What about aerial OT's? And aerial combat general discussion

These days I'm playing Sigma 2, you probably already know it...

Sometimes, when I perform an aerial combo, the enemy gets delimbed in the air, and I think that I want to go to the ground for the juicy OT finish instead of killing him in the air (super risky, and doing aerial combos is already risky on his own). So, all of a sudden I had an epiphany: what about being able to perform OT's IN THE AIR??? That would be fucking amazing, and would also be useful.

Of course, there would be some factors to take into account for a similar design choice. First of all, an aerial OT could be useful if it would also grant Ryu safe frames when he lands. So, in games like NG1 or NG2 versions it would be really great, because performing aerial combos on Master Ninja is quite unsafe, since some enemies will punish you as you touch the ground and you cannot do anything about that (you only wanna do them if there are no enemies around but it's still very risky, you are just going for style and you could regret about that). Though, it could also screw the balance and become a better version of izuna drop, while some players already ban that move from their gameplay to make things more interesting. I myself play Sigma 2 with no izuna drops since it's the most boring move in the game, and I like that the game keeps me on the grounds in many instances, I think it's a more elegant gameplay design. So, I don't know if I would prefere a game with aerial OT's or simply better ground options.

The game with better ground options would be Razor's Edge. Most RE gameplay is ground based and it's one of the reasons I like it. Though, there are instances in which enemies can be launched and delimbed in the air, so I think that game could be use some aerial OT's. Launching got well balanced in RE imo so aerial OT wouldn't be overpowered. So, you launch the enemy, if you delimb him inthe process you can go for the OT, maybe extra meter gain and safe landing frames, if he doesn't delimb you can choose to go for the izuna and use the rebound for setting up another one.

So, since RE can't be changed this could be a nice novelty in NG4. Though NG4 will never be released so this is just nonsense chat.

Edit: I forgot to mention, though, that even if I think aerial OT's would look really cool, I would probably prefere if NG4 had the least aerial game possible, unless they can make it interesting in some ways.

I'm probably going to hook in more on the Edit you made, more than the actual post itself haha. But in terms of aerial combat I always felt that it didn't belong in Ninja Gaiden. I don't mind the flying swallow, or the forwardjumping light attack with the Katana, I mean the XYXXXY abuse. While later enemies tend to block it, aerial attack in Ninja Gaiden tend to be overly safe. I remember years ago on the NG3 forums (vanilla) I made a topic suggesting that XY be removed and that the only launcher would be XXXXY (which is already in most games). XY can just be the hold version it is now (the one the Wooden Sword has in NGB).

Also didn't the Scythe have the ability to OT in the air in NG3:RE? Or was that Steel on Bone?



Around 00:33. Pretty sure that's the Steel on Bone animation. I did quite like that.

That said in terms of all the problems the series has (had), aerial combat is not at the top of the list imo. The money-managment, UT abuse and weird i.frames at times need a stern look first. I feel Razor's Edge took good steps in those regards though, though killing every enemy with UT's is still the "best option" due to it giving the most Karma.

Agreed on everything. Agreed on RE too. Though I'm not sure the best way to farm for karma is spamming UT's, I thought you should do a lot of SoB chain and unleash BR only when it was max, am I wrong? Well, it doesn't matter.

The video you posted is NG3 vanilla, I never played it, though that aerial move looks cool, whatever it is.

Nobody on gods earth except one Japanese (or Chinese, I forget) player (who I totally forgot the name of, and still want to track down) knew how Steel on Bone worked in Vanilla NG3, so for most it would just happen randomly. But it did look really cool, though also not since there was no dismemberment in that game which was weird considering the whole game was built on the mechanic of cutting through bone.

In terms of Karma, you are right! I did some research and the best way to get Karma is to just SoB everything under the sun. Though again, having a 'best option' never really works. The Karma Run I watched parts of was the guy just dodging until a guy did his grab, dodge, SoB chain > repeat. I don't have any better ideas though. Vanquish did try something with the 'special kill'  rule, which gave you extra points for killing enemies using their weakspot, but this again negated creativity - each fight was just a test in how much headshots and back kills you could make while getting the time bonus and no death bonus. Difficult :/

I thnk scoring doesn't blend very well with action games in general. Even on most old arcade jamma games, going for score was mostly a grind. Sengoku 3 was the primary example, it had a fun combo system, but the basic grab was the best move to obtain a high score. Violent Storm: spam the uppercut. Better to play those games freestyle. The only genere in which scoring works great is bullet hell (IMO of course) and some other shooting stuff. Though, Ninja Gaiden II Survival seems to have a good scoring system, high score footage is always fun to watch in that game. Story scoring system was awuful though...