Official Ninja Gaiden II thread, talk!

OMG

:(

It's there, but it's for Japanese Live Gold Members only.

I saw it there, ready to download, and I nearly leapt out of my skin.

But I couldn't get it!!

Whyyyyyyyy Microsoft whyyyyyyyyyy????????????????????

*cries*

Well they can shuv it for all I care the game is out June 6th so who cares ... I aint going gold just to get a freaking demo.

I tried. You need a Japanese billing address.

I even tried redeeming a code I got with GTAIV. Said to "try again later".

Yes I am this desperate to play it.

IF the demo gets up VERY soon like today, I will shell out 69SEK for 1 month, it's nothing.
But that is the first and the last time I do such a thing, MS can shuv it up with this nonsense.

Welcome to the club :(

If it comes to EU marketplace too I'll try it tomorrow. Good that I still have some gold time left before I am going to cancel my subscription.

Lucky.

Here is some info, from GAF.

Path of the Acolyte (easy, hahaha wuss)
Weapons: Dragon Sword, The Claws and the Scythe.

Downloading it right now :D

The content is not IP banned, you just need a Gold Japan account.

^ True. Just create a new Japanese account. It will be bundled with one month of Xbox live gold. That way you can download the demo. You can use this billing adress:

Japan
Postal Code: 150-2345
Province: Tokyo-to
Phone Number: 3201-3331

But you got 3 shots to make one, and mine is already over long time ago.

I hope I can find a 1 month gold account.

I received 1 month gold pre paid card from a friend, and I am downloading it right now!

Those who do get to try it. we want IMPRESSIONS ASAP! :P

No seriously, I am looking at you SATH!!!!

I'll just wait for the demo release on the UK marketplace I guess.

Cruel, cruel world ...

Alimo you don't have to tell me, not even once, that impressions WILL be here.

The download is done and I am about to press "play now" and enter the virtual heaven of ninjas.

You lucky Bas**** :P I am no where near my 360, I would have caved otherwise ... DAMN YOU MS!!!

Seems like the demo is the same one from BlimBlim's first 10 minutes. No stuttering. No slow down. Solid 60 FPS. My husband is playing it while I'm watching. From the looks of it enemies at 'Way of the Acolyte' are no pushovers. Other weapons are usable.

DAMMIT! i got my hopes all up to play it. damn Microsoft, always wanting more money. I remember when all demos were free, now u need a Gold membership for almost all of them!

Made myself a Japanese account and am downloading as we speak! I could wet myself with anticipation right about now!

The new combat takes a bit time to get used to, but not too much if you have played NG alot.

Considering the new combos, you gotta master these new ones.

The d-pad quick menu was used in NG sigma, but that was only for items like healing and such.
Now, at any point you can press up or down to bring the menu up and the game will freeze and you can choose every weapon, ninpo and item through that (finally no more start button).

The Obliteration Technique is AWESOME!
You just want to keep pressing that Y to get one in, and if you have damaged the enemy enough you can.
It is soooo satistfying to watch when Ryu pulls a death blow with a weapon, my fravorite being with the Dragon Sword and Falcon's Talons.

The demo ends right when Ryu jumps from a high distance into another building, no Rasetsu fight :(

The demo was decent long, and even though it was on Easy, the enemies will attack you like there is no tomorrow.

As many know, the enemy will grab you to blow themselves up. You can actually get away with it (sometimes) by tapping Y very fast.

The look camera is improved as well.
You can no hold the LB to look and move the right analog to look around, but hold the RT button to zoom in, easy really.
The camera is just like NG when in fight, maybe even better, it depends play to player really, and for me it has been great.

There are 2 Crystal Skulls in the game that serves no purpose considering it is a demo.

There is also Full health/save points, the only thing that will make it not pointless is that you can gain full health again...again it is a demo, no save points.

There is options as well to adjust things, nothing much there really.

The game plays just a tiny bit different than the previous one, the Dragon Sword combos is definitely different so you need to master them.

The game is definitely what I expected, but it definitely was not how I pictures it to play. Sure it looks like it plays like the previous title, but with new combos, and the OT feature it plays a bit differerently, so you need some time to adjust.

Weapons:

Falcon Claw...yes the Wolverine weapons are in this, and let me tell you this, awesome piece of weaponry.
So fast, so damn brutal, so shiny to look at it.
It's like you are a Wolverine but much more bad ass.

Scythe...Grim reaper is Ryus biggest fan with that weapon. Considering I don't like big clunky weapons, I don't like this one, but it sure as hell is fast abd deadly for such a weapon.

Lunar...it is different for sure. Each end has a ball with spikes and chains connected to it in certain combos, very deadly and powerful.

The big daddy of all...
Dragon Sword!

Ryus default sword, also Ryus trademark and weapon of choice.
The combos are different, so be prepared to get confused, but not lost to its glory.
you will pick up what was on the previous titkle, but not so fast, but not too long.

But believe me, those who are really good at learning combos, learning the combos with the Dragon Sword is with ease.

The counter attack...the counter attack is like a fighting game style. You block, and you gotta time your attack just right and you will even see a animation on Ryu when you press to counter attack, and he will do it.

There is two styles of counter attack, just like the attacks.
X does one type and Y another. X is the faster counter attack than Y.

The combat is soooo much fast, so much excited to play it/watch it.
After playing NG Sigma the other few days I now see how damn boring and slow that one was compared to this game.

The blood, the new OT attacks and the new fast bloody UT attacks.

Most weapons have two Ultimate Techniques now.
One is for one charge which is a huge amount of damage (I think it kills thems) and then for a double charge it shows a longer, powerful and more bloodier attack, and bigger esscence.

The ninpos are as usual but much more awesome this time around.

The visuals looks great with my favorite part it having sanskrit letters around you.
There is two Ninpos in the demo, The Art of the Inferno and The Art of the Wind Blades, Art of the Wind Blades being my favorite one, looks amazing when enemies getting cut.

But this demo should hold me off to the full game, I can now finally hoping for a demo, and just wait until next week on Friday so I can also try out my Falcon outfit .

PS. I tried to change my difficaulty setting through Dashboard to Hard just to see if Path of Warrior gets unlocked but it doesn't. I know in the BioShock demo you could do this.

PS2. No framrate issues or slowdowns whatsoever!

This is definitely my GOTY!

Thanks for the impressions Sath.

With regards to counters, do you just hold block and wait to be attacked?

Does the game also have the parry that was first introduced with the Master Ninja Tournament download where you had to tap block at the right moment to do it, and it wouldn't break your combo?

You can hold the BLOCK button to block all the time, but you have to time your counter attack button just right, which is X or Y.

I haven't tried parry and didn't know you could do it.

But this is like my 4th play through right now, so I will definitely try it.

Considering the lock on for the Ninpo, you can't do it on the Art of the Wind but you can do it on the Inferno.

When doing the Ninpo, just rotate the camera with the (left I think) analog and it will automatically lock on to whoever is infront of you, which is 3 maximum.

Wuffyx THANK YOU SO MICH FOR THE PICTURES! pictures of some action wouldnt hurt either ;)

SATH: You ROCK!! Brilliant impressions, it's like you were inside my head and answered all my questions. Cheers man!

Cant wait to fire this baby up come 6th of june!!!!

It wasn't in the original NG until they had the Master Ninja Tournament and released a bit of an update(the one with those brutal friggin' cat-women). But yeah, if you bit block just before you were hit, it would make a little flash at which point you could hit an attack button. Using it wouldn't end your combo, and it made fighting some bosses actually easier.

I'm not sure if it was in Black or Sigma though as I never played them.