Ronsauce: It's not related in any other sense than that it is what we got in this game. Itagaki and his team made the game flashier but didn't give a shit about balancing the game and i called it a trade off. If it bugs you that much just call it something else.

Easy there tiger... I was merely wondering in what sense it was a trade-off as other people have said that the faster combat and the OTs wouldn't work in a game like NGB and that the cheaper enemies were a result of *trying* to balance the newish combat. I,of course, don't believe that for a second.

I also don't necessarily believe that they spent most of their time making the combat flashier and "didn't give a shit about balancing the game." I wouldn't be surprised if they actually thought it was as perfectly fair and balanced as it needed to be... even if a lot of people disagree.

Ronsauce: i must say that i see many of the things in the games as easy ways out. For example the cheapness in many of the combat situations is balanced up by the regeneration of the health bar once each encounter is finished. Rather than balancing the enemies so that it's possible to get through each encounter unharmed they simply give you your life back. And the random instant kills (OT) is nothing i find to be particularly good. I'd rather see that certain moves have the dismemberment qualifier and if an enemy is low on health and you use one of those moves a limb goes off and then you are free to use an OT.

Yeah, and? I'm not saying the game isn't cheap or unbalanced. I simply don't think it's because the combat necessitates it.Random instant kills? You mean like the random, instant decapitations in previous iterations of NG? I don't see what the problem is with an arm getting chopped off randomly while a head getting chopped off is perfectly fine.

Ronsauce: because the combat is not even remotely as affected by the occasional head lopping in NGB as it is in NG2. Sure a flying swallow may indeed decapitate your enemy in NGB but then again the move is incredibly unsafe unless you hit or ninpo-cancel it and unless you play ninja dog mode you will get blocked.

I guess in the end i think it's used more responsibly in NGB, that's all. The OTs aren't a dealbreaker for me, i just think they could have been handled better.

I think the OTs are a VERY great feature to NG for sure, one of my favorite combat features that shows Ryu is serious.

I say that Itagaki wanted this game to be as difficault as possible before he left, thats why he went with this approach.

Think about it for a few seconds.

Enemies are now faster to manuever, dodge, run, they dont stop hunting you, they can do alot of Ryu abilites to cross some paths to get to you, they dodge your attacks by ease, they throw around 4-6 IS at you like a machine gun in any state you are in (except ninpo)...etc.

Now with Ryu.

Tons of new moves and continue combos that wasent available to Ryu, for example the Dragon Sword. You can continue even with the smallest attacks to more complex ones anytime, while in NG you couldnt do so, even with DS maxed out.

Ninpos are now mixed bag (freaking awesomes ones though).
For example there is no Inazuma ninpo (lightning). With lightning, Ryu could take out as many enemies as possible around him, but its not here, they instead gave you a range ninpo which is the Wind Ninpo, or the Fire ninpo.
Imagine having Inazuma back in NG2 with the ammount of enemies in NG2, would be easy but still, up to the player as a option to use it or not.

This one buggs the shit out of me, explosive arrows!
I mean they removed any explosive arrows but gave you a double charge move for the arrow that is useless in most cases, while the enemy has explosive arrows, that is one of things that leads to cheapness.

For example you want to cross a gap, you have to wall run, they surprise you on your jump with 3-4 ninjas with explosive arrows, there is NO way to get across without you taking tons of hit before you could by any chance take them out, which makes you use a ninpo, even that, the range to hit them is quite impossible.

I mean I am a diehard fan of NG to the roots, but these are just a few samples of the reasons why NG2 sucked so hard (along side the glitches, freeze ups), and it was suppose to be their "swan song" or whatever, and it was also suppose to be a next-gen NG, but man they screwed up the most important things that makes NG...NG.

There is no skill between you and another ninjas.
It was kind of block, dodge, hit...the strategic combat NG had. It's slow yes, but it required to have patience for each enemy, it got much more thinking.

And to be honest, NOTHING in NG2 was memorible, NOTHING, not even revisiting Hayabusa Village, and his father...give me a fucking break!
I mean I was anticipating so much to know much more of Joe Hayabusa and see what he can actually do, but he was barely in there for like 10-20 minutes and got his ass kicked (so the speculations goes), fucking stupid.

I still say that NGS is the superior version of all NGs out there, just a shame that all the badass weapons are in NG2.

Hiryoshi really improved what NGB had, the animations, the realistic CG like model for Ryu (NG2 looks really bad compared to the NGS model), the dodging like one hand backflips, some of the cool animations for doing birdflip on the walls, automatic waterrun that made the combat on water amazing...etc. alot of stuff really.

One thing I hated was Rachel...according to the devs they said fans wanted to spend more time with Rachel, fucking pervs!
Why not Ayane, she was there, she kept finding Ryu all the time, she clearly must have fought some enemies on the way.

I would REALLY loved if Momiji (NG Dragon Sword for DS) would be playable or a DLC, its like watching a female version of Ryu, which she is his apprentice.

Anyway, I am crossing my fingers for a Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for PS3 by Hiryoshi, not a NG2 port or anything, another NG title exclusive for PS3, something that NG2 would have been like, and I am sure that be my favorite "NG2".
I hope Team Ninja doesn't drop the ball on Ninja Gaiden franchise and with Itagaki now, there is no reason to go exclusive anymore.

Anyway, sorry for the long rant, I just like to talk about NG quite alot.

Sath: since you seem to have played a lot, how do you do instant UT charges? i've managed to pull it off a few times when landing from a jump but i'm not too sure. Any idea?

Make sure there is 2 orbs or single orbs.

Either 1 Blue or Red orb is needed for MAX UT or 2 yellow orbs for MAX UT.

When you land, time it and hold Y to get the orbs to you and then release it when you see the special effects around Ryu turning orange, thats the max UT move.

so the landing ut charge is the only instant charge?

Yeah.
You have to have the orbs already floating, and when you land, time it and hold Y for a instant UT.

Heres my video...notice when I land I absorb the floating orbs for instant UT.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=046TUupaqWM

PS. I was going to show the camera quality for my friend so thats not on my best gameplay...and NG2 combat pace spoiled me ;)

Mission Mode Downloadable Content price Slashed from 800MP to 560MP!
http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/03/02/this-wee...

No gold account here.

I see. Well look for a 48 Hours trial code or something and perhaps you can get it that way ?

I didnt get this DLC before but I think I will now since the 3000 Points I have all came with preorders of games! Got the Tomb Raider DLC, will get the 2nd one and will also get the Prince of persia DLC if it's priced resonably. These will be the only DLCs I have actually payed for.

I don't think that would work. I tried the 48 hours trial to download a demo but it still told me the content was restricted to gold members.

Nice, just the thing I was waiting for when I heard about these price drops. A bit annoying price though. Why not 500 or 600 argh, that 40 points is going to haunt me forever.

Well i'd buy it if it wasn't for the fact that it should have been in the game from teh start. I fucking hate this DLC shit.

Yeah, there's no doubt they cut this from the final game, and the dlc costumes too. Itagaki is usually someone who likes to include everything he can in the retail game for fans, but MS probably forced it on him.