Part 21: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 - Chapter 11

The final Sigma 2 exclusive chapter is here, and the third playable character is everyone's favorite purple haired ninja. Also my favorite of the three extra characters by far.



Ayane
Ayane, hands down, is the best of the three female playable characters in Sigma 2. Not only is her moveset very faithful to the form and style of how she fights in her own series, but her gameplay in Sigma 2 is the closest any character gets to feeling like how Ryu did in vanilla NG II. Specifically, the fact that she has her own version of incendiary shuriken, and her rate of delimbing with the Fuma Kodachi feels somewhat faster, likely due to the already increase attack speed that she weilds. She's a fun character that makes it even more unfortunate that you can only play as her in this chapter and in the Team Mission mode. Being able to go through Ryu's game with her would've been appreciated.


Fuma Kodachi
A pair of short blades handed down within the Tenjin school.
"Kodachi" is a catch-all term for any Japanese sword. Easy to manipulate, they are ideal weapons for rapid slashing attacks to take the initiative and keep an enemy on his toes.
They are practicularly suitable as complements to physical attacks, allowing one to weave kicks and slices into a combo offensive that denies an enemy the chance to counterattack. Forged with blades as thin as possible for lightness, what they lack in reach they make up for with damage in close-range attacks.
The name comes from the legendary Fuma clan, a famed group of medieval ninja that favored these weapons.

Take the dual swords, but make them shorter and thus swing even faster. They have a level of precision that the original dual swords did not have (a design that made sense for the wide range of attack and delimb rate), and in Ayane's hand it turns her into another murder blender.


Flash Kunai
Throwing knives that explode upon penetrating a target.
When thrown, the iris flower spins and ignites a fuse, which upon impact is brought into contact with explosive material mounted on the grip, detonating it.
The tip features reversed spikes designed to make the kunai difficult to remove quickly after impact, enhancing its effectiveness. This is a weapon of both beauty and brutality.

Next to the Fuma Kodachi, the Flash Kunai is an equally important weapon for Ayane as it takes a tool that used to belong to Ryu and for arbitrary dumb reasons it is now her's. It may not be an instant delimb guarantee like it's NGII counterpart, but the damage is much appreciated.


Art of the Raging Mountain God
The Art of the Raging Mountain God is a secret Tenjin technique. Chanting the words and performing the gestures imbues one's fists with the aura of all nature and creation, allowing them to release an earthquake-like shockwave that pummels opponents.
The actual amount of aura generated is directly preportional to the psychic energy of the user; a powerfully-focused individual can use it to move heaven and earth, while a less spiritually advanced individual may find themselves sucked into the raging vortex of pure energy generated by their own spell.

A standard AoE Ninpo blast that is as rote as most other Ninpo in the series. It's only interesting detail is that if you remember your DOA story moments, this ninpo is Ayane's signature, with the initial chant and symbols and everything. Really only an easter egg those players would get, otherwise it's a pretty typical "get off me" move.


Bosses

Obaba
While I generally am positive on Ayane's chapter, this boss fight brings it down quite a notch. One because Obaba is a character that even back in Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword I felt did not deserve to come back, and you delt with her pretty swiftly in that game. The second is because her fiend form, moves, and variety in which they're used is just uninteresting as hell. A multi hit melee combo, a 360 sweep, an overhead stomp, a command grab, it reminds you very clearly that these extra chapters and content for Sigma 2, at the end of the day, are very cheap and quickly made. The exception of course being the actual gameplay systems for these playable characters, but for any character action game when isn't that the case?