If you have played Ninja Gaiden Sigma you should know what to expect from this game. Brutal fast paced frantic combat that relies heavily on defense and eliminating your enemies ASAP. If you do not play defensively and do not learn from your mistakes, this game will destroy you (or would have in past iterations). However in NGS2 the difficulty has been reduced dramatically with many changes to the gameplay that make things easier for the player. In the game you play as Ryu Hayabusa, a (the) ninja of the Dragon Ninja Clan. You are tasked with the job of stopping the Black Spider Clan and the Four Greater Fiends from reviving the Arch-Fiend and turning the world into a world of demons and chaos. You do this by kicking ass with swords, flails, staffs, and other deadly ninja weaponry. The enemies consist of rival Ninjas and demons a like, all which vary greatly. For these different enemies you will have to decide which weapon works best for every type and switch accordingly.
Team Ninja has added new content to the game with 3 new playable characters and a few new boss battles(or replacement boss battles). The new characters are 3 girls from previous games. Ayane who was a supporting role in NGS and NGII, Momiji who played part in the story of NG: DS, and Rachael who was playable in the first Sigma. These 3 girls have 1 chapter of play each in the main story and are all playable in the team mission mode, either as the AI, an online teammate, or player controlled. These girls all play vastly different than one another and very different from Ryu. I actually had the harder time in the game playing with Momiji and Ayane than I ever did with Ryu. Though they are more difficult to play as they add a lot of variety to the game play and are used as a good way to tell side stories and get somewhat of a break from playing as Ryu.
The graphics and feel of this version of the game over the previous release are very noticeable and really significant in making this game the better of the two. When I first picked it up I immediatley noticed the game played smoother and the controlls felt improved over the past version. The framerate is now much more stable with a few minor hiccups every now and then, there is nothing that is going to be noticeable for more then a few seconds at a time. You can also tell some textures have been reworked and they really make the game look great in some areas while playing in 1080p. One thing you may not be a fan of is that this game is not as gory as NGII and instead has less blood and no severed limbs lying about, this isn't really a damper on the graphics though as you don't even really notice it too much while playing, and if you haven't played the other version you won't expect anything different. While some may disagree with the art style, the game looks and performs smoothly, and has great gameplay. That is what it's all about right?
The game consists of 17 chapters and take anywhere from 15-20+ hours to complete depending on the difficulty and your skill. The game is certainly fun and one of the games that has kept my PS3 on for 4 days only with breaks for work, food, and sleep. Beating some of the tougher bosses or just barely surviving an onslaught of enemies is a very rewarding experience and the game does at times make you feel like a bad ass. If you are a fan of the first one or was interested in the series, definitely check this title out. You won't be disappointed.
As for the differences between the versions:
I played through both versions of the game and Path of the Warrior (normal) on NGS2 was much easier than Path of the Acolyte (easy) on NG2. While this makes the game less challenging, it at the same time makes the game less frustrating and means you will not be spending more money on replacement dualshock 3's after you threw one through the wall. This change in difficulty comes from many different factors. One of these is the fact that there are less enemies on screen and they do less damage to you. Another can be attributed to the fact that you no longer have to spend essence (currency) on anything but health items. Meaning you will constantly be able to max out your health items at any point in the game. The reason you get to save your essence is that you now upgrade your weapons for free at certain Muramassa statues throughout the game, usually once per chapter. You also have an infinite supply of arrows which will help considerably on some bosses. If you are worried about the game being too easy though, once you beat it on path of the warrior you will unlock a harder difficulty and keep doing this as you progress, until you reach master ninja. Even just on path of the mentor the game is significantly more difficult then path of the warrior.
In this version there are some bosses taken out of the game completely. A few that really stuck out were the two giant armadillos at the same time, though they were replaced with a new fiend boss. Another one that wasn't replaced with anything was a giant worm you fight in a cave as he is burrowing through it. Though this wasn't a big loss as that boss was very easy if you know what to do against him. However there are an abundance of new bosses thrown in. In the first level alone you will fight a giant Buddha statue twice. During the course of the game you will run into the Statue of Liberty, two Tengu brothers several times, a horned fiend named Marbus, and a giant spider fiend named Obaba. The lack of these few bosses is not really a big downer as they add several new ones but at the same time it makes you wonder why they took them out.
Overall Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is a great game for fans and non fans a like. It adds enough to keep the game new while having much improved framerate and stability with updated graphics.
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