Part 31: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 - Chapter 16

The filler chapter returns, but with the usual enemy layout remixes and another blatant example of removing shit while not putting something else meaningful in its place. No one likes empty Gore Pinatas.


This is one of those few chapters in the game where it gates your progress at nearly every step with different enemy encounters in both versions, so there's not really anything that makes this chapter feel drawn out or bloated compared to its vanilla version. There's no real way to speed through or skip sections even if you wanted to.

The Tengu Brothers return for one final showdown, but as usual they are given no introduction or fanfare from Ryu's perspective. Centaurs are removed completely from the location they actually show up in, and the worst offense is the tunnel of gore pinatas. In the vanilla game, there was always at least one enemy inside each one you burst open, but here you go about 4-5 gore pinatas at a time with nothing until you finally get one that has enemies. And it actually holds more in a single one than in the base game. NGII on the 360 you would get about 3 ninjas on average for each one of those sacs, but in Sigma 2, when you do get enemies it's usually about double that. It's ultimately still less enemies in this section than you would've fought in the vanilla game, but I can see the reasoning behind this decision, sort of. The last thing Team Ninja wanted to happen was have the player overload the game's memory with enemy spawns, so they spaced them all out to make sure it was as controlled as possible. Controlled, yes, but still boring.

Oh, and the devs forgot to fix the visual inconsistency that is Sonia's missing neck tattoo while in that dumb dress, so I'm going to assume the theory of it being one of those fake sticker tattoos is correct.