As one of the pinnacle works of the hardcore 3D ACT game of the year, the "Ninja Dragon Sword" fighting game-like move table and attack and defense experience, appropriate level exploration and puzzle solving, coupled with unique BOSS challenges, made this series come to the fore. With such momentum, Itagaki Yushin naturally began to develop the second generation, and the second generation was accompanied by Itagaki's personal turmoil and the pressure of the TECMO executives, so that the game not only had many problems at the beginning of the listing, but also made the subsequent maintenance become a hot potato after Itagaki decided to withdraw from the company, which eventually led to the rise of Hayashi and the birth of SIGMA2. But aside from these lace news simply to discuss the nature of the slash act, "Ninja Gaiden 2" can be said to be one of the best classics, this time we will have a good chat about this work.
Diverse shot options
Usually how to judge ACT and ARPG, individuals will use the choice of shots and whether there is a level and damage value to discuss, "Ninja Dragon Sword 2" not only has a dragon sword derived up to ten kinds of weapons, each weapon has similar to the fighting game-like instructions and moves, including light and heavy attack combinations or long pressure with joystick + arrow keys and so on. ARPG occasions due to the focus is mostly more RPG, similar to the new God of War still retain a large number of moves rich collocation is not common, ninja dragon series this can be said to be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on the player's own mentality. But in any case, "Ninja Dragon 2" has a large number of moves waiting for players to dig up and bring into the battle, which is equivalent to the common genre of ARPG, but it is based on the player's reaction and actual operation rather than the assembly point, and the diversified weapons and moves enrich the combat experience.
At the same time, a weapon can have several actions according to the system of "Ninja Dragon 2": normal light and heavy attacks can be pressed or single or long pressure; combination command moves; extinction skills (there are at least three or more performances according to weapons and parts); and stunts (most weapons have two stunts to apply). Not only that, but players also have ranged weapons and ninja methods to choose from, coupled with an already solid melee weapon experience, so that the battle of Ninja Dragon 2 is not only dazzling high speed and difficulty, the depth and fun are also excellent.
Matching combat systems and designs
The core concept of the battle in "Ninja Dragon 2" is a bit like a puzzle, the player attacking the enemy has the opportunity to cause a severed limb, the severed limb can be executed but randomly drop the red, yellow and blue soul, and with the yellow soul player can achieve rapid casting stunts and break the siege by landing on the soul, from attacking the enemy to the death of the enemy can be said to be interrelated and interlocking. In the case of the enemy's numerical superiority and the high difficulty of both the near and far and the throwing attack, quickly find the enemy's broken limbs and suck the soul and cast a stunt to create the next wave of attacks, which is the core of the battle of "Ninja Dragon 2". The same concept is also the same concept, the player spends the number of attacks can cause the amputation of limbs or kill the enemy to lose the soul and other favorable situations, and the absorption of the red soul can supplement the number of ninja spells, which is also closely related to the melee element. For example, when quickly encountering multiple enemies, you can choose to break the demon wind blade to tear each other's hands and feet, and then get closer to the severed limb to create a favorable battle situation, which are the core concepts and the fun of the battle system of Ninja Dragon 2.
High-speed and refreshing bloody combat experience
If you ask me where "Ninja Dragon 2" is fascinating, it is definitely high-speed combat and exciting blood, and the number of enemies in the second generation has increased significantly in response to the improvement of the dragon falcon's ability, and the comparison generation has become faster in action performance and camera. Before the player breaks into the enemy group, directly and neatly use the two actions of the wind (forward) + jump to repeatedly cancel to rush the road, and then use the high-speed dragon sword flying swallow to break into the enemy group to start the battle. At the same time, all kinds of extermination executions, stunt shots and line performances will make people feel incredibly fast, and with the flesh-and-blood visual effects and the variety of different choices of battle systems, it will really be addictive. For example, the speed of the dragon sword and the claws and the double chain are amazing, among which the ground stunt of the double chain can also be added by pressing the additional input, so that the player is more excited and wants to slash the enemy quickly, or the real dragon sword's real dragon flash Hua's beautiful high-speed residual shadow performance, as well as the landing in one go, all of which further sublimate the combat experience of "Ninja Dragon 2".
Decent level enemy design
Compared with the brilliant combat system and experience, the level and enemy design is more decent, personally feel good only Tokyo Skyscraper, Hayabusa, Flying Fortress and other levels, while others such as New York, South American jungle, or Venice's not very interesting underwater level, can only be said to be in the right way. In addition to the advantages of the super large enemy, it is really not as interactive as the small humanoid enemy, so I personally think it is not very interesting to fight a giant battle or a water dragon battle, plus the plot of the Ninja Dragon series and the combination of level design have always been more subtle, so the production team cannot beautify it by creating a match in this regard. However, what has to be said is that the Evil Ninja King illusion, not only the moves and appearance are cool enough, but even if it is the old terrier's fight three times plus changes, it still makes people feel like the blood boiling as if they are alive and dead for a moment, and the other four heavy ghost kings also have a certain degree of fun and characteristics, which once again confirms the advantages of small and medium-sized enemies that are different from super-large enemies.
Other topics
Although "Ninja Dragon 2" boldly innovated to add structures such as severed limbs, it also led to problems such as BUG and good Hanpo of that year, and there were many controversies in terms of the number of enemies or some AI and even the balance of difficulty. Due to the Itagaki storm, the Ninja Dragon series was taken over by Hayashi, but his enhanced version of SIGMA2 did not satisfy the players, and various situations arose:
For example, the performance and number of moves of the middle female character are as simple as a beta version, and it was not perfected until the third generation; in order to deal with the sticker problems of severed limbs and blood, they overcorrected and made rubber enemies, or some places that have gaps with the original second generation, and even the 2nd generation under different core concepts still pursues the strange operation of the 1st generation of moves and demolition combat experience; or the costume interface of "SIGMA2" is actually the prelude screen after the level is read, and it must be read again after selection The collection version not only did not add the bloody effect back, but also had bugs in the move judgment, and all kinds of mixed and ridiculous operations, it was difficult not to worry about the future of the ninja dragon series.
conclusion
As a pure ACT series that has withered away and does not see that Glory has a lot of motivation to continue to promote, coupled with its unique difficulty balance experience, dispensable plot and cutscenes, and hardcore linear battles, all of which make the mainstream works of Ninjutsu and today's ARPG far from the plot-driven wind direction. But if you like the ninja genre and still love pure ACT, then Ninja Gaiden 2 is definitely the pinnacle of the work.