From Software recently posted up a demo of Ninja Blade on the Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace, and it recently went Silver, meaning anyone with a Japanese account can check it out. As that includes us, I downloaded said demo today and gave it a quick run. Here's video of me playing it through, for those of you who can't be bothered to grab it yourself and play:
This is the same demo that was being shown back at the Tokyo Game Show, and at the time I said...
Graphically, the game had the technical chops to make everything look interesting, but a lot of the surfaces looked a little plasticy, too. It'll be interesting to see how much of the game is interactive cutscene and how much is actual ninja business when Ninja Blade releases next year.
I'd like to add to that that the demo is mad boring. Maybe that's because it's stuff I saw months ago, or maybe my position on QTE-based gameplay has become more staunch over the last few months, but... yeah. Not a fan. Perhaps the end product will be a bit more balanced. It's supposed to be coming out in "early 2009." Retail is currently listing it as a March 24 release here in the States.