Perfected action games of the last generation

[Gamerforlife]

I've always dug the Devil May Cry series, but the combat is not as fluid and intuitive as the Ninja Gaiden games. Also, the DMC games are prone to ridiculously difficult challenges that only a masochist would enjoy like the SS rank requirements in DMC3 or the stupid Bloody Palace achievements in DMC4. If I had to choose, it's Ninja Gaiden all the way.

True, but at least DMC has difficulty modes for everyone, while NG is just damn impossible even in the easiest setting (or at least NG2, never played the first one).

Now, about the topic, the only game I can remember that no one has mentioned yet is God Hand. I never actually played it, but judging from the reviews and videos it has a pretty wicked combat system. Swords of Destiny is also...entertaining... It has a great feature that let's you stop the time for a moment and slash all the enemies, but besides that is sort of an average game.

God Hand is a love it/hate it game. There's NO in between. I liked some of the ideas behind it, but after spending a couple hours with it and getting about half way through the game, I just couldn't stand it anymore. Traded it in

Otogi.

Side by side with Ninja Gaiden, the two Otogi games on the Xbox were the best action games last generation. Otogi had a style and beauty that most other action titles fell far short on. Nothing on the Gamecube or PS2 can visually compare to these two games. The opportunity to put together combos to fight in mid-air, Crouching Tiger style, is amazing and endlessly entertaining.

Oh, and almost completely destructible environments. The pagoda you begin your fight in may very well be gone and leveled by the time you've cleansed it of all it's demons.

I've only played the first one, but I was very impressed. The environment is something many action games take for granted(Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry and God Hand are all guilty of this)so I like seeing it come into play in Otogi. The Crouching Tiger style floating jumps and DBZ style destructibel environments really gave Otogi's combat a unique flavor. Plus, the game's atmosphere is just so heavily japanese and fairy tale like. EXCELLENT game.

It's an interesting combination of beat 'em up and shooter, but I really enjoyed what I got to play of The Red Star. It's got some cheap enemies at times, and some difficult fights, but the story and design are fun, and I enjoyed its upgrade system. Plus, multiple characters to run through the game with = good times for me

The Red Star isn't cheap really, just hard. There's a difference between cheap and hard. I'm playing a little Alien Hominid right now. THAT'S cheap.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Warrior Within, Two Thrones?
If violence is what you want, id say, go for Two Thrones. It can get pretty gruesome when you transform into the Dark prince. A good amount of free-form when it comes to combat. The prince is very agile and hacks up his enemies as hes jumping off walls and doing flips.

The Prince of Persia series rocks, though I'd skip Warrior Within from what I've heard. I'm REALLY looking forward to the newest installment.

[Ack]

I consider anything where I can be attacked by off screen enemies cheap, and I did experience that a few times in Red Star. Of course, there were some other issues I had with the game, but I figured that was the controller giving me trouble. Kept changing guns while I was trying to shoot...

I agree about Warrior Within, however. It's the only Prince of Persia I've played through, but in general I hear it's one of the worst in the series. It's combat system just felt limited to me, which is too bad considering how much you have to use it in the game. All in all I liked it, but I've been avoiding other PoP games because of it. I probably shouldn't. Which ones do you recommend Gamerforlife?

[RemyC]

The Prince of Persia series rocks, though I'd skip Warrior Within from what I've heard. I'm REALLY looking forward to the newest installment.[/quote]

Warrior Within is the first one i played, and i LOVED IT. Everything from the appearance to the sound, to the game-play. The biggest problem that everyone seems to have with it, is that aesthetically its not true to the Prince of Persia form. That being that its supposed to be a pretty, charming heroic game. As opposed to dark, gothic and gritty....as warrior within is. If you can ignore that, its a fantastic game.

[UBERTRON777]

I really liked the Onimusha series. Even though the combat wasn't that deep, it still had the same kind of feel as the Devil May Cry series.

[RackGaki]

Otogi.

Side by side with Ninja Gaiden, the two Otogi games on the Xbox were the best action games last generation. Otogi had a style and beauty that most other action titles fell far short on. Nothing on the Gamecube or PS2 can visually compare to these two games. The opportunity to put together combos to fight in mid-air, Crouching Tiger style, is amazing and endlessly entertaining.

Oh, and almost completely destructible environments. The pagoda you begin your fight in may very well be gone and leveled by the time you've cleansed it of all it's demons.

I've only played the first one, but I was very impressed. The environment is something many action games take for granted(Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry and God Hand are all guilty of this)so I like seeing it come into play in Otogi. The Crouching Tiger style floating jumps and DBZ style destructibel environments really gave Otogi's combat a unique flavor. Plus, the game's atmosphere is just so heavily japanese and fairy tale like. EXCELLENT game.

The sequel is worth playing. Hack and slash fans who found the first game repetitive could say nothing of the sort about the second. You were given six characters to choose from, all with different weapons, fighting styles, and combos. Not much else was changed, but I don't believe in messing with a proven formula.

I would be surprised if Clover wasn't taking notes while making Okami.

[Gamerforlife]

Otogi.

Side by side with Ninja Gaiden, the two Otogi games on the Xbox were the best action games last generation. Otogi had a style and beauty that most other action titles fell far short on. Nothing on the Gamecube or PS2 can visually compare to these two games. The opportunity to put together combos to fight in mid-air, Crouching Tiger style, is amazing and endlessly entertaining.

Oh, and almost completely destructible environments. The pagoda you begin your fight in may very well be gone and leveled by the time you've cleansed it of all it's demons.

I've only played the first one, but I was very impressed. The environment is something many action games take for granted(Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry and God Hand are all guilty of this)so I like seeing it come into play in Otogi. The Crouching Tiger style floating jumps and DBZ style destructibel environments really gave Otogi's combat a unique flavor. Plus, the game's atmosphere is just so heavily japanese and fairy tale like. EXCELLENT game.

The sequel is worth playing. Hack and slash fans who found the first game repetitive could say nothing of the sort about the second. You were given six characters to choose from, all with different weapons, fighting styles, and combos. Not much else was changed, but I don't believe in messing with a proven formula.

I would be surprised if Clover wasn't taking notes while making Okami.

One of these days hopefully I can check it out. I never even finished the original one, but I did get pretty far in it I remember. Okami is another favorite of mine. I'm a sucker for artistic games with substance and heart. Okami had it all. Fun gameplay, awesome visual style, great music and some of the most charming characters I've ever seen in a game and I loved the whole idea of restoring the environment, while feeding animals and helping people out along the way. Real feel good game. It looks like the new Prince of Persia is borrowing the whole restore environment thing from what I've seen.

[ott0bot]

ooops!

[ott0bot]

I've only played the first one, but I was very impressed. The environment is something many action games take for granted(Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry and God Hand are all guilty of this)so I like seeing it come into play in Otogi. The Crouching Tiger style floating jumps and DBZ style destructibel environments really gave Otogi's combat a unique flavor. Plus, the game's atmosphere is just so heavily japanese and fairy tale like. EXCELLENT game.

The sequel is worth playing. Hack and slash fans who found the first game repetitive could say nothing of the sort about the second. You were given six characters to choose from, all with different weapons, fighting styles, and combos. Not much else was changed, but I don't believe in messing with a proven formula.

I would be surprised if Clover wasn't taking notes while making Okami.

One of these days hopefully I can check it out. I never even finished the original one, but I did get pretty far in it I remember. Okami is another favorite of mine. I'm a sucker for artistic games with substance and heart. Okami had it all. Fun gameplay, awesome visual style, great music and some of the most charming characters I've ever seen in a game and I loved the whole idea of restoring the environment, while feeding animals and helping people out along the way. Real feel good game. It looks like the new Prince of Persia is borrowing the whole restore environment thing from what I've seen.

I think Twightlight Princess borrowed a whole lot from Okami too.

[ZenLogikos]

God of War is cool, but people are too quick to compare it to DMC/Ninja Gaiden. Yes, it's drawing from the same inspiration as those two series, but GOW is more of a complete adventure game whereas DMC/Ninja Gaiden focus solely on great action while everything else is pretty much tacked on and mediocre. There's no comparing the story, production value, music, puzzles and platforming of GOW to DMC/Ninja. It simply kicks their asses in those areas, but the combat systems of DMC/Ninja Gaiden simply put the GOW games to shame.

No way. I agree with everything but that last sentence. Now, I haven't played DMC, so I can't speak about that, but I played GoW 1 and 2 when they came out, and within the last two months played through NG Black and NG2. I love all four games. So, I agree with your sentiments about GoW, but I go further and say that GoW's combat system is in fact the better one. That would mean I think it's the better game, right? Well, yes, but I may have had more 'fun' playing NG and especially NG2. To explain...GoW is a better designed game. It had far more useful moves/combos. This is a credit to the designers. The player is taught how to use them and encouraged to do so, eg. some enemies must be defeated in different ways. NG 1 didn't do much teaching (Itagaki probably thinks this a waste because it's not 'hardcore'), and just shows your moves list in the menus. NG 2 does more teaching, but contrarily, as is the case with NG 1, most moves are not useful because, and this design decision is very apparent in NG 2, the speed of gameplay has been emphasized! Therefore most players(especially good ones) are only going to be using those moves which offer speed and effectiveness - namely the Flying Swallow (and the new Oblteration and Ultimates). I'm not saying they shouldn't have done this, because I sure as hell enjoy the gameplay (as I said, it may end up being more 'fun'...I can't get enough decapitations! ). But does that mean it's a better combat system? NG 1 and 2 have a plethora of moves that have been included(like GoW), but in this case - contrary to the design of the game! - thereby rendering most useless. I utilized many different combos, moves, throws, etc throughout GoW, but in NG and especially NG2, it was pretty much Flying Swallow, slice, slice, Obliteration, repeat. NG does it with plenty of style, so I couldn't get enough, despite the repetition - but I wouldn't say it's better 'designed' combat.

[Gamerforlife]

God of War is cool, but people are too quick to compare it to DMC/Ninja Gaiden. Yes, it's drawing from the same inspiration as those two series, but GOW is more of a complete adventure game whereas DMC/Ninja Gaiden focus solely on great action while everything else is pretty much tacked on and mediocre. There's no comparing the story, production value, music, puzzles and platforming of GOW to DMC/Ninja. It simply kicks their asses in those areas, but the combat systems of DMC/Ninja Gaiden simply put the GOW games to shame.

No way. I agree with everything but that last sentence. Now, I haven't played DMC, so I can't speak about that, but I played GoW 1 and 2 when they came out, and within the last two months played through NG Black and NG2. I love all four games. So, I agree with your sentiments about GoW, but I go further and say that GoW's combat system is in fact the better one. That would mean I think it's the better game, right? Well, yes, but I may have had more 'fun' playing NG and especially NG2. To explain...GoW is a better designed game. It had far more useful moves/combos. This is a credit to the designers. The player is taught how to use them and encouraged to do so, eg. some enemies must be defeated in different ways. NG 1 didn't do much teaching (Itagaki probably thinks this a waste because it's not 'hardcore'), and just shows your moves list in the menus. NG 2 does more teaching, but contrarily, as is the case with NG 1, most moves are not useful because, and this design decision is very apparent in NG 2, the speed of gameplay has been emphasized! Therefore most players(especially good ones) are only going to be using those moves which offer speed and effectiveness - namely the Flying Swallow (and the new Oblteration and Ultimates). I'm not saying they shouldn't have done this, because I sure as hell enjoy the gameplay (as I said, it may end up being more 'fun'...I can't get enough decapitations! ). But does that mean it's a better combat system? NG 1 and 2 have a plethora of moves that have been included(like GoW), but in this case - contrary to the design of the game! - thereby rendering most useless. I utilized many different combos, moves, throws, etc throughout GoW, but in NG and especially NG2, it was pretty much Flying Swallow, slice, slice, Obliteration, repeat. NG does it with plenty of style, so I couldn't get enough, despite the repetition - but I wouldn't say it's better 'designed' combat.

Well I played the first God of War on the hardest difficulty setting pretty much just abusing the Poseidon's Rage spell over and over again and beat the game....sooooo, I don't think much of GOW's combat system. Seems like a lot of players made GOW harder than necessary. That one spell is pretty much all you need. Although, I found that in NG1 all you need to learn is block, counter and then do an air combo into an izuna drop no matter what difficulty you play on. So you could argue its combat is too simple too I guess. I haven't played Black or NG 2(other than the demo)so I can't comment. Still, the NG and DMC games have more moves to choose from if the player so chooses, the GOW series don't seem to have that many moves and combos. On the harder settings in DMC 3, you HAVE to learn how to use a variety of moves and weapons effectively, especially if you go for the best ranks.

I'll say this though, I kind of enjoyed the original GOW overall more than any DMC or NG game I've played. I never finished the second one though.