Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword

"My least favorite Ninja Gaiden game but still ok."

When the game first came out I never bothered to try it out and buy it until 4 days ago. While playing I hoped the developers did a good job on working with the DS and its Touch Screen. Indeed they did. What I realized the most after playing through at least half the game was it pretty much had the same enemies as Ninja Gaiden. I thought it would bring new enemies but still, it was a good game.

Story
Three words. Bland and boring. This isn't one of those games where you'd want to unravel the story and see what happens. First of all, Ryu Hayabusa was able to rebuild the Hayabusa village. The whole story revolves around the kidnapping of Momjii, Ryu's friend. During a training session with Ryu, Momjii is captured by a member of the Black Spider Clan under the orders of Obaba, who hopes to obtain the Eye of the Dragon for the ancient Fiend, Ishataros. For those of you who don't know, the Eye of the Dragon is the jewel that can reveal the true form of the Dragon Sword, which is what Ryu wields.

When Ryu returns to his village, the master sword smith, Muramusa, informs him about the Dark Dragonstones. Each Dark Dragon Stone contains the will and essence of a Dark Dragon. There are 8 dragon stones and when all of them are gathered, it would unleash a power stronger than the Dark Dragon Blade. For those of you who don't know the Dark Dragon Blade, is a incredible powerful blade that holds evil power. The rest of the whole game revolves around obtaining the 8 dragon stones. 4/10


Graphics
Absolutely amazing for the DS. I expected the gameplay graphics to look like anime but no, it proved me wrong. The only time it's anime looking graphics are in the cutscenes and the drawings look wonderful. In the cutscenes, some pictures take up both screens and some only take up one but I'm not saying that's a bad or good thing at all, just pointing out. Some of the animations are cool to watch ex. when you unleash ultimate technique or when jumping around. 10/10

Gameplay
It's a Ninja Gaiden game so of course there's going to be tons of action and hack-n-slashing. The whole thing is just traveling place to place that most likely won't be that huge because in mostly every place, there's enemies. Each time you get into those battles with enemies, you'll just do the same thing you did the last time. Some of you reading this will think, "A lot of games are like that. I don't know what you are talking about." That is true but some are more interesting and entertaining to do than the others. This game is one of those games that are fun to repeat but it just gets tiring. Most enemies are just the same so you use the same strategy over and over again and you'll know what to watch out for. The developers could've at least added in different enemies that'll make you use different techniques. The only enemies that I can remember are interesting are the skeleton zombies and ghost fish. Skeleton zombies I found interesting were that they don't flinch when you attack them and you'll have to watch out on when to dodge cause they can do massive damage if they attack you. Ghost fish were interesting cause multiples and groups come at you and they can easily bite you and do plenty of damage so you'll have to kill them all quickly. Those are the examples.

Essence
There are three types of essence in the game that you can obtain from enemies you kill. Yellow essence is used for buying items from Muramusa. Blue essence increases your health. Red Essence increases your nimpo.

In the beginning of the game, you'll start out with the Dragon Sword, shurikens, and a fireball nimpo attack (you'll read about the nimpo quickly soon). Throughout the game you'll obtain the items: a bow (infinite arrows), explosive arrows (infinite), and new nimpo. Nimpo is a special magic attack you can use only once. There are different nimpo in the game. To refill your nimpo you have to obtain red essence. A special attack is the Ultimate Technique. The ultimate technique is an attack than can do massive damage to enemies around you. You do this by sliding the stylus fast on the Touch Screen. While charging the attack up it'll suck in any essence around you. If any are sucked in, it'll increase the charging speed. I find this a somewhat interesting gameplay feature (it was also in Ninja Gaiden I believe). Other few fun techniques are included in the game, too 8/10

Controls
All the controls in the game heavily depend on the stylus. First off you'll have to play the DS vertically like Guitar Hero: On Tour (never played it though). You can change the options to make it fit right handed people and left handed people. The map of the stage will be on the left screen (or if you're left handed then the right) and the whole gameplay will take place on the Touch Screen. Now to talk about the stylus controls. You can consider the stylus your sword. If you slide the stylus horizontally across an enemy, then you will attack the enemy horizontally. Same goes with vertically, if you slide the stylus vertically across an enemy then you will attack the enemy with a vertical slash. You can also do diagonal slashes. When you tap an enemy you'll throw a shuriken or shoot an arrow depending on the weapon you have equipped. To run you tap and hold the stylus on that place to run in that direction. When I mean by hold I don't mean you have to hold it for one second to start moving, it takes way less time than that. To jump you slide the stylus upwards. Sounds fun but the negative part is sometimes you can easily mess up with the controls ex. you tap an enemy meaning to throw a shuriken but instead you run toward the enemy accidently holding it for a .25 of a second. It can mean a big deal because the enemy can do a strong attack on you if you mess up like that. That's the only negative in the controls. 8/10

Sound
Solid. Each sound effect matches and goes well with the visuals. You'll want to raise the volume of your DS to hear the satisfying sound of sword slashing. There isn't a lot of sound effects to hear though. I was expecting to hear a different sound effect for different types of enemies but no, that's not what happened. The sound effects of striking an enemy with your sword, shuriken, or bow are the same thing. The same sound effects of striking an enemy with your sword applies to them striking you. The different sound effect you can here in battle is the screeches from enemies and when you use your nimpo. At least each nimpo attack has a different sound.

Now to talk about the music. Some stages go well with the music, and some don't. For example, the music it plays when your playing in the beginning is terrible. The boss music is pretty good though and makes me want to listen to it while I play. 7/10

Replayablity
A huge negative for the game. After beating it, you'll just lose interest in beating it again. All that happens is you unlock a harder difficulty but only one. There are three harder difficulties you can unlock. The only point in playing it again is to test your skills, enjoy harder difficulty, or to unlock all the wooden amulets. The only thing that appeals to me is the harder difficulty. You might replay it but most likely, you'll be bored. I already lost interest of the game after beating it the first time in six hours. 2/10

Overall Score: 7/10

It wasn't what I expected from playing the Ninja Gaiden but it really wasn't worth the $35 when it only lasted my six hours. But still, it was fun while it lasted that quick. What they should improve is more options that would want you to replay it and still have fun. Also, they need to bring some new and more interesting enemies instead of the ones that were already in Ninja Gaiden. I hope the sequel to this game will fix those up. Well I think Tomonobu Itagaki said he was planning to make another DS Ninja Gaiden, I'm not sure.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/21/08

Game Release: Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (US, 03/25/08)