I just can't grow tired of watching people play the Ninja Gaiden demo. This time our friend Volucritas demonstrates his skills with this video of the japanese demo in hard mode. Very worth watching, it helps waiting for the game release next week !
Volucritas lives in Japan and should hopefully do more videos for xboxyde in the future. Check out his comments about this video.
Note: These comments are for an edited version of that video only showing a few scenes. It's still a very interesting read.
Unfortunately, this batch of videos is not the best run I’ve ever had from the demo. Thus, some of scenes which are usually more spectacular for me to play ended up in me getting a few blows here and there. Also, the room right before the boss, Murai, with all the white ninjas was so unappealing that it was not kept for this site. The only high-point of that scene was a quick demonstration of the ninpo attack granted to Hayabusa in the demo version of the game.
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This first video shows the room where I usually have the most difficulty. It is the second room shown, where the gate drops over the door as you enter, and you are forced to fare combat in a golden-toned boxed area. While it is not difficult if one simply defends and defends and defends, such a thing would be pretty boring, and a complete waste of the skills Hayabusa boasts at the player’s service. On a good day, clearing this room without getting hit once is a good omen.
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The second video is actually two fight scenes with the middle cut out. Normally, the player would have to drop into the caves, retrieve the Samurai Fangs item, bring it back to the samurai statue, and receive the Key of Courage in return. Most of that is not particularly interesting to look at for the action-oriented player, so a minute or so of gameplay was cut out from the video as a result. The second room, infamously known as the “room of infinite ninjas”—is also brilliantly depicted in this comic strip from Penny Arcade:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-02-20
Again, not the best run ever, but a few tricks are shown here and there.
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Finally, the boss battle. Beginners to the demo often die here on their first try, but in actuality, Murai can be defeated by maintaining a lithe and nimble approach. Close-quarters combat is recommended only for those who are perfectly confident in their own skills. Murai can be taken head on with a combination of block-counter-block-counter patterns, but this method is inefficient and often, due to even one slip-up, results in Hayabusa taking more damage on this opponent. The darts shown utilized at the incendiary shuriken Hayabusa wears on his thighs.
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A better run or probably a better player would have displayed more about the game’s lenience to speed and agility, but I hope these demonstrations give skeptics, cynics, and pessimists some clarity as to the intensity of the gameplay from the upcoming Ninja Gaiden. I made these videos with only the best intentions towards the game, Team Ninja, and Tecmo.
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