Ninja Gaiden (the one AVGN couldn't beat): No Death Walkthrough for Newbs!

Put your Let's Plays in here.
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Yes, you heard that right: A walkthrough for newbies telling you how to not die once!

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Ninja Gaiden is not a series that needs any introduction. You've heard it all: "Fast-paced action, cinematic cutscenes that pushed the envelope, fun as H.F.I.L., and also one of the hardest games you'll ever play".

Me, I love it just for how interesting it is. If you play it like I do (slow and methodical), then each Act becomes an interesting puzzle. You'll never beat them on your first try, but you will always feel like you learned something each time. If you want to speedrun it and feel like a god of war, you can ALSO do that. You'll die over and over, but the hero moves so fast, and kills enemies so quickly, that you feel like a veritable god when you DO clear a stage successfully!

And that's really what it all boils down to: You just feel strong. You move fast, you jump VERY high in the air, you've got an arsenal of sub-weapons, and you kill almost everything in one hit (save for bosses). Plus, you've got a game with a rockin' soundtrack, and unparalleled presentation. It's a hoot!

But enough about that; Let's talk about...

THE WALKTHROUGH:

Now, this here's the first time I've ever LPed a platformer. All my other LPs were focused on "how do I beat this game as fast as possible?", but that changes when you're not playing an RPG. There's a skill gap: One between me (who's used to the controls, knows where all the items are, how the bosses act, what everything does), and my audience (who still haven't mastered the controls).

My philosophy, then, is that a walkthrough should bridge the skill gap as much as possible. I am almost never going to tell you “this will take timing and reflexes, so git good”, unless there really isn’t any other way. That’s the sign of a lazy walkthrough, to me.

So, whatever I show, it should require as little skill as possible. I WILL include "speedrun sections" for each Act, but only for demonstration purposes. The bulk of this is going to be slow, methodical gameplay that people will (hopefully) be able to imitate without too much practice. Some of the strats will seem a little cheap... For example, the Jaquio strat I use... But, it's all for the newbies!

Now! Let's begin!

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Ninja Gaiden NES: No Death Walkthrough for Beginners (Acts 1 & 2)

STRATS INTRODUCED THIS EPISODE:

JUMPING SLASH: This is what you should try practicing, when you can. It’s not mandatory, and I try to avoid relying on it for the walkthrough, but it’s the only way you can attacking without Ryu stopping.

PAUSE BUFFERING: This is where you hit Pause to… well, pause the game. The enemies may not hit hard, but they’re fast, and there’s a lot of them. Worst of all, the game will spam them near bottomless chasms, so beginners will need this trick (experts will have already memorized things).

WALL CLIMB BUFFERING: I forgot to mention it in the video itself, but you don’t need to press A every time you want to jump off a wall. You can just hold it, then press Left or Right (whichever goes away from the wall). That will let you climb much faster!

SWORD CANCELING: This is where you hold Down while slashing. This has two uses, but the main one is conserving “Ninpo” (your ammunition). This way, you can preserve your…

SPIN SLASH: I keep calling it “the spinning buzz-saw”, but this is the proper name. It does damage every frame (1/60th of a second), grants temporary invincibility, and attacks from all directions. This is the greatest sub-weapon, by far. It’s what makes a “Deathless” play-through doable, even without memorization!

INTENTIONAL DEATHS: This won’t be used in this Deathless playthrough, but it’s a handy trick nonetheless. The game checkpoints you every screen, so you can just die and refill your health! You lose half your Ninpo though, and you get kicked back to the beginning of Acts ?-1, ?-2, or ?-3? (depending on where you’re at).

SCREEN-SCROLLING: If you can’t see the enemy, they don’t exist! They disappear the moment they leave the screen… Some don’t even respawn! So, you run away from them till the disappear. Primarily useful for flying bird enemies (they take 3 HP away!), but it also has applications for “Hammer Bros.” enemies (the ones who stand over gaps and throw objects in arcs).

CHARACTERS SO FAR (Warning: The manual wasn’t proof-read very carefully :P ):


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The CIA's in on it! The plot thickens!

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Ninja Gaiden NES: No Death Walkthrough for Beginners (Acts 3 & 4)

STRATS INTRODUCED THIS EPISODE:

DAMAGE BOOSTING:
Actually, this was in the last episode as well, but only for one brief moment. Now, though, the "speedrun" sections milk them for all they're worth.

Ryu gets knocked back a good ways, depending on which side of the enemy he's facing. Additionally, he gets invincibility frames (the technical term for "he got hit, he's blinking, and he can't get hurt until he stops blinking"). You can take advantage of this in one of two ways...

1) You can "damage boost" Ryu onto a ledge he couldn't have gotten to with a regular jump. You'd jump in the air, land on the RIGHT side of the enemy, then get knocked right far enough to get to the other side. This allows for one very nice, very beginner-friendly trick in Act 6-2... But is otherwise too dangerous to use for newbies. So, apart from that one moment in Act 6-2, you'll only see it in the "speedrun" sections.

2) You can get Ryu onto a high ledge with an enemy on it. There are points where Ryu can't jump high enough to get onto a platform, but CAN jump high enough to hit an enemy ON said platform! The damage boost launches him *up* , as well as to the side, so there are some tricky spots you can get out of. You'll see this in Act 5!

FIRE WHEEL DAMAGE:
As mentioned, this is the wall of fire that goes to the upper-left or right. It's made of *three* parts, so the damage is different depending on how *many* of those parts hit. That's why we needed to be under that boss in Act 3. That was how we'd get ALL of the three parts to connect!

CHARACTERS SO FAR:

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Sorry for the delay! Got permission from the artist, then also had some issues working with the audio. It came out in lower quality for whatever reason, but I cleaned it up a bit. Here's the episode! Note that the final bosses and the ending will be in their own episode. There's a lot to unpack there, after all!

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Ninja Gaiden NES: No Death Walkthrough for Beginners (Act 5 & 6)

THUMBNAIL ART BY: 「O_FishBowl」

O_FishBowl's CONTENT: https://www.semiro.info/category/diary/game_pic_diary/

Special thanks for giving me permission to use it!

LAST NEW CHARACTER:


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mastersord wrote: 5-3: Using the same technique you showed in 6-3, you can climb up and down the the ladder and farm the 1-up on that stage. It's the only farm-able 1-up in the game that i know of. I learned this trick in one of those late 80s cheats and tricks books for Nintendo back in 3rd grade. Those were the days..
The only compunction I have is that extra lives don't really do anything at the end. The final bosses send you back to 6-1 regardless of how many lives you have, as I'm about to demonstrate. I think that was why I glanced over it so much in the last episode, though I don't remember if I knew it respawned...

Anyway, here's the end!

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Ninja Gaiden NES: No Death Walkthrough for Beginners (Masked Devil, Jaquio, & The Demon)

STRAT INTRODUCED THIS EPISODE:

SWORD CANCELING (OFFENSE):
This is the other use for sword-canceling I mentioned all the way at the start. You hold Down before slashing, then let go, to cancel the animation. This lets you slash as many times as you can pull this off, rather than being stuck at two slashes per jump. The Jaquio can be beaten without it through the Beginner strat I showed... But there's no easy way to beat the Demon (a.k.a, 破壊の悪魔, "Destroyer Fiend", "Demon of Destruction", etc.).

Get good at this, if you can manage. If not, just use plenty of pause buffering to avoid the projectiles. Use the Spin Slash, if you die and have to come back; The bosses you kill STAY dead, after all!

NINJA GAIDEN III ENDING SCREEN (Japanese; The English version of this was unused):

JAPANESE:
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ENGLISH (Unused):
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Alright, HERE IT IS! Ninja Gaiden 2! Also, if I do continue the sub requests (I'm undecided), they'll only be at the start of each new LP. I figure anything after that is redundant; The person will have already decided.

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Ninja Gaiden II NES: No Death Walkthrough for Beginners (Act 1-3)

CHANGES FROM NINJA GAIDEN 1:

1) No Spin Slash (!!)

2) No Sword Canceling

3) You can climb walls by just pressing Up or Down, now

4) Ryu flies more horizontally when he gets damaged, rather than in an arc, like in the last game. He still gets SOME vertical distance though, so clipping through ledges is still possible... Just a bit trickier.

5) A new Sub-Weapon was introduced; The "Fire Dragon Balls". They act just like the "Art of the Fire Wheel" from the last game, except they shoot downward, instead of upward.

6) The "Invincible Fire Wheel" (not to be confused with "Art of the Fire Wheel") doesn't go away with just one use, and can be activated at any time. It costs 15 Ninpo, however.

7) Ninpo now has a cap. The cap starts at 40, but can be increased by 10 via Ninja Scrolls found in most stages.

TRICKS THAT STILL WORK:

Pause Buffering: This is where you hit Pause to… well, pause the game. The enemies may not hit hard, but they’re fast, and there’s a lot of them. Worst of all, the game will spam them near bottomless chasms, so beginners will need this trick (experts will have already memorized things).

Intentional Deaths: This won’t be used in this Deathless playthrough, but it’s a handy trick nonetheless. The game checkpoints you every screen, so you can just die and refill your health! You lose half your Ninpo though, and you get kicked back to the beginning of Acts ?-1, ?-2, or ?-3? (depending on where you’re at).

Screen-scrolling: If you can’t see the enemy, they don’t exist! They disappear the moment they leave the screen… Some don’t even respawn! So, you run away from them till the disappear. Can be helpful for certain enemy types!

THE CHARACTERS (All but one are in the 1st episode now, and it's a minor boss):


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Alright, the fateful battle! Ryu vs Ashtar! Note that I was slightly off in regards to the "Art of the Fire Wheel" location. It's on one of those tricky platforms right outside Ashtar's room, not immediately next to it. It's risky enough to get that it's probably worth ignoring.

Also, I got this thumbnail from someone who wasn't the original artist. I tried to find out who did make it, to no avail. If I find him, I will ask for permission, then credit him in the description.

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Ninja Gaiden 2 NES: No Death Walkthrough for Beginners (Act 4-5)

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Alright guys, lots of new things to get used to! I got a new mic, so you'll want to tell me how it sounds while I can still return it! Also, I'm doing something different with Skaizo's audio. Let me know what you think!

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Ninja Gaiden 2 NES: No Death Walkthrough for Beginners (Act 6-7)

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And that's game!

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Final Battle & Ending

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Ninja Gaiden 3... My favorite in the trilogy!

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Ninja Gaiden 3 NES: No Death Walkthrough for Beginners (Act 1-3)

CHANGES FROM THE JAPANESE VERSION:

1) Limited continues. Each continue gives you the standard three lives, meaning you have effectively 15 lives to finish the entire game.

2) Most enemies do increased damage, oftentimes going from doing just 1 Damage in the Japanese version, to doing 3 Damage in our version. In fact, it's more common for an enemy to do 3 Damage than it is for them to do 2. Follow this link to see all the changes so far...

Enemy Buffs

3) Our version is far less generous with the power-ups. The Japanese had the Invincible Firewheel near the start of each and every Act (apart from Act 2), but our version took a good chunk of those out. It also did the same to a lot of other items, like Extra Lives, Potions, Dragon Spirit Swords, and Orange Ninpo. Follow this link to see all the changes so far...

Power-Up Changes

CHANGES FROM NINJA GAIDEN 1 & 2:

1) Enemies don't respawn! Yay!

2) No Ninja Friends! Boo!

3) You can jump *forward* off walls by climbing high enough, then holding the relevant direction while pressing jump.

4) Ryu can cling to the undersides of pipes just by jumping into them, and he can also jump *down* them by holding Down before jumping. If you're don't want to grab onto the underside, hold Down as you near it. Ryu will float back down.

5) A new Sub-Weapon was introduced; The "Vacuum Wave Art". Two scythes go up from, and down from, Ryu, and alternate sides for a bit. Not generally too useful, but helpful for a few spots in 5-1, and borderline mandatory for the Act 6 boss.

TRICKS THAT STILL WORK:

Pause Buffering: This is where you hit Pause to… well, pause the game. The enemies may not hit hard, but they’re fast, and there’s a lot of them. Worst of all, the game will spam them near bottomless chasms, so beginners will need this trick (experts will have already memorized things).

Sword Canceling: This works differently than it did in Ninja Gaiden 1. First of all, you can also apply this trick with Sub-Weapons. Secondly, the method is different; Just jump into the air, hold up, and alternate between A & B as you do so. Note that the sword/sub-weapon has to be out for ~6 frames before you cancel them with B. Otherwise, they won't do damage.

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EPILEPSY WARNING: 13:28 to 13:41, as well as everything after 16:47, contain violently flashing lights. Be careful about watching this episode, if you struggle with seizures. Anyway, here it is!

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Ninja Gaiden 3 NES: No Death Walkthrough for Beginners (Acts 4-5)

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Y'all ready for a super-dimensional time? I know I am :) !
EPILEPSY WARNING: 5:48 to 6:10, as well as 10:01 to 11:04, contain violently flashing lights. Be careful about watching this episode, if you struggle with seizures.
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Ninja Gaiden 3 NES: No Death Walkthrough for Beginners (Acts 6-7)

NOTE: The bit at the very end was supposed to be me collecting the two extra Ninja Scrolls you can get from losing to Clancy's 2nd & 3rd forms... But I accidentally showed myself getting the 1st Ninja Scroll twice, instead. Still, you get the idea!

Enemy Buffs so Far:

https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=157767
https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=157768
https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=157769

Power-Up Changes so Far:

https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=157748
https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=157754
https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=157766

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And there we go! The entire NES trilogy has been completed!

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Ninja Gaiden 3 NES: No Death Walkthrough for Beginners (Final Boss: Clancy & Ending)

Don't worry, the "voice acting" won't usually be a thing from now on. I'm basically just throwing shade at the dialogue :mmmhmm:

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