by OL » Mon Dec 10, 2012 11:30 am
The demo is up on Japanese PSN!
And it's freakin' great!
Granted, there are a couple of disappointments. The graphics are obviously a teeny bit downgraded in a sense. The cutscenes look nowhere near as pretty as in the first game.
But then again, you have to take into account that, as pretty as they were, those ones also didn't flow along with the gameplay graphics quite as well as this. And even further, you have to take into account that with the slight downgrade, now the gameplay itself is able to run incredibly fast and silky smooth. The increase in speed is absolutely amazing.
I have to say, I do have a bit of a soft spot for the slower, more precise combos of the first Ken's Rage. But speeding them up like they have here, it really feels more faithful to the original show in a way, and it's no doubt much more accessible.
The levels also appear to be a bit smaller, but that's obviously been done so that they could pack more story content into the final game. Again, I have to say, I actually liked the expansive levels of the first game, but having them a bit more compartmentalized in this one is easily more faithful to the original stories, as well as keeping the pace moving a little more briskly. Plus, they might be able to add more distinction to them this way, and provide cool variations on what they already did before (the Zeed level takes place mostly inside the building where Kenshiro was being imprisoned, for example, instead of out and around the town).
So even with the obvious changes that could be seen as detractors by some, this is easily an improvement overall. Can't wait for this game. I really can't wait to play as/against all the other characters, particularly from FotNS2. Ein, Bat, Shachi... all gonna be great.