Let's Talk... Ninja Gaiden Z: Yaiba

Yaiba takes the Ninja Gaiden series in a radically different direction, replacing the very traditional Ninja tropes and extreme difficulty with a cel shaded art style, frequent use of crude humour, and zombies…? The radical tonal and thematic shifts Yaiba makes to the long-running and esteemed Ninja Gaiden series will likely confuse long-time fans, and it’ll probably take a while to get used to the series’ apparent new direction. The crude sex jokes, the zombies, the shallow and extremely easy combat, the bland and rote environment design. Especially when you consider some of the high points the Ninja Gaiden series has had over the years, it’s hard not to be disappointed by what feels like such an uninspired and formulaic experience.

The game's cel shaded art style is probably one of the game's biggest strengths, and it does look pretty cool to be fair

The game’s story starts actually starts out pretty well, and makes a great impression… for about five minutes. The game opens with a short but sweet cutscene that shows off the game’s shining new cel-shaded art style (which looks pretty spectacular), as Yaiba (the protagonist) and Hayabusa (the game’s main antagonist, and protagonist of the previous games) fight to the death in an epic display of swordplay and extreme gore. It’s actually pretty exciting, and provides hopes that this zombie-filled nightmare might actually be a good game. Unfortunately, however, then the rest of the game kicks in, and it all goes downhill from there.

After Yaiba is brutally murdered by Hayabusa in the opening cutscene, he is reanimated by a large corporation and stereotypically evil CEO, who allegedly wish for him to hunt down and kill Hayabusa. Fortunately, the (excessively) foul-mouthed Yaiba’s goals align with said large corporation, and he pursues the trial of his attacker. Along the way to assassinate Hayabusa, Yaiba must also push his way through the apparent zombie outbreak that has invaded the generic urban environment in which the games takes place. The reason for this zombie virus is never explained, nobody even blinks at the infection and its origins are never even so much as hinted at. As for the characters, there are few and the few the ones that do populate the world are largely insignificant and extremely shallow. The protagonist is a loud-mouthed, excessively cursey badass who is sleazy to women, because that’s cool, right? Next, we have the painfully sexualised pair of breasts for to check the box for obligatory sex appeal. Finally, the evil CEO man… he’s an evil CEO with bad intentions etc etc. The characterisation is as shallow and cheap as the game’s almost irrelevant storyline and choice to include the inconceivably overdone cliché that is the zombie horde.

The game plays around with some elemental stuff, but it's pretty rudimental

The gameplay, or more accurately the combat, is almost as shallow and simplistic as the game’s story and setting. The combat uses a pretty standard 3-button combo system with knock-backs, knock-ups and the like. You have a light attack, a heavy attack, and a sweeping area-of-effect attack. Although you do gain a significant amount of basic and extended combos as you gain levels, they rarely get more complex than XXXXY or YYY. If you manage to pull off an “execution” on elite enemies you are rewarded with their own unique special weapon for a limited number of strikes. Such weapons include an explosive rocket launcher and a pair of speedy clown arms. They don’t last particularly long, but generally do a ton of damage. The combat is pretty shallow and highly repetitive, but it’s generally fairly satisfying, even if fighting hordes of zombies (who are the primary enemy in the game) quickly becomes a pretty dull ordeal.

As little depth as the combat has, the environment design truly wins the award for sheer lack of inspiration. The majority of the game takes place in the most painfully rote environment imaginable in a video game. Plain urban setting? Check. Sewers? Check. Desolate rooftops? Check. The environment design in the previous Ninja Gaiden games wasn't exactly the most original, but at least the traditional Japanese setting and appearance made it feel a bit fresher than most games. The environmental design in this game just feels so stale and unremarkable, and considering the game’s cool-looking art style it’s a shame it’s so plain.

This game is excessively bloody, and the blood does look pretty cool

Ultimately, Ninja Gaiden Z: Yaiba is a disappointingly average 3^rd person that takes a radical departure from what we’ve come to expect and love from the Ninja Gaiden series, trading it for crude humour and incredibly rote enemy, environment and story design. Yaiba isn’t an inherently bad game so to speak, it just feels completely forgettable. Also, if you want to get cynical, the choice to include zombies, urban environments and relentlessly crude sex jokes and excessive sexualisation feels like a game just trying to check boxes and appeal to a much wider audience.