trigger -unused- and Second Right Trigger -Projectile-.

Right analogue stick is used to control the camera while Left is used to control badass beastly mother f... ryu.:/

Left Trigger: Lock-on to enemy
Right Trigger: Projectile
Left Bumper: Switch camera to left
Right Bumper: Switch camera to right
Right analog stick: Dodge
Left Analog stick: Move
Circle/B: Block

wait, Block + Move = Dodge.

so why would you want an Analog stick just for dodging?

I know, I don't know what is wrong with the original dodging style:/

The difference with Dante's Inferno using the Right Analogue is because the response is really spot on, though you can't instantly dodge right after another because there's a mini second delay.

And what's the deal with LB and RB moving the camera left or right?

And you didn't explain yourself about the Aerial combo with Ryu's gliding.


Oh yea, I just remembered that L3 and R 3 are not used! YES, so keeping the FPS Projectile for Left Trigger is fine. I like using shuriken+bow n arrow at the same time.
Centering the camera can be used for L3 or R3.

hey, you know when sometimes when you play Team Missions, it will say press "???" to change view?

that's pretty much when the game allows you to center the camera. I'm not sure if it said R1 or R3, but I know it's one of those.

so that just leaves L3 unused