Did a bit of tweaking, and now the game's workin' pretty good! It'll be awhile before I fully commit to it, but man, Gaiden 2 may just be my favorite of the 3 outta the gate for the sheer awesomeness in its brutality and its lean into the action side of character action.
Ninja Gaiden Black rocks. A brutal, relentless onslaught that's a hell to get through, but equally awesome to master. Can I complain when you can do the freakin' Izuna Drop on a son of a gun that failed to block your first swing? No, no I can't! It's one of those games where you feel absolutely cool after learning the pattern to something. Be it a boss or common fodder, you can't help but feel like the ultimate badass getting to slice them to pieces.
Now, Gaiden Black is far from a perfect game. Its camera must've been drinking buddies with Sonic Adventure, as it's easily the most frustrating 3D action game camera I've had to deal with. Wasn't great having a pillar hug the camera during the final boss, nor having it work against me and getting me dunked during a boss fight a few chapters prior.
Camera woes aside, some of the bosses were pretty awful. Did I have to fight those worms as many times as I needed to? Once would've been enough, but they had to pad things out. In a game with some great, challenging bosses, I didn't expect all of them to hit the mark, but there are certainly some real stinkers to behold.
Chapters I can't complain about too much. Some have trial and error, but The Caverns was probably a contender for the worst one. Character action games with an underwater section featuring inverted controls and a slow firing harpoon gun? How horrifying! Itagaki must've overheard something from Capcom's development team to get that bright idea implemented into his action game 3 years after the fact.
I'm eager to play hard and onward on my own time, but for the moment, I gotta wrap up the side content in Arkham Knight and get back to fully committing to Dark Souls 3. Ninja Gaiden Black kicks ass, I can't wait to play the sequel!
91% through Rift Apart already? Huh! I have been finding those Gold Bolts, armor pieces, and Spybots with the Map-O-Matic in between story events. The game doesn't have too much nor too little side content. Shame there isn't ship exploration which was refined to a T in A Crack in Time, but I do love how instantaneously space travel is from jumping into your ship and picking the next planet to fly to. Can't wait to get all the achievements, the game's been an absolute treat.
Been focusing on Ninja Gaiden Black, having beaten Alma in one attempt this morning. Ending the fight with a fireball ninpo + flying swallow was awesome! Had just barely enough health, but it was overall a hell of a good boss even if the camera gets in the way and Alma kept tossing crap my way.
Finally, I knocked out some more Arkham Knight. One more military checkpoint left, some DLC criminals to put in the slammer, and a lot more Riddler trophies to go. As big as Gotham is, getting these trophies feels a lot less laborious than the 400+ I had to collect in City.
I'll get back to Dark Souls 3 next week, hopefully. Those catacombs I've been dwelling are callin' my name. Sorry to keep you waiting, DS3. As great a game as you've been, I've been up to quite a lot.
Finally, Library Limbo's been on hold for a bit. Majorly due to the burnout Shadow quickly puts ya through. 15 of 326 routes so far. Not sure how oft I'll be playing Shadow given my rotation, but I'll absolutely try to knock out a few more routes. You can only handle The Doom so many times before you need a break, ya know?
Oh hi, OG Xbox prototype! Love it when devs hide these things in there as easter eggs, like how Gran Bruce in Viewtiful Joe spits a GameCube at you or there's R.O.B.s in the final episode.