There is a scan of NGS 2 in the latest Famitsu magazine

Some translations of the text:
- It will be an upgraded version of Ninja Gaiden 2 (not a direct port)
- Set to release in autumn 2009
- The magazine will be reporting new elements in coming issues
- Producer and director: Yosuke Hayashi (From Sigma)
- Development: Team Ninja

New features in the PS3 version:
- New weapon - spiked hammer "Genma"
- New giant boss battles not in the 360 version
- New playable character - female ninja Ayane

All I gotta say is, fuck yeah!
My favorite genre and my favorite character is back, and I can't believe its this year!

NG2 left me hanging with so much by Itagaki with bugs, poor design choices from the enemies...etc., that now Hayashi is back to resurrect my hope.

The extreme fast combat, gore, OTs and weapons was what made NG2 so BRILLIANT, good thing they are all back...with new "elements" to be announced later on, hopefully its a part of the gameplay like OT was to NG2 but won't hold my breath.

Please add one handed backflip and sideroll back and not dash!
I would go crazy if they add afterimage moves for Ryu like Ninja Blade's Ken :)

2 scans
HQ scan link
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2346/09031715063935...

Original scan
http://colt.twbbs.org/imgboard/src/1237277319012.j...

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/...

Famitsu also confirms...Ayane is playable *droools!*
After playing DOA until DOA4, I will say YES to Ayane...Rachel was stiff boring shit while Ayane can keep up with Ryu's style more.
I hope we aren't forced to play Ayane though, if we are, I hope they make her great and fun.

But this is official, my most anticipated game coming...Hayashi, do your magic!

So Sigma 2 is Gaiden 2 souped up? I hope that they fix all the stupid shit then. I won't get my hopes up too far but if it will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Perhaps.

I mean Sonia is in it, so I am guessing Genshin and Elizabeth is there too, which makes me think it is a remake of NG2 with extras like extra levels with Ayane, maybe additional weapon/s, music tracks...etc.


It's obvious that there won't be a Ninja Gaiden 2 Black now that Itagaki isn't working there and now that Team Ninja is working on NGS 2 and a bit on Quantum Theory.

For example one of my worries about them not being able to fix is the enemies location and how you are gonna get pass them.

For example parts were you have to wallrun cross a gap and there are enemies with rocketlaunchers or Incendiary Shurikens coming at you in great amount...stuff like that, poor design choice were you have to use Ninpo or just get there by luck.

But I am sure Hayashi will figure it out.

I think this is the title Tecmo was gonna announce on GDC, hopefully a teaser and images will be shown, would be great.

HQ scan
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2346/09031715063935...

Seems Ryu have a new move, look at the blue/violet aura around Ryu, and also a new enemy a big demon dog.

Also it seems decapitations is in it, which also mean, exact same gameplay like NG2, meaning very fast combat, OTs and tons of gore...thx Hayashi!

Sath, I thought you hated Ninja Gaiden 2 and now all of a sudden you love it again .... me confused. Anyway good news, I guess, playing as Ayane sounds very good. Another game I will be picking up whenever I am going to get the PS3.

I don't hate NG2 in general, its the bugs and clitches and poor level and enemy designs that I hate and made it pretty much unplayable.

NG2 had amazing weapons, fast combat, gore, ninpos and OTs and great improved movelist for each weapons...thats what so good about it, the rest was bad.

In Famitsu it says its a improved version of NG2 with extras, and considering its by Hayashi of course I am excited.
Hayashi did great stuff in NGS that was removed and cheapened in NG2.

One handed backflip and siderolls was great for dodging, the dash in NG2 was bullshit and you could get hit most of the time, while in NGS those moves you could time your manuevers.

Running on water you could just hold up to make Ryu run, but in NG2 you had to keep tapping the button to run and to fight which was bad!

And the enemies, IS spamming, missile spamming was the worst ones in the game...and more.

The some of the animation in NG and NGS made you invincible for half a second or so, but in NG2 there is no such thing so you could be tagged by IS spamming bastards while in throw or combo or air, even grabbed by them.

Now you know Alimo why I "would" love it again, because now I can get a chance to get a PROPER sequal than what Itagaki did.

With Ayane, I loved her moves in DOA4, alot of spinning and acrobatic manuevers in the air, that should hint that Ayane will be an actual female version of Ryu which is great, while in NGS, Rachel was there for eye candy for pervs and nothing more.

Well dont get excited yet... those cheap rocket fire guys might make a comeback. ;)

Yeah they will for sure, but if they add a new move to Ryu to manuever or give us some sort of a long range weapon, it would be good.

That or they won't place them between gaps and not as cheap.

I don't mind those rocketlaunchers, its the cheapness of designs they I hate.

Meaning 3-4 rocketlaunchers from far, each soldier shoots around 5 rockets at the same time, and then they send out those huge mechs at the same time.

I am excited for the game ALOT and it is my most anticipated game...but of course I can't wait to see what they have done to it to improve it gameplaywise, not much I bet, but even the smallest would be good.

But I gotta say, I am a Team Ninja fan regardless when it comes to NG series, so...it's tough for me not to like it :)

I posted a new original scan on the front page for those who missed it, shows Ayane and new bosses, big bosses, BIG glowing bosses :)

On one of the pictures it shows Ayane is making one of her ninpo powers, its the one with violet in the picture with wind effect, and on another one shows Ryu and Ayane next to eachother doing ninpo...I wonder if that is a cutscene or...gameplay.
Seems that her weapons are also short swords, kind of like Lucia in DMC2.

Can't wait for GDC, if Tecmo's announcement was this then we are in for a treat with a teaser or some sort of a trailer with gameplay of course and images :D

My only fear is the whole DLC and content thing.

I hope they don't pull a NGS and NG2 on us.

I want extra outfits, and I don't mean power rangers outfit like NG2 or dumb designs like them.
And mission/survival mode in the game as unlockable would be great.
But it's next-gen and DLC is coming in as always, so I won't get my hopes up on those two things.

Meh, would have preferred a multiplat Ninja Gaiden 3. I hated the level designs and lack of exploration in NG2. I'll still probably get this if they manage to fix the framerate though.

They just released NG2, NG3 wont be out if any, in years from now...I would drop that mindset if I were you.

NG still remains to be the best one, had good fight places and good exploration, had a nice pace to it.

The framerate in NG2 was a joke, but PS3 has enough room to have more stuff on screen at the same time without having much or any issues at all.

While I am at the commenting...I hope Hayashi does what he did in NG Sigma.
Give Ryu more realistic look like in NGS than anime look in NG2.

I still wonder what Tomonobu is up to these days ... I hope MS took him under their wings ...

I never said I expected them to release NG3 this year or anytime soon. I just stated I'd rather have them work on NG3 rather than a port of a game with bad level design and other issues outside of technical problems. And the framerate issues had nothing to do with memory. It was all rush coding since Itagaki wanted to bail out of Tecmo as soon as he could. I still wonder why Sigma, a port of a last-gen game, had mid-game loading that wasn't even in the original...The scans show that Ryu looks the same. I prefer the Sigma character model over the new look myself.

Well it was expected Simon after Ninja Gaiden Sigma but anyway.....One thing I know for sure though is that when I do get a PS3, both NGSigma, NGSigma 2 will be dirt cheap so will get to play them both.

The only thing that *slightly* pisses me off is that I don't get to play with Ayane, it's my favorite DOA character. But on the other side... I don't want to play through this game again, not after such a dull and watered down ride with NG2. I can't imagine them improving it so much that I start enjoying it again like I did with NGB... just for the lack of exploration, acrobatics and ballanced enemys (although they might be able to fix that).

Itagaki shows his loyal side all these years, wouldn't be surprising to see if MS picked him up.

Simon - Itagaki was making NG2 and he is a fanboy of 360 and MS publishing it. He doesn't want his games to go to Sony products, but now he is gone, Hayashi decided (I think he is the "leader" of Team Ninja now) to support the PS3 fans with another NG as NG Sigma fans wanted a sequal...and they got one.
It's not like you said with "Don't bother with the watered down 360 version, wait for the PS3 one?.

This is for the PS3 owners only, and those who only/ or got both own a PS3 gets it.
It's not like its coming on 360 too to say "skip Itagaki's version, and buy my version, its inferior".

It would be confusing to have NG2 out and then make NG Sigma 2 not like NG2 with its story and such, they wanted to follow the story canon, and having two different stories and games wouldn't be good.

But I assure you that when/if NG3 is coming out, it will be mulitplatform considering Tecmo owns the IP and Team Ninja is making it, and with Hayashi I doubt he will make 360 exclusive and want to make NG multiplatform right off the bat or turn the tide and make it a PS3 exclusives.

And why buy NG again for those who bought NG2?
The fans of this genre is lacking games, 3rd person action hack and slash...its lacking.
This is for PS3 owners to get what 360 owners got last year, and they got it, with add ons that Hayashi saw fit.

Maybe those who have a 360 and a PS3 will still buy NGS 2 because of the extras and the improved version, but this comment is mostly for those who has NG as passion (like me).

I am a diehard NG fan ever since NES, I owned NG2 and expected to getting blowned away. The combat is the only thing that held its ground to be great, but the rest sucked big (except the music as well).
I got dissapointed for that because it made it unplayable most of the time.

Now I will buy NGS 2 regardless and hope for the best that those things I knew was in NG2 is "fixed"...not removed, but atleast "fixed".

With Hayashi on this one he made good calls on NGS and I dont doubt that he will do it again this time.I do agree, NG2 was a rushed game, thats why all the glitches and such was so much there, even with 3-4 updates out, they still got gameplay issues there, and there wont be any NG2 Black.
Actually NGS2 seems to be NG2 Black in terms of content and such for PS3 only which is weird if you look at it this way.

And about the look, I agree.
Ryu looks best in NG Sigma, looks more realistic more life like.
In NG2 he looked bad...these screens are hard to make sure what version it is (likely to be NG2 again), but in NGS you could see a small tan, veins and such on him, in NG2 he looked like a anime statue figure and pale.

I guess we would all benefit a lot more, if Tecmo would think about a NG3 for 360 and PS3, instead of this ridiculousness.

Although being a huge NG fan I have to say that I would buy this sigma 2 game if I would own a PS3^^

lucky guys these PS3 owners

Exactly!

I mean with Itagaki gone he didnt want to do this, but now with Hayashi he can make both sides happy, would be great...without console exclusive content nonsense and later becomes DLC crap we have to pay for.

I wonder if Hayashi will have gameplay video records in NGS2, it would a very good feature.

Sath.... what on earth ???? You think Itagaki was controlling the situation ? How naive is that. Tecmo was getting the money to keep things exclusive, stop blaming the man. Wonder where he is.......

Either way, I think it's fair what they are doing with the Sigmas. We get it earlier on 360, the PS3 owners get it later but have bonus content - I dont see why we should complain now about having an imcomplete game. No such arguments would have been brought up had this not been announced. NG2 was fine for what it was. I didnt think the framerate issues are as bad as some people are making them to be. AI in team ninja games has always been Cheap - get used to it.

Alimo

Tecmo did not publish NG2, MS did.

Watch and read more of from Itagaki...he doesn't like Sony, he is also one of the reasons why NG doesn't go from Xbox to any other platform, but yes MS also pays for the exclusive, its both if you think about it.
For example, why make NG Dragon Sword on NDS but never a NG title on PS3?

Cheap?
They were also cheap in NG but manageble, in NG2, no.

Ever wondered why we didn't get explosive arrows or AFSFD whatever arrows in NG2 while we did in NG?

In NG2 you could easily kill or atleast stun the enemy from far away with say explosive arrows, but Itagaki cheapened the AI so you didn't get such thing, but you could charge your regular arrows, but it would take much time.

It's not about the AI, its about the design of the enemies that makes the game cheap. I have studied way into the NG games to be proven wrong.
I have experienced with it's cheap AI, so believe me when I say I am used to it Alimo, more than you think.

About the framerate, it was BAD, most of the time it started even loading, yes like NGS.
Not as bad? if you reached the level were you have to go up on thge big stairway to fight Elizabeth thats one place were it took the most hit.

I had complained after a few dumb deaths in NG2 that didn't make any sense or the technical problems that caused me to die like too much slow downs, freezings...etc. and called it a incomplete RUSHED game.
I knew that there would be a NG Sigma 2 coming out in the future, but I did not expect it so damn soon.
If it was so fine, why all the DLCs with mission mode, several updates to fix the freezing, not being able to log on to XBL without the game freezed or never registered your karma.

Sorry if I sounded harsh, but when it comes to NG I really go into it ;)

I think it would be lying to yourself i you expect much more than a "glitch-free" Ninja Gaiden 2, and even that isn't guaranteed. I also don't remember too many glitches on the 360 version, you make it sound awful in that aspect.

From my first two playthroughs, I remember one part where the framerate would drop badly, but that's about it. So pretty much I don't see what is there to be so excited about.

Well Team Ninja is making NGS 2 to be a remake of NG2, they CAN fix some issues, I didn't say all of them. I dont know what can be fixed or not, it must be played to know.

I countered the glitches a few times (not much, but sometimes in several playthroughs) in the game, from gameplay to technical stuff for example I couldn't get any essence even if I wen through it.

Other problems I had was in terms of gameplay and animation, any NG pro in all these years know animations in the game is also something to think about.

But whatever, NG2 was what it was, and NGS 2...we will see.

All i can hope for if they start fixing things is first of all invincible frames during the dash. Also it'd be great if they balanced out the damage and frequency of projectile attacks.