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[Brannon]

Just got the game and the lack of intercepts has surprised me a bit. No matter, just gotta be more careful. At the moment I'm starting from Ninja Dog and working my way up to Master Ninja difficulty. But ND difficulty is just too damn easy after regular Ninja Gaiden. I'm pretty sure the upper levels will deflate my confidence though, no doubt.

The armband is fruity, and so are the special riceballs

 

[Sinatar]

I'm liking the fact that flying swallow isn't the be all end all attack it used to be against the bosses, makes them much more interesting to fight.

 

[The Faceless Master]

Holy GUACAMOLE!

Chapter 11 Boss:

Spoiler

Doku imprinted his foot on my poor ninja arse. WTF, they made him really hard. The bastard blocks 9 out of 10 flying swallows now and that wouldn't be so bad but when he blocks it, he counterattacks and hits you doing a nice amount of damage. I wonder if it was this way before as I don't quite recall. I really had to throw all at him, spells included. The only good spell for him is the rotating fireballs, as anything else doesn't do any damage.

yeah it was

 

[IJoel]

yeah it was

Hmm... odd. I remember him being fairly easy to beat when I first played the game. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that the NGB version of him is the same as the NG HP2 version. But I might be wrong.

 

[Krowley]

Well, I guess I will take comfort in that. I should be able to rip through it on normal; I just didn't want to.

i'm having the same problem... i'm working my way through normal again even though i've already beat the game twice. i'm wonderring if it requires an actual save from consecutive plays or the last save when you beat the game. I overwrote those a long time ago in various false starts at going through it again.

a lot of the regular enemies seem to have slightly tweaked AI. some of my old tactics are no longer working as well as they used to. those floating bone guys in the monastery seem a little tougher than they used to be (i think maybe they do more damage now), and the pink fiends are a little bit more evasive (or at least it seems that way). The fat ninja guys in the village that shoot magic seem to have smarter tactics now. They don't approach close unless all the samurai's are dead.. they just hang back and shoot at you... i remember them being a little bit stupider. but so far i've only died once, on the bone dinosaur boss, and i've always had a little trouble with him... I've been using a lot of potions though... i'm not sure if it's because of increased difficulty or because i'm rusty.

 

[The Faceless Master]

Hmm... odd. I remember him being fairly easy to beat when I first played the game. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that the NGB version of him is the same as the NG HP2 version. But I might be wrong.

he wasn't hard to beat, just not a flying swallow sucker, you have to do some ground work...

 

[∀ Narayan]

Just got the game and the lack of intercepts has surprised me a bit.

I wonder if they removed it entirely? I wouldn't be surprised, because you can exploit intercepts to the point where attacks can never damage you.

 

[IJoel]

WTF MURAMASA WTF!

Spoiler

No more Armlet of Tranquility.

Haha, the game just became a heck of a lot harder.

 

[Brandon F]

Woo...up to Chapter 6 in Hard. I'm starting to feel like I can possibly beat this mode, but I haven't seen nearly the worst of it yet, I'm just enthused I've gotten this far already, particularly without losing my only talisman. I've purposefully reloaded so many times just to keep that thing.

Just reached the first Evil Ryu fight also, which DOES really feel like some quasi-versus mode. He has pretty much all the sword upgrades, which makes the fight pretty uneven. What's worse is that he can use several more ninja magic tricks at this point with greater stock, he's also invincible when he does it, and I can't figure out how to dodge them aside from using my own simultaneously which of course has zero effect on him. Still, he's actually not too bad, but I'm having trouble beating him without losing my talisman. I should just let go...

 

[Demigod Mac]

Chipping away at Hard in Chapter 4. These new cat ninjas are just brutal. They do this whip-tail throw that pretty much cuts away at least 2/3rd's of a health bar. In fact all of the new throw attacks are just stupidly imbalanced, almost never telegraphed, and damage output is insane. It's a lot like DOA actually.

Also really wish the game gave you the option to use your talisman on death or merely reload. I hate giving it up to some peon grunts, so when I die, I have to sit and let the AI kill me so I can try again to keep it.

Hold Start+Select to reset the game instead.

 

[Hurricane_Chris]

Interest in Black rising... Does it have confirmed 360 BC?

 

[Brandon F]

Cool i'll try Start+Select trick.

Also, I forgot to mention that I think the Windmill Shuriken is gone in Hard mode, it isn't in the usual location you would find it, and I hope it does show up eventually.

 

[iceDragon7]

If theres a Start + Select trick to reset the system
Where is the Select button?!
I'm assuming you mean Back.

 

[Brannon]

Cool i'll try Start+Select trick.

Also, I forgot to mention that I think the Windmill Shuriken is gone in Hard mode, it isn't in the usual location you would find it, and I hope it does show up eventually.

I think the Windmill Shuriken is gone in Hard mode

Windmill Shuriken is gone in Hard mode

gone in Hard mode

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

[Victrix]

Hard is destroying me. Last time I played was Hurricane Pack and I was comfortable and happy. Ninja skills do not age well

Just need to get over the hump, the first few levels are the worst by far.

 

[Future]

-------------
I think the Windmill Shuriken is gone in Hard mode
-------------

It's not .

Getting my ass handed to me by Alma once again. God...one of the only bosses in any game I've ever played that never gets any easier no matter how many times I play it. And now she has minions.

What the hell are the tactics against her. She never seems open to attacks (dodges everything), and if I actually nail her it always seems it's just luck. And sometimes when you attack her she does that bubble move that takes like 75% health. I know eventually I'll win, but damn is there NO strategy other than uh, don't get hit?

 

[IJoel]

I'm on my way to beating Normal mode this weekend. Got done last night with chapter 14 and was reminded of how damn annoying those ghost piranhas are.

 

[Sinatar]

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Give 15 scarabs to Muramasa = Windmill Shuriken on hard.

 

[IJoel]

Give 15 scarabs to Muramasa = Windmill Shuriken on hard.

That bastard took away my ARMLET OF TRANQUILITY!

ARGH!

 

[Excelion]

yeah, i finally have the windmill shuriken with the scarabs, Alma was kinda hard since she's not alone this time (and i didn't have any ninpo attack left). The first 100-kills challenge was hard because of those damn cats flying around everywhere. So far, Alma and Dark Ryu are the only boss who killed me. Lunar staff was very useful against skeletons. Next Boss are the Tanks, i really dislike them.

I noticed the price to upgrade weapons is lower than before, but you CANT find any Devil Elixirs in the game and they're overpriced in store. Also it seems there are a lot more "life of the gods".

Anyone know how to unlock costumes ?

 

[Brandon F]

So far, Alma and Dark Ryu are the only boss who killed me. Lunar staff was very useful against skeletons.

Playing on Hard? Wow. I had big problems on the second boss, as well as fat bastard. The rest haven't been too bad, though I am en route to Alma now.

Oh and I was gonna say the skeletons make for some great orb farming if you use the sword+ultimate techniques. They are slow enough that you can sit back and charge a weapon up to max and let loose earning lots of big yellow drops.

 

[Excelion]

Boss2 cant really harm you when you're in a corner using the block.
Boss3: Stay near him as much as possible so he doesn't use his cannon, evade when he tries to grab you, there is a 3-4 seconds window of opportunity to counter attack.

 

[Brandon F]

Boss2 cant really harm you when you're in a corner using the block.

Yea, but those mages throwing magic at you can harm you doing that. I found shuriken was a real help in keeping those minions quiet and letting me rip on the boss.

Boss3: Stay near him as much as possible so he doesn't use his cannon, evade when he tries to grab you, there is a 3-4 seconds window of opportunity to counter attack.

Yea, the biggest problem here is that Ryu would auto-lock onto a minion when I am air-assaulting the big guy, also I often had trouble dealing with the minions peppering me with gunfire offscreen which causes little damage but a LONG stun count, enough for big guy to wreck me with a big gunarm backhand which absolutely decimates health.

 

[iceDragon7]

Right now on boss 3 and he just ripped me apart. I learned that his Cannon shocks and attacks also take out the minions around him. All I did was run around until he shot his set of shots then press X to dash slash him and repeat. Sometimes the minions got in the way but thats nothing the bosses cannons didnt take care of. Never jump in the air, he just nails you quickly if you jump.

 

[Bebpo]

I was decent at the original and finished it on normal without many problems after the first two levels, but OMFG Black is killing me. I can't beat the first boss on hard ;_; I died like 5-8 times on the level itself leading up the boss and then when I'd finally gotten the hang of dodging and killing the white ninjas once again the black ones show up and so does the boss. Granted I only tried him twice so far on hard but good god I dunno if I'll be sticking with hard. Might need to replay on normal to get my skills back up, but normal is no fun since you don't have the nunchucks and bo staff at the start :\

 

[Unison]

That bastard took away my ARMLET OF TRANQUILITY!

ARGH!

Oh shit, I'm toast! :lol

 

[The Faceless Master]

I was decent at the original and finished it on normal without many problems after the first two levels, but OMFG Black is killing me. I can't beat the first boss on hard ;_; I died like 5-8 times on the level itself leading up the boss and then when I'd finally gotten the hang of dodging and killing the white ninjas once again the black ones show up and so does the boss. Granted I only tried him twice so far on hard but good god I dunno if I'll be sticking with hard. Might need to replay on normal to get my skills back up, but normal is no fun since you don't have the nunchucks and bo staff at the start :\

you get

Spoiler

the bo staff in Chapter 2

on normal

 

[Excelion]

I'm at the end of Level 10 now, just had my second encounter with evil Ryu, this time he had Dabilahro with him

 

[Brandon F]

Don't give up Bebpo! So far the first few chapters have been the biggest hurdle, once you get some upgrades(Lunar Staff level 2 is awesome!) the game starts to fall in place again.

Don't regret losing your talisman once you find it either...I'm kicking myself now for expelling so much energy keeping it around now that I have 99999 orbs in Chapter 7. I'm kinda shocked how easy it is to get that many so fast, replacements are just 20k.

 

[IJoel]

I was decent at the original and finished it on normal without many problems after the first two levels, but OMFG Black is killing me. I can't beat the first boss on hard ;_; I died like 5-8 times on the level itself leading up the boss and then when I'd finally gotten the hang of dodging and killing the white ninjas once again the black ones show up and so does the boss. Granted I only tried him twice so far on hard but good god I dunno if I'll be sticking with hard. Might need to replay on normal to get my skills back up, but normal is no fun since you don't have the nunchucks and bo staff at the start :\

Black seems to have been tweaked enough to make normal feel somewhat different from the original NG. I'm being forced to play through normal as my old save is in my old Xbox and it's still very enjoyable.

 

[Bebpo]

Any tips for this guy on hard? I went through level 1 to get used to the boss again but I'm having no luck on hard. Which weapon works best? I don't really like the non-sword weapons because they have huge recovery times once you start the attack and he always hits me out of it

 

[Brandon F]

I think I used the Lunar IIRC(though sword might go faster). Keep away from the boss and take out his minions doing constant wall run drop attacks. That allows a constant flow of orbs to appear many of which are blue; when you have the chance, do a dropping strike on the boss then immediately block-roll away, always block-roll away. Don't get antsy or take risks attacking the boss head-on, he's slow and will come to you, just picking away with wall attacks and it shouldn't be a problem.

Oh and I just completed the crazy 100-cat challenge right before Alma. What a rush that was, had to use about 4 small potions though I was able to keep my talisman for Alma. I'm ready for ya bitch.

 

[Bebpo]

Thanks, finally beat him after an hour. Now just gotta see if I can survive until lvl.3. One I get to the power ups I'll be in a lot better shape. Even if the Flying Swallow has been nerfed against bosses, it'll still be useful for taking out the minions they bring with them on hard.

 

[Brandon F]

Gee the camera is god-awful in the Alma fight. It tries to keep this elastic line going between you and her, but occasionally it bends down to focus on a minion completely eliminating Alma and all the junk she tosses at you froim view. Much of the time it can't even keep up and Ryu ends up completely OFF SCREEN himself. Her patterns aren't difficult to negotiate, but the camera really inflates the challenge. Horrible.

 

[Bebpo]

Horse dude was pretty manageable on hard. I remember him being impossibly hard the first time I played the game, but in this he's sooooo much easier than the level 1 boss and you can pretty much turtle and kill the magic guys for life.

 

[Brandon F]

Man, I must be the only one that had trouble on him. I killed Level 1 boss on my first attempt, but Level 2 took me at least an hour's worth of restarts.

 

[Future]

Not to mention the fact that the save point isn't right outside, but through the water. So everytime you die you gotta go through extra misc crap to get back to one of the hardest bosses in the game. Horrible X 1000.

But when I settled down she gets easier. Like most enemies in the game, she's the hardest when you are constantly attacking. Better to just keep running along the walls of the arena (which will successfully dodge almost everything) and go for one big attack when she's near.

And yeah the camera is annoying. I noticed that on every boss fight, because the added minions means that there is more stuff on screen that the camera tries to track. But I don't have a problem with it any more. It's like Marvel v Capcom 2...even if you can't see shit or even your character, there are ways to still avoid getting damaged and finding where you are. Get to a safe spot and center the camera behind Ryu and you're good

 

[anotherworld]

is it true about the mission mode where is just fighting coutless of enemies????

 

[Excelion]

i don't know how to unlock the mission mode. In fact, so far i've only unlocked the DOA4 trailer

I just beat Doku, the minions actually helped me because he killed them before they could reach me and they released those lovely blue orbs This area 100-kills challenge is too hard for me, red dragons have been replaced by huge green monsters, i dont have the patience to kill them, it takes 2 dabilaro full xxxyy combo to kill one of them and they're just too strong.

 

[Draft]

I'm on my way to beating Normal mode this weekend. Got done last night with chapter 14 and was reminded of how damn annoying those ghost piranhas are.

There is a very simple trick to beating ghost fishies, and once you know it, they are a better source of essence/life/nippo than any chest in the game. Spoilered just in case.

Spoiler

Just hit the button combo that makes you jump forward. It's been a long time so I forget exactly what buttons. As you're jumping, hammer on X to do the sort of tornado looking sword attack. Now just do that over and over and over again. The second you land, hammer the jump combo buttons, and hit x. Hammer the jump combo. X. Over and over and over. NEVER stay on the ground any longer than it takes to press the jump combo again. Voila, the fish will not be able to touch you, and 2-3 will die each time you jump, as they'll rush in just fast enough to get killed by your sword. I'm not exaggerating when I say you will never get hit. This technique turns groups of fish into a good thing, because it allows you to regain life and nippo inbetween fights.

 

[Sinatar]

There is a very simple trick to beating ghost fishies, and once you know it, they are a better source of essence/life/nippo than any chest in the game. Spoilered just in case.

Spoiler

Just hit the button combo that makes you jump forward. It's been a long time so I forget exactly what buttons. As you're jumping, hammer on X to do the sort of tornado looking sword attack. Now just do that over and over and over again. The second you land, hammer the jump combo buttons, and hit x. Hammer the jump combo. X. Over and over and over. NEVER stay on the ground any longer than it takes to press the jump combo again. Voila, the fish will not be able to touch you, and 2-3 will die each time you jump, as they'll rush in just fast enough to get killed by your sword. I'm not exaggerating when I say you will never get hit. This technique turns groups of fish into a good thing, because it allows you to regain life and nippo inbetween fights.

Using the Vigorian flail is much faster and easier then this, just keep tapping x slow enough to keep swinging, but not fast enough to finish the combo and you will whip around you infinitely and the fish will never get near you.

 

[Comfort_Eagle]

I finally got my copy and I so very much suck, yet im having so very much fun!! Go team ninja.

 

[KingJ2002]

Yea... if you use the vigoorian flails it's easier... it's like a vacuum seeing all of those fish get sucked it and dying so easy.

if you dont have the flails out... run up a wall and slice down constantly... they will follow you up and you will crash down on them with your sword.

but it's MUCH easier to take out the flails

... hard mode is hurricane pack 1... thats nice... i thought the hurricane pack 1 was pretty easy / fun going through it... it provided a challenge but it wasnt just hard on the absurd level. I always thought of a way to finish.

hurricane pack 2 waws a different story... that was hard... HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD...

still fun though


I swore up and down not to get anymore xbox games till the 360... but i guess i got to break that promise to myself.

 

[Goreomedy]

Will this game be supported on Xbox360 launch? The original game's camera really turned me off(played it on a friend's Xbox). I might hold off and get Xbox360 for Dead Rising and the few Xbox AAA releases that interest me.

 

[Mrbob]

Will this game be supported on Xbox360 launch? The original game's camera really turned me off(played it on a friend's Xbox). I might hold off and get Xbox360 for Dead Rising and the few Xbox AAA releases that interest me.

Che hinted that all Team Ninja games will work on 360. Nothing official yet. But considering how well Team Ninja loved the Xbox I'm sure MS will make sure their games work on 360.

 

[Goreomedy]

Che hinted that all Team Ninja games will work on 360. Nothing official yet. But considering how well Team Ninja loved the Xbox I'm sure MS will make sure their games work on 360.

Very good news. I might join the darkside this November.

 

[IJoel]

I just finished NG Black on normal difficulty and MISSION MODE WAS UNLOCKED.

My ranking sucked though. Out of 96 ranked, I'm at #76.

Ninja Gaiden is quite possibly the best game of this generation, and without a doubt a top 5.

What a badass game run. It took me about 11 hours to complete the game.

 

[Mrbob]

I just finished NG Black on normal difficulty and MISSION MODE WAS UNLOCKED.

My ranking sucked though. Out of 96 ranked, I'm at #76.

Ninja Gaiden is quite possibly the best game of this generation, and without a doubt a top 5.

What a badass game run. It took me about 11 hours to complete the game.

Congrats! I'm thinking about restarting on normal too to get my groove back before going onto Hard! Did you get the Arcade Ninja Gaiden unlocked?

 

[IJoel]

Congrats! I'm thinking about restarting on normal too to get my groove back before going onto Hard! Did you get the Arcade Ninja Gaiden unlocked?

No.

I actually forgot to turn in the last scarab, since there's no shop in that area (unless I backtrack.) I reloaded an old save and returned the last scarab and he gave me the game, but it doesn't show up in the menu. I guess I have to finish the game with the game for it to show in the menu.

 

[EclipseGST]

I got my ass handed to me in normal......i beat this on hard last time on my old xbox....NINJA DOG...