NINJA GAIDEN Enemy and Combat Analysis - "By the Numbers," Episode 2

Channel:

Guilty Gaming

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2,780

Published on June 22, 2023 11:06:57 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oJJmb_dvFQ

Game:

Ninja Gaiden Black (2005)

Category:

Show

Duration: 14:23

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29

0:00 Intro
4:41 NGB Chapter 2 [Normal]

Hey everybody, Guilty here with Ninja Gaiden: By the Numbers, Episode 2. Analysis presented in this episode is from NGB, Chapter 2, normal difficulty, with new enemies and new weapons to discuss. Who we’re fighting in chapter 2 includes Riders, Yonin, horses, and the Red Samurai, who is only named “Masakado” in the international version of the game. (An added bit of trivia: other fiends like Smaugan and Paz Zuu are named in both Japanese and international versions of Black, so Masakado might have been an English localization liberty, who knows.)

At any rate, in my run of Chapter 2, I encountered 21 Riders, 16 Yonin, and 4 horses and concluded the following:

The standard health value for the Riders is 480 points. I arrived at this conclusion because this is what 16 of the 21 (or 76%) of all Riders spawned at. 1 Rider spawned with 580 points, a roughly 20% health boost. 3 Riders spawned with 620 points, a nearly 30% health boost. And 1 Rider spawned with 380 points, a nearly 20% health reduction. And it seemingly does not matter if a Rider is horse-mounted or not. As you will see, the 4 Riders that spawn with the higher health values are not on horseback.

The standard health value for the Yonin is 250 points. Nearly 70% of Yonin (11 of 16) spawned at 250. 4 spawned with 300 points, a 20% health boost. And 1 sorry sack of shit spawned with 220, a 12% health reduction.

It took an additional run to make certain, but I can say with confidence the standard health value for the horse is 1000 points. During my first run, the horses were split down the middle: 2 spawned at 1000 and the 2 spawned with 1100. But on a subsequent run, 3 of the 4 horses spawned with 1000, so that settles that.

Although I observed two values at the beginning of the Chapter 2 boss battle—Masakado and his horse—it was clear, on Normal, they were combined into one unit. What’s more interesting about this fight is the discovery it ultimately led to: a separate defense buff for the horses. I’ve seen attacks so far do flat rates of damage across all enemies: light attacks with the Dragon Sword do 80 damage, light attacks with the Lunar typically do 60 damage--you’ll see the Lunar’s Ultimate Technique, Raven’s Veil, ordinarily rip for 1000 total damage, but on Masakado, Raven’s Veil is nerfed to 600 total damage. Twilight, (XY), ordinarily does 60 and 180 damage, but on Masakado, those same strikes registered 36 and 108 damage, respectively. The math wizards at home already figured it out: we’re talking a 40% reduction in damage efficacy. Why?

So, I dug in deeper. Fire Wheels does 200 damage per strike against man-sized enemies, but against horses, that damage is drastically reduced to 40 points. That’s an 80% reduction in damage!

Then I looked at the level 1 Dragon Sword (and Plasma Saber, ostensibly the same weapon). Performed against this genin, the Ultimate Technique, Hundred Wing Slash, deals 940 total damage: an initial rush of 200, 5 slashes for 100 each, followed by a finisher that deals 240. Against Masakado… there’s no difference. Now things make less sense—or maybe more, I guess it depends. Against horses, non-cutting weapons like Lunar are less effective? I guess horses burn differently than people, too? But cutting weapons do the same damage across man-sized enemies and horses.

And birds, too. Apparently.

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