Summary
Team Ninjamade quite a name for themselves with their debut title,Dead or Alive, an incredibly influential game that made ripples throughout the fighting game community upon its release, becoming well-known for its challenging gameplay and incredibly unique cast of characters. The massive commercial case of this title allowed the developers to not only continue with the series, creating a plethora of spin-offs and sequels but also try their hand at creating games for other genres too.
What this has resulted in is more than two decades of incredible titles being added to Team Ninja’s extensive catalog of games, many of which have been regarded as ranging from moderately challenging, to extremely brutal in overall difficulty. A big draw to Team Ninja’s games for many fans has been overcoming this seemingly insurmountable challenge that many of them include, but when stacking them all up against each other, which of their titles stands as the hardest of them all to complete?
The hardest versions and ports of each of theNinja Gaidengames will be the ones counted on this list.
Though a lot ofFinal Fantasyfans were skeptical whetherStrangers of Paradisewould be worth their time, especially with the confusing trailers and drastically different gameplay which steered more towardsNier,it ended up being extremely enjoyable and very well-designed.Players take control of Jack, an irritable but well-intentioned man who seeks only to destroy Chaos by any means necessary.
After he gathers a few allies, the team sets out on an adventure spanning 16 different levels where players must hack and slash their way through countless enemies, all of whom can deal some serious damage if they are allowed to attack. Players are heavily encouraged to mix and match the Job system to make encounters a little easier, especially the boss enemies, who can be incredibly intimidating because of their speed and size. While there are plenty of tools granted to players to help them along their journey,Strangers of Paradisestill holds nothing back when it comes to challenges.
WhileDead or Alive 4carried over the majority of its cast and central mechanics from the third game, there were also a few new systems thrown into the mix which made the game a lot more unforgiving, especially with the introduction of bounce combos. This allowed players to juggle an opponent in the air after they had been lifted with a heavy strike, and while it did flesh out the core gameplay and added an extra layer of depth, it also made it much easier to take extreme amounts of damage, especially sincethe AI opponents aren’t shy about using it as much as possible in a fight.
Team Ninja also made the divisive decision to add environmental hazards to certain stages which could damage a character if they made contact with them, but the random nature of these sorts of objects made them incredibly annoying and quite distracting when in the middle of a heated battle. The counter was also much harder to pull off this time around, which has always been a central mechanic to theDead or Alivegames, and it all comes together to make what is undoubtedly the most difficult game in the franchise to master, or even learn at all.
After the immense success and popularity ofFromSoftware’sDark Soulsgames, Team Ninja decided to create a game that was just as hard as those titles, but that also had its unique gameplay system and mechanics, and this game became known asNioh. The hack-and-slash combat ofNiohis incredibly fast-paced, forcing the player to remain fully focused for every encounter if they want to stand a chance of making it out alive.
Rather than the difficulty gradually rising as the game goes on though, it’s actually at its hardest during the first few hours when William is ill-prepared to take on the monsters and soldiers who stand up against him. After completing a few side-quests and acquiring powerful skills, the fights become a little more manageable, especially when utilizing magic, but it’s still an incredibly unforgiving experience that only the most persistent of gamers will be able to complete.
4Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge
GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 4.05
Even thoughRazor’s Edgetinkered around with the mechanics of the originalNinja Gaiden 3to make it a little more accessible, even then, the game remains immensely challenging from beginning to end. While the actual combat itself isn’t quite as hard to get accustomed to as the first two games, what makesRazor’s Edgeso hard isthe endless waves of enemies that appear on-screen at once, and the occasional technical issues that still plague the game, such as the input lag that can easily mess up combos.
Enemies are also incredibly fast on their feet in this game, lunging and rolling their way around the environment in an attempt to evade every one of Ryu’s attacks, and when there are multiple of them to take care of, it can turn some encounters into an absolute nightmare. The Steel on Bone technique can at least be safely used to counter most enemy grabs in the game with precise timing, so going with a more defensive game plan is usually for the best, rather than rushing in and trying to take out every enemy as quickly as possible.
As if the first game wasn’t already hard enough, Team Ninja decided to crank up the challenge just a little bit more inNioh 2, creating a game that will truly test a player’s patience and will-power. Although the combat is just as fast as it was before, there’s also just a lot to keep track of during an encounter inNioh 2, such as managing Ki, changing stances, and using abilities. Between all of this,players will also need to squeeze in a few attacks to whittle down the enemy health bars, and what this means is that an entire fight can go horribly wrong by looking away from the screen for even a second, with the game demanding every inch of the players' attention.
There are also plenty of areas in the game that feel as though they’ve purposefully been designed against the player, especially when archers can be seen readying their weapons on the rooftops, or small corridors where the enemy can freeze and poison the player without even being seen. No one could have expected that Team Ninja could end up making the sequel toNiohany harder than the original game already was, but it’s fair to say that they managed to achieve this, while also ensuring that the game never feels unfair or impossible to beat.
2Ninja Gaiden 2
GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 4.26
For a game that was released back in 2008,Ninja Gaiden 2’sAI is incredibly advanced for its time, with the enemies strategically moving around Ryu to flank him during combat and blocking his attacks at just the right time, leaving him wide open for an attack. This already makes the game pretty challenging, but because of how aggressive a lot of the enemies can be, it also means that knowing when to block, and when to risk going for an attack, becomes incredibly difficult in and of itself.
While the foot soldiers can already be a problem, the ranged enemies who hurl Kunai at Ryu can be even harder to take down since their projectiles are so fast, and can be incredibly lethal if they make contact. A much-needed change from the first game is that the Save Points inNinja Gaiden 2will now heal Ryu, but because these are often so few and far between, it means that relying on them too heavily is never a good idea. The key to managingNinja Gaiden 2’sencounters is moving around as fast as possible and utilizing some of the faster weapons, like the Dragon Sword and Vigoorian Flails, to slash at opponents without needing to slow down. Otherwise, Ryu might as well be a sitting duck.
1Ninja Gaiden
GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 4.33
While there had been plenty of action games that had come out before the release ofNinja Gaidenin 2004, none of them had been anywhere near as relentless in their combat as this game was. Every time the player moves a few steps forward, a horde of enemies will fly in from above, jump through walls, or just randomly appear out of nowhere to attack Ryu, with the game being the very definition of non-stop action.
Because Ryu starts with little more than a sword to his name, and since there’s no tutorial to speak of, it means that players are essentially set up to die numerous times before they can even get a grasp of the combat system. The game also throws some extremely powerful bosses the player’s way in the first few hours, with the fearsomeMaster Murai, who has made more than a few newcomers drop the game entirely. CompletingNinja Gaidenis often considered to be one of the hardest achievements in all of gaming, and this comes as no surprise when playing through even just the first few minutes of this classic action title.
