First and foremost, this game plays nothing like Ninja Gaiden; just had to get that out of the way. The only similarities are the design of some enemies and of Ken, the protagonist.



If I could compare this to anything, it would definitely be Otogi, From Software's previous Japan-oriented hack and slasher which was criminally underrated. The combat is solid, if a bit stiff as in Otogi and it sure as hell takes some getting used to. I got my ass handed to me a few times, and this is coming from someone who considers Ninja Gaiden a walk in the park. Odd considering most of the impressions I've read are that this is far simpler than NG, but I digress. There's a neat little PoP '08-style mechanic if you fail the QTE's (of which you most certainly will as some of the button assignments make no sense) where the action rewinds and you can retry. I thought it was pretty cool that other developers are taking notice of that. Also, despite them being QTE's, the sequences are beautifully animated. I've read that they were all mocapped, which is something I don't think has been done with any Ninja game beforehand.

Another gripe I had was that the QTE before the boss fight with the giant Spider demon thing was awesome, but the actual fight was somewhat disappointing. Granted, the demo cuts off halfway through it, but I was still left wanting a LOT more. It basically amounted to blocking the firey rocks that shoot out it's ass, then wailing on it's forearms when it drops them down. That was literally it. Then another excellent QTE followed. I had this exact same feeling with the Mirror's Edge and Force Unleashed demos too, and we know how they turned out... *shudder*



Screenshots cannot do this game justice; it looks fantabulous. When you take into account that From's last game was Tenchu Z, then that's some significant progress. The city has a real totalitarian dystopia look about it, by which (may or may not have been borrowed from Mirror's Edge) it looks unnaturally clean and glistening. I'm unsure of the storyline, so maybe it's incorporated somehow. Hopefully it is, as ME didn't expand on that plot point enough, I thought.

One thing that I found REALLY weird though was that during the intro cutscene, you and your ninja squadron (yeah that's right, after all this guy ain't no Ryu Hayabusa) are being debriefed by the master ninja dude in a chopper. Nothing unusual there, right? Then everybody jumps out, one by one, til it's your turn and the master stops you for a moment to give you a new possibly legendary/cursed sword (of course). He then starts speaking in Japanese, and so does Ken. Just a second ago, they were all speaking perfect English with no misunderstandings, so why Japanese all of a sudden? I can only assume it's because the master doesn't want the wise crackin' brotha piloting the chopper to know that he favours Ken out of his students or some BS. Whatever the reason, it was weird.

Anyway, I can say with all honesty that if the game keeps up the variety and throws in some inventive and clever boss fights that don't include obvious patterns, I'll be thoroughly satisfied. I am a total sucker for Ninja games though. I even bought the absolutely abysmal Tenchu: Dark Secret on DS. I know, I know...

I'm expecting at least a solid 7 from Destructoid.