GAMING DIARIES
Years passed and I got a hand-me-down SUPER NINTENDO (when the NINTENDO 64 and PLAYSTATION were popular). If the games on the NES were my foundation and the genesis (SEGA?) of my love of gaming, the SNES cemented that love of gaming for life. Games like SUPER METROID, SUPER CASTLEVANIA IV, and SUPER STREET FIGHTER II were directly responsible for making me the life long gamer that I am. The big difference with these games was that I was older (with slightly more talent though not much) and I could beat these games!
While falling in love with the SNES I came to know the greatness of the SEGA GENESIS! Then came the Playstation followed shortly by the PS2 (the first console system I ever bought on the very launch day) and so on and so forth. During my college years was probably the height of my gaming career, discovering and playing many of my all-time favorites and acquiring my greatest gaming achievements.
Now much older, and having acquired a somewhat decent collection of systems and games, I am trekking back through the stacks and knocking out some of those harder games from my childhood that kicked my ass. Not to mention the extensive backlog of games I purchased but never had the time to get to.
HAGANE: THE FINAL CONFLICT
Ninja video games have been a part of my gaming lexicon since the 80s with the legendary NINJA GAIDEN on the original NES Nintendo Entertainment System. Ninja Gaiden struck a cord with me from that early age and has long been one of my favorite games, if not my all-time favorite video game across all genres, systems, and platforms. Ninjas were experiencing a renaissance in pop-culture popularity during that time period, thanks in large part to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but also thanks to movies (such as those from the legendary Sho Kosugi) and video games like Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi.
The twin pillars of ninja video gaming are Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi, two franchises that have become staples of console video gaming and the gold standard of ninja video gaming. I love both franchises; at least one or more of either series being among my top favorite games (the 2002 SHINOBI vying for the top spot with 1988's Ninja Gaiden).
But there are more ninja video games than just these two franchises. One of the holy grails of ninja video games is a Super Nintendo hidden gem called HAGANE: THE FINAL CONFLICT from 1994. It was released in Japan in November of 1994 and later to North America in June of 1995. Developed by CAProductions and published by Red Entertainment and Hudson Soft, Hagane is an intense 2D action platformer the likes of the original Ninja Gaiden NES trilogy and the Sega Genesis Shinobi titles (particularly reminiscent of the masterpiece SHINOBI III: RETURN OF THE NINJA MASTER).
THE CONTEXT & THE MYTH
Hagane saw release near the end of the Super Nintendo's life. The original Playstation console, the Sega Saturn, the 3DO, the Atari Jaguar, the Turbo Duo, and Nintendo 64 were all either currently competing or imminently on the horizon. With a ton competition and the next generation of video games underway, the gaming community was focusing less on the 16-bit remnants and more on the polygonal future. As a result, the games being released for the Super Nintendo at this time were seeing lower sales and fewer copies made available. Not many copies of Hagane were produced for the game's North American release and subsequently not many players had the pleasure of experiencing it. The game has since become somewhat of a rarity in today's market and an unsung classic.
The situation surrounding this game gets more peculiar still. Myths surrounding Hagane say it was originally a Blockbuster Video exclusive rental before heading to the direct market for sale. Being a Blockbuster exclusive, according to the myth, made the game even rarer and harder to find, especially complete copies with the box and instruction manual intact. Whether this myth is true or not, we don't know, but it adds credence to why the game has become so rare today. Japanese copies were (and still are) far more plentiful and available today and are still quite accessible to play being that there isn't a ton of text in the game nor is reading necessary to make it through.
So, if a physical copy of this game is something you absolutely must have then getting a Japanese Super Famicom cartridge is far more economical whereas you may find yourself paying over a grand for just the North American cartridge alone!
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| The Super Nintendo rarity meter! |
A NINJA OF STEEL AND BONE
Hagane: The Final Conflict takes the classic ninja scenario and sets it in a dark bleak future. Futuristic sci-fi elements were fairly common in these games. I never got the feeling that either Ninja Gaiden or Shinobi were set in the future (perhaps the near-future, but not the distant future) yet there were always futuristic elements to those games. Either factory level settings, robotic enemies, or giant airships for the enemy's headquarters, aspects of science fiction seemed to always crop up (finding a ninja game from this era without any futuristic or sci-fi elements is the rarer case in fact). I think part of it was due to the censors as parents had less of a problem with lasers and destroying robots than with guns and killing people. And a part of it was the time period, a blending of science fiction and fantasy appearing more often in many pop-culture mediums, technology and magic intertwining (HE-MAN and THUNDERCATS being great examples of this esthetic).
As the ninja video game sub-genre continued, the games tended to grow further from more traditional ninja esthetics to more of a sci-fi amalgamation, perhaps trying to capture the magic that made the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so popular. STRIDER is perhaps the first fully integrated ninja-science fiction blend in video gaming. Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi didn't start off this way either, but after a game or two they both began integrating these elements as well. The Super Nintendo game THE NINJA WARRIORS featured three cyborg ninjas as the game's protagonists, MORTAL KOMBAT 3 introduced cyborg ninjas with Cyrax and Sektor (and later Smoke, who didn't start off as a cyborg), and Gray Fox from METAL GEAR SOLID was only a few years away (with a ton of other cyborg ninjas to come later on). Let's also not forget about the Foot Clan from TMNT who became cyborg ninjas with the animated series and video games too. Cyborg Ninjas, as strange as it sounds, are a thing and will likely continue to be.
We could easily do a whole post devoted to cyborg ninjas! Hmm... do I sense a future post in the works?
WHAT SETS HAGANE APART?
Immediately from the cover art, you can see something special about Hagane. With many stories set in the future, the world and settings tend to be bright and shiny with glittering chrome everywhere. One of the innovative esthetic choices for Star Wars and Blade Runner was the appearance of a gritty grimy "lived in" science fiction setting. Hagane's art-direction fully embraces this style to great and atmospheric effect. With the exception of one level, the game is mostly set at night or in dim and dark environments lending the game a dour and somber tone. This tone is perhaps dictated by the story, set in a dark future where nearly all hope has been lost, Hagane himself as the last vestige of hope.
Lead artist Keita Amemiya is without a doubt the man responsible for much of the game's beautiful esthetics and visual style. This man is responsible for many amazing and truly classic works. Not only an incredible artist, but Keita Amemiya is also a director, his debut film being MIRAI NINJA: an action film about a (you guessed it) cyborg ninja! Not only did he direct the film, but he was also the lead artist and character designer. Released in 1988, the film happens to be based on a Namco video game of the same name (or vise versa). The video game, bearing Amemiya's beautiful artwork, is a side-scrolling 2D action game in which the main character looks remarkably like Hagane. Like the original Shinobi or even the earlier LEGEND OF KAGE video game, in Mirai Ninja you run through each level, shurikens blazing (think Contra only with ninjas).
Keita Amemiya is also responsible for the ZEIRAM films, both their director and character designer (IRIA: ZEIRAM THE ANIMATION is among my all-time favorite animes), a director and monster designer for several KAMEN RIDER shows, a creature designer for the video games SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI IV, ONIMUSHA 2 & 3, and boss character designer for FINAL FANTASY XIV. Without question, the man's work precedes him. Hagane, with its gorgeous artwork and design, stands right alongside these others as a stunning work of art and a masterpiece of Amemiya's work.
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| The poster for Mirai Ninja ~ how cool is this?! |
THE PAST AND FUTURE COLLIDE
Keita Amemiya's inspired and gorgeous designs are complimented by atmospheric looking levels blending both traditional Japanese cultural esthetics and a vision of a technologically advanced future. But the world of Hagane is not a glamorized future, but rather a dark dingy industrial world clouded with smoke and layered in black grease. When you escape the gray and copper colored city, factories, and air-ship and finally find yourself back in nature it is a cold dead world, covered in dark gray storm clouds and dismal polluted rains. Dark caverns lead to secret industrial complexes beneath dormant volcanos, lava flowing just beneath your feet.
Mingled with these industrial and futuristic locales is a sense of history and culture. Monks with wide-brimmed straw hats, sword-wielding warriors in neo-modern samurai armor, and floating gunships reminiscent of ancient Japanese castles are among the enemies you'll face. The bosses too appear as relics from the past, a Shinto priest harnessing magic talismans that animate giant statues of samurai, a half-human-half-robot samurai wielding a powerful katana, a human who transforms into sky-dragon, and an emperor that transforms into a massive buddha-like machine are among the many bosses you'll encounter, blending both the past and future in their designs.
The game as a whole embraces this melding of eras, artistically unique and visually stunning to behold. As a piece of 16-bit art, Hagane is a masterpiece. I'll say it again, Keita Amemiya's talents are on full display, showcasing the man's work at its best.
SURE, IT LOOKS GOOD. BUT HOW DOES IT PLAY?
A 2D side-scrolling action adventure game, Hagane is laid out like a classic platformer. Right from the start you have access to all of your capabilities and powers. There's a wide array of moves and weapons for you to choose from as a result, so, getting started can be somewhat challenging. Until you learn how to effectively utilize Hagane's abilities and employ his weapons, the game can come across daunting and cluttered. Couple that with an NES level of "Get Good" difficultly (a brutally hard trend synonymous with ninja games), Hagane can be quite challenging for most players right out of the gate. Indeed, getting through the first level is a punishing endeavor.
With a steep learning curve and the difficulty level high from the very get-go, Hagane may be quite discouraging at the onset. However, keeping it simple and sticking with your katana at first is the best approach. Like classic video games, you repeat playing the same levels and stages again and again until you learn the layout and enemy patterns. Once you get used to the levels and enemies, then you can start experimenting with Hagane's other weapons and abilities. It seems obvious to say, but once you begin figuring out all you can do, the game really opens up and becomes incredibly fun to play.
Hagane can jump back and forth off of walls, cling to the ceiling and sliding along the floor. Hagane even has an aerial dive kick in which you can attack your enemies directly below you. You can cartwheel forward and backwards into various forms of moves like the Wolf Power punch and the Rapid Wind Kick, each with invincibility frames to exploit to your advantage. There's the Kami Kick and Fire Bird kick (bicycle kicks of immense power!) along with the super powerful Dragon Bomb and Death Kick moves. On top of these you have multiple weapons in addition to your plasma sword. You have the classic shuriken, the Genbu - a kusari-gama like chain/grappling hook, the Byakko - hand grenades, and the screen-clearing "Ninja Art" magic blast. And all of it is available to you from the start!
That's a lot, I know. But like anything, once you get the hang of it, it'll open the game up to worlds of enjoyment and loads of fun. You'll like attach to specific moves more than others, tailoring your gameplay to your personal preferences. This also makes replaying the game fun too as you employ other moves into your repertoire, learning how best to utilize each of Hagane's unique moves in the most efficient ways. Not to build it up too much, but the gameplay of Hagane is simply astounding.
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| Vintage magazine advertisement for Hagane |
THE LEVEL DESIGN
It would be doing a disservice to the game to say that most of the game is fairly straight forward. Indeed, much of the game is going from A to B, but the game's designer, Osamu Tsujikawa, fills the levels with plenty of variety and surprises along the way. There's a stage where the levels speeds along and you have to sprint to keep up all the while jumping over pitfalls, avoiding enemies, and just praying that the level ends soon. There's a MODE 7 stage (much like the one in Super Castlevania IV) where you ride a hover craft while the stage moves around you in wild and disorienting ways.
There's a stage with an open cave system where you have have to blindly explore all of the pathways hoping to find the end. There's a brief "minecart" section, a mystery-door maze, and a vertical scrolling stage where you race against time up a massive shaft to destroy the boss. Certain places within the stages are designed specifically for you to utilize Hagane's unique moves into order to proceed ahead too, and this in turn helps the player learn Hagane's moves. Each level brings something new to the table, keeping the game fresh and challenging.
THE MUSIC
The soundtrack, composed by Takahito Abe, matches the dark and somber atmosphere of the game's world. Mixing action themes and ominous dirges, the soundtrack bounces back and forth between an energetic and subdued pacing, saying more about the setting and the hopelessness of Hagane's world and his impossible mission than a fun experience. Although far more moody and restrained from many soundtracks of its peers, it's a fitting score for the game.
THE PLAYTHROUGH
The game is broken up in 5 stages and separate levels of varying length within each stage. This is a fairly straight forward presentation and instantly recalls the layout of the Ninja Gaiden series with its multiple Acts and stages within each act (many video games employed similar structuring). Unlike the Ninja Gaiden series which had animated cut scenes and an in-depth cinematic story, Hagane is fairly light on story. Most of the story comes during the pre-game opening video:
"In the time of darkness, the pathway to Armageddon opens!"
And that's it for the in-game story text (with the exception of the level names). There's a dramatic opening video where we see the world destroyed in a massive explosion. Then we see a shot of the ruins followed by the epic close-up reveal of Hagane himself before arriving at the title screen. It's a cool intro and Hagane looks badass. And once you press start it's game on!
Stage 1: The Path to Disaster
The game starts off with a lot of intensity, enemies dropping all around you and running in from in front and behind. And you can only be hit three times before dying. Getting used to the game can be difficult here and involve a lot of retries. This video game has a reputation for being highly difficult and this first level proves why. You have all of your moves and abilities accessible from the start, but learning how to best utilize these abilities, knowing which to use when and where, and how to access them is difficult though. It's almost too many options to get used to at once. The enemy density for this level is incredibly high too, not providing a whole lot of breathing room. It goes without saying that you will be replaying this initial level (Stage 1 - Level 1) many many times. Even after getting the hang of the controls and knowing the level by heart, it still claims my life from time to time.
Stage 1 - Level 2 is quite a bit calmer and controlled and it forces you to learn the "Jumping Off Walls" mechanic to advance. This mechanic is not as intuitive as you'd think either (it actually took some time for me to get the hang of it). Rather than each jump being its own command, like most other action platformers I'm familiar with, you make the jump and you hold the buttons down. Hagane will bounce back and forth up the walls ad infinitum for as long as possible. Once you get that down it actually feels very streamlined and quite nice. Stage 1 - Level 3 is a vertical climb with a lot of annoying ledges that if you drop off lands you back at the beginning of the level amid a bunch of respawned enemies. But that isn't nearly as frustrating as the next level
Stage 1 - Level 4 is a horizontal scrolling level where Hagane is constantly running at high speed while the level explodes behind him. All you have to do is concentrate on jumping over pits and surviving against enemy attacks. Sounds easy, but it can seem nigh impossible at first. I lost life after life after life here, so many, in fact, that I was compelled to seek out help. I went to the tried and true GameFAQS and consulted two different text guides, the first not helpful at all, the second providing key advice: Stay in the back (the far right) of the screen. Employing this tactic I soon surmounted the insurmountable and moved on to the boss: MUSHA-MUKURO
You enter what looks to be some ancient shrine or cavern. This boss appears like a Shinto priest or Shugenja (mountain ascetic) possessed with supernatural magics. Using Japanese paper-talismans, Musha-Mukuro animates two giant samurai statues (or armors) which begin attacking you with their monstrous hands and streams of fire from their mouths. Musha-Mukuro himself hovering in the air, wreathed in flame, flitting about the screen firing purple fireballs at you. Avoid the enemy attacks and slash the heck out of Musha-Mukuro in the process and you'll succeed. I used the sword and jumped around to the best of my ability. On later playthroughs I found that Hagane's grenades are quite effective in that they arc upward as you throw them (and Musha-Mukuro is always floating above you). This whole boss fight isn't too bad and the look of the boss and the samurai statues is fantastic (another high mark on the character designs and in-game rendering).
It took multiple attempts to get the hang of this Stage.
Stage 2: Fortress of Doom
Stage 2 - Level 1 sees you running outside across a misty rocky landscape, remnants of a village haunt the background, as you sprint forward for a direct boss fight. You stop at what appears like a sacred boulder, kanji inscribed upon it, and another ninja drops down from the sky, a rival ninja from the Koma Clan (I presume). He's a bare-chested man with a cybernetic arm and enhancements across the left of his body. This mysterious ninja summons a three-faced floating head from the ground and leaves Hagane to battle it. The scene is beautifully rendered with wonderfully atmospheric music. Jumping and slashing is my usual tactic for taking this boss down. This whole level is just a boss battle, clean and simple. Stage 2 - Level 2 sees us entering a factory, charging through the interior along conveyor belts, avoiding pistons, falling into molten metal, and pitfalls. Stage 2 - Level 3 is more of the same factory interior, eventually coming to a mid-boss which appears to be a central computer. There's some tricky vertical scaling you have to do at the beginning and the end which can be quite annoying.
The boss: EN-MIKOSHI. Entering a vertical lift chamber you see a figure dressed as either a samurai retainer or high ranking official from Feudal Japan. With a wave of his hand he transfers his life-essence into a massive machine looming behind him. Hagane must battle this slow-hovering machine as it rotates through a variety of attacks, some simple to avoid, others quite challenging to evade. Periodically the core of the machine will lower to the floor revealing a small sphere. Blue energy then surrounds the sphere revealing a ghostly face. Attack the small sphere until the machine explodes. The spirit of En-Mikoshi eerily howls as he dies and the factory starts exploding around you. This boss is about mid-level difficulty and once again designed beautifully.
Once again, it took several attempts to get the hang of this stage, especially the two factory interior levels.
Stage 3: Violated Heavens
Stage 3 - Level 1 opens with Hagane once again sprinting forward along the roof of the factory outside. Immediately you'll notice this is the brightest level in the entire game, almost feeling a little out of place, mountain vistas along the horizon. Hagane leaps off of the roof and summersaults down to the deck of an air-ship below. This first level sees you running along the exterior of the air-ship, avoiding giant missiles, multiple enemies, and floating machines. Wrecking ball wielding enemies appear here and take a lot of hits to defeat. Once through, Hagane blows a hole in the air-ship roof and jumps inside. Stage 3 - Level 2 opens with Hagane doing a badass fiery dive kick through layer after layer of steel until reaching the air-ship interior. Conveyor belts and rotating platforms keep the ground beneath your feet moving, adding to the challenge here, until arriving at the mid boss; two large robotic arms that shift and move, firing plasma blasts and rockets at you. After defeating these Hagane leaps aboard a hovercraft that takes to the air.
Stage 3 - Level 3 still has you within the air-ship, only now you're flying through it on a hover-craft. This level is entirely Mode 7, meaning the screen moves around you while you essentially sit still. Bursts of flame from the walls try to destroy you along with numerous flying machines and soldiers riding identical hovercrafts. This level, much like Stage 1 - Level 4, adds another unique element to the game's layout, which is quite refreshing. Stage 3 - Level 4 continues the hover craft ride as Hagane zooms through the sky with new enemies appearing. And finally we come to the boss: JASEI JYU. This boss arrives as a female warrior riding upon a tiny drake. She and the drake merge to create a... a reptilian flaming horse?! Actually she transforms into a KIRIN, a mythical creature of Chinese origin. With a variety of attacks and a second form, this is one of the more challenging bosses in the game. I use my sword (like I almost always do in this game) and deal of as many hits to the face of Jasei Jyu as I can until my life is devastated. Then I finish her off with my Ninja Art magic blasts. Overall, this is an epic level with beautiful imagery and a variety of gameplay.
Stage 4: Cry of the Spirits
Stage 4 - Level 1 opens with Hagane crashing his hover craft upon the ground amid a stormy forest. Dreary, wind swept, and raining, the music is somber as you battle across a forest of dead trees against hordes of enemies. This level is a straight walk with a few dead trees to climb (with hidden items up in the air above) reminiscent of Stage 1 - Level 1 with tons of enemies thrown at you. Then the end of the level sees your ninja rival (last seen briefly in Stage 2 - Level 1) reappear for a mid boss battle. Until you figure out his pattern, this is a tough fight as he takes a lot of hits and moves around all over the place with a variety of attacks. The first time I faced him I bombarded him with Ninja Art magic blasts until he fled. The battle feels powerful and significant, as though you've come too far and too close to your main goal. After much practice I have since got his timing and patterns down.
Stage 4 - Level 2 sees you enter a dark maze-like cave system, which you can easily get lost in during your first few attempts. There's multiple branching paths both up and down, forwards and backwards, some leading quite far while others quickly dead-end. The correct path winds up and down and eventually back in the opposite direction, enemies both new and old waiting to strike you down, including falling rocks from above. By sheer trial and error I eventually found the correct path leading to yet another boss; a massive snake! This giant serpent comes at you from four different places, alternating between a couple of different attacks. After several strikes to the head it goes down.
Stage 4 - Level 3 drops you into an underground factory setting. Right at the start there's a brief ride in a mine cart (reminiscent of Mine Cart Madness) and then some platforming over lava and scaling up the factory to the top while taking out some tenacious enemies. The platforming here can be challenging, especially if you don't get your jumps just right. If not, then you fall a long way down and the timer then becomes your enemy. After this level is the boss and it is one of the most beautiful looking levels in the game: JYUSO-DAMA. Appearing like an ancient Japanese temple/shrine deep inside a cave, the boss, Jyuso-Dama appears like an old mountain ascetic and transforms into a robotic orb-like machine. The boss goes through four phases/attack patterns. After beating on the boss for a while he shifts phases to a new attack pattern increasing in difficulty with each one. You either play this boss enough to learn the patterns or, if you've saved up a lot of Ninja Art magic, bombard it with Ninja Arts until he dies.
Stage 5: Into the Darkness...
Stage 5 - Level 1 begins with Hagane storming the exterior of the enemy's fortress. And you are flooded with enemies from all sides. After mowing down a horde of enemies a strange mystical hovercraft enters to attack you, unique to this level and sporting a wide range of attacks. Once the hovercraft is defeated, a bizarre truck/tank speeds onto the screen sporting laser blasts and more. Once this thing is defeated, your old cyborg ninja enemy (last seen in Stage 4 - Level 1) reappears for one final battle. And he is powered up! Making it through this level took some practice and several tries. Luckily, with infinite continues that start you off right at this stage, you get the necessary practice in. And as an aside, the background images are beautiful, but you'll hardly get a chance to look at them as you'll be fighting for your life!
Stage 5 - Level 2 sees you enter the enemy fortress! An industrial and maze-like level (reminiscent of the final levels of Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi III), there are numerous doors to enter and exit from. Some doors take you to the correct route while others just transport you back to the beginning. It'll take some time memorizing the correct path and the respawning enemies will plague you. Plus there's obstacles aplenty. Stage 5 - Level 3 is a mid-boss fight! Like a floating statue of some demonic buddha, this thing is one of the main antagonists which we see here and there throughout the game. This guy isn't too hard and you can get passed him fairly easily.
Stage 5 - Level 4 sees you continuing through the fortress for some difficult platforming stages. The first section here proved maddeningly difficult for me. A floor of spike rises beneath you and you have to scale up the screen before it impales you. There's tricky jumps, enemies, and obstacles waiting for you, and some perfect timing needed for some of it too! I wasted dozens of lives trying to figure this section out and ultimately resorted to a YouTube video to see how it should be done. And wouldn't you know it, there's a simple element I was missing that helped immensely: spaced throughout the section are little levers (which look like wall-guns) that you need to destroy in order to halt the rising spikes. But don't dilly dally too long because the spike only halt for a moment before starting again. Anyway, armed with this information, I was finally able to get by this area. And don't be lured away by the 1UPS, it's a trap!
Stage 5 - Level 5 is another doozy of an area. More difficult platforming timed precisely right. There's obstacles galore here including fire-spewing statue-heads, trapdoors in the floor, enemies, buzz saw blades running along the floor, and a wall of spikes now moving towards you horizontally from left to right. Luckily there are a few life-ups and 1UPS peppered throughout. At the very end there's a wall that comes down in front of you. You gotta beat it down before the wall of spikes gets you! Again, this area took a lot of practice to master, but unlike earlier areas, this is harder to get to in order to retry again and again for the practice. All in all, this final stage is tough as nails! Like "roaring profanity at the TV" tough.
Stage 5 - Level 6 we finally come to the boss: SHURA-OH. If a Shogun merged with a magic powered robot and a hovercraft you'd get Shura-Oh. This guy is mainly a variety of attacks that you avoid until the tiny piece of him that's vulnerable appears. This piece only shows up every twenty seconds or so, meaning most of this fight is flawless dodging on the part of the player. When the little piece does emerge it can rear its head in one of three different spots. Depending on where you are and where it appears, you may not even be able to hit it! There is a situation where the timer works against you too and I have lost to this boss because of the timer and the vulnerable piece always appearing opposite from where I am. This fight can be frustrating for this aspect alone, nevermind learning how to avoid his attacks on top of that.
And after Shura-Oh there's another boss!!! Stage 5 - Level 7 is the final fight and one of the most brutal stages in the game. The boss is called AMANO-IKAZUCHI and he is essentially a big rocket ship taking off (he kinda resembles an eggplant shape or big hookah). There are five faces about halfway up the rocket and another three at the top, each spitting fireballs at you. You're in the missile silo as the boss is taking off and you need to race the boss up the screen, get to eye-level with this thing, and destroy all of his faces. Time is against you as the timer keeps counting down and the boss itself keeps rising up the screen and if you're too slow he'll leave you in the dust, unreachable. The platforming in this section is the most challenging and frustrating in the entire game leaving little room for error if you are to indeed catch the boss on his way up.
Trial and memorization again and again, this was perhaps the most frustrating area in the entire game. Make sure you have plenty of lives and Ninja Arts magic attacks to bombard him with. The first time I beat him was with pure Ninja Arts blastings. Yep, I just bombed the crap out of him when I managed to get his faces on screen. The Ninja Arts explosions also halt his assent and allow you a bit of time to catch up and gain on him, albeit briefly. Did I mention in addition to all of this that there fire-breathing stone statue heads along the walls too? The Ninja Arts blasts also destroy them and nullify their fire. Make sure that you have the maximum amount of Ninja Arts (9) when you enter this fight. And a stock of nine lives too, because the first time you get here... you're going to lose.
ROLL CREDITS
With Amano-Ikazuchi defeated, Hagane has saved the world... well, what's left of it anyway. We are treated to a classic ending sequence told through a series of stills where the enemy castle explodes in a flash of white light! Miles away the ruins of the enemy stronghold still smolder and pollute the sky with more black smoke. Hagane appears on the cliffside watching the villains burn while his cybernetic chassis powers down... for the last time. Seated upon a lonely rock, the credits start scrolling up the screen and the image of Hagane and his sword slowly deteriorate over the course of many years, so many years in fact that even a tree grows up beside him as his steel shell becomes one with the cliffside.
And when the credits finish... Loop 2 begins! This is essentially "Hard Mode" where the enemies are harder to kill. Nothing beyond that is different. I haven't really given Loop 2 a solid effort yet, but the best effort I gave it thus far saw me reach Stage 4 - Level 1. But aside from this second time through, there isn't much else here to play. And with the initial playthrough being as challenging as it is, I feel satisfied having come this far with Hagane. Enough to give it a rest... for now.
THE REVIEW
Through old fashion repetition and memorization I was able to learn and really unlock the greatness of Hagane. Overwhelming at first, there is a steep learning curve at the very start of this game that can be quite discouraging. The very first stage is among the harder stages of the game, but every ability (including advanced techniques) are available to you from the start. It's only a matter of getting used to the varied attacks and weapons at your command and finding what works best. When you begin to understand the mechanics you discover how deep the gameplay is and how great Hagane's potential can be.
Alongside the expert gameplay, the combination of Keita Amemiya's character designs and the overall art direction for the game sets it apart. Visually the game is a beautiful work of 16-bit art. Keita Amemiya's unique artistic style, coupled with this deep layered gameplay set Hagane apart from the pack and make it unsung classic of video gaming. As one of the last ninja action platformers from that era, this is an essential game for anyone who loves this genre.
Overall Ranking: 8 out of 10
Hagane is a somewhat hidden gem of ninja video games in the tradition of classics like Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi. The game more closely resembles the Sega Genesis masterpiece Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master in the sprawling level designs and wide variety of gameplay. The signature difficulty of the ninja video game subgenre is in full force here, so prepare yourself!
In my opinion, Hagane: The Final Conflict deserves to be held up alongside the great ninja video games of the genre and a true classic.
For my in-depth look at Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi, as well as my love for video games in general, check out these other posts below...
and as always, feel free to leave a comment below!
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