The problem with Ninja Gaiden 4 isn't that it plays wrong, nor that combos are braindead. Because they aren't. NG4's structure is perfectly coherent, achieving Ninja-Gaiden-like combat, and combos often have to be changed for various reasons. The real problem is 'how' NG4 achieves that coherence. NG2's small enemies—especially the spider ninja—circle you while throwing bombs and dodging. And when they want to attack—unless you are already within grab range—they close the gap first, and then start the attack animation, which is too fast to react. So basically you have to make decisions out of their movement and positioning, and execute your plan preemptively. In NG4, by contrast, most enemies are so static they hardly move even in MN; and when they try to attack, they just start straight into the animation without closing the distance. Because the player can literally disengage from anything at any time and state with overpowered movement, enemies won't ever touch you unless they have insane tracking—which is why they do. So you are not reading their movements or positioning. Rather, you are either just reacting instantly to each attack, or constantly disengaging from the whole situation keeping enemies static. This kind of game design heavily de-emphasizes positioning. Your overall positioning still vaguely matters and crowd control is important(or even too easy because of how throws work now), but its importance is fragemented into individual engagements. There is no genuine 'checkmate' state, where your previous bad choices lead to. This turns the game into kind of a string of mini-games. You are just reacting to each mini-game(or tracking attacks) rather than playing a single unified combat.