The 3D *Ninja Gaiden* titles courtesy of Team Ninja have been a joy to play through. While I’m unsure if I’d declare it as the best of the first three games, *Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge* is the game in the series I respect the most for having a completely different feel from what has come before. // *Image: Koei Tecmo*, *Team Ninja*

Conceptually, sequels are a mixed bag. On one hand, sequels allow ideas that are explored in one piece of media to be further investigated and evolved by creators. The possibilities presented by making a sequel to something provide the perfect opportunity to improve upon your mistakes, consider positive and constructive feedback, and make a bigger and better implementation of that idea. On the other hand, sequels are an inherent limit on creativity. Instead of making something entirely brand new, creators are confined to building upon previous ideas explored within an IP.

In today’s media landscape, franchises and intellectual properties reign supreme, and this is largely due to how financially lucrative they are. Business-wise, it’s far safer for Disney to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a Star Wars project as opposed to spending the same amount of money on an entirely new, unproven property. For that reason, we continue to see countless sequels, remakes, and rereleases featuring legacy IP populate every medium.

As a creative, there are two ways to challenge the reality of this modern media landscape. The first is to make something bold and original in spite of it all. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a phenomenal example of this. This 2025 big-budget horror film exploded at the box office despite not being tied to any previously-existing IP. It’s a refreshing, new vision of horror and that originality excites audiences. On the video game side, 2025’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an original RPG that pays homage to classic JRPGs while still being something completely original, showing off ideas that aren’t explored in the many established, long-running franchises that crowd the genre.

The other way to challenge the reality of the modern media landscape is to find ways to be different within the confines of working within established IP. Unfortunately, many game developers and filmmakers don’t get the opportunity and creative freedom to make something entirely brand new. Instead, creators can be given the keys to established franchises and evolve them in different ways. A recent success story of this is Andor, the two-season-long Star Wars show that is arguably the most praised piece of Star Wars media this century. The reason as to why Andor is so beloved by audiences is that it doesn’t feel like anything that Star Wars has done before, either pre-Disney or post-Disney. Andor honors much of Star Wars’ established lore and style but frames its world in an entirely new way that feels almost like an antithesis to every other piece of Star Wars media with regard to tone and the ideas that it explores.

Andor was a risk - the kind of which we’re unlikely to see again in the Star Wars IP thanks to ever-risk-averse Disney. Nevertheless, the risk-taking and willingness to try something new even in a long-running franchise is a creative endeavor that didn’t go unnoticed by audiences. Andor dared to innovate within the confines of the IP it was housed in. That innovation and creativity led to something familiar yet new, and that’s what makes it so special.

Now more than ever, we should praise the instances where we see new ground being broken in franchises. In a world dominated by sequels, there lies a willingness to tell new stories with new ideas, even if they’re framed in previously-developed universes created by other people. Choosing to make a sequel or spin-off different is a dangerous choice, in that it risks potentially losing a portion of the already-existing audience of previous installments. Creatives being empowered to realize their new ideas is precisely what we need to see more of in order for more weird, different, and new stories to be put out into the world.

What got me thinking about this was my recent playthrough of Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, a game I had relatively small expectations for. With Ninja Gaiden 4 having been announced at the top of the year, I wanted to make an effort to knock the three 3D Ninja Gaiden titles off of my backlog before the fourth 3D game released. I knew relatively little about these three titles aside from the fact that they were fast, fluid action games and known for being some of the most challenging action games in the pre-Souls era of the genre.

If anything, though, the Ninja Gaiden title I had heard the most buzz about before playing was Ninja Gaiden 3 - and that buzz was largely negative. Originally released in 2012, Ninja Gaiden 3 launched at a time when I was just starting to follow the reception of the most recently released games. I recall the game receiving a mixed-to-negative reception - especially in relation to the previous games. The Wii U port of the game, dubbed Razor’s Edge, was released later that year to “fix” the game, by reworking many of the game’s mechanics and ideas. With Razor’s Edge eventually getting ported to other hardware, as well as being the version included in 2021’s Ninja Gaiden Master Collection, I kept my expectations in check when it came time to play through Ninja Gaiden 3.

Now being on the other side of having played all three 3D titles leading up to Ninja Gaiden 4’s launch, I find myself looking back on my playthrough of Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge incredibly fondly. While I’m unsure if I’d necessarily call it the best of the three games (that honor likely goes to Ninja Gaiden 2), I can’t help but respect it the most out of the three games because it has a completely different mission from the first two games.

While it’s still unmistakably Ninja Gaiden, the third 3D title has a completely different feel from the first two games as well as featuring a narrative that’s unlike the previous games. Ninja Gaiden 3 opts to tell a story that’s more interested in exploring Ryu Hayabusa as a character. Ninja Gaiden 3’s creative decision to be different from what came before works in its favor, and I want to explore why that is. Let’s discuss the power of being different and how it helps make Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge a more memorable game that’s stuck with me more than other Ninja Gaiden titles.

*Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge* continues to offer the quick action delivered in previous entires. Like *NG2*, *Ninja Gaiden 3* offers stage-based progression. However, the increased focus on combat encounters gives *NG3* a completely different pace from other *Ninja Gaiden* titles. // *Image: Koei Tecmo*, *Team Ninja*

I played through all 3D Ninja Gaiden titles within close proximity to each other, making it easy to compare the three titles. My first impression of the series with Ninja Gaiden Σ was a mostly positive one. The game featured a fair amount of mid-2000s jank in its gameplay and polish and I found the encounter design to be somewhat inconsistent in quality, but the combat - the heart and soul of Ninja Gaiden games - carries the whole experience. The fast, frantic, sometimes unrelenting pace of the action in Ninja Gaiden Σ is what makes it still very much a game worth playing.

The Achilles’ Heel of the first 3D title, however, is its level design. More specifically, most of the first game’s levels are unified via a larger interconnected world. While the ambition of this open world-esque design is admirable, it ultimately leads to instances where there’s not a whole lot to do. Ninja Gaiden Σ features a lot of down time thanks to its level design. Because of that, the game’s length gets stretched out, causing the game to have uneven pacing and uninteresting gameplay instances.

Ninja Gaiden Σ2 did what most typical sequels do in this context: it improved upon the largest issue present in its predecessor. NG2’s progression sees Ryu Hayabusa move through self-contained, mostly linear levels filled with combat encounters, minibosses, a few platforming and navigational challenges, the occasional puzzle, and finales with involved boss fights. On top of that, Ninja Gaiden Σ2 simply takes that already-strong combat of the first game and just provides more of it. With more bosses to fight, a wider variety of enemies, and more focused level design, Ninja Gaiden Σ2 makes for an overall great time that smartly builds upon the foundation laid down by the first game.

To that end, Ninja Gaiden Σ2 is as good of a conventional sequel as you could possibly get. So, with that in mind…what do you do next? Do you further build upon NG2’s framework and make a more iterative sequel? Or do you walk a different path and try to make a different type of game?

With series director Tomonobu Itagaki leaving Koei Tecmo just before NG2’s original launch, future titles would have to be directed by other creators - and such a thing inevitably means that different creative decisions will be made. Ninja Gaiden 3 would inevitably be developed in an environment where Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja wanted to take the series to a broader audience. To achieve this, Team Ninja opted to make a game that’s decisively more cinematic and even more fast-paced than its predecessors.

In 2012, Ninja Gaiden 3 and its Razor’s Edge rerelease revealed itself to be a decisively different take on Ninja Gaiden. This becomes evident as quickly as when the player first takes control of Ryu, who looks down upon rain-soaked London streets with enemies walking in the distance. The player jumps forward, Ryu dives onto the street, reaches for his sword, and with the press of a button, the player unleashes a devastating cut through the first enemy as the player gains full control to move through the streets of London through the linear first level.

More so than in any previous Ninja Gaiden title, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge showers the player in combat encounters consistently throughout the entire experience. Levels have been further streamlined from Ninja Gaiden 2’s offerings. There’s very little room for exploration in Ninja Gaiden 3’s levels. Aside from the occasional scarab collectable and the infrequent navigational challenge of wall jumping, kunai climbing, wall running, and swinging off of poles, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge’s levels are primarily strings of combat encounters that lead to larger boss fights. Where combat maybe took 60-70% of a level’s runtime in Ninja Gaiden 2, NG3 features combat in about 75-85% of its levels’ runtimes. That makes for an overall gameplay experience that I can only describe as unrelenting and sweaty.

It can often feel like *Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge* is a never-ending onslaught of frenetic combat encounters that climax with a bombastic, sometimes cinematic boss fight. This structure can sometimes feel exhausting, but I can’t deny that it makes for a completely different experience than anything offered in other *Ninja Gaiden* games. // *Image: Koei Tecmo*, *Team Ninja*

Out of the three games’ Normal difficulties, NG3: RE quickly revealed itself to be the most difficult of the three. As early as the first level, I found myself frequently dying and having to approach combat encounters in different, smarter ways to claim victory in the game’s many battles. While I wouldn’t say that Ninja Gaiden Σ and Ninja Σ2 are easy games by any means, they definitely give players more wiggle room for success thanks to healing items being a plentiful resource. A unique trait of Ninja Gaiden is that taking damage reduces the player’s maximum HP threshold in addition to their current HP, but both of these effects could be rectified with the correct healing resource - one that could be purchased with the game’s currency.

NG3: RE does away with healing resources and puts the player in a position where they have very few opportunities to correct their mistakes. The player only has three options to regain health during an encounter. They can use a learned skill that lets Ryu take a knee to regain health (at the cost of his Ki meter that’s used for casting spells and being a sitting duck for a few seconds). Alternatively, players can use a fully-charged Ki meter to cast a spell on enemies and regain health that way.

The last of the three methods was a technique that I only discovered about halfway through my playthrough, and it completely reshaped how I engaged with the game’s combat. New to NG3, some enemies will glow red to indicate that they are about to attack with a command grab. If these attacks land, the enemy will grab onto Ryu and inflict massive amounts of damage. If the enemy misses these attacks, however, they’re briefly left wide open. If the player capitalizes on this opening with a heavy attack, they trigger a “Steel on Bone” counterattack, where Ryu cuts through the enemy, instantly killing them and regaining health (and raising their maximum HP if it had previously been depleted from taking damage) in the process.

The Steel on Bone mechanic completely reshaped how I navigated combat encounters. The existence of this mechanic taught me that the game was willing to reward me for smartly moving around combat arenas and punishing enemies in the right moment. While I had died numerous times due to having limited healing opportunities in battle, capitalizing on Steel on Bone opportunities made combat feel more dynamic, reactive, and satisfying. More than that, it gave combat a massively different feel from anything offered in the previous games.

Of course, not having access to any consumable items like in the first two games is also a massive difference in and of itself that makes for inherently different gameplay in NG3. Brute forcing your way through challenging encounters is not nearly as viable when you don’t have healing items to lean back on. This makes the player think about how they take advantage of combat mechanics, making for a distinctly different feel in combat.

The game’s first boss fight with the Regent of the Mask is a skill check that tests players’ proficiency with Ryu’s movement and offensive options. I found myself dying on this boss fight a lot, and the lack of healing options became incredibly apparent. But this inevitably made me study boss movements a lot more closely and critically. It led me down the “git gud” pipeline that often gets attributed to the Souls-like sector of action games. I needed to keep fighting the boss to understand its patterns, animations, and openings. It took a long time, but through persevering through the game and leaning more on my execution and knowledge of the game’s mechanics instead of relying on backup healing options, I emerged victorious in the fight. And winning this battle felt a lot more satisfying than most fights in either of the previous games.

Winning this fight was…different. It was an experience unlike anything I had encountered in the first two 3D Ninja Gaiden games. As a first boss, this fight does a great job at setting the expectation for the type of gameplay that I was to expect throughout NG3: RE. Not all of the game’s boss fights meet the standard set by this first fight, but when NG3: RE is at its best, it leads the player through frantic, high-octane battles that test adaptation, capitalizing on openings, and utilizing movement far more effectively than anything seen in the first two games.

It’s for that reason that I’ve found myself wanting to replay NG3: RE more than other Ninja Gaiden games. On one hand, NG3: RE is a more repetitive game by nature. The game’s unrelenting plethora of combat encounters makes it so levels feel like little more than a connecting string of battles. It’s undeniable that previous Ninja Gaiden games offer more to do in their levels, but what NG3: RE does offer in its levels demands so much attention and execution that I can’t help but be enamored by it. NG3: RE brings with it an incredible amount of energy that demands a high bar of execution from its players, and I think that inherently makes it a more interesting game to play.

Because of the fact that NG3: RE’s levels are more streamlined and linear than what’s come before, these levels have practically no downtime. In what feels like an exact opposite situation from the first game, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge’s levels feel like a roller coaster ride from start to finish with no fluff taking away from the intense combat that defines the series. As I went through more of the game’s levels and combined finishing enemies with Obliteration Techniques, chaining together Steel on Bone counters to restore my health, shooting down faraway enemies with my bow in midair, and ending air combos with ever-satisfying Izuna Drops - all in a matter of seconds, mind you - I realized how this game’s different direction naturally brings about combat instances that feel unlike anything else I’ve ever played.

Being different in its level and combat design makes NG3: RE so much more dynamic and challenging. Ninja Gaiden 3 could have easily built upon Ninja Gaiden 2’s framework and may have been a more polished game as a result, but Team Ninja refused to do that. Instead, NG3:R E is built to find ways to innovate within the Ninja Gaiden IP, and in my eyes, it makes for a refreshing, bold, and uniquely fun experience.

The story told in the first two *Ninja GAiden* titles are akin to popcorn action flicks where Ryu goes on exciting adventures. *NG3*’s narrative makes more of an effort to raise personal and emotional stakes for Ryu. While certainly not a narrative masterpiece, *NG3*’s story has a remarkably different focus, thus giving the game a unique identity from other stories within this IP. // *Image: Koei Tecmo, Team Ninja*

While the different approach to combat is certainly the main entrée with regard to what makes NG3: RE feel different from its predecessors, I’d be remiss to not address the appetizers and sides that assist with making the game feel distinct from its contemporaries.

Hand in hand with the choice to forgo healing items is NG3: RE’s new progression system. While the vanilla release of Ninja Gaiden 3 didn’t have gameplay progression whatsoever, Razor’s Edge makes the player able to purchase upgrades with currency at any time. Not unlike the upgrades available in previous games, players can upgrade their weapons to unlock more movesets for all of Ryu’s available weapons and spells. New to Razor’s Edge is purchasable abilities that unlock new means of play such as the aforementioned kneeling while stationary to heal or to expand Ryu’s maximum health - a mechanic locked to acquiring Blue Orbs in previous entries.

This system is admittedly not dissimilar to the upgrade systems present in the first two games, but NG3: RE’s system makes the process of expanding Ryu’s skillset more streamlined and convenient for the player. Before, players could only previously purchase upgrades at a finite number of shops throughout Ninja Gaiden Σ and Σ2. Now, players can expand their options at whatever moment they wish. This design choice makes more sense for Ninja Gaiden’s faster pace of action.

Other changes further facilitate Ninja Gaiden’s decisively more frenetic flow through the likes of more cinematic actions. While vanilla Ninja Gaiden 3 interpreted cinematic stylings to be synonymous with quick time events, Razor’s Edge tones down the QTEs and accentuates the flashiness of Ryu’s other available actions. As showcased in the first level in London, Ryu does Falcon Dives across landscapes that often end with slicing through an enemy. Other times, he’ll have to dodge oncoming missiles and projectiles mid-dive or slide underneath oncoming projectiles. These are ultimately quick, cinematic flairs that further add to NG3: RE’s unique velocity that connects the various actions that players need to utilize. From combat to movement to level navigation, NG3: RE keeps things moving quickly. This gives the game a flair that makes it stand apart from not only other Ninja Gaiden games, but other character action games.

Another flair of NG3: RE that I’m a big fan of is the ability to bring up Ryu’s move list at any time. This makes learning combo routes for certain moves a lot easier and truthfully gave me flashbacks of practicing combos in Bayonetta’s loading screens. More action games just need to have features like this across the board.

The final big differentiator between NG3: RE and all other games within the Ninja Gaiden IP is that of its more personal approach to its storytelling. I won’t pretend that Ninja Gaiden 3 is a stunning narrative that makes me rethink how stories can be told in video games. On its own, Ninja Gaiden 3 offers a competent story, but what sets it apart is the emotional angle that aims to investigate Ryu. Previously throughout this IP, Ryu Hayabusa has been a character that goes on adventures in a fairly typical action-adventure format. As seen in the first two 3D games, Ryu has typically been the typical hero that solves a world-ending threat and larger-than-life antagonist.

Ninja Gaiden 3 doesn’t completely change that formula, but what it decides to do within that framework is change the lens through which we see Ryu and how he views who he is and what he does. This is the first game where Ryu goes on anything resembling an arc, as he gets cursed at the end of the game’s first level. In every level thereafter, Ryu’s arm is scourged in crimson as the “Grip of Murder” slowly consumes him. Gameplay-wise, this leads to two primary mechanics. The first of these mechanics is the Bloody Rage mechanic, which acts as a point/currency multiplier that increases the more enemies that Ryu kills within a short period. This mode can also be ended with a nearly instantly-charged Ultimate Technique - an ability that normally takes a second to charge outside of this mode.

The second of these mechanics are instances where Ryu gets consumed by the Grip of Murder and finds himself in an arena with an onslaught of enemies to fight. This is more than just more combat encounters for Ryu to get through - Ryu’s health gradually depletes during these sections. In order to stay alive, the player needs to quickly and consistently kill enemies to refill Ryu’s health (in addition to the aforementioned methods of healing). These two mechanics truthfully aren’t the deepest means of gameplay and narrative synchronizing together, but it’s yet another part of NG3: RE that feels unlike anything attempted in the previous games.

Mechanics like these are precisely how small new mechanics can come together to form a gameplay experience that feels distinct from anything else. These changes don’t necessarily have to be transformative for the entire experience on their own, but in conjunction with other changes to the style of storytelling, the pacing of the game, and the overall focus of the game, it can make a myriad of small changes come together to make a completely different-feeling game.

Sequels are challenging to find room to innovate and be creative within. Depending on the IP and the medium, many fans may resent a new installment for being too different from what’s come before. New entries in franchises like Final Fantasy and Sonic can and often do get ridiculed for changing too much too soon and abandoning what made older games work. At the same time, popular and sometimes annualized franchises like Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed often get criticized for feeling like they change very little between installments and make for stale franchises.

So, what’s the right balance? What’s the right amount of difference to find success?

The reality is that there is no "one size fits all” solution to make every game feel different but not too different. What matters most is that every piece of media knows what it wants to be and understands how much change is too much change. Andor still ultimately understands that it is a story set in the Star Wars universe and uses the established worldbuilding of the IP to tackle a new kind of story for Star Wars while still feeling like it naturally belongs in that universe. It makes for a different type to story and TV show, and the power of that difference creates something that has meaningfully stuck with people.

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge is just the most recent example of how that impacted me. NG3: RE is a game that clearly tries to innovate and go for a different feel while never forgetting that combat is the main star of the show that brings people to Ninja Gaiden. It doubles down on combat encounters being the driving force of gameplay. It tells a more personal story to motivate more gameplay. It features different mechanics that make for an altogether different gameplay experience. But despite all those differences, it never loses that Ninja Gaiden feeling - and that’s what’s essential.

Going for this level of difference and innovation comes with its risks. While writing this piece, I came across various posts on Reddit, forums, and message boards filled with criticisms for NG3: RE. Many still find the improved version of the third game to be a mess of a game. This difference clearly didn’t click with a lot of people. Personally, I can’t say that all of what Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge does entirely lands. The game still has flaws and is, in my mind, a weaker overall package than Ninja Gaiden Σ2.

And yet, this is a game that I can’t stop thinking about. NG3: RE is a game that I can’t wait to jump back into and replay because the different ways that it manages its combat and pacing were striking in comparison to the other games. In spite of the game’s flaws, I can’t help but admire how much the game delivered on its own ideas when it would have been much safer and easier to straightforwardly build upon Ninja Gaiden Σ2.

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge’s commitment to being different is an act of creative bravery - the kind of which we deserve to see more of in video games and beyond. Risk-taking is an essential part of the creative process and it’s one that we often see businesses shy away from because risks often equate to potential decreases in profits. The business side of me says that it’s understandable why there needs to be a balance between risk-taking and making franchises consistent to keep creators, fans, and investors happy. But the creative side of me says “fuck that”.

Being different is an essential part of making art and we need to reward and celebrate the instances of game developers choosing to embrace making their games different from what’s come before. Sometimes, these instances will result in games that don’t entirely match the level of quality as something that may have been more iterative and conventional, but that’s the inherent risk that comes with making something different. Being different doesn’t guarantee that you’ll find success or popularity, but it does increase the likelihood that you’ll stick out from the competition; that people won’t forget who you are or what you made.

And maybe that notoriety, that respect is more important than profits and other conventional means of measuring success. Being different and making things that are different is essential because the alternative is where art goes to die. Conformity ultimately makes for less interesting and meaningful art, and to prevent that from becoming the norm, we must celebrate the weird and the different, the profound and the perplexing. When we do this, we’ll see more different works being put out into the world and when that happens, we’ll see more games that stick in people’s minds long after they put down the controller. I may get more games that stick with me just Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge has stuck with me, warts and all.

Sequels are indeed a mixed bag, but through injecting the right level of creativity and willingness to be different, they don’t have to be. They can be beautiful opportunities to create new, unforgettable experiences that will stick with people. And that is always an opportunity worth taking a chance on.

Thank you very much for reading! What are your thoughts on Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge? What are examples of sequels that you thought were better for walking a different path from what came before? As always, join the conversation and let me know what you think in the comments or on Bluesky @DerekExMachina.com.