Single Weapon Runs

So yeah, working on beating the game on Master Ninja with each weapon. Completed the Kitetsu few days ago, working on the WarHammer now. I never knew it had a YY for my whole life, so I'm constantly learning new things, also that its 360Y has a grab in it - it will grab any enemy close enough and swing them around like a projectile. Has horrible start-up though so most enemies just i.frame it.

I'll post some updates in this topic as I find cool new things!

Nice hammer play. Also Thank you for editing out the navigation parts.

Ha! Thanks and yeah, I really don't care about all that navigation stuff and menu usage. I am almost at Doku now, so I hope I can try my luck at Awakened Alma soon.

Have to say using the weapon is tricky, it's very tempting to just spam GT's since the weapon is so slow. 360Y is nearly useless as most auto-dodge it. >Y is pretty good, but has monsterous recovery to the point that Paz-zu punishes it. YY is good, slow startup but quick recovery ... but has issues with targetting. The UT has shorter range than a freak'n breath. The wall attack is decent, but again has huge recovery. The best move out of the bunch seems to be >X, which is fast and has good recovery, but garbage damage output.

Thanks for the insight. The GT is always the universal answer in NG... I try to not spam it but in some instances it seems there is no other choice. I would say, in most NG games you can almost play without it but sometimes things align in a way that trying something else than GT would be too risky. Reading what you say here I can only imagine what nightmare have to be the hammer. I think I used the Dabi in the past and it was nice, especially the Y counter. Though the hammer have to be really difficult to use.

Yeah GT tends to be this great fallback. Doesn't help that after a wall-attack enemies are in long enough hitstun to get a free GT in, which generally kills them outright, making the combination of the two strongest attacks in the whole game even worse together haha.

I do think they balanced it nicely in NG2 where it had a high delimb against walls, but only against walls, and having it do crap damage otherwise. I could never land it in NG3:RE for whatever reason. In NG:B it really lacks any downside, besides it not working on some of the higher ninjas unless you stun them first, but that's just to prevent spamming.

The Dabilahro is a straight upgrade I feel, kind of like how the Flails just wreck the Nunchucks.

So far the Hammer run is fun though. Never used the weapon so it is fun to experiment. Who knows, I might find something new haha!

Royta/Raeng wrote:I might find something new

Let me know about Alma XD

Just finished Doku, he wasn't easy, actually nailed me a few times. In the end I found out that I could only safely punish his rush attack with a >Y, any other move used as a punish or any other move being punished meant I could eat a raw grab due to me being in recovery. 

I have no clue how I'm going to do Alma lol haha. Probably Item Spammmmmmmmmm!

I like this idea.

Limiting yourself to a certain weapon (especially one you don't often use) can lead to all kinds of fun stuff. Or...it could just be a miserable experience LOL. This reminds me I still have to do single legion runs in CL.

Birdman wrote:I like this idea.

Limiting yourself to a certain weapon (especially one you don't often use) can lead to all kinds of fun stuff. Or...it could just be a miserable experience LOL. This reminds me I still have to do single single legion runs in CL.

Word! Limitations can open new possibilities, same goes for real life.

Question: How does NG/NGB handle NG+?

How does NG/NGB handle NG+?

No ng+ in NG1. NGB has a huge mission mode though.

I like this idea.

Limiting yourself to a certain weapon (especially one you don't often use) can lead to all kinds of fun stuff. Or...it could just be a miserable experience LOL. This reminds me I still have to do single single legion runs in CL.

I still can't believe people don't do this more often, it was the first type of handicap I ever did (single gun runs in Resident Evil 4). They are always a ton of fun and very good learning experiences.

Question: How does NG/NGB handle NG+?

NG2004 has a New Game Plus in which Essence carries over and I believe also Ninpo-capacity and healthbar, but sadly no weapons. Ninja Gaiden Black removed this entirely. 

Update on the run:
Just beat 120 Berserkers in a row without using healing items or cheese tactics, took me about an hour of intense action. Just put on some good tunes while I played and it was pretty fun haha. I'm confident I can do that with every weapon now though doing it with the Nunchucks will probably take forever lol.

Proud update:


Managed to destroy Awakened Alma on my second attempt using the Warhammer, got her in a good loop and just downright wrecked her. She got two grabs in though, so I had to use one Talisman of Rebirth (not a bother, since there's a free one closeby). I really feel like I've found the way of beating her consistently, really happy with that!

Looking forward to the video

Beat the Warhammer Run, but I'm not that happy with it. Had some really fun runs with Smaugan, even finding this weird little trick with the hammer to avoid one of his moves. Alma went great. But I stumbled badly against Ishtaros, Marbus and Fiend Murai. The next run is Dabilahro I think, to get the heavy weapons out of the way, but I'm going to go into the lab against Ish and Murai for a bit to really learn them as I only know how to fight them using Ninpo Spam, which isn't worth it.





EDIT: should note that the Ghost Fish were really annoying to deal with. I either had to use Flame Wheels and wait just until the end to use 360Y and then Flame Wheels again (which was a great drain on my resources) or use the continuous jump trick to avoid them completely (which isn't easy).

The time has come, and so have I! The chance for Alma to die! Enjoy man, Warhammer vs Awakened Alma!

I still coudn't watch these last videos, I only watched the AA fight. I'll watch everything. I wonder if there is any way to hit Alma and keep Ryu safe without using ninpo. Also sucks that NGB has no ng+, but I guess this will make your runs more economical. It is just a huge game...

> safe alma punish
You can, just not with the Warhammer. >X might be safe, but the range is terrible so I don't recommend it. >Y can be safe if you space it really good, but with the shifting camera and all that it just wasn't happening. Pretty sure that >Y with the UF and Dabi is safe. Certain punishes from the TDS are also valid from my testing and 100% safe. If your timing is really perfect though you can do an attack, cancel with Inferno, have it knock her down and get back up only to be knocked down by the Inferno shot - which you can then follow up with >Y - XY (as you see me do near the end).

> runs
It is going to take more and more time slowly. Dark Dragon Blade Only won't be that long (just Chapter 15 and 16). But DS, Lunar and Nunchucks will take a long time. Working on Dabi now. Will do Plasma Sword only in NG2004. Can't get enough of this game at the time at any rate!

Maybe you could just do one run for heavy weapons and one run for nunchaku/flails, you could treat the subsequent weapons in the same class as just upgrades. I also think the Lunar run will be cool.

Nawh, I don't mind playing the game a lot (though I probably won't do the Berserker Challenge a lot of times). Mostly looking forward to the Lunar and TDS run, those will be fun. No clue on gods earth how I'm going to beat Awakened Alma with the Chucks haha.

Can I ask if you would be interested into playing the game with a couple of restrictions? I don't judge other playstyles, but I think restricted play can be a lot of fun. Especially no UT, no ninpo, no wall jump. You seem to be already good at no UT play, because there are already not spamming them. When I played NGB on MN I did archive challenge and peristyle challenge no UT no ninpo and it's a lot of fun, and also it's not as hard as it sounds if you allow the Izuna drop. Since you like this game so much, I would suggest at least to try this on lower difficulties because it's really really fun. You could still allow for items and skip boring fights like zombies in the catacombs or stadium challenge. Stadium challenge is not hard imo, it's just a matter of patience.

Alma with nunchaku: LOL you right. Sounds like... impossible?

Nunchucks has been done thankfully, so I can use that as reference. TimmyGun (a masterful NG:B player, one of my favorites) did a run titled Path of the Masocist once. The rules were 'simple': No UT, No Ninpo, Nunchucks only, No Items, No Upgrades All Fights, All Fiend Challenges. He managed to get to chapter 11 I believe. He skipped the Colliseum Fiend Challenge and of screen did until Chapter 13 I think, never beat Awakened Alma. Alma herself can be semi-looped using the kick, you can see it here:



In terms of handicap run with restricted style, it is on the 'todo list'. But I prefer a more 'optimal' play, so only use an attack when it feels right. I think wall-attacks and OLUTS are a great part of the game and can be used smartly too, but people tend to spam which ruins them. I love to do a GT against the wall for instance, jump up and do a wallslash downwards. But I will do it one time for sure. The list of runs I still have planned (in random order), unless I burn out:

• All Weapons Run (working on that now)
  
• All Missions with all Weapons without Healing (working on that now, finished first row)
  
• NUR-run (not allowed to upgrade health or weapons)
  
• PAIN+ (start as is, level 1 dragon sword, no skills, no healing allowed, no upgrades to health or whatever, no Ninpo)
  
• No Save Run (only save at the start of each chapter)
  
• No cheese run (so no OLUT/wallspam/izuna/GT)
  

That's it!

I've never fought her or even played past the first area, but I'm already sick of her shit. When I finally get to this game I won't stop until I mop the floor with her no damage.

Birdman wrote:I've never fought her or even played past the first area, but I'm already sick of her shit. When I finally get to this game I won't stop until I mop the floor with her no damage.

The game builds it up nicely, since she doesn't spawn additional foes on Normal Mode. And the foes she spawns on higher modes change depending on the difficulty. But yeah, she's a tough nut to crack and generally considered to be the hardest boss in the genre by many; and for good reason haha.

I think wall-attacks and OLUTS are a great part of the game and can be used smartly too, but people tend to spam which ruins them

That's a right observation. Also good luck on the runs. I see that you would teoretically ban the GT too, and I support that! I'd like to try this on NGB. On Sigma 2 I still can't play without the GT in some spots. I tend not to spam it but I still can't figure out how to get out of certain situations, like when you have a mage and two ninja packed together, the risk of getting stunned while the mage is trying to grab you is too high. But hopefully I'll get better.

Dark_Blood_NG wrote:

I think wall-attacks and OLUTS are a great part of the game and can be used smartly too, but people tend to spam which ruins them

That's a right observation. Also good luck on the runs. I see that you would teoretically ban the GT too, and I support that! I'd like to try this on NGB. On Sigma 2 I still can't play without the GT in some spots. I tend not to spam it but I still can't figure out how to get out of certain situations, like when you have a mage and two ninja packed together, the risk of getting stunned while the mage is trying to grab you is too high. But hopefully I'll get better.

Reason is that I just use the GT too much, same with the counter - it is just such a safe bet with each and every weapon. I did like what NG(S)2 did to counters in general, feel way more balanced and risky.

I did like what NG(S)2 did to counters in general, feel way more balanced and risky

Oh but you can still spam them like no tomorrow. It's actually one of the best tool in the game. I think people are scared to block in this game, because of grabs, guard breaks and block stuns in general, but in reality it's safer than people think and sometimes is advisable. It's all about understanding when is better to block and when to evade.

Dark_Blood_NG wrote:

I did like what NG(S)2 did to counters in general, feel way more balanced and risky

Oh but you can still spam them like no tomorrow. It's actually one of the best tool in the game. I think people are scared to block in this game, because of grabs, guard breaks and block stuns in general, but in reality it's safer than people think and sometimes is advisable. It's all about understanding when is better to block and when to evade.

True, but the one nuance they changed is that in NG2 you have to parry just as you are hit (or a bit before) and if you screw up, you get hit with a knockback effect for potential wall-damage. In NGB you just held block and pressed X or Y after you blocked the attack (with a ton of leaway as well), so you were 100% safe. If you failed the parry input nothing happened. That's why I prefer the later counter mechanics (though I still have no clue how it works in NG3:RE).

Ah ok that is what you mean. Yeah it's a cool mechanic, it asks the player to learn the attack strings perfectly. I've always wondered if it's possible to restrict yourself from counters too. Though, it seems the only mechanics that even the high level players seem to still allow in their restricted runs. I don't know, maybe in the future I'll try.

Continued the run today (finally). Managed to beat Awakened Alma. Thought I'd found a loop on her with the Dabi but didn't. Still, this run has convinced me that I like the Hammer more than the Dabi. Dabi really lacks that fast >X that the Hammer has or its quick YY attack. Sure it has the best UT aside from the UF, but eh. Can't be bothered.

The 'loop' I found was hard though. Basicaly an OLUT ET (semi charged), if it hit her she'd fall down but get stuck in her 'I am standing' stance. You could then do two >Y's before she'd recover and start doing random stuff. I think it bugged her AI a bit. I'm going to upload it this week I hope and finish up the whole run! I'll probably take a short break after that or switch to NG04 for my Laser Blade run and maybe later Dark Dragon Blade NG+ run (which can only be done in NG04).

Finally finishing this run up (Dabi), need to get back into my NG zone haha.

Finished the Dabi run. Ishtaros was a nightmare...

You can watch them here!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKz6wVNSUw6GonLLLoE7B_UUen4pbxFNW

For those who want to see the Awakened Alma Fight:



It was NOT easy haha. She was insanely hard to fight and the damage was absolutely abysmal. Ended up using ET into >Y >Y. And ET would stun her if connected.