Part 35: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 - Post-Game

The post game of Sigma 2 is similarly large as the 360 game, with some things being nice (a chapter select mode) and others not so nice (mandatory co op missions).


The extra costumes in the original Ninja Gaiden II were DLC and most of the options were just alt colors for 4 different model types. In Sigma 2, because of the addition of extra characters, the costume variety is much larger, though the downside is that the alt color options are gone and two of the DLC costumes in the 360 game, Shadow Walker and Biometal, have unfortunately been removed.

This game was also one of the first to be published post Koei Tecmo merger, so because of the new relationship between the two companies Team Ninja felt obligated to throw the Koei side a bone by including Dynasty Warriors themed costumes. As I preface in the video, I don't recall much of the Three Kingdoms period to know who all the different costumes and names are referring to, but it's kinda neat? Also they released some DLC costumes afterward, one for each character.















Quite simply the worst part of Sigma 2's post game content and arguably one of the most misguided inclusions of the entire series. Team Ninja were aware of how much the Mission Mode added to Ninja Gaiden Black that fans would want that mode to continue as a series tradition. But Hayashi decided the mode could use a spin on it, and the answer was to create Team Mission Mode. Rather than the solo endeavors of the previous games' Mission Mode, this mode requires that you play with a partner, either another person over the internet or an AI compatriot. The missions are all appropriately divided up into a fixed difficulty categories, so there's no more selecting difficulty for each mission. This is probably the only change I actually like, as the difficulty in previous mission modes felt like it didn't really matter whether you selected it on normal or Master Ninja. The challenge would always be way higher than it would be to go through the main game on those same difficulty levels.

That said, the mode just doesn't work well at all. The mission design itself, especially in the Acolyte and Warrior categories, is so painfully boring as a single mission takes way longer to get through than previous games, and it makes the difficulty in NGII's mode make way more sense due to how brief nearly every mission was. The AI only is useful up to a point somewhere in the Mentor difficulty missions, and while getting a human partner is the optimal scenario, my experiences with this game online has been nothing short of mediocre. Net code just isn't good enough to support this. The boss fights as well end up showing their limitations and frustrations way harder in co op due to not being redesigned or updated to accomodate two players fighting them. Between all the canned and uninterruptable animations that they have, it leads to situations where one player will always draw aggro and trying to get quick shots in may not always work if the game decides they're in a grapple move of some kind.

But worst of all, is that the devs decided to add one difficulty above even Master Ninja. The dreaded Ultimate Ninja. I've got nothing to really write about on it here, especially since the campaign of Sigma 2 only goes up to Master Ninja, but the exasperated tone in our voices near the end of the video really does convey everything you need to know.

Fuck Team Mission Mode.