Line #9 VideoGame/NinjaGaidenII2008


1	! Spoilers for all 3D ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' games preceding this one, particularly ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden2004'', as well as the ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive'' games up to ''Dead or Alive 4'' will be left unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!
2	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ninja_gaiden_ii_2008.jpg]]
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4	''Ninja Gaiden II'' is a StylishAction HackAndSlash game developed by Team Ninja of Creator/KoeiTecmo and published by Creator/{{Microsoft}}. It is the sequel to ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden2004'' and was released worldwide for the Platform/Xbox360 in June 2008.
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6	Following the events of the first game, Ryu Hayabusa is contacted by the CIA agent Sonia. The trip turns out to be a diversion, as the rival Black Spider Ninja Clan assault Hayabusa Village and make off with the Demon Statue they guard. They, along with a new group of Archfiends, led by Elizébet, plan to use it to resurrect the ancient Archfiend, Vazdah. So follows another globetrotting trip as Ryu hunts down the fiends with the help of Sonia.
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8	''Ninja Gaiden II'' introduced a dismemberment system, where various attacks could tear off different limbs on enemies, changing their attack pattern thereafter: a missing arm would force them to use another weapon, while a lost leg would leave them crawling on the ground, reducing their threat -- up until they attempt a suicide attack.
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10	In 2009, ''Ninja Gaiden II'' received an UpdatedRerelease for the Platform/PlayStation3, ''Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2'', which added additional story, stages, a co-op mission mode, a "Chapter Challenge" mode and additional characters in the form of Ayane, Momiji and Rachel. It also adjusted the game's difficulty, reducing the overall number of enemies, while increasing their health. The Sigma version is generally regarded as a drastically inferior version of ''Ninja Gaiden 2'', due to many controversial changes from a new director that heavily impacted the intent of the original title, such as the removal of gore, the drastically reduced enemy count and bloated HP pools, the removal of several weapons, unbalanced gameplay, and many other issues that effectively changed the game from being a very challenging and heavily action focused and bloody title, to something more akin to a more casual, and far easier title. In 2013, ''Sigma Plus 2'' was released on the Platform/PlayStationVita, which added a few changes, like adding a bit of gore back, and cutting the frame-rate in half.
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12	''Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2'' also is included in the ''Ninja Gaiden Master Collection'' for Platform/PlayStation4, Platform/XboxOne, Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS, Platform/NintendoSwitch, and Platform/MicrosoftWindows.
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15	!This game contains examples of:
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17	* AIBreaker: In ''Ninja Gaiden II'', midair attacks with the scythe. The Y button attack in particular ("Blood Rain") causes Ryu's landing to be delayed nearly a full second -- most enemies and even certain bosses will dash underneath you and get hit by the scythe.
18	* AlasPoorVillain: Genshin is from the rival Black Spider Ninja Clan who allied with Elizabet to resurrect the Archfiend, and sees Ryu as a WorthyOpponent. After multiple encounters that end with a stalemate, Genshin is formally defeated and reveals he was something of a pawn in the whole thing. Genshin is then revived as a fiend and defeated once more against Ryu with the True Dragon Sword, with Elizabet lamenting his uselessness. Ryu is subsequently enraged [[TakeUpMySword he picks up]] Genshin's sword The Blade of the Archfiend and uses it in conjunction with the Dragon Sword through the remainder of the game (it replacing the weaker twin swords "Dragon's Claw and Tiger's Fang" you previously had). Ryu then places Genshin's sword among [[WeaponTombstone the field of the buried warriors]].
19	* ArtificialStupidity: In ''II'', the Werewolf fiends cannot get on a table if Ryu jumps on it. A patch made things even more stupid, with the Werewolf fiends able to get on it but not get ''off''.
20	%%* BeamSpam: Dagra Dai in ''Ninja Gaiden II''
21	* BloodierAndGorier: The original Xbox 360 release of ''II'' is probably ''the'' bloodiest Koei Tecmo game ever, never mind Team Ninja. Blood will fly, limbs will be severed, Ryu's moves are specifically bolstered to be dismembering his foes as brutally as possible, and every arena is going to end covered in the viscera of your foes. ''Sigma 2'' was actually panned by some fans because of the [[{{Bowdlerise}} censorship]] that removed most of the excesses of gore even if the brutality remained.
22	* BossInMookClothing: The combat robots appearing on board the ''Daedalus'' and in Moscow have lots of health and cannot be taken out by most Ninpo, as well as being resilient enough to avoid an easy limb removal kill as well.
23	* {{Bowdlerise}}: While ''Sigma 2'' brought great additions such as new playable characters, game modes and a multiplayer option to warrant its deserved critical acclaim, it also got some vocal criticism from some due to the direction of removing the potential bloodbath present in the 360 version. Rather than see gallons of blood, dismembered limbs and body parts were turned into purple mist, which creates a rather odd effect because Ryu still performs brutal actions against enemies, only to see them gush out purple-colored smoke.
24	* BulletHell: ''Ninja Gaiden II'', Master Ninja mode. Just… [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvTPjdTRfH4 watch.]]
25	* CallBack:
26	** The SealedEvilInACan, Vazdah, came from the corpse of Vigoor from the first game.
27	** A diary found in the game mentions how Ryu’s path of destruction in the first game ended up bringing about a democracy in Vigoor.
28	** Genshin’s vendetta against the Dragon Clan is due in part to [[spoiler:the death of Gamov in the first game]].
29	* CheckPointStarvation: ''Sigma 2'' has a few passages where you have to go through several long, tough fights without the possibility to save in-between, most notably the last parts of Chapter 13 (including the very grueling stairway fight), 14 (the graveyard fights) and the first half of Chapter 16 (the very long straight corridor). The latter two have an appearance of {{Recurring Boss}}es out of nowhere without the usual auto-save. These passages are stressing in Normal but get ''really'' sadistic in Master Ninja.
30	* DamnYouMuscleMemory: In ''Sigma 2'', the bow is aimed and fired with the triggers instead of the face buttons for ''Ninja Gaiden'' and ''Ninja Gaiden II''. Justified since it allows to throw shurikens even with the bow equipped but it does take a bit of time to get used to it. The opposite is even worse: in ''II'', many ''Sigma 2'' players will try to throw shurikens mid-jump and fire an arrow; it won't work. Same deal with guarding: for the Xbox games, it's on the left trigger; on the [=PS3=], it's L1. Consider the consequences of letting your guard down for one second in ''II'', this can be a problem.
31	* DidntThinkThisThrough: The Greater Fiends challenge Ryu again in the Underworld, thinking they have the home field advantage and thus will surely claim his soul compared to their resounding defeats in the living realm that sent them back here to begin with. [[VillainForgotToLevelGrind They're fundamentally the exact same as their first encounters]], while deciding to go up against a Ryu mostly kitted out and carrying the [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement True Dragon Sword]], so they're subsequently and rapidly KilledOffForReal.
32	* ElevatorActionSequence: Rachel's chapter in ''Sigma 2'' has one of these.
33	* ExpospeakGag: In the middle of the "Flying Fortress Daedalus" level in ''Ninja Gaiden II'', the intercom voice suddenly stops being serious for a second.
34	--> ''"Another intruder has been detected with explosives. A blonde woman. Message to all units: [[DistractedByTheSexy she's hot!]]"''
35	* EyepatchOfPower: Genshin has one
36	* FauxActionGirl: Sonia in ''Ninja Gaiden II'', plays the badass CIA agent a little more convincingly. While she manages to get captured and needs rescuing at the start, she repays the favor by showing up like a {{big damn hero\|es}} and saving Ryu from a battle against impossible odds, and later by strolling around the Daedalus, casually dispatching ninja {{mook}}s with a rocket launcher. Unfortunately, she gets demoted by getting captured ''again'', put into a dress marginally ''less'' {{Stripperific}} than her regular attire, and fails to do anything useful from that point on (although admittedly, it's kinda hard to do anything [[spoiler: in the Underworld]] if you're not a badass {{Ninja}}.
37	* TheFaceless: [[spoiler:Kasumi]] in ''Sigma 2''
38	* FieldOfBlades: In ''II'', the last part of the infamous [[MarathonLevel Chapter 11]].
39	* Foreshadowing: In the notebooks you find, a Black Spider Ninja revives another one, which the revived ninja calls foolish and dishonorable. [[spoiler:Elizebét revives Genshin when he’s near death by turning him into a Fiend, something that Ryu finds dishonorable.]]
40	* HardLevelsEasyBosses: While the levels are basically massive gauntlets with endless hordes of cheap {{mook}}s, most bosses are surprisingly easy to take down. Even the four Greater Fiends and the FinalBoss pose little threat. ''Sigma 2'' balanced things by reducing the amount of on-screen {{mook}}s but made most of the bosses harder, improving their AI and health. Played straight in Ayane's chapter in ''Sigma 2'', though; Onibaba is considerably easier than the mooks you have to get through first, particularly at higher difficulty levels.
41	* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: In ''Ninja Gaiden II'', the difficulty runs from Acolyte, Warrior, Mentor to Master Ninja.
42	* KaizoTrap: The giant armadillo boss in ''Ninja Gaiden II'' explodes after death, which kills you instantly. The only way to avoid a OneHitKO is to hold the block button, which is rather counter-intuitive since no other explosive attack in the modern series can be blocked.
43	* LethalLavaLand: The underworld in ''II'', which can be accessed by leaping into Mount Fuji.
44	* LighterAndSofter: ''Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2'' when compared to the original ''Ninja Gaiden II'', graphically speaking. Most of the blood and gore is removed and it uses noticeably brighter color tones and a bloom effect, thankfully the Vita version - ''Sigma Plus 2'' restored all the gore.
45	* LivingStatue: In ''Sigma 2'' you fight a giant Buddha statue as a WarmUpBoss; a few chapters later, ''the freaking Art/StatueOfLiberty''.
46	* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: An issue in ''Sigma 2''. For example, you have a loading at the chapter screen, then if you want to change costumes you have another loading, and after you've selected the outfit, you have to go through the chapter screen loading ''again''. ''twice'' between two events.
47	* LudicrousGibs: Every weapon in ''Ninja Gaiden II'' can dismember and dice opponents, [[OnlyAFleshWound not that this deters them from fighting]]. Lycanthropes will even pick up stray body parts and throw them at you.
48	* MacrossMissileMassacre: Thanks to some {{BFG}} toting ninjas in the later levels of ''II/Sigma 2'', you get to be on the receiving end of these.
49	* TheManBehindTheMan: Vazdah is this to V
50	* MercyKill: One of the developers of ''Ninja Gaiden II'' described Obliteration Techniques as this, but considering dismembered {{mook}}s still go after you and will occasionally [[TakingYouWithMe use a suicidal maneveur]], "mercy" might be overstating it.
51	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: A minor example in ''II''/''Sigma 2'' (so minor that Ryu [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu fixes it pretty fast]]) [[spoiler: While escaping Mt. Fuji with Sonia, a drop of Ryu's cursed Dragon Clan/Fiend blood revives the Archfiend Vazdah into its OneWingedAngel form]].
52	* {{Nerf}}: Incendiary Kunai in ''II'' systematically dismembered enemies the first time and killed them with a second one. In ''Sigma 2'', those used by Ayane are quite effective in normal difficulty, but are about as useful as shuriken at higher difficulties. ''Sigma 2'' also removes the ability to charge arrows. Then again, since projectiles are rendered infinite in use, keeping them as powerful would've turned them into Game Breakers.
53	* NonStandardGameOver: You can shoot Sonia dead near the end of ''Ninja Gaiden II'', which will result in this.
54	* OneHitKill:
55	** Master Ninja Mode's ungodly difficulty in ''Sigma 2'' relies on the fact that the player has very little room for mistake. Several enemy attacks like fire geysers, and any boss grapple or {{mook}} suicidal attack will kill you instantly regardless of your lifebar's length.
56	** In your arsenal, the Inazuma Drop for any non-boss humanoid enemy. The only caveat is that you have to actually pull it off.
57	* OnlyAFleshWound: A game mechanic in ''II''/''Sigma 2'', where enemies act differently depending on how they've been dismembered. In some ways, they become more dangerous when they've lost a limb, and will liekly do a grab/suicide attack that's very hard to avoid and heavily damaging.
58	* PainfullySlowProjectile: Averted in ''Ninja Gaiden II'', where white ninja archers fire explosive arrows so fast you can't possibly dodge them in time; they're also unblockable and can hit you underwater. In Master Ninja Mode, you fight them right at the beginning, waiting for you across gaps or targeting you while running on water. [[FakeDifficulty Everyone's got their four-leaf clovers]]? Thankfully, they are fewer and a bit slower in ''Sigma 2''.
59	* PerfectPlayAI: Genshin, essentially the Ryu Doppelgänger from the first game but ''slightly'' toned down. Key emphasis on “slightly”.
60	* PrecisionGuidedBoomerang: You can throw the [[SinisterScythe Eclipse Scythe]] like a boomerang as a wall attack in ''Ninja Gaiden II''. ''Razor's Edge'' also adds this move as a hold-and-release attack.
61	* ProductPlacement: ''Ninja Gaiden II'' has some in the New York level, notably for Toshiba. Strangely, you don't see them in ''Sigma 2'', as they’ve been replaced with adverts for [[ContinuityNod DOA]][[VideoGame/DeadOrAlive TEC]].
62	* RecurringBoss: [[RedOniBlueOni The Tengu Brothers]] in ''Sigma 2'': you fight one alone in Chapter 5, who flees in the middle before you can finish it off; you fight them together at the end of the same chapter. At the beginning of Chapter 14, you fight the two but one of them escapes. You kill the other, and the one that escaped reappears at the end of the chapter, [[FlunkyBoss with a few other ninjas]]. Finally, the two reappear in Chapter 16. What's interesting is that you almost ''always'' have to fight them after going through several long and harsh fights, [[CheckPointStarvation with no possibility to save between the fights]], meaning you'll rarely confront them at full health.
63	* RecurringRiff: "A Hero Unmasked" in the soundtrack of ''Ninja Gaiden III''
64	* RefugeInAudacity: The boob-jiggling feature in ''Sigma 2''; you can even do it during ''cutscenes''.
65	* SceneryPorn: Some of the levels in ''Ninja Gaiden II'' are ''gorgeous''. Special mention goes to the chapter taking place atop the Tokyo skyscrapers. The game also has one of the more beautiful game portrayals of central Moscow (albeit the city is never named), going through Red Square, the GUM, the Underground, some nearby churches and buildings, before ending in Spaskaya Tower. [[SymbologyResearchFailure St. Basil's Cathedral]], unfortunately, is absent.
66	* SequelEscalation: ''Ninja Gaiden Black''/''Sigma'' are NintendoHard with moderate gore, playthroughs are done at a relatively slow pace, you never fight more than three or four enemies at once and the strongest techniques are restricted in use. ''II'' takes the gore to [[LudicrousGibs ridiculous levels]], is considerably faster, requires offensive strategies and you frequently fight insane number of {{mook}}s. Combos, weapons and Ultimate Techniques are cranked up to the point they would've been absolute {{Game Breaker}}s in the first game. ''Sigma 2'' toned down the gore and number of enemies, though increased AI and boss/{{mook}} resilience, ''Sigma Plus 2'' included all that in addition to restoring the gore.
67	* StealthPun: This one's a bit of a stretch, but "Florentine" is both an Italian identity (via its city) and a term used for DualWielding. In ''Sigma 2'', Ryu receives dual katanas in the Venice-based chapter (Venice being a city in Italy).
68	* {{Stripperiffic}}: Sonia's outfit in ''Ninja Gaiden II'' is just as much, if not more so, to the extent where the diaphanous gown-and-lingerie ensemble she ends up near the end of the game is probably ''less'' revealing.
69	* ShutUpHannibal: In the aftermath of a boss fight in ''3 (Razor's Edge)'', said boss would go on a rant of how the humans will be cleansed. As Ryu, your job is to slowly drag yourself there and [[TalkToTheFist make him talk with your sword instead. Literally.]] And it is glorious.
70	* SwipeYourBladeOff: Will often be done by Ryu with all of his weapons in ''Ninja Gaiden II''. Great: ''more'' blood to clean up.
71	* TakingYouWithMe: A good deal of any crippled, dismembered enemies in ''Ninja Gaiden II''. As well, the Armadillo bosses explode upon death, killing Ryu instantly if he doesn't block.
72	* TeasedWithAwesome: The Blade of the Archfiend at the end of ''Ninja Gaiden II''. Since you get it at a point when only bosses and large enemies remain, you can only use the Underworld Drop (the most powerful combo in the game) during NewGamePlus.
73	* TurnsRed: The Armadillo bosses in ''Ninja Gaiden II'' turn red and glow when their health is low, becoming somewhat more dangerous. When finally killed, [[MadeOfExplodium they explode]].
74	** Ryu's adventures in New York end with an animated Art/StatueOfLiberty using up its last moments of movement and first moments of freedom extending its hand to helt him escape before sinking into the sea. Rachel's chapter in ''Sigma 2'' sees said statue right back where it should be as the sun rises.

Context VideoGame / NinjaGaidenII2008