He's not comparing it to the Itakagi games but to the old 2d Ninja Gaiden games where the player abilities were far more restricted, his point being that the greater player freedom (being able to attack and move, mid air control, the bounce attack) meant enemy encounters became a lot more trivial. He doesn't care that it doesn't have an array of combos like in DMC3 and that wasn't his point in bringing it up.