I figured I'd resurrect a game thread rather than continue to feed "doom" threads.

I've been playing this for a few weeks and it's been a loooong time since a game has had me swearing at the screen and kicked my ass this much. Despite this I'm near the endgame and proud to say that I've never once dropped the difficulty.

The dev teams must have a sadistic streak, but too their credit attempting a zen-like focus and analysis of the enemies will produce fruit. On the cusp of 43 I'm frankly surprised I still have the reflexes to play a game like this!

My biggest gripe is the lack of customisable controls (I'd love to lock out the d-pad because I often trigger a weapon select pop-up when things get too frenetic) and an arsey camera. Ayame's second boss fight was nearly unplayable because the right stick wouldn't rotate the camera and L1 stopped repositioning it as well (my "fix" was to press the right stick which ended up doing the L1 move behind).

Overall I'm enjoying it: my heart rate elevates and there's a kind of visceral action in the "steel on bone" animations that I've not seen in another brawler. Nicely done!

Glad to hear from a fellow 40+ gamer . I loved these games on the old xbox but even then it whipped my A$$ pretty good. Needless to say I never played the sequels but may have to pick this one up.

@Sean_Aaron: What difficulty level are you playing at? I have finished it and stayed on normal the whole time. I agree with you on locking down the directional pad, I don't know how many times I bumped that button! The most difficult part for me was Ayane's second go round. That boss fight was pretty brutal. Do you have all the scarabs and skulls? I still have 2 skulls to get but got all the scarabs.
Also good to know that in 11 years I still should be able to play a game like this.

@Ryno
Any tips for defeating the Goddess? I've been playing that for the majority of the morning and I'm still struggling with trying to fill that meter up.

And this is definitely one of the hardest games that I've played in a long time.

@RoryLee:

Spoiler Alert!

I used the Hayate Sword (weird playing with Ryu minus the Dragon Sword). I held down the heavy attack button (X) until you start glowing and then release when a mob of enemies is close by and then it should continue onto the Steel on Bone mode and wipe out most, if not all of the mob. Then when that group is clear hold X again to take out the next mob rather easily and continue with this as the basic strategy.

End Spoiler

Thanks! That what I started doing towards the end of my gaming session and that was working the best for me. I guess I'll have to take another crack at it again. And the Hayate Sword has been my main weapon in the game.

I've beaten this game. I love it and recommend it to anyone who has a WiiU

I'm playing on "normal" (on most games this would be hard!) and I agree. That trio of bosses was awful at first, but it didn't take me long to get into the rhythm. That's what I like about this game the most: you hit a situation which initially looks impossible, but if you can chill a bit and maybe try out a different strategy you can get through it. The man in the mask has been the toughest opponent so far. Sunday night I'll make my final foray and hopefully emerge victorious!

I've got around half the scarabs and I've only attempted one of the skull challenges and failed. I really just want to play the game and try out online and other modes later. I'm not a completist, so I don't feel a special need to get everything - finishing each day's boss battle is satisfaction enough!

I just beat the game. Thanks for the tip Rhyno!

I got around 44 of the Scarabs and 7 of the skulls. And I'm pretty sure that I only completed 1 out of the 7 skull challenges. Now to tackle the online mode.

Plus I find it really funny that my wife found a gray hair on my head this week, lol. Yeah, this game is really frustrated me.

Yeah, normal for Ninja Gaiden is a completely different beast compared to other games. One of the things I really like about this game is you are rewarded for having a really good fighting session by your rating which has an outcome on how much your energy regenerates instead of automatically just going to max.

I don’t consider myself a completionist really either but this game is a little different because it is fun to play chapter challenges with the different ladies. Plus, it allows you to accumulate more scarabs that you originally missed. I really want Ryu’s original Ninja Gaiden NES costume I gotta admit but it is so many Karma points!

Online is alright though I haven’t tried it in a while. It was hard to find people to play with but maybe that has changed. Mulitplayer ninja’s is a nice change to shooters. I mean, who wasn’t a kid or teenager the 80’s that didn’t want to be a ninja?

You're welcome! Congrats on beating the game too.
I never even completed one skull challenge. I just didn't have it in me to "try again" after losing to a boss.

Maybe I will se you two online!

Oh I'll definitely take it for a spin online. See you there maybe!

I was really enjoying this for the first couple of weeks after getting it but my attention's switched back to Darksiders 2 again the last couple.

I agree this is the most brutal game I've played for a couple of decades and also that the camera angles can be annoying (but not as bad as Darksiders). As soon as I've finished that other game I'll get right back to this one, I only put it aside after one frustrating evening of failing to beat the mirror Ryu that I'd already beaten once (First time! That;s what made it especially frustrating) the night before and I know my girlfriend doesn't enjoy that game but is quite happy to be in the room while I play Darksiders and call out advice!

I actually realised that I have played a game not too long ago that made me more frustrated than this (as in I gave up on it completely after much near controller-destroying rage): Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Wii Virtual Console. That was four years ago, but I'm old enough that this doesn't seem like "a long time ago" - a senior moment people, I'm allowed!

Haha! Yep. Damned time.