Wow, where to begin? I wish I could add the game's opening soundtrack
to this review, so as to help express my overflowing appreciation of
Dragon Sword. But alas, suffice it to say, I love this game! I had been
waiting for it for a long, long time, and now it's finally here in all
its glory.
Know, reading this review, I haven't actually played another Ninja
Gaiden game before this one (well, I did play the old Ninja Gaiden on
the NES, though it's quite different from what we now have with the
series), but I am a lover of this sort of action, and the DS is sorely
barren when it comes to serving up this type of excitement. So, when
Dragon Sword was officially revealed quite a ways back, I was all over
it with both feet.
If you're reading this review, you likely know the Ninja Gaiden basics.
If you don't, well, think God of War, Devil May Cry, Onimusha-style,
mature action, and you'll be on the right track to understanding where
this game is coming from. But it's on the DS! Not only on the DS, but
Dragon Sword makes perhaps the very best use of the system of any game
I've yet played. Everything, except blocking, is done using the
stylus…and it feels great!
You play as Ryu, and he's a ninja who doesn't hide in the shadows
waiting for an easy kill. Rather, Ryu is the type of ninja who's fast
and furious, and fast and furious is what Ninja Gaiden seems to be all
about. (That's probably why the two series – Devil May Cry and Ninja
Gaiden – are often compared.) You command Ryu to move by simply
pointing on the touchscreen where you want him to go, much in the same
way as moving Link in Phantom Hourglass, or moving your character in
Animal Crossing: Wild World; it's simple and works great. Equally
simple – and incredibly rewarding, I might add – is commanding Ryu to
attack and jump. Simply slash over enemies to attack, slice up to jump
(or slice up twice to double-jump), and perform various combos and
special techniques using a certain combination of touchscreen scribbles
and commands. As mentioned, the only thing you don't do with the stylus
is block, and for this you simply press any button on the DS. You can
then roll while blocking by tapping in any direction on the
touchscreen. The controls are very "intuitive" and a ton of fun. The
action has you feeling like you're in Ryu's sandals in no time.
You'll actually begin the game playing as Ryu's ninja student, Momiji,
and while playing her in the first chapter, you'll learn all the
basics. Soon thereafter, Momiji vanishes, and Ryu takes over. The start
of the game takes place in Ryu's home village, but soon moves into a
netherworld of sorts, with Ryu's village playing game hub for the
duration of the story. You'll be fighting demons and demon ninjas, as
well as other various baddies, and there are plenty of bosses along the
way. The game's broken into chapters, and the level progression is
spot-on for a game meant to be played on the go.
That doesn't mean, however, the game doesn't come close to the epic
quality of its console counterparts, because it does. The story is told
through dialogue, of course, but also using gorgeous storyboard artwork
and cinematic direction. It's a wonderful presentation from start to
finish, and not something most folks are likely to expect from a DS
action title.
Which brings us to: the production values…
Wow! Double Wow, and FTW, triple-freakin' wow! This game isn't just
impressive in terms of technical quality, but the art style is just
sky-high with love and attention to detail. The 3D character models
over lush 2D backgrounds allow the framerate to zip along and Ryu to
glide like the lightning-fast ninja he proposes to be. The storyboards
are woven into the gameplay so wonderfully, you just can't help but
simply get lost in this game.
The sound, too, is no less exciting. Authentic Asian instrumentals one
minute, hard-rockin' tunes the next. Everything fits the visuals and
actions onscreen perfectly. As an entire production package, Ninja
Gaiden: Dragon Sword rivals anything Nintendo or Square Enix have yet
to do on the DS. The game is simply beautiful.
Beautiful but short. Yeah, it's as short as you've heard (or may not
have heard). About eight hours the first time through, but what a
glorious eight hours it is. That said, there are a ton of cool
unlockables, including difficulty settings that should offer extra
challenge to Ninja Gaiden vets. I found the game to be a nice challenge
the first time through, though many of the bosses were relative
push-overs. The bosses, however, were still all very fun to fight and
amazing to look at, regardless of the difficulty setting.
But the second difficulty setting was pwning me fairly quickly. On the
harder difficulty, spamming moves won't get you through (most of the
time). You'll have to learn the enemies' attacks, and map out an
appropriate strategy to defeat them, all on the fly. There isn't nearly
as much combat variety in Dragon Sword as I've seen and heard about in
the Xbox Ninja Gaiden game, but the enemy attacks are also not as
varied, either. So, the difficulty matches up well with the skills both
Ryu and the enemies he faces possess. From what I've watched and read
about regarding Xbox Ninja Gaiden, the harder difficulty in Dragon
Sword offers a comparable combat challenge for players. There are no
easy enemies.
"Wait, so you've really nothing negative to say about the game?"
Only one thing, really, and it's in regards to the controls. Yes, the
controls are easy to use, and yes, they're fun as all hell. But
occasionally, Ryu will do things you don't intend him to do. I
attribute this to the touchscreen's sensitivity, coupled with the way
certain level areas come in and out of scale. Ryu might be right up
toward the front of the screen one moment, but then make his way toward
the rear of a room the next, and this can cause the DS to misread your
touchscreen command. That said, it's kind of rare and negligible, since
it never really hurts the overall experience.
Well, there you have it. To sum up: buy this game! The DS has seen its
share of quality titles among the hordes of shovelware, but we haven't
seen many good action games of this sort on the system. Dragon Sword
goes beyond good and carves a new paragon for quality on the DS. Thanks
Team Ninja!
