Part 5: Ninja Gaiden Black: Chapter 3

Ryu's comes back from the grave with a desire for revenge against the ones who wronged his clan. We move away from the shadow of Mount Fuji to stowaway on an airship en route to our primary location of the game. New enemies await, and new abilities for Ryu to stand up against the new, tougher opposition. This flight might not make it to its destination in one piece...



Wooden Sword
Moveset
A sword made from wood. It is used mainly to practice sword fighting and is incapable of cutting attacks.

A joke weapon designed for those players who want to place an extra challenge on themselves at the expense of efficiency in battle. The moveset for the Wooden Sword is near identical to the Level 1 Dragon Sword with some minor changes, and on top of being unable to decapitate enemies, it can't absorb essence for an Ultimate Technique. It also can be upgraded up to six times with each purchase costing significantly more than the other, all for no real increase in power. Except, however, for the last one. That last level is a secret, and is fantastic reward for players who choose to spend the essence on it.


Dragon Sword Lvl. 2
Moveset

Level 2 of the Dragon Sword is a pretty logical progression of the weapon's starting abilities, mainly by adding an extra heavy attack to certain combos. But more importantly, this upgrade paves the way to the two most important moves in Ryu's repitoire (one of them still requires the purchase of a separate scroll): The Flying Swallow and the Izuna Drop. The former closes the gap between Ryu and his enemies while providing a near instant kill in some cases, while the Izuna Drop is the ultimate finisher to any enemy. XYXXXY. Burn that button combo into your fucking brain. You'll never forget it.


Humans

SAT Commando
The SAT Commando (and its brethren) are the first enemies in the game to be able to grab the player out of a guard, a move which lines up nicely with the acquisition of the Counter Attack technique at the end of last chapter. They also change their attack method depending on distance, either attacking with a stun rod at close range (or grabbing) or by firing a handgun from a distance. These enemies are definitely the start of the player needing to guess what the AI will do in their next move.


SAT Riot Guard
The all black SAT Riot Guards have higher defense then the commandos, thanks to their arm shield and ability to quickly recover from a guard break. They still exhibit the same techniques as the SAT Commando, but the window of opportunity to attack is much tighter. In fact, the most reliable means to break their guard, counter attacking, is also the riskiest. Thankfully, the chances of a SAT enemies running at you and then doing a grab is almost non existent.

Bosses

Dynamo
The third major boss of the game, Dynamo's not a reskinned enemy like Masakado but is not varied in his moves or attack strategies like Murai. In fact, the position you should be in for most of the fight is typically the opposite of the fight with Murai. Staying at close range is much more manageable than being at a distance.

• Dynamo's biggest and most prominently used weapon is his lightning gun. He'll charge it for a second before firing at your last known position. While the game had encouraged using the Reverse Wind technique and jump to avoid attacks, simply running a circle around Dynamo circumvents it. Except...
  
• At 25% remaining health, Dynamo's rate of fire changes noticeably as it becomes far more accurate and erratic. Dodging each shot is extremely difficult, but typically is a mix of just running and an expertly timed Reverse Wind technique.
  
• Dynamo has two melee swings and a grab move. The first one, the over head swing, I've found to be the least used one in experience. Is most frequent combo is a side swing with his lightning gun, followed by his command grab. Moving away at just the right distance will trigger him to stop the combo and go straight into charging his gun. At which point, you go back into close range and he reverts to his melee combo and repeats the cycle. Sometimes though he'll quick fire a bolt to disrupt things, but it doesn't destroy the fight.
  
• Occasionally though, Dynamo will try to keep the pressure off of him by creating an electric shield that extends past the range that triggers his melee attacks. Meaning for a brief time you will have to stay out of range and avoid his long range attacks until the barrier goes down. Being inside the barrier when it activates will damage you and then knock you out of its range.
  

Airship




Kunai Scrolls


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