Ninja Blade may be one of the worst games in FromSoft's history, but that shouldn't stop you from playing it! What will, however, is its abysmal PC port. As of April 1st, 2022 it has been delisted from Steam, but you can still purchase it at a few places if you know where you're looking.

Maybe you've already done that, or are booting it up to relive some memories. You might've also noticed the choppy framerate, buggy gameplay/controls, and odd frame pacing issues.

This guide should hopefully get it running on modern Windows! This was tested on a Windows 10 PC with an NVIDIA graphics card, but I imagine using the same settings on AMD Catalyst should get you similar results.

Let's get started!

Boot up the game at least once.

This is just so it'll populate under NVIDIA's Control Panel and create a .ini file for your in-game settings. You don't have to do anything else with the game at this step, so just go ahead and close it.

• 1) Right-click your Desktop and open "NVIDIA Control Panel". If you don't have the option in your right-click menu, click your Start button and navigate down to the "NVIDIA Control Panel" program there.
  
• 2) In the pane of options on the left, click "Manage 3D Settings"
  
• 3) Click on the tab that says "Program Settings" on the right. This should open up a window that looks like this:

• 4) Click the button that says "Add". In this new window, click the box that says "Sort by" and choose "Recently used". You should see Ninja Blade in there. If not, click on the button that says "Browse" and locate the folder you installed the game to (By default, it should've installed to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Ninja Blade". The executable's name should be 'NinjaBlade.exe').
  
  Afterwards, click "Add Selected Program".
  
  
• 5) There are only two options we need to change here:
  
  -Change, "Max Frame Rate" to "60 FPS". Any higher and the game will have severe bugs and glitches that make it unplayable.
  
  -Change, "Vertical Sync" to "On"
  
  
• 6) Click, "Apply" at the bottom.

That's it for NVIDIA settings!

Next, we'll need to head to where you installed the game. There are two ways to do this:

-In Steam, right-click on Ninja Blade in your Library and then click, "Properties". Click, "Local Files", then click "Browse". This should take you right to where the game is installed on your computer.

OR:

-Navigate manually to where the folder is located on your computer (Again, the default should be "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Ninja Blade"

• 1) Find the "NinjaBlade.exe" executable file, right click it, and click "Properties"
  
• 2) Locate the "Compatibility" tab and click on it. In here, check the box that says "Disable fullscreen optimizations". This will help with some frame pacing issues while in full screen.

• 2b) OPTIONAL STEP: If you get into the game and the HUD looks off, click on "Change high DPI settings" and check the box that says "Use this setting to fix scaling problems for this program instead of the one in Settings". This should hopefully resolve it.

3) Now for a very important step: Much like playing Prototype on modern hardware, some HID device drivers can cause frame pacing issues with the game.

Head to your Device Manager. There are two ways to do this:

-Type "Device Manager" into your Search Box. It should come right up.

OR:

-Right-click your Windows Start Menu icon, then click "Run". In the box, type in "devmgmt.msc" without quotes and click "OK"


You should now have a window that looks like this:



In the drop down boxes, navigate to "Human Interface Devices" and click it. This will show you a full list of your HID devices.

• 4) Right click on each entry that reads, "HID-compliant consumer control device", and then click "Disable Device". Do NOT disable any others, as you can prevent certain devices such as keyboards, mice, and controllers from working properly on your PC.
  
  Also, when you are done playing Ninja Blade, be sure to go back into the Device Manager, right-click every disabled "HID-compliant consumer control device" and re-enable them by clicking "Enable Device".

You're going to need to do this every time you want to play the game, as keeping these settings disabled can cause issues for other applications.

Repeat: DISABLE THE HID DEVICE DRIVERS WHEN YOU WANT TO PLAY NINJA BLADE, THEN BE SURE TO RE-ENABLE YOUR DRIVERS WHEN YOU'RE DONE PLAYING NINJA BLADE.

Got it? Great! Now it's time to boot up the game!

Now launch the game! You'll notice the menus may be running at a low framerate. This is normal! Every in-game menu runs at 20-30FPS.

• 1) "Left Click" on your mouse or "Start" on your controller at the title screen.
  
• 2) Load an old save or create a new one.
  
• 3) In the main menu, go to "Options", then go to "PC Settings". You should now see a standard graphics menu:

• 4) You can adjust every option here to your liking, but let's focus on the highlighted options.

These will reset EVERY time you boot the game up, and have to be changed back.

Change these settings to:

-Refresh Rate: 60Hz
-Vertical Synchronization: Off
-Frame Rate Setting: Variable

It should look like this when you're done:



Congratulations! You're ready to play Ninja Blade on Windows 10!

• While it's possible to play through a majority of the game at 60 FPS, there are sections that may bug out or not let your progress any further. If this happens, head into PC Settings and change the Frame Rate Setting back to 30FPS MAX, then load your last checkpoint. This should let your proceed!
  
• I don't have an AMD graphics card to test and make sure this method works under AMD Catalyst Control Center, but I see no reason why it shouldn't!
  
• I may add more to this guide in the future if other issues arise, but this has consistently worked every time I want to play the game.

Enjoy!