Part 32: Ninja Gaiden II - Chapter 14
The end is upon us. Chapter 14 is one hell of a boss rush, with both old and new foes being vanquished for good. All in all, a solid end to this extremely fun yet flawed action game. Good shit, Itagaki.
Blade of the Archfiend
The True Dragon Sword and Blade of the Archfiend, wielded together.
Yep, the Dragon Sword isn't the only weapon in the game to go up to level 4. By combining the True Dragon Sword with Genshin's Blade of the Archfiend, these two become the new dual sword weapon, and it's quite possibly the best out of every tool in the game. All the same moves, extra power, and a couple new combos that are so awesome that I can't actually show them off in this particular video. Mainly because it requires a humanoid enemy to use it on, and there aren't any to be had in the entire chapter. Whoops.
Bosses
Dagra Dai
After all the build up about Dagra Dai, we finally get a boss fight with the man himself. And it is terrible.
For real, this is a fight that I wish got the same treatment that the Tunnel Worm got in Sigma 2 by being removed entirely, but unfortunately there's too much story significance to ignore him. Really, the major problem is that he hovers out of reach a lot of the time, but while we've had bosses that like to fly around (Zedonius, Elizabet), he's just high enough that not even the scythe's air combo can hit him reliable half the time. And this is made worse by the AI not really following a consistent pattern with which order of moves it goes with, as he could stay in the air for a long time either using an electric strike attack, or summoning a serious of energy pillars before finishing with a hard to dodge beam.
When he's on the ground, hits still aren't free as he's prone to teleport around, go into a command grab without warning, and use his tentacles to slap you at very far ranges. Also he can summon Vangelfs to get in your way, but there's actually an exploit where you avoid killing the enemies in the tunnel leading to the fight, and when the battle starts all the Vangelfs will be stuck behind the door. It plays havoc with the camera somewhat, but it negates one of his moves entirely. Still, for a Greater Fiend type boss, this one is still a colossal let down.
Archfiend Vazdah
The final boss of the game is actually a two phase fight like the Vigoor Emperor was in Ninja Gaiden 1, though its phases are much different. The first fight is against Vazdah in its larval form as it tries to climb to the top of Mt. Fuji. Instead of having a clunky floating platform fight like with Vigoor, this one is all about using the bow and arrow to fire charge shots at its head and abdomen, the two major weakpoints...and that's it. Seriously, you just fire at the head and then the jewel in its abdomen when you can, and repeat until it moves up a level. And as it moves up each level, it does not change in difficulty or strategy. And incredibly boring fight, but thankfully there's another phase after it that is much, much better.
The second phase has Vazdah in his complete form, and it feels extremely appropriate as final boss material. He flies andteleports around a lot, but after each teleport there's some action you need to watch out for. He can summon flaming meteors from the depths, a strike of lightning, dash across the arena from one far end to another, and even will divekick onto the platform to walk around a bit. That said, the best chance you have to deal damage against him is when he positions himself by hanging off of the platform. But even with him being in easy reach to hit, there's plenty of danger to watch out for. His three major attacks when hanging off the ledge is to pound the ground with his fists (they produce VERY large hit boxes), summong a giant head laser that can be avoided by dodging into a blind spot, and lastly a grab attack which usually finishes with him teleporting away. So in short, the best way to get damage in is to absolutely dodge the grab attempts as much as possible so that he stays in place. And when he's down to his last bit of health, the Archfiend can be eliminated with a spectacular Obliteration Technique, a fitting end for the final combat encounter of this game.