As we are all aware, the purpose of a ninja is to flip out and kill people. Nobody does this better than Ryu Hayabusa, which is why when demons want to take over the planet, they have to send, conservatively, 780,000 of them to try and stop him. Now, nobody’s saying Ryu isn’t capable–he is a ninja after all–but that doesn’t mean he’s not man enough to ask for help. Or cry. But that’s none of our business.
Ninja Gaiden is returning after a 13 year absence. “But wait, didn’t Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z come out in 2014?” you say? “No the hell it didn’t, no idea what you’re talking about,” I reply. Either way, when a series has been out of the zeitgeist that long, even Ryu Hayabusa’s considerable skills can get a bit rusty, and you might even have some complete newbies testing their might for the first time. So leave it to us to set you up for success in your quests to fight the battle to win against the ninja.
ABM: Always be moving
Veterans are rather keenly aware that Ninja Gaiden II Black is based around the “improvements” from Ninja Gaiden Sigma II, one of which includes a smaller on-screen enemy count. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean it’s far too easy to get complacent. To wit, the same rules from the original game apply: If there’s more than one enemy onscreen, they will try and jump you. That means getting effectively stunlocked if you’re standing in one place too long, hoping to get a parry while John Q. Ninja and his anonymous buddy hit you with every move in their arsenal. Feel free to try and hit a parry from an initial combo, but if it’s no dice after three seconds, find someplace else to be. Distance is your friend, and you’re gonna need enough of it to make good decisions going forward.
Master real Ultimate Power
This may sound like I’m still referencing that ancient meme page, but no, seriously: Ultimate techniques are going to be your bread and butter in this game. Learning to chain those suckers together is the only way to keep you alive and stylish. If you’re lucky and are in a a fight where you can see your enemies coming from a few seconds away, unless there’s heavy projectiles involved, charge up your Ultimate as much as you can and let your enemies come to you to get merked.
“But oh, no, they’re too close,” you say? Don’t panic. The game won’t tell you this directly, but aside from throws, heavy weaponry, and boss attacks, Ryu can actually absorb a mild hit or two while charging up, meaning that remaining steadfast and letting your enemy leave themselves wide open is on the table more often than you might think. Exploit the hell out of that.
In addition, one of the finer arts true masters will eventually learn is that while the game will tell you to absorb the Essence around you to charge your Ult faster, what it won’t tell you is that if you time your charge up just right when you land from a jump, you can INSTANTLY absorb all the essence around you and unleash. The timing is a pinpoint, but you should be charging up an ult if you’re jumping out of harm’s way anyway.
Upgrade the Dragon Sword. Immediately.
As a great government employee once opined, “Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.” When it comes to Ninja Gaiden, you’re going to be spoiled for choice within the first five chapters when it comes to weaponry. Hopefully you’ve got your executive dysfunction in good order later when you’ve got nearly a dozen options to choose from. All of the weapons have their perks and strengths and weaknesses, but whatever else you plan to do, when you get to a Muramasa shop, block out any and all other noise, fully upgrade the Dragon Sword to level 3 before you do anything else. Yes, when you first get going, around Chapters 1-3, you’ll end up with the Lunar Staff and the Falcon Talons, but the Staff is a weapon for mobs of big enemies–we’ll talk about this later–and the claws get utterly outclassed by the Tonfa later on.
The Dragon Sword, however, is gonna be your bread-and-butter weapon. It’s effective against the vast majority of enemies; it’s got the easiest combos; and the Flying Swallow technique is more effective than Jesus when it comes to saving lives in this game. Upgrading the sword to level three not only enhances all that, but that Flying Swallow technique can now be executed three times in a row, which just mows down basic enemies, and is absolutely invaluable when it comes to giving yourself room to breathe with bosses.
Also, if you want a quick and dirty guideline on what to spend your hard earned essence on next, upgrade the Lunar Staff–again, you’ll appreciate it once you start facing werewolves–the Tonfa, then the Scythe. Actually, let’s just get into it…
Bring the right weapon to the right job
Really, the advice here is to experiment, find something you love and are comfortable with, and spam the everliving shit out of it. But it’s still useful knowing certain weapons are just plain better at certain things than others.
As mentioned before, the Dragon Sword is an all-arounder that’s useful just about everywhere. Its dual-wield alternative, however, is a little more effective with larger demons, while not giving up mobility like you sometimes can with the staff.
The staff, however, is an absolute killer when you get to the Lycanthropes in Rome, but by the end, it’s virtually replaced by the Scythe. Encounter an enemy that doesn’t get stunned from the Staff’s multiple hits (the mechs onboard the Flying Fortress, for instance)? Use the Scythe instead.
For massive-scale bosses? Let Enma’s Fang out of the bag. It’s not as useful with any demon smaller than your average soccer stadium, but to its credit, it can actually launch demons/werewolves and their ilk into the air.
The Vigoorian Flail and Kusari-gama are crowd-control weapons, but they’re a little too light on damage to be a go-to unless you’re really that damn persistent. Mostly, they just come in handy in the Roman aqueducts, where those annoying little ghost fish like to hang out.
If you’re looking for some real fun with crowds, upgrade the Tonfas to level three, then enjoy cosplaying as the wood chipper from Fargo.
Izuna drops. All day. Every day.
You’ll have a lot of options when it comes to dishing out the good old ultra-violence in this game, but there is one near-constant: The Izuna Drop is king. Not only is it one of the coolest looking techniques in the game, not only is it one of the few combos that, if executed, guaranteed your enemy ain’t getting back up, not only does it get you above the battlefield, and give you a few brief, precious moments to get your bearings, but it’s one of the few combos that stays relatively constant across multiple weapons and characters. It’s the very first thing you need to look up in the Techniques menu when you get any weapon. Learn it. Love it.
FINISH THEM.
As you might’ve noticed, Ryu likes dismemberment. A lot. Despite this, though, it’s so easy to get caught up in the chaos of driving that combo number up that you don’t stop to notice the actual state your enemies are in. Once an enemy’s lost a limb, the ballgame changes. You can actually step up, hit your Strong Attack button (Triangle on PlayStation, Y on Xbox) and perform a particularly brutal coup de grace. Concordantly, if your enemy’s feeling ambitious, they can actually crawl towards you on the ground, grab you, and either stab you or self-detonate themselves with some explosives. Ironically, that does more damage than most of these jabronis do when they’re 100%. The lesson is the same, though: You see anything moving that’s not you, try to chop its head off. Y’know, just to be sure.
Do not become too addicted to Karma
This one’s mostly for the old schoolers, especially those who didn’t even bother with the Sigma games on reputation alone. Remember how the original 360 games had leaderboards, and every single action earned you Karma points, and you lost out on points for dying, low combos, or even thinking about using Ninpo, and you’d be ranked every stage? Yeah, screw all that. There’s separate modes for competitive players, but for those who just want to chill, enjoy the challenge, and get to the end, just play the way you wanna play. In particular, let go of your fear of Ninpo. Use it all you want to get out of tight scrapes, don’t be a hero.
Get by with a little help from your friends
There’re a few things folks who skipped the Sigma games missed out on. Some are thankfully in the garbage can where they belong (hi, Giant Buddha and Statue of Liberty bosses, how ya doin’?), some are sorely missed (the extra costumes, mostly). But one unavoidable neutral is that there’s a few extra stages where all of a sudden, you’ll have to play as a different character. It’s nice they’re in here, but these single-level encounters are rougher than you think, on top of having to play them with a wholly unfamiliar moveset. While we can’t just play these stages for you, here’s some quick and dirty tips for hanging out with your lady friends:
Momiji
The good news is Momiji’s Naginata has insane reach and can make mincemeat out of basic enemies (though do yourself a favor and take the magicians out first; they can get annoying without the Flying Swallow to close the distance). In addition, she has a double jump and a mid-air charged Ultimate that can keep her out of major trouble. The bad news is the Tengu bosses on her level are some of the cheapest bosses in the game—and at the end, there’s two of the bastards. Key here is stay about midrange, wait for their melee combo to be over, then get two or three hits in. Basically, handle ‘em like a Souls boss.
Rachel
Rachel’s level’s not terrible in terms of difficulty, but the giant hammer she wields is shockingly wack. And most of the time, you’re dealing with enemies who can move way faster than she can swing it. Stick to light combos for most damage. However, she does have a surprise advantage in that she just straight up brings a strap to a sword fight. Her machine gun is more effective at crowd control with smaller enemies. Spam it often. Once you get to larger enemies, there’s actually a long combo string that ends with pulling her machine gun. If you learn any of her combos, learn that one.
Akane
Thankfully, Akane plays the most like she actually belongs in this game. She doesn’t do as much raw damage as Ryu, but she’s speedy as hell and her Ultimate flies all around the field, hitting multiple enemies. Take full advantage of that. The boss of her level is a bit annoying, in that it has a preposterous amount of reach, and a weakspot that’s not always available. Bumrush most enemies in her level, then slow it way down and pick your spots with the boss.
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs via Steam, CDKeys, Humble Bundle and Eneba.
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