Ninja Theory has become known for being one ofthe most flexible developers within the industry today, being able to dip into a plethora of different genres, and often taking quite big risks with their games in regard to mechanics, art style, and core gameplay. As a result, they’ve come out with a plethora of fascinating titles since they were first founded in the year 2000 under the alias Just Add Monsters, but as they gradually started becoming more recognized and popular, they soon rebranded to the name that gamers have known them as for many years; Ninja Theory.
Aside from how utterly unique a lot of their games are, Ninja Theory has also become pretty renowned for implementing plenty of challenges into their titles in an attempt to make them asintense, immersive, and engagingas possible. There are definitely still a few of their games that feel much trickier to complete than the others, but none of them ever get to the point of feeling too strenuous or impossible. Before looking at Ninja Theory’s hardest games, it should be noted that this list will also take into account the games they came out with while they were known as Just Add Monsters early in their history.
Bleeding Edgeis Ninja Theory’s attempt at making achaotic and fun online battle arena game, and while all in all it is pretty accessible and easy to get to grips with, there are definitely a few aspects that make it very hard to master. Although each of the 13 characters has their own unique playstyle, there are still some who can easily trump the others with their damage output and abilities. A few examples of this include Gizmo, who is able to pick enemies off from afar with her trusty bolt gun, or Nidhoggr, a melee-focused combatant who can set enemies on fire after hitting them enough times.
This chaotic medley of abilities, while very fun to experiment with, can often make the game feel a little unbalanced, and can also make the experience very unforgiving for any newcomers who are still trying to learn the basic mechanics. Still,Bleeding Edge’shectic gameplay makes it a ton of fun to jump into, but it can definitely be a challenge trying to earn multiple wins in a row.
Ninja Theory’s very first game,Kung Fu Chaos, isa fairly niche beat ‘em upwhich, while fairly basic in its mechanics, quickly becomes much more challenging once the game starts throwing more gimmicks into the battles. While players punch, kick, and grab their opponents to take down their health bars, many of the levels often have certain obstacles that can make encounters quite a bit harder, such as having to fight on a floating raft where the enemies will gladly throw the opponent overboard if they aren’t careful.
Although the game initially throws one or two enemies at the player at a single time, this eventually ramps up considerably, along with the opponents becoming a lot more aggressive and gung-ho, being much harder to take down when compared to the pushovers that appear in the early game.Kung Fu Chaosposes a hearty challenge that longtime beat-em-up fans will have an absolute blast running through, especially since it’s also fairly short in overall length.
In a similar vein toKung Fu Chaos,Enslavedstarts off pretty simple, with the player simply needing to navigate the environment and figure out a few puzzles to make it through each area, but once thehordes of machinesstart appearing, it becomes far more brutal. While Monkey himself can hold his own in combat, his staff can be a little hard to use, especially since he’s required to stand completely still in order to charge up his powerful stun attack, which becomes more or less essential to use for the more durable enemies.
Monkey does at least have a Force Shield which can protect him from some of the bigger attacks, but the slow recharge does mean that relying on it too heavily can prove to be very risky. Although there are only a handful of bosses in the game, they all also add a lot to the overall difficulty of the game. A prime example of this is the Scorpion Mech who summons multiple machines to fire at the player while also trying to zap them with lasers and other powerful weapons as they climb up its back. Once Monkey retrieves some of the best abilities and skills towards the end, the game becomes more manageable, but it’s still far from easy.
Aside from the redesigns of the major characters and slight tweaks to the story, Ninja Theory’sDevil May Cryreboot also added a few unique mechanics to the core hack n’ slash gameplay that the series is known for, to make it a little more methodical and strategic. The main way this is achieved is by giving Dante two unique types of weapons that can only affect certain enemies, meaning that rather than simplyswinging around Rebellion and firing Ebony & Ivorya few times, players will need to get creative with their combos to defeat certain demons.
In classicDevil May Cryfashion, the game also throws swarms of enemies Dante’s way, and considering just how much damage they can all deal, even on the milder difficulties, it means that making even a simple mistake can be pretty disastrous. Pair this with some very challenging platforming sections that occasionally pop up between fights, and it results in theDevil May Cryreboot being just as challenging as most of the classic games.
Just a few minutes intoHellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, the game makes it very clear that it’s not going to pull any punches in its overall challenge by proclaiming that, each time the player dies, the Dark Rot will grow, and if it reaches Senua’s head,all progress will be lost. Although this is a bit misleading, it does still indicate just how intense and daunting the game is aiming to be, especially in its combat, which requires a lot of precise dodging and blocking to make it through encounters in one piece.
A large portion of the game also involves Senua simply exploring her environments and solving puzzles, many of which can be real head-scratchers, since the game gives players barely any indication as to how to go about solving them. There are also a handful of very obscure puzzles that require Senua to focus on a particular rune or just a specific object in the environment, but since they’re usually hidden away, these can also make progressing through the game a lot harder than it needs to be at times.
AlthoughDevil May CryandBayonettaare often heralded asthe champions of the hack n' slash genre, another game that really helped to push the genre forward in a few ways wasHeavenly Swordfor the PlayStation 3. Right from the get-go, players are tasked with cutting through giant groups of enemies, forcing them to pick up the core mechanics straight away in order to hold them off without seeing a Game Over screen in the first few moments. Although button mashing can at least somewhat work in other action games, it will prove to be absolutely useless inHeavenly Swordwherethe clever AI enemieswill dodge and block most of Nariko’s attacks.
Instead, players are encouraged to get into the rhythm of changing stances and using specific techniques such as the blockbreaker combos to take down some of the tougher foes that appear throughout the game. The bosses that frequently appear are also no joke, with the Flying Fox being a particularly annoying enemy who has been the sole reason for more than a few players choosing to drop the game entirely. So long as players can quickly pick up the core mechanics ofHeavenly Sword, it becomes a fluid, fun, and incredibly addictive experience, but newcomers to the hack n' slash genre will definitely have to put in a lot of practice to even stand a chance of reaching the end.
