My Words On:

Story/Plot: Ryu Hayabusa is a murderer. A ninja who has taken lives of many lackeys and demons that has crossed his path with the sword that he wields gracefully in his right hand. The blood in his veins, the Dragon Ninja, is the ever so dashing Angel of Death for all evil doers and only he can wield the Dragon Sword. But that's not all he is right? He can have a human side, maybe one day settle down have a wife and kid? Maybe. A group called the Lords Of Alchemy decides to come up with the master plan of using his blood to create a Goddess that would perform catharsis on the world. The goddess needed a host so they use a young girl that Ryu met in this whole ordeal. Torn between his cold blooded murder side and his human side, Ryu was given a reminder of his true 'colors' when the curse called 'the Grip of Murder' was placed upon his right arm, breaking the Dragon Sword into him. Now he must go through the world with the anguish of every soul he has slain while all at the same time trying to thwart the possibility of the world succumbing to LOA's concept of 'a whole new world'.

Truth to be told, the story is cliche and not really well played out. The concept isn't the worst idea, but the combination of other flaws within the game made the story not so appealing.

4/10


Gameplay: Well the game throughout its short lived hours does have its fun filling hack and slash, blood and gore, and the act of using more than pleasing ninja skills to dominate useless lackeys. However the camera angle, the lack of weaponry to gain, the feel of the same redundant killing sequence, not much choice in magic, and then of course the final boss fight becoming nothing more than an easy button sequence gave Ninja Gaiden 3 more than a sour taste to give players who have been fans (or new comers) to the series. You can only cut down an enemy so many times with the same kill until it gets rather dull. And that saying goes the same with the magic spell which you only get a fire based Dragon THE WHOLE entire game.

While incredibly fun at times, it does get rather repetitive. You'll be doing this a lot more  as a task in the game rather than a fun filled chore.

Now while the past two Ninja Gaidens are of course of the same idea of hack away, kill, blood, and dismember, both titles of the past offered a little bit more with the idea of numerous weapons to choose from, the feeling of leveling up, and they even offer different characters to use for a level or two which of course adds to the diversity. Ninja Gaiden 3 offers a point blank insult to the previous games. Perhaps it was the fact that the main huncho left Team Ninja, regardless, it's still not forgivable.


And on a final note, DLC's (some free) are trying to make up for it by adding in some extra weapons; one would question is that why didn't they just do that in the first place. Makes me wonder if this game was released prematurely.


6/10


Grapihcs: The game itself doesn't feel like it had much of a difference from NG2. While the blood shots and the constant drive of a katana through a useless lackey is rather fun filled for those hungry for torsos and limbs being cut, it's not exactly a huge feat when we know what ps3s and Xbox360s are capable of. I was okay with it way back when NG2 came out in 2009 (I believe), but this time around I expected an improvement. Sadly, I was not given that honor and I know a whole lot of others aren't either. While there are some creative visuals (or disturbing, depending on which spectrum you would like to side), it still fails to represent what 'could've' been done.


5/10


Voice Acting/ Audio: Well I would like to say that NG2 didn't impress me with the choice of actors but at the same note it didn't appall me. This game did the exact same thing which of course isn't really a great step for a sequel when it doesn't improve or build up on a certain aspect of its predecessor. Not to mention I have always felt that that Ryu's voice (whether it be the same actor or not, I fail to notice the difference nor care that much to research) sometimes has too much of a somber tone. It would an alright aspect IF we're only talking about the Ryu who is hacking and slashing, but when we try and delve to the more human side of Hayabusa as the game was trying to, it doesn't bode too well. The AI who opposes the gamer seems to lack in dialogue as well which adds to another flaw the game seems to have encountered. Perhaps they were just trying to further highlight the fact that enemies also lack in variety so they all have the right to mimic their comrades? I don't know, but it got rather annoying and disappointing.


Music had the proper excitement level when the battle would start, but it never really did TOO well to stick out in the end. Yeah it was Ninja'ish and very oriental feel at some point, but to the end of it all it failed to be Ninja Gaiden 3's favorable asset.


4/10


Difficulty: The fair share of enemies and some of the more creative bosses do prove to be a minor challenge when going through the games 'normal' mode. There are a lot of enemies that come parading in Ryu's way and the action doesn't lack. But the credit to the main reason as to why the game is sometimes tedious is not to the enemies completely, I'd have to say that at times the camera angle plays against good tactics. Sometimes I find myself not being able to get a clear view on who or what is around me to properly survey my next move. The fact that there is no real 'locking' tool that allows you to focus on an enemy makes the act of fighting a bit more tedious than it has to be. In a game that you control a ninja, moving around is a MUST and when you stray away from your opponent for a moment, there should be some sort of button to allow one to refocus that attention back. Unfortunately there isn't one.


While my experience only lies on the default difficulty, I would imagine on a much higher level that the enemies would swarm with better tactics, have more health, can take more health, and perhaps would come with more back up. You take that into consideration with the game's faulty camera, lack of real character development (gameplay wise), and the lack of variety of weapons (which decreases the idea of more tactics), well I believe it would be a safe bet to say that the game would be both challenging and a real task.


4/10


Overall: It's pretty obvious from the way I have given the scores that this game doesn't do too well within my rosters of games. I was honestly thinking that this game had a lot of potential, and MAYBE through the means of DLC that it could get better. But come on, let's be honest, if a game depends on content for a gamer to either wait to download and possibly pay, then the game itself wasn't very good to begin with. It would make it seem like it wasn't finished to begin with but it was brought out to the public just to either meet deadline or no one really cared about the gamers' point of view. So with the story completely failing to be an incentive, gameplay weakened compared to its previous titles, graphics never really improved, music and audio one of its shame, and a tedious hack and slash at times where the camera plays a factor on beating a level, well I dare say that this game is probably on a list if I make one at the end of the year as 'biggest disappointment'.

Still, seeing Momiji in action and Ayane did bring a smile since I am a sucker for good looking Kunoichis. If they become playable, well, it might have a bit more of a '.5' addition to the final score.

4.5/10