Best Team Ninja Games
The greatest Team Ninja games are synonymous with deep combat mechanics that are rewarding to master. Ever since the rise of Soulsborne games, the developer has produced its own spin on these gameplay mechanics; however, Team Ninja’s legacy extends much further back than Nioh or Wo Long.
Over roughly three decades, Team Ninja has produced some of the best action games of all time, and its story has plenty of chapters still to be written. While not necessarily known for fantastic storytelling, the Japanese developer shines in the gameplay department, producing systems that have proven long-lasting. In celebration of Nioh 3‘s release, let’s highlight the games that define Team Ninja.
Ninja Gaiden 4 is not included, as PlatinumGames handled the majority of the development.
10
Hyrule Warriors
Team Ninja’s Zelda Musou Is Filled With Great Fanservice, But It Is Still A Musou Game
Hyrule Warriors blends traditional Zelda elements with the fast-paced action of a Dynasty Warriors game, making for a unique love letter to both licenses. Like most licensed Warriors games, the fun comes from having a massive roster of characters, all of whom have some personal elements despite controlling largely the same way.
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Compared to Team Ninja’s defining franchises, Hyrule Warriors‘ combat is very simple and easy, with Link and company wiping out hundreds of enemies within minutes. That is the appeal of these types of games, but it is also what makes them divisive. Compared to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Imprisonment, Team Ninja’s sole entry in the series feels the most like a Warriors game with a Zelda skin.
9
Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
A “So Bad, It Is Kind Of Good” Story Accompanied By A Kick-ass Combat System
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a collaboration between Team Ninja and Square Enix that ended up being lampooned to the moon and back upon launch because of its comical focus on Chaos. In many ways, this was part of the game’s charm, with Jack being one of the most unnecessarily aggressive protagonists of all time, which kind of makes sense, given what he truly is.
As for the game itself, it’s a fast-paced action RPG/Soulslike with a healthy dose of Final Fantasy added to the mix. The environments may be drab — a common complaint with Team Ninja games — but the series more than makes up for it with its relentless set pieces, fun combat, and unique boss encounters. Stranger of Paradise‘s best element is its adaptation of Final Fantasy‘s jobs, allowing players to pair a large variety of class archetypes that drastically change Jack’s moveset. For all the game’s flaws, the battle system is phenomenal and should be revisited in the future.
8
Fire Emblem Warriors
One Of The Greatest Warriors Games Ever
Just like Hyrule Warriors, another collaboration between Nintendo and Team Ninja led to the development of Fire Emblem Warriors, a hack-and-slash game with musou elements where players wipe out hundreds of enemies without a care in the world.
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Playing as one of the many characters from the Fire Emblem franchise in this power fantasy makes for a great time, especially since this game tries to implement more elements from its license than Hyrule Warriors. To make the crossover more unique, players can issue tactical commands in the heat of battle to effectively capture targets and defeat key personnel. Obviously, the tactics are quite simple since they are mostly in service of the core action combat loop, but they feel authentic to Fire Emblem.
7
Rise of the Ronin
Team Ninja’s First Open-World RPG Was A Mixed Bag, But The Good Outweighs The Bad
I went back and forth on whether to include Rise of the Ronin or Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, as the latter is arguably a better game in a vacuum. However, Wi Long completely exists in the shadow of Nioh, coming across as a worse version of that beloved series. In comparison, Rise of the Ronin has a stronger sense of identity that sets it apart from Team Ninja’s other projects, even if the developer’s first attempt at an open-world unsurprisingly comes with some growing pains.
Rather than going down the supernatural route, Rise of the Ronin is grounded in Japanese history, resulting in a campaign that pushes its narrative way more than most of the developer’s releases. The story is not fantastic by any stretch of the imagination, but it is considerably easier to follow than, say, Nioh 2‘s convoluted journey. More importantly, Rise of the Ronin‘s combat is top-notch, delivering a stance system that rewards mastery of all, along with an impressive range of combat styles. Although not too dissimilar to Team Ninja’s recent soulslikes, ROTR‘s gameplay emphasizes adaptation, movement reading, stamina management, and more deliberate, slow-paced action.
6
Nioh
The Fantastic Game That Started Team Ninja’s Soulslike Era
Nioh
10/10
- Released
-
February 7, 2017
Nioh is perhaps the most popular Soulslike around, not developed by FromSoftware, and the series marked a return to prominence for Team Ninja following a few years that consisted of licensed games (Hyrule Warriors), Dead or Alive, and failure (Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z). William is a powerful samurai who can decimate his enemies in no time flat… but they can also do the same to him.
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Players battle everything from regular humans to supernatural creatures who can absolutely destroy William in a few hits. Nioh‘s deep combat system rewards players who are willing to adapt and combine a fairly wide range of mechanics, ranging from a substantial pool of weapons to unique concepts like the Ki Pulse.
Nioh is Team Ninja’s most important game since Ninja Gaiden; however, unlike Ryu’s original bloodbath, Nioh is far harder to revisit in the wake of its sequels, especially Nioh 2.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
5
Nioh 3
Team Ninja Pushes Nioh Into An Exciting New Direction
Perhaps recency bias is shrouding my opinion, but Nioh 3 is so, so good! While still retaining most of the elements that made Nioh 2 one of the greatest action RPGs ever, the sequel takes way more risks than it needed to, and most of them pay off. Rather than traditional mission-based levels, Nioh 3 switches to an open-area design, which is essentially an open-world that is segmented into zones that are clearly meant to be completed in a specific order. This change provides more room for exploration, secondary quests, and world-building, along with allowing for a more cohesive story that is not constantly jumping all over the place.
The combat system has also received a makeover, with the biggest change being the introduction of Samurai and Ninja styles. The former is basically the standard Nioh style from previous games; meanwhile, Ninja is widely different and feels like a tribute to Ninja Gaiden, albeit very much designed to work within Nioh 3‘s context. Rather than swapping between two weapons, players swap between classes, both of which have their own strengths, weaknesses, and use scenarios. The decision to limit certain weapons to Ninjas can be annoying, but the ability to have two complementary builds at one go opens up a world of possibilities, and the game actively encourages you to experiment with both rather than just sticking with one.
4
Ninja Gaiden 2
Team Ninia Didn’t Improve On Perfection, But NG2 Came Pretty Darn Close
After the success of the first Ninja Gaiden, Team Ninja naturally sought to build on that success, with Ninja Gaiden 2 eventually arriving as a noteworthy successor. For roughly two decades, this release was the last great Ninja Gaiden game, and it does a decent job of tweaking its predecessor’s combat to boost the style and flash while being a touch more accessible; that said, the campaign is still challenging on even normal difficulty.
While still a top-of-the-line hack-and-slash romp, Ninja Gaiden 2 favors frenzied action and spectacle a bit more than Ninja Gaiden Black, a shift that comes at the slight cost of mechanical precision. Despite being overall easier than NGB, NG2 has more moments that feel unfair, as difficulty spikes often come courtesy of overwhelming enemy numbers or poorly telegraphed attacks.
Just to be clear, all the above are relatively minor nitpicks, as NG2 is awesome.
3
Dead Or Alive 3
A Groundbreaking Fighting Game In An Underrated Series
Dead or Alive has a weird reputation, largely due to the existence of the Xtreme spin-offs and the franchise’s focus on fanservice. However, make no mistake about it, each core DOA release is one of the best fighting games of its respective generation, and they are a must-play for anybody who prefers faster-paced combat than Mortal Kombat or even Street Fighter.
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Nowadays, DOA 5 or 6 are really the ones you want to try, and they are both great in their own way. That said, if we examine each entry within the context of its era, Dead or Alive 2 and Dead or Alive 3 marked the franchise’s peak. In fact, an argument could be made that DOA was the best fighting game franchise on the market from 1999 to 2001 due to these two masterpieces.
DOA 3 saw Team Ninja refine its counter system to near perfection, which helped reframe defensive actions. The game made incredible use of its stages as extensions of combat, rather than just using them as set dressing. Graphically, DOA 3 was stunning for an Xbox release, and it ran fantastically as well.
I picked DOA 3 as a representative for the full franchise. Otherwise, half this article would have been Dead or Alive games.
2
Ninja Gaiden Black
Team Ninja’s First Masterpiece
Although not the first game in the series or even the first to go 3D, 2004’s Ninja Gaiden brought the franchise into the modern era, serving as a refresher and an introduction. A year later, Team Ninja dropped an improved version called Ninja Gaiden Black, a hack-and-slash masterpiece that stands alongside Devil May Cry as the genre’s eternal standard-bearers. Unlike Dante’s escapades, NGB is all about efficiency and precision, with players needing to master Ryu’s flexible moveset so they can adapt to the various enemy types that come their way.
NGB is punishingly hard and frequently frustrating, and newcomers will almost certainly have moments where they think, “To hell with this game!” Yet, they will keep coming back for more, just because it feels so incredibly good when you strike that perfect attack that kills enemies in one hit. Once you overcome the learning curve, NGB goes from brilliant to generational.
1
Nioh 2
Team Ninja’s Greatest Masterpiece
Nioh 2 is pretty much the perfect sequel, improving on the combat of the original while also adding several gameplay elements that combine to create a system that stands alongside the best the action RPG genre has ever had to offer. Just one example of a new major inclusion is the addition of an Anima bar that allows players to store energy and release it in the form of powerful yokai attacks that are a blast to use.
This mechanic is just the tip of the iceberg, as Nioh 2 gives players every tool they could want, ensuring they can take on the tough and long road ahead of them. Nioh 2 is bigger, better, and more entertaining than Nioh in every way, to the point that it can be extremely difficult to go back to the original after playing its sequel. Even beyond direct comparison to its predecessor, Nioh 2 is so absurdly stuffed with high-quality content that it can easily keep somebody engaged for 50+ hours consisting of solely new content, especially if they invest in the DLC (which they should).
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