Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (3D)

Tens a certeza? Da outra vez não podia mesmo aparecer, porque estava a fazer edit ao tópico.

Tenta adicionar alguma imagem do magicbox e verifica se consegues ver ou não, eu consigo ver :confused:
Não me aparece nada, experimenta meter o link da thread noutro browser que use outra pasta de temporários (caso estejas a usar o firefox exprimenta copiar o link e meter no ie, por exemplo).
 
Tendo em conta o título do jogo, só vamos lutar com bosses que são dragões?:wow:
hmmm, nunca tinha pensado nisso, mas talvez.

No entanto parecem haver "dragões" (?) diferentes:

screenshot_177009.jpg
 
IGN: Hands-on :D

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword Team Ninja proves that Ryu Hayabusa needn't only kick ass in high-def. Hands-on report and two-plus minutes of direct-feed.

August 13, 2007 - Ask gamers about the Ninja Gaiden series today and they might point you to its Xbox-based comeback, or perhaps true newbies will cite the recently released Sigma for PlayStation 3, but if you really trace the franchise back to its 1988 roots, you will find that it was born in the arcades and made popular on NES. Naturally, Ninja Gaiden, which stars the agile hero Ryu Hayabusa, has evolved over the years, and yet the same focus on intense fighting action has remained. So have many other *****, including the atmospheric presentations -- the NES Gaiden was one of the first to include story cinematics of any kind -- and genuine difficulty; even today, the hardcore crowd is adamant that the Gaiden titles are tougher to master and complete than almost all competitors. All of these truths make for some compelling videogames, if you can get past some of the crippling camera issues in some of the latest console builds, but how do you translate a series known for cutting-edge graphics and spectacular button combos to a handheld that lacks the horsepower of any home system and uses a stylus to boot? As it turns out, you do it very, very well, if you're Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja.

After nearly two decades away, Ryu Hayabusa is back on a Nintendo platform in Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for DS, a game scheduled very tentatively to hit store shelves this November. We recently had the chance to try out a very brief (about three minutes in length) demo that spotlighted some of the gameplay and visual styles that Team Ninja is going for and we came away very impressed. Indeed, if more developers approached DS development like Team Ninja has, the state of third party releases would be very much improved.

Dragon Sword makes sense from the beginning. Itagaki and team have very clearly thought about how best to utilize the strengths of Nintendo's handheld without sacrificing presentation, functionality or comfort, the latter of which is noticeable as soon as you pick up the DS to play. That's because Gaiden is not gripped traditionally; instead, you hold the DS "book style" so that both screens are seen vertically in a style similar to the Brain Age games. (We've been huge proponents of "book style" DS games for many months and couldn't possibly be happier that a non-casual effort has utilized the layout.) Furthermore, you don't press any buttons to execute attack moves in Dragon Sword -- you use the stylus to slash Hayabusa's sword, throw shurikens, jump, and even deal out combos. Indeed, you'll only need to press a button -- any button you want, actually -- (or any direction on the D-Pad) to go into a defensive position that, coupled with stylus movement, will make Ryu dodge oncoming attacks.

It you're thinking this all sounds gimmicky or that it seems forced, think again. Once you actually get your hands on the setup and easily dispatch your first group of ninja enemies, you will be convinced that Team Ninja has hit upon something very intuitive and fun. To move Ryu through the environments, which are comprised of very detailed pre-rendered backgrounds in order to maintain visual flair and fluidity, you simply drag the character with the stylus wherever you want him to run. (All the action unfolds on the right screen, as the left is used so far only for maps, a waste of real estate as far as we're concerned, since the levels we've seen up until now hardly require guidance.) Ryu responds quickly to stylus input, sprinting to on-screen areas you point toward. Also, if you quickly stroke upward with the stylus, he will always jump into the air -- you never get a sense that the controls aren't responsive; rather, they feel very dead-on and well thought out.

If you want to swipe an enemy with the Dragon Sword, you merely slide your stylus over them and Ryu will attack (supposing he's near them). To throw shurikens at foes, you easily tap them over and over with the stylus -- the stars will fly. You can stroke upward, at which point Ryu will jump into the air, and while hanging you can speedily tap enemies, causing Hayabusa to chuck shurikens their way from his mid-air vantage point. You can begin to see the potential of combos, we hope, but it goes further. If you slide up and then down with the stylus, Ryu will leap airborne and then come down hard with his sword, taking out any enemies nearby. The Izuna Drop is performed by sliding down, up and up, at which time Hayabusa will knock an assassin upward, leap after them, and then spiral-slam them back to the ground. If all that isn't enough, you can tap the Ninpo icon located at the top-left corner to trigger the Ninpo, which will wreck everybody on-screen. (Once you tap the icon, a sanskrit letter will appear on-screen and you will have to trace it with the stylus. With that done, the special move will begin.) One such move emits a powerful fireball that can be guided around the screen with the stylus, obliterating any ninjas in Hayabusa's path. Of course, any of these moves by themselves are important to the experience, but you will quickly begin stringing together combos for more effective attacks. For instance, jumping into the air and throwing shurikens at opponents and then coming down on them with an Izuna Drop before segueing into a Ninpo. Everything can be performed so effortlessly and quickly that you will forget within seconds that you are using neither analog sticks nor buttons to progress.

The very short (too brief, in our opinion) demo of Dragon Sword concludes with a boss fight. After journeying through a portion of the Hayabusa Village, Ryu does battle with a red dragon boss character, which flies from the sky and lands in an arena to meet him. The winged, fanged creature flaps and charged forward menacingly, but its attacks are easily dodged and countered with the aforementioned moves and combos at Ryu's disposal. All in all, it takes about 30 seconds to demolish the beast, especially if you use the Izuna Drop after chucking shurikens in its direction.

What the demo proves beyond any doubt is that Gaiden for DS is terrific. We've been outspoken about our issues with some of the console titles, but with a fixed camera and pre-rendered backgrounds to boot, the drawbacks are gone and players are left with a very manageable, very fun to play and very pretty DS title. We love the "book style" presentation and the stylus-reworked control scheme. The only area left for Dragon Sword to live up to is the difficulty level that the series has become known for; the demo is completed easily, and thus we're eager to try out stages and fight enemies with more complexity and challenge -- both of which are sure to be on the way. Check out our direct-feed walkthrough, which showcases more than two minutes of gameplay, in our media section.

Parece que temos um grande jogo a caminho da DS :D
 
Parece estar muito bom, mas os controlos vão ser complicados, muito complicados, de ínicio. xD Estou a ver o pessoal a querer tirar um ataque, e sair outro completamente diferente.
 
Entrevista:

The DS is known for being a casual system and Ninja Gaiden strikes me as a very hardcore series of games. How do you reconcile those two reputations?

Yes, the title is Ninja Gaiden and of course, it belongs to that franchise, but I don't consider this installment to be hardcore as much as games in the past. In fact, we want to really tailor it for the audience that's going to be playing it on the DS. The other thing I want to make clear to hardcore gamers of the world is that little kids tend to be a lot more open towards challenging games than people think, and they'll continue to play until they get better. I don't think they have anything to worry about with this title.

Related to that point, Team Ninja has a reputation for targeting powerful technology for its games. The DS is technically considered a weaker piece of hardware, so it seems like a departure for you. What sort of technical challenges were involved with switching that mindset from developing high-end, well presented titles to something on a smaller scale?

I've been at this a long time, and I remember the days of working on the Super Nintendo. Working on the DS, we can go in and look at it from a different approach than we would for a high-end console, using techniques that are both new and hearken back to the days of older game systems.

Does it run at 60 frames per second? It seems like it does.

Yes.

That's certainly not a common feature in portable games -- or even new-gen games, come to think of it.

There are a lot of games out there that call themselves "action games," but they don't necessarily put a premium on making the action look its best. People are almost hysterical about finding out what resolution a game runs at. "Oh, if it's not 1080p then it's not true next-gen." That's because they're breaking down the individual parts of the game and what's shown on the screen into those kind of numerical values, making sure it's 1080p or whatever. But people don't seem to mind as much breaking down time into numerical values. We're making a game where the screen is refreshed 60 times a second. We feel it's much more important than the numerical value of the screen resolution.

How does the development cycle compare between developing a DS game and a console game? Is it more compact?

The size of the team is completely different, but time wise it takes about the same amount of time.

Dragon Sword's less demanding controls and lower difficulty are things I wouldn't necessarily associate or expect from Ninja Gaiden. Clearly, Hayabusa is a central figure, but across different platforms and titles, what elements are required in a game before you can call it "Ninja Gaiden?"

That's a good question. The Ninja Gaiden franchise represents the best action game that can run on that piece of hardware. Since this is the best action game running on the DS, it's worthy of the Ninja Gaiden name.

If I imagine a stylus-based action game, I always picture people just scratching their screens wildly. What's to stop gamers from playing like that? How do you strike a balance between being simple and intuitive, but also being precise and having the game recognize specific inputs?

You're right, most people when they start the game, they just kind of scratch about wildly on the screen. The key is that showing the player that each time you scratch, you're having an effect on what the character is doing. I've shown this game to a lot of people, and within 2 or 3 minutes, everyone realizes the connection between what they do with the stylus and what the character does, and then they learn to defeat the enemies.

Was there ever any consideration of a control option that didn't use the touch screen and relied on the face buttons?

No, not at all.

There are a lot of DS games that come out that don't use the touch screen at all. Why do you think developers don't use one of the primary features available to them?

Well, they're free to do what they want. I'm very accepting.

Is there any possibility of a multiplayer mode in Dragon Sword? Was that ever considered?

Yes, every time we make a new Ninja Gaiden game, I think about the possibilities of multiplayer content. But when you really come down to it, Ninja Gaiden is a solitary game. You have a solitary ninja going around killing enemies -- it's really more geared to a single player. I mean, let's say you're playing the game and some other guy comes, he could even be an NPC and not necessarily a player controlled character, and they start fighting so much better than you. Wouldn't that piss you off?

I suppose it might.

Or, let's say you're playing and an NPC comes on screen and you're playing really well, but they're just really lousy and holding you back. You'd feel like you'd want to kill that NPC.

In that case, what about a competitive mode, or a versus mode?

I think that's a good idea, but that's a seperate game in and of itself.

I noticed that the character portraits and the art style seemed a little more comic-like compared to how Ryu is presented in the console games. Is the change in art meant to appeal to a wider audience?

It's my job to exploit the strengths of all the people on our team, so while we were developing the game I noticed all this great artwork coming from them. I thought it would be really good to feature in the game.

But would it be more beneficial to the acceptance of the game? For instance, the Castlevania DS games share a much lighter, more cartoonish art style compared to the gothic art styles used for the games on other platforms. They consider it to be more appealing.

Sorry, I haven't seen the Castlevania games that you're referring to, but I've heard they're pretty popular in the US.

What other DS games have you played? You say you've got the best action game on the DS, but you haven't played Castlevania? Granted, that's not a strict action game per se, but what other titles have you tried?

No, I haven't played other games, really.

You haven't played the competition yet...

Yeah, I don't really care.

Dragon Sword is going to be better, no matter what?

Yeah, of course. Who knows? If there's a game out there that is more beautiful, more interactive, faster and has better action than this game, please let me know.

But for now, there's nothing that's very interesting on the DS for you?

It's not that I don't have an interest, it's just the competitors I don't care about. I've been playing some DS games, like Chibi Robo. It's really good.

Casual games are extremely successful on the DS, and it's spurring a lot of developers and publishers on to make games like Brain Age and whatnot. I'm curious, do you ever see Team Ninja making a game like that?

I think it's best that people who are good at those kinds of games continue to make them. We're action fanatics, so for us to not make an action game is just a waste of everybody's time.

The DS is also very popular because it uses alternate input methods. Are those really intriguing for the action genre specifically? Does it make you want to move away from traditional controls once you get into them?

I think the interface is really attractive, and I believe that we are producing one of the best implementations of this interface and really utilizing the capabilities of that particular hardware, which is one of the hallmarks of a good action game. So, to rephrase my request from earlier -- if you know a game that is more beautiful, faster, more interactive, more fun and uses the hardware interface better than this game, please let me know. See, I'm so accepting.

Do Wii controls interest you? Is a Wii project something you'd consider?

Yes, I'm interested in the Wii, but I can only make one or two games at a time and I think all my fans know that by now. I don't want to start saying things here and then later on have the fans tell me, "No! Focus on what you were working on, don't try and broaden out things yet." Recently, my fans apparently don't want me to bring out my games on time. [laughs] If I say things like this, people will get upset, so I'll just leave it at that for now.

That's probably a smart decision.

Yes. Everyone should be more accepting like me. [laughs]

I noticed the magic in Dragon Sword has more uses besides attacking enemies. You use it to overcome obstacles now -- is that going to be a recurring task throughout the game?

For me, it's really about creating a battle engine and making sure that you have the great input system and that the animations and movements of the character reflect your input, that you're getting a great amount of feedback from the screen and that the action is satisfying and speedy. These are really the things I'm focusing on the most, and I leave the details to the other members of the team to work out. Of course, if it's just action action action and only action, it can get a little bit tiring, so we need a little change of pace here and there to mix things up. The Ninpo is one such idea.

Is there any consideration of bringing other Team Ninja franchises to the DS now that you've had the experience of working on it?

First of all, I think that if a lot of people end up playing and buying this game, I'll definitely consider continuing the Dragon Sword franchise on the DS. As for other existing franchises, I haven't really thought about that yet.

The DS is becoming this huge, unstoppable console all over the world and the PSP is doing pretty well too. That must weigh heavily on the Japanese developer's decision to choose between consoles. The Xbox 360 doesn't do well in Japan, the PS3 has a comparatively small install base and third parties don't do well on the Wii. So it's tough to choose a platform there... is a system like the DS a "win-win" situation?

I would disagree that a DS title is "win-win." We're making Dragon Sword because we want to, not because the DS is popular and selling well. To your comment that it's difficult to develop on consoles now because of the problems on each platform, you have to remember that most people developing for consoles are just ordinary guys. Do you think an ordinary guy is going to be able to succeed automatically when he makes a game?

It's a balance in the market like anything else. You've got good games and bad games, and people buy the good ones and don't buy the ones that are bad, so nothing's guaranteed. There is no guaranteed seller. It's just up to us to make the best game we can and have people buy that and play that game.

Do you see the Ninja Gaiden brand becoming more of a bankable and recognized phenomenon?

I'm not nearly as concerned with the brand value of the name as when I say that the Ninja Gaiden franchise signifies the best action game for that platform, it's my duty to fulfill that statement so that I'm not lying to people. That's much more important to me than building the name of a franchise.

You've gotten Ninja Gaiden on the DS now -- while developing it, was there anything you wanted to change about the DS? Anything that got in the way of making the game you envisioned?

I did think that if you could interact with the stylus on both screens, then it would truly be a piece of hardware that would have no fault whatsoever. I did talk to Nintendo and tell them my thoughts, and there were a lot of difficulties why they couldn't do it this time around. Hopefully, sometime in the future we'll see something like that.

It should be noted that my mom loves the DS. Do you think Ninja Gaiden is going to be something she'll want to play? Do you think moms and grandmothers who bought the DS are going to be interested in Ninja Gaiden?

I don't know... one thing I can say is that usually my games are for males. So, if we're talking about females and older people, even for me that's something I can't really calculate. [laughs] Give it a try and let me know, see how she reacts!
Fonte: http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/03/joystiq-interviews-team-ninjas-tomonobu-itagaki/

Boa entrevista.
 
O IGN já fez a sua review: 8.6.

Pelo que o jogo perde uma das suas qualidades (ser desafiante, ou duro c'mos cornos), deixa tanto de ser um platformer, mas ganha uma acção fantástica, utilizando o stylus. Conhecendo a saga, e lendo a review, só posso aconselhar...
 
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