i am kind of agog at how good it is! this might even be my new favorite ninja action game (be very clear i mentally catalogue TNWA as beat 'em up adjacent and more its own thing - it's definitely still my favorite action game with ninjas), to be completely honest. the initial roughness seriously begins to melt and you're left with a blisteringly hot, immensely fast-paced ride through some hauntingly gorgeous and anachronistically wild version of industrialized japan. the game even has a genuine sense of theater, and i'd call a lot of its scene transitions truly cinematic!
there's a few slightly rough patches, but pretty much nothing some quality play doesn't work the kinks out of. i can feel my opinion of the sfc's action library rising with this game, alone, and am so happy i got it. my only big complaint at the moment is that it loops... BUT the difficulty increase is just giving everything 2x health and making the game more tedious in the process. what a waste!!
i had to continue once on my successful run, but this is quite frankly an easy 1cc (lots of 1ups and easy recovery points) and much more suited for a nomiss. i am very excited to give this one some more time, soon.
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edit:
between cooking day-after-christmas breakfast for the family, i decided to look up some info on the people behind hagane (other than the character designer, who i already knew did designs for zeiram, kamen rider, etc.).
noticed it was a joint production between CA production and red, who i think were both hudson subsidiaries. i know that red was famously made up of some ex technosoft staffers, and at least 3 people who appeared on both TFII and III's credits roll appear on this game. red seemed big enough that some of their games didn't share but the most ancillary staff, so i've historically had a hard time pegging down their general quality because of that. some of their stuff has good production value, but plays poorly - i just can't understand people's affection for bonk, even as the pc engine becomes one of my favorite consoles of all-time.
the biggest concentration of shared staff is 6 names with kishin doji zenki: battle raiden (entire done by CA production), which i'd kind of written off as a mediocre-looking licensed game. is it actually good? has anyone here given it a shot? it's piss cheap on yahoo and i'm tossing it in this shipment, regardless, but i'd be curious if anyone else here has experienced it and what they'd have to say. there's also 5 names shared with sapphire, which i've been unable to burn a copy to give a test run to. does anyone have advice on burning this game? me and a friend have tried two different ISO's and neither will work on my pce, even though i've got the arcade card (and i know the arcade card works, because i've got a copy of mad stalker). is it really that good, or is it just super flashy? i'm not one to emulate/burn/pirate often, but this one demands such a price that i'm wanting to give it at least a couple credits before i even consider saving up for something like that.
the saddest thing about looking at the shared staff for this game was that 3 people went on to be credited on nearly every mario party game.
that's just sad
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