Part 22: Ninja Gaiden II - Chapter 9

Welcome to the jungle, Ryu Hayabusa. You're entering the absolute worst section of Ninja Gaiden II with this chapter. Listen to us talk about why it's shit as well as ruminate on what completely new weapons Ryu could possibly use in the future.



Vigoorian Flail
A vicious flail made during the Middle Ages in the Vigoor Empire.

An old favorite from Ninja Gaiden 1, the Vigoorian Flails are the final weapon in our arsenal (or 4th if you're going by Sigma 2 and its fucked up ordering). Like with the Lunar and Dragon Sword, the Flails perform the same functions you'd expect them to, although as the early game has shown we don't need to depend on these as much for those pesky ghost fish. In fact, the faster combat engine of this game makes these the definitive weapon for generating high hit combos, staggering humanoid enemies, and getting lots of essence as the result.


Fiends

Sentry

Hover versions of the Executors made specifically for this chapter, as they hover over the water and cannot be destroyed by Obliteration Technique. Fighting them is as shallow as the water combat itself, as you just home in with your fastest weapon's attacks (the Falcon's Talons in my case), and tear them to shreds


Death Worm

A very annoying enemy type, these worms burrow out of the ground, swing their bodies around at you, and will even use their giant proboscus to impale you for lots of damage. The thing that makes them not fun to deal with though is that there's no visual hint or indicator of where they're going to pop up. The assumption is that they'll always try to appear right underneath Ryu, but it's not always exact, and trying to stay on the move too much means putting yourself at a greater distance, thus prolonging the battle.


Blood Eel

An aquatic enemy designed to be the successors to the Fiend Sharks in Ninja Gaiden 1. They can swim towards you and bite, but this time their bite is more aggravating as they'll flying out in a random direction afterwards. Thankfully, Gatling Spear Gun makes quick work of them, but only in the first area you encounter them. There's a later section where they return where that's simply not viable, and the alternative approach as you'll find is to abuse the Eclipse Scythe's UT.


Spriggan

A fairly cool enemy type as it's one of the few non humanoid enemies that demonstrate the game's delimb system. Spriggans are the successor to the Ghuls from the first game, which even back then you could say where the predecessor to this game's delimb system as they could lose an arm or head and still fight. Here their behavior changes quite a bit due to have a massive cannon on one arm and a chainsaw on the other. Both are important to deal with, and depending on which arm gets taken will change their strategy. Same for legs. And of course they'll keep going without a head. They're undead technically.

Bosses

Giant Death Worm

A boss fight in Ninja Gaiden II that is so shit that Sigma 2 does away with it entirely. The entire set up for this fight is just not fun, with the ugly green tunnel restricting your ability to move, and this boss having a command grab that has its length and damage change depending on which end of the tunnel it starts at, which means on higher difficulties that move is an instant death. Trust me when I say be glad I didn't show the fight as it's normally seen by other players. It's not worth it. This boss is shit, and is unexciting in concept.


Quetzacoatl

Giant dragon like creatures that as I was looking up the name made me realize we technically had faced juvenile versions of these things in the game already. But these are boss versions, and frankly they aren't that much better to fight. They fly around the arena, hang back and shoot projectiles, and are highly susceptible to the Art of the Piercing Void if you manage to land it. Not as aggravating as the Giant Death Worm, but this is an equally pointless fight that Sigma 2 also saw fit to remove. Good riddance I say.