Ninja Gaiden 3 opens with a series of QTEs that feel like a statement of intent. Bombastic and simplified, this is a triple-A game of its era, willing to sacrifice its identity in an attempt to find a mainstream audience. In hindsight we know this gamble didn’t pay off, with a revised version of the game released within a year to a skeptical fanbase. The Razor’s Edge version of Ninja Gaiden 3 essentially renders the original obsolete, but after playing through it over the weekend I found it to be a not-entirely-unenjoyable cautionary tale.
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