One of the most satisfying games I ever played. Draw your swords and unleash hell!!
Graphics: Great (environments could be a little better, some minor framerate issues, but insignificant).
Story: Great.
Controls: Sharp, intuitive and easy to learn.
Difficulty: Hard, the game is challenging, but very, very satisfying.
Overall design: Outstanding.
Music: Atmospheric, very well adjusted to what you are doing in the game.
Characters: Interesting.
Camera: Has some problems, at times you can't really see what you're doing because of a corner or a pillar, but pulling the right trigger fixes this problem instantly. One thing can be a bit a annoying in this game: sometimes, when 4 or more ninjas are attacking you at the same time, you can have a hard time telling who's slashing whom, because the character costumes are similar.
Gameplay: Outstanding, superb, stunning, over the top, state of the art.
Ok, now, let's talk business. The character you'll be playing in this game is Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja warrior who can pretty much do anything. And when I say anything, I mean almost literally anything. Running on walls, jumping from enemy to enemy, running on water, everything you'd expect a master ninja from - it's there. I think the only thing Ryu cannot do is flying.
But to me (obviously from a very subjective pov), all of the above don't really matter. To me this game is all about swordplay. The things Ryu does with his swords are nothing short of astonishing. I have been waiting for a game like this, one that allows you to take use of the art of the Japanese sword to the full extent. Ninja Gaiden II achieves this with perfection. If you're a katana fanatic like I am you will really enjoy every second of this game. What can I say, Ryu's swordsmanship is probably the best in the history of video games. You will slash, stab, impale, decapitate, cut in half, cut off limbs and it looks like you're dancing. Dancing the dance of death. The techniques you can use in the game are not really real kendo or nitenichi (when you're using the two swords set), but it doesn't really matter. The fact is, the swordplay is the essence of this game. And if the ultra-fast acrobatic hyper standard techniques aren't enough for you, you still have two more outstanding ways to kill. The Obliteration technique and the Ultimate techniques. The former are finishing moves, a couple of them for every weapon (it also depends on the enemy). Basically it goes down like this: let's say you cut off an enemy's leg, but he keeps crawling towards you. So you approach the guy, press the hard attack button and the magic happens: the camera zooms in to show Ryu impale the cripple with his sword, throw him up in the air, then bring him back to the ground and chop his head off with a clean cut (for example.... there's a lot more, things like skull crushing, cutting off every limb, etc). The latter, the Ultimate techniques are insanely fast, unbreakable combos, which you have to charge first by pressing and holding the hard attack button. They are sequences of about 40 moves that completely destroy the enemy. You won't see this stuff anywhere else, it's real magic. And, if that's not enough, get this: if you're performing an Ultimate technique and the target enemy dies before you finish the sequence, Ryu quickly jumps to the next nearest enemy and then finishes the technique, which can even be a 20 hit combo. Amazing.
Action, action, action, this is what this game is. I happen to be a katana freak, so I probably enjoyed this game more than people who don't have this particular fetish, but still. It's one of the best and most violent games out there.
All the beauty and essence of Ninja Gaiden II is caught in a single move: when Ryu shakes off the blood from the blade after killing 15 ninjas in a couple of seconds.