------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ............................................................................... .....................................::........................................ ..................................::NN::....................................... ................................::NNN::........................................ .........................::::..::NNN::.::...................................... .......................::NNNN::NNNN::NNNN::.................................... ................::.......:::.::NNN::.::::...................................... ..............NNNN:.........::NNN::............................................ ............:NNNNN:........::NNN::............................................. ...........:NNNNNN:.......::NNN::.............................................. ..........:NNNNNNN:......::NNN::............................................... .........:NNN::NNN:.....::NNN::................................................ .......::NNN:.::NN:....::NNN::..::............:::...::::....::...........::.... ......::NNN::.::NN:...::NNN::..:II:.........::NN..::NNNN::.:JJ:.........:AA:... .....::NNN::..::NN:..::NNN:....:II:.......::NNNN:::NNNN::..:JJ:......:::AAA:... ....::NNN:::..::NN:.::NNN::....:II:.....::NNNNNN::NNNN::...:JJ:....:::AAAAA:... .....NNN......::NN:::NNN::.....:II:...::NNNN::NNNNNN::.....:JJ:...::AAA..AA:... ..::NNN::.....::NN::NNN::......:II:.::NNNN:.::NNNN::.......:JJ:...:AAAAAAAA:... ..:NNN::......::NNNNNN::.......:II:.:NNNN::..:NNNN::.......:JJ:..:AAA::::AA:... .:NNNN::......::NNNNN::........:II::NNNN::...:NNN:.........:JJ:.:AA::..::AA:... ..::::........:GNNN::...........::..::::......:::..........:JJ:.:::......::.... .............:GGNN::.......................................:JJ:................ ..........::GGGN::....................................:::..:JJ:................ .........::GGG::....................................::JJ:..:JJ:................ ........::GGG::....................................::JJJ::.:JJ:................ .......::GGG::....................................:JJJ:::..:JJ:................ ......::GGG::...................................::JJJJ:::::JJJ:................ .....::GGG::....::..............................::JJJJJJJJJJJJ:................ ...::GGG:.....::GG::..............................::::::::::::................. ..::GGG::.....::GGGG::......................................................... .::GGG::....::GGGGGGGG::....................................................... .:GGG:....::GGGG::::GGGG::..................................................... :GGG::.....:GGG:..::::GGG:....::..::..::................::::::::....::.....:::. GGG:........::......:GGGG::.::AA::II::DD::............::EEEEEEEE::.:NN:..:NNNN: GGG::.............::GGGG::.::AAA::II::DDD::.........::EEEEEEEEEE::NNNN:::NNNN:. GGGG::...........::GGGG::.:AAAAA::II::DDDD::......::EEEE::::...::NNNNN::NNNN:.. ::GGG::........::GGGG::.:AAA..AA::II::DDD:DD::....:EEEEEEEE:..:NNNN:NNNNNN::... ..::GGGG::....::GGGG::::AAAAAAAA::II::DD:::DDD::::EEEE::.....:NNN:::NNNN::..... ....::GGGG::::GGGGG:::AAA:::::AA::II::DD::..:DDD::EEE::::::::NNNN:::NNNN::..... ......::GGGGGGGGGG::.AA::...::AA::II::DDDDDDDDDD:EEEEEEEEEE:NNN::..:NNN::...... ........::::::::::...::......:::.:::.:::::::::::.::::::::::.:::.....:::........ ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BLACK ADVANCED COMBAT By aaxe Version 2.5 --------------------------- ~~ COPYRIGHT INFORMATION ~~ --------------------------- Copyright 2005, aaxe This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Just contact me via GameFAQs if you wish to reuse this material. ------------- ~~ HISTORY ~~ ------------- Version 2.5, 10-25-2005 - Added Smoke Bomb sections and Back-turned sections. Various corrections. Reorganized Discussion sections. Version 2.0, 10-21-2005 - Corrected Changes section thanks to Megla Zero, Spark0, d3licious and provett Version 1.5, 10-05-2005 - Addendum. Corrections Version 1.0, 09-21-2005 - Initial release. Copy of original document with first version of Black changes. ----------------------- ~~ TABLE OF CONTENTS ~~ ----------------------- 1. Prologue a. Introduction b. Changes from the Original Game c. Essentials 1. instant Block 2. instant Charge 3. On-Landing 4. Auto-Targeting 5. Free Form Combos 6. Rolling Techniques 7. Wind Path 8. Enemy Awareness 9. Projectile Use 10. Ninja Gaiden Tribute 2. Conventions a. General Movement b. Conditions c. Requirements d. Properties 3. Basic Combat a. Basic Combat Overview b. Enemy Types 1. Small 2. Regular 3. Large 4. Boss c. Weapon Discussion 1. Classes 2. One-Handed Melee Weapons 3. Light Two-Handed Melee Weapons 4. Heavy Two-Handed Melee Weapons 5. One-Handed Projectile Weapons 6. Two-Handed Projectile Weapons 7. Smoke Bombs 8. "Useless" Weapons d. Ninpo Discussion 1. Art of Firewheel 2. Art of Inferno 3. Art of Ice Storm 4. Art of Inazuma 5. Summary e. Auto-Targeting f. Weapon Differentiation 1. One-Handed vs. Two-Handed 2. Light Two-Handed vs. Heavy Two-Handed 3. Dragon Sword vs. Kitetsu 4. War Hammer vs. Dabilahro 5. Nunchaku vs. Flail 6. Lunar vs. All 7. Unlabored Flawlessness vs. All 8. Unlabored Flawlessness vs. Dark Dragon Blade 9. Dragon Sword vs. Nunchaku vs. Lunar 4. Advanced Combat a. Move Recovery b. Command Buffering c. Just Frame d. Audio Cues e. Downed Advantage f. Rolling Techniques g. Essence Avoidance h. Protection and Invincibility i. Additive Damage j. Combo Flow 1. Sections 2. Breakers 3. Transitions 4. Enders k. Encounter Comboing 1. Distance 2. Time Span 3. Frugality 4. Hinderance 5. Benefit 6. Difficulty l. Enemy Priority m. Enemy Awareness n. Enemy Status a. Offensive b. Defensive c. Support d. Team e. Unaware o. Fighting Engine Conditions Discussion 1. Charge Level (charge) 2. Charge Level 1 (charge1) 3. Charge Level 2 (charge2) 4. Charge Level 3 (charge3) 5. On-Landing (OL) 6. On-Landing Cancel (OLC) 7. instant Charge (iC) 8. instant Charge On-Landing (iCOL) 9. instant Block (iB) 10. In Air (IA) 11. While Running (WR) 12. instant While Running (iWR) 13. While Blocking (WB) 14. Wind Path (WP) 15. vertical Wind Path (vWP) 16. horizontal Wind Path (hWP) 17. Block (BLOCK) 18. Guard Break (BREAK) 19. Guard Crush (Crush) 20. Ninpo Cancelling (NINC) 21. Step Canceling (STEPC) 22. Near an Enemy (NEAR) 23. Near a Wall (NEARWALL) 24. Near a Downed Enem (DOWN) 25. Level Ground (LEVELG) 26. Wind Run (WINDRUN) 27. Wall Cling (WALLCLING) 28. Wall Run (WALLRUN) 29. vertical Wall Run (vWALLRUN) 30. horizontal Wall Run (hWALLRUN) 31. ceiling Wall Run (cWALLRUN) 32. Phantom State (PHANTOM) 33. Low Health (LOWH) 34. Area Affect (AREA) 35. little In Air (lIA) 36. Delay (DELAY) 37. Wall Cling Cancel (WALLCLINGC) p. Fighting Engine Status Discussion 1. Block Stun (BLOCK) 2. Hit Stun (HIT) 3. Stagger Stun (STAGGER) 4. Guard Break (BREAK) 5. Guard Crush (CRUSH) 6. Clear Away (CLEAR) 7. reverse Clear Away (rCLEAR) 8. Multiple Opponent (MULTI) 9. Throw (THROW) 10. Decapitate (DECAP) 11. Recovery (REC) 12. Essence Technique (ET) 13. Ultimate Technique (UT) 14. little Launch (lLaunch) 15. Launch (LAUNCH) 16. Self-launching (SELFLAUNCH) 17. Absorbing Life (ABSORB) 18. Projectile Strike (PROJ) 19. Just Frame (JF) 20. Behind an Enemy (Enemy) 21. Grounding Knockdown (GROUND) 22. Spin Stun (SPIN) 23. Crumple Stun (CRUMPLE) 24. Wall Stun (WSTUN) 25. Wind Path Stun (WPSTUN) 26. vertical Wind Path Stun (vWPSTUN) 27. horizontal Wind Path Stun (hWPSTUN) 28. Parry (PARRY) 29. Weapon Locking (LOCK) 30. Protection (PROT) 31. Invincibility (INV) 32. Counter Hit (CH) 33. Distance (DIST) 34. Burrowing (BURROW) 35. Back-turned (BT) 36. Unblockable (UB) 37. Area Affect (AREA) 38. Confusion (CONF) q. Combo Growth r. Advanced Shuriken Use s. Depth t. In-depth Move Discussion 1. Flying Swallow 2. Red Hot Iron Brand 3. Izuna Drop 4. Six Paths Spin 5. Flying Bird Flip Options 6. Counter Attack 7. Runaway Lightning 8. Wind Run 9. Soul Bind 10. Soul Eraser 11. Cremator 12. Dragon Slaughter 13. Guillotine Throw 14. Dark Dragon Gates of Hell 15. Dragon's Claw 16. Burial Kick 17. Steel Severer u. Dial-A-Combo v. Enemy Arsenal w. Phantom Invincibility x. Boss Vulnerability y. Smoke Bombs 5. Character Traits a. Advanced Enemy Abilities b. Easy c. Normal d. Formidable e. Deadly 6. Hidden Moves a. All Weapons 1. Who Watches the Watchers 2. Burial Kick b. Dragon Sword 1. Tranquil Clearing 2. Rooted Windmill c. Kitetsu 1. Soul Bind 2. Soul Eraser d. Dragon Sword/Kitetsu 1. Life's Circle 7. Move List a. Dragon Sword/Plasma Sword, True Dragon Sword/Plasma Sword Mk. II b. Nunchaku c. Vigoorian Flail d. War Hammer e. Dabilahro f. Spear Gun g. Wooden Sword h. Kitetsu i. Unlabored Flawlessness j. Dark Dragon Blade m. Lunar n. Shuriken o. Windmill Shuriken p. Incendiary Shuriken q. Bow r. Strong Bow s. APFSDS Arrows t. Explosive Arrows u. Smoke Bombs 8. Move Matrix a. Melee b. Melee Notes c. Projectile d. Projectile Notes e. Ninpo f. Ninpo Notes g. Essence/Ultimate Technique h. Essence/Ultimate Technique Notes 9. Move List Discussion a. Dragon Sword 1. Level 1 2. Level 2 3. Level 3 4. Level 4 5. Scroll b. Nunchaku 1. Level 1 2. Scroll c. Vigoorian Flail 1. Level 1 2. Level 2 3. Scroll d. War Hammer 1. Level 1 2. Level 2 3. Scroll d. Dabilahro 1. Level 1 2. Level 2 3. Level 3 3. Scroll e. Spear Gun 1. Level 1 2. Scroll f. Wooden Sword 1. Levels 1-6 2. Scroll g. Kitetsu 1. Level 1 2. Level 2 3. Level 3 4. Scroll h. Unlabored Flawlessness 1. Level 1 2. Scroll i. Dark Dragon Blade 1. Level 1 2. Scroll j. Lunar 1. Level 1 2. Level 2 3. Level 3 4. Scroll k. Shuriken l. Windmill Shuriken m. Incendiary Shuriken n. Bow o. Strong Bow p. APFSDS Arrows q. Explosive Arrows r. Smoke Bombs s. All Weapons 10. Black Specific Features a. Essence Farming b. Repeat Encounters c. Enemy Changes 11. Free Form Combos a. Damage Discussion b. Dragon Sword c. Nunchaku d. Vigoorian Flail e. War Hammer f. Dabilahro g. Kitetsu h. Unlabored Flawlessness i. Dark Dragon Blade j. Lunar k. Standard Shuriken l. Windmill Shuriken m. Incendiary Shuriken n. Wind Path 12. Legacy Advanced Combat a. Ninja Ryukenden b. Ninja Gaiden Trilogy 1. Ninja Gaiden 2. Ninja Gaiden and the Dark Sword of Chaos 3. Ninja Gaiden and the Ancient Ship of Doom c. Summary 13. Conclusion 14. Credits -------------- ~~ PROLOGUE ~~ -------------- If you wish to skip the bulk of the discussion of the Combat Engine, then simply skip to the Essentials Section to see the list of techniques that are required for high-level play. Otherwise, simply read on. INTRODUCTION ------------ This document will outline the advanced techniques that Ryu may utilize to confront his adversaries. While the canned combos and basic moves are listed for comprehensiveness, the scope of this document is to expand upon the basic tools outlined in the game. There are many facets to the Combo System that go undocumented both in-game and in the manual itself, so it's up to the forum members of this board and other boards in particular to hash out the specifics. Please see the credits section for the people responsible for gathering this information. The primary difference between this game and every other action game ever created to my knowledge is that this game incorporates fighting game hit properties and statuses heavily into the combat engine. Whereas most games include the bread and butter HIT, CLEAR, IA, THROW, GROUND and WALLSTUN statuses, Ninja Gaiden incorporates over 50 statuses and properties that are specifically assigned to specific strikes, weapons, attacks and even other states. There are even inter-dependencies between the statuses such as the ability to CRUMPLE and opponent after placing them in SPIN state. This does not even include the hundreds of different, animated reactions that are induced by simple HIT state. No other action game currently features this depth of combat. Note that this document will not entail specific strategies for specific enemies unless used for demonstration. This document is to outline the combos both canned and free form as well as the properties of the strikes themselves. Ninja Gaiden Black is a very complex rewrite of the entire original game. Hurricane Packs 1 and 2 are included (more or less) in this game. But, depending upon which level of difficulty you've selected, the gameplay changes drastically. CHANGES FROM THE ORIGINAL GAME ------------------------------ There are a ridiculous amount of subtle changes between this game and the original as well as the Hurricane Packs. For the purposes of this document, we will outline the combat-oriented ones, only. 1. Smoke Bombs - Smoke Bombs are one of the only COMPLETELY new weapons (if the Hurricane Packs are considered). They are very helpful on the Chapters where other Projectiles are worthless like Chapters 3 and 4, since the MSAT and Samurai on these particular levels are almost totally immune to all Projectiles available to you at that time. They are also very handy for EXTREMELY aggressive enemies as well. Lastly, the Smoke Bombs seem specifically designed to assist Ryu in the Boss encounters that feature minions. 2. Lunar - If you didn't get the Hurricane Packs, the Lunar is the best and most profound addition to the game. See its section for the discussion. 3. On-Landing Tweak - The On-Landing (OL) condition has been tweaked for the better. Before, whenever you landed from a jump, whatever OL property would override everything else. Now, the OL will only come out for moves intended to utilize OL. As an example, before if you tried to do an Azure Dragon OL, you would get some derivative of Haze Straight Slash (depending upon the available Essence lying around). Now, you will get an additional Azure Dragon instead of the OL Y attack overriding. 4. Nunchaku Buffing - Aside from Normal Difficulty setting, you now begin with the Nunchaku. However, it was not rebalanced as far as strength is concerned (as it first appeared in Chapter 4 in the original game), so now it is the weapon of choice for Chapter 1. Ryu has also gained the ability to do Fire Pit in any point during Dragon Slaughter for both the Nunchaku and the Flail. 5. Kitetsu Buffing - Kitetsu is now an upgradable weapon with three levels. Also, it no longer leaches life. You can now issue consecutive Soul Erasers as well as performing Blade of the Dragon Tail. 6. Dark Dragon Blade Buffing - The Dark Dragon Blade is now the strongest weapon in the game aside from the Unlabored Flawlessness (UF) at 5% health. In the original game, it only excessively Guard Broke but was identical in damage to the UF, but now almost every attack is stronger than the normal UF, particularly the Raging Thunderous Blade (Bird Flip, X/Y). 7. OL X for Dragon Sword moved from Level 2 to Level 3. See the Hidden Moves section for Tranquil Clearing. 8. Guillotine Throw Tweak - The command for issuing the Guillotine Throw has changed from NEAR IA Y to NEAR IA X+A. This is a great addition as before it was very difficult to differentiate between doing a Flying Swallow and the Guillotine Throw. Now, it is impossible to confuse the two. 9. Six brand new enemies - These enemies were absent even from HPs. a. Silver Samurai - Upgraded Samurai invade Hayabusa Village in difficulties over Hard. They also accompany Doku in the Zarkhan Stadium battle. They Block even more excessively than regular Samurai. b. Greater Bast Fiends - The Fiends that resemble feline demons now have a Greater version with flat ears, red eyes and black skin. They are MUCH more aggressive and have a higher constitution. However, I have not seen a new move specific to these variation, although, their moves seem to Guard Break much, much more. c. Greater Moat Fish - This creature is immune to the Harpoon gun. d. Flame Ninja - This is a variation of the Black Spider Clan that is much hardier and possesses command over the element of fire. e. Doppleganger Fiend - Even though all six of them fight totally differently, I list this as a single new enemy. The Doppleganger can fight with the Flail, True Dragon Sword, Dabilahro, Kitetsu, Lunar and Unlabored Flawlessness. Additionally, each version can command all Shuriken and Ninpo and change them on the fly in seemingly unlimited quantities. The Dabilahro Doppleganger can also utilize Explosive Arrows with the Strong Bow. f. Explosive Bats - One word: Fun! 10. Brand New Hurricane Pack Enemies - These enemies were added in the Hurricane Pack and are obviously included in Black as well. a. Ishtaros - This Fiend looks like an huge, evil version of Rachel. b. Nicchae - This Fiend is a supreme version of a bipedal Alma. c. Masked Ogre - Huge, reptillian sub-bosses with Dinosaur masks. If you shattered their masks, they go berserk. d. Vigoorian Berserker - Large, skeletal warrior that brandishes a huge, two-handed sword. This creature has the most extensive move list in the game. Once you inflict enough damage on them, they also go Berserk and expand their movelist greatly. e. Bast Fiends - The Fiends are catlike and possess the most extreme mobility of any other enemy in the game. They also possess Flying Swallow. f. Shadow Imp - Another evolution of the Imp class of Fiend. These monstrosities are much larger than the regular Imps, but smaller than the Greater Imps. They have a very good set of new strikes and a throw. They are also totally immune to Shuriken. g. Vigoorian Ninja - This enemy resembles Doku's Samurai, and wields a Windmill Shuriken. They fight like Black Spider Clan, but are MUCH more hardy. h. MSAT (Mechanized Special Attack Team) Soldier - The SAT soldiers are totally encased in robotic armor which grants them shuriken immunity. They have a few new moves as well and carry light sabres. i. MSAT Riot Guard - The Riot Guards are upgraded just like the Soldiers. These guys don black armor. j. MSAT Grenadier - These soldier don gold armor, and their rate of fire increases ridiculously. The grenades themselves are much more powerful. k. Mechanized Vigoorian Infantry - The Military joins in on the mechanized fun, too. These guys get a bunch of move upgrades and shuriken immunity as well. l. Mechanized Vigoorian Heavy Infantry - Lastly, the RPG soldiers get the robotic treatment as well as an increased rate of fire, damage and accuracy. 11. You get different combinations of starting equipment amongst the difficulty levels. Normal has the standard configuration. On Hard, Ryu begins with the Nunchaku while the Lunar is in the Shadow Ninja Fortress. Very Hard allows the use of the Nunchaku at the beginning as well, but puts the Lunar in Hayabusa Village, while Master Ninja lets you begin with all three. 12. New Armlets and Ribbons - There are several brand new Armlets that really diversify the gameplay choices in the game. Additionally, on the Ninja Dog mode, Ayane will give you an Arm Band for free that is identical to each Armlet. a. Sun Armlet/Band of Power - Increase attack power by 20%. b. Moon Armlet/Band of Protection - Decreases damage by 20%. c. Fortune Armlet/Band of Spirit - Double the Ninpo Essence absorbed. d. Potency Armlet/Band of Strength- Increases the strength of kick and throw techniques appreciably. This combined with the Nunchaku/ Flail makes for a very nice combination, and the weapon of choice for a bunch of different encounters. e. Benediction Armlet/Band of Wealth - Increases Yellow Essence absorbtion by 20%. f. Celerity Armlet/Band of Light - Decreases the time needed to charge either an ET/UT by a one second. This may sound totally useless, but it is suprisingly useful for a bunch of scenarios that crop up on Master Ninja Mode, I've found. 13. Removal of Intercept - This was the biggest balancing done after the Hurricane Packs. For how fun it was to utilize, Intercept made the game a little too easy. I for one, would have liked to see it balanced out (like having the frame window shortened), but it makes for a much more difficult game with its absence. For this reason, I keep my original copy of Ninja Gaiden with save games for the two Hurricane Packs. The lack of Intercept in Ninja Gaiden Black (along with the omission of the original Trilogy), makes the original Ninja Gaiden useful. 14. Jewel of the Spirit Smith - In one of the Missions, you can find an additional Jewel that does not appear in the single player game that will upgrade a weapon one level. 15. Ultimate Technique Death Essence - The game now allows different things to be released by enemies if killed by a UT. In particular, Berzerkers can now release Blue Essence when killed with a UT. 16. Dabilahro Nerfed Slightly - Some strikes no longer Guard Break and Asura Slash has been made much weaker. Additionally, on Master Ninja, many bosses have become immune to it outright. 17. Simultaneous Bosses - Amazingly, the graphics engine allows two simultaneous bosses on screen at the same time. These battles are the most intense single-player gaming experiences that I have ever known. 18. Minions now fight along-side the bosses now in difficulties above Normal. 19. Minions killed by bosses no longer release Essence if the Boss did a majority of the damage to them, since it would presumably go to them anyway. Also, those enemies killed by bosses in this way don't count as kills for you, and they immediately respawn as opposed to waiting for the next cycle. (Thanks to Megla Zero, Spark0, d3licious and provett for this point). 20. New Boss Ai/Moves - Bosses have been tweaked appreciably. There are WAY too many instances to itemize as every single boss has seen some sort of upgrade or new move. 21. WR State Altered - It now only takes under one step to be in WR status. This was changed just slightly from the original game, but it makes WR moves (which are almost always very powerful or state-inducing) much easier to utilize in regular combat. This, combined with the fact that the OL condition won't override attacks where it shouldn't apply, and we have a whole new set of combos to look into. 22. Every enemy upgraded - Above Normal Difficulty, every single enemy was tweaked to AT LEAST possess one Guard Breaking move. Most enemies underwent major revisions. ESSENTIALS ---------- This document has grown to a rather large size, so it seems necessary to summarize the techniques that will get you started on your way to Advanced Combat without having to read the entire thing. Therefore, this section will list the techniques that are required for high-level play. You can use the document find function (Ctrl+F or Edit->Find) to locate the description of the technique listed. 1. instant Block - Ryu is a defensive powerhouse. To the experienced player very few attacks will actually ever connect with him. The instant Block technique is vital to avoiding damage in the game. 2. instant Charge - Ryu's most powerful techniques are usually too time- consuming to pull off mid-encounter. Therefore, the instant Charge state exists. 3. On-Landing - The On-Landing status is unique such that it gives certain moves distinct differences. 4. Auto-Targeting - The Auto-Targeting system of Ninja Gaiden is sublime. As such, it is easy to take it for granted. One should read this section to understand how to determine what enemy you can strike. Aside from the camera, this is the single most misunderstood aspect of the game. 5. Free Form Combos - The bulk of the research done by myself and the people contributing to this document is contained within this section. It outlines many Combo variations that are not readily evident. It is organized by weapon or technique. THIS GAME IS NOT DIAL-A-COMBO. Anyone expressing otherwise is simply stating their own ignorance. 6. Rolling Techniques - It is fairly safe to say that Ryu's defensive options are more important than his offensive options in this game given that he is completely outnumbered almost every step of the way. Consequently, the game designers have made Ryu the most defensively capable game character ever. It is absolutely essential to high-level play to understand the evasive options of this section. 7. Wind Path - One of Ryu's most effective techniques is the Wind Path. It's not altogether obvious that you can turn around in mid-air, post-Wind Path and strike your opponent. This trait makes it an essential tool in the player's arsenal. 8. Enemy Awareness - This concept is two-fold. Both the player and AI awareness are discussed in this section. 9. Projectile Use - While Ryu heavily favors his melee arsenal, projectile use is integral to the game. Do not neglect it. 10. Ninja Gaiden Tribute - In my opinion, this is the single greatest fan fiction project I have ever seen. oasisbeyond.cjb.net Click on the Ninja Gaiden Tribute link either bittorrent or direct download. I cannot recommend this thing enough. If you have even a passing interest in Ninja Gaiden, this movie is 100% NECESSARY. Bear in mind that it is a totally comprehensive spoiler. ----------------- ~~ CONVENTIONS ~~ ----------------- We'll use standard fighting game conventions in this guide as Ryu's arsenal depends greatly upon his orientation to his opponents. Please refer back to this section when perusing the Move List section. General Movement: The directions will follow a numbering system used in fighting games, but altered for the 3D nature of the game. The numbers reflect positions of the joystick in those games, but we alter it for this discussion: 789 456 123 Where 8 represents a jump straight up (A), 7 and 9 represent jumping away from (4+A) and toward (6+A) an opponent, respectively, 1 and 3 represent rolls away from (4+L) and towards (6+L) an opponent respectively, 6 represents regular movement towards his opponent and 4 represents regular movement away from his opponent where 5 represents Neutral position. , - Then: Input right side command after left side command / - Or: Left side command can be substituted with right side command ~ - Quickly: Input right side command very quickly after left side command + - And: Input left side and right side commands at the same time () - Hold: Hold the button longer than a simple tap r - Release: Following Charge, release the button or direction [] - Optional: Commands within brackets are optional 360 - 360 degrees: One whole 360 degree rotation of the left analog stick tap - Merely tap the button ... - Pause before the next command is issued etc... - Et Cetera: Too many options to list after the last command repeat - Repeat: repeat the previous command oscillate - Oscillate: Oscillate between the two listed command charge - Charge Attack: Hold the button used to initiate the command for differing severities. If no digit is provided, any level of charge will do. charge1 - Charge Level 1: Charge the attack just long enough to get out of the standard Y attack, but before the ET level. charge2 - Charge Level 2: Charge the attack long enough to gain ET, but not UT charge3 - Charge Level 3: Charge the attack long enough to gain UT and possibly longer dist - Ryu must be close to the enemy given that distance affects damage in this game. Commands: You can obviously reset your commands to however you want them, but this is the default configuration. X - Light Attack: X Button Y - Heavy Attack: Y Button B - Projectile: B Button A - Jump: A Button R - Reset camera: Right Trigger L - Block: Left Trigger W - Karma Window: White Button K - Map: Black Button S - Inventory: Start RC - Switch Camera Mode - Right-stick Click LC - Switch Encounter Timer - Left-stick Click X+A - Wind Run - X+A Buttons Y+B - Ninpo - Y+B Buttons RW/Roll - Reverse Wind/Roll: L+any direction, Ryu will roll RJ - Roll Jump: Cancel a roll recovery animation with a jump and vice versa RC - Roll Cancel: Cancel recovery, block, stun or attack animation with a Roll JC - Jump Cancel: Cancel roll animation with a jump FPP - First Person Projectile HP - Hurricane Pack Conditions: These designations represent conditions in which Ryu or an enemy can reside. OL - On-Landing: When Ryu contacts the ground after a jump without an attack. OLC - On-Landing Cancel: When Ryu cancels the On-Landing state with a Block. iC - instant Charge: When the Charge animation from a Y attack is skipped due to certain conditions. iCOL - instant Charge On-Landing: Instant Charge gained from an On-Landing condition. Now that there are two ways to achieve iC, this term is no longer redundant. iB - instant Block: Instantaneous block mid-combo w/o the transition animation. IA - In Air: Ryu must be in the air and not currently attacking. lIA - little In Air: Same as IA, but is not capable of granting OL. WR - While Running: Ryu must be running or a run must be buffered. iWR - instant While Running: WR condition can be buffered by jump/Wind Path. WB - While Blocking: Used in Counter Attacking, enemy must strike a blocking Ryu. WP - Wind Path: Successfully Wind Path off of an enemy, stunning them, when only WP is designated, either vWP or hWP will suffice. Whenever Ryu is IA, you can press A over an enemy, and you will Wind Path off of them. vWP - Vertical Wind Path: Wind Path off of an enemy by jumping straight up. hWP - Horizontal Wind Path: Wind Path off of an enemy by jumping at them. BS - Block Stun: The simple block animation, only keeps the enemy from attacking. GB/BREAK - Guard Break: When either Ryu's or an enemy's block is defeated. GC/CRUSH - Guard Crush: When an large enemy's attack is interrupted, and when Ryu is Guard Broken with damage received, Guard Crush does not imply Guard Breaking. NINC - Ninpo Canceling: Using a Ninpo to cancel the entire recovery of moves. STEPC - Step Canceling: Using a Nudge to cancel the recovery of the DS/ Kitetsu WR X, as soon as the X comes out, you must quickly return the stick to Neutral and then quickly move the stick back to forward. NEAR - Near an enemy. NEARWALL - Near a wall. DOWN - Near a downed enemy. LEVELG - Level Ground: Ryu must perform this over level ground. WINDRUN - Wind Run: X+A, Ryu's auto-homing, jump attack. Now has PHANTOM status. WALLCLING - Wall Clinging: Ryu must cling to the wall without running. WALLRUN - Wall Running: Ryu must be wall running for certain properties to be applicable, when only WP is designated, either vWallRun or hWallRun will suffice. vWALLRUN - vertical Wall Running: Ryu will run straight up a wall. hWALLRUN - horizontal Wall Running: Ryu will run along the wall. cWALLRUN - Ceiling Wall Running: Ryu can run across the ceiling briefly. BEHIND - The enemy is directly behind Ryu. LEFT - The enemy is slightly to Ryu's left side. RIGHT - The enemy is slightly to Ryu's right side. PHANTOM - Ryu will leave a Phantom image of himself behind. This usually indicates some frames of invincibility. Ryu perfects this ability later in life when he can summon two identical Phantoms that will obey his movement and attack commands (although he hasn't mastered this technique in this game). LOWH - Low Health: Ryu has very low health, and his health bar is flashing red. DELAY - Delay: Denotes when a strike must be delayed, the frame window is extremely small. Requirements: These designations appear immediately after the name of the move and describe its requirements. Lvl# - Weapon Level: Designates at which level the move is available Scroll - Scroll Technique: Technique is gained via scroll # Essence - The number of Yellow Essence Orbs needed to activate a move DS - Dragon Sword PS - Plasma Sword Nun - Nunchaku Lunar - Lunar Bo Flail - Vigoorian Flail Kit - Kitetsu WarHammer - War Hammer Dabi - Dabilahro TDS - True Dragon Sword PSM2 - Plasma Sword Mk. II UF - Unlabored Flawlessness DDB - Dark Dragon Blade Shuriken - Shuriken Windmill - Windmill Shuriken Incendiary - Incendiary Shuriken Bow - Bow SBow - Strong Bow APFS - APFSDS Arrows Expl - Explosive Arrows Smoke - Smoke Bombs Ninpo - Any Ninpo Art must be selected Firewheel - Art of Firewheel must be your selected Ninpo IceStorm - Art of Ice Storm must be your selected Ninpo Inferno - Art of Inferno must be your selected Ninpo Inazuma - Art of Inazuma must be your selected Ninpo Izuna - You must have acquired the Izuna Drop scroll Counter - You must have acquired the Counter Attack Scroll Guillotine - You must have acquired the Guillotine Throw Scroll Sun - Armlet of the Sun Moon - Armlet of the Moon Benediction - Armlet of Benediction Fortune - Armlet of Fortune Tranquility - Armlet of Tranquility Celerity - Armlet of Celerity Potency - Armlet of Potency All - You can do this move with any weapon SMALL - Small Enemy: Small enemies. See Enemy Types Section. REG - Regular Enemy: Regular enemies. See Enemy Types Section. LARGE - Large Enemy: Large enemies. See Enemy Types Section. BOSS - Boss Enemy: Boss-type enemy. See Enemy Types Section. D: - Denotes the damage in number of hit points (#,#) - Denotes that an input accounts for more than one strike Properties: These designations follow the commands of a move and describe its affects. BLOCK - Block Stun: The inability for an enemy to attack back while defending against Ryu's onslaught. Many different animations for differing Block Stuns exist for both Ryu and enemies. This does not mean that they cannot evade. HIT - Hit Stun: The inability for an enemy to attack back while being struck by Ryu. Many different animations exist for the different ways in which Ryu can strike an opponent and vice versa. Hit Stun denotes the generic animation with no other special properties. This is assumed for a successful hit, so it is never denoted except in discussion. This does not imply Guard Break. One of the most obvious signs of polish in this game is how many different animations every creature has for the different ways of being hit or being killed. STAGGER - Stagger Stun: A longer Hit Stun where the enemy either falls backwards slightly or doubles over in pain. This usually means that the opponent will not be able to dodge or block the next hit. This does not imply Guard Break. Applies to Ryu as well. BREAK - Guard Break: Break the block of a regular, blocking opponent for long enough to Ryu to strike them and induce HIT, a different animation and property from a Block Stun. Applies to Ryu as well as noted in the Conditions section. CLEAR - Clear Away: Knock Regular enemies away. Applies to Ryu as well as noted in the Conditions section. Does not imply Guard Break. rCLEAR - reverse Clear Away: Knock Regular enemies towards the attacker. Applies to Ryu as well as noted in the Conditions section. Does not imply Guard Break. MULTI - Multiple Opponent: This move will strike multiple opponents. Ryu's strikes will always register damage with whatever is in the way, but moves with this property are obviously designed to strike multiple opponents simultaneously. THROW - Denotes a move where Ryu captures the enemy in some way and throws them. Applies to Ryu as well as noted in the Conditions section. DECAP - Denotes a move will decapitate regular enemies if their health is low. DEAD - Denotes a move that will kill or decapitate regular enemies with full health, also used to designate dead body. REC - Recovery: An attack that causes significant recovery time, however, you can usually still iB or Ninpo Cancel. However, in the case of Flying Swallow, the recovery for that move is TOTALLY uncancelable. ET - Essence Technique: A Y attack were a single Yellow Essence is used to activate the move. You can also achieve this state by simply charging whatever move long enough. UT - Ultimate Technique: Depending upon the level of the weapon, the most devastating Essence attack, unblockable by many enemies. It requires either 2 Yellow Essence or a single Blue or Red. You can achieve this state simply by charging it long enough as well. lLAUNCH - little Launch: Enemies will be launched into the air, but not long enough to be attacked, however, they will still be placed in GROUND state when they land. LAUNCH - Regular enemies will be launched into the air long enough to be attacked. SELFLAUNCH - Both Ryu and any enemies will be launched into air. ABSORB - Life Force Transferal: Ryu will absorb the life force of the enemy. Applies to some enemies as well. PROJ - Projectile: Ryu will throw the weapon, and it can return to him. Applies to some enemies as well. JF - Just Frame: The move must be input in a certain frame window. BEHIND - Behind an Enemy: The enemy must be behind Ryu. GROUND - Grounding Knockdown: Regular enemies will be knocked down instantly. Ryu will return to the ground as well if IA. SPIN - Spin Stun: Regular, non-blocking/Guard Broken enemies will be spun around, unable to attack momentarily. Applies to Ryu as well. CRUMPLE - Crumple Stun: Regular non-blocking/Guard Broken enemies will be stunned briefly before dropping to their knees, with certain moves, they will be spun. Applies to Ryu as well as noted in the Conditions section. WSTUN - Wall Stun: When you throw or hit an enemy into a wall, they will be stunned appropriately. Applies to Ryu as well. WPSTUN - Wind Path Stun: Every regular enemy has two unique Wind Path Stun animations, most Large enemies have one, and a few bosses do as well, when only WPSTUN is designated, either vWPSTUN or hWPSTUN will suffice. vWPSTUN - Vertical Wind Path Stun: When Ryu jumps straight up and Wind Paths off of an enemy, you will get vertical Wind Path Stun. hWPSTUN - horizontal Wind Path Stun: When Ryu jumps at an enemy and Wind Paths off of them and continues his forward momentum, you will get horizontal Wind Path Stun. PARRY - Parry: Some enemies have the ability to parry Ryu's attack and render them harmless. This also introduces a unique PARRY stun to Ryu. He must cancel either by, ROLLC, NINC, etc... LOCK - Weapon Lock: Causes Ryu and his opponent to lock each others' weapons. PROT - Protection: Ryu is granted some sort of Protection during the attack frames of this move, but is not totally Invincible. This usually means that either Ryu can't be knocked out of the move, but can still register damage or vice versa, but not both. INV - Invincible: Ryu is TOTALLY Invincible during the attack frames of this move. CH - Counter Hit: When either Ryu or an enemy is hit during an attack animation. This will frequently change the status and/or damage inflicted by the strike. DIST - Distance: Some moves (like Flying Swallow) will register more damage if they are started closer to Ryu. BURROW - Burrowing: Some Fiends can burrow under the ground making themselves invincible. BT - Back-turned: There many instances where an enemy is MUCH more vulnerable in the rear than it is from its flank. In these scenarios, the enemy either has a specific way to attack Ryu from a BT status, or they won't be able to Block the next hit. It's usually very difficult to induce a BT status, but it is almost always very beneficial. Unblockable - There are a couple of techniques in the game that are totally unblockable by Ryu, and some that Ryu possess that enemies will not be able to Block as well. Both the enemy and Ryu must do their best to avoid the attack rather than block it. AREA - Area Affect: A technique, Ninpo or projectile that will affect an area around the intended target. CONF - Confusion: An enemy will be confused. ------------------ ~~ BASIC COMBAT ~~ ------------------ Basic Combat Technique is the way of playing where you are simply capable of utilizing the canned combos, infrequently implementing projectiles and relying heavily upon Ninpo. Team Ninja has implemented many fighting game ideas (Buffering, On-Landing, proximity, move interruption, cancellation, etc) to accommodate those of us who like to show a bit of flair when dealing with the enemies. Additionally, Basic Combat entails the ability to simply block and roll out of the way of obvious incoming attacks and manually re-orienting Ryu mid-combo to face enemies in his vicinity. The purpose of this document is to expand upon these basic techniques as Ninja Gaiden has without a doubt the most complex and gratifying combat engine in any action game. Successfully beating the game is not as important or enjoyable as using Ryu as diversely as possible. It is just as impressive watching Ryu skillfully avoid damage as it is inflicting it. BASIC COMBAT OVERVIEW --------------------- The Basic Combat Engine is detailed in the manual and in the in-game menu. Ryu has the ability to use an immense cache of techniques even starting out in the game. Offensively, he has a literal encyclopedia of moves and canned combos and magic techniques. Defensively, he can Block, instantly jump and/or roll in any direction, Wall Run, Wall Stick, Flip, Counter Attack. When engaged in a combo, Ryu can point himself in the direction of any attack and instantly orient the next blow in that direction. All of these things can be considered beginning techniques. One cannot hope to finish this game without first grasping these inherent abilities as button mashing will not get you very far. Indeed, Murai seems designed specifically to counteract button- mashers. ENEMY TYPES ----------- There are four different classifications of enemies as far as the hit properties of the Combat Engine are concerned. The classifications are small, regular, large and boss. 1. Small - These enemies are almost always harmless. It usually only takes one hit from any weapon to kill them. They are utilized in the game solely for the purpose of generating Essence. Small enemies include Bats and Crows, but unfortunately, Ancient Phantom Fish and Exploding Bats are members of this category as well. 2. Regular - Regular enemies comprise the bulk of the encounters in the game. These enemies are roughly human-sized and all of the hit properties talked about in this document apply to them. They can be easily Thrown, Launched, Guard Broken, Spin Stunned, Crumple Stunned, Grounded, Decapitated, etc. When referencing a Combo listed in this document, it will always work with a regular enemy, but not necessarily with a large one. Regular enemies include SATs, Imps, Soldiers, Ninjas, etc. 3. Large - Large enemies consist of a different constitution altogether. They cannot easily be Thrown, Launched, etc. However, there are specific moves or series of moves with each weapon that can induce almost every property onto almost every large enemy. But, in most cases, it is very difficult to do so. If a move is listed as having a Guard Break property, that will almost never affect a large enemy. Large enemies include Gallas, Ogres, Evolved Imps, etc. 4. Boss - Boss enemies have a totally different set of rules from the other three classes. Typically, you cannot do any of the afore-mentioned properties although, you can still sometimes Wind Path and Weapon Lock them. To induce any sort of Stun usually requires the use of a specific move or a large amount of damage. WEAPON DISCUSSION ----------------- Every move in the game has some use. The combos in particular are very specifically designed, and I will discuss this in the next section. Likewise, the weapons serve particular purposes. Every weapon is fairly balanced and has very specific strengths and weaknesses. Of course, the Nunchaku and Wooden Sword are the weakest, while the Dragon Sword is the most well rounded and the Unlabored Flawlessness is the strongest in certain scenarios and the Dark Dragon Blade has the strongest UT on a single opponent. 1. Classes - There are three classes of the melee weapons: One-Handed, Light Two-Handed and Heavy Two-Handed and two classes of projectile weapons: One- Handed and Two-Handed. The One-Handed weapons include the Dragon Sword, Kitetsu and the Wooden Sword. With these weapons, you can Shuriken Interrupt during almost any Combo Section, and Ryu will quickly return the weapon to its scabbard (with the appropriate animation). Likewise, he has a unique walking, running and nudging animation while brandishing the weapon. Light Two-Handed Weapons include the Nunchaku, Flail and Lunar. Like the One-Handed Weapons, Ryu does not need to return the weapon to his back after every combo or before he can move. As such, there are unique movement animations for these weapons as well. However, you cannot Shuriken Interrupt combos with these weapons for the most part, since both of Ryu's hands are occupied most of the time. Heavy Two-Handed Weapons must be returned to his back before Ryu can do anything after a Strike or Combo. The One-Handed Projectile Weapons include Shuriken, Windmill Shuriken, and Incendiary Shuriken. The Two-Handed Projectile Weapons include the Bow, Strong Bow, APFSDS and Explosive Arrows. One-Handed Projectile Weapons can be used mid-combo with the One-Handed and Light Two-Handed Melee Weapons and they can be utilized in the air. Two-Handed Projectile Weapons cannot, though you can aim them in the First Person with two levels of zoom. Smoke Bombs do not really fit into either of these categories as they are not projectiles. 2. One-Handed Melee Weapons: The weapons are based upon the Katana and as such Ryu employs many strikes that are related to the Bushido style of Samurai combat. Ninjas weren't usually known to have such quality weapons, as most employed the much shorter (and many times lower-quality) Ninja-To (which neither Ryu nor any of the other Ninjas in the game wield). Dragon Sword - This weapon has the most abundant move list. It also possesses the most hidden techniques and serviceable combos as you can see in the Free Form Combos section. However, one of its UT's is only useful against either launchable or very tall single enemies whereas many other UT's are far more useful and do not require contact with an enemy for activation. To make up for this, the DS is the only weapon with two separate UT's. Kitetsu - Every game needs a trick weapon, and the Kitetsu fits this description nicely. Once you offset the life leaching with the Tranquility Armlet or appropriate upgrade level, this weapon becomes extremely enjoyable to use. You get Life Absorption, Weapon Projectile, Excessive Decapitation, Flying Swallow, Izuna Drop, etc... It's not as useful as the True Dragon Sword, but its flashiness makes up for this in spades. Also, it magically splits into two phantom swords with many of its moves. Here is another great little tip from timebomb13rob on the GameFAQ's board: "We all know if have the Kitetsu and the Armlet of Tranquility armed your health bar won't diminish or increase. But, if you use a Ninpo like the IceStorm, Inazuma or Inferno (but not Firewheel) during the animation your bar will increase like if Ryu didn't have the Kitetsu equipped. Wooden Sword - The Wooden Sword is a place holder until you get the Unlabored Flawlessness. As such, there is offensive reason to ever utilize this weapon. This weapon is only good for placing restrictions upon your play-style. That is, if you want the game to be as difficult as possible, you will utilize the Wooden Sword exclusively. It cannot Decap and nor does it have any ET/UT's or Azure Dragon for that matter. 3. Light Two-Handed Melee Weapons: These weapons are largely based upon the 5 systematized weapons of Kobudo. In Feudal Japan, it was illegal for a commoner to brandish a bladed weapon like a Katana. The Okinawans cleverly converted their farming implements into weapons that could pass as mere tools. These weapons were the Nunchaku, Bo, Kama, Tonfa and Sai. The Kama and Nunchaku are represented by the Vigoorian Flail and Nunchaku, the Lunar represents the Bo while the Samurai Mages wield Sai. Only the Tonfa is absent from the game. Nunchaku - The sole purpose for this weapon is Combo generation. The low damage and lack of decapitation allows you to rack up ridiculous combos if you're shooting for Essence (in the HP at least). If you equip the regular Shuriken as well, you can rack up 100 Hit combos very easily only using three enemies. You can get much more use out of the Nunchaku in the difficulties above Normal. You only attain the Flail in some of the difficulties after you collect so many Scarabs while you start off with the Nunchaku. Therefore, you might never get the Flail and will have to contend with this weapon instead. Regardless, it is very useful up until the point where you can gain the Flail. Vigoorian Flail - No significant launching ability really balances this weapon out. Its Flying Swallow derivative Red-Hot Iron Brand is actually much safer than Flying Swallow given its options. High combo generation is key to this weapon as well, and it excessively DECAPs which could either be a positive aspect or a detriment depending upon what you're trying to accomplish. Lunar - This weapon is somewhat of a combination of the One-Handed and Light Two-Handed varieties. Like the other Light Two-Handed weapons, the combo ability of this weapon is extremely high while it suffers in damage ability. Unlike all other weapons (other than the Wooden Sword), this is the only weapon that gains the DECAP feature once it is leveled up. Unlike the other Light Two-Handed Weapons, you can both Launch and Self-Launch with this weapon. 4. Heavy Two-Handed Melee Weapons: These weapons are very much opposed to Asian weapon philosophy of succinct, portable and agile construction. They are much more representative of medieval European weaponry. War Hammer - This is arguably the least useful of the two-handed weapons, but does have some unique properties. The best is the 360 degree UT and the Six Paths Spin throw. Obviously, damage is very high at the cost of slow startup and recovery, although Ninpo Canceling can offset this somewhat. A one-Hit kill Counter Attack is very useful. However, there is no Launching (Self or otherwise), and no Shuriken Interrupting. It is by far the cheapest two-handed weapon, so those that aren't able to farm up enough Essence can still get a fully upgraded Heavy Two-Handed weapon for only 5000 Essence (since you pick up this weapon by free at the beginning of Chapter 8). Not bad. Dabilahro - This weapon is extremely powerful. It has the same drawbacks as the War Hammer, but it also has the problem of a linear UT. However, Flaming Hell Slash is arguably the safest and most damaging technique in the game. Although, it was nerfed slightly in damage and protection in this version because of this. It is the most expensive weapon in the game to upgrade aside from the Unlabored Flawlessness. It is a bit unbalanced, though, with the Asura Slash. Unlabored Flawlessness - This is the best weapon in the game for the skillful. Its usefulness has been lessened greatly given the stingy Essence engine and throw happy enemies now. Forest Winds and Mountain Fires at 5% health and Sun Armlet will kill most enemies with one use. Likewise Flying Dragon Falling Slash with the same situation will decimate most bosses. Plus, you get an Izuna Drop with this weapon. Its UT is very powerful against multiple opponents, but there is more powerful Technique against singular ones. Spear Gun - A projectile weapon that Ryu utilizes both underwater and on land. It has no Combos, and has the additional restriction of not being able to Block while armed with it. Dark Dragon Blade - Depending upon what difficulty you are playing this game at, you get this weapon in different ways. Regardless, it is free in both approaches although a significant amount of work is necessary in either approach. Given this, it is an interesting choice of a weapon. At first glance, it is not all that powerful, as it is the Sealed Version of the Blade. This would explain why you don't get all the techniques that the Dark Disciple can utilize. Regardless, there are four things that make it worthwhile: it's free, it EXCESSIVELY Guard Breaks; more so than any other weapon, its UT is the most damaging in the game against one opponent, it has the most differentiation of regular Y attacks of any other weapon. Aside from these things, it also is the only weapon that leaves a black trail, and it glows purple. So, aesthetically, it is a cool choice as well. 5. One-Handed Projectile Weapons: Shuriken - Ryu starts off with these weapons, and has an infinite amount of them. Given their extremely low damage, their usefulness could be questioned. However, they are extremely useful for Combo generation, enemy interruption, distancing and canceling. Windmill Shuriken - Ryu may attain this weapon for free in Chapter 4. Given the fact that you can use this weapon infinitely, it is the projectile weapon of choice. Its damage is significant and can cause DECAPs. However, you cannot throw this is as many different ways as you can the regular shuriken. Incendiary Shuriken - This weapon can not only destroy enemies very quickly, but also can give Ryu access to areas by destroying walls. It has the same limitations of the Windmill Shuriken. 6. Two-Handed Projectile Weapons: Bow - Ryu gains this weapon in Chapter 2. While you cannot Combo with it, it is extremely strong and can kill some enemies in one hit. Strong Bow - Ryu can trade his Bow for this weapon in Chapter 8. The arc of the arrow's path is removed given the strength of the weapon. APFSDS Cores - Armored Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot arrows are capable of penetrating hardened targets like Tanks and Helicopters as well as being able to penetrate multiple "soft" targets (i.e. humans) in a row. Explosive Arrows - The have an area affect that makes them very useful for taking out clustered enemies. 7. Smoke Bombs: These unique "Projectiles" really aren't projectiles at all. Ryu drops it at his feat and proceeds to Reverse Wind away. They cannot be utilized IA. This weapon gives you a temporary reprieve from enemy onslaughts, once dispensed. It is the only purely defensive weapon in the game. If you deploy them appropriately, enemies will become confused and target the smoke cloud instead. You can dispense them in the same scenarios as One-Handed Projectiles, but you there are many Two-Handed Projectile Weapon restrictions placed upon it them well. See the Advanced Combat Section for more details. 8. "Useless" Weapons: There are no useless weapons in the game. Every weapon, no matter how weak, is effective when you first acquire it at least . In many cases, the "superior" version of the weapon is either prohibitively expensive, or unlocked via Scarabs. Therefore, those that play the game without Scarab Hunting or Essence Farming can still enjoy a wide variety of offensive options. The only exception to this is the Wooden Sword. However, the more hardcore Ninja Gaiden fans have elected to complete the game using only the Wooden Sword as a sort of zen-like mastery of the game. NINPO DISCUSSION ---------------- Ryu has the ability to utilize four types of Ninpo throughout the game. There is a fairly undocumented feature in the game that makes Ninpo use not as simple as it initially seems. A large amount of moves can be instantly cancelled using Ninpo. In particular the slower Two-Handed Melee Weapon Techniques can be totally cancelled with Ninpo. The lack of animation in the canceling in some instances can be explained away by Ninja Magic as well. This allows for a saving grace in many instances where Ryu has misjudged an action. Each Ninpo in the game serves a fairly particular purpose. 1. Art of Firewheel - While the Firewheel does not make you invincible like the other Ninpo, you do have the ability to actually move around during its execution while being VERY well protected. Unfortunately, you can never upgrade this Art. Each time you touch an enemy with Firewheel, it does 33 points of damage, and in the case of REG enemies, they are CLEARed away. You are invincible in the startup frames, however. 2. Art of Inferno - This is arguably the most damaging of the Ninpo. You have the ability to aim the fireball as well. The explosion is an area affect, so you can take out clustered enemies. Some enemies are either partially or totally unaffected by this technique. 3. Art of Ice Storm - Ice Storm allows you to rack up huge combos and increase your Essence Generation. It is especially useful against three or more ground-based enemies, since each hit on each enemy counts as an additional hit. The damage done is not significant when compared to Inazuma or Inferno, however, so this Art has its place. 4. Art of Inazuma - Inazuma is the safest and easiest Ninpo to use. It auto- targets all surrounding enemies and strikes them instantaneously. Unfortunately, it is not the strongest Ninpo in the game, and some enemies are either partially or totally unaffected by this technique. 5. Summary - Keep in mind that many bosses are simply immune or have 100% effective defenses to one or all of the Ninpo types. There doesn't seem to be any silly, contrived way to determine if a particular Ninpo will be ineffective towards any single boss (like use Fire on Ice enemies). Lastly, its interesting to note that Ryu has command over 4 elements in-game (water, wind, fire and electricity), yet he commands control over Earth as well as demonstrated with the fight with Vigoor's First form. AUTO-TARGETING -------------- Apparently, there is also some confusion on how Ninja Gaiden handles the targeting of enemies. Obviously, there is some system in place, but some people have incorrectly surmised that the game is totally dependent upon auto-targeting the closest enemy. This is not true at all. The system in place is much more complex, but at the same time, user-friendly. Ninja Gaiden employs a user-controllable, auto-lockon system. There is no button that makes Ryu lock-on to an enemy, and neither is there an on-screen indicator. However, Ryu will actually look at the enemy that is auto- targeted. He'll turn his head appropriately in all directions. If the enemy is behind him, he'll look as far as he can to whatever side the enemy is closest. Even if the enemy is burrowing in the case of Imps, Ryu's head and eyes will follow the enemy while underground. The system is always on. The way that it works is that the game will auto-target the closest, offensive enemy. By offensive, the game means the closest enemy that is attacking or not Grounded, Burrowing or Dead. Even though this system is in effect, it is user-overridable at any time, so should you want to continue to juggle that dead body lying on the ground rather than striking the alive and attacking enemy standing right next to you, you have this choice. This is a fact. You can be surrounded by a group of enemies and can re-orient Ryu to whatever enemy in whatever stage in his combo. The only time this will not work is if the enemy is out of melee range (although shuriken aiming will still work). The only exception to this rule is that some combos need to be Combo Broken in order to branch. Combo Breaks are performed with the Block button. Example: Stand outside the Stairway to the Imperial Gates where the Imps will respawn in groups forever as long as you leave the area after the last one is defeated. Select any Shuriken, and stand right in the middle. The Imps will most likely surround you, so jump up in the air and push a direction along with B. You can pick which one in range to throw it at. Likewise, if you are grounded and have a Fiend in front of you and in back of you, you can X the enemy in front, and then immediately, 6+Y the enemy behind you. If you're in the air, you can X, X the enemy that you juggled and turn away from him and Helmet Splitter a enemy underneath you. If you've got your Inferno going, you can point in the direction of the enemy that you want to hit. The camera won't change until the Fireball actually comes out, but you have control over it. It defaults to the closest enemy that is currently offensive (i.e. attacking, not dead, grounded or burrowing), but you have control over it at all times as long as the enemy is in range. Also, you can combo break all combos with a press of the L trigger, so if you are in the middle of Cremator, you can switch to Dragon and Phoenix. In most cases, the appropriate animation must still finish, however. The only weapon that doesn't allow you to do the Auto-Targeting override is the Bow, since moving the stick in a direction puts in FPS mode. However, if you simply align yourself with an enemy before you hit B, you will target that enemy in most cases such that the input would look like 6(5), B instead of 6+B. Those that detract from the combat system of Ninja Gaiden are simply either unwilling or unable to explore the depths of the combat options available to you. No game currently released gives you as many options concurrently and is as capable of forcing you to realize those options as this game on the highest difficulties. WEAPON DIFFERENTIATION ---------------------- One of the not-so-obvious facets of the Combat Engine is just how different all of the weapons (much less the attacks) are from one another. This section will attempt to delineate the differences. As stated before there are the three classes of melee weapons: One-Handed, Light and Heavy Two-Handed. But, it may not be so obvious why one would use the War Hammer over the Dabilahro, or why one would use the Nunchaku at all. This section will explain this. See the Weapon Discussion section above for definitions of the weapon classes. 1. One-Handed vs. Two-Handed - The Dragon Sword, Plasma Saber, the Wooden Sword and Kitetsu are considered the One-Handed Melee weapons, even though Ryu uses both hands for a good amount of the attacks. Regardless, it would be possible to wield the Dragon Sword, Plasma Saber and Kitetsu with one hand effectively whereas the rest of the weapons would be fairly useless. This is the distinction. The practical differences between the One-Handed and Two-Handed Weapons are four-fold. The One-Handed weapons are very well rounded while the Two-Handed Weapons (both the Light and Heavy varieties) are for the most part specialized to a specific role. While the One-Handed weapons dish out average damage and average strike number, the Two-Handed Weapons specialize in either Combo generation in the case of the Light Two-Handed Weapons or damage generation in the case of the Heavy Two-Handed Weapons. In both cases of the Two-Handed weapons, a specialization in one area means a lack of prowess in the other (combo vs. damage). The second difference between the One-Handed and Two-Handed Weapons lies in the usage of projectiles. Ryu is MUCH more capable of deploying projectile weapons while utilizing the One-Handed Weapons. While he is still able to utilize them mid-combo with the Light Two-Handed weapons, the usage is restricted when compared to the Dragon Sword/Plasma Saber, Wooden Sword and Kitetsu. Conversely, Ryu cannot really use projectiles at all mid-combo when using the Heavy Two-Handed Weapons. The third difference is that the One-Handed Weapons have a very nice aerial repertoire while the Two-Handed Weapons are relegated to ground use largely. The One-Handed Weapons are both able to inflict LAUNCH and SELFLAUNCH and at the same time stay suspended in the air longer to deal with those foes that have just been launched. At the most, Two-Handed Weapons have lLAUNCH. See the Basic Combat Overview for definitions of theses statuses. The Lunar and Unlabored Flawlessness are the exceptions of this rule as will be described below. The fourth difference is in the walking and running animations. Ryu can walk or run with both the One-Handed and Light Two-Handed Weapons unsheathed for a time. There are separate idle, standing, walking, nudging, climbing and running animations for every weapon in between the two classes. But, the Heavy Two-Handed weapons must be returned to Ryu's back before he can move around. So, if one is attempting to determine which type of weapon is most suitable, the answer is determined by what kind of role is desired. Does one want to be specialized or well-rounded? 2. Light Two-Handed vs. Heavy Two-Handed - As touched upon above, the Light Two-Handed Weapons are used to generate high combos while Heavy Two-Handed Weapons are used to generate high damage. To compliment each other, the Light Two-Handed Weapons don't generate a lot of damage with each strike, and the Heavy Two-Handed Weapons aren't capable of large Combos. So, if your aim is to complete the game as quickly as possible, but still kill enemies, you would most likely elect to use the Two-Handed Weapons. If, however, you are going for Combo Count and Essence Generation, then the Light Two-Handed Weapons should be your focus. Secondly, the UT's of the Light Two-Handed Weapons are autocombo attacks whereas every UT for the Heavy Two-Handed Weapons (aside from the Dark Dragon Blade) is a single, extremely damaging attack. 3. Dragon Sword vs. Kitetsu - The Dragon Sword/Plasma Saber is the utilitarian weapon of the game while the Kitetsu is the "trick" weapon. As described in the Weapon Discussion sections, the Kitetsu has the most status effecting attacks in the whole game, and even some statuses are unique to Kitetsu alone. While, it may seem obvious then, to use Kitetsu exclusively, there are two balances for the weapon in regards to the comparison between it and the Dragon Sword/Plasma Saber. However, there are even balances to those balances. The Level 3 Dragon Sword/Plasma Saber have similar damage statistics to the Kitetsu. So, before you gain the True Dragon Sword, the damage between the two weapons is fairly interchangeable. However, this is balanced out by the fact that Kitetsu slowly drains Ryu's life (even though it won't kill you). This unfortunate side effect can be offset in two ways. You can either acquire the Armlet of Tranquility, or you can judiciously employ Soul Bind into your gameplay. Once you upgrade Kitetsu, this hinderance is eliminated as well. However, once you have acquired the True Dragon Sword/Plasma Saber Mk. II, Ryu's ultimate weapon is more powerful with single strikes. Again, this is still balanced out by the fact that Kitetsu's UT is more useful than the True Dragon Sword's UT. 4. War Hammer vs. Dabilahro - At Levels 1 and 2, the War Hammer is much more useful than the Dabilahro given Steel Severer and Six Paths Spin. These two moves all by themselves make the weapon useful. See the In-depth Move Discussion section on why this is so. However, if you have the funds, the Level 3 Dabilahro is a very efficient killing machine, and the War Hammer becomes much less attractive. But, given the fact that you can achieve a fully capable, Level 2 War Hammer for just 5000 Essence in total (given the in every scenario the War Hammer is free), it should be plain to see how useful the weapon is, even aside from the unique moves. 5. Nunchaku vs. Flail - The Nunchaku and Flail are very similar at Level 1. At Level 2, you get some very unique techniques with the Flail, whereas it is impossible to upgrade the Nunchaku. Depending upon which difficulty of the game you are playing the Nunchaku have VERY different levels of usefulness. On every difficulty above Normal, you get the Nunchaku at the beginning of the game and thus, WAY before the Flail, whereas on Normal, their retrievals are but 1 or 2 Chapters apart. Indeed if you forgo the collection of Scarabs altogether, you might NEVER acquire the Flail on some of the difficulties. In this case, the Nunchaku is very useful for a LARGE portion of the game. Oddly enough, on Master Ninja, the first Chapter seems designed for you to use the Nunchaku. I simply have not had an easier time of the first Chapter than when I'm using the Nunchaku. The Nunchaku are incapable of DECAP whereas the Flail excessively DECAPs. If one is attempting to keep the enemies around longer, and therefore keep their Combo Count up, then the Nunchaku are a much better choice. Aside from this, though, the Flail is the clear choice. 6. Lunar vs. All - The Lunar is somewhat of a combination of all of the Weapon Classes even though it is placed into the Light Two-Handed Weapon classification. Unlike other Two-Handed Weapons (aside from the Unlabored Flawlessness), the Lunar has lLAUNCH, LAUNCH and SELFLAUNCH capabilities. It is still hampered by the Two-Handed Weapon projectile use limitation, however. Aside from this, the Lunar is also the only weapon that gains DECAP ability throughout its lifespan (aside from the Unlabored Flawlessness). The Lunar only gains the LAUNCH and SELFLAUNCH properties at Level 3, however. At this point, in the game, most of the other weapons are extremely useful as well. But, regardless, the ability of a high Combo Count generating weapon to inflict LAUNCH and SELFLAUNCH statuses is very attractive. 7. Unlabored Flawlessness vs. All - The Unlabored Flawlessness and Wooden Sword gain a damage bonus inversely proportional to Ryu's health. Therefore, whenever Ryu is low on life, the damage for both of these weapons increases appreciably. This is a totally unique property in the game. In the original game, the Unlabored Flawlessness was without a doubt the best weapon in the game. A person with high skill could easily breeze through the rest of the game upon retrieval of this weapon. However, this was balanced out by the fact that it was (and actually still is) prohibitively expensive, and you have to be at very low life to utilize it to its full potential. In the later difficulties, the usefulness of the Unlabored Flawlessness was truncated severely. This was done in two ways. First, every single enemy in the game was given at least one move that was unable to be Counter Attacked. Secondly, the bosses' resiliances to the effects of the UF were increased dramatically. 8. Unlabored Flawlessness vs. Dark Dragon Blade vs. Dabilahro - Most people believe that the Dark Dragon Blade is useless given the presence of the Dabilahro and how difficult it is to acquire. This is not necessarily the case. The Dark Dragon Blade's unique property is that it BREAKs excessively. Secondly, the UT for it is arguably the most useful in the game. And for those that aren't adept at keeping a low level of life for the Unlabored Flawlessness to function properly, the Dark Dragon Blade is a final alternative. 9. Dragon Sword vs. Nunchaku vs. Lunar - With the arrival of Black, everyone's approach to Ninja Gaiden changes 100%. It is impossible to complete Ninja Gaiden Black using the same strategies as is utilized in the original Ninja Gaiden. That is covered in more detail later in this guide, but the biggest cause of this is the fact that you basically start the game with 3 weapons. While you technically have to acquire the Lunar, that happens so quickly in succession (10 minutes into the game) that it is as good as starting with it outright. At Level 1, these three weapons are ENTIRELY different and serve entirely different, yet complimentary purposes. In the Dragon Sword, you again have versatility and launching, in the Nunchaku you have protection and speed, and in the Lunar you have reach and power (the fact that you can pull off a Raven Streams on Chapter 1 is almost an unbalancing advantage). Throughout the game, the Nunchaku quickly begins to lose its luster as the Flail is introduced. The advantage of the Flail is that it is a Light Two- Handed Weapon with a Flying Swallow derivative named Red-Hot Iron Brand (which is actually more useful than Flying Swallow itself to the advanced Ninja Gaiden fan). However, the Dragon Sword and the Lunar progress very similarly in ability throughout the game. There will always be a scenario when a Lunar will be a slightly better choice of weapon that the Dragon Sword or Flail. --------------------- ~~ ADVANCED COMBAT ~~ --------------------- Advanced Combat entails all of those finer details that are not readily apparent without some element of discovery. MOVE RECOVERY ------------- Most of Ryu's moves incorporate some number of frames where he is vulnerable to attack and cannot attack again. You need to be aware of moves that may inflict heavy damage; they also put Ryu at an extreme disadvantage if they miss. The most obvious case of a high risk, high reward move is the Flying Swallow. Some enemies can dodge this attack altogether which will force Ryu into a landing animation where he is completely vulnerable. Learn the disadvantages and vulnerable or cancelable frames of every move. To compensate, you can instant Block from almost every move where Ryu has recovery frames. This will not protect you from Throw moves, though, and you cannot instant Block during the attack frames of a move. To compensate for this, you can usually Ninpo Cancel in these scenarios (although you cannot cancel Flying Swallow at all). COMMAND BUFFERING ----------------- Command Buffering means that you can input the commands for a move during the animation of another move, and it will come out after the previous move has completed. You can buffer all 360 moves in the animation of many other animations. This makes it easier to perform these moves outside of regular circumstances. You can also buffer the WR condition as well as several other conditions. The timing is usually pretty strict such that the spin of the joystick must coincide with the end of the previous move's animation. JUST FRAME ---------- Just Frame is a term borrowed from the fighting game world that means that a command must be input in a certain frame window in the character's animation for it to come out correctly (where a frame equals 1/60th of a second). This does not mean that you can simply mash the buttons to get the technique to come out. To qualify as a Just Frame, the input must be done in the correct window. If it is not, another move will be done, the move simply won't come out, or you will miss out on the benefit of the earliest possible activation. Several moves and many combos rely on this precise timing. The tilde (~) character implies Just Frame as well, as the command must be issued extremely quickly after the previous command or the following move will not come out. AUDIO CUES ---------- Almost every enemy has a death rattle. That is, when you land killing blow, it will instantly give a unique sound that signifies its death. This happens even before you can usually notice its death animation. The significance of this is that if you're battling a particularly troublesome group of enemies, you can instantly determine when it's time to move onto another enemy by the sound the make when they pass on. Additionally, enemies make certain sounds which signal more damaging moves, so you'll be forewarned of the imminent danger. The most obvious examples of this are Smaugan's Flame Wing Attack and Alma's Column Throw. DOWNED ADVANTAGE ---------------- Most regular enemies have a Knockdown state in which they are still vulnerable to Ryu's onslaught. You can hit the prone bodies of enemies with almost everything in Ryu's arsenal aside from a few auto-aiming projectiles. One of the more useful techniques is to perform a Flying Swallow or Red-Hot Iron Brand on a fallen foe. Additionally, you can continually launch, re-launch and combo a dead body for sometime before it explodes in a pool of blood. The only exceptions to this are Masakado and the Doppleganger Fiend. While attacking a dead enemy will usually make you miss your Encounter Time Bonus, it can help you generate additional Essence, or keep you out of harms way of a particularly hard to avoid attack. Some enemies are without a death rattle, unfortunately. As such, it's sometimes a good idea to go for a bit of overkill. An interesting detail is that all enemies have different death animations depending upon how they are killed. Sometimes, they will fly backwards, end over end if killed with a CLEAR move. Sometimes, they will be knocked face first into the dirt if killed with a GROUND move or if they're killed on their feet; stumble backwards. Then, obviously, you have the DECAP death scenario as well as CRUMPLE and the generic death animation. ROLLING TECHNIQUES ------------------ One of the most important techniques in the game is Roll Jumping. Ryu can cancel the recovery animation of a roll (Reverse Wind) with a jump and vice versa. What this means is that he can continually move much faster than regular running by continually rolling then jumping and then rolling again. This technique is called Roll Jumping. You can avoid pretty much every projectile in the game by using controlled versions of this technique. It is absolutely essential to even survive many of the boss encounters in the game, Alma in particular. It is a technique to be mastered, though, as it is simply not a matter of continually pressing roll followed by jump. Ryu must be aimed to effectively defend against the more severe projectiles in the game. Ryu is Invincible during a very small frame window in the roll, too. You can also cancel the recovery animation from a Guard Break/Crush with a roll as well, and then proceed to Roll Jump. Guard Breaks/Crushes happen when a strong enemy hits Ryu with enough force to remove his block and throw his weapon back. While you are vulnerable during this animation, you can cancel it with a roll. Of course, you're vulnerable during some frames of the roll as well. The combination of these two techniques makes Ryu quite a defensive force. ESSENCE AVOIDANCE ----------------- Ryu gathers Essence simply by being around it. You can walk near it, jump away from or into it and be thrown in its vicinity to pick it up. The Y charging moves of almost every weapon have an Essence Technique and an Ultimate Technique. If you suck up just one Yellow Essence, you'll get only the Essence Technique (which is different than just charging Y as well). If you suck up more than one Yellow or a single Blue or Red, you'll get the Ultimate Technique, which is usually an auto-combo or a devastating single strike. Note that some enemies will drop the maximum amount of Yellow Essence if they were killed by a UT. Sometimes, it can be difficult to farm enough Essence to activate this Ultimate Technique. Which is why a method to guaranteeing Essence Avoidance exists. As long as you are holding the Block button, you will not gather Essence. You can be thrown into it, you can stand or jump right on top of it, but it won't be gathered. You can even jump in the air over it and as long as you keep the Block button held in, it will stay put. Ryu can Roll Jump and perform many attacks in the air with the Block button held. This is a very powerful technique for unleashing multiple Ultimate Techniques as you can kill just two enemies of any kind and be assured that you can pull of an Ultimate Technique. From kkkkkk_1 on the GameFAQs board: "Lastly, I don't know if a lot of people know this, but you can do a lot of the normal moves of the game while holding onto Block. You can jump, do instant Charge landings, and Flying Swallow without letting go of Block if you do a roll (by nudging the analog stick) first - useful if you need to instant Block." This is a better description of what I touched upon. It is useful for Essence Avoidance as well. Ryu will also neglect to gather Essence if he continually attacks without using a Charge move. If Essence is too far away from you, or you are unable to reach it, you can always begin an ET/UT to pull the Essence toward you, and let go of Y as it comes in range, although this is EXTREMELY difficult to do consistently and can be considered JF. ENCOUNTER COMBOING ------------------ You can neglect to pickup Essence from an encounter if you know that another encounter is going to happen in an adjacent area. This technique is called Encounter Comboing. You can then utilize that Essence to begin the encounter with a UT. You can pull it through walls and doors as well. There are many, MANY scenarios where this is possible throughout the game. Some levels can be Encounter Comboed ENTIRELY. This is EXTREMELY useful to get some of those Encounter Counters that seem impossible. From kkkkkk_1 from the GameFAQs board: "You can kill the wildlife and use their essence for UTs as well. Most crows and rats leave behind a small blue orb so you can do an ET or UT right at the start of an encounter." By extension, you can also use any non-enemy Essence to do this as well. In the first level particularly, there are many chests where non-enemy Essence can be utilized for an ET/UT. This results in some very interesting approaches to level completion especially in the Ninja Fortress and Tairon Chapters. For this type of gameplay to work, you'll need to memorize the encounters in the game for both the regular game and additional difficulties, since they all differ greatly. You must keep several things in mind when trying to judge whether or not an encounter is a viable candidate for comboing. 1. Distance - What distance is there to cover between the Encounters? If the distance between the two encounters is too far, the Essence will dissipate before you can reach your next set of enemies. If an additional wave of enemies appears in the same spot, this point is obviously moot. You can usually look for shortcuts to the next area, or plan out a method of traverse that might include Wall Running or clever traversal. You might have to get creative. 2. Time Span - How much time would it take to get between the Encounters? Again, if you can't get to your new location before the Essence disappears, then it will be for naught, and you're better off just utilizing it for its inherent properties. You can usually save a lot of time by exiting the area right after the last enemy is killed, but you need to be careful that you don't leave to early or your Encounter Bonus will be completely lost. Of course, if you are not concerned with Karma at all, since it has no bearing in the game whatsoever, you can disregard this idea altogether. If this is an acceptable course of action, MANY additional Encounters become combo-able. 3. Frugality - Is the Essence better used for Currency, Health or Ninpo? If you are concerned with Ryu's own survival, wealth or spiritual wholeness, then sometimes it is better to go ahead and utilize the inherent properties. Obviously, if your game has developed to the point that your considering how efficiently you can Encounter Combo the entire game, you'll probably not need to be replenishing your Ninpo or Health. Although, you need to keep getting those weapons. 4. Hinderance - Is there some occurance to keep the Essence from being drawn? That is, do you need to go get a Scarab, or trigger a cutscene or some other such hinderance? Keep in mind, that Essence stays afloat regardless of what is going on in the game outside of only a couple of factors. An area can even load (like the transition from Dworku Monastery Annex to the Monastery interior), and you can still pull the Essence through the door. However, there is only one Encounter close enough for you to be able to use any Essence that you generate outside the door. 5. Benefit - Would the Encounter actually benefit from an Encounter Combo? Some Encounters are so easy, that you don't necessarily need to utilize a UT make them easier. 6. Difficulty - Given all of the above factors, is it simply too difficult to accomplish? If you have to hold down Block, jump over a tree, open a door and flip a switch to get to your next Encounter, it might not be possible to keep from gathering the Essence around you. PROTECTION AND INVINCIBILITY ---------------------------- There are many instances where Ryu is totally Invincible, but there are also many instances where Ryu is merely well protected or unable to be knocked out of his attack but still capable of taking damage. Instances of Invincibility include UTs' attack frames (but not dash or leap frames), all Ninpo except Firewheel, Flying Swallow's Attack Frames, Talisman of Rebirth use and certain Combos. Instances of Protection include Firewheel and the 360 moves for the Dabilahro, War Hammer and UF. Believe or not, you can actually be hit out of Firewheel in this game. To test this, fight against the Pill Bugs or enemies with explosive attacks. You are also vulnerable during Cremator. Fighting the most large enemies can show you this. No attack in this game is 100% safe. One of the balancing things about the combat engine is that it is impossible to utilize only one technique throughout the entire game. While one technique might make you Invincible to fireballs you can still be thrown out of it, or the recovery will get you. A good example of this is Cremator. This is one of the safest techniques in the game against regular enemies. You are very well protected from the front or back, and you cannot be hit by projectiles (just like Murai when he uses it). However, you can be thrown from the side, you can be Flying Swallowed, and you can be hit by an Uninterruptible Attack. If someone claims that this is not the case, they are simply misinformed. The Hurricane Pack took great strides to even the game out and these balances have been implemented into Black. The Counter Attack has been greatly balanced by fact that most of the enemies have been given either Guard Break or Throw moves. Likewise, the ability to attack from Bird Flip has been countered greatly by the enemies that can hit you in mid-air now. ADDITIVE DAMAGE --------------- Unlike most other action games, the damage scaling in Ninja Gaiden is considerable. That is, Ryu does not register damage for one attack only. He will take damage for anything that legitimately hits him, anytime. This means, that Ryu getting knocked into a wall and being hit with a Tail Swipe at the same time will register the damage for both attacks. The only time that this doesn't apply is when Ryu is being actively thrown. He seems to be Invincible to additive damage in throw frames. Weibull has put together some great videos showing this effect in particular. Logon to his FTP server (http://weibull760.dyndns.org:8989) and download the the "Need to work on Intercepts" and other various videos. The Intercepts video shows how Nicchae kills Ryu with FULL health with two volleys of consecutive Firewheels, and there was nothing he could've done to stop it once he missed the first one, since he was WALLSTUNNed on the first hit. Another shows how Ryu can be killed at full health by three simultaneous Helmet Splitters issued by three different SAT Fiends all at the exact same time. However, Ryu will trade damage in many instances of the game. Times when Ryu will take damage, but cannot be interrupted are in the initiation dashes or leaps of the UT's. COMBO FLOW ---------- The combo system is fairly robust and is composed of several pieces. Sections, Transitions and Enders make up the combo flow and each has unique properties. 1. Section - A section is simply the moves of a command that don't have the unique properties of a transition or ending. In between each section, you can reorient Ryu to point in the direction of an enemy, throw a projectile (unless either the melee or projectile is Two-Handed), iB (Instant Block), Combo Break or Ninpo. 2. Breaker - A Combo Break is when you tap Block quickly, so you can break the combo flow and restart the series. It won't register as animation, but it will immediately end the command chain. You'll still commit the animation of the last strike, but you can then buffer what you want your next move to be. It doesn't work as well with repetitive combos (Cremator and Dead Soul Bind), but you can still do it. If you have impeccable timing, you can forgo the L in some cases, but it makes it easier. However, this will not suffice for some Combos such as Izuna Drop, when you'd rather not do the Drop part, but would rather Helmet Splitter. In this case, you must Combo Break or Shuriken Interrupt. 3. Transition - A transition is a section that has more than one branch. That is, the next move could be multiple different melee attacks. 4. Enders - Many of the combos in the game can be interrupted with projectiles and defensive maneuvering. The exception to this is in the Combo Ender. The longer or more damaging combos' final strikes will typically generate a severely safe and damaging technique at the cost of a long recovery or starting animation. Unless you have dispatched every enemy (or at least every one in the current round), you'll be very vulnerable to attack. There are many times where it is advisable to not end a combo, so you can escape retribution. However, almost every Combo Ender can be Ninpo Cancelled. ENEMY PRIORITY -------------- Most battles in Ninja Gaiden require you to fight more than one type of enemy at the same time. If a different enemy type is not around, then typically an identical enemy will take up a support role to complicate matters. This makes the battles much more strategic on many levels, and few other action games can claim this feature. So, it's important to know going into any encounter which enemies should be concentrated on first. In the case of projectile using enemies, Ryu should almost always do his best to neutralize that threat first. ENEMY AWARENESS --------------- This concept applies to both how one should treat enemies, and how the AI determines aggressiveness. First of all, it is extremely important for Ryu to be aware of his surroundings at all times. This includes both enemies and structures as some of Ryu's most damaging techniques come from Flying Bird Flip and Wall Running. Also, almost every enemy has either a ranged or distance attack that can easily strike Ryu from off screen. Once awareness has become a focal point of one's play style, the game becomes much easier. ENEMY STATUS ------------ Enemy Status is a concept that has two parts: AI Decisions and Life Stages. 1. AI Decisions - Depending upon the surroundings and available health, the enemies in this game possess extremely complex behavioral routines. Almost all enemies have at least four observable AI trees: Offensive, Defensive, Support and Team while some others possess a fifth routine of Unaware. You'll notice that sometimes the exact same enemy will react totally different given different scenarios. a. Offensive - The enemy will aggressively attempt to engage Ryu in melee combat utilizing its entire arsenal. Although, it will use its projectile arsenal reservedly. b. Defensive - The enemy will retreat and position themselves making Ryu come to them for the most part. They will Block or evade EXCESSIVELY and wait for Ryu to make a mistake. Some enemies will even circle Ryu, waiting for him to screw up. c. Support - The enemy will not engage Ryu within melee distance at all, and instead stand on the periphery and pelt him with projectiles or magic. Those enemies without projectiles always have an attack that is difficult to detect (burrowing, ritual) and will use this instead. d. Team - One could probably right all of these instances off to coincidence. But, having played now 100 hours of Ninja Gaiden Black, there have been SO many instances repeated maneuvers coming from two separate enemies, that I have to believe that this is purposeful. That is, one creature will issue an attack that forces Ryu into an evasive manuever only to be caught with the second enemy's attack. e. Unaware - The AI routines for the game are fairly diverse. One particular aspect involves enemy awareness. It's fairly well known that the enemies in Ninja Gaiden are possibly the most aggressive and cunning in any game, ever. There is one aspect to the encounter where they altered this trend slightly at least for certain enemies. Enemies can be unaware of Ryu. Human enemies like Samurai, Vigoorian Military and SATs can go on regular patrol without making visual or aural contact with Ryu. However, once Ryu comes within their VERY large range, they become aware of him, and are TOTALLY relentless in their attacks. Conversely, Fiends and Ninjas are 100% aware of Ryu at all times and are also 100% relentless. However, some Large enemies and Large Fiends are somewhat impartial to Ryu's presence (but not all, obviously). If Ryu is outside their comfort zone, they will let him be for the most part. How this breaks down into a percentage is unknown as there are many times when a Gallas will walk around his area, but then all of a sudden decide to pounce upon Ryu from very far away. However, many times, they will make visual contact with him and attack without any provocation whatsoever. This is intentional as no other enemy in Ninja Gaiden displays this behavior. This can be overridden in specific scenarios as well. For example, in the Hidden Underground, there is a battle in the hallway before the Ritual Room where Ryu gains the Grail, there will be a Ghul battle with a single Gallas present at all times. This particular Gallas will NEVER be unaware of Ryu even if he is out of eyesight at the other end of the hall. The Gallas will do everything it can to be on top of Ryu whenever possible. What causes the AI to make these decisions is not terribly obvious. For example, in the Dynamo fight, sometimes the SATs will simply wait around on the outside and pelt Ryu with EXTREMELY annoying gunfire (breaking up his WR status), and at other times, they come in full gusto trying to get some hits in. On the Ishtaros fight in Mission Mode, the Monk Fiends that support Ishtaros almost NEVER use any of there Melee arsenal (which is vast). As far as the Team Status is concerned, the most obvious example of this is Phase 5 of the Giants of the Underworld battle. This is the battle where you must fight Ishtaros and Nicchae simultaneously. I have been hit by a Laser/Teleport Throw combination so much, that I can't help to think that this particular setup is purposeful. That is, Ryu will get hit by an Ishtaros Laser, and Nicchae has already setup her Teleport Throw to catch you in your vulnerable frames (without even hitting the ground). 2. Life Stages - Several enemies in game as well as obvious bosses have different Life Stages. That is, once you either hit them a certain way or diminish their health sufficiently, their AI and moveset changes appreciably. This is most obvious in Ogres and Berserkers. In some cases, it is beneficial to maximize damage to the enemy before it enters the more dangerous life stage. That is, you can keep from shattering Ogres' masks entirely by only attacking their body or behinds, and you can save a UT until after a Berserker has gone berserk. FIGHTING ENGINE CONDITIONS DISCUSSION ------------------------------------- There is some doubt as to whether or not the Combo System in Ninja Gaiden is really as fully featured as this document attempts to prove. Some believe that the game consists of mostly useless moves with several over-powered techniques that can be utilized without fail in every scenario. This could not be further from the truth. And most likely, these arguments are started by people that have only played the game on Normal difficulty (if at all). The game doesn't randomly pick whether or not a move will Guard Break, Decapitate, CLEAR, GROUND, etc... It is all based on several factors. The size of the enemy, the type and health of the enemy, the distance to the enemy and the move utilized and the difficulty setting all determine the properties of the hit as well as the damage. So, looking at the move list at the bottom of this document, I have tried to compile a list of combos and the effects of their single hits therein. While it may seem random that you get hits tacked onto pre-existing combos per level of weapon, this is not the case. This list is obviously not conclusive. 1. Charge Level (charge) - The heavy melee attacks in the game (as well as the Two-Handed Projectile Weapons) have varying degrees of severity depending upon how long you hold down the attack button. There is an EXTREMELY complex set of scenarios dictating when and where you should use each level of charge. We will discuss this below. 2. Charge Level 1 (charge1) - Charge Level 1 is the amount you must hold down the button to attain an attack that overrides the standard attack for the strike but not enough for an Essence Technique. For this particular level, you would only utilize this if you don't want to issue the standard Y attack. In almost every scenario, the first level charge will always grant you more strength at the expense of a long startup or recovery animation. In particular, this can be deadly with the Two-Handed Melee Weapons, as the standard Y attacks are capable of being iB'ed, but the charge1 versions are not. Converserly, though, Ryu leaps whenever he utilizes these charge1 versions, so if you need to avoid an incoming low strike and followup without giving enough time for the enemy to evade or block, these strikes are very useful. 3. Charge Level 2 (charge2) - At Charge Level 2, you have attained the ability to do an Essence Technique. Ryu's weapon will continue to glow, but he'll give off a level 2 Essence Explosion which is discernable by white rings. Additionally, the sparks that Ryu will constantly emit will be purple in color. In every case, the ET is not as damaging as the UT, but there are many scenarios where you do not want to unload a full UT. One specific example of this is when you're attempting to hit Encounter Time limits. If you utilize a UT when an ET would've sufficed, then you most likely will not hit your Encounter Time Limit, and thus, not receive your Time Bonus for the Encounter. 4. Charge Level 3 (charge3) - At Charge Level 3, you have achieved the ability to issue an Ultimate Technique (UT). Ryu emits a full Essence Explosion which is denoted by orange and red rings and will emit red sparks now instead of purple. Unless you are fighting a boss or an extremely agile enemy, then you can chalk up some guaranteed damage. Additionally, you can hold this state as long as you want if you want strategically release your UT. There are many scenarios where you would want to delay your release to maximize your slaughter; like say if all the enemies have not spawned yet, or an enemy hasn't returned to a state where it can be struck. 5. On-Landing (OL) - Ninja Gaiden implements a fairly unique technique of On-Landing. That means when Ryu lands from a jump that did not include a Grounding move (such as Y attacks IA), then the 10-20 or so frames in which Ryu first contacts the ground is considered On-Landing. There are several unique properties to this state. 6. On-Landing Cancel (OLC) - There are times when you might want to forgo the On-Landing condition. In such a case, if you tap L On-Landing, you can negate its effects and do whatever normal move you'd like. The L must be tapped just as Ryu's feet touch the ground, however, and you cannot be inputting a direction. You must return the joystick to the Neutral position. Therefore it would look like: On-Landing Cancel - IA, ...[5~]Block, etc. Actual Commands: IA, ...[5~]L, etc. You can actually forgo the Block altogether if you have awesome timing. The first frame of Ryu's recovery animation (i.e. the instant that his momentum shifts from downward to upward) is the first frame where OL is not available. In Black, the engine has been tweaked to the point that you'll only be granted OL for the standard Y moves and the X moves where applicable. This is a wonderful addition to the engine such that you can now do whatever strikes you want when contact with the ground is made. 7. instant Charge (iC) - The charging animation can take some time, which is why the developers implemented an "instant Charge" condition to the move list. Ryu will skip the animation before the weapon begins to glow. This is an extremely powerful technique. But, You can be knocked out of it, however. The benefits from an instant Charge are threefold when compared to a regular Charge. - You skip the initial frames of unsheathing the weapon altogether. This is an obvious frame advantage. - You do not need to hold Y in order to gather Essence. It will automatically come to you fully regardless of how long you had Y depressed. - Depending upon how you initiated it, you are granted some invincibility frames at the release of the Y which you do not have if simply had Charged. 8. instant Charge On-Landing (iCOL) - One of the most useful facets of the fighting engine is the ability to gain a CHARGE state On-Landing. To attain it via On-Landing, you must hold or tap Y just as you're landing from a jump that did not include a melee attack as the last strike. If you do this, you'll get an instant Charge condition. 9. instant Block (iB) - If you see an incoming attack, you can stop your Combo (but not strike) and hold Block. You won't register a Block animation until the enemy strikes you, but it will be blocked nonetheless as long as you are in recovery frames. Ryu is very defensively capable and a lot of people overlook this ability. Again, the absence of a transition animation in this particular scenario can be explained away with Ninja Magic. 10. In Air (IA) - When Ryu is in the air, he has special properties applied to him. Obviously, an entirely new set of attacks are opened up as well for both the projectiles and the melee weapons. Depending upon the weapon your using, Ryu could spend as much as 50% of his time in the air. With the One-Handed Melee Weapons and the Lunar, Ryu has as much offensive ability in the air as he does on the ground. This game would be much more difficult to complete without the use of Blade of Nirrti or Izuna Drop. 11. While Running (WR) - One of Ryu's most beneficial states is While Running. After he has taken 3/4 of a step with full joystick tilt (or buffered it as in the next item) Ryu will be in the WR state, and has a different set of attacks available to him for both the melee weapons and some of the projectiles. For the melee attacks, in every case, you either get a much more damaging, much safer or state-inducing attack once WR is attained. This is one state that seems to be neglected more than anything else, as it is difficult to get into the state if you don't know the tricks. See the next item. Aside from that, you can also usually get your first attack of the encounter to come off as a WR attack. 12. instant While Running (iWR) - Ryu can buffer a While Running state while doing a lot of other actions. Jumping and attacking are both candidates for iWR buffering, so if utilizing an iCOL is not a wise choice for any given situation, one might want to use iWR as a backup. One of the better iWR buffers is the Wind Path, but we will cover that more in its section. 13. While Blocking (WB) - While you are holding the Block button, you are considered While Blocking. There are three facets of gameplay that are available in the While Blocking status. One is strategically useless for all intents of purposes, but looks cool, while the other two are potentially both life and time saving throughout most of the game. Ryu will neglect to gather Essence whenever he is in While Blocking status (as well as attacking status). See the section on Essence Avoidance for more details. The other extremely useful action from WB is obviously the Counter Attack, see its section for more detail as well. As far as the useless technique is concerned, it is named "Who Watches the Watchers." If you hold Block and slightly push the left analog stick in a direction, then Ryu will slowly turn on access with the appropriate animation. In theory, you could use this to line up jumps, but I've never really found a scenario where this was useful. I'll be more than happy to listen to suggestions. 14. Wind Path (WP) - When you press A in the vicinity of an opponent standing on the ground while Ryu is still airborne, he does the Wind Path move. He'll disappear, leave a PHANTOM and teleport off of their body; briefly stunning them along with a unique animation. This is very useful later in the game when you come upon regular opponents that have Uninterruptible Attacks (i.e. Gallas' Tail Swipe and Bite). You are also granted a VERY SMALL number of INV frames as you PHANTOM. A newly discovered property of the Wind Path is that it grants you iWR upon reaching the ground, even if you reverse your direction mid-air. Needless to say, this is EXTREMELY powerful as it is VERY difficult to gain WR in the middle of the fight. Obviously, you cannot come in contact with a wall off of your Wind Path, but other than that, there aren't any restrictions. 15. vertical Wind Path (vWP) - If you Wind Path vertically off of an enemy, aside from getting the vWPSTUN (as described in the next section), you are also given a unique, strategic positioning as well as a guaranteed followup hit. The only enemy aside from Bosses that seem able to nullify a WPSTUN are Berserkers. When used with a projectile, Ryu will gain a huge pause in the air (which may or may not be a beneficial thing), and then after the adminstration of the projectile can follow up with a melee strike right over the enemy. Additionally, you can Guillotine Throw from a vWP. 16. horizontal Wind Path (hWP) - With a horizontal Wind Path, you are granted the ability to put a HUGE amount of distance between your enemy and yourself. Of course, you can negate this if you wish to stay within close confines, but immediately issuing a direction and an attack post-hWP. 17. Block (BLOCK) - Hold Block. Don't do this too much, or you will be thrown or Guard Broken. The AI specifically looks for turtling Ryus. 18. Guard Break (BREAK) - Guard Breaking applies to Ryu as well as his enemies, although they are handled a bit differently. A Guard Break against Ryu will register as his weapon being thrown back, and he will be unable to attack for the duration of this animation aside from Ninpo. He has many defensive options in this scenario, however, which usually begin with the timely use of a Reverse Wind. He cannot Counter Attack a Guard Breaking move. 19. Guard Crush (CRUSH) - Guard Crushing applies to Ryu as well. It has the same properties except for the fact that a bit of damage is applied to Ryu regardless of the fact that he was blocking. 20. Ninpo Canceling (NINC) - The only time when Ninpo will actually Combo is during an Grounding Move or a Combo Ender. It will cancel the recovery frames of these two types of moves. However, when using the Heavy Two-Handed Melee Weapons (War Hammer, UF, Dabilahro, DDB), if you see danger imminent, you can cancel the recovery of every Combo Section into a Ninpo. Typically, these Combo Enders or Two-Handed combos are only capable of iB or Ninpo Canceling. This will be outlined in the Free Form Combo section. Typically, the best Ninpo to use is Firewheel in this scenario, since it will not immobilize you. However, if you're looking for a high Combo count, Art of Ice Storm is a nice option as well. 21. Step Canceling (STEPC) - There is a very specific way to use Ryu's Nudge (6~5) to cancel the recovery of the WR X of the Kitetsu and the DS. This is very powerful as it will give you access to every attack in each weapon's arsenal immediately following a WR X. The only moves that Combo normally out of WR X are an additional X or Azure/Scarlet Dragon. Using this technique, you have access to the entire arsenal at the same frame advantage as the Combo-able moves. 22. Near an Enemy (NEAR) - This status dictates that Ryu must be in immediate proximity to an enemy. 23. Near a Wall (NEARWALL) - Ryu must be in the vicinity of a Wall for this condition to apply. 24. Near a Downed Enemy (DOWN) - Ryu must be positioned over a DOWN enemy for this status to apply. This will usually allow you to issue the DOWN attacks like Fiend Sealer on the enemy. 25. Level Ground (LEVELG) - Ryu must be performing his attacks over Level Ground for this status. The reason for this is that Ryu will either need consistent amounts of air time to correctly pull off the techniques, or that the enemy must be on the same horizontal plane as Ryu. 26. Wind Run (WINDRUN) - When completing a Wind Run, Ryu will jump off of the ground, get an regular Explosion, and attain a Phantom as well. This move will automatically align Ryu with the nearest Enemy. 27. Wall Cling (WALLCLING) - If Ryu jumps at a wall, but does not issue a direction when hitting the wall, he will very briefly cling to it. From this status, he can direct which way he would like to Bird Flip off of the wall. This may seem fairly useless, but it can be very useful in arenas that don't have a lot safe areas. If you're enemies are all stationed off to your left side, you can then jump off to the right to try to attain an iCOL. If your looking for a potential Wind Path host, the Wall Cling can help you locate this lucky enemy. 28. Wall Run (WALLRUN) - One of Ryu's more acrobatic abilities (or impossibilities depending upon how you want to look at it) is the ability to run along any wall. The benefits to this ability are so obvious, that they don't really need to be restated. There are two versions of the Wall Run as well. 29. vertical Wall Run (vWALLRUN) - With a Vertical Wall Run, Ryu is able to reach higher elevations and possibly even grab ledges (or flip over them entirely). 30. horizontal Wall Run (hWALLRUN) - With a hWALLRUN, Ryu gets the ability to Flying Swallow or Red Hot Iron Brand, depending upon the weapon. The traits of the hWALLRUN versions of these moves are different as well. 31. ceiling Wall Run (cWALLRUN) - Ryu has the ability to take 1 or 2 steps across the ceiling of a room, if it is low enough. Useful? 32. Phantom State (PHANTOM) - Whenver Ryu does anything especially cool, he'll almost always produce a Phantom proving it. His Phantom is a colored sillouette of him performing whatever action it was that granted him Phantom status. 33. Low Health (LOWH) - When Ryu is low on health, his life bar will change accordingly. There are differing degrees of LOWH as well. Once you get down to 10% health, your Health Bar will change to red. Once you get down to 5% health, your life bar will begin flashing red. The only benefit in the game that this has is with the use of the Unlabored Flawlessness. Once you enter into that 10% stage of health, the Kanji on the UF will begin to glow signifying that it is activated. At this stage, the damage done by the UF is astounding, so much so that it should probably be named the FU. You will watch entire halves of Bosses life bars disappear with correct utilization of the UF. However, it is only fully powered once your lifebar is flashing. Given that almost every enemy will kill you with one strike when your health is at 10% of maximum, it only makes sense to stay in the 5% range if you can. The only creatures that seem to be immune to the effects of the UF are Vigoor itself, Alma, Nicchae, Ishtaros and the Vigoorian Berserkers. While it is exceedingly difficult to utilize the UF correctly with some of the more agile bosses, they will still succumb to its effects. 35. little In Air (lIA) - This status is the same as the IA status, however, there is one restriction. Ryu will not be granted OL upon contact with the ground. Only a couple of techniques in the game will put Ryu lIA, and they are almost always Counter Attack based or move based. 36. Delaying (DELAY) - Ryu has the ability to delay almost every single strike in his arsenal regardless of whether or not the strike resides in a Combo. The animation engine is extremely robust as it deals with this feature flawlessly. That is, if you delay a strike to the very extreme of what is capable, Ryu will still animate accordingly. This feature is almost totally unutilized in every video I have ever seen. Nonetheless, it is extremely useful with dealing with AI mindgames. Yes, in this game, you can actually trick the enemies into commiting to an attack and then hitting them with a an attack of your own. The easiest way to begin practicing your technique is to equip the Dragon Sword, Kitetsu or Plasma Sword. Any of the basic combos allow you delay any strike in the procession. The frame window depends on the strike, but a lot of times, you have almost 20-30 frames to play with, so if you issue an X with the Dragon Sword to initiate Crimson Slash, then you have a window of 20 to 30 frames in which to decide to issue your next X (or Y if you don't want Crimson Slash). When battling Imps on the highest difficulties, you'll find that it is EXTREMELY difficult to hit them outright. Even if you do manage to hit them with a strike, if that attack doesn't have any special properties other than Hit Stun, then the Imp can evade even the next strike. You'll also find that almost every Regular Enemy can cancel their own attacks on the higher difficulties if they see a big attack coming. Because of this, strike delaying can really help in acheiving those Encounter Time bonuses. If you just mash the X, X, X of Crimson Slash out, you'll almost never hit an Imp on Master Ninja. However, if you issue the X, put in a little pause (while watching out for a iB opportunity), you'll see that sometimes, that Imp will commit to a strike, and then you can hit them with the following X, given that the second X of Crimson Slash has a much smaller frame window than the first X. This is but one example of the power of the ability to delay any of the strikes in your arsenal. 37. Wall Cling Cancel (WALLCLINGC) - There are many times Ryu will want to distance himself from the fray in order to rethink his strategy. This will usually involve the attempt to get a OL attack off. However, there are many scenarios where Ryu is in a small room or next to a wall where the contact with the wall would prevent him from getting to his OL state. In these scenarios, it's possible to utilize Shuriken to keep the WALLCLING from happening. FIGHTING ENGINE STATUS DISCUSSION --------------------------------- This section will cover the statuses that Enemies can place themselves in and can be placed into by Ryu. One facet of the game that I have not researched much at all are the hit properties of a successful attack (i.e. one that is not Blocked). There are many facets of this system that must be explained to fully utilize Ryu's abilities effectively. Crumple and Spin Stunning are extremely useful to achieve, but take some planning to setup. We will look into this more in future versions of this document. 1. Block Stun (BLOCK) - Block Stun is the animation and restriction placed upon an enemy when it successfully blocks Ryu's attack. It simply means that the enemy will be unable to strike Ryu back. An enemy that has the capability of blocking will usually do so excessively. So much so, that they'll need to be Guard Broken in order to be struck. It is necessary to familiarize oneself with Ryu's arsenal to the point where with each weapon, it is known which strikes Guard Break and which do not. 2. Hit Stun (HIT) - Depending upon the weapon used, the enemy struck and even the type of strike, an enemy will be put into a HIT status. There are MANY different types of HIT animations across the enemy bestiary. In terms of restrictions, the only hinderance to an enemy placed in HIT is that it cannot attack back. It can still Block or evade the next strike even if it is part of a combo. 3. Stagger Stun (STAGGER) - STAGGER is the general term used to denote a longer, standing HIT status that actually carries along with it the inability for the enemy to avoid a following strike. It is very beneficial to one's playstyle to memorize which strikes in Ryu's arsenal are STAGGER inducing. There are many different animations for the different STAGGERs, but they all basically follow the same pattern of behavior. 4. Guard Breaking (BREAK) - There seem to be three types of constitution in the game as far as how characters react to Ryu's strikes while they are blocking. An enemy in Block Stun will simply be unable to strike Ryu back. If Ryu strings together consecutive Block Stunning strikes, he will not break through a continuously Blocking opponents. Regular humans and the humanoid Fiends can be Guard Broken rather easily whereas the larger Fiends take much more punishment before they are affected. Large enemies don't even Block, and you need to hit them with particular moves to knock them out of their attacks. A move that will GUARD BREAK a large enemy will typically CLEAR a regular enemy. The third class is reserved for Boss type creatures that are either impervious to Block Stun altogether or must be attacked a certain way to initiate it. On higher difficulties some regular enemies must be Guard Broken in order to be hit at all (i.e. Doku's Samurai). 5. Guard Crush (CRUSH) - A Guard Crush on an enemy is a two-fold meaning. On Regular enemies, a CRUSH means that the enemy was Blocking, but you defeated that Block and conferred damage onto them as well. On Large enemies, CRUSH means that you somehow interrupted an attack of theirs. Strikes that induce CRUSH are almost always slower than their regular state-inducing counterparts, so it is wise to study the effects of this state. There are many times where you will want to interrupt what a Large enemy is doing, since most attacks from Large enemies remove significant portions of their lifebar. 6. Clear Away (CLEAR) - Like most action games, Ninja Gaiden has a CLEAR status that means on a successful hit, the enemy will be knocked away from Ryu a signficant distance, and will then be placed into DOWN status. This type of status is EXTREMELY useful as the enemies in Ninja Gaiden tend to rush Ryu. Any way that Ryu can thin the numbers of enemies actively attacking him is usually a good path. 7. reverse Clear Away (rCLEAR) - reverse Clear Away: Knock Regular enemies towards the attacker. In this case, the enemy will be knocked towards Ryu. This property is unique to Kitetsu, although many enemies have this ability as well. 8. Multiple Opponent (MULTI) - Many strikes in Ryu's arsenal are specifically designed to take on multiple opponents at the same time. Usually, this means that the strike is either weaker than regular strikes or takes longer to initiate or finish. One needs to weigh the bonuses and restrictions of these strikes to determine when and where to implement them. 9. Throw (THROW) - One of the most powerful and sparse attacks in the game come in the form of Throws. Both Ryu and the enemies of the game have access to this type of attack that will defeat Block outright. In every case, the setup of a throw is either obvious, slow starting, complicated or slow ending, such that it takes a bit of finesse to utilize the attack appropriately. In Black, the Guillotine Throw has been made very, very powerful. On the enemies that can BLOCK or evade strikes at their leisure, the Guillotine Throw will usually take them by surprise. 10. Decapitate (DECAP) - Ninja Gaiden has a fairly robust system for dealing with enemies once they have been killed. That is, the properties of many strikes change depending upon if the enemy was killed with it or not. Some strikes gain the GROUND status, while others get DECAP. That is, the enemy will lose its noggin. 11. Recovery (REC) - Every attack has some frames where the attack window has closed, but the ability to issue another action outright has not opened yet. This is called recovery. Some games neglect this aspect of gameplay altogether which, in my opinion, devalues the combo engine altogether. Why would one chose a lighter strike over a heavier strike if there are no consequences in issuing the heavier strike? Additionally, this usually means that the animation suffers greatly as well. The character will be in the middle of an animation, and then instantly jump into the frames of another with no transition animation whatsoever. The Recovery Engine in Ninja Gaiden is fairly complicated. There are at least 3 versions of Recovery present in the game. a. Light Recovery - In light recovery, Ryu has many options of cancelling the recovery. He can iB, NINC, Shuriken Interrupt, STEPC, or even issue an attack specifically designed to cut the recovery frames of a particular move down. Most strikes fall into this category. Please see the appropriate sections for the Recovery options listed. b. Medium Recovery - Ryu can still iB, NINC and sometimes issue an attack, but most likely these will be his only options. Flying Bird Flip options and Combo Enders typically fall into this category. c. Heavy Recovery - Ryu is basically screwed if the move that instills heavy recovery whiffs. The most obvious candidate for Heavy Recovery is Flying Swallow. You cannot cancel the recovery of Flying Swallow with anything. Ryu is absolutely, totally vulnerable. He cannot even iB. 12. Essence Technique (ET) - As outlined in the charge sections above, Ryu has the capability of issuing extremely strong attacks in the form of Essence Techniques. 13. Ultimate Technique (UT) - The most powerful techniques in the game come in the form of Ultimate Techniques. Ryu will have to either charge long enough to store the appropriate energy, or absorb two Yellow Essence, or either a single Blue or Red Essence. 14. little Launch (lLaunch) - Ryu can knock his opponents up into the air. But, sometimes, there is not enough time to do anything to the enemy in this state. 15. Launch (LAUNCH) - The ability for Ryu launch an opponent up into the air while staying planted on the Ground. 16. Self-launching (SELFLAUNCH) - The ability for Ryu to launch both the enemy he attacked and himself up into the air. 17. Absorbing Life (ABSORB) - Ryu can leech the life of any enemy and confer it upon himself. This property is unique to Kitetsu. See Soul Bind. 18. Projectile Strike (PROJ) - Ryu will throw the weapon away, and it will return to him. Both the journey away from and back to Ryu will strike opponents, and the return strike will rClear Regular Enemies back to him. This property is also unique to the Kitetsu. 19. Just Frame (JF) - Just Frame is a term borrowed from the fighting game lexicon. It means that the input of an attack must be made within so many frames of something else happening. Ryu runs at 60 frames per second, which means that every second, the screen is refreshed 60 times. There are some attacks or defenses in Ninja Gaiden that are determined by a fraction of those frames, which means that they are seen much less in gameplay. However, if one can master the timing of many of the Just Frame attacks, a significant battle advantage is presented. 20. Enemy Behind (BEHIND) - When an enemy is standing behind Ryu, certain special characteristics are present. Many of the light strikes in the game will change animation accordingly. 21. Grounding Knockdown (GROUND) - An enemy falls down not just because they have endured a significant amount of damage. Ryu must actively attempt to knockdown an enemy with specific strikes. The most beneficial state for an enemy to be in for Ryu is DOWN. You must use a GROUND move to put an enemy in this state. If an enemy is in DOWN state, then there is basically nothing they can do if Ryu is persistent enough in his attacks aside from Masakado and the Dopplegangers. Keep in mind that not all Bird Flip attacks are GROUND attacks. For instance, the One-Handed Melee weapons' Bird Flip+Y attacks do not GROUND a healthy enemy, while the Heavy Two-Handed Melee do. 22. Spin Stun (SPIN) - Several attacks in Ryu's arsenal will cause a non- blocking enemy to spin around briefly to its side which makes it vulnerable to a follow up attack. While this may seem like a simple correlation, it's really not the case. The enemies in Ninja Gaiden have the ability to cancel their attacks more so than even Ryu can in some cases. Many enemies have what could be described as excessive evasive abilities. They can flip and cartwheel out of the way of Ryu's strikes mid-combo. However, when they are stuck in a Spin Stun, they are unable to evade or Counter Attack which on the higher difficulties (and the Mission Mode in particular) is extremely useful. Additionally, if you kill an enemy with a move that usually induces Spin Stun or hit them with consecutive SPIN strikes, they will Crumple Stun instead. They can simply Block, however, and avoid the SPIN or CRUMPLE. 23. Crumple Stun (CRUMPLE) - Almost nobody talks about this extremely useful hit property. It seems to be unique to the Dragon Sword's Violent Gale and the Kitetsu's Soul Bind. You get different animations for each type, but the effect is the same in both instances. They will slowly drop to their knees and then to the ground. Regular enemies are TOTALLY prone during this animation. You have two options at this point. You can either utilize this time to attack another active enemy, or you can then immediately follow-up with a technique which you know will kill the prone enemy. Ryu is very prone to this as well. 24. Wall Stun (WALLSTUN) - When Ryu throws an enemy into a wall, that enemy will be uniquely stunned and animated. That enemy will also be damaged upon hitting the wall. Depending upon the height of the enemy's body upon making contact, it will either slide down, or slump over on the ground immediately. If it is possible, Ryu should attempt to maximize the height of the enemy's body as to ensure a followup attack. It appears as though a WALLSTUN without a slide is shorter than a typical GROUND stun. 25. Wind Path Stun (WPSTUN) - Wind Path is arguably one of Ryu's most useful techniques. You can Wind Path vertically or horizontally. If you've jumped at the enemy, then following the Wind Path you can quickly re-orient yourself towards the enemy and attack. This simple addition to the system, makes Wind Path EXTREMELY powerful. Additionally, there is a separate animation for Ryu for a vertical Wind Path as opposed to a horizontal Wind Path. Combining the two effects of the WPSTUN and the acquisition of iWR from it, you can totally incapacitate two enemies at almost the same time. 26. vertical Wind Path Stun (vWPSTUN) - If Ryu jumps straight up and Wind Paths off of an enemy, he will flip upside down and right himself mid-air. Concordantly, the enemy will animate being knocked to the ground. 27. horizontal Wind Path Stun (hWPSTUN) - If Ryu jumps at the enemy with a vector, he will animate differently as will his enemy. The enemy will be forced to turn in the opposite direction as Ryu uses the enemy to continue his forward momentum. The enemy will be knocked closer to the ground than if merely hit with a vWP. While there doesn't appear to be any bonus for a horizontal Wind Path Stun, this is just another example of the unbelievable amount of detail given to even the smallest aspect of the game. 28. Parry (PARRY) - Many enemies in the game have the ability to Parry Ryu's attacks and leave him open for a followup attack. The animation of a Parried attack is unique, but it can be Roll Canceled just like a Guard Break. Typically, enemies that possess a Parry technique will use it judiciously, therefore a creative way of initial engagement is usually called for. 29. Weapon Locking (LOCK) - Several of the bosses in the game can be Weapon Locked. When this happens, Ryu and the Boss will be face to face pushing each others' weapons against the other. Ryu needs to mash on his buttons to win this little status, oth