NINJA GAIDEN Enemy and Combat Analysis - "By the Numbers," Episode 5
300:00 Intro
4:14 NGB Chapter 5 [Normal]
Hey everybody, Guilty here with Ninja Gaiden: By the Numbers, Episode 5, in which I will present analysis for NGB, Chapter 5, on normal difficulty. We wrap up things with the SWAT soldiers in this chapter, fight a ton of Black Spider ninja, and face our first demons (or Fiends, if you’re going off the localization): the red-skinned Galla and the tentacled Hydracubus (魔神ヒュドラキュブス). I put the level 2 Lunar to good use and found out something very interesting about our favorite octopus-faced, multi-eyed monster.
In this run of Chapter 5, I encountered 21 “junior” SWAT, 6 “senior” SWAT, 2 SWAT grenadiers, 19 Black Spider ninja, and 3 galla. If you’ll recall, the standard health pool for the “junior” SWAT was 320. 14 (or 66%) spawned at 320. 5 spawned with 420. And 2 spawned with 400. The standard health pool for the “senior” SWAT was 900. 4 (or 66%) spawned at 900. And 2 spawned at 850. All SWAT grenadiers thus far have spawned at 750 and that continues to be the case. The standard health value for the Black Spider ninja was determined to be 1000. 15 (or 79%) spawned at 1K. 2 spawned at 800, a cut of 20%. One spawned at 1100, a bump of 10%. And another spawned at 1200, a bump of 20%. And lastly, considering each of the 3 spawned with the same value, the standard health value for the Galla appears to be 3000 points.
The level 2 Lunar is pretty handy! The upgrade from level 1 is the same damage-wise as the Dragon Sword: attacks do 50% more damage. The counterattack Concealed Thrust (臥待 – Lie in Wait) hits thrice for 100, 100, and 150 with the level 1 and 150, 150, and 225 with the level 2. This might be a pattern the other weapons follow, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
I must share an unusual observation I made when running this chapter: I got a ton of free damage thanks to wall collisions. I counted over 25 instances of an enemy slamming into a wall, some of those attributable to the same unit hitting a wall multiple times. At 200 damage per, that’s at least 5000 points of free, environmental damage. I will certainly make a note of this going forward and see if it applies at higher difficulties.
Lastly, Hydracubus. The fight with Hydracubus is rather straightforward: there is the left and right “arm,” each with 1000 points; and the main body, replete with 6000 points; and the player must destroy the arms to immobilize and directly target the body. However, I found the state of its arms are immaterial and the body is technically never invulnerable (aside from the regrow animation). In dealing damage to the arms, you also deal what you might consider “chip” damage to the body. 10% of every successful attack on an arm is meted out to the body. You Flying Swallow an arm with the Level 2 Dragon Sword and do 375 on an arm? The body takes 37. You have the Level 2 Lunar and hit an arm with Tempest for 240? The body takes 24. And when an arm is finally cut, there’s a 200 damage stackable bonus. That Flying Swallow I mentioned? You cut an arm with that, the 37 damage to the body is supplemented with 200 extra points. Theoretically, you could kill Hydracubus without directly targeting his main body. Having said that, I’m curious if anyone is even willing to try…
We’re almost a third of the way through the game, but will the next installment be the extensive chapter 6 or… do I have something else planned?
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