Ok, i just finished my first playthrough of the NGII demo and i' m astounded. If any of you guys are on the fence about buying this game... don' t be. It' s f
uck awesome!
You can change the text and subtitle language and the voice language in the option menu. If you want the original Japanese audio with English subs... you can.
The opening cutscene is dumb, dialogue is lame as expected. Doesn' t matter, that' s not why we play these games. I also don' t get Itagaki' s fetish for Sharon Stone-esque leather-clad warrior women. Tacky, but irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. To the demo proper...
Demo is Chapter 1 - Sky City Tokyo.
The first environment i straight out of DoA4! It' s this bridge, tree, water etc... even the stone textures are the same...
...except it' s at night on top of a skyscraper in the middle of a huge city. It looks unbelievable. The city backdrop looks awesome. Call it cheap if you want, re-using part of a location from another game but it fits and it looks killers so...
You start of with 3 weapons. Dragon Sword, Eclipse Scythe and Falcons Talons (the claws). All three maxed out with Shurikens and the Fiends Bane Bow.
Bow auto targets if you just press it, goes into fine-aim if you hold it. Has a crosshair (well a blood red dot) now - looks better and is much easier to use.
You don' t roll anymore. You dash. Makes little to no difference to the gameplay but if you' ve played the games a lot you' ll notice it straight away.
Enemies in the demo are Spider Clan Ninjas - some clawed, some with Katanas. If the graphics aren' t much improved the art direction certainly has! It looks cool as hell.
Game plays exactly the same, new moves for Dragon Sword, new UT too. Finishers are f
ucking brutal! Decapitations included. Blood sprays looks awesome. Body parts and blood don' t disappear!?
Camera is exactly the same as in the previous games. Tap RT to re-align. If you haven' t complained before you won' t complain now. I' m not sure how it could be improved being a 3D Ninja game that moves hella-fast. As far as i' m concened the camera is no problem at all.
Talons are wicked. The weapons take on different looks as you level them up. these are maxed out and are gold (and they seem to glow). Claws on both hands and feet, moves are awesome. Couple of moves added from his DoA roster. Disappear - re-appear above you - cut your freaking nose off!
Holy F
uck! the Scythe is even cooler than the Talons. Looks like Dragon' s Claw and Tiger' s Fang, Lunar staff and Eclipse Scythe are going to be best for taking on large groups. Not sure who came up with these moves for the new weapons but they deserve a big f
ucking bonus (LOL
) because they' re epic. DMC reclaimed the combat
style award briefly but Ryu just took it back.
UT' s with new weapons look amazing. The particle effects are kickass, especially as you charge the UT' s. Ryu gets surrounded by a flowing aura. Looks great.
It' s definitely a cleaner game than Sigma. There' s some nice texture work and the environments are definitely more detailed.
The Art of the Inferno is different. It actually lets you target who the blast gets fired at. Looks stunning, as do the enemies that get set on fire and burn to death while screaming. LOL - melt you pansy Ninja f
uck!
The Art of the Wind Blades is equally badass. It just cuts them to ribbons. Blood rains down everywhere!
Just got the Lunar Staff. Holy hell! It has a ball & chain that comes out of the end of it! A spikey ball on a chain. On both ends i think. I don' t think it can get any better than this. The game is like Sigma on steroids. Everything is Ninja gaiden as we know it - just better. It' s not that it' s refined, it' s just far more brutal. I loved the combat the the Xbox original and the PS3 remake but always thought that Devil May Cry had more depth and flexability... but this... this is incredible. These new weapons are GREAT additions. The previous games were best played with the True Dragon Sword but i think i' ll spend more time in my first couple of playthroughs using the Talons and Scythe than anything else. After seeing what they' ve done to the Lunar Staff i can' t wait to see what they' ve done to the Flails and the Unlaboured Flawlessness!
If this truly is the last Ninja Gaiden game as we know the series then it' s a fitting end. It' s a work of art and best of all i know from the reviews that it' s a decent length.
Roll on Friday!
< Message edited by nitro -- 4 Jun 08 1:05:08 >