THE GOOD:Some pretty solid gameplay
Stunning visuals in environments
Very diverse environments
Enough variety in weapons to keep everyone happy
THE BAD:
Camera can make you want to ingest paint
Some mechanics seem broken, such as swimming and other controls
Things can get very hectic, with difficulty spikes randomly
Some bosses are so easy you can blow through them without damage, others take you hours.
Story can get confusing
SUMMARY:
Let me say this now; this isn't a bad game. In fact, if some minor things had been worked out, this would have been a favorite of mine. As it stands now, however, it's just a game I play casually to get stress out, and to have the satisfaction of beating it.
I'll get my praise out of the way now. I love how much variety they use in the weapons of the game. No matter what you're playing style is, you'll find a weapon that you can fall in love with. I personally spent most of my time using the nunchuk-like weapons that are two small scythes chained together, while using the big heaping scythe for bosses as it cuts down foes like they're grass.
One thing I noticed as I was going through the game was: "Wow, all these environments are very diverse", because you can go from a sprawling city to a Ninja village to a snowy Russian city, and it all blends seamlessly. Plus, the visuals for these spectacles are amazing.
Ok, now let's talk about some flaws. I feel that Ninja Gaiden II was really difficult, for wrong reasons. Whenever I would go to block, it wouldn't recognize it and I'd still be hurt. Then as I'm recovering someone else will attack me, and the whole thing goes around in a loop. One time I was launched into the air by an enemy attack, then I was hit with a rocket and sent flying, only to be hit by more enemies and rockets. This gets worse when enemies start using guns. When you're shot, you stand still and take the damage, and there's nothing you can do about it. This then leaves you open for more people to attack you and shoot you. I died once just because Ryu couldn't move while being fired at.
Sometimes, the game wants you to focus on swimming, and this can get frustrating as well. You use the A button for two things: Diving, and running on water, and even though I've beaten the game, I still don't know how to actually dive. I would press A, but that'd just make me run, because you continually press A to run on water, then I'd press Up and A, and occasionally it'd take me underwater, and other times it's made me run on water also.
Now, perhaps my biggest grip with the game was the camera. It's caused me to take so much unnecessary damage and frustrate me so much, it was enough for me to stop playing the game for a good month-2 months. Sure, you can control it, but I use the word "control" very loosely. Many times I'll be shot with arrows or shuriken or guns from people that you can't even see, and that gets into my point above. If the camera system was a window, it wouldn't be completely broken, it'd just be cracked and maimed at different places.
This game was designed to be hard, but I think at some points the developers got a little lazy. One boss took me (plus my friend) countless retries and deaths to finally beat him. Then, the very next boss I beat the first time without breaking a sweat. It gets very schizophrenic. The final boss (Small spoilers ahead) consisted of three parts. The first guy was easy enough, but then I had to face the actual main boss. It took me half an hour to actually figure out how to damage him, then another 15 minutes of fighting to figure out how to damage him well. Since I figured this would be the final fight, I used my best healing items and gave it my all. I finally beat him, and relaxed in my chair, only to have to face a more powerful form of him right after that. This took me another 15 minutes of button mashing and swearing, and at the end I felt relieved, not that I had beaten the main boss, but because it made me so frustrated that I didn't need to do it again.
I'll be completely honest, I didn't know what was happening in the story about 75% of the time. Sometimes you'd have story-driven scenes and moments, other times they dump you in a level with no other goal than "Kill the Boss" and that's the story fot the level. Although, I did take a big break in between starting this, stopping out of frustration, and picking it up again, so if sometime in the beginning they said "We need to kill all the smaller Archfiends," then that would make more sense.
So in conclusion, Ninja Gaiden II is a game that has a very ambitious gameplay mechanic backed by poor controls and other various nit picking things that aren't necessarily game breaking. I recommend it, but I warn you: make sure you have some sort of stress relief next to you for when this game makes you frustrated.
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