i had a look at the videos, the graphics are very nice and the combat looks good, however this isnt what i was expecting from ng2. I was expecting a very significant jump from part one..but from the looks of it, alot of animations have stayed the same, as well as the costume. ITs not bad at all, just not as earth shattering as the first one.

I agree with you to some extend.

When I heard in a interview with Itagaki he said that with NG2 he was going with another art style, but I don't see it.

That Aqua Capitol level reminds me of a brighter version of Tairon.

And they have like changed just tiny VERY tiny bit on Ryus outfit though.
Look at his hands, you see two silver bracelets and on his legs you can see his leg pads has changed, but other than that nothing.

I thought they would really go crazy on his outfit considering its NG2.
Hell look what they did with Kratos outfit.

I expected like japanese or ancient marking and different color patterns on his outfits.

As far as art for environment, I don't know, there are ways to change the art, but I don't have any ideas to what.

Kind of a more of an futuristic setting, more modern.
Kind of like how the ending CG of DOA4, for Ryu.
The whole big city with thunder and rain and all of a sudden aircrafts shows up and he jumps and dodges and slashes them...etc.

But I did see New York and a modern night level though, hopefully they are cool.
As far as ninjas, I like those modern ninja-soldiers with guns but yet have swords on their back, but didn't see them change weapons, maybe later built.

As far as animation...it looks like NG Sigma, its the same. Smooth believeable animation.

For some reason it feels Ninja Gaiden DS attacks should be on Ninja Gaiden 2.

...but it is Ninja Gaiden 2 though, hopefully its just as good as the first one but more too it considering its a NEW game.

Ah well, looks very cool non the less.

As long as Ryu has those black and blue outfits I am happy. I don't care about how the graphics look, gameplay should be great anyways. Game has new levels, weapons, moves and monsters to me that is more than enough.