DrRyanSkelton on Nostr: I slept on it a bit but having finished NGS1 on Hard I think I have the right words. ...

I slept on it a bit but having finished NGS1 on Hard I think I have the right words. This is still one of the greatest games ever made and it's almost complete dogshit and constantly painful to play. The parts of the game that work really do work marvelously in a genre defining way (Well, it WOULD be but basically nobody copied Ninja Gaiden), but solidly 90% of the campaign, including bosses, enemies, level design, pacing, is all kusoge trash that not just fails to play to its strengths but actively and routinely ignores its strengths. And I don't think it's just the Sigma vs Black difference informing this. I would never recommend you play this over Assault Spy, and I probably am about to say that even unmodded NGS2 is more tolerable than NGS1, but I am sure NGS2 will make me utterly furious when I sit down to seriously play it.

Mission Mode and Survival avoid a lot of the problems, surprisingly.