With all this semi-recent talk about Ninja Gaiden 3, DmC, and Bayonetta 2 I decided I might as well jump into action games now and see what all the ruckus is about. With the PS3 being my only HD device, the Sigma games seemed to be the most interesting option so I went with those. Long story short, Sigma 2* was the first to show up at my doorstep so that is what I decided to play first. I started the game on the hardest initial difficulty (or what I assume is the hardest initial difficulty - the descriptions are horrible) and after dying a whole lot in the first battle I found I sort of hit a "stride". Most of the standard battles never feel like a threat but at the same time I'm not owning the fight. I'll kill a few dudes, get hit a bunch, kill of the remaning dudes and then my health bar will more or less fill up again which allows me to fall back into a comfortable zone. Obviously some of these problems stem directly from the fact that I'm playing Sigma 2 but I feel like there has to be something I can do to become a better player. Tips? Advice?

*Yes, I know it pales in comparison to vanilla Ninja Gaiden 2. I realized that after watching comparison videos and the fact that I got through a good chunk of the game with the strategy of "Is it safe to stop blocking? Yes? Izuna drop."

Not sure but you'd probably have more fun with the witchy & non-ninja game of Bayonetta.

I don't think I've played anything harder than the original Ninja Gaiden on the XBox. Man, fuck that game, but I did beat it.

It's been a while since I've played any of these games. I don't know. Always be dodging? Have better reflexes? Stab that guy?

I guess what I could say is to test things out to figure out which weapons are better against which enemies.

Have you played any Ninja Gaiden games before that one? If not, why would you start a game that's known for being punishing on such a hard difficulty your first time through.

@Ducksworth said:

With all this semi-recent talk about Ninja Gaiden 3, DmC, and Bayonetta 2 I decided I might as well jump into action games now and see what all the ruckus is about. With the PS3 being my only HD device, the Sigma games seemed to be the most interesting option so I went with those. Long story short, Sigma 2* was the first to show up at my doorstep so that is what I decided to play first. I started the game on the hardest initial difficulty (or what I assume is the hardest initial difficulty - the descriptions are horrible) and after dying a whole lot in the first battle I found I sort of hit a "stride". Most of the standard battles never feel like a threat but at the same time I'm not owning the fight. I'll kill a few dudes, get hit a bunch, kill of the remaning dudes and then my health bar will more or less fill up again which allows me to fall back into a comfortable zone. Obviously some of these problems stem directly from the fact that I'm playing Sigma 2 but I feel like there has to be something I can do to become a better player. Tips? Advice?

*Yes, I know it pales in comparison to vanilla Ninja Gaiden 2. I realized that after watching comparison videos and the fact that I got through a good chunk of the game with the strategy of "Is it safe to stop blocking? Yes? Izuna drop."

Sigma is way better then vanilla two. Vanilla two was the first Ninja Gaiden game that got its difficulty from being cheap. Off screen unblockable missiles and the like. Sigma for the most part balanced that garbage out.

@fox01313 Bayonetta was probably my first pick based on fan reception but enough people told me I shouldn't play the PS3 version.

@Azteck I didn't want to be a Ninja Dog that people point and laugh at...also I just wanted to see what the buzz around the difficulty was. If the option was made available, I would have probably chosen the hardest difficulty.

Blocking until you can Izuna Drop would probably work on all those Ninja type enemies honestly. Izuna drop is a very powerful tool.

The first game is even harder. The end of this game is insane though. The final boss gauntlet must have taken me well over 100 tries. It's truly insane. I literally spent an entire day playing that same battle over and over. Finally beat it but I'll be damned if it wasn't the hardest thing I ever did in a game. The first game also has something of a final boss gauntlet but it doesn't really compare to the second one. The rest of the game up to that point though requires a major amount of skill. Dodge a lot, use the charge moves whenever possible, and become one with the flying swallow and you should be good.

Constantly use flying swallow. Never stop moving. Jump and roll constantly. That should give you a pretty good start.

@Ducksworth: Well Bayonetta was a rough launch on the PS3 with plenty of technical issues but it's been a while so you might try it or look around to see if they fixed it (or if you don't have it yet you could rent it if a friend doesn't have one to let you play). It's definitely worth playing & quite fun.

Man, well that's a tough one because thing is I could give advice for specific situations but that is just the key to Ninja Gaiden being able to adapt and make good decisions on the fly.

@Ducksworth said:

@fox01313 Bayonetta was probably my first pick based on fan reception but enough people told me I shouldn't play the PS3 version.

@Azteck I didn't want to be a Ninja Dog that people point and laugh at...also I just wanted to see what the buzz around the difficulty was. If the option was made available, I would have probably chosen the hardest difficulty.

Eh, the Ninja dog "reward" is only if you go for the very easiest. Though I forget what the difficulty options are so maybe that's the only step below the one you chose?

I think Ninja Gaiden Black (or Sigma I suppose) is FAR better than 2.

@Demoskinos said:

Man, well that's a tough one because thing is I could give advice for specific situations but that is just the key to Ninja Gaiden being able to adapt and make good decisions on the fly.

This is very true. You need to figure out a few tactics that work for you but then be able to adjust very quickly to different enemies and situations. For me, the general strategy was always "stick and move". Always be moving.

EDIT: Actually to be fair I didn't play the Sigma version of 2. I found 2 standard to be quite cheap though. Ultimately, there was more missing though and I don't think it could be as good as 1 even if it was less cheap. Just my opinion though.

@Shookems said:

Constantly use flying swallow. Never stop moving. Jump and roll constantly. That should give you a pretty good start.

I missed this post, this is the damn strategy. Got me through Black. Flying Swallow is the best.

Dodge roll is your best friend. Flying swallow is also your best friend. I love those games NG Black and vanilla NG2 are so damn good. I'd agree 2 had some cheap bita but Sigma can go fly a kite. Where was I?
Yeah just don't stop moving. Bad things happen.

Sigma 2, huh?

well. i'm not an expert but i've spent a lot of time with both Ninja Gaiden II and Sigma 2. i've always found that aiming for dismemberment is a plus. you always want to be in control of the battle which means getting your opponents to slow down to a pace where you can deal with them easily. that's pretty easy with the early enemies and the Dragon Sword, as basic attacks can dismember enemies. you don't always have to be waiting for your opponent to stop attacking before you attack back. you can always do a counter-attack during block while they're attacking which tends to make a limb fly off in the process. check your scrolls-- as you probably picked up something detailing how counter attacks work if you're not using it already. although, as said before, if you just want to cheese the game you can just do non-stop flying swallows and make heads fly but i don't think that's as much fun.

also, ultimate techniques. doing an ultimate technique absorbs all of the essence around you, and killing an enemy with that sort of ultimate technique makes it so that enemy drops a lot more essence. i feel like that's something to keep in mind since you'll want to stay at the max amount of healing items you can carry, and getting bigger essence orbs with ultimate techniques is a great way to keep a healthy sum of money. in addition to being a good way to get essence, health (blue) and ki (red) essence charge your ultimate technique to the max, so if you have full ninpo and health, using those orbs to get a quick, powerful UT on your enemies is a great way to both not let those orbs go to waste and get a nice essence bonus.

one more thing.. the guillotine throw is a nice way to get enemies out of your face, pressing square + x in mid air towards an opponent does a sweet throw that sends an enemy flying in a direction. if one enemy is pissing you off and a bunch of other dudes are trying to slash your face off, use the guillotine throw to toss them out of your comfort zone and deal with everyone else so you can have that last guy all to yourself.

dealing with enemies is a bit weird in Sigma 2, since they take more hits than they did in Ninja Gaiden II so they can be-- especially during Ayane's chapter, the hack n' slash equivalent of a bullet sponge. i think the best way to learn is just to play it, and adapt to how the game beats you. always keep on your toes, never stay still for long and learn from your mistakes. i feel like the difficulty in NGII + Sigma 2 isn't as balanced as it is in Sigma 1 & Black, but it's always good to think back at how you can approach an encounter, or specific enemy type.

@ArtisanBreads said:

I think Ninja Gaiden Black (or Sigma I suppose) is FAR better than 2.

@Demoskinos said:

Man, well that's a tough one because thing is I could give advice for specific situations but that is just the key to Ninja Gaiden being able to adapt and make good decisions on the fly.

This is very true. You need to figure out a few tactics that work for you but then be able to adjust very quickly to different enemies and situations. For me, the general strategy was always "stick and move". Always be moving.

EDIT: Actually to be fair I didn't play the Sigma version of 2. I found 2 standard to be quite cheap though. Ultimately, there was more missing though and I don't think it could be as good as 1 even if it was less cheap. Just my opinion though.

@Shookems said:

Constantly use flying swallow. Never stop moving. Jump and roll constantly. That should give you a pretty good start.

I missed this post, this is the damn strategy. Got me through Black. Flying Swallow is the best.

Okay, actually home now so I'll spew out some advice. I hope this helps. I've beaten Master Ninja on all the games well.. except 3 but I didn't get around to that more so because the game was mostly trash... anywho....

• Know what moves have invincibility frames on them. There are some moves such as the Guilliotine Throw, Izuna Drop, Casting Ninpo, The dodge/dash that you are actually entirely invicible for those few frames. Ninja Gaiden especially on harder settings almost demands you know how to properly set yourself up to dodge damage. The thing is again, situational. Izuna Drop is great because on difficulties Hard or under its almost always a instant kill and has a tiny impact zone that will damage and push any enemies in the area of impact HOWEVER you've got to take into mind that the recovery frames off the move are insane and on higher difficulty settings you WILL get grabbed nearly every single time.
• Fancy Combos aren't always the best. Simply put some of the best combos are the most simple. Take for example my BnB combo for the Lunar Staff my personal favorite weapon. Square,Triangle , Square. A very simple combo but its super super effective especially against very aggressive bosses and enemies. The 3rd hit in the series sees Ryu slam the staff in front of him straight into the ground. This move has great range and great damage on it allowing you do be able to damage dangerous enemies while keeping enough distance to make a retreat if needed. you'll have to adapt to your own playstyle and see what fits you but personally I find I can rip up with the Lunar Staf
• Essence management. When you kill an enemy you see the little orbs pop out right? Some are yellow (money) others are a purplish blue (health) and red (magic) you may always think to instantly absorb these but DON'T always. Here is a little secret if you are blocking you won't absorb the essence allowing you to set up OLUT's or On-Landing Ultimate Techniques. Assuming you know what UT's are OLUT's are the most effective way to employ UT's in battle. You will most often NOT have the luxury of simply charging up a UT at your leisure since the enemies are very very aggressive. Again, a situation of weighing choices and making the right one. Say you are 1/4th bar of health and you kill a guy and a health orb pops up your first instinct would be to absorb it but here is the gamble if you can absorb then kill at least one enemy that means you will have more essence which means you can chain UT's and possibly more easily take out the group. Or you may want to absorb the health because the UT landing and killing always isn't guaranteed. Its a gamble.
• Always be moving. Walls, dashing whatever... just always be moving.
• Shurikens are your eternal friend. Shurikens initally seem useless and most players won't actually bother using them at all because they do pitiful damage especially on higher settings but really that isn't the point of them. Surikens are best used to interrupt enemy attack animations. Later in the game you'll come across lovely ninja's with rockets. To many players these are their eternal bane to a trained ninja they are laughable and easy prey. The shurikens can keep interuppting their attack animation making it IMPOSSIBLE for them to actually fire a rocket meaning you can waltz right in and dismember them and point and laugh at their corpse.

Really, that is most of the basic useful knowledge I can tell you for most general gameplay scenarios. Bosses and some fights might require specialized tactics but that should get you through most of the game.

@AjayRaz: They fucked up Ayane so bad in Sigma 2. Her chapter on Master Ninja is INSANELY hard simply because her damage is so so so goddamn pitiful. Fighting the boss (Obaba) is a godsend by the time you get to her. Having to dodge Werewolves and Ninja mages for 20 minutes becomes tedious and one single mistake and your are doing the entire thing over again. Good lord.