C- Warrior said:
When you're giving an opinion of the difficulty of an action game to someone who doesn't live and breathe them, you have to drop your e-penis and sort of look at the game objectively. And objectively, for everything thing this game does right in terms of broadening it's appeal, it does something else worse. It is not a game for casuals, nor is it a game for relatively-avid gamers. You have to be really into action games to put up with the shit this game throws at you.
It's a matter of taking your GAF goggles off. NG II on acolyte is a challenging experience, it's not a cake walk... the game is unplayable to most people. The easy setting -- there is none.
I don't think that the game is unplayable to most people. Acolyte is there specifically to ease people into NGII. There has to be
some challenge there, yes. I can't possibly fault Team Ninja for still being in the "archaic" mindset of thinking gamers need to earn their victories. But, really, it's not "bitch hard." Enemies die fast enough, even though they can still get the jump on you if you're not paying attention.
Of course, if Duderz has no intention of playing through the game more than once, then sure -- it's only a rental (as would be most games). I think NGII warrants repeat playthroughs, regardless of playing harder difficulty levels, just to fully enjoy the nuances of each weapon. Even after a couple playthroughs, I'm not the least bit satisfied with the time I've spent with anything outside of the Lunar Staff and Eclipse Scythe.
Also, as to why I finished NG1 on higher settings and yet NG II frustrates me is because NG I is better designed, it's cleaner with less clutter to block your view (less flash etc.), it's more defensive based, bosses and enemies are more fair, better designed etc. Also, when something is fun, you want to analyze the situation and get better. When I'm fighting two armadillo's at once with a shitty screen filter fucking up my view more so than the camera designed by idiots, this isn't fun and I have no interest to get better.
The game is at it's best when you're using the dragon sword against regular ninjas with the A.I turned to holy shit levels. The problem with the other weapons is that I press two buttons and Ryu does a 426 hit combo with blood, flash, and special effects flying all over the place. It's a very detached experience.
Yeah, it's a shame that NGII isn't as technically polished as NGI, and the framerate dips are especially disappointing for a developer I've come to associate with a solid 60fps experience. Nevertheless, it's still just too much fun to play. If it was just NGI Ryu in NGII levels, I probably wouldn't even care enough to discuss it. But, Ryu's picked up an improved defense in reversals and Furious Wind (that's the one where you evade immediately after a block, right?), and an improved offense in Obliterations. The enemies compensate for this by being more ruthless near death and breaking through your guard more. Beyond that, it's business as usual for NG as far as I'm concerned -- excessive combos and "bad" camera included. I can forgive the lack of polish for the added player-enemy interaction. I'm kind of desensitized to camera complaints, though. I've never played a game where I couldn't get around it -- er, well, except Operation Darkness. Holy shit, what a horrible camera.