Part 16: Ninja Gaiden Sigma: Chapter 8

Another filler chapter people never asked Team Ninja for, we talk about scoring and how Rachel is ranked differently from Ryu, memories of DDR, and possibly the worst boss fight to ever be conceived in any version of Ninja Gaiden 1.



Blades of Ouroboros
This spell fuses the powers of flame and lightning to create rays of light that cut through enemies like blades.

This is Rachel's equivalent to Ninpo, though because she isn't a ninja it's more like regular sorcery. Either way, it's an AoE blast that does decent enough damage and is different from the Ice Strom ninpo that Ryu has because the effect is instant regardless of range. In fact, Ryu gets one last ninpo later on in the game that is similar to this, though I'd say is a bit more potent in that regard.



Earrings of Fortune
Increases the wearer's Ki power build-up

These are designed to not only give a slight buff to Ninpo attacks, but also increase the chances of enemies dropping red essence. Even so, both effects are barely noticeable, and I don't make a habit of using Ninpo during most encounters on Normal so it's kinda useless for my purposes.


Earrings of the Sun
Increases the wearer's attack power.

Just like the armlet that Ryu gets, however the difference is that the attack buff is %15 instead of 5. Don't know why they decided to make it more for Rachel, considering her War Hammer is already pretty lethal. But, whatever.


Machine

Machinegun Drone
Sigma decided to add some small variants to the laser drones that technically don't show up in Black until a few chapters from now. But compared to the laser versions, these are much more manageable to deal with due to it firing machineguns that can only stun you in place, versus a laser that sends you flying back if hit and cannot be dodged through.

Bosses

Gamov
This boss is shit. Period. Of all the new content and changes made to this game over Black, the only thing I could say that is worse than the Rachel chapters are fighting the new boss battles. Unfortunately, this chapter decides to combine two of those things.

Gamov is a human sized opponent, and doesn't really move or behave like the other fights in Ninja Gaiden 1. Going back to the Dual Swords briefly, their inclusion was designed as something of a precursor to the kind of action Ninja Gaiden II would focus on, and Gamov feels the same way. He is hyper aggressive, designed for you to get quick hits inbetween his combos and be able to counter his hits when possible. That's all fine, except that everything including player control is much faster in NGII, so fighting a boss like that here under Ninja Gaiden 1 rules is incredibly jarring and unfun. And if you think it comes down to the fact I don't like playing as Rachel, this game has a mission mode with remixed encounters, and one of them has you fight Gamov as Ryu. And the same strategy here applies to that version as well. It's just not fun.

Basically, Gamov has three attacks. At long range, he fires his guns at a very consistent rate. At close range, he whips out a pair of knives that will do either a full light attack combo, or a heavy attack that breaks your guard. Getting caught in either will result in getting launched and juggled in the air by his guns. Lastly, he has a grab attack that he'll throw inbetween his regular melee strikes, and is hard to react to. So how do you end this fight effectively? Block and hit square or triangle to counter. That's it. It trivializes it, but it's also necessary because you can't get a decent regular combo in due to his rate of recovery and speed. It's a fight that does not fit with the rules of the game. Fuck Gamov.