Part 3: Ninja Gaiden II - Chapter 2

The Hayabusa Village is back. The parts we visit are the same as they were in Ninja Gaiden Black/Sigma, with some light additions, but the biggest draw is exploring the inside of a burning castle where Joe and Genshin fight amidst the flames. This is a good follow up to the first chapter in part due to the introduction of the series' best rival character. You'll never find a character in Ninja Gaiden that's more similar yet totally an opposite to Ryu as the leader of the Black Spider Clan.



Falcon's Talons
A unique evolution of a Ninja's traditional hand-mounted claws.

The first new melee weapon in Ninja Gaiden II, Falcon's Talons are all about speed and living out your Wolverine fantasies in a good action game. Compared to the Lunar or even the Dragon Sword, range is the weapon's biggest shortcoming, but there are plenty of moves that can close the distance between foes and even keep the forward momentum going to avoid taking damage yourself. I personally enjoy these games, especially due to the benefits their speed give you on the higher difficulties (one of three weapons that helped me survive the hell that was Master Ninja).


Fiend's Bane Bow
A powerful bow decorated with carvings of twin dragons. The silent nature of the bow makes it an indespensable weapon for Ninjas due to their propensity for covert operations. The Fiend's Bane Bow, developed in the Hyaabusa Village, is a state-of-the-art compound bow based on traditional Eastern design. Its accuracy rivals that of a modern rifle. Made primarily from high tensile strength carbon fiber, the bow's projectile range and velocity are unequaled despite its light weight. Against a human target, it is easily accurate to 500 meters, and its arrows are capable of penetrating 40-millimeter bulletproof armor plating.

Wouldn't be a Ninja Gaiden game without the bow and arrow. Still functions like it did in the first game, but with the amazing addition of being able to charge projectiles. Yep, arrows can now become mini ETs or UTs in their own right. But instead of long auto combos, they just make enemies explode, with a very satisfying sound effect I might add. It's beautiful.


Animals
Ninja Dog
Itagaki and Team Ninja just loving rubbing it in to people who want an easier time in their games. The term "Ninja Dog" referred to the lowest rank you could get at the end of a chapter and was the name of a special "easy" mode in NG Black. Now that term has a third form. A dog that is a ninja. A literal Ninja Dog.

These things, especially as the difficulty ramps up, can be one of the most infuriating enemies to fight as they are small due to being dogs, and incredibly fast, with 9 times out of 10 their attacks beating out your own. It's like getting ganged up on by a bunch of Virtua Fighter characters low punching you into infinity. On top of that shit, the odd one will bite and tackle you to the ground as it proceeds to chew on you. And in a very rare instance during this animation, they might even go kamikaze like the Black Spider Ninja that trained them. Don't be a Ninja Dog, and don't get fucked by Ninja Dogs.

Bosses

Genshin
Genshin is a character that I'd say fixes a flaw that most who played Ninja Gaiden 1 would not have realized, unless they had other experiences with character action games. That flaw being the lack of a proper rival character. Sure, Murai was a very stiff yet fun challenge at the start, and you fought him at the end, but he was a non factor for the rest of the game inbetween. The doppleganger fights were fun, but those were just that, they were mirror matches. Ryu didn't get a recurring fight with a specific enemy that was unique, yet still his equal. A Vergil to Ryu's Dante so to speak.

Genshin fits that role. He's the Master Ninja, the leader, of the Black Spider Clan. His moves epitomize everything about the Black Spider's combat technique, has a signature weapon, and this fight in chapter 2 is far from the last time we'll fight. Rival fights in general are a good way of highlighting a game's combat system in boss scenarios, and Genshin does it remarkably well, despite having a surprisingly small amount of actual moves. But it's the mixups and speed that makes it a challenge.

• Closing the gap with Genshin via flying swallow or any jump is a no go as he will always hard counter you with a flying swallow of his own. Though you can come out of it safely by timing a flying swallow so that you don't get hit, it doesn't actually place you two any closer. Just swapping places if any.
  
• Staying close to Genshin is tricky as his basic melee combo always varies in length and variety of claw swipes and sword swings. While these can be counterd with the right timing, Genshin will likely either deflect it, or continue the combo uninterrupted, with the final hit being a guard break.
  
• When an attack does get deflected, four out of five times Genshin will initiate a spinning cartwheel attack seen by many of the claw ninjas earlier on. Except this hurts a lot more and taking two of these in a row will leave you close to death. Each attack hits too fast for it to be countered, blocking and dodging is the only good course of action.
  
• Sometimes though Genshin will prepare for a forward charge move that leaves him wide open for an easy short combo. Sometimes he'll do this from neutral or following after a backflip, and it doesn't take too long to figure out the distance and timing. What is tricky though is when he does an instant forward charge out of a backflip, and this is often when you're in the middle of a combo. The actual damage is not insane, but it's the stun state you get put in that is dangerous, as he'll immediately follow up with any of the above moves.
  

Notebooks