ASK_Story said:

Hey, is this XIII - 2? J/K

I think they're taking a cue from No More Heroes and maybe Mad World. Let's see if the gameplay lives up to it though.

It doesn't look to bad. Cel-shading is a great way to take advantage of the Wii's system limitations because the artstyle can make it look like a next-gen game ( well, almost). For example, Mad World is more impressive to me than any next-gen game all because of the unique black & white artstyle.

personally i love the cel-shaded look in games.  i think it gives them a certain kind of edge which i enjoy.  it's very "modern" (some would say post-modern) and I often prefer that to "traditional" as far as art-style is concerned.  GG has a point though, with the exception of The Wind Waker (which by the way most people decided was great after Twilight Princess went back to the traditional look they were crying for) hardly any other cel-shaded games have been overly successful.  Most recent case in point Prince of Persia, an altogether very successful franchise and recognisable IP that went cel-shaded suddenly.  Personally i think the recent game looks stunning (i haven't played it as i don't have ps3 or 360) but it sold terribly didn't it?

another thing that could be a problem for them is motion+ exclusivity.  while i understand that if you're going to take advantage of the technology, you might as well do it well and not be half-assed about it but i don't know if it is safe to assume everybody will have it that early on.  but maybe they can get a pack-in deal with Nintendo going, that would be good and the tennis games and tiger are proof that nintendo is thankfully not saving that just for Sports Resort.

bugsonglass said:

ASK_Story said:

Hey, is this XIII - 2? J/K

I think they're taking a cue from No More Heroes and maybe Mad World. Let's see if the gameplay lives up to it though.

It doesn't look to bad. Cel-shading is a great way to take advantage of the Wii's system limitations because the artstyle can make it look like a next-gen game ( well, almost). For example, Mad World is more impressive to me than any next-gen game all because of the unique black & white artstyle.

personally i love the cel-shaded look in games.  i think it gives them a certain kind of edge which i enjoy.  it's very "modern" (some would say post-modern) and I often prefer that to "traditional" as far as art-style is concerned.  GG has a point though, with the exception of The Wind Waker (which by the way most people decided was great after Twilight Princess went back to the traditional look they were crying for) hardly any other cel-shaded games have been overly successful.  Most recent case in point Prince of Persia, an altogether very successful franchise and recognisable IP that went cel-shaded suddenly. 

 Gamers on message boards love celshading. Everyone else ignores it and buys games that are visually easier to understand - realism or an approximation of it. 

Okami, Madworld, GTA DS, Prince of Persia, Viewtiful Joe. All great games with visual styles I love, all commercial failures?

Ravenprose said:

gamingeek said:

Okami, Madworld, GTA DS, Prince of Persia, Viewtiful Joe. All great games with visual styles I love, all commercial failures?

What's the definition of a commercial failure? Okami, PoP and Viewtiful Joe all made money. Granted, they didn't sell millions of copies, but they were profitable; I don't see that as a failure. It's too early to say Madworld and GTA DS are failures either. They haven't been out long enough. I guess I don't understand why a game is considered a failure if it doesn't sell a million units on day one.

Clover who made okami and the viewtiful joe games was shut down so you can't say those games were successful either

Swords >> Guns, that is a fact.

If you can splice bullets with you swords like Machii, it will be the most awesome thing ever!

Dvader said:

I'm with Iga, swords are better than guns. I love that it will have exploration aspects. That is why I ask about the gameplay GG, cause you learn valuable info and now I am more excited for this game than ever.

 The swordplay doesn't worry you Vader? You hold C and then do a motion at the right time to block? That's exactly the same as the first game, hell in the first game you didn't even have to hold down a button. 

The first game had 75% shooting, 25% swords? Imagine that level with the ninjas only on every level. It could get very frustrating, very soon. 

Iga_Bobovic said:

 I think they mean that you hold the button and tilt the controller to do a vertical or horizontal block. In Wii Sport Resort you also hold a button to block, this makes the block more weaker by using horizontal block to block a vertical slice and vice versa. One to one blocking would be way to difficult. What happens if two swords clash and you hand moves further will you sword does not?

 It says swing to block either horizontal or vertical. If you swing to block then you are doing it with the right timing, how it worked in the first game with the nunchuk.

Dvader said:

Not if motionplus is as good as it should be. Which it may not be and the game is a disaster. We shall see. All I know is that sword play interests me more than gun play which I can get from a ton of other games. But I get your fears, if its as robotic and repetitive as the sword fighting in the first game it could be trouble. It needs to have more of a Ninja Gaiden feel to it, fast paced, many kills, to be fun for a whole game.

But having it constantly enjoyable means avoiding repetition and getting the difficulty curve exactly right. Too easy and its a slashfest, too hard and it will be a pain in the ass.

But think about what we know so far. Z lock and fight, focus on swordplay. So you walk up to one dude, lock on, slash, beat. Move onto next guy, do same thing, move onto next guy. How boring is that going to get if you have to beat say 8 guys in one area? Or 6 guys?

In RS1 you had all this explosive gunplay for half an hour, a 5 minute swordfight and then another 20 minutes of shooting.

Fast paced would be good, but if its like that then it needs to be like bloody and visceral like your Wolverine impressions and there is no blood and they are aiming for a T rating. There would also have to be many different ways to kill opponents like Madworld.