They wouldn't be ninjas then would they? ;) j/k

In fact he does cast shadows as do all the enemys.... sometimes. Guess it's a bug or some other flaw.

Ninja Gaiden on Hard>>>Master Ninja is cheap assed if you asked me.

For some reaosn I get the feeling this is gonna get boulet it, but don't bring Heavenly Sword old argument to Ninja Gaiden thread, because we have already had that argument in another thread that reached too much pages.

Omg finally finished download... i got the no sound version. ffs!

Environment looks kinda generic too. I mean, "Aqua Capital"... it looks like an approximation of Venice you'd find in half-a-dozen other games... the docks from DMC4, with the sun setting in the background... much more inspired.

Graphically it could be alot better, but footage already shows gameplay wise this is gonna beat DMC4.

Here are my observations of thing added/changed/made during the game.

1) Of course more blood and dismemberment -
and it seems there are moves aimed at dismemberment.

2) Action cam -
Some moves trigger an action camera type effect that does a close up of action. This could help when you have enemies behind you. *Edit: Enemies also have "Action cam" move sets.

3) QUICK WEAPON SELECT-
With some button press you trigger the game to pause (while action is still on the screen), and quick select weapons with a small indicator in the bottom left corner. You initially have only one row, which you flip up and down to get different types, melee, throwing, and ninpo. Awesome addition ans NG originally had you pause the game to switch weapons

4)Weapons -
Claw, Scythe, and dual dragon swords, and some sort of dual gladius looking swords. I didn't see a sign of the dragon sword, but the player gave that weapon up at the end of the first game (Edit: Dragon sword spotted towards end, only during cutscene, but not in weapon select). Perhaps the scyte is the primary weapon, I don't know. Either way, Ryu was never one for conventional ninja weapons.

5)Regeneration-
When you get attacked, you lose health, the blue portion of the health bar goes to the left to indicate it's lowered (wiht a really bright red portion of that part showing how much damage inflicted), and a red portion grows to the left to indicate the "limit" at which it regenerates. SO if you get hit, the left bar lowers, and it seems some fraction of that becomes the "natural regeneration limit". So it doesn't regenerate fully, and it only regenerates when you're not in battle.

6) Chiburi - .
The action of whipping the blood free from the blade, is done before Ryu sheathes or isn't using the blades. Pretty cool astetic effects.
----------------

I like the recharging effects, it doesn't really benifit you while you are fighting since it only activates during downtime, but it's very rewarding if you are in a place with few means to recharge your health.

I love the quick weapon switching. That would have made NG1 flow much better. I like the scythe as well, I thought it was going to be a primary weapon at first, but it seems the dragon sword (or some other form of the sword since it was placed at the Hayabusa graveyard in the end of the first game) makes a reapperance.

game is a year away, chill out

Itagaki is polishing up the gameplay first, then the graphics

I'm sure as the game progresses there will be tons of things added and removed. This is still early days

Xion I totally agree with you and the Furious one. They have plenty of time to polish the graphics, and so far, they're pretty damn good even with the glitches. I just watched the E3 off cam vid of DMC 4 and while the environments look better, the gameplay the NG 2 looks far more brutal, fast paced, exciting, and challenging. I mean just to see how good the gameplay looks now, and considering possibilities later down the line, I can't help but be excited for the game. I honestly can't wait to play this, because this looks the most exciting of action games I've seen thus far.

Wow can't wait till 2008.

I honestly would like it if you didn't put words in my mouth, okay? What i said was that the environments, in some shots, look kind of empty and lifeless, not that there was too little child murder in the game. I wish just wish they'd fill up those big empty squares surrounded by house walls with something. Put destructible objects in the way, just make the street look more like a street and less like an arena, you know? I know that some scenes are way better than others in this respect and i do think that it will improve further on as the game nears completion but right now, it looks a little bit empty every now and then.

Why does people have to lash out in defense whenever someone disagrees on something? Chill out man :)

whoa whoa there, just wait till they show off dante before you say something like that.

I didn't put words in your mouth.

The blood spatter and decapitation is top-notch. The game looks good, with some more polish it'll look even better.

NG was one of my favourite games of all time, so I'm definitely stoked about this one.

I dug a lot in the video - the blood and gore obviously, the ninpos seemed a good deal better, the more cinematic camera angles during attacks. The action is exactly what I'd want it to be (although scythe FTL).

That said, I agree wholeheartedly that the environments(at least in this level) were boring as all hell. Flat doesn't even really describe just how flat it was. Honestly, where are the parallax maps? The level looked like something out of Sonic Adventure(obviously exaggerating). This game has no atmosphere to speak of either.

Also, I hope it was the quality of the video, but it definitely looked a tad low res.

I don't even know why I'm complaining. I'm just so fucking happy to actually see it in motion. I would kill for a special edition NG2 with a sweet ass Ryu statue.

Everything heavenly sword wanted to be, you 360 guys are lucky.

But why did HS fail so terribly? Maybe they should have done something original. A less than stellar God of War with a chick is not very unique. NG is doing its own thing. I like that.

Physics would've been nice, specifically on the destructible stuff. I know it's way early, but it really would be nice if they upgraded the graphics. I hate to sound like such a whore, because I realise it's such a fast game with killer action, but there's no excuse for everything to be so flat...with next-to-nothing for lighting...with no physics. Fingers crossed for at least some of that!

Foot-blades FTL as well. They don't even look mildly cool.

Didnt IGN's preview state that in one stage there were items all around that got totally destroyed during the fights?

This looks three times as intense as Sigma. If only they make this demo downloadable...

And you people need to quit bashing Heavenly Sword. I finished the entire game, and let me say that it was easily as impressive as the original Ninja Gaiden, only in different ways.

Looks frikkin amazing.

Looks better than I expected. I didn't expect the environmental shadows to affect Ryu's character lighting.

so NG2 was the only other footage in the conference video that was shown, all the other trailers are not shown unfortunately..could you atleast upload the HD version of the Lost Odyssey presentation blim

Question. Does your health regenerate over time? Or did person playing do what Cliffy B did when showing off GoW on the PC and have sort of God Mode thing? Other than that I'm speechless. Do want.