After some more time playing today I will say that the game is flawed...I have the PS3 version of the game, and there are substantial graphical slowdowns. When facing 4 or 5 grunts ( which seems to be the SOP of the game ) things start to get into slow motion when other things are going on. The response time for the controls are not quick enough either, and there is a notable difference between the Normal and Hard modes. Enemies facing you seem to wait for you to attack them on Normal but on Hard mode they are vicious and aggressive. I faced one of the Bosses and he had several more moves on Hard mode than on Normal. The voice acting is rather suspect, Ryu's voice sounds too harsh and old and the sound quality of the other voices are vague. I have issues with the health gauge only replenishing after killing everyone in the section. There are no items to collect or maneuver around, and Bosses have no health bar to see what damage you are inflicting on them or a hit counter to see your combos at work. As cool as the closeups and slashes seem they turn unrealistic quickly after you slice a 4 foot Dragon Sword thru the guy and his waist is still attached to his torso...I don't know, seems like they extracted the best points of the previous two games in the first 40mins I've played of the game. Probably end up giving it a 7.0, as in passable, and oh yeah the story is not Oscar worthy either...