April Edition Live Magazine - April 2014 Issue. | Page 78

review

Yaiba: Ninja
Gaiden Z
When I first heard of ‘Yaiba: Ninja
Gaiden Z’, I didn’t think much of the
announcement. In fact, I probably
uttered “meh” and then went onto
gush about one of the more heavilymarketed games, like Titanfall. Now
that I’ve actually played the finished
game, I’m happy to say despite being extremely linear and having a few
minor issues, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z
is both a challenge and enjoyable for
action games fans.
Yaiba is not your typical action
game, at least not in terms of its
story. It casts players as Yaiba Kamikaze, an insane shinobi who in the
game’s opening cut scene is almost
killed by Ryu Hayabusa (protagonist
of the Ninja Gaiden series). After being revived by Forge Industries (and
transformed into a cyborg), Yaiba is
then hired by Forge to put an end to

and that’s putting it nicely. He is foulmouthed, bloodthirsty and has absolutely no loyalty or moral compass to
speak of. If you like jerk characters
then you will love Yaiba’s smartass
remarks, and his tendencies to rip
someone’s arms off on a whim. If,
however, you grew tired of similar
characters such as Deadpool in his
feature game, you might grow sick
of Yaiba’s constant cussing and ul-

“..BUT AS MUCH AS YAIBA’S STORY AND
CHARACTERS FEEL UNINSPIRED, THEY DO STILL
MANAGE TO ENTERTAIN.”
a zombie outbreak. The zombie outbreak means nothing to Yaiba, who
merely wishes to exact his revenge
on Ryu Hayabusa, and kill the head
of Heavy Forge industries as well.
Yaiba himself is an absolute jerk,

traviolent work ethics. Other characters in the game, are relics of games
gone by. There’s Miss Monday, the
busty and highly-sexual Forge employee who acts as Yaiba’s guide.
That is, if she wasn’t cracking jokes
and spouting double entendres at
every opportunity. Alarico del Gonzo,

is your typical corporate sleazebag
who harbors ulterior motives for rebuilding and hiring Yaiba Kamikaze,
which pretty much sums him up.
It might be that I’ve played every
other Ninja Gaiden game, and it
might also be that I came into the
game with lowered expectations,
but as much as Yaiba’s story and
characters feel uninspired, they do
still manage to entertain. Political
correctness is enforced everywhere
today, and even though Yaiba is far
from a respectable character and
Miss Monday is a sultry maneater,
I don’t feel they cross any lines in
terms of taste. Much like Suda 51’s
Killer is Dead game, Yaiba: Ninja
Gaiden Z is heavily influenced by
movies and other entertainment
forms from yesteryear and as such,
the characters are more like sexualised or foul-mouthed cartoons rather than politically-incorrect tools. I’m
sure there will be arguments about

the political correctness of some of
Yaiba’s content, but I feel the game
is fine, and will appeal to a variety
of people (particularly those with a
sense of humour).
If you’ve played any of the Ninja
Gaiden games (or any other hackn-slash action game), you will know
what to expect from Yaiba: Ninja
Gaiden Z’s gameplay: Combos,
slashes, counters and a metaphorical sea of enemies to carve your
way through. While it has its roots
in Ninja Gaiden’s style of combat,
I actually feel that Yaiba has fairly
unique combat compared to other hack-n-slash games. Quite an
achievement really, as I’ve played
countless
other
hack-n-slash
games and I found Yaiba to be the
most fun I’ve had in a hack-n-slash
game in years.
Combos are primarily made up of
sword slashes, bionic arm punches