Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 89 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 63 out of 89
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 89
  3. Negative: 22 out of 89
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  1. Gabe87
    Jun 14, 2021
    0
    its worse than ps3 versions .. + no MP
    ninja gaiden sigma 2 they remove some true dragon sword moves . they didnt add the blood back this collection is a garbage
  2. joshbreviews
    Dec 5, 2021
    3
    The Ninja Gaiden franchise could have been one of the biggest hack and slash games this world has seen. Instead, the devs absolutely destroyed this series with bafflingly terrible decisions with every sequel. This could've been the Doom 2016 of hack and slash. But here we are. 3/10. Unlimited protentional at the time, but now just a terrible game.

    This is a Master Ninja Mode review.    The Ninja Gaiden franchise could have been one of the biggest hack and slash games this world has seen. Instead, the devs absolutely destroyed this series with bafflingly terrible decisions with every sequel. This could've been the Doom 2016 of hack and slash. But here we are. 3/10. Unlimited protentional at the time, but now just a terrible game.

    This is a Master Ninja Mode review. Beat the games on MNM, so I "got gud", don't tell me to get gud. Every other mode is stupidly easy, and then there's this leap to dumb, cheap, and frustrating.

    It's like brilliant team was assigned to creating Ryu and his move sets and mechanics, and then another much dumber team was assigned to creating the enemies, bosses, and the difficulty. Here are the issues:

    1) One-hit kill grabs. Constant grabbing that takes you out of the action. Constant one-hit kill grabs that have 10,000 year-long animations, making your eyes glaze over after watching it for the 1 millionth time. Combo-to-grab attacks. And then there's the fact that almost all fatal grab attacks have literally maybe 60 MILLISECONDS of warning. Who was this game made for, Captain America? Spider-Man? Master Chief? Did you design this game for those who have bullet-time perception???

    2) Enemies are overloaded and over-tuned. Clawed ninjas have insane health, endless combos, AND can throw kunai bombs? Really? Why not give the kunai bombs to the weaker ninjas instead to balance it out? Spell caster has insane one-hit kill grab, one-hit kill spells, AND can teleport to grab you? Huh?? Like the bosses, these grabs have literally less than a quarter of a second "warning".

    3) Some bosses arbitrarily have constant invulnerability frames, so basically you can only damage them if the game decides that it will allow you to damage it. Elizabet and Alexei come to mind. But why design your boss like that? Even dark souls, known for its notorious difficulty, doesn't do cheap bs like this. In dark souls, you can damage the boss almost 90% of the time --- but, if you button mash, the boss' combos will kill you first. Dark Souls is hard, BUT FAIR. Ninja Gaiden is just arbitrarily cheap and frustrating.

    4) The demand for millisecond reaction times means you have to cheese and exploit the game to beat it. And if you have to do that, your devs failed to make a good game.

    5) Dodging is tied to the block button? Really? did they not realize how difficult this makes the game in an awful, cheap way??? Pressing a button on-demand is MILLISECONDS MUCH FASTER than tilting the analog stick. And guess what dumb game demands millisecond reaction times from its players???

    6) Unnecessarily punishing and uneven saving system. Why make me go through things i already beat? Why make me backtrack to save? Why lock away save points arbitrarily? Pointless. Amateurish.

    7) Insufferable, mind-numbing, never-ending grunts, groans, wails, and screams from bosses. When game devs aren't incompetent, these audio bits are used to warn players of a specific incoming attack. But guess what? the groans happen DURING or AFTER the attacks. so they're pointless. And they often use the same grunts for everything, making it an even less reliable indicator. Ultimately, they only serve to make the players' ears bleed.

    8) Atrociously terrible amateurish camera system. 50% of your deaths will be from cheap ultra-speed one-hit-kill grabs. The other 50%? Because the camera decides to focus on you in the corner instead of focusing on the enemy. Seriously, in all my experience gaming, I have never encountered so god-awful camera systems. I pray that the person who designed this is not working camera systems in games anymore. Jesus the amount of frustration this'll bring is endless.

    I beat these games on Master Ninja Mode, so clearly I played a TON, trying, TRYING to love these games. But I just can't. It's like League of Legends. You keep playing but you hate it. You want so badly for it to be good, but it just actively tries to make you hate it. There are flashes of extreme brilliance here and there, but every single time, your happiness is immediately shut down by some stupid, cheap, artificial difficulty feature.

    I've been gaming for a long time now, and I've never encountered a game so awesome yet mind-numbingly terrible at the same time.

    I'm frustrated cause the world was denied the ultimate competitor to Devil May Cry and God of War. The devs could've made insane amounts of money if they just had the strength and discipline to polish up the Ninja Gaiden mechanics instead of doubling down on these stupid things I mentioned here. To me, this is one of the biggest failures of gaming history. The ultimate potential, absolutely and utterly wasted. And now Ninja Gaiden is in limbo, cause it didn't sell well. Guess why it didn't sell well.

    This Master Collection was THE reason to revisit the games and tweak grabs, cameras, combos, speed, difficulty...but they chose not to do any of that.    … Expand
  3. MeatGrindeR
    Sep 17, 2021
    0
    Мало того, что оптимизации, как таковой и нет, так и не добавили русский язык...
    Неужели так сложно добавить русские субтитры, м?

Awards & Rankings

58
#58 Best PS4 Game of 2021
22
#22 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 44 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 44
  2. Mixed: 27 out of 44
  3. Negative: 0 out of 44
  1. Cubed3
    Jun 14, 2022
    70
    Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection is a double-edged Dragon Sword. On one hand, it's hard to overlook the omission of both Black titles. On the other hand, the Sigma duology and Razor's Edge make for a compelling, if at times uneven, action trilogy. What the first Sigma loses from puzzles, platforming, and exploration, it makes up for with streamlined set pieces that highlight combat above all else. Sigma 2 lacks almost all the style that defined Ninja Gaiden II, but it's undeniably a smoother experience that challenges a different set of skills than its predecessor. Razor's Edge is the clear weak link of the bunch on a design level, but the mechanics are incredibly fun to experiment with. It may not be the ideal compilation for hardcore franchise fans, but Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection is a great entrypoint for new fans and a solid trilogy in its own right.
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  2. Games.cz
    Aug 16, 2021
    60
    It’s too rusty for new players, too shallow and incomplete for veterans. Ninja Gaiden will have to transform itself significantly in order to attract a new generation of fighters.
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  3. PlayStation Country
    Jul 6, 2021
    80
    Ninja Gaiden Master Collection offers three games of varying greatness in one set. It's not quite the all inclusive package one would hope for and the enhancements are limited but seeing each game back to back really shows the strength of each and highlights the fact that the controls and combat were always top notch.
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