Did you click the right stick to activate user control of the camera? It's annoying, but you'll have to do it every time you load up a game or start a new level. You'll have similar 3rd person camera control to NG2 then. The only functional differences I've found between the two games are that you have control over camera focus during boss battles in NG2 through the RB (a very good change), and that the camera view auto-resets in NG2.
That's not to belittle the accessibility of the camera in NG2 - it's nice not to have to keep enabling third person camera control all the time considering that the first person view isn't a focus of the game. The aiming with the bow is much much easier now too (the dot reticle is certainly nice for aiming!)
In NG2, i rarely use the right stick for camera. I'd just use right trigger to reset and just pay attention to which way I was facing before hitting it. Often, it'd be fine.
Good point on the bow. It's no fun without the dot reticle and being able to charge up. I've notice though that flying swallow is really really powerful in NG1. And Izuna drop seems to do a lot more spalsh damage. Some of the foes die just from the splash damage alone!
Please tell me there's a Sycthe in the later levels
