Ninja Blade Game Sample 1/3 - Xbox 360
0Ninja Blade is a flawed but entertaining game developed by the great folks at From Software, released for Xbox 360 and PC between 2009 and 2010. Described as a "cinematic action game", Ninja Blade doesn't try to be particularly original and combines the ability progression of "Devil May Cry", the coolness and hack n slash action of "Ninja Gaiden", the QTE (Quick Time Events) of "Shenmue" or "God of War", the horrific backstory of "Resident Evil", and the violence of all the above. The characters were designed by Keiji Nakaoka (Capcom's 2nd Character Development Studio Designer), the soundtrack was handled by Norihiko Hibino's "Gem Impact Studio", the animation was produced by "Production I.G", and the main protagonist (Ken Ogawa) was co-created by Microsoft. The game possesses a lot of intense over-the-top action seen in Hollywood action films, which was the main message FS wanted to convey with Ninja Blade's creation.
The story begins five years prior to the start of the game in 2010, where a small village (now known as "Ground: ALPHA") was attacked by strange wild animals and the survivors were taken to a medical facility for treatment. It was there where doctors discovered the survivors of the attack were stricken by a flesh-eating illness brought about by strange hookworm-esque parasites (classified as "Alpha-worms") and conventional medicine couldn't cure the victims. They slowly began to bleed and their bodies became deformed until they became violent monsters, killing and devouring everyone at the facility.
The area was quarantined and kept a secret, with only the top brass knowing about it and now the threat has spread to Tokyo, where the Japanese Prime Minister was at a loss on what to do. Over the years, the international goverment formed the "Global United Infestation Detection and Elimination" (G.U.I.D.E.) task force comprised of elite forces from around the world, founded by Michael Wilson. It's up to them now to stop the outbreak and discover the secret of the Alpha-worm parasite.
Playing as Ken Ogawa, the brave son of the squad leader and sword master of G.U.I.D.E, Kanbé Ogawa, you are the only one immune to the Alpha-worm infection and possess exceptional fighting ability. The action is typical hack 'n slash and QTE fair as you gain access to different weapons and ninjutsu abilities, but there is also some platforming, airplane shooting, "Ninja Vision" (slows down time and helps you locate points of interest), and building running events to keep the adrenaline pumping. You can collect various items to help you in a pinch as well as collect blood orbs to upgrade your weapons and ninjutsu.
The game's presentation is fairly average; the animations are quite good for the most part and in-game cinematics look great, but the environments are not textured very well and quite simple in design, the enemies and areas lack variety (though the bosses are impressive), and the framerate is very erratic during semi-heated battles. The audio is pretty forgettable; the music is okay, but you don't really notice it, and the voice acting is... strange. It often shifts from Japanese and English dialogue without warning and I have to turn on the subtitles at all times just to make sense of what's being said during noisy action segments. Sometimes it's understandable such as when the Japanese are together and they speak Japanese amongst each other, but also know English when speaking to characters who aren't natively Japanese, but other times it makes no sense at all and the English dialogue lacks the Japanese accent the Japanese characters possess.
If you hate QTEs, then you will really hate Ninja Blade; over fifty percent of the action seems to be QTEs, and many levels take the better half of an hour to complete with the inability to save inbetween or keep what you've earned if you decide to quit. On the plus side, you can adjust the difficulty of the QTEs seperately from the other events and even skip them if you wish (as well as easily repeat them without penalty if you screw up as they're rewinded). On the downside, the QTE synching is off on certain scenes and you can repeat a scene five times the same exact way and mysteriously get an "Excellent" as opposed to a "Missed", which I think is just awful (this is particularly the case for analog input as opposed to button presses). Even the various "Finishing Blows" you do to casual enemies are QTEs and boss QTEs are just renamed to "Todomé". As a whole, the game is rather easy with a decent length (under ten hours initially) and a few unlockables as you can find emblems and change your costume as well as witness several extras.
If you do manage to peg the peculiar timing of the QTEs and play the game seemlessly, it's pretty fun to play and great to watch, but the constant QTEs really do break up the flow of the game. These are videos from the intro through the first level (yes, it's that long). Enjoy.