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Ninja Blades

Table of Contents \
-------------------+-----------------------------------------+
1. Introduction |
-------------------------------------------------------------+
2. Walkthrough |
-------------------------------------------------------------+
2.01 - Chapter 01 - [xx01xx] - The Way of the Ninja |
2.02 - Chapter 02 - [xx02xx] - The Hayabusa Ninja Village :
2.03 - Chapter 03 - [xx03xx] - Skies of Vengeance |
2.04 - Chapter 04 - [xx04xx] - Imperial City Infiltration :
2.05 - Chapter 05 - [xx05xx] - The City of Fiends |
2.06 - Chapter 06 - [xx06xx] - The Monastery :
2.07 - Chapter 07 - [xx07xx] - Hidden Underground |
2.08 - Chapter 08 - [xx08xx] - Tairon Under Alert :
2.09 - Chapter 09 - [xx09xx] - The Military Supply Base |
2.10 - Chapter 10 - [xx10xx] - The Aquaduct :
2.11 - Chapter 11 - [xx11xx] - The Path to Zarkhan |
2.12 - Chapter 12 - [xx12xx] - The Caverns :
2.13 - Chapter 13 - [xx13xx] - The Fiendish Awakening |
2.14 - Chapter 14 - [xx14xx] - Vengeful Spirit :
2.15 - Chapter 15 - [xx15xx] - The Core |
2.16 - Chapter 16 - [xx16xx] - The Dark Dragon Blade :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
The brackets on the right hand side of each chapter number |
are keywords that will allow you to skip to that section :
without having to skim through the whole guide - simply |
bring up the 'Find' function and type in the keyword within :
the brackets to skip there quickly. |
:
Don't type in the brackets as well, mind. That'll get you |
nowhere. :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
3. Hurricane Pack 2 Guide. |
-------------------------------------------------------------+
4. |
-------------------------------------------------------------+
5. |
-------------------------------------------------------------+
7. Ninja Enhancing Collectables |
-------------------------------------------------------------+
7.01 - Golden Scarab Locations |
7.02 - Life of the Gods Locations (Normal game) :
7.03 - Life of the Gods Locations (Hurricane Pack 1) |
7.04 - Lives of the Thousand Gods :
-------------------------------------------------------------+


_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

1. Introduction
_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

The Evil Dark Dragon Blade... a legendary sword, said to have been carved out
of the bones of a Black Dragon. It brought plague and death to the world
during the age of ancient myth. It has been sealed by those of the Dragon
Lineage since the dawn of history, because of its incredible capacity for
evil, made possible by the souls of the vanquished Black Dragons that dwell
within it.

It is said that if the Blade's seal were to be broken it would gather the
hatred and evil of mankind and confer it upon the one who wields it,
transforming him into the Devil incarnate. However, not even those of the
Dragon Lineage who protect it know the true extent of its power...

The Dragon Sword, another weapon protected by the Dragon Lineage since ancient
times. This sword, which is said to have been used by ancient warriors to slay
the Black Dragons, is now handed down from generation to generation in the
Hayabusa Ninja Clan, the modern descendants of the Dragon Lineage. And now,
the Dragon Sword is gripped firmly in the hands of young ninja, Ryu Hayabusa.

Thrilling stuff, eh?

More to the point, why are you reading this? It's all in the manual, you know,
and you get it thrust into your face like a broken shard of glass every time
you start the game.

You really must be terminally bored to be reading this part, so why not venture
forth into all the good stuff down below?

Run! Dont walk, run!

=========
!Warning!
=========

I'm going to keep this rather simple, just like myself - there are spoilers in
this faq. Tons of the unwholesome little things. While I'll never make
reference to upcoming events before they happen, it may be a good idea for
first time players never to skip ahead of the section they're currently playing
through.

Okay, so the story isn't the most complex in videogame history, but do you
really want to find out that Ryu was transfused with the blood of a monkey at
birth before the game drops that particular bombshell on you?

Of course you don't.

_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

2. Walkthrough
_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

Don't let the name deceive you, good sir. The term 'walkthrough' might imply a
nice, sedate trot through the game, but the reality is somewhat different.

In fact, It's more along the lines of a wartime panic driven rush through enemy
lines in order to avoid a carpet bombing of incendiary weapons your allies just
dropped on top of you, and you're fighting your way through tooth and nail at
all times with everything you've got - and when that accursed knife breaks off
in the sternum of yet another faceless foe you just stabbed, it's time to lunge
at him with those pearly white teeth of yours and, metaphorically speaking,
tear him a new mud flap. That's the only way you're getting through this game
alive, baby.

Walkthrough, eh? I spit on the term. Why, you'll be lucky if you don't lose a
kidney getting through to the end!

Take note - While I've mentioned most of the major changes to the Hurricane
Pack version of the game, trifling details may have slipped through the net.
Many chests have had their contents changed, so if you were expecting a Life
of the Gods or whatever, don't be too surprised if you get essence instead.

If you want to know where the energy enhancing items have been relocated to,
skip to the 'Ninja Enhancing Collectibles' section.

==================================+========
/Chapter 1 - 'The Way of the Ninja'| xx01xx \
+===================================+=========+===============================+
| |
|'In the mountains of Autumn, there is one who walks the path of the Ninja...'|
| |
+=============================================================================+
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|All the Kunai messages in this section say something different in the |
|Hurricane Pack. I won't list what they say, since if you're reading this, you|
|can certainly read them as you come across them. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Your journey begins here, amidst the splendour of the Mountains of Autumn. For
some reason this opening section is brighter than the rest of the game,
possibly due to the light from the misty dawn morning callously forcing its way
into Ryu's retinas, so don't bother adjusting the colour of your TV just yet.

As soon as you start this level, you'll notice that Ryu isn't wearing his funky
black Ninja garb from all the promotional material - forget about wearing them
for a while, it's still a while off before you're an awesome enough Ninja to
wear such funky threads.

There's a waterfall behind you cascading away down a ravine, but don't bother
trying to leap in - you'll be stopped by one of those ever popular invisible
wall things.

Instead, run forwards and take a left up the incline. You won't have to jump up
the first few ledges - they're small enough that Ryu will simply hop onto them
as he goes. After the second one, you'll have a kunai (Ninja throwing knife)
chucked your way, but fear not! Instead of embedding itself in your soft, ninja
flesh, it will instead smack into the cliff face and stay there.

You'll have to jump the hole in front of you in order to get to it, so do so
and pick it up with the 'X' button.

Gadzooks, a Ninja message! This one explains that Ryu is able to jump into a
vertical facing and run up it for a short stint, grabbing a ledge if one rears
its head before gravity kicks in. Try it out on the cliff wall that's blocking
your way in front of you and shimmy off to your right, then tap 'A' to hop up.

Oh, and if you fall at any point during this section, it's easy to get back up.
Remember the first hole you jumped over? If you go to the bottom of that, you
can wall jump your way back to victory, ending up right before the shimmying
part.

Hey, it saves a little time.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|See that rat running around on the ledge? When you see one of these, it |
|always means that there's a ledge nearby that you can hang onto. |
| |
|If you can't see a ledge, but you can hear a rat merrily squeaking away to |
|itself, take a look around. There's bound to be a ledge somewhere. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Another Kunai smacks into the cliff to your left, but ignore it for a moment
and look to your right. Aha! A treasure chest surely means treasure! Kick the
box open with your 'X' button to secure an for
yourself.

Smart!

Now, face the opposite direction and snatch the Kunai. This one informs you
that you can use the right thumbstick to look around in first person view in
order to get a better look at the environment, and that you can centre the
camera using the 'R' trigger.

Use the thumbstick to look directly above you and - lo and behold! - there's
a ledge you can grab onto. Do so, and haul yourself up.

Ignore the path to the left since there's bugger all of interest over there,
and run up the oddly angled tree. The crows won't attack you, so you can leave
them alone or kill them for essence. I vote live and let live, but you might
be a bit more sadistic than I am.

As you follow this path around, you'll be treated to a quick cutscene where
you'll be ambushed by lesser enemy ninjas, identified by their brown ninja
clothes.

Aha! Enemies!

These two gormless fools aren't exactly the definition of 'skilled' so kill
them off swiftly. Remember to block - it's an important part of enjoying Ninja
Gaiden, since getting kicked around by gangs of enemies without the ability to
defend yourself is rarely fun. I speak from personal experience, so you can
trust me on that!

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

If you're playing the Hurricane pack, there aren't any of those piffling
Brown lesser ninjas on this level. They'll have been replaced with the more
powerful White versions, who have in turn been replaced by the Black Spider
Ninjas.

Who, incidentally, can now grab you.

If this is your first time through, it might be a better idea to start off
on the regular version of the game. It really is so much easier.
____________________________________________________________________________

Having killed the most biodegradable enemies in history - no need to bury their
pathetic remains since they instantly disappear in a bloody vapour - squeak in
fright as another Kunai narrowly misses embedding itself in your forearm.

Reading this one mentions that your Mad Uber Ninja Skillz will allow you to run
along walls, so try it out on the one to your right and valiantly cross that
yawning chasm in front of you. Your reward is another treasure chest containing
another .

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Or, perhaps, the Intercept scroll if you're playing through the Hurricane
Pack. The importance of this scroll *cannot* be overstated. Get it.

If you miss this somehow, and you'd need to have the observational skills
of a dead yak in order to do so, you can get it off Muramasa by trading in
a single Golden Scarab. Even so, if you don't get it here, you'll have to
finish the first two chapters without this crucial skill.

Just get it, okay? It's really not that hard to just pick it up...
____________________________________________________________________________

Now it's time to try out another new skill. See that tree branch sticking out
of the cliff face between you and the other side? Well, jump towards it and
press jump as soon as your deft ninja fingers grab onto it. You'll spin a
little, then somersault safely to the other side.

_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
| It might take a little getting used to, since waiting even a moment before |
| tapping jump can have you sent spinning helplessly back the way you just |
| came. |
| |
| It's rarely fatal, but it does make you look like a total gimp to anyone |
| watching. I would know. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Another Kunai will whomp into play here. This one will teach you the Flying
Bird Flip, also known as the common wall jump. The camera will change angle
here, so jump into the wall to your left, run up it a short distance, then
press jump again to hop safely onto the ledge behind you.

Three more lesser ninjas will attack you in this cave so deal with them as you
see fit. Preferably through decapitation, unless you're one of those poor sods
with the European version of the game. Like me. Grr.

Smash the pots at the end of the cave for more yellow essence, then duck into
the alcove at the end and repeatedly wall jump your way to freedom.


=========================
New Area - Ninja Fortress
=========================

Pretty cool looking place, huh? There's not a great deal of time to appreciate
the scenery, however - two lesser ninjas are going to leap out of the entrance
and make a beeline for you.

Unless of course, you do it first. Run over and dispose of the little
blighters, and smash the braziers in the courtyard to let them know what you
think of their hospitality.

This done, run up the stairs into the Fortress and open the first door you
come to. There's no other way in, so it shouldn't be hard to find.

_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|You can skip the door opening sequence around the time Hayabusa becomes |
|visible again by pressing 'A' on the pad. Hey, it saves time, right? |
|____________________________________________________________________________//


By the Gods, you've just walked in on three lesser ninjas!

Kill them, they've seen too much already.

Your murderous urges sated, smash up the pots for more essence, then hop over
to the corner to the right of where you came in and kick open the chest for
another . They're so great, aren't they? You'll only
get yellow essence in the Hurricane Pack, mind.

In the opposite corner of the room is a secret passage, one of those spinning
wall sections you can see in just about every ninja film ever made. Judging by
the scratches on the floor, however, this one hasn't been constructed
particularly well. Head on through.

You're about to learn just why it was such an obvious path - halfway into the
next room the doors will lock and a bunch of lesser ninjas will try to chop
you into tiny little bits. It's a trap!

Unfortunately for them, they're the ones who've been trapped. Show no mercy
to these pitiful beings, and after you kill nine of them the doors will open
up again allowing you to continue your rampage. Hasten forth into the next
room.

There are three more lesser ninjas to the right of the door you come in, and
once you dispose of them, head the other way to the left of said door. You'll
find two more hanging around, and a suit of Samurai
armour. Ignore it for now and head back the way, past where you killed the
three ninjas and go through the new door.

There are nine more lesser ninjas in this room, so kill them all and check the
chest near the back of the room for a . This handy
little item will instantly increase the limit of your maximum health. Use it
now, you might as well. Show your appreciation by chopping up the candles
alongside the chest - one will release another blob of yellow essence for you
to absorb, you greedy little piggy, you.

Now, see that scroll hanging on the wall next to some breakable pots? Show what
you think of such terrible art by hacking it in half. Your passionate art
critique will uncover yet another hidden passageway. Hoorah!

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

If you're playing the Hurricane Pack, this is also where you'll find the
Lunar. It's a damn handy weapon, so snatch it up like a fat kid snatches
pies.
____________________________________________________________________________

Continue on into the next room, and watch in wonder as the enemy ninjas start
jumping out of the very walls in an attempt to finish you off. There are about
twelve in total before they stop swarming you, and this is also where you'll
meet your first greater ninja, the white clothed bastards that they are.

Or, if you're playing the Hurricane pack, here comes your first sighting of the
black Spider Ninjas. Have fun.

Either way, the stronger enemies in here will sometimes drop blue essence,
which is great for recharging your health bar when it gets low.

Anyway, mop up everyone in this room and stand on that oddly coloured patch of
floor over there. Even the trapdoors lead to important areas these days, so
run into the corner behind you and smash up the pots to reveal a chest
containing a .

Bats will attack you in this room - if you haven't been using shuriken up until
this point, here's a good place to start. They'll home in on the flying little
scumbags and take them down in one hit. I'm not quite convinced that the
average bat contains as much blood as this game portrays them to, but what the
hell. It looks cool.

Follow the path presented to you, and before you come to the braziers blocking
your escape route, check the alcove to your left. It contains a chest with
the all-important Fangs of the Samurai.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Heh heh heh...
____________________________________________________________________________

Now that you have this awesome do-hickey in your collection, it's time to
scram. Smash down the braziers and emerge into the fresh mountain air. Hop up
the ledges to your right, and collect the Kunai note that comes streaking in as
you climb.

This one basically retreads the 'running up walls' theme, but mentions that
you can flip over the top if you can run far enough and there aren't any hand
holds for you to cling on to. Do so, and run along the path to your right which
winds along the outside of the fortress. You'll be attacked en-route by two
lesser ninjas. They really should know better by now, don't you think?

Once you get back inside the base, you'll start off in an attic with a hole in
the centre of the floor. Creep around the edges, and you'll find a chest with
a inside, which is really quite a handy thing to have.
It'll stop you kicking the bucket when you die, save for a few particular
situations where it'll be unable to revive you.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\_______________________________________________

Ah-ha! No Talisman of Rebirth for you this time, but something even more
important dwells within this chest. Be sure to get it.
___________________________________________________________________________

Now that you've given the contents of this room a good scavenging, hop down
through the hole in the floor and make your way back to where the suit of
Samurai armour was located and examine it with 'X'. You'll automatically return
its teeth to it, and the key clenched within its grasp will come free, earning
you the Key of Courage, which you'll automatically stick in your inventory.

Return back the way you came, and into the room with the trapdoor. All your
ninja pals will be back again, so kill them all as a token of your
appreciation. Or avoid them if you like, though it's probably the more awkward
and less satisfying option of the two.

Anyway, hop over the trapdoor and slice up the scroll hanging from this wall
as well, then dive through. Immediately to your right, you'll see a curious
podium with a dragon head statue floating atop it. This, dear reader, is one
of those awesome save points you've read about, so examine it and save your
game!

Having saved your game, hotfoot it up those stairs beside you and run along the
wooden walkway, disposing of two white ninjas as you go. Continue on until you
reach two large double doors, then feel free to examine them good. You'll
automatically use the Key of Courage to unlock them, and you'll continue on
inside. Which is great, y'know, since it's exactly where you're supposed to be
going. Handy, eh?

You'll instantly get locked in with a bunch of greater ninjas. Nothing much
else for it but to mindlessly SLAUGHTER THEM ALL. Once you've helped them
shuffle off this mortal coil, smash the candlesticks for more essence, then
go through the newly opened door on the upper balcony.

========
Cutscene
========

Typical. You casually saunter through a door and the next thing you know you've
disturbed a meditating Ninja who obviously eats steroids for breakfast.

Wait, it's Murai! Hooray!

'I see you have made it this far,' he then says needlessly, picking up a pair
of Nunchaku and proceeding to show off with them like the egotistical pile of
dog vomit he undoubtedly is.

Cue boss fight.

===========
Boss: Murai
===========

Ah, Murai. I've heard tales of people giving up as soon as they get to him,
their sanity and self esteem demolished within minutes. You're not going to
let that happen to you though, are you? Damn right you're not!

Murai, like many ninjas hopped up on steroids, loves to cave in your skull
with repeated nunchaku attacks. In order to prevent him from doing this, you
have to dodge around him repeatedly and stab him with the pointy bit of your
sword whenever you get the chance.

So! How can our muscular friend shunt you into an early grave? Read on and find
out the methods behind his madness!

- His main attack is a quick three strike twirl of his Nunchaku that does a
fair amount of damage to you and is relatively fast. If he gets you, dodge
as soo as you can, blocking the second the hit connects.

- When attacking him, he will occasionally counter you, knocking you to the
ground before looping the nunchaku around your neck and hurling you away.
Most of the time, there's not much you can do about this - he usually pulls
it off as you perform a combination on him while he's blocking.

- If you spend too long blocking and not enough time dodging and attacking,
Murai will simply reach out and grab you. This sucks, mainly because he
then dumps you on the floor, cracks you on the skull with a lump of wood,
then kicks you in the ribs to shove you away.

Obviously, this isn't beneficial to your health bar, so don't block too
much and if you see him raise his arm, dodge. Quickly.

- It's possible to end up in a 'clinch' while fighting Murai. If your swords
lock, hammer the buttons like hell to overpower him. If you gain the upper
hand, you'll stagger him - which, of course, means free combos for you!

If you lose, on the other hand, he'll attack you while you're off balance.
Try and roll out of the way before he attacks you if you can.

- Oh, and never, ever throw shuriken at him. He's well practiced in batting
them back your way which always results in cuts and scrapes you can avoid
by simply not using the sharp little blighters.

Watch out for when he rolls at you, since he can close the distance faster than
you might expect and send your eyeballs flying out of their sockets with a
swift crack to the back of your skull.

So, how to beat him? If you want to take it slowly, simply keep jumping off
the wall and performing the Helmet Splitter until he's quite dead. It'll take
a while since he's good at backflipping out of the way of this attack, but it
will kill him off in the end.

Alternatively, do what I do. Roll in, strike with X, X, X, and roll away if
he tries to counter. You'll often end up in a clinch, so break it and overpower
him before using the Fiend's Bane Kick to do the most damage you can - that's
the X, X, forward and X, X attack. You might get countered every once in a
while, but it generally doesn't do enough damage to invalidate this tactic
from being utterly awesome.

X, Y, Y can help you too, but I don't use it too often - Murai tends to block
it rather a lot.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Not much different here, but it's worth noting that the Lunar takes more
damage off Murai during a Helmet Splitter than the Dragon Sword does.

He also seems to block more, and take more damage, but there's nothing new
in the way of attacks to look out for.

And, HEY! Fellow master of the Ninja Gaiden arts, Grantisimo, brought my
attention to a cheeky little tactic that will splatter Murai like a ripe
melon dropped on a cold stone floor in the Hurricane Pack - simply equip the
Lunar and use the Lion's Rage (Fwd+Y) on him repeatedly to make him die. He
not only stands there like a complete raving idiot as you repeatedly pummel
his face into a pile of unrecognisable mush, but also keeps trying to swing
his nunchaku back into the neutral position - preventing him from blocking
your attacks.

Seriously. He doesn't counterattack if you use this technique correctly.
Not ever.

Which, naturally, means you're looking at the easiest boss fight in the entire
Hurricane Pack.

You have to hit him first, mind. Sometimes he just smacks you in the face in
retaliation if you can't get the first hit in past his guard - but once you
land that one blow, you're all set to hit him with the next fifteen or so. If
you time that first blow to hit him after he fails one of his charges, he's
all yours, baby.
____________________________________________________________________________

========
Cutscene
========

Murai will deflect a few more attacks, then attempt to nail Hayabusa who
quickly rolls aside, lunging back in with a slash which Murai avoids.

This done, they bow to each other and then proceed to chat like the very best
of chums.

No, it doesn't make much sense. If someone was sending ninjas out to kill me,
I'd probably be a little peeved at the best of times. On the other side of the
coin, I can't see Murai being too happy with all his pots being broken, his
chests looted for everything he owned... and to top it all off, ninja guts and
bloodstains splashed liberally all over the fortress. Even with copious amounts
of Bleach and Mr. Muscle, it would take forever to clean.

Oh well. Maybe the ninja guts really did disappear after all once they'd been
killed. If only real life was like that.

Anyway, a short conversation ensues in which we learn our awesome Ninja boy has
been entrusted with the Dragon Sword while his father is off training in the
sacred wilderness. The sister blade, the Dark Dragon, has been left at the
Hayabusa village under the protection of his clan members - 'they'll ensure
that it remains untouched,' boasts Hayabusa. Stupidly, I might add.

Ayane soon barges in on their meeting however, and blurts out 'Master Murai!
The Hayabusa Village!'

Ryu, catching the tone of her voice, quickly rises and ambles over to the
window in order to see what's going on. He soon notices that there's a huge
plume of smoke rising from the general location of his village.

Oh, shit.

========================================+=======+
/Chapter 2 - 'The Hayabusa Ninja Village'| xx02xx \
+=========================================+=========+=========================+
|'The village is burning. Before long, Ryu hears the screams of his |
| brethren...' |
+=============================================================================+

Oh bugger, isn't this just typical? You go out for a stroll, maybe do a bit of
training along the way or meet an old acquaintance, then all of a sudden a huge
fricking army descends upon your village, pillaging, raping and killing all the
inhabitants.

Time to get your ass back home and repel those bastard foreign invaders, son.
Just remember that hearing the screams of your brethren isn't a good sign
unless you're the one making them scream.

If you feel like it and aren't using the Hurricane Pack, speaking to Murai will
begin a useless little training session detailing how to roll and utilize
essence in your attacks. Ignore him completely - you've a village to save.

Speaking of saving, on your way back to the starting area make sure to save
your game. If you're playing the Hurricane Pack, you'll be attacked by a bunch
of Black Spider Ninjas once you reach the first room you got locked in. You
don't get trapped in this time, so take them out or ignore them as you please.

Get back to the starting area, then hop down to ground level. Behind the cliff
is a newly opened path which leads to the...

===============
New Area: Altar
===============

No time to stop, baby. Grab the scroll from the shrine blocking your way to
receive the Art of the Fire Wheels Ninpo, and the shrine will promptly descend
out of your way.

Run over it and into the lift, activating it with the 'X' button. Once you
reach the bottom, leap backwards into the camera, and kick open the hidden
chest to get your grubby little mitts on another .

Crafty!

Continue along the obvious path, wall run across the wall to your left and
leap across the chasm. Don't worry if you fall in, just climb back out and try
again. Hang right once you're across and open the easily spotted chest for an
which will restore one use of Ninpo magic.

Fairly soon, you'll meet a new enemy - Samurai. I like to think of them as
undead Samurai for some reason - not so much because I'm a humanitarian, more
that I find it odd that a nation as technologically advanced as the Vigoor
empire would send in a bunch of swordsmen for this task when their standard
army is equipped with assault rifles, rocket launchers and grenade launchers.

Oh well. You're being attacked by samurai regardless, so kill the unholy sons
of bitches. Make them rue the day!

These cretins disposed of, make your way on down the hill. The going is steep
over here, so once you start sliding you have two choices - drop into the pool
at the end and drag yourself out at the other end, or jump right before you
take the plunge, swing along three sets of branches and get the drop on another
enemy patrol from above.

The latter option is by far the more satisfying. There'll be another new enemy
for you to contend with here - the floating mage. He chucks fireballs at you,
teleports about, and attacks you with sais if you get too close.

He won't fire at you if you're not on screen with him (although if he starts it
when he's onscreen, he'll still fire it when he's no longer visible), so use
this to your advantage. He's not got much health, so a few swift stabs to the
face will sort him out good and proper.

Now that everyone but you is dead, run up to the watchtower you saw further
down the path to your right and climb to the top to reveal a treasure chest
with a map of the Hayabusa Village inside. Then hop down and continue on your
way until you come to a broken bridge overlooking a fast flowing river.

This is the point of no return, baby. Steel your nerves and take the plunge,
swimming swiftly to the far bank. Before you move on, however, turn around and
take a look behind you. Across the water stands a section of the bridge which
hides a room containing a , so water run across to it and
collect it.

How? Oh, good grief.

Walk quickly into the water, then tap jump repeatedly until you're across. I
mean, come on - did you even read the section I posted on how to control
Hayabusa?

Anyway, run back across once you have the orb in your possession, then run up
the walls and save your game at the Dragon Statue save point. To your left is
a chest containing an . Grab that too and head on
up the stairs until you come to...

==========================
New Area: Hayabusa Village
==========================

Well, we're finally here. There's not much happening, because pretty much
everyone is dead.

Head left and run around the back of the huts to find a dead member of your
village who is holding onto an . It didn't do much
for him, but it might still be of use to you, so feel free to prise it from
his cold, dead fingers.

Head back and check the Jizo statues - one of their heads is missing. This
shall soon be remedied, so go left and head up the path to a small shrine with
a cracked rock resting inside it. You're not going to be doing anything with
this for a hefty chunk of the game, so ignore it for now, continue left and hop
down to ground level.

Around this point you'll be attacked by a bunch of samurai - six or seven of
them. Don't hold back, let them see how upset you are with them for killing
pretty much everyone you know. Once their bodies are fit for the worms,
continue down the hill and pick up the Statue Head. Ignore the dead ninja and
circle of rocks nearby, as they contain nothing of interest.

Well, while the invading army may very well have killed pretty much everyone in
your village, they won't get away with such rampant vandalism! Head back to
the Jizo statues and examine them again to recapitate (chortle) the one with
his head missing. You'll be rewarded with a .

So, where to go now? Head about halfway down the hill, and take a left into
the row of houses you see. One of them allows you to wall run up towards an
open window, which is your next destination. Hop in, and get onto ground level
whilst inside.

There's a few things of interest here. First off, the very first shop in the
whole game can be found in this warehouse. Pretty much directly below the
window you entered from will be a statue of the old man Muramasa. Examine it
in order to teleport directly to his shop where you can exchange your Yellow
Essence for items and upgrades. He also gives you special gifts in exchange for
Golden Scarabs, but you don't have any of those yet...
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|For now, the Inferno Ninpo is a pretty good buy. Don't waste your money, |
|though - the shop in Chapter 3 allows you to upgrade your Dragon Sword for |
|the first time which is very, very highly recommended to be done as soon as |
|you get the chance. |
| |
|If in doubt, leave it out. The Inferno is useful, but the Dragon Sword |
|upgraded to level 2 is much handier for the majority of situations you'll |
|come across. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

After leaving Muramasa's shop, check the shelves to the left of the exit for
an and an . The dead ninja
doesn't offer up any goodies, but he is lying right beside a Bow equipped with
five arrows. You'll need to pick it up before you're allowed to leave, so you
really can't miss it. Equip it right away, the shurikens aren't going to help
much in the next area.

We're done for now, so leave through the exit beside where you picked up the
Bow. You'll be attacked by more samurai and a couple of mages. Only one mage
attacks at a time, so just maul the lot of them - mages and samurai alike only
take a single shot from a Bow and arrow, so feel free to use up all your shots.

There's a dead villager in the corner who's been shot full of arrows. Ryu
reveals his hard, practical (and quite possibly morbid) side by having no
problem whatsoever with pulling usable arrows out of his dead friends and
adding them to his own personal stockpile. If you run out, reload from a dead
friend! You know it makes sense!
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|See those targets set up over at the far end of the street? If you fire at |
|them when you're close, nothing will happen. If, however, you go as far as |
|you can away from them and shoot them with arrows, they'll start to reveal |
|some hidden essence for your imminent collection. |
| |
|The top right target contains yellow essence, the bottom right one contains |
|red essence, and the one on the left contains blue essence. |
| |
|Handy or What? |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Now that we've exhausted the possibilities of this area - and yes, the ninja
by the targets was too poor to afford anything that might be useful to you -
it's time to get going. Refill your arrows, then take the only path available
until you come across...

====================
Mini Boss - Horsemen
====================

Fantastic. The building behind you just collapsed, so there's no running away
from this fight. You'll find yourself in a fairly circular arena, with a ninja
stuck chock full of arrows near the edge of the ring.

There are two horsemen on screen at any one time, and it starts out with one
horseman brandishing a spear and the other running around firing at you with a
bow and arrow of his own.

If the spearman hits you, there's a chance you'll be impaled and set for a
rather painful and humiliating ride around with him until he slams you down
again. Try and avoid this attack in particular - it really bloody hurts.

So, how do you beat them, then?

Get your bow and arrow ready, then roll into the back corner and start
blocking. What you want to do is block the Spearman's attacks and wait until
he charges away (he'll wheel round for another attack soon, so you have to be
fast) then shoot the bowman in the face with your own arrows. After three shots
or so, start blocking again so you don't get surprised by a big pointy spear
poking you in the chest.

Once you knock the bugger from his horse, shoot him again, or stab him with a
Fiend Sealer whilst he's still on the ground, then attack the spearman with
your arrows.

There are a total of four horsemen here, assuming you're playing on 'Normal'
difficulty. Trust me, this section isn't as hard as it seems at first.

Oh, and your arrows tend to land more often if you're launching them in manual
aiming (first person) mode. They occasionally bounce off in automatic aim.

--------------------------------

Now that you've disposed of the travlling circus act, it's time to continue
onwards. Remember to refill your arrows from your porcupine resembling friend,
then leap over the broken section the horsemen came from. There's another save
point here, so use it! To the right of the save point is a dead ninja holding a
so feel free to pilfer it from his corpse. Cheers, mate!

To the left of the savepoint is a path leading to the graveyard, so go and
check it out if you feel like it. If you don't, there's nothing there yet
anyway. What you want to do is continue past that dead ninja you got the elixer
from and carry on along that path onto the bridge where you meet...

====================
BOSS: SPEAR HORSEMAN
====================

After a quick cutscene, you'll be back in control of Hayabusa once more. How
come things always collapse behind you and block your path at the most
inopportune times?

Anyway, this big evil spear weilding guy is assisted by twelve mages, two of
which can be onscreen at once. Get your bow and arrow ready, boy, cause you're
gonna need it!

The fight begins with Mr. Big Angry Spearman thundering down the bridge towards
you. Roll the hell right out of the way and engage the mages near the back.
One arrow is enough for them, or the old X, Y, Y combo with the Dragon Sword,
so maul them in order to cause them to drop sweet, sweet essence.

Now, with this essence you can do one of two things - collect it, or use it to
power up your attacks on the boss. Keeping your health high is a priority, so
collect blue essence until you're feeling groovy, then use it in your attacks.
Red Essence should always be utilised, unless you're missing a Ninpo for
whatever reason.

So! Kill the mages with arrows or physical attack, roll if they fire at you,
and use essence attacks on the boss. Remember that the bow is slow, however,
so only use it when the Horseman is far enough away from you and the mages
aren't about to unleash a fireball at you right way.

If you kill all the mages and the boss still isn't dead, use any arrows you
have left, or get in close and block. Once he hits you and is ready to wheel
away, slash him twice and start blocking again.

Keep this up and he'll soon go down.

------------------------------------

Hear that beeping noise? That would be a present the boss left you after you
ripped his throat open, so don't be shy - stroll on over and pick it up.

Turns out that it's the good old Counter Attack Scroll! Yay!

This is a really handy move which allows you to simply block, and at the moment
of impact (without letting go of block, remember) tap either X twice or Y to
instantly counterattack. Y is the better move, since it does more damage and
sets up the Fiend Sealer (the ground stab) quite well for what is generally an
instant enemy kill.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Tough cookies, Bob. Your only reward here in this case is a Life of the
Thousand Gods.

But hey, the Intercept is a much better scroll if you know how to use it,
so it really isn't that big a deal. Is it?
____________________________________________________________________________

Now that you've picked up your reward from his cold, dead hands, it's time to
head through those doors and end this level once and for all.

===========
CG Cutscene
===========

The following event is completely awesome, if somewhat confusing.

Ryu arrives at the central shrine in his village, only to find it ablaze and
that the fighting is still raging on back here. Dashing further in, he notices
that Kureha's a little on the mortally wounded side - or maybe she just faints.
She really doesn't like she's been stabbed or anything... perhaps it's just
smoke inhalation that got the better of her.

Behind her, Ryu gets a good eyeful of one of the Vigoorian commanders twisting
the head off one of Ryu's fellow ninja, before turning slowly to reveal that he
HAS NO FACE. His whole body is comprised entirely of flame, and only the suit
of armour he wears shows any semblance of humanity.

More importantly than that, however, he's holding the Dark Dragon blade in his
hands. Oh, crap.

Ryu attacks him, and pretty much gets cut in half from two solid whacks. He
collapses on his face after a brief stint coughing up blood, and lies defeated
with a massive cut running through his body. From far above, a falcon circles
down and surveys the scene...

----------------------------------

_____
_______/RAGE!\___________

Here's an example of how thoroughly stupid the censorship in Europe can be.
We had the decapitations removed from human enemies in-game, right? So how come
polygons losing their heads is supposed to be too shocking for us to possibly
comprehend, when the cutscene above graphically shows a ninja's severed head
hitting the floor, followed shortly by his body - with torrents of blood
gushing forth from the ruptured veins in his neck?

what the hell? That's Europe for you.
_________________________

========
Cutscene
========

Having recovered somehow from being cut in half - and no, it doesn't get
explained at any point - Hayabusa is seen preparing for his revenge. Having
ditched his common blue ninja outfit and traded it in for his shiny black
leather one, he stuffs a few knives into his leg sheaths and picks up his
Dragon Sword, checking the blade's killing edge before re-sheathing that, too.

All this time, Murai is informing Ryu that the attack on his village was
sanctioned by the Vigoor Emperor and that the being who stole the Dark Dragon
Blade was named Doku - The Lord of the Greater Fiends of the Vigoor Empire.

Upon hearing this, Hayabusa repeats the name and commits it to memory. Check
Ryu's eyes here. You can tell that he's NOT happy.

Not that you'd expect him to be, what with all his dead friends and all.

================================+=======+
/Chapter 3 - 'Skies of Vengeance'| xx03xx \
+===========================================+=================================+
|'The Hayabusa village has burned, and the Dark Dragon Blade is gone. Ryu has |
|stowed away aboard an Airship headed for the Vigoor Empire. His goal: |
|vengeance...' |
+=============================================================================+

You'll begin the level in a first class passenger cabin - if you're going to
stowaway, after all, you might as well do it in style. Check out how the
inertia from your flight causes the screen to bob up and down. Cool, huh?

First thing to do is check the bed behind you - you don't really have to, but
in a rather motivational and helpful manner it will mention that 'This is no
time to be sleeping'.

Baby, you ain't kidding.

Opposite the bed in the corner is a Dragon Statue where you can save your game,
so it would probably be a good idea for you to do so now, lest you get mauled
by the new enemies you're about to go up against.

This done, exit the room. Ignore the unseen door to Hayabusa's left - we'll get
to that one later on. Enter the room directly across from the one you just
came from and you'll find an lying on top of the
table. Take it and leave, then head off up the corridor and into the room on
your left - the room on the right holds nothing, so simply ignore it.

Over in the corner of this room by the bunks is a treasure chest containing an
Airship Map. You have to collect this before you can continue on through the
Zeppelin. Step away from the chest and head back towards the door and, quite
naturally, Special Forces soldiers will crash through the nearby window and
kick the door in to surprise you.

Teach them the errors of their ways by killing them. Watch out though - now
that you can counterattack, certain enemies will now be able to throw you in
order to prevent you just doing counterattacks all the time. Starting with
these ruffians, in fact. So, if you don't want your throat slit or to be kneed
in the face, it's time to think about dodging rather than blocking - not that
you can't block their attacks, but try not to make it easy for them to grab
you.

The room redecorated with their insides, head back out into the hallway and
head further up, stopping in by the room on the right to get yourself another
. Assuming you picked up the Airship Map on the way,
you'll be attacked by more Special Forces troops once you hit the more open
area beside the double doors. Kill them all, pick up the Wing Key they'll drop
once they're all dead, and unlock the double doors before continuing on.

Once in the next room, you'll notice that there are several ways you can go.
Take the left staircase down and you'll discover a new shop. I hope you're in
a spending mood, because it's time to buy some excellent new upgrades.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Whatever you do, don't waste all your money buying healing items, armlets or |
|any of that garbage at this point. The most important thing you can buy here |
|is the Dragon Sword Level 2 Upgrade, located under the 'Blacksmith' tab in |
|the shop. This will allow you to use many more fighting moves, including |
|the extremely useful 'Flying Swallow' technique. |
| |
|More than this, it will also entitle you to buy the 'Izuna Drop' technique |
|scroll which is powerful enough to kill any enemies you can use it on |
|instantly, and severely hurts anything foolish enough to loiter around |
|underneath you whenever you use it. |
| |
|Of course, if you're playing the Hurricane Pack, you won't be able to |
|afford the Izuna Drop yet, nor any of the Ninpo scrolls since they're |
|hellishly expensive. Life's tough, huh? |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Now that you're a happy shopper, it's time to climb back up the stairs. Head
down the other flight of stairs to save your game if you feel like it, then
come back up again.

Facing the way you've been heading, you'll see a set of double doors (which are
locked) and two paths leading to either side. Take the left path and head
through the door, kicking open the treasure chest contained within to reveal a
.

Head back out, go past the double doors and take the other path forward,
opening two sets of doors before ending up in the...

==========================
New Area: Crew Compartment
==========================

Well, it seems like these Special Forces troops you just walked in on have
been forewarned of your arrival. They're all heavily armed, and are ready to
take you on. At least, they think they are.

The doors will lock you in at this point, so kill the first guy who rushes in
at you, then charge his friends who are providing covering fire with their
puny little pistols. A few more guards will come crashing through the windows,
so finish them off swiftly and watch the doors unlock as if by magic.

Head through the new door, then double back and unlock the double doors at the
near end of the hall - this isn't necessary, but it does allow you a faster
route to the boss later on. Head back in (opening the doors will take you out
of the hall back into the room with the stairwells - the Main Deck, as it turns
out to be called) and then take the door on your left.

You'll find yourself in a cosy, well furnished little room with a desk near the
back wall which contains both a Map of Tairon and a note which mentions that
due to their current, aging electrical systems, any malfunctions of the Primary
Power Unit found in the aft cabin will cause all locks onboard the airship to
deactivate as a safety precaution.

Interesting stuff, I'm sure you'll agree - looks like it's time to help the
power unit along in malfunctioning.

Before you go off on your murderous rampage against power units however, take a
deep, calming breath and check the cabinets beneath the window sill behind you.

See that big glowing yellow thing that you can't possibly miss? Of course you
do.

That, sonny boy is a , and is key to getting tons of utterly
awesome stuff off old man Murai whenever you visit his shop. Just talk to the
old dude and he'll ravenously sweep your Scarabs off you and reward your
efforts with some really cool items and weapons once you find enough of them.

So what are you waiting for? Snatch it up!
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Don't ignore it - while most Scarabs can be collected at pretty much any |
|point in the game, there are a few that you can only collect whilst running |
|through their particular section. |
| |
|You're not coming back to this Zeppelin once you leave directly after |
|killing the boss, so as soon as you come across a Scarab, be sure to collect |
|it. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//


Now that you've pretty much exhausted all the possibilities for personal gain
found within this room, trot over to the elevator in the corner and hit the
button to descend a floor into the Fore Cabin.

No, it's not an interesting enough room to be classed as a 'New Area'. Run all
the way around and enter the elevator at the far side to descend down another
floor.

Perfect - more human meat to feed your hungry sword. Slaughter the first two
guards, then bump off the other three idiot who consider rappelling through a
window in order to attack a homicidal ninja is their idea of a good time.

This done, a Black Special Forces dude will appear via the elevator you just
came from. Kill him, and then steal his ID Card, which will appear over beside
the steering wheel.

Well done. In your unholy bloodlust you apparently just killed the pilot.

Thankfully, the zeppelin seems to be quite capable of flying off towards the
Vigoor Empire by itself so his unfortunate end at your hands doesn't really
seem to be all that important. There's nothing in the navigational space
below the wheel, so head back and open the door beside the elevator (the ID
Card deals with the lock) and kick open the chest to receive another .

Now, exit and head back up in the elevator. See that door close by you that
you passed by earlier? Head through it, and kill the next two morons that you
encounter. Continue your way through, and save at the Dragon Statue.

Now that you have an ID Card and can unlock certain doors, you can now head
through the other door in this room, so please do. You'll find yourself on a
walkway connecting two seperate parts of the zeppelin, so head on into the next
section and DON'T JUMP OFF ALONG THE WAY, you suicidal ninja, you. Such an act
of random stupidity will kill you off, as you might very well expect. No
invisible barriers to hold your hand here, my boy.

In the next room you'll find a crate full of arrows directly to your left, so
feel free to pilfer their supplies to outfit yourself with any you might be
missing. There are five wooden crates in here a little further along, so smash
them up and collect the yellow essence you find.

Over by the cargo hatch you'll find a crank to open it up, so flex those ninja
arms of yours and get yourself to cranking!

After three turns, of course, more Special Forces operatives will come bashing
through the windows (don't they ever just use the doors?) and attempt to kill
you. Play the same joke on them by slashing them to death. Once they've
painfully shuffled off this mortal coil you can get back to more important
matters - wind that winch!

Once it's as far down as it can go, hop out onto the cargo ramp like the
psychopath you are and kill the guys on the other side of the gap with some of
the arrows you stole earlier. On the right side of the ramp you're standing on
will be a cable running along the underbelly of the zeppelin. Hop up and grab
on, then shimmy your way to the other side where the Aft Cabin is located.

If you haven't killed the enemies on the other side before attempting to cross,
they'll shoot you off midway. Trust me, kill them. They obviously deserve it
for attempting to do their job.

Once there, run around the catwalk and kill off the single Black Special Forces
guy - who initially remains hidden since the camera doesn't swing around the
cabin to give you a better look at him.

_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Don't get let yourself be grabbed by him, whatever the hell you do. If you |
|get kneed over the railing, you have a long way to fall. |
| |
|For similar reasons, the Izuna Drop should also be out of the question. While|
|suplexing a guy from several thousand feet will undoubtedly kill him, it |
|isn't particularly handy for staying on the Airship. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Follow the path all the way around for another treasure chest containing an
, then head back and check out the window which is
apparently being held together by, uh, Duct-Tape.

Examine the window and it'll say 'What a careless repair job! Are they trying
to make fun of Ninjas?'

AHAHAAHAAAA! AHAHAHAAAA! MY KIDNEYS! MY KIDNEYS JUST EXPLODED WITH THE RAGING
TORRENTS OF SHEER, UNADULTERATED MIRTH CASCADING THROUGH MY VERY BEING!

AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA! Team Ninja, you crazy japesters! Stop, or I'll wee
myself!

...

Seriously, I don't get it.

Show your contempt for such inexplicable jokes by smashing up the window then
heroically leaping through into the room beyond, Ninja-style.

Hey, if it's good fun for the enemies, it's good fun for you. And what do we
have here? Why, the three sections of the ships' Primary Power Unit!

Unleash your inner Ninja on these little mechanical bastards, and then bask
in satisfied glory as your rampant vandalism causes the engineers to switch
over to the emergency backup power supply - the result of which means that all
the locks have been disengaged as a safety precaution. Hooray!

You can now leave through the previously locked door, and make your way back
across the cable (no enemies will attack you this time) to the room with the
Dragon statue, remembering to collect some arrows along the way.

Save your game, observe that the red emergency lights are now lit up, and then
head up the stairs.

Before continuing on through the level, head back towards where you first
started (in the Living Quarters) and head into the door at the end of the hall,
nearest the room where you started the level.

You'll find yourself in a cargo room full of boxes. Manouvre your way up on
top of them, and leap across until you can get in at the back of the room -
this can be tough at first, so take your time and use the right thumbstick and
right trigger to set up your jumps before you attempt them. If you fall, it's
no big deal. Just get back up on the boxes and attempt them again.

Your efforts will be rewarded once you make it - there's a chest with an
, a chest containing a and a
lovely all waiting for you to steal them from their rightful
owners.

Bet you're glad you made the trip now, eh?

Okay, get back over the boxes and head out the door you came from. Run down the
corridor, enter the main deck through the double doors you unlocked with the
Wing Key and then head through the next set of double doors into another
hallway. Run all the way down it and open the door at the far end, which has
now been unlocked by your efforts in destroying the airship's power source.

You'll find yourself in...

========================================
New Area: The Gas Compartment Passageway
========================================

Head up the stairs and kill the two Special Forces guys firing at you from
the top, then wall run up the ledge behind you and kill the next three.

STOP!

Before you continue on your quest of vengeance, take a look around. See that
big box beside you? Run up it, and get on top. Then wall run up the wall beside
it and flip off onto a hidden walkway right above you.

A hidden away like this? Crafty!

Collect it, revel in your treasure hunting talents, and then drop back down.

Continue along the only real path open to you, and open the chest along the way
for a . Use the platforms to continue along, and kill the
three Special Forces guys at the other side. Run along to the end of the path,
and wall run up the box, then the wall, and flip off to land on a catwalk
located directly above your current position - the red lights are a good
checkpoint to guide you on your way. Send two more Special Forces guys on their
way into the next life, and head towards the ladder in the corner.

The hatch at the top is locked, so wall jump your way up into a hidden niche
where you will find a lever sitting there doing nothing.

Oh, go on. Pull it!

The hatch will now be unlocked, so drop back down and climb the ladder all the
way to the top. You'll come out on top of the Airship, just in time to come
face to face with...

============
Boss: Dynamo
============

After a very short cutscene, you'll be thrown into battle with this huge tub
of lard and metal. He's covered from head to toe in armour and equipped with a
massive energy cannon, so he does look rather tough.

Fortunately, looks can be deceiving - he's really rather simple. As he charges
up his energy cannon, give him the old flying swallow. He'll be knocked back
from the impact, and then try to charge it up once more - so do the same thing
to him again. It's entirely possible to win the fight by repeating this one
tactic alone.

If he's not charging up the energy cannon, it's likely that you'll bounce off
his armour when you attempt a flying swallow. A good alternative is to run
past him and tap 'X' twice for the 'Violent Gale' move - two swift swipes with
the sword, after which you should roll away to prevent a counterattack.

If he manages to charge up his energy beam without being interrupted, he'll
start firing a rapid series of electrical shots off at you - run, roll and
dodge like hell when this happens, and remember that the closer he is to death,
the faster the shots will come.

Oh, and don't let him grab you. Getting fried alive is rarely pleasant.

Before too long, you should be able to wipe him out with the tactics above, and
then...

========
Cutscene
========

Uh oh - it looks like Dynamo's gone and eaten his last pie courtesy of your
blade. Now that you've cut the living hell out of him, his suit is starting to
malfunction - which means that he's firing indiscriminately at everything
around him (including the supporting Airship above yours - bye bye!), unable to
control himself.

Until he explodes, of course.

Dynamo's demise then sends a vast surge of energy down into the ship below,
quickly igniting the gas chambers and turning the whole ship into an instant
ball of flame, burning alive everyone unfortunate enough to still be inside.

Guess that takes care of the cremations then, eh? Bwahahahahah!

With this done, the ship soon crashes into a forest on the outskirts of
Tairon. Control those heart palpitations you're undoubtedly having, sir -
Hayabusa's not done for yet.

========================================+=======+
/Chapter 4 - 'Imperial City Infiltration'| xx04xx \
+=========================================+=========+=========================+
|'Ryu has escaped from the crash of the Airship. Spread out before him is the |
|city of Tairon, capital of the Vigoor Empire...' |
+=============================================================================+

========
Cutscene
========

With the remains of the Airship and crew cheerily burning away in the distance,
the camera cuts to Ryu standing triumphantly atop an electricity pylon some
distance from the city. I'm not entirely sure how he got there, but hey - he's
a ninja. That's reason enough for me.

Spreading his arms wide, he allows himself to fall towards the cables
connecting each pylon and soon crosses his wrists to catch onto them, sending
him zooming off, flipping expertly between wires towards his ultimate
destination - Tairon.

The cables run out as he enters the City outskirts, and he lands in yet another
cool Ninja pose, surveying the city from his vantage point on top of a small
stone platform.

It's time to get going.

-----------------

The level begins with you right beside a Dragon statue, so feel free to save
your game if you wish. There's nothing else to do up here, so get off that
stone ledge of yours and continue onwards to victory - which, for now, is where
those streaming multicoloured lights in the distance are originating from.

Oh, and kill those damn Special Forces guys directly below you, too. Don't
they know any better by now? I guess not, so teach them with pain. Sweet,
glorious pain.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Instead of the Special Forces Troops you'll find waiting for you in the
regular game, you'll find the somewhat deadlier (and distinctly more stupid
looking) Mechanized Assault Troop variants waiting for you here and
throughout the rest of Tairon.

Keep those shurikens holstered, cowboy, since they'll just bounce right off
the shiny metal exterior of these gimps.
____________________________________________________________________________

Now that this first set of enemies are on their way to the afterlife, continue
down the only path available to you and pick up the Kunai that gets chucked at
you on the way. It'll mention that there's an awesome pub called 'Han's Bar'
in Tairon that you can go and get drunk at, so obviously that'll be your next
port of call.

After strolling down that windy path for a short while, you'll come out at...

=================================
New Area: The Twin Serpents Plaza
=================================

This area is called this because of the huge statue placed smack-bang in the
centre of the Plaza. From where you originally entered, turn left and head into
the fenced off area in order to locate a chest containing a . Which is nice.

Now, head left as you exit and follow the first path you come to, which should
be inhabited by three more Special Forces punters. Kill them, then continue
through the wooden gate.

You'll find yourself in a courtyard near the entrance to the Military Base -
you won't be going in for a while though, so as you enter make sure to pillage
the body of the dead ninja off to your left for a Technique Scroll containing
the secrets of the Guillotine Throw. It's handy - you'll maybe have seen this
move in the original Arcade version of Ninja Gaiden, or in his movelist for
Dead or Alive 3.

Right in front of the gate lies another porcupine ninja - that is, he's been
peppered with arrows and subsequently sent on his way to hell - so feel free to
restock your supplies if you need to. There's a sequence coming up where arrows
will be quite a handy thing to have, so be sure and pilfer them if you need to.

Now that you've received goodness and joy, trot along to the other wooden gate
to... a-ha! Ambush! Take a moment or two to kill the guys who drop off the
wall, and then go on through the gate.

There'll be another three guys for you to murder here, so kill them off and
walk on past the door you can see in the fence to Hayabusa's right as he enters
this area - it requires the use of the Skull Key, which you haven't got your
hands on yet. Continue on past the stairs leading down until you come to a
Stone Tablet lying on the ground. Take it, unlock the gate right beside you,
and then go back and head down the stairs.

When you finally come out near a new flight of stairs heading down onto ground
level, you'll notice two Special Forces dude firing at you from two nearby
balconies. Shoot them dead with your trusty arrows and then collect the Kunai
that came flying in as you entered this section. It'll inform you about blue
beams marking the trail - so put it to the test and run off past the blue beam
the Kunai landed on.

Hooray! Hayabusa flips over and hangs on! Shimmy off to your right, hop up and
claim your hidden away in another chest. Go on, you've
earned it. Now, flip back down and return to where you were.

Now, instead of going down the stairs, you'll see a blue beam on the wall to
the right heading over to where one of the guys was firing at you from. You can
run up and grab this before shimmying over, or you can perform a wall run
followed by a jump and tap 'X' for that final lift to get there faster.
Whichever way you choose, do it and get up there.

Once up, you'll see what looks like a telephone cable above your head - hop up
and grab it, then shimmy over to the other balcony where your reward will be
waiting in the shape of a chest containing a .

Awesome! Now kill the two Special Forces runts who've appeared where you
originally came from and hop down, taking the path to your left. You should
come out in...

===========================
New Area: Clock Tower Plaza
===========================

If you run right ahead from the gate you appeared from, you'll find a path
leading to a dead ninja and a door you can't open from this side. Hence, move
ninjawards and steal everything you can from his cold dead fingers!

Sweet - Nunchaku. A new weapon for you, matey boy!
_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Okay, so it's just an . Sorry for getting your hopes
up, but hey! You already have a pair of Nunchaku, and you don't need two.

Yes, even though Dual-Wielding Nunchaku would have been awesome.
____________________________________________________________________________

Now that you've heroically robbed the dead of his goodies, head on back and
turn left into the main section of the street. Head on down it, not moving down
any side-paths and you'll have a quick cutscene pointing out Muramasa's shop.
Ignore it for now (unless you need to buy things, of course), and continue on
until the street gets shut off and you get ambushed by more hopeful Special
Forces troops with a death wish.

You know the drill by now. Make their children weep.

Now that they're ALL DEAD, halt and backtrack a bit. You see the gate leading
down a side path that closed off in the cutscene a moment ago? Head there. As
you traverse it and climb a few sets of stairs, you'll be attacked by three
more Special Forces guards, then you'll come out directly below the big clock
and be attacked by another new enemy - Black Spider Ninjas.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Or Cat Fiends. Black Spider Ninjas attacking you at this point wouldn't
exactly be new now, would it?
____________________________________________________________________________

These guys are a little tougher than what you're used to so far, so it might
be worth your time to check out my nifty 'enemies' section and learn how to
kill them off with ease. There are three of them, and they take a bit of a
beating, so finish them off and continue around the clock base to reap your
well-deserved reward - a treasure chest containing a ,
which will boost your Ninpo gauge by one happy spurt of Ninpo. Now, you can use
two shots of magical death before having to refill! Isn't that just awesome?

Hop back down to street level or retread your steps and take the stairs, then
shuffle back to the door beside Masamune's shop and flip the switch to open it,
then hop through.

Another Kunai will fly by as you enter this section, so trot over and pick it
up. It will warn you that the Black Spider clan of Ninjas acting behind the
scenes to hinder your progress and hints that you shouldn't let them leave
Tairon alive. Basically, this means that you shouldn't suppress any homicidal
urges you might have towards them.

Near the Kunai's landing spot will be a drinking fountain next to a wall - if
your eyes are keen enough, you'll notice that it's sparkling with a faint
golden sheen which can only mean one thing!

Someone's urinated in the drinking water!

Ah, no, just kidding. There's actually a submerged beneath such
lovely life sustaining quantities of H2o, so retrieve it from its' aquatic
tomb.

Score!

Now, face the directing you were originally facing as you entered this section.
To your left and up some steps is the path you'll be taking shortly, which is
your 'real' destination for the moment. Straight ahead is the path to the
Emperor's Palace, which you can't access for a vast chunk of the game, and
to your right is the path you should now take. Ignore the walled-up doorway for
now, since you'll need something a little more substantial that what you have
on you in order to break it down.

You'll soon find a gate that refuses to open from this side and an alley that
contains nothing of interest - or does it? Run up the wall to your left and
perform a wall jump to reach a new ledge, from where you can bypass the locked
gate you just passed and enter the enclosed section. You'll be attacked by
Spider Ninjas here, so kill them off and check the area to find a chest
containing multiple types of essence - money, health and magic, streaming into
your very pores!

Now, go back and unlock the gate, then head over to the 'real' path I mentioned
earlier - the one that heads up some steps. You'l be attacked by two Spider
Ninjas, one who drops from the sky and one who leaps out from an alley - kill
them both, then head into that very same alley. You'll probably notice that the
walls are quite close to one another - time for some wall jumping action, so
don't hold back those insane ninja urges of yours to climb up walls in the
craziest manner possible. Once up on the roof, leap the first gap you come to,
use the wall on the right to traverse the second pit, and head through the
open doorway.

O-ho! A dead Ninja! Well, let's pilfer the fruits from his body and read his
diary, shall we?
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|It turns out that 'Suke', our not-quite-alive friend, was a bit of a pervert |
|in life. Can't really blame him, though - he's seen the wonder that is |
|Rachel, and it has to be said that such an event does things to a man. In |
|fact, he was so smitten with her that all his skills somehow failed him and |
|he promptly got wasted by the MSAT forces. |
| |
|His last thoughts? He wishes he could see Rachel again. I admire his |
|tenacity, if nothing else. |
| |
|He also mentions that death during an assignment is the wish of every Ninja, |
|which is absolute lies and hints that the Black Spider Ninjas are utterly |
|insane. Perhaps this is why they keep attacking you, which is the safety |
|equivalent of sticking their head into a moving turbine. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Head on, dear Ninja, and grab the not three metres from Suke's
cold, dead corpse. Continue along the roof until you drop down onto a platform
containing a chest holding a , and has a switch nearby.
Run over and pull it, unlocking the door directly beneath you, and then jump
down and kill everyone nearby before heading through that newly unlocked door.

You know it's the right thing to do.

And lo and behold, you now find yourself in...

=========================
New Area: Pleasure Street
=========================

Sounds good to me! Head along the only path available to you, and you'll
come at last to Han's Bar. Unfortunately, there's a party in progress which
triggers the following cutscene.

========
Cutscene
========

As Ryu ambles up to the door, a steroid chomping bouncer stops him and politely
enquires as to whether he has a ticket for the party.

'No,' replies Ryu in the most unconcerned manner in recorded history.

'I'm sorry sir, but you're gonna need one to get in,' replies the apologetic
bouncer. It's a good thing he minds his manners throughout this encounter, or
Hayabusa would probably just hack him in half without thinking twice.

Also, not that I mean to decry the standards of Han's Bar as a whole, but what
kind of nightclub will permit a masked, fully armed ninja to just casually
stroll inside? It's for this reason alone that I nominate Han's Bar as the
finest nightclub in all of existence.

========

So, you need a ticket, basically. If you look on the message board at the side
of Han's Bar you'll find a flyer thanking the customers of Muramasa's shop for
their continued patronage - which is odd, since normal people probably don't
go around harvesting souls - and that there's a special promotion going on
where all paying customers will receive a free ticket into Han's Bar.

Sweet!

Before heading back, though, there's two things to do here. The first thing to
do is save your game at the nearby Dragon statue - you should have no problems
finding it.

The second thing to do is go back to the front door of Han's Bar and face
across the street. A Kunai will probably have been thrown into the wall as you
returned - and can you see the two blue lines on the wall above it? This is
actually a guiding light for a wall run you should now attempt in order to
retrieve a hidden weapon. If you read the Kunai scroll, it'll mention that
it's hidden away in a place where only a Ninja - or anyone in the world owning
a ladder - can reach it.

So! Run at the wall at an angle, leap to the next set of blue lines, then again
and finally jump one more time, tapping 'X' to get that last bit of height if
you need it. It shouldn't take you long to get the knack of this multiple wall
jumping carry on.

All being well and groovy, you'll have landed on a ledge with the hidden weapon
in question - the Windmill Shuriken, which I rarely ever use. It does have
unlimited uses, however, so that's something. Over in the corner stands a
mysterious, glowing prototype Xbox (seriously!) so go over and examine it to
have all your health and magic instantly recharged.

Feel the power of X!
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|You can return here at any time in the whole game to have your health and |
|Ninpo replenished absolutely free of charge. Not such a bad deal, is it? |
| |
|Did you notice all the Xbox imagery in this section, by the way? Even the |
|pedestal where the Windmill Shuriken is mounted looks like the upper part of |
|an Xbox. |
| |
|Itagaki-san sure loves the Xbox, I can tell you. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

This done, your new weapon and rejuvenated body in tow, fall down and go into
the far end of the alley for another . Doesn't this area of the
game absolutely rock?

All great things come to an end, however, and you've grabbed all the good stuff
from this place. Make your way back to Masamune's shop, and head right in. A
brief cutscene will play with him dittering about aimlessly, and then you're
ready to buy stuff!

If you want the ticket as cheaply as possible, just buy a single arrow off him.
That'll cost a wallet-busting 10 essence, and net you the ticket into the
bargain.

For completionist's sake, I recommend buying the Guide Map to the Capital of
Vigoor off him, which should now be available for sale. However you do it, even
the most measly of purchases will get you that ticket you so desperately need.
Oh, and talk to him if you feel like offloading the Scarabs you've collected
thus far.

Now that you have a ticket to Han's Bar in hand, it's time to party! Head on
back to Pleasure Street, offing the three Black Spider Ninjas that attack you
as you enter, and head triumphantly up to the door with your prize in hand.

End of level, baby!

========
Cutscene
========

As Ryu approaches the door, a swarm of party-goers suddenly rush out and start
falling over each other.

'It's a Fiend!' one screams before rushing headfirst into the door and promptly
knocking himself onto his ass. What a clown.

Keep your eye out for the guy rolling down the stairs, too. This scene is
comedy gold if you know what you're looking for.

Ryu, undeterred, strides onwards into the Bar...

===========
CG Cutscene
===========

Oh, baby. It's Rachel's triumphant appearance!

As Ryu enters the mystical world of Han's Bar, he pauses for a moment, possibly
considering what he's going to have to drink. Just as he's about to order,
however, he notices that there's a big red thing that looks a bit like a dragon
about to munch one of the bar staff - who happens to be dressed in leather and
has a massive hammer at her side.

Hammer, face. Face, meet hammer. Cue bloody spray.

Having caused the Fiend to die instantly via a remarkably crushed skull, she
walks over to Ryu and the scene stops there.

All things considered, this sequence is absolutely fantastic. It has Rachel,
but more importantly, it has Rachel bashing a Fiend's brains clean out of its
skull in a manner that heartily laughs at all the censorship in Europe and
exposes it for the fraud it undoubtedly is.

Shame on you, Europe. Subjecting a game as wonderful as Ninja Gaiden to such
mindless censorship in this day and age.

========
Cutscene
========

Now that Rachel has heroically seperated the Fiend's brains from its head with
the aid of her trusty hammer, her and Ryu take a stroll out onto the roof and
begin chatting. We learn that the Fiends are actually ex-humans who've been
transformed into powerful killing machines, and that anyone with susceptibility
to the curse, no matter how nice a guy they are, can turn into these murderous
bastards at the drop of a hat.

Awesome - more meat to chop! CHOP! CHOP!

Ryu quizzes her gently, not even having the intelligence to ask her for her
phone number, and asks if she knows anything about Doku.

'Why do you want to know about him?' she asks.

Ryu's answer is straight to the point. 'I'm going to kill him,' he says in a
perfectly emotionless voice.

Rachel seems amused by the comment. 'You've no idea what you're up against, do
you?' she asks, not knowing that he understands full well - having been killed
by him, and all.

As it soon transpires, Rachel's not best pleased with Doku, either - the big
metallic bugger happens to be the one responsible for turning her sister Alma
into a Greater Fiend.

Before anything else can be discussed, however, Rachel senses a Fiend elsewhere
in the city and prepares to get going. 'It's going to be a busy night,' she
mutters before leaping off the roof and swinging away, Spidey style, with her
grappling hook.

'You seem have quite a way with the ladies, my friend,' says a nearby figure,
complimenting Ryu on his excellent chat-up techniques. There's nothing quite
like casually mentioning that you're off to murder someone in order to get the
ladies weak at the knees, it seems.

Ryu turns and looks at him at this point.

'Don't mind me, I'm just passing by,' he mentions, seemingly oblivious of the
fact that he's walking around on a rooftop. 'By the way, good luck with that
Doku guy - sounds like you're going to need it.'

Ryu continues to look at him oddly.

'Oh, and I know Rachel quite well. She'll be just fine,' he says before
dropping off the roof and performing the patented disappearing manouver. Ryu
scoots across and looks over the side of the roof within half a second of him
falling off, and yet the trenchcoat wearing wonder is nowhere to be seen.

Incidentally, how ARE all the shady guys in games and movies able to accomplish
this? I want to know!

================================+=======+
/Chapter 5 - 'The City of Fiends'| xx05xx \
+=================================+=========+=================================+
|'Tairon is full of mysteries: strange creatures called Fiends and Rachel the |
|Fiend Hunter. However, Ryu still has no clues to the whereabouts of Doku...' |
+=============================================================================+

As soon as this level begins, a Kunai will fly into view from a fixed camera
position. When you go over to collect it, it will tell you that in order to
find Doku you should go and investigate the Dworku Monastery - which is located
in the Dworku district, oddly enough.

The Kunai will have landed beside a treasure chest containing a very important
item: the Lily Key. Be sure to collect this before continuing on your way.
There's also a Dragon statue for you to save your game at a little further back
on the roof - so hell, why not? Go for it!

Well, the roof is getting boring, as I'm sure you'll agree. There are two ways
out of here - dive off the roof like Gamov did, or hop down the trapdoor. Both
lead in the same direction, but Gamov's route lands you practically on top of
a chest containing an and looks more stylish, so I
usually go that route. This done, head back into the building.

If you didn't pick up the Map of Tairon back on the Zeppelin, it'll be staring
you in the face as you come through the door, stuck on the pinboard in front
of you. To your left is a corridor filled with Special Forces miscreants - deal
with them, and continue along until you find a chest containing another and shortly afterwards you'll encounter another batch of
gormless goons. Waste them, and move onwards down the stairs.

As you head into the bar area, you'll notice an arcade machine sitting in the
corner by itself. You may as well ignore it for now - there's no game installed
in the mighty ancient beast. Head up to the bar and search the counter for an
and a Map of Dworku. Nothing much else to do in here
for the time being, so leave through the doors beside you.

What is it with Tairon and all the disposable Special Forces units they own?
You'll be attacked by six of them as you leave, though there's only going to
be three attacking you at a time. Nothing worth getting worked up about, just
leave them behind you in more pieces than they used to be in, then amble off
and save at the Dragon Statue if you feel like it. Head up the alley and leave
Pleasure Street, then head straight forwards through the door with two yellow
gems so that you enter the area where you first came down the stairs and got
your hands on the Lives of the Thousand Gods. Head in, but rather than going
back up the stairs, take a right and you'll find a door with the same design on
it as the Lily Key.

Score! Head on through to the other side!

You'll be attacked by three more meatbags, so hack them apart and soon you'll
find a dead end. It's really no big deal, use the wall on your right to perform
a wall run, then jump to the next one and wall run that, then hop up and over
onto the balcony above. You'll be rewarded with an
and the path onwards.

Once you leave the next alley, you'll be molested by Black Spider Ninjas as
soon as you exit. You'll be warned by the way the camera sways to accomodate
their presence, so kill them off to find yourself in...

===================
New Area: Moat Road
===================

Okay, it's not the most important place in the world, but it does get a name,
so what the hell. If you wander over through one of the gates and look around
a little, you'll see some bloody huge fish swimming around in the moat.

Good thing we're not fighting those buggers, eh? Eh?

Anyway, there's only one real path through this place, so take it. You'll head
into a tunnel that looks a little like a cellar, with a locked gate containing
a Pegasus symbol. Oh well, plenty of time for that later.

You'll soon exit facing a door with three red gems, so pull the switch beside
it to open it up. This will allow you to get back and forth to the Clock Tower
area more easily, which is always good when you want to visit Muramasa's shop
or visit the Prototype Xbox pedestal for a health and Ninpo recharge.

Rather than heading through, however, it would be better if you saved your game
at the Dragon statue and then face directly opposite it, heading up the stairs
beside the gate. As you exit, you'll be attacked by three Special Forces
guards, which obviously means you're in another...

===========================
New Area: Drawbridge Square
===========================

Two new areas this close to one another I'd usually avoid, but this square is
a hub connecting the two main sections of Tairon together, so you should
probably get familiar with it.

Once your aggressors are dead and gone, you'll notice that the drawbridge is
currently raised - which isn't great for crossing the little bugger, I can tell
you. If you look around for a moment, you'll notice a door with a single blue
gem embedded in its surface, which is where you should now head through.

As you enter this area, more Special Forces troops will attack. Good for them,
kill them all. Try and kill the grenadier quickly, since focussing on murdering
his buddies can be difficult when you're suffering from the effects of shrapnel
and explosion-induced third degree burns.

Ignore the broken wall at the end of the path, for now head about midway up
the street and survey the area around you. Off to one side will be a chest
containing the Key of Pegasus, which is awesome, and to the other side will be
a drop back down to the Moat Road.

Before you leap down, however, you might have seen something shining away in
a corner to your left.

By Jimmy! A ! Wall run off the right, leap and wall run again
to reach the alcove containing its Scarab-ey goodness. This golden nugget of
joy procured, hop down and head along the Moat Road path, killing Black Spider
Ninjas as you go, until you reach the gate with the Pegasus emblem once more.
Open it up, and flip the switch inside to lower that mighty drawbridge we
encountered earlier on in our travels.

As you'll probably remember, the Drawbridge Square is directly above you, so
head out via the nearest exit and lurch up the stairs. Kill the enemies who've
respawned, and cross that bridge, baby!

You'll be in a new area, Drawbridge Hill, but it's not really important enough
to warrant its own heading. Just head along until you exit this long and
winding path, where you'll promptly be attacked by three Black Spider Ninjas.
Kill them, then head over to the Dragon statue you'll have noticed right before
you were ambushed, and... hey! there's a on the sill to the
right!

Neat! Grab it, and then feel free to save your game.

Now, facing the opposite direction from the Dragon statue, you can go left or
right. For now, we'll take the left path in order to obtain goodies.

Confused by my directions? You should soon head down a flight of stairs.
Otherwise, you'll have taken the wrong path. You dolt.

Now, as soon as you reach the bottom of the stairway (both of them,
technically) look to your left, and in a hidden niche you will see another
which should make you gurgle in glee and roll around happily.
A little further on lies a chest containing an , so
pocket it and head further on. Before long you'll come to...

=========================
New Area: Monastery Plaza
=========================

Of course, as is customary in Tairon, they greet their visitors by locking them
into a courtyard and having Special Forces troops ambush them. You know what
to do, so feel free to do it. There's a grand total of four enemies here, so
you shouldn't have all that much trouble in ending their pitiful lives.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|If you're not confident in your Ninja Skills, you might want to go back and |
|restock at the shop at this point. Many beginning players have trouble with |
|the following section since there's a ton of enemies, some new ones thrown |
|in for fun, and not much around to pick up healing items from. |
| |
|It's up to you, good sir! |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Now, if you've been following my directions, you'll know which gate you came
in from. The Monastery Gate is locked, which leaves two paths open - going up
the stairs will lead you back to the Save statue we passed a short while ago,
so head down the only remaining path.

Great, four Black Spider Ninjas. Or... meat? Gyahahaah!

In a side alley lies a chest containing a , so head in and
nab it before you go any further. A little further along the main path lies
three more Black Spider Ninjas, so finish them off continue on your way. After
a short while you'll come to the...

==================================
New Area: Monastery Inner Clearing
==================================

The new areas are coming thick and fast now, huh? This one is kind of important
though, so pay attention.

Once you go in far enough, the area will be sealed off and you'll be...

... yes, you've been ambushed by the bloody Special Forces troops again. Don't
they ever quit? Head on back and kill two of them, possibly three if you're
fast, before...

========
Cutscene
========

A primal scream rends the clean night air, causing both Hayabusa and his
attackers to pause and consider where it might have come from. Unfortunately
for one of your attackers, it came from a Fiend which leaps right on top of him
and starts using him as a squeaky chew toy.

The other Special Forces agent understandably freaks out a little and tries to
escape, but it simply jumps on top of him instead and he shares the same fang
filled fate.

There's some bad news in store, here. The Fiends are still hungry, and there's
only one human left alive. You.

With this, Hayabusa readies his sword and prepares to kick some demonic ass.

=========================
Mini-Boss: Red Fiends (3)
=========================

While Rachel might very well be able to break their faces off in a single blow,
Ryu... well, to put it simply, he can't.

Your absolute best friend here is the Blade of Nirrti combo, which is
essentially the combo you use to bust out an Izuna Drop, only without using the
Izuna Drop itself, and an extra slash added in its place.

Right, now these guys love to charge about. If they run headfirst into a wall,
they'll end up stunning themselves for a short while, so keep that in mind.

Never attack them from behind, since they'll tail slap you right across the
face, which hurts something fierce. You can block their claw attacks, which
will also knock you off balance, but be sure to watch out for when they rear
back - they're about to munch your head, which is unblockable, does hefty
damage, and ends up with you getting slung across the Plaza like a rag doll.

The very best way to deal with them is to isolate one from his friends, get in
close, and then perform a Blade of Nirrti combo on him. Block as you land, and
most of the time he'll rear back his head in an attempt to feast upon your
soft ninja brains. Roll aside from the bite and perform the Nirrti again - it
should keep him off balance to prevent any counterattacks before you finish the
combo.

If his friends are getting close top attacking you at all, just roll away and
isolate another one for more mass maimage.

Fortunately, they drop blue essence when defeated (assuming no Ultimate
Techniques kill them off, of course), so you can heal your health after each
Fiend is killed - except for the last one.

Eventually, they'll all be dead. Which is nice.

========
Cutscene
========

'Not bad,' comes an excellently casted voice after Ryu slays the last of these
red cretins. He glances up to find Rachel sitting on the Monastery wall viewing
the end of the fight.

'So what exactly are you?' she asks him. 'You're much more powerful than just a
human.'

Ryu, always the self righteous type, replies 'My strength comes from training -
not from some curse in my blood.'

Yada, yada, yada. Well done, Mr. Ninja. Don't ask for her phone number yet,
we've all the time in the world for you to make a move.

Rachel's a little miffed at this offhand remark, and mentions that she thought
her blood once was pure, also. The fact that she and Alma are mightily
susceptible to being turned into Greater Fiends, however, kicked that
particular delusion straight in the teeth.

It transpires that she became a Fiend Hunter in order to kill Alma off herself,
and she mentions that beneath the Monastery lies...

... well, we'd have found out sooner if a MASSIVE BLOODY FIEND didn't smack her
with a tentacle, pick her up and wave her around threateningly, and then
deposit her inside himself before crashing though a nearby wall.

And no, I didn't make any of that up.

====================================
Boss Fight: Big Squidgey Fiend Thing
====================================

If nothing else I have to admire how honest this boss is with itself. It wanted
Rachel, and it wasted no time in letting her know that fact.

If only Ryu could be so confident in his ability to pick up Rachel... but I
digress.

You're not on a time limit here, despite Rachel being stuck inside the beast,
so you can take your time and let her enjoy the slimy interior of a Fiend for
a while. This boss just sort of waddles around waving its tentacles at you
threateningly...

...tentacles. Stop sniggering at the back there, you immature person, you.

Getting slapped is moderately painful, though generally not life threatening
unless you're low on health. Very rarely, it'll be able to grab you when it
whips you from a distance with its tentacle - I've seen it happen only once in
my hundreds of hours playing the game.

Finally, his outer skin is extremely tough - only his tentacles will take
damage until he opens up the eyes outside his skin.

So! Not much to this guy, then - he's really quite easy once you know how.

Basically, what you do is perform Flying Swallows on his 'arms' when he's not
flailing them around randomly, and after two or three passes, one of these
tentacle 'arms' will fall off and turn into essence. Do the same to the other
arm quickly, then suck in the essence it drops and unleash an Ultimate
Technique on the boss, since once both his arms fall off his eyes will open up
and you can start dishing out some real damage.

Do it twice per cycle if you can, though it might be an idea to collect the
blue essence rather than using it for a UT if you're low on health. If you
can't use essence for any reason such as collecting it for health or Ninpo, or
it disappears before you get the chance to use it, the Blade of Nirrti combo
will do considerable damage as well - assuming the eyes are open, of course.

Once it closes its eyes once again, it'll spew out fire through the top of
its body - simply avoid this attack and repeat until it dies.

===========
CG Cutscene
===========

Ryu backflips a few times, somersaults over a final, flailing tentacle attack
as the boss dies, and then performs a rugby dive in order to catch a slimy,
oiled up Rachel who gets spat out from the mouth of the monster.

As you can probably tell, it's already the greatest cutscene in history.

Being the tough, upright, modern day lady that she is however, she shrugs off
his chauvenistic helping hand and starts gasping for air.

'Was that a Fiend as well?' Ryu asks stupidly.

'I've never seen one like that before,' Rachel replies. 'Something's strange...
there's so many of them.'

Oh-ho-ho. It looks like the Dark Dragon Blade's busy cooking up trouble for our
heroes! As they contemplate this madness, a Kunai smacks into the ground by
Ryu's feet, marking the CG debut of Ayane.

'Ayane! Busy running errands for Murai again, you little scamp?'

'The boldness of the Fiends is the work of the Dark Dragon,' she replies,
nonplussed. She then mentions that it is able to bestow unfathomable strength
on anyone wicked enough to weild it. Like the bad guys, for instance.

'That would explain the stirring in my blood,' Rachel mentions.

'No, that's just me,' replies Ryu. 'Anything else?'

At this, Ayane goes utterly barking mental and starts blabbering random
gibberish about how blood dominates mankind and is assisted by the power of the
Fiends.

First I've ever heard of it, I can tell you that.

'Ayane. Take care of Rachel,' Ryu commands her in an effort to bring her back
to reality, probably not realising just how it might sound to the audience at
home.

'Understood,' she says as he turns to leave.

'Ryu,' Rachel says, stopping him. 'I've heard that there is a hidden path under
the Monastery that leads to the Emperor's Palace. Doku will also be there.'

Thus leaned, Ryu heads through the hole in the wall caused by the Tentacle
Fiend's appearance and onwards towards the Monastery...

========
Cutscene
========

From high above the Monastery Inner Clearing, two figures watch the events
transpire. Gamov is one of these shadowy figures, and the other is the
mysterious Dark Disciple.

They discuss how there is no doubt that the Dark Dragon Blade is growing in
power with each killing, and Gamov proudly mentions that he provides the other
man with only the most reliable information.

Apparently, the Dark Disciple has arrived just in time...

... but for what?

----------------

End of Chapter 5!

===========================+=======+
/Chapter 6 - 'The Monastary'| xx06xx \
+============================+=========+======================================+
|'It is said that there is a secret path leading to the Palace of Zarkhan |
|underneath the Dworku Monastery...' |
+=============================================================================+

As this level begins, there's a Dragon statue directly to your left, so trot
over and save your game. Don't go into the Monastery quite yet, though - right
behind where you start off lie two treasure chests, one containing a and the other holding a .

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

If you're playing the Hurricane Pack, about all I can say is...

:|

Open them anyway, the Life of the Gods is still there.
____________________________________________________________________________

Your treasure hunting done for the moment, head on into the Monastary Annex and
up the steps. Collect the on the way, and kill the
bats with good old fashioned Shuriken.

While you're here, you can look over the sides of the Monastery Path and see
some locations you'll be visiting later if you like. Once your curiousity is
satisfied, amble on and descend the next set of stairs you come to.

Except, there aren't any for some strange reason. Oh well, hop down through the
hole in the floor and look around before you leave. You'll notice that the
stairs actually exist but don't reach the top for some bizarre reason best
left unknown, and...

Hey, there's a shop! Awesome!

Alas, no new upgrades are available for your weapons, but you can replenish
your stocks of items or ammunition which you might have used up on the way
here.

This done, exit through the door behind you and head out into the courtyard.
Over to your right lies a treasure chest containing an , and to your left lies a bloodthirsty group of new enemies charging at you
head on.

Typical. These are the imaginatively titled brown demons, and they're really
quite easy to beat. If you want to beat them with a minimum of effort, just
use the counterattack until your mind atrophies from disuse. They can't break
your guard or throw you, see.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Well, yes they can. However, you'll be fighting your old cat friends here
instead, so don't worry about these brown demon guys smacking your guard
around quite yet.

In fact, don't worry about them at all - by the time you end up fighting them,
you'll already have fought far more powerful enemies and you should really
find them quite easy, additional guard breaking abilities or not.
____________________________________________________________________________

Once they're dead, head along to the front door of the Monastery, collecting
the Map of the Monastery from the dead Ninja on the way. Save your game at the
Dragon statue, and then head on inside and go up either set of stairs,
opening the chest at the top to get your hands on an .

Move on a little bit further, and it will point out that you're in a...

====================
New Area: Altar Hall
====================

Pretty cool place, huh? There's all these nice marble effects everywhere, and
what have you. So, as always, it's time to kill off all the inhabitants!

Let's start off by running over to the altar. If you're named 'Gullible
McGullible' you might actually believe that the statues beside said altar are
actually statues, despite their scary appearance. Once you get close to them,
however, they'll cast away their cloaks and attack you in a very un-statuelike
manner.

No, these things are what I like to refer to as 'Reapers', given their hooded,
skeletal appearance and noted preference for slashing you in the face with a
razor sharp sickle. As soon as you kill the first of them, some brown demons
will run in and join in the party. Well, the more the merrier.

Once you're done with these guys, take a look around this area. Off to the
sides of the room will be a chest containing an , and
directly opposite that, a doorway leading off into a side room of the
Monastery. Take it, and go through the next door as well. You'll find yourself
in the Library Archive, where a cutscene will show part of the room being
sealed off by a security gate. Of course, as soon as this happens, you will
immediately be attacked by Reapers and brown demons.

After they're done and dusted, the security gate will automatically open for
fear of reprisal. Before you go bounding up the stairs to feast on all the
goodies it was trying to hide from you, take a moment to browse amongst the
fine books on offer. Blue ones can be collected and read, and you'll learn a
little more about the background of Vigoor and the Fiends. The Vigoor Emperor
in particular is considered to control everything - real or ephemeral, and is
pretty much one step short of being some sort of demonic God.

Interesting, eh? Now that you've nourished your mind a little, it's time to
hop into the previously sealed off section and act like a complete thug. Smash
up the display cases and steal the contents, which include a Stone Tablet
(Right), an , a and the all-important
Incendiary Shuriken.

The big iron ball thing in the middle is a complete mystery, by the way. Looks
cool though, huh? HUH?

Now that you've commited such a hideous criminal offence, it's time to bail.
Leave the display section and take the right path along, pausing as you come to
the end and wall running up the tiled section on your right. Leap off at the
top to go up a level, collect the that's staring you straight
in the face, and follow the ledge around until you reach a section with a
cracked wall.

Examining it gives you the less than subtle hint that 'The crack looks like it
can be widened with a strong impact or small explosion', so equip your recently
acquired Incendiary Shurikens and hurl them at the crack. Woo-hoo, new passage!

_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|If, for some incomprehensible reason, you went nuts as soon as you collected |
|the Incendiary Shurikens and started randomly hurling them into walls until |
|you squandered your entire supply, Muramasa's shop will be selling them for |
|100 essence a pop after you first pick them up. |
| |
|You didn't actually waste them, did you? |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Once through the crack, you'll be accosted by more Reapers and brown demons,
so kill them off and go through the door you find.

You'll find yourself on a ledge overlooking the Altar Hall, with a path
circling around to another doorway. Don't go that way yet, however - go the
other way and try to drop off the platform. Hayabusa will flip over and hang
onto the ledge with his fingers, so drop him safely on top of the new ledge
below. You know, the one held up by the pillars and arches underneath it.

Walk along this ledge to come across a chest with a
inside it, then hop straight over it and get onto the platform above. Jump
right from here to reach a balcony with a chest containing an , then get back to your starting position and take the circular
path round.

Don't go in the first door you come to, mind. This side is exactly the same as
the one you came in, so repeat the process to collect a
and a . Awesome!

NOW you can go back and enter the door you just passed. You'll find yourself
in....

=====================
New Area: Monk's Room
=====================

It might not seem worthy of its own section, but this room should be revisited
several times during the game, since the safe gets restocked from time to time
with new goodies. Isn't that nice of the owner?

Once in the main part of the room, you'll see a desk to your left, and beside
it lies a statue. It looks expensive, so slip in into your ninja pockets as
quickly as you can. Turns out that this is a statue of the Raptor - Deity of
Sentiment.

Good stuff!

Now, read the diary on the desk. The Monk writes that he has been granted the
Book of Eons as a birthday gift from the Emperor, and that he has decided to
store it away securely in his nearby safe. Unfortunately for him, he has also
foolishly written down the code for the safe in the same entry. The code he
uses is actually the same as the date the entry was posted - on the 27th day of
the 12th month.

The huge green text in the entry when it mentions the date should clue you in
on this, really. Also, at the end of the entry it will say that there's a note
which reads:

Left, Right, Right, Left.

This is the order in which you must turn the combination dial to unlock the
safe.

Now that we've all the information required to perform yet another robbery,
swagger on over to the safe and open it up by doing the following:

- Turning the dial left and choosing '2'.
- Turning the dial right and choosing '7'.
- Turning the dial right and choosing '1'.
- Turning the dial left and choosing '2'.

If you've done this right, success! The safe opens up and Hayabusa takes the
Book of the Eons in his sweaty grasp - it's all in a good cause, after all.

Needless to say, certain people aren't too impressed with what you just did,
you thief. The door locks behind you, and more Reapers and brown demons will
attack you for your light fingered ways. Convince them that 'might makes right'
by bashing their skulls in for them, and leave.

Rather than jumping back down to the altar, take the path back to the Archive
and you'll find a bunch of new enemies waiting for you. What's more, they seem
to keep coming no matter how often you kill them, which can only mean one
thing: it's a Sixty Fiend Challenge! Hooray!

=====================================
Sixty Fiend Challenge - The Monastery
=====================================

The enemies here are Reapers and brown demons, so just hack and slash your way
through them until you've killed all sixty of the hopeful little blighters.
Once this is done, a quick cutscene will show a treasure chest materialising
out of thin air on an upper ledge, so go up and open it for your prize - a
, giving you yet another shot of Ninpo to murder
opponents with! Isn't that just grand?

Watch out, though - getting too close to the door during the battle may cause
Hayabusa to leave the room when you press the 'X' button for an attack. It can
be rather annoying when you've two enemies left, since you'll then have to
do the whole lot again.

======================================
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|This Sixty Fiend Challenge must be completed before the end of Chapter Seven,|
|otherwise it will be gone for good. All the enemies in the challenge will be |
|replaced by a mere three Spider Clan Ninjas, and you get nothing special for |
|wiping them out instead. |
| |
|Guess you might as well do it now then, eh? |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Now that you've killed off half the population of Luxembourg in a single room,
it's time to leave this crazy town. Leave through the door on the bottom floor,
continue on through the next one and then head up to the altar, killing anyone
who gets in your way - more Reapers and brown demons, basically. Once there,
examine the altar itself and Hayabusa will place the Book of Eons back where
it belongs - discounting the safe where he found it, of course.

This, logically, causes the pedestal lurking deviously behind the altar to
slide away, revealing a new path for Hayabusa to follow. So, make him follow
it and hop on down into the caverns below.

Pretty much as soon as you're down there, you'll be accosted by a swarm of
bats, so teach tham that your Ninja blood is not for feasting upon by killing
them all. Having done this, collect the hidden in the corner,
the Map of the Underground Cemetery waiting inside the treasure chest and
finally ransack the belongings of the dead ninja lying on the floor over there
to top up your reserves of Incendiary Shuriken. It's not like he needs them or
his wallet anymore, so don't be shy - raid the dead!

This accomplished, walk on over to the Dragon Statue in the middle of the room
and save your game to your heart's desire. Once is probably more than enough,
though.

Okay! See that metal gate over there by the Dragon Statue? Exit through it and
stare in stupefied wonder at the massive stone head on your left. You're now
in a new area called the 'Corridor of Doom' which, coupled with that
magnificent head, might give you a clue as to what's about to happen. For now
though, head the only way you can and chuck an Incendiary Shuriken at the
cracked wall.

Oh, and it might be an idea to start running like hell around now, too. A
cutscene will kick into play about now, showing that the explosion has
dislodged that exquisitely proportioned head, and the stone cranium in question
is now hurtling towards you in true Indiana Jones style.

Get running, you lightning fast Ninja, you.

===============
Chase Sequence!
===============

I'm surprised that this section wasn't cut for the European release of the
game. I was sickened to my European stomach when I noticed that there's a stone
version of a giant DECAPITATED HEAD rolling towards you, and everyone knows
that us frail European types can't handle gory details such as these without
running off to our censorship friends for our own protection.

On with the walkthrough, enough with the sarcasm!

For this section of the game, you'll have a fixed camera angle facing towards
you as you flee this mighty boulder, which is both a good and a bad thing. It's
good, since it shows you how close the head is to turning you into mush. It's
also bad, however, because it gives you limited time to react and avoid the
traps that have been cunningly placed along your only escape route.

Don't worry about dying here, though - while the spiked pits might very well
kill you off if you're low on energy, getting hit by the rolling head will
simply warp you back to the start of the chase sequence. Just blow up the
cracked wall again and head on through.

So, here are the traps in order of appearance:

1. Spike pit - Jump over the bugger.

2. Large spike pit - Wall run along the left wall, jump at the end.

3. Spike pit - Jump over it.

4. Spike pit - Jump again. It's quite near the previous one, so be ready.

5. Three falling stone columns - They fall from the right, then the left, then
the right of the corridor. Swerve around each in the opposite direction from
which they fall.

6. Irregular spike pit - The middle section can't be jumped over - head down
the left hand side and jump the jutting out section that gets in your way.

7. Small spike pit - Hop over or swerve around.

8. Devious spike pit - Don't be fooled by the dip in the ground right before
the spike trap, it's really quite safe to run along. Jump the spikes when
you come to them.

9. Large spike pit - Wall run along the left and jump again for this one.

That's it! Run along a little further and make sure you don't get squashed to
trigger a cutscene with Hayabusa leaping onto an iron bar spanning a chasm and
swinging along it. The poor head isn't quite so athletic - it drops away to its
doom in fine style.

------------------------

It transpires that you're in...

==============================
NEW Area: Econtra Babel Specus
==============================

Now that you're back in control of Hayabusa, swing jump over to the rock ledge
in front of you and open up that treasure chest to claim yourself a !

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

On second thought, don't bother. Not unless you enjoy getting jumped by a
ton of bloodthirsty bats locked away in a treasure chest, at any rate.

How do they breathe in there, anyway?
____________________________________________________________________________

Save at the Dragon Statue, and make your way down the outsides of the cavern.
You'll be attacked by bats several times during your descent, so change your
subweapon back to the standard shuriken to make life easier and also to prevent
you from accidentally wasting any Incendiary Shuriken. They'll come in handy
soon, trust me.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Falling down the pit may very well be the fastest way to the bottom, but it's|
|also the fastest way to the game over screen. |
| |
|Watch your step and don't fall in. This is the only place in the game other |
|than the Airship where falling off a platform can kill you instantly. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

As you make your way down the abyss, you'll no doubt notice a huge dead bone
dragon thing clinging onto the sides. Hop over his totally dead and harmless
claws as you come to them, and you'll soon see a side room which has a pit
inside with bats pouring out of it. Kill them and drop down, then open the gate
and step out onto a new ledge where you'll be attacked by some hopeful brown
demons. You know the drill, and this is where they will make their first
appearance in the Hurricane Pack.

You may very well notice an alcove by the wall which contains an old, decrepit
altar, but it's about as useless as a chocolate fireplace for now so just walk
on by and head in through the next iron gate you come to.

Down the stairs will be a bunch of new enemies - the technical name for which
would have to be 'Big brains with eyeballs and bee stingers protruding from
their asses'. Use your bow to take them out, or utilise your Windmill Shuriken
to finish them off - two hits from the four bladed wonder will do the trick
rather nicely.

Before you leave the room, look around and you'll find a right
below the ledge you entered this section from, and a treasure chest up on high
containing a .

________/HELP!\_________

This part of the game can be annoying at first, since even getting back up can
be a complete hassle if you don't know just how to do it.

Okay. Assume you're on that Iron Circle in the middle of the room, right at the
very bottom. There's a path going down and out of the room, which we'll ignore
for now. Facing that way, but to the left, is a place where you can wall jump
up to claim a Golden Scarab hidden away in a little niche.

Do this and then face out and jump onto the ledge directly in front of you. To
your right is another platform within easy jumping distance, so hop onto it.
Look up from here and at a slight angle to the walls' left to discover a ledge
with a treasure chest stowed away on it.

Now, here's the tricky part. The thing is that wall running in this area is
a little erratic, so you don't want to be doing that in order to reach the
ledges. That said, the platforms are a little too far apart to jump across
comfortably, so we do have a little bit of a problem here.

The answer?

Equip the Dragon Sword, walk to the edge of the platform (you won't fall off)
and jump towards the ledge with the treasure chest, tapping 'X' at the height
of your jump to get a little extra height and boost yourself onto it. Collect
the Life of the Gods, then you can jump to the ledge nearest and slightly above
you, and from there it's just a simple jump and some wall climbing to get back
out through the higher gate you initially entered the room from.

Simple, huh?
_________________________

Okay, now that you know how to get back up, it's time to ignore everything I
just told you and leave through the bottom exit. You'll come across a Dragon
Statue on your way out, so be sure and save the game when you do. If you don't
have any Incendiary Shuriken or healing items on you at this point, you might
want to go back to the dead Ninja and Muramasa's shop (the statue, not the real
shop) to get some.

If you've plenty of them, or you're just feeling brave, continue your descent!
It should be noted that you can dive into the pit from here - there's actually
just one section of it which kills you, and that's if you fall past the
previous room with the brain things in them without using the room itself to
go down.

So, dive on down! Kill the brown demons that appear once you land on the sealed
floor plate with the chains holding it in place, then scour the outskirts of
the area to find a new route heading further into the cavern. Head along it,
making sure to grab the hidden away in a small recess on the
right hand side of the corridor, that cheeky young monkey. Move along.

You'll now find yourself in the 'Tomb of the Eons', which is quite an elegant
name for what is essentially one huge grave. Kill the bats as they attack you,
and drop down the pit you come to. Annihilate the new batch of flying vermin
you encounter, and then open up the next chest for an . Oh, happy days!

Head into the circular room right beside you, and you'll notice that the walls
are suffering from a bad dose of the pox - but, more importantly, there's a
switch lying slap bang in the centre of the room. Jump over it and press 'Y'
to slam down on top of the switch and get the whole room moving. Turns out that
the floor is actually a rotating lift of some sort, and you just sent yourself
on your way down even further into the bowels of the tomb.

Angry at having missed the elevator, some brown demons leap in after you in a
frenzied effort to spill your blood. Spill theirs instead, and remember to tap
the right trigger to centre the camera if the rotating platform spins you
askew.

Once at the bottom, head through the door and open the treasure chest located
behind the nearby rock pillar to uncover a handy new weapon - the Vigoorian
Flails!

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Or maybe, you know, not the Vigoorian Flails.

If you're wondering where they've gone, Muramasa now gives them to you in
return for a mere (XX) scarabs.
____________________________________________________________________________

There's nothing else here, so head up the corridor and open up the door at the
far end like some sort of supernatural comet to enter the Ritual Room, baby!
You'll be attacked by a new bunch of flying brains, so kill them off as swiftly
as you possibly can.

Once this is done...

===========
CG Cutscene
===========

Well, there's nothing like a spurting spray of yellow blood across an altar to
redecorate it in a pleasing new way that catches the eye of any casual observer
who might be passing by.

Unfortunately, the Holy Grail also catches an eye - one which bursts free from
your brainlike aggressors, as a matter of fact. The sacriledge of having an
eyeball landing in one of their treasured holy artefacts is enough to anger the
dead into rising from their eternal slumber... which is exactly what happens,
and the Vigoorians start clambering out of their resting places in order to
greet our awesome hero.

With axes and arrows.

Uh oh.

===========

As soon as you're back in control of Ryu, just flip out and kill them all,
otherwise you won't be allowed out of the room.

Some basic tips against these guys - be sure to attack the archers first since
they have less endurance than the other zombies, and also because getting shot
in the back from miles away is never fun. Also, perform a Wind Run and then
follow up with a Flying Swallow on the same enemy to decapitate him, impairing
his aim (for obvious reasons) and also removing his ability to grab you and
feast upon your head if you get lazy with your dodging skills.

Once they're all dead - and there's quite a few of them - grab the Holy Grail
off its pedestal and make a break for it through the newly reopened door. There
will be more undead, axe and bow weilding zombie enemies in this area, so take
care of them or just run on by until you get back to the rotating lift.

Activate the switch in exactly the same manner you did last time, and then fend
off yet more zombies shuffling out of their resting places in order to give
you a damn good chopping up. Once you finally reach the top, leg it through the
door. You don't have to kill them all before doing so, but hey - they do give
you decent amounts of essence.

Run back through the corridors until you come to the steel plate held up by
those massive chains, and then waste all the zombies who're all holding a party
up here too.

Now, we're about to have some fun. Make your way back up the winding path near
the edge of the room, and soon you'll come across three zombie archers who are
firmly implanted upon their platforms. One single shot from them will send you
flying, probably back to the ground floor, and this will have the side effect
of bringing any you managed to kill right back to life. Or undead life, or
whatever state it is they happen to exist in.

Some tips for these smarmy buggers - if you block an arrow, it will break your
guard so roll as soon as this happens. If you don't, his friend will likely
send one streaking right into your skull before you recover.

Secondly, put those Incendiary Shuriken to work! Three hits with an Incendiary
Shuriken will put them back to sleep for good, and even one hit will stop them
firing at you long enough to get in close and do some damage. If you're flush
with Incendiaries - and you should be - stick them until they die, blocking
between throws in case his buddy retaliates.

Finally, never, EVER Flying Swallow these jokers. You'll hit them, yes, but
you'll probably end up falling back down to the bottom as you overshoot the
ledge, which will prompt a respawn of the bastards and therefore negate all
your hard work. Tough life, isn't it?
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|This part is often considered the most annoying part in the whole game. I'd |
|probably agree, especially when I remember the first few times I attempted |
|it. I'd always miss a jump or get shot in the back while attacking one of the|
|archers, causing Ryu to plummet back to terra firma - only to have all those |
|lovely enemies reappear once I climbed my way back up to the top. |
| |
|Grr. |
| |
|However, if you kept some Incendiary Shuriken handy for this part you'll be |
|through before you know it. |
| |
|You did take my earlier advice on this matter, didn't you? |
| |
|Didn't you? |
| |
|Oh, COME ON. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

When you come across the Dragon Statue once again, be sure to save your game
since there's a boss fight about to take place once more. Head into the room
beside you. As you'll no doubt be pleased to find, the flying brain things have
been replaced by plain old bats. Kill them for essence, and then use the
climbing technique I mentioned earlier (around the first time you got here, in
fact) to make your way back up. Exit through the gate at the top, and head on
over to the disused altar and place the Holy Grail where it really wants to be.

The flames on the altar will flicker to life and, unfortunately, the same can
be said of that huge bone dragon you've been ignoring all this time during your
manly descent into the bowels of hell. It rears up and lets out a scream that's
surprisingly powerful given the fact that it doesn't seem to have any lungs
left.

Oh well. Boss fight!

=======================
Boss fight: Bone Dragon
=======================

Some players have problems with this boss, but he's really not that hard - and
despite what you may have heard, the camera won't go nuts unless you run right
into it for whatever crazy reason may be manifesting inside your head.

Your target for this fight isn't particularly tough to single out - you see
how he's keeping himself level with you by gripping onto the stone ledges with
the aid of his bony claws? Let's see him try that after we cut off his hands!

First off, equip your preferred weapon of unbearable pain and start hammering
the claw nearest you with your favourite combos. X, Y, Y with the Dragon Sword
is quite good, mainly because it's mobile - as you attack, the Bone Dragon will
often shoot shards of bone off its spine at you - you'll see that it rocks
its whole body a couple of times, and then the shards will fly at you. Dodge
them any way you like. If it raises its foot to stomp you, roll quickly aside.
If it draws back its head, dodge like hell since it's about to try and bite
you. If it catches you with this attack you'll lose a substantial amount of
life, and needless to say, you can't block it.

Every time you kill off a claw, the Dragon will shriek in pain and turn around,
offering you a new one to take care of - usually turning the other way in an
effort to swipe you with its tail. Take care to avoid this attack by jumping
over or rolling under it. You'll have to decide which evasive move to use when
it attacks, as it varies the height of the swipe from time to time.

If you want to inflict damage on the rest of its claws, use any Incendiary
Shuriken you may have or whip out your bow and start attacking the ones you
can't otherwise reach. The Windmill Shuriken does good work too, but it's
completely ineffective in the Hurricane Pack - it literally does no damage and
simply bounces off the bone.

Once our bony nemesis has taken enough punishment and has the bone sheathing
on its claws smashed asunder, it finds that it can no longer support itself
with those weakened paws and soon plummets to its doom - breaking the rusted
chains and dislodging the metal panel which sealed the lower sections of the
caverns off from you previously.

Awesome!

================================+=======+
/Chapter 7 - 'Hidden Underground'| xx07xx \
+=================================+=========+=================================+
|'A hidden underground path leading deeper and deeper. Does the path to |
|Zarkhan truly exist...?' |
+=============================================================================+

First of all, locate the source of that beeping noise in order to procure for
yourself a shiny new . This done, it's time to
get back down to where that metal plate used to be - and for the love of all
that is holy, don't try jumping down from here or you'll have a quick spell of
INSTANT DEATH on your hands.

Which, naturally, you don't want. Go down the usual way, save if you feel like
it, and make your way down around the edges of the cavern until you reach the
same level as the tunnel branching off to the Ritual Room.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|If you return to the Ritual room now, you'll be invited to kill off sixty of |
|those evil zombie buggers in return for a . The |
|extended health bar is always a bonus, so feel free to trot on down and |
|liberate said treasure from their zombielike hands if you want. |
| |
|There's no rush though - you can come back and kill them off at any point in |
|the game, so there's no real problem either way. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Whether or not you decide to go and extricate that handly little treasure from
their unholy grasp, you'll soon want to be moving ever onwards. If you don't
feel like going for it, just dive into that big gaping pit beside you. I
recommend leaping from the Dragon Statue for the full 'GYAAAAAAH' effect. This
will lead you to the...

[COFFIN CHAMBER]

You'll land in amongst the remains of the previous boss, who is now completely
dead and not merely feigning it. Search the edges of this circular room, and
almost directly opposite the doorway leading out you'll find a lovely waiting for you in a burial shelf. Sweet! Now that we're done doing
what we were doing in this place, exit through the only door available to you.

Joy - more zombie archers, and four of the buggers at that. Well, waste no time
in disposing of their services, and laugh like a madman as you slice their
kneecaps off. Continue on past them and you'll come across a tiny little room
with a Shop in the corner and some broken pillars in the centre.

See if you can guess which is more important.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Sir, I implore you to upgrade your Dragon Sword to level 3. You might also |
|want to upgrade the Vigoorian Flails too - it's a handy little weapon, and |
|certainly worth learning to use properly. |
| |
|And it can also make a complete mess out of a boss that's coming up in a |
|little while. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Now that your urges to trade away your souls have been sated once more, leave
this room via the new doorway. The one with the steps. Follow the path around
until you come to another small room containing a treasure chest which is in
plain sight. Open it up to receive a Map of the Underground, and then go and
save at the Dragon Statue beside you. This done, go through the next doorway
to find yourself in a...

=================================
NEW AREA - SUSPENSION BRIDGE ROOM
=================================

Hey, curb your enthusiasm. Before you go bounding across that titular
suspension bridge like a hyperactive puppy on crack, let's take a moment to
smell the coffee. Ah, sweet, sweet coffee. Aromatic and perfectly blended
coffee. Coffee of the Gods!

With me now? If so, look around the first ledge you come to upon entering this
area. To your left lies a treasure chest containing a , so
hop on over and pick it up. On the other side of the ledge lies a , which is always neat. Go and get that too, and then take a trot across
the bridge.

========
Cutscene
========

Typical, typical stuff. You just want to walk across a simple bridge, and then
zombies come along with their big ass axes and chop the bloody thing down while
you're only halfway across.

They couldn't just do it when you're not actually using the thing, could they?

As a little aside, you can skip this cutscene and preserve the glory of such an
intricately wrought bridge by jumping down into the chasm of your own accord.

--------

Now that you've been unceremoniously dumped on the floor below, it's time to
unleash your aggression on some of the poor fools down here who think that you
look like a tasty, ninjaey snack. There's a bunch of brown demons and axe
weilding zombies down here - nothing too scary, but there are a few of them. If
you upgraded your Dragon Sword, you'll notice that they're falling in far less
hits than they used to.

Once they're all DEAD, take a look around. You'll notice a door at one end of
the room is blocked off by a couple of iron snakes holding red and blue orbs
in their mouths. Now, go to the door furthest away from this one, and enter.

[The Chamber of the Blue Eye]

As usual, you'll have your own welcoming party as soon as you step into the
room. Kill the zombie archer directly in front of you, and start pulling arrows
out of the dead ninja, quick style. There are more archers on the opposite end
of the room firing off their own particular brand of death at you, so kill them
with your newly acquired supply of arrows before they do the same to you.

A handy method for doing this is to hop down onto the floor, get fairly close
to them and use the broken pillars as cover. I find it beats having to squint
past the swinging maces in order to aim at zombies made tiny by their distance
from you, anyway. It's up to you how you approach this, however.

Once they're dead and gone, return to your dead benefactor and start pulling
arrows out of his flesh again. Directly opposite the doorway you came in and
slightly above your line of sight is a window-like recess with a glowing red
orb inside it. Shoot an arrow into the orb, and it will turn green and show a
brief cutscene informing you that a partially visible pathway has appeared
bridging the gap to the opposite side.

You'll have to be quick, though - it doesn't last forever, and there's those
swinging maces doing their best to impede your progress. Follow the blue
streams of smoke around, roll past the swinging maces, and jump the gaps you
come across. Only pass the second last mace when it swings away from the wall
you'll be running past, and then leap to victory!

Don't rush too much though - you've certainly enough time to afford being
careful here. Centre the camera whenever you have to, and all that life
preserving stuff.

Once on the other side, climb the small set of steps up to that magnificent
Blue Orb shaped like an eye, and push it in with 'X'. A cutscene will play
showing the snake with the blue orb in the other room sliding away from the
door.

One down, one to go!

Before you scoot back into the other room, however, drop down from the ledge
you're standing on and take a look underneath it, behind one of the pillars.
Hey, another awaits! Now, run back to the other end of the room
and collect the from the treasure chest before running
up the stairs.

Oh, and pillage the ninja's body one last time before you leave if you haven't
got a full stock of arrows.

Once back in the main room, you'll be attacked by more brown demons and
zombies. Do the decent thing and kill them all, then run down to the doorway
nearest the 'snake door' and make yourself acquainted with the room on the
other side.

[The Chamber of the Red Eye]

More archer zombies await in this room. Kill them as before, and then let's
get down to business. Oh, and the previous tactic of hopping down, using cover
and shooting them from up close still works well.

First off, grab the treasure chest you first noticed upon entering the room to
net yourself a . Now, turn around and check out the path
that lies before you. A thin path runs all the way to the other side of the
room, and as luck would have it, this very same path is littered with traps -
namely swinging maces and pressure-sensitive spike plates.

There's not much to say for this bit. I'll break it down for you, anyway.

1. Roll past the first swinging mace.

2. Jump over the first spike trap,

3. Wait until the mace isn't in the way, and then jump over the next spike
trap.

4. Shoot the base of the swinging maces with arrows - notice how they have
little red orbs there? This will slow them down, allowing you to leap past
the rest of the spike pits without getting mauled by the maces.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Is step four turning out to be too much of a hassle for you? It's actually |
|easier to roll past the mace into the spike trap, wait until the next mace |
|swings by, jump into the *next* spike trap and then leap past the last |
|swinging mace as it passes. |
| |
|It does damage you, yes, but it's less likely you'll get smacked off the |
|platform by one of those bloody maces and have to start over from the start |
|of the path. |
| |
|And hey, that's what all those healing potions you've been collecting are |
|for. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Once safely on the other side, it should be obvious what to do. Run along and
hit that Red Eye for another cutscene of the second snake retreating from the
doorway, opening up the path ahead for you!

There's nothing else to do on this end of the room, so drop down, run back
across and collect the from the chest on the bottom
floor, then run up the stairs and leave the room.

Your destination is obvious - run through the newly opened Snake door and there
will be a brief cutscene before...

==================================
Mid Boss: Big Squidgey Fiend Thing
==================================

Well, doesn't this guy look somewhat familiar?

Oh, that's right. We killed him two chapters ago.

He really hasn't changed that much, to be honest, so all the previous tactics
still apply to this fight. You, however, have picked up one extra move that
will make mincemeat out of him.

Flying Swallow his tentacles off as per usual, don't collect the health or
ninpo essence he releases, and then use them in order to perform the
'Annihilating Gleam' with the Level 3 Dragon Sword (twirl the stick 360
degrees, hold 'Y' and unleash). You'll look like the center of a hurricane when
you use this move, and each use does more than 25% damage to this boss.

So! Follow this technique, and you'll have him dead in two attack cycles.

Good riddance.

-----------------------------------

Now that he's dead and gone, another quick cutscene will kick in showing the
walls shifting around a little outside. Collect the blue essences left behind,
and, of course, pick up the before you leave, too.
They're always handy to have.

Once outside, hang an immediate right and wall jump all the way to the top -
this whole section could have been done in moments were it not for those stupid
zombies with their axes. Can't leave those bridges alone, they can't.

Anyway, once on the upper ledge you'll see a throne with something shiny
resting upon it. Go over and pick it up to obtain your very first . This handy little doohickey will upgrade any ninpo scroll you have
on you other than the Art of the Flame Wheels, enhancing their attack power.
Feel free to use it on your Inferno scroll right away.

Now, before continuing on, you can go back to the shop you visited right before
the bridge was destroyed (since an identical wall has come out on the other
side of the pit that you can use to wall jump back up) and you can go and
pillage that dead ninja in the Chamber of the Blue Eye for arrows one last
time.

Be sure to get any scarabs you've missed, because this place will be sealed off
for good before much longer. Wouldn't want to miss out now, would you?

Ready? Then leave via the door beside the throne which held the Jewel of the
Demon seal. Save at the Dragon statue in the next room, then set off down the
new passageway nearby. You'll notice that two zombie archers are firing at you
as you descend towards them in fury, so take evasive action as you close in on
them - wall running into a Flying Swallow is a favourite of mine.

This next section, as you'll notice, contains loads of zombies. Take some time
out of your busy schedule to kill them all, and remember that Ultimate
Techniques can be really, really fun in such close quarters.

Once you've done a victory lap on them, saunter over to the dead ninja in the
corner and ruffle through his possessions to uncover a new Ninpo scrolls - The
Art of the Ice Storm! Hooray!

Wait, it sucks ass. Collect it anyway, and then descend further into the depths
of Vigoor where you'll be accosted by bats. Bats! You know what to do, so go
ahead and do it.
_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

If you're playing through the Hurricane Pack, there's some good news for you:
you won't be attacked by bats at this point.

There's also some bad news, though - it'll be a swarm of Ghost Fish trying
to tear meaty chunks out of you instead.

You have upgraded the Lunar or Flails by this point, haven't you? If not, you
may have some problems. Still, jumping back and forth with the Dragon Swords'
'X' attack should make it all work out in the end.

Hopefully.

Oh, and that last dead ninja isn't holding the Ice Storm Ninpo, but rather a
Great Spirit Elixer - which is probably the better of the two items, so it's
not all bad.
____________________________________________________________________________

Once past here, you'll be in the...

[Chamber of Everlasting Sleep]

Now, there's a pretty simple puzzle in place here. Touch the floor, and the
sarcophagus will rise out of reach. Therefore, we simply make sure that we
don't touch the floor.

From the entrance, there's a set of steps leading down, and to the right lies
a panel - this will cause the sarcophagus to lower itself back down to floor
level where you can get your grubby mitts on it once more.

All said and done, though, you should really head off to the left. Wall run
over to the jagged 'sandy' section in front of you, and your weight will cause
the ledge in front of it to descend to the same level as the sarcophagus. Head
on over, not touching the rest of the floor, to search said coffin for two
highly important items - the statue, and the . Search the sarchophagus twice to obtain both items, and then walk over
to the nearby Skull Door and unlock it.

Head on out, and kill all the bats you come across - unless you're playing the
Hurricane pack, which will have them replaced with you know what - until you
come to...

========
Cutscene
========

Well, the crack in the wall you caused by killing the last Chapter's boss has
finally stopped trickling water. Unfortunately, it has done so by caving in
completely and replacing the 'trickle of water' with a 'torrent of water'. The
corridors are now flooding, and Hayabusa's caught smack bang in the middle of
it all.

He looks a little puzzled as rats start scurrying past his feet, but he soon
realizes why - he looks around as a massive wall of water bears smashes into
him. He catches onto a nearby support beam to try and hold out against it, but
can't keep his grip as he's swept along with the current and dumped into a
nearby pool of water.

Oh well.

--------

Yippee! You're swimmin'!

First thing's first - you now have an air gauge whenever you go underwater. It
shouldn't be a problem for now, though, so just point Hayabusa the way you want
him to swim and hold down the 'A' button. Tapping it makes him swim faster, but
don't bother trying to manouvre when you're doing so - 'A' and a direction are
used for quick dives up or down.

Okay! First off, go and swim down to where that shiny golden thing is for -
would you believe it - another ! Ignore the elevator beside you
for now, since you'll probably want to go and save your game. To do so, simply
head down the submerged tunnel beside where the Scarab was and head along until
you resurface a little further down the line. Head up the stairs and save at
the Dragon Statue.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|If you're not reasonably stocked with healing items and Ninpo, you might want|
|to save this particular section to another save slot, especially if it's your|
|first time through the game. The next section can be rough for new players, |
|and there's no way to get back to a shop where you can restock on healing |
|items and the like. |
| |
|You've been warned, baby. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Ignore this motionless elevator too, since you'll be coming back here later in
the game once it starts working - and don't bother trying to wall run up to the
top either, because it just isn't possible. That said, there's only one way to
go from here, and that's back the way you came. Backtrack, and then head into
that first elevator you passed earlier on whilst swimming around.

Once you reach the top, you'll be back in the Monk's room. The door locks, and
then three Spider Clan Ninjas will attack you - finish them off, and then
look at the Monk's Diary again. Isn't that interesting... there's a new
combination for you to try. Amble on over to the safe and do the following:

- Turn the dial right and enter '1'
- Turn the dial left and enter '4'
- Turn the dial right and enter '1'
- Turn the dial left and enter '0'

This will open up the safe again, allowing you to rob the poor monk blind yet
again. Well, it should teach him right for being such an idiot.

This time you'll get your hands on a , which is always nice
to have. Your business concluded, exit via the door that leads into the main
section of the Monastery - the one that unlocked itself when you killed
everyone.

You'll find yourself on the balcony overlooking the main altar.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Well, this is your last chance to complete the 60 fiend challenge in the |
|Library Archives. The chapter will soon be finishing up, and once it's over, |
|you'll lose the chance to complete it forever - or at least until your next |
|game, anyway. |
| |
|Likewise, if there's anything you want from the other balconies up here, go |
|and get them before dropping down to ground level. They're also going to be |
|made permanantly unavailable after this next section. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Are you ready? Well, hop down and approach the altar. Don't bother trying to
leave via the main door in order to save, since you'll be informed that a
mysterious force is holding the door closed. Once you approach the altar,
you'll be introduced to the owner of that mysterious force via this cutscene...

===========
CG Cutscene
===========

Our good pal Hayabusa senses that something isn't quite right with this scene,
probably as a result of having nobody try to kill him in the aisles. He lifts
his head to the bright light streaming through the stained glass window above
the altar and notices that a large, ominous shadow is closing in on the
Monastery. Seconds later, a female demon crashes through the window, the raw
power around her holding the broken shards of glass in stasis.

The moment passes, and the broken glass falls to the floor along with this new,
deadly looking enemy. From her knees, she calmly looks up at Ryu as she slowly
raises herself off the ground.

As the tension of the moment rises, the camera unneccesarily zooms in on her
huge scaly ass as Ryu unsheathes his sword in the background...

==========
Boss: Alma
==========

Wheyhey! This is the boss that most players get to, fight a few times and then
start chewing on the carpet in frustration. She's not really that bad, but it
is kind of a shock the first time you meet her and she starts doing interesting
things to your health bar.

As soon as the fight begins, immediately attempt to Flying Swallow her. It may
or may not hit, but there's no better way to start the fight. If it does hit
her, it'll quite probably knock her on her ass - run right over before she
recovers and perform the Blade of Nirrti on her for excellent damage.

These two moves are going to be your key to beating the hell out of her. She'll
dodge the Flying Swallow every so often, and eat it occasionally. It's when it
knocks her out of the air that you have to strike - so do it quickly!

Of course, she isn't going to just fly around waiting for you to hit her, so
here's what you should be watching out for:

From afar, she'll generally perform one of the following moves -

- She'll dive at you quickly. You can perform a Flying Swallow on her for
guaranteed damage, but you won't knock her out of the air.

- She'll form pinkish fireballs and start hurling them at you. They hurt, so
it's time to start dodging like hell. Roll around, jumping and rolling until
she stops firing them at you. If you're playing the Hurricane Pack, feel
free to intercept these whenever you feel like it.

- She'll use her magical powers to rip pillars out of their roots from afar
and start hurling them at you. Same idea as the fireballs, but they're more
damaging. You can intercept these too in the Hurricane Pack.

And when she's in close, she might bust out the following -

- She floats around, and you'll hear a sort of 'warping' sound. Upon hearing
this, you'll notice that she's surrounded by a purple glow which reaches to
the floor. If you get caught in this (and you can't block it, so don't try),
you'll be lifted into the air and caught on the business end of a three hit
combo which ends with you being axe-kicked back to the floor.

You'll take damage from bouncing off the floor too, but you can pause and
heal between the axe kick and the sudden impact with the floor if you're
quick.

- She'll stomp you, which often leads to her simply walking around as if she
owns the place. Get too close to her while she's walking and she might hit
you a few times or perform a Frankensteiner throw on you, which isn't
particularly pleasant and can quite easily strip half your health off.

Reduce her health to zero, and it's all over for her, baby!

========
Cutscene
========

Upon being soundly defeated by your uber Ninja skills, Alma suddenly finds
herself unable to control the vast power she weilds. Ryu wisely backs off as
she leans back and a huge burst of energy suddenly streaks out of her forehead
and blows the roof clean off the Monastery. Eagle eyed viewers may spot that
it also blows the top of her head off into the bargain.

Holy. Crap.

===========
CG Cutscene
===========

As Alma sways around on her knees, her power currently spent, a figure can be
seen standing on a high up section of the recently destroyed Monastery. That
figure, moreover, is obviously Rachel.

She sends a grappling hook into a nearby section of rock then swings down
towards Alma, celebrating their meeting by booting her straight in the face and
sending her flying. Crossing over to where Alma lies helpless, she raises her
hammer up on high and... hesitates.

Not to fear though, because she swings it up again and... hesitates once more.
Their eyes meet, and Alma uses this opportunity to escape by melting through
the floor. Didn't see that one coming, did you?

Rachel, frustrated, then sinks to her knees. 'I couldn't do it,' she confesses
to Ryu, who's just sort of standing around as if he has nothing to do with
anything. 'I couldn't kill my own sister.'

Before he can say anything, an alarm can be heard echoing throughout Tairon -
your Monastery exploding antics have not gone unnoticed, it would seem.

================================+=======+
/Chapter 8 - 'Tairon Under Alert'| xx08xx \
+=================================+=========+=================================+
|'The battle with Rachel's sister, the Greater Fiend Alma, ended without a |
|victor. However, the aftermath of the battle has caused the Vigoor Army to be|
|deployed...' |
+=============================================================================+

========
Cutscene
========

Before the level begins, we're treated to a cutscene showing that the Vigoor
Military has now become involved in your quest - namely, they want to hunt you
down and kill you. The Internal Affairs Security Forces are unleashed out into
the streets of Tairon, and over the louspeakers we learn that this is a Code
Orange situation, a curfew is hereby enforced, and that they're requesting
all the information they can get on the target, though there's nothing new to
report at this time.

Remember, you're the target. Not feeling so cocky now, are you? Huh? HUH?

The scene then switches back to the messed up interior of the Monastery. Ryu
questions Rachel on a new theory of his - that the Greater Fiends still have a
soul.

'Yes,' she says. Turns out that the Greater Fiends are the only ones still able
to retain a spirit after their transformation and that there are only three
of them - Alma, Doku and another that guards the Emperor.

'It's not safe to be around me,' Ryu then tells her before leaving. 'You
should go now.'

Of course, Ryu isn't even gone for three seconds before she goes and gets
herself into some rather serious trouble. It turns out that Doku was nearby
when the fight occurred, and he's made his way over here while Rachel was still
deciding what to do next.

In true villain fashion, he declares that he should kill Rachel now for the
pain she inflicted on Alma. However, he has an even better idea - he'll use
her to make Alma even stronger than before through the cursed blood of a twin
sister.

Wow, sucks to be a twin sister in this universe. Rachel, obviously, isn't too
pleased with Doku and shows this by smashing a huge warhammer straight into
his grinning face. Far from pulping his facial features, however, this attack
doesn't even put a dent in his armour. He says it's a shame that such power
has to go to waste - Rachel could have become an even more powerful Fiend than
Alma.

She tries to smash his face in once more, but Doku simply backhands her across
the face and sends her sprawling senseless to the floor. This done, he scoops
her up under one arm before leaving the monastery - and her Hammer - behind
them.

Doku. What a guy!

=======

So, back to Ryu!

The Kunai which smacks into a nearby wall at the start of this chapter mentions
that Tairon is now on full alert and under the control of the military. As
inconvenient as this might be for you, you should be able to utterly rear-end
their ability to respond to the threat you pose by taking out the Radio Control
Tower located next to the Military Supply base.

Well, that would be a start, I guess.

You'll find yourself outside the front doors of the Monastery, though from
the last cutscene it's fairly obvious that you should take a walk back inside.
Climb the ramp, approach the altar - then swing left before you reach it and
start poking around the wreckage in that area. As you may have suspected,
Rachel's War Hammer is lying around in there, so sweep it up and make some use
of it.

As your first heavy weapon, you will find that this is rather handy for
breaking down brittle, cracked walls scattered around all over the place. If
nothing else, it's easier and cheaper than using Incendiary Shurikens to open
them up.

Talking of Incendiary Shuriken, hop down the pit beside the altar to restock
your supplies from the dead ninja down there, then return. Take a look around,
appreciate the damage caused by Alma (the gaping hole where the ceiling used to
be is particularly nice to look at), and marvel at the helicopters flying
around outside.

Ready? Good. That Monk who owns the safe is probably going to a little bit
pissed off with what you and Alma have done to his house.

It's time to leave the Monastery behind us, so exit and save at the Dragon
Statue outside the main door, and then climb the steps and leave the grounds
completely.

In the courtyard, you'll notice that the whole area has been sealed off with
iron fences - walk in a little further and you'll be attacked by your first
squad of troops from the Vigoorian Army.

Tactics for these guys are pretty standard - run over and kill them. They can't
throw you, contrary to popular belief, but they can stick you with their
bayonet and blow you off with a grenade in what *looks* like a throw. They
can also break your guard with a stab of their bayonet, and as you engage one
the others will often lay down suppressive fire as a way of supporting your
opponent - or simply chuck a grenade or two your way which will both cause
block damage and break your guard if you try to block it.

They're easier than they sound, but do take some getting used to at first.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Something to watch out for in the Hurricane pack is that there's always one
Rocket Trooper to every two Machine Gun Troopers. Try to kill the Rocket
Troops off first if you get the chance, since getting hit in the face by
rockets is never much fun.

Oh, and the standard troopers can now throw you with a real, honest to
goodness throw. Gah.
____________________________________________________________________________

Once they're all dead, head up the stairs and make your way onwards. What we're
really doing here is heading back to the gates of the Military Compound you
came across not long after your arrival in Tairon. When you come across the
Train Yard you'll be attacked by a squad of three troopers, so kill them and
continue on, heading right at the junction with the Save point and heading
off towards the drawbridge.

When you arrive, you'll notice that some skank has raised the bloody thing, so
hop over to the level on the nearby wall and give it a yank. The cutscene will
show the drawbridge being lowered and some nasty armoured troops and their
assault vehicles blocking your way. Run across and take care of them as usual,
avoiding the gunfire from the turrets mounted on their APC's. You can destroy
these guns, which I heavily recommend - simply hurl a single Incendiary
Shuriken at them or use the Windmill Shuriken three times to send them off into
their own mechanical heaven.

Keep your eyes on the troops pouring out the back of one of the APCs as you
fight, and then take a small breather once they're all in tiny little pieces.
You'll notice that there's a bloody hindering awkward ton of metal blocking
one of the exits now, so you're pretty much forced to go through the door with
the blue gem in order to continue. Do so.

Kill the three guys in this alley, don't fall off the sides halfway up, and
walk up to the cracked wall at the far end. Now, brandish Rachel's War Hammer
in your muscular arms, draw it back and then strike out at this offending wall
with the fury of a thousand dragons. The foe shall be sundered through use of
your righteous anger, and the true path shall then open amidst the defeated
rubble of thine enemy.

So, pop through and collect the in the chest ahead. The
spoils of war!

Continue through the slightly bendy tunnel until you come to a locked gate -
open it up and pass on through, taking a right and following the path up the
stairs. You'll be attacked by three more clowns from the army, so finish them
off and head right.

This area should be familiar to you - you're right beside the Military Base.
Before actually going through the door into the Military Courtyard, however,
use your Skull Key on the door in the nearby fence and head through to a
previously sectioned off bit of ground. Swipe the right away,
kick open the chest for an and then use Muramasa's
shop statue for anything that you might need to replenish or upgrade.

It's your choice, mind, but I don't really think that the War Hammer's worth
upgrading, especially if you've been busy collecting all the scarabs along the
way - you can trade in twenty of them before long for something far better.

Once you've stocked yourself with whatever you needed to buy, head to the back
area of this section where the camera pans out slightly and you can see a ledge
above you. It's ninja acrobatics time! Run up the wall opposite the ledge, and
jump off so that you land on the bugger. Do the same for the ledge above that,
and head inside the building. Take the only route you can, and you'll
eventually end up at a window overlooking the Military Base. Hanging on the
wall behind this window is a brand spanking new weapon that you just can't
wait to get your grubby mitts on - the Strongbow!

You will, of course, have to give up your old bow and arrow to get your hands
on this new one, since it's held in place by a Resident Evil style plaque that
will only release the new weapon when you trade in your old one. Given the fact
that the new weapon is much better than your old one, this shouldn't cause you
too much anxiety or sleepless nights before making your choice.

Trade it! TRADE IT!

Now, take note of this very room - we'll be coming back here shortly. Head back
to the doorway you entered from and step out onto the ledge. Don't drop back
down yet, though - look to your left, and you'll see another cool yellow
glowing thing tucked out of the way in a little resting place. Jump off towards
it at an angle, use the wall to run along into the alcove it rests in and
prepare to snatch up yet another for your collection. Hooray!

Drop back down, exit via the skull gate and turn left. Open the door and
proceed into the Military Courtyard, where you'll immediately be attacked by
two mounted turrets nestled above the gate. Use your newly acquired bow to make
short work of these jokers, and...

============================
Mini Boss: Attack Helicopter
============================

It's tough to call this guy a boss, actually. All you have to do is run into
the middle of the courtyard and block until he gets bored firing at you and
leaves.

Tough as hell, eh?

Don't start running around the edges like a deranged yak, however, or he'll
start firing missiles at you which is a tad more dangerous than the brutally
ineffective gunfire that can only really kill you if your block button
breaks before the battle.

Good riddance, Mr. Helicopter. You suck ass.

-----------------------------

Take a moment to compose yourself from that epic, riveting boss fight and watch
the brief cutscene that follows. Apparently, someone inside the base took a
passing interest in the fact that there was an attack helicopter attempting to
gun down a ninja outside his window and lowered the armoured shutters in order
to take a look.

Foolish mistake, anonymous army guy! You'll rue the day!

Run over to the dead ninja who's STILL stuck full of arrows, STILL lying in
front of a heavily populated Military Base and STILL very corpselike. You'd
think they'd have dragged him away by now, but their loss is your gain - steal
those arrows from his dead ninja flesh!

I don't know, maybe he used some arcane ninja art to seal himself to the floor
where he died for some bizarre reason as one final act of vengeance. I just
don't know.

What I do know, however, is that directly opposite the gate at an upper window
will come a rocket trooper trying to get the drop on you whilst you're busy
pillaging arrows from a corpse. Keep your groovy new Strongbow aimed at him
until he appears, then stick two or three arrows into his stupid little skull.
Another quick cutscene will show that there's - gasp - something to collect up
there. Or was, at any rate. it's actually in your hands already.

You'll still need to go up there, though, so exit back the way you came and
go through the Skull Gate (killing off the three enemies that have appeared
here), hop back to the top ledge and make your way back to the window
overlooking the base. Now that the armoured shutters are open, look out the
window and loose a couple of arrows at the Blue Gem directly opposite your
sniping point. The first will break the window, and the second will hit the
Blue Gem with the resulting effect being the opening of the Military Gates!

Now, get over there sharpish! Collect yet MORE arrows from the dead ninja lying
at the gate and head inside.

Mission over, and there's no boss this time!

======================================+=======+
/Chapter 9 - 'The Military Supply Base'| xx09xx \
+=======================================+=========+===========================+
|'The Vigoor Army is after a renegade element, Ryu. The Military Radio Tower |
|is key to the Army's organization...' |
+=============================================================================+

First thing's first. As soon as the chapter begins, trot over to the Dragon
Statue and save your game. Once this is done, continue on down the road and
head through the tunnel until you come to a small door on the right hand side.
Head through it, changing the time of day to night time, and then kill the
three army troops you encounter. Head on in, and explore the left hand side of
the exit to the tunnel for another shiny new .

Unfortunately, you'll now have more people shooting at you, trying to kill you.
There are two turret towers and the mounted gun on an APC parked between them,
so back away until you're out of range against the back wall and take them out
with your Strongbow. Before long, troops will start pouring out the back of the
APC, so introduce them to the reaper at your leisure.

See that glowing thing over there that appeared when you took out the gun
towers? You need it, so head on over and pick it up to obtain the Warehouse
Key. This mystical artefact opens the warehouse beside you, believe it or not.
Before you head on through, however, rummage through the crate beside the door
to obtain a new type of ammunition for your Strongbow - the Explosive Arrows,
which totally rock for when you want to shoot things and blow them up.

Now that you've stolen some army surplus for your own personal gain, head
inside the Warehouse. There's an odd lack of music in here, but don't let that
deter you. To your immediate left lies a chest containing an , and in the trenches between the train lines lie wooden crates
that you can smash with your weapons to find an and
a .

Now that you've collected everything you can from the floor of the Warehouse,
head back to the left of the entrance and follow it around until you find a
stair leading up onto a catwalk. Follow it up, open the chest at the top of
the first flight in order to receive a selection of various orbs, and then
follow the path around.

Oh, joy. A small cutscene kicks in showing some little helicopter turrets
flying out of the upper windows and homing in towards you. These things are
an absolute nightmare, to put it bluntly. As unlikely as they are to kill you
with their mounted laser guns, they send you flying when they hit and you can't
block the beam either. The best way to deal with them is to whip out your
arrows, zoom in at them from a distance, and let fly. There's twenty in total,
so you'll have to change ammunition before they're all dead - if you run out,
there's a new crate of arrows further along the path, or you can swap to your
Windmill Shuriken and take them out with that. One hit will do, unless you're
playing on a harder difficulty.

I wouldn't recommend trying to destroy them with hand to hand combat. It'll end
in tears... of sheer frustration, if nothing else.

Once they're out of the equation, run along and pilfer those arrows I mentioned
from the crate near the end of the catwalk. These are a shiny new breed of
arrows known as the APFSDS Cores, which is a singularly stupid title if ever I
saw one. They're more damaging than Explosive Arrows, however, and are
therefore awesome. Once you have them, head up the stairs beside you and hit
the big glowing switch at the top. This will turn the electricity in the
warehouse back on and light the place up - and also have the music come back
on.

Woot!

Run around the last section of the catwalk and hit the switch at the end. This
will cause a crane to start moving back and forth, carrying a sheet of metal
that will come in handy before long. Now, leap off and drop back to ground
level before traversing almost to the diagonal opposite of the room. A quick
look around will uncover another switch almost identical to the one you just
pressed. Not the purple one, however, it's the one on a raised platform just
beside a train carrying a huge cannon. This will activate another crane right
beside you.

Head back up the stairs and follow the path around until you come to the crate
containing the APFSDS Cores. When the crane swings by you, hop onto the sheet
of metal it holds and allow it to carry you over near the top of one of the
trains. Jump on the roof, and hop onto the roof of the carriage beside it. Look
to your right and you'll see another on the roof of the
carriage in front of you.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|This scarab is a bit tougher than most of the others to get hold of - if you |
|don't know how to 'air' yourself by using an attack during a jump you'll be |
|unable to get your hands on it. |
| |
|Fortunately, you DO know how to do that. Simply equip the Dragon Sword, take |
|a running jump towards the thing and press 'X' to get that extra boost you |
|need in order to collect it. |
| |
|If for whatever reason this isn't working for you, there's an alternate |
|method to get a hold of it. What you have to do with this method is run up |
|the side of the carriage (the elevated side, not the 'trench' side) and press|
|'Y' during Hayabusa's automatic wall flip. This will land you up on top of |
|the steel behemoth and allow you to claim your well deserved reward! |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

If you're currently on the roof of the carriage containing the scarab, hop back
over to the previous one. Jump onto the platform carried by the crane you
haven't used yet, and then leap victoriously to the other side once it carries
you near enough to make the jump.

Congratulate yourself by kicking open the chest and obtaining a before following this new path around and up the stairs at the end.
Kick open the nearby chest to collect an , and then
head along until you come to a cabin, also known as the Guardhouse.

By the way, this is where Team Ninja got a little bit cheeky with their Scarab
hiding tendancies. Ignore the cabin door completely for now, and simply wall
run up the cabin. Hayabusa will grab onto the top of the room, so pull him up
and you'll see a right in front of you.

Not only is it exceptionally well hidden (most players see the Guardhouse as
the objective and don't assume there's anything else of importance up here),
but you can't come back here later on if you decide to go scarab hunting.

Nasty, nasty!

Anyway, drop back down to the front of the cabin and head on in. On the small
table in front of you you'll find the rather important Shutter Control Card Key
along with a Map of the Military Supply Base. There's not much else to do up
here, so exit and simply jump back down to terra firma. Now, run to the wall
opposite the side where you first entered the warehouse and go up to the big
glowing switch. Use the Shutter Control Card Key on it, and Hayabusa will leave
the Warehouse and end up at...

==============================
New Area: Locomotive Turntable
==============================

As soon as you enter this area, the exits will be sealed off and more Vigoorian
Army troopers will attempt to kill you. Don't take any of their crap though -
stab them, stab them, and stab them some more until the only thing they'll be
doing is filling up space in a nearby graveyard.

Once they're all dead, and there are a few of them to make dead, the exits will
all open up. You can't head back into the warehouse, though, so hopefully
you're well enough equipped to deal with the upcoming sections.

If you take a quick look around, you'll see that one of the garages has its
doors wide open. Head on over and go inside, kicking open the chest to claim
yourself an before heading over to the nearby Dragon
Statue in order to save your game. Leave the garage, run left around the
turntable and follow the wall around until you notice a door with a soft green
light beside it.

Head on in and you'll find yourself in the Military Supply base. Run a little
further in, hombre, and prepare for a fight.

========
Cutscene
========

If you're particularly sharp eyed, you'll have noticed a parked tank to your
left as you entered this area. Just as Hayabusa spots it, three Vigoorian Army
Troopers start legging it over to the vehicle and hop in.

Ooop, Hayabusa tries to respond before they make it, but for purposes of
plot and gameplay, he doesn't make it over in time despite the fact that they
seemingly take hours to start the damn thing up.

Boss fight!

================
Mini Boss: Tanks
================

Yep, note the plural version of 'Tank'. You'll only have to fight one at a
time, though, so don't cream yourself and start begging for mercy just yet.

Okay, you're really dealing with three seperate threats here. Three soldiers
means three different functions - which would be the gunner up top trying to
perforate you with high velocity rounds, the turret operator who's busy
launching cannon shells at you, and the driver, who's... you know, sort of
driving the tank around and will squash you under the tracks if he gets the
chance.

Despite those three seperate threats from the Tank, you'll only be plugging
away at one section of it, so you won't need to aim at the seperate components.

Right! Put away your Dragon Sword for now, since you're not going to be using
it. No, seriously. Try to chop up the Tank with melee weapons and you'll simply
end up getting mauled for your effort.

What you want to do is pull out your Explosive Arrows, dodge the first shell
that comes streaking in towards you, and then shoot the Tank - preferably in
first person view to increase accuracy - straight in the face. Or side, or
whatever. The explosion will cause the gunner to duck out of the way, allowing
you some additional time to attack without getting riddled with bullets.

Once the gunner's suffering from a nervous breakdown and hiding himself away,
whip out your APFSDS Cores and start hammering the Tank in the main body
section. Be ready to dodge cannon shells, and rememeber to switch to explosive
arrows to make the gunner hide himself away when he pops up again. The gunner
can do decent damage, so don't let him just plug away at you for the whole
fight.

If you run out of arrows, you can find a crate full of each type at opposite
ends of the battleground near the support towers.

Before long, you should blow the Tank and its passengers to high hell. A quick
cutscene will show a shiny new Tank being deployed from a nearby warehouse
before attacking you, but the next Tank fight is exactly the same as the old
one. Treat it as such, and prepare to continue on!

****TIP!****

Once the gunner's out of the way, run in close and position yourself directly
to the side of the Tank. It'll begin to circle you uselessly, and you're too
close for the cannon to be of any use to it. Save for the gunner, who does
much, much less damage than a cannon shell ricocheting off your teeth, you
can't be hit.

And heck, just put him back down with an expolosive if you're low on health -
if you're doing fine on the medical front, you can just hammer in the APFSDS
Cores after he's hiding for a very, very fast victory. Even if he pops up
again, the Tank should be just about ready for the scrapheap.

************
_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Forget what I said about getting in close for enhanced safety. The Driver's
AI has been redone so that he can actually reverse a little, home in on you,
and then run you over.

If you're willing to circle around the Tank yourself, however, you can still
get in close. You just can't stand still any longer and expect to come out
unscathed.
____________________________________________________________________________

-----------------

Once the Tanks are nothing more than a cheerfully burning memory, head on over
to the nearby lift which just arrived, and kick open the chest beside it for
a . If you can't hold it, gulp down one of your own and
then pick it up since you can't save this one for later. Also, remember to
restock your arrow supplies from both crates before continuing.

Now, into the lift - up, up and away!

Once you arrive at the top, hang right and save at the Dragon Statue. Turn on
the spot and charge down the platform towards two rocket troops who are going
to try to kill you. Kill them instead, and as soon as they die it'll be time
for...

=========================
Mini Boss: Attack Chopper
=========================

Aha, where have we seen this guy before? He's fully prepared to fight you to
the end this time, so those arrows I told you to procure after the Tanks will
come in handy, eh?

You forgot them? Oh well - there's more crates on each end of the platform, so
trot over and restock. Preferably before the fight starts, if you can.

Okay, forget about using Explosive Arrows here. They don't do quite as much
damage as the APFSDS Cores, and there's no discernable side benefits to be had
from using them. So, ready your APFSDS Cores and start firing away at the
flying pest. Zoom in for greater accuracy, and remember that it's a moving
target, so compensate for this by aiming slightly ahead of it whenever it isn't
close enough to hit directly from a straight shot.

After a short time, it'll start firing at you with the onboard gattling gun. If
you've plenty health, ignore the initial burst and continue firing, then turn
as it passes overhead and keep up the attack. Once it hits the far end of its
flight pattern and turns, it'll start firing groups of rockets at you. Don't
bother trying to block them, start rolling and jumping to evade them. Chances
are that it'll dive under the overpass you're on after this, so turn and start
hammering shots into the steel beast as it rises. Once it's level with you,
more rockets will come pouring out at you, so be ready to dodge.

At this point, it'll retreat a little and start firing at you with the gattling
gun followed by more rockets, then run along the overpass directly overhead
possibly dropping bombs and firing at you with the gattling gun.

From here, it'll swing around near one of the towers in the distance, continue
firing at you with the gattling gun and rockets, then it'll pretty much repeat
the sequence from the start with the odd change of plans.

It's certainly possible to finish it off by the time it starts rising after
flying under the bridge if you're an excellent shot with the bow, but take as
long as you need to. Just don't get killed, kill it instead and everything
will be groovy.

========
Cutscene
========

Rambo time. Hayabusa aims, takes out the stuttering chopper with one well
placed arrow, and watches impassively as it crashes facefirst into the dirt
and expodes on impact.

Next!

--------

After smashing up the attack chopper, head on over and restock your arrows from
the nearby crates, and don't be shy about going back and saving your game if
you need to.

Ready to continue? Then let us jaunt along the overpass and head to the
opposite side. After a short, winding walk you'll see a treasure chest lying
around on the ground past an enclosed area in the wall to the right. Head on
over and open it up for an ...

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

...or the very real possibility of a Game Over screen...
____________________________________________________________________________

...and head to the right. A Muramasa shop statue lies in wait! About time, too.
Head on over, buy what you need and make sure you talk to him in order to
exhange your scarabs for wonderful little goodies. If you have twenty of them
by this point - and you should - you'll get your hands on the wonderful,
wonderful sword known as the Dabilahro. You won't need to use it quite yet, but
it's certainly worth getting to grips with and enhancing to full power via the
blacksmithing option.

Once you're full of supplies, backtrack to that little enclosed space in the
wall you passed a few moments ago, and wall jump up to the very top. As soon
as you make it up there, you'll notice a lying around doing
nothing. Snatch it up good, and then head through the door. You'll emerge
on the Rooftop, and finally be confronted with the Radio Tower itself.

True to form, the door then locks behind you and seals you in. Typical.

==============================
Mini Boss: Radio Control Tower
==============================

I wasn't really sure whether to class this as a boss or not, but what the hell.
It does take a little bit more effort to beat than regular baddies, so it might
as well get its own section.

First off, Vigoorian troops will start pouring out of hatches to your right,
so confront and destroy them. Once they're all dead, the real fun will begin.

See the Radio Tower over there? What you're going to want to aim at is the
little white satellite dishes dotted around the side of it. There are nine in
total you'll have to destroy to obliterate the tower, so good aiming skills
will be quite a bonus to you.

The problem is simple - Rocket Troopers will start appearing on the tower and
keep firing bloody missiles at you. While you can kill them all off - indeed,
if you're after the time bonus for this section you have to kill off all the
troops before destroying the tower - it does take a while.

Basically, just make sure you dodge the rockets, aim and fire at the satellites
whenever you get a chance, and once they're all destroyed a cutscene will play
showing the tower being ripped apart by explosions and the doors will unlock.

I'd recommend using Explosive Arrows here - there's a crate of them in the
corner near the hatches where the first squad of guards initially come jumping
out of.

****Alternatively...****

If the rockets are really getting on your nerves during the second section,
why not walk into this area and immediately start firing arrows at the
satellite dishes? You're likely going to take decent damage from gunfire by the
first squad of troops, but it saves you having to jump and roll around the
place while you're waiting for a shot at the dishes...

Your choice, and either way is a viable option.

************************

-----------------

Now that you're not being shot at by bloodthirsty enemies, take a walk over
and open the chest to the left of the entrance for a ...

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

...which no longer exists, so you'll get '' instead...
____________________________________________________________________________

...and head along to the only other door leading off the rooftop. A Kunai will
streak in as per usual, so head on over and peruse the contents. This one
mentions that the Vigoor Military is now about as useful as a chocolate
fireguard without their Radio Control Tower, and that stealing a train should
be easier than unfairly beating a young child.

Head off through the door, and take out the two flying laser turrets you find
on the other side. Wall run across the fence to the right in order to clear the
gap in front of you, and take out the next two turrets before running to the
end of the walkway and heading through the nearby door.

O-ho! A small, narrow room with three Rocket Troops inside! Wall run across the
wall to close the distance (or don't, if you have a better way - such as
unloading your explosive arrows the moment you enter the room), and kill them
dead. Open the chest beside their stiffening corpses to find an and open the door behind you. Head down the oustide stairs and
follow it around to the nearby lift. Take it down, and head through the next
door you see.

More crazy Army monkeys, only this time the gunner kind. Finish them off, and
take a look around the side of the stairs to find a chest holding a within it. Try the door and you'll find that it's locked, so
backtrack through the door you came in, up the lift and back one more door.
There'll be more Rocket Troops here, in the narrow room where you fought three
of them before, so kill them off and grab the Control Room Key before
backtracking down the lift again and going through the door.

Use the Control Room Key in the previously locked door here and head on into
the Control Room. Just step up and use the contol panel in front of you to
finish the level and leave the Military Base behind for good!

--------------

========
Cutscene
========

Well kids, we're lucky to have a preview of Team Ninja's next title here - Ryu
Hayabusa's Xtreme Train Driving!

The Locomotive Turntable starts a-turning, and Hayabusa hops on before it
completes the circle, locking the tracks into place.

========

===========================+=======+
/Chapter 10 - 'The Aquaduct'| xx10xx \
+============================+=========+======================================+
|'The Army's organization has crumbled; there is no need for Ryu to stay in |
|the now-silent capital...' |
+=============================================================================+

In a slightly odd manner, there's a little bit of the level to play before
the chapter title pops up. You'll start right beside the remains of the train
Hayabusa just crashed, and will have immediate access to a chest containing a
and a crate stacked with Explosive Arrows. Not a bad place
to start off, come to think of it.

Wander over and unlock the nearby gate, which leads you out into the Dworku
district not far from the Monastery grounds. The whole place is locked up tight
though, so wander around a bit until some newish enemies come bursting out
of a nearby manhole. They're purple versions of the Brown Demons you were
fighting earlier on, so I'm going to rack my brains a bit and call them Purple
Demons from now on. Aren't I clever?

Well, kill the little buggers off and drop down into the sewer they came from
since there's really nowhere else to go. The chapter title will finally kick
in here, so skip it and kill the flock of bats that immediately attack you
before taking a quick look around the room and saving your game at the nearby
Dragon Statue. Once you've done so, exit via the only door out of the place.

You'll be attacked by eight Purple Demons out here, though only four will
attack you at once. Once they're dead, flick a rude gesture at them and move
down the tunnel to the right of where you came in and heading towards the
gate-like iron railing at the far end. You can't get through it, so head left
into the nearby door as you approach. Head down the stairs here, killing all
the Purple Demons who try to stop you. Once you come to the junction, head
right and pillage the dead ninja of all his possessions, which just so happens
to be a Map of the Aquaduct.

Turn around and head the other way. Go right when you get the chance, go down
the steps and turn the corner, dropping down to the floor below. Head out into
the lit up area and you'll find yourself in...

=====================
New Area: Aquaduct B3
=====================

Three Purple Demons will teleport in at the start of this section and attack
you, one after the other. This, as you may have guessed, isn't particularly
hard to deal with, so go ahead and eviscerate them.

Continue straight ahead from where you dropped down to B3, and you'll come to
a large door and a enclosure directly to the right of it where you'll find a
Dragon Statue and a chest containing a . Do the needful,
and then head through the door.

[The Hall of Balance]

Nice statue, huh? We'll be messing with it soon enough, don't you worry. To
the left side of the hall you'll notice a small platform raised off the floor
away from the water, so head over and climb on. Face the wall and run straight
up it, causing our man Hayabusa to grip onto the edge from where you should
shimmy him along to the right and climb up into the small section tucked away
into the wall. Kick open the box here to receive a Key of the Insect, which is
an absolute necessity to escape this place.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Nope, no Key of the Insect for you here, son. You'll find a instead, so look a few pages further down the guide to find out where
it is - it's in the [Red Water Reservoir] section just off the main B3 room.
____________________________________________________________________________


Hop back down and exit via the door you came through, running through the knee
deep water until you hit a junction. If you want to continue on without
grabbing a few optional treasures, simply skip the indented section below.

Optional Section
----------------

First off, this section will be much easier if you have a Dabilahro upgraded
to level 3 or the Art of the Izuna. Feel free to come back and try later if
you're low on health, ninpo, or just don't think you're up to this yet - it's
not insanely hard or anything, but with a decent setup it'll go much easier
on your fragile ninja bones.

Head left at the previously mentioned junction and enter what looks like a
disused doorway at the end. A small stone section you stand upon will spring
to life and descend with you into a new room. Once you stop, a treasure chest
can be seen directly opposite you and up some steps - head on over and pilfer
the contents - a lovely little .

As you try to leave, of course, the stone platform you came down on will
shoot back up and trap you inside with a bunch of bloodthirsty... well, bugs.
And giant bugs at that.

The Dabilahros' Flaming Hell Slash (X, X, X, X, X, Y) is a Godsend here, and
will help you carve through these enemies like butter. The Art of the Inazuma
Ninpo will also kill every single one of them currently on screen, so both
those weapons will help immensely. If they jump and latch on to your face,
shake the stick and bang the buttons to get them off before they suck away
all your energy.

If you don't have the above weapons, plenty of Ultimate Techniques should
serve you nicely. You won't get the same amount of essence if you try that,
however.

Once they're all dead, the stone platform will feel bad about leaving you in
the lurch and return to you in a shamefaced manner. Hop aboard, and let it
carry you back up to B3. Save if you like, and then go straight back down to
kill more of the little buggers.

This is actually a Sixty Fiend Battle, so appropriately enough, you'll be
battling a total of sixty fiends. Once they've gone the way of their
predecessors, a new treasure chest will appear at the top of the steps in that
highly suspicious stone section which looks exactly like the one the other
treasure chest lies upon. Open it up for .

Exit as before, and head back to the nearby junction.

Optional section over, baby!

--------------

Head up the stairs (back the way you entered B3 from) and wall run up the left
wall, jumping along until you make it back up to the ledge you initially
dropped down from. Continue on up and take the right path when you come to a
junction, heading along and going through the door at the end.

You'll be attacked by another bunch of Purple Demons here - kill them off with
reckless abandon. If you have the Dabilahro sufficiently upgraded, a single
counterattack will lop their heads clean off. Once you're ready, enter the door
at the bottom of the slope, to the left of where you came in. Hayabusa will use
the Key of the Insect on the door, and then you can head on through to meet...

=============================
Mid Boss: Giant Electric Worm
=============================

Oh, man. Just as you walk through a door, what else can you expect but for a
Giant Electrified Worm to instantly try and take your face off?

A hint for the battle ahead - don't bother testing out the water the worm's
flailing around in. Shockingly enough (ho ho), the water is conducting the
electricity generated by the worm and stepping into the water will therefore
fry you. It's not instant death or anything, but it does leech energy off you
fairly rapidly.

Your best bet here is to equip the Dabilahro. While you can do more damage at
once if you catch the worm with an Annihilating Gleam (360 twirl, hold Y and
release with the Dragon Sword equipped), it's harder to do than the technique
mentioned below and more likely to get you smashed in the face.

As soon as the fight starts, roll into the front left corner of the screen,
as close to the water and wall 'corner' as you can get by rolling. Don't worry,
you can't roll into the water.

Now, from here the worm can only hit you with two of its attacks. The first one
is a blast of electricity from its mouth - if you see it rearing back above
the water, wait for the beast to start forward at you and immediately roll
aside to a free section of the stone ledge in order to avoid the blast. If it
gets ready to fire again, wait as it rears and roll back as it spits the
electricity out at you.

Now, the other attack is more beneficial for you. The huge monstrosity will
pull itself back, coiling up like a whip, and then spring across to whip you
in the face with its massive bulk. All you have to do here is wait in that
corner I mentioned, and then roll into the corner - not a free section of the
ledge, the corner itself - whenevr it springs at you. You'll roll right under
the attack.

To retaliate, tap forward and Y with the Dabilahro equipped for a swift, single
swing of the sword which will cause the beast to retreat into its original
position, from where it will attempt one of the attacks above on you. Simply
repeat this tactic until it dies.

It may, from time to time, simply stick its head into the water. Less than
frightening, this odd behaviour also provides you with a chance to give it a
firm smack for being so utterly stupid.

Oh, and don't stand in front of it. Ever. Doing so will cause it to snake out
and grab you with its needle-like teeth before bashing you off the walls.

Finally, don't bother with combos - you can only get in a few hits with most
weapons before it retreats. If you have the Unlabored Flawlessness by this
point, you can kill it in the same manner as above but with three or four hits
instead of around twelve.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Uh, no Electric worm at all. It turns out that this is actually a Fire Worm
instead, so head on over to the boss section to learn exactly how to deal
with it.
____________________________________________________________________________

=============================

Easy, eh? The Worm will disappear, freeing up the archway that was hidden
behind it. A big glowing item has been left behind where the worm used to be
as well, so make sure you collect it as it is none other than the completely
awesome 'Art of the Inazuma' Ninpo scroll! Hooray!

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Nope, no new Ninpo for you. Life can be hard at times, and this is one of
those times.
____________________________________________________________________________

The news just keeps getting better - head on through the archway you unblocked
by killing the worm, then immediately turn around and run up the wall to reach
the ledge above the doorway. Directly above the archway is a big shiny golden
thing, also known as a ! Could life get any better than this?

Well, hop down and continue on. Follow the tunnel around and up, and then
turn right to find yourself suddenly overlooking the Hall of Balance. Go right
and open the chest you see directly before you for a quick spurt of various
orbs.

Turn in place and open the chest at the other side to find the Red Tablet
of the Stream, which you'll be needing quite soon, and move past it to the
opposite side of this ledge for another . Head on into the new
tunnel nearby and take a right at the fork for a chest containing a . There's nothing the other way for now, so return to the ledge
overlooking the Hall of Balance and drop back down, exiting through the only
door you can and saving at the nearby Dragon Statue.

Wouldn't want all that effort to go to waste, would you?

Now, head to the 'crossroads' at the end of this tunnel and head right. Pass
the entryway on the right as you exit the water, and climb to the door at the
top.

[Red Water Reservoir]

As soon as you enter, more of those Purple Demons will pour in and attack you,
so do the needful yet once more. Laugh a little if you like, and chew on their
guts as they try and stuff them back in. Once they're gone, head over to the
two walls facing each other closely, and wall jump your way up to the top. As
soon as you hit the top, run back around the lip of the room down below and
open the chest for your fifth and final !

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Or your first Key of the Insect. Bloody hell, they sure like to make this
difficult.
____________________________________________________________________________

Once the chest is open and the contents in your ninja pockets, run back around
and head into the new section with the iron grating overlooking a water-filled
area. Head over to the easily recognizable pedestal and interact with it to
place the 'Red Tablet of the Stream' inside and drain the water from down
below, prompting a quick cutscene showing the Statue of Balance being tilted by
the water.

As you might expect, more enemies attack at this point. Do your worst and kill
them all. Make absolutely sure you collect the before you
leave, and open the treasure chest directly opposite it for a . Drop back down, and exit into the main tunnel of B3.

Head down the slope into the water, turn right when you can and wall jump back
up to B2, then turn left when you get the chance and run past the rotting ninja
all the way to the door at the top. Now that you've drained the water out of
the room, the door can be opened... so you know, open it up and head inside.

On the left of this room is a shelf containing the only object of note - the
Statue of the Water Spirit. Collect it, exit the room, and then make your way
back down to B3. Once back in the water, hang left towards the Red Water
Reservoir and turn right before you exit the water to go down the side path
you ignored earlier. Check the dead ninja for a diary, and then examine the
huge door nearby. Hayabusa will place the Statue of the Water Spirit down in
its rightful place and the door will unlock.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|This next part is fairly long. Go back and save it first if you need to, |
|since you'll be fighting a whole bunch of enemies and another mid-boss along |
|the way. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Ready to party? Then head on through and go forwards until you come to a deep
hole at the end of the tunnel. A bunch of bloodthirsy bats will come pouring
out of it and attempt to chomp you, so kill them off before you proceed down
the hole.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

You probably know what's replaced the bats for this mode, so get out your
preferred Ghost Fish slaying weapon and start slaying.

And for the rest of this level, any mention of bats in the walkthrough
pretty much means a pack of Ghost Fish for all you crazy Hurricane Pack
players.
____________________________________________________________________________

Now that you're at the bottom - and somehow having avoided your legs being
broken on impact with the ground - you'll find yourself in a deep underground
cavern known as the Underground Waterway. Go straight ahead and ignore the
tunnel off to your right for now, navigating around the bump of rock in front
of you in order to procure a for your collection. Now, stop
ignoring that tunnel and head on down it, killing off all the bats you
encounter on the way. Head on into the next room of the cavern and prepare to
do battle with...

==================================
Mid Boss: Two Giant Electric Worms
==================================

As soon as you enter this part of the cavern, the passageway behind you will
collapse and these jokers will ambush you.

Typical. You kill someone off, and their family members take offence and try
to murder you in return.

The best way to start this fight is to immediately roll into the right hand
corner nearest the water and basically do a repeat performace of the last time
you fought one of the buggers. The only additional difficulty you face is that
there are two worms to watch out for, so if you see one rear back to spit
electric at you, get ready to roll out of the way as necessary.

Don't ever come out of that corner. Equip your Dabilahro. Roll away (into the
corner) when they swipe, and retaliate with the 'Flaming Whirlwind' attack,
which is a simple Fwd+Y move. Thrown projectiles at them if you feel like it,
and simply keep this up until you win.

It's much easier than it may seem at first, so long as you don't do something
insane like try to fight from the middle of the platform you're stuck on.

===================================

Once they're dead, gone, buried, chopped into confetti and strewn around the
room, you'll notice that there are three tunnels - the left and right ones
are obviously just little caves containing goodies, and the one in the centre
is the way foward. So skip into the left one and collect a
first of all, then enter the right hand one and boot open the chest to pick up
a . Head out, and scoot off down the tunnel in the middle,
picking up the chest on the right for a when you pass by
it and taking out all the bats you come across. You'd think they'd know to
avoid you by now, but...

Once you come out in a larger area filled with knee-deep water, you'll be
attacked by more purple demons who'll seemingly drop out of the sky to stab
you - they're still not much of a problem, so keep slicing them until they've
all died hideously and continue on. Don't take the tunnel to the left quite
yet - what you'll want to do is climb up the rock ledges the purple demons were
leaping off at you from. On the top ledge you'll find a chest containing a
, so grab it if you need to and walk around the path to
your left to come to another chest containing an
and a door right beside it. Once you're ready, through you go.

You'll find yourself in a larger cavern full of stalagmites and stalactites
being assaulted by a cloud of bats from time to time. Head through, killing
off the furry little buggers as they appear, and check out the dead ninja
lying on the floor for another diary.

Poor Sabu. His first mission, and he apparently bites the dust after being
attacked by a bunch of these bats. What he wrote in the diary is correct...
he most certainly wasn't cut out to be a ninja.

Oh well. Forget Sabu, and continue on. Once you round a series of twisty
tunnels, you'll find a bunch of flying brains waiting to consume you. Unleash
the art of the Inazuma for pure hilarity, or just kill them in whatever way you
feel like and climb the stairs of the mini-altar to find a chest containing
the Blue Tablet of the Stream - which is the whole reason why we're down here
in the first place. There's another path leading past the altar, but ignore
it for now since it won't come into play until later in the game.

Retrace your steps back past Sabu, kill anything that might attack you on the
way, and exit through the door you came through. Hop back down into the water
from the ledge, and follow the wall around until you find a tunnel you haven't
been down yet. For reference, it's at the base of the rock ledges.

Head on inside, follow the winding trail around until you come across another
dead ninja you can loot for Incendiary Shurikens. They're always nice to have,
so stock up on the things while you have the chance, and then destroy the pack
of purple demons that will attack you as soon as you come into the area.

There's a chest holding an around here, so grab it
if you like and continue on past until you come to a wall with a huge yellow
crack in it. Smash it with a heavy weapon or blow it up with explosives and
then go through, heading left until you come to the base of that massive hole
from before. Wall jump your way to the top of the shaft, making sure to kill
all the bats off first, of course.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Again, there's a bunch more Ghost Fish infesting the shaft. One thing to
keep in mind, however, is that these pests can't munch you while you're
doing wall jumps. As odd as it sounds, they'll happily latch onto you but
you'll soon notice that they don't actually do any damage until you land.

This makes it incredibly easy to wall jump up about halfway, perform a heavy
attack such as the Helmet Splitter (which will kill a group of them off at
once), and then start wall jumping again to collect more ravenous Ghost Fish
that you can then kill off at your leisure.

Fun!
____________________________________________________________________________

Once at the top, head through the only door available and head left at the
tunnel exit to Aquaduct B3. Head left again at the fork to save your game at
the Dragon Statue if you feel like it, then return to this fork and head up
the stairs, wall jumping along the way to return to Aquaduct B2. Head right
when you get the chance, and go through the door. Kill off the eight purple
demons that attack you here, and then head up the slope to your right, opposite
the door which led to the first worm boss fight. Once you come to a door on
the left hand side of the tunnel, take it.

Head up the stairs and follow the path around to find another statue based
shop of Muramasa's - not quite sure why he'd want to set one up here, but it's
certainly handy. Buy what you need to, trade in your scarabs if you feel like
it and then get ready to continue. There's a chest to the left of the statue
(assuming you're facing it) containing a so grab that if
you haven't already came along this way and snaffled it up.

Go up the short flight of stairs and examine the blue pedestal to use the
Blue Tablet of the Stream. This will cause the pool of water in front of you
to drain away, and will flicker to a brief cutscene of the Statue of Balance
being shifted once again. Jump into the newly drained water pit in front of
you and collect that lovely before offing another group of
purple demons.

They just never learn.

There's only one path available from here, so run down it and take a right at
the fork you come to and you'll end up overlooking the Hall of Balance. Hop
down, go left through the waterfall door to save your game, and then return
here and go through the previously locked door at the other end to enter...

===========================
New Area: Peristyle Passage
===========================

Pretty much as soon as you enter this section you'll be ambushed by a seemingly
endless number of purple demons. This can only mean one thing - a Sixty Demon
Challenge! Hooray!

I'd heavily recommend you take it now, for the simple reason that it's
incredibly easy. Just attach the Dabilahro to your muscular ninja arms and
counterattack until you're neck deep in a bunch of unattached purple demon's
body parts. Once they're all dead, a chest containing a will materialize at the opposite end of the hall.

It's good to be you.

Done chopping bad guys? Then it's almost time to move on. First though, I'd
like you to go back to the start of this area. Don't go into the small tunnel
leading to the door, though, just stand at the far wall facing the Goddess
Statue and the chest you just unveiled after killing all those poor buggers.

Now, see all those pillars at either side of the hall? Go between the first and
second pillars on the right, past the small area leading to the door, and wall
jump your way to the top to find one of the sneakiest locations
in the entire game. Snatch it up and swear at it for a while for being so
damn well concealed.

Our business here is concluded, so hop down to the floor and head up to the
Goddess Statue. Examining it produces the most obvious clue in history as to
what you have to do, so wall jump up to the top and allow yourself to drop back
down to the stone. This will cause the nearby door to unlock itself, so trot
on over and head on through.

More bats/Ghost Fish are swirling around in this room, so take them out as
necessary. Don't go through the door yet, however - see how the sides of the
wall leading to the door are angled inwards?

No? Well, maybe that description sucked a little. Regardless, you'll want to
approach the angled wall to the right of the door, jump into it and run up it,
and then flip off at the top. If you do this right, you should make it up to
a ledge above you - keep trying until you make it up there, and then run around
to the back of the platfrom to find a chest holding another
for you. It would be rude to refuse, so go pick it up!

Now, drop down and enter the door which will lead you to the Underground
Sanctuary - a huge hallway where you'll be attacked by a bunch of purple
demons. Stomp them.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Actually, no purple demons for you. You're about to be introduced to a new
enemy specifically designed for the Hurricane Pack - the Ogre. 'Ogres' would
probably be a more appropriate term here, because there's a grand total of
six of them to beat.

They're not exactly what I'd describe as excessively easy. In fact, my very
face almost exploded in an unhealthy fountain of blood and rage the first
time I came across the little punks, since they can tear you in half almost
by looking at you if you're unprepared for their hideous onslaught. Add to
this the fact that they're the only enemy in the game that the camera doesn't
track adequately (due to their excessive size), and you're in for a world of
pain the first few times you come across them.

If you need help with killing them, refer to the enemy guide I've prepared
further on in the walkthrough. Experience is all well and good, but
experience and a gameplan works even better, I find.

If you're really having problems with them, chances are that you can just
run past these guys. I've never tried, but it certainly looks possible.
____________________________________________________________________________

Once all your enemies are dead and gone, or you've ignored them with your
ninjalike disdain for your opponents, it's time to move on. around halfway
across the hall in the wall to your left lies a doorway into an adjoining room.
Take it, and immediately hang left to find another glowing away
contentedly to itself, then head over to the nearby dead pincush... ninja and
pillage his body for more arrows.

This done, it's time for a quick wall running session. Starting from the mucky
broken stairs directly in front of the doorway, run along the wall in front
of you to the left, jump onto the next wall and jump one more time to make it
up. It's not hard, so feel free to experiment to find the best way up for you.

At the top, peek through the open doorway and whip out your bow. Sight your
arrow so that it's aimed at the softly glowing reddish gem on the opposite side
of the room and loose your shaft at it to turn it green and release a makeshift
hanging wall to your right. Wall run across it and head past the gem, turning
left up the stairs and climbing to the top.

Turn around and you'll see a chest in plain sight - go across to it and kick it
open for a , then follow the path around until it cuts
off abrubtly. See that big root-looking thing coming through the wall in front
of you? Use it as you'd normally use a branch, hopping onto it and swinging
across to the other side. directly in front of you lies the Brand of Valor,
which you'll need quite soon.

Before you drop back down to floor level, head left and go around the pillar
to find another hiding away from you. I swear, it's like these
things don't even want to be found.

Well, hop on down and then go back and save if you feel like it, because as
soon as you place the Brand of Valor in the stone panel lying on the floor at
the other end of the room, it's time for an old fashioned boss fight.

Are you ready, Freddy? Then set it in place, and let's go!

===============================
Boss Fight - Sanctuary Guardian
===============================

Big lad, isn't he?

The Sanctuary Guardian loves to change position every once in a while. It's
a good idea to move out of the way when he tenses up, because this is a good
indication that he's either about to attack you or fly across to the other end
of the room. Occasionally he'll fly up onto a perch above you - don't worry
too much about this since he can only do his laser/fire attacks from up there
and makes himself a pretty good target for your projectile weapons.

From a distance, the Guardian will stream lasers at you which will then be
followed by a wall of flame. The laser itself is simply a sort of tracking
device and won't hurt you - it's the sudden burst of fire that follows it that
you have to be wary of.

If the laser travels from the Guardian's mouth towards you, dodge to your left
or right. If it goes horizontally from one edge of the hall to the other, dodge
back or forth depending on whether you want to close the distance between the
two of you or not.

Projectiles are pretty effective against this boss - whip out your Bow and
Incendiary Shurikens and aim for his head since it does more damage to him
there. Be ready to dodge if he tries anything, mind. By the time you run out
of ammunition, he should be quite severely mauled.

Don't worry if you don't have much ammunition going into this fight, though.
Killing him off with melee attacks is a little more dangerous, but certainly
possible.

Once you get in close, start hammering him with flying swallows until he falls
over, then run around to the front and perform the Blade of Nirrti on that
huge exposed head of his. Keep an eye on him while you're in close, though -
he'll alternate between stomping you, beating his wings twice and flying to the
other end of the hall, all of which can do a hefty chunk of damage if he
catches you with them.

Another thing to watch out for is his bite. If he rears his head back while
you're in close, dodge. Quickly.

Other than that, he's not so bad. Fairly tough health-wise, but not all that
dangerous if you stay on your toes and watch out for his attacks.

Also, if you have the Unlabored Flawlessness, you can kill this thing in a
grand total of two combos. Simply run up and whack it with two Blade of Nirrti
attacks - one of whice makes it fall over, and the other one should be primed
to smash it in the face and make it die very, very quickly.

Aren't secret, semi-hidden weapons awesome?

========
Cutscene
========

The bigger they are, the harder they evaporate into some sort of translucent
magical mist, as they say. This proves it, and our boy Hayabusa wastes no time
in performing some crazy ninja pose as a result.

Now that the Guardian is dead, the doors open themselves up and Hayabusa
strolls on out into the fresh night air. He senses that someone is watching
him and looks to a distant rooftop - where the Dark Disciple stands, observing
his every move as glowing embers swirl around him dramatically.

The total bastard.

==================================+=======+
/Chapter 11 - 'The Path to Zarkhan'| xx11xx \
+===================================+=========+===============================+
|'Using the Aquaduct, Ryu has arrived at the Moat surrounding Zarkhan. |
|However, a great wall blocks his path into the Palace itself...' |
+=============================================================================+

This is a relatively short, predominantly underwater stage which some players
aren't particularly fond of - personally, I think it makes for a nice,
refreshing change of pace before the action goes nuts again.

Anyway, you'll start this chapter on a stone pier overlooking the Moat of
Zarkhan. There's a treasure chest containing a Map of the Moat on your right
just beside a Dragon Statue save point, so kick the chest open and then go save
your game. Opposite the save statue lies another chest containing a , so boot it open and seize your prize.

As this stange began, no doubt you'll have noticed the brief cutscene showing
that the moat is filled with some bloody enormous fish equipped with razor-like
fangs. They're also not particularly friendly, and will attempt to chew you
up if you get in their way - and remember, your combat ability is significantly
impaired whilst underwater, so your usual melee tricks won't work worth a damn.

As a result, simply whip out your bow and arrows and murder them from the
safety of the pier, sending shaft after shaft into their defenceless, scaly
hides.

GAHAHAAAAHAAA!

Now that you've cleared the way, it's time to dip your toes into the water and
have a swim around.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Hayabusa has to breathe, mind. He may be some crazy ninja from beyond the |
|very boundaries of human limitation, but his lung capacity isn't anything |
|particularly special. |
| |
|Once in the water, keep an eye on the gauge that appears on the left of the |
|screen. As soon as it starts to reach dangerous levels of emptiness, swim |
|like hell for the nearest air pocket and break the surface of the water to |
|get some of that nice fresh air back into your body. |
| |
|Assuming you let that gauge on the left run out, your health will start to |
|rapidly drop. If it hits rock bottom you're dead, baby. Talisman of Rebirth |
|or no Talisman of Rebirth. |
| |
|The motto of this long, rambling story? Keep your air supply topped up. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Okay! Now that we've cleared out swimming 101, we'll start where you first
stood on the pier overlooking the moat. Jump in, and head off to your right.
You should be able to spot the telltale golden glow of a lying
around in plain sight near the bottom of the Moat inside a broken railing, so
paddle on over and pick it up. Continue on past where it was and look at the
back left of this area to spot a chest lying around - swim over and open that
up too to get your hands on a handy little Gold Medallion.

Nothing else is in here, so head back through the railing and swim the other
way for a bit. Keep swimming until you see the open mouth of a drainage pipe
off to your left - get some air if you need it, then swim on through. Once you
reach the halfway mark, you'll come across a small roomlike section - swim
down there and you'll find a drowned ninja holding a note scrawled with 'filthy
lettering'. Hayabusa has certain opinions about poor handwriting, it seems.

The note mentions that one of the dead guy's fellow ninjas found out that an
upcoming combination is '0971', but that it's too dark at that place to
actually input the combination.

Nice info, eh? Now, drop the corpse like a bad habit (as if pillaging the dead
isn't a filthy habit of its own accord, but I digress), and continue along the
way you were going. If you accidentally double back and come out where you
came in from, just restock your air supplies and head back in. If you went
the right way, you'll come to a more open section with two more giant fish and
two of those bloody laser turrets floating around firing at you. Ignore them
if you like, or kill them off - it doesn't matter much unless you're going for
a high karma score. Make your choice, and then head through the square
concrete passage on the other side of where you came in.

You'll see a combination lock right in front of you, but attempting to use it
at this point will result in a message mentioning that the numbers are barely
visible. Just head on past the combination lock, swimming off to the right and
heading out the other side of the tunnel. Another swimming ninja met his demise
at this point, so head on over to him and search the body to come up with
another new item - the Owl's Eye!

He's also got a note mentioning that it's worthless without the code. What a
sore loser. You, however, have both the eye and the code, so take a deep breath
of fresh air and then head back into the tunnel. Obviously, don't pass the
combination lock this time. Simply type in the code '0971' and watch the sealed
door open up majestically!
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Your air supply is still decreasing while you enter the code, so do it |
|quickly or suffer the most embarassing death imaginable. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Head on through, and continue swimming until you reach the next section. You'll
be needing some air right about now, so move Ryu up to the surface and take a
quick look around. A small ledge awaits with yet another dead ninja lying
around and... another Muramasa's Shop Statue.

I know Muramasa likes to place statues of himself in rather strange places, but
this is just getting crazy.

Crazy or not, however, it's still very handy for you if you need to restock on
anything, so haul yourself out of the water and get your ninja self shopping.
Your consumer urges sated, waddle over to that unfortunate ninja and rifle
through his pockets to find a brand new weapon - the Spear Gun! While it may
not be the deadliest weapon in your arsenal for the vast majority of the game,
it can come in handy down here when you're being chased by giant sharklike
amphibians hungry for a taste of your good old ninja flesh. It's also handy for
those damn laser turrets if you get close enough, which certainly makes it
worth picking up.

Are we done here? Splendid! Let's move on, then. Hop back into the water and
swim through the new tunnel with the 'rocky' mouth. You'll soon come out in
another open section with three laser turrets scooting around overhead. Swim to
the opposite side and climb up onto the platform above the opposite tunnel,
then take the damn things out with your Strongbow or Spear Gun. Right beside
where you are now is a which makes getting shot by lasers all
worthwhile! Now, jump back into the water and head through the tunnel beneath
you.

You'll soon come to another cavernous section, so swim up to the surface and
pull youself onto the ground in front of you, mauling the bats that take
offence at your intrusion of their home. There's a Dragon Statue here, so be
sure to save your game before heading over to the nearby treasure chest for a
...

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

... OR an unhealthy dose of pain...
____________________________________________________________________________

...and then head along the path a little until you come to an open tunnel with
a chest lying beside the entrance. Kick open the chest for a , but don't bother with the tunnel for now. Hop into the water once more,
and swim through the nearest tunnel. Ignore the 'door' in the first open
chamber space you come to, simply head directly right and swim through the
other tunnel until you come out into a much more open area. Directly to the
right of where you exit the tunnel lies another , so grab it and
then deal with all the giant fish swimming around this area.

Now! There are two ways you can go here - one of which leads into a twisty,
turney set of tunnels created by iron bars and will almost certainly drown you
if you attempt to make it to the end. Even if you survive, you'll use far more
healing potions than you'd like just to keep yourself alive.

Therefore, we'll take the other route for now. There's a broken railing on
the right side of the Moat (assuming you've turned left from the entrance to
this section and are looking towards where the fish were swimming back and
forth) so swim over there and slither on through like some sort of little
ninja eel.

A brief cutscene will kick in showing you a small winch and a hole in the
bottom of a nearby sunken boat. Swim over there, little fishy, and enter
through the broken underwater section of the ship in order to find a chest
containing a hand crank. No prizes for guessing what this does, so once you
have it, swim back out and climb up on top of the non-submerged part of the
ship. Kill those turrets with a vengeance, too.

Man, I hate them so bad.

Once your mechanical foes have been scrapped, use the winch (with the hand
crank, ooh!) to trigger another cutscene showing a trapdoor inside the ship
opening up. Dive back into the water and swim back into the hole, passing the
recently opened chest and up through the trapdoor you just opened. Up here
lies two things - a to add to your burgeoning collection, and
something else that should make you smile - a nice little set of Oxygen
Cylinders! As the message informs you, it's now possible to stay underwater for
as long as you like! Hooray!

Now, exit the ship back the way you came, and head out of this area back
through that broken railing you came from. Almost directly opposite you should
be the entrance to that twisty, turny tunnel I mentioned earlier, so head on
in without any fear of drowning this time. Head to the other side, collecting
the from a chest on the way there, and then open another
chest to claim for yourself a Silver Medallion. This done, head all the way
back to the Dragon Statue and save your game. It shouldn't be hard to find your
way back.

Once you've saved your game, move around the ledge the Dragon Statue's located
on, dealing with another infestation of bats as you do so, and head into that
tunnel I told you to ignore earlier on. Obliterate all the flying wasps in the
room at the end of the tunnel for good measure.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Actually, you guys'll have to deal with a bug infestation instead. It's
really no big deal.
____________________________________________________________________________

Once your foes are in the dirt, examine both sections of the altar in front of
you to place the medallions where they really belong. A quick scene of an
underwater door bursting inwards will occur, and then it's time for you to
leave and head back into the main room with the Dragon Statue. Leap back into
the water, and swim through the right tunnel towards where the ship was. On
the way, you'll notice that there's a new path where the sealed door used to
be, so break off and go through that way.

There are more of those giant fish and laser turrets in this new section, so
kill them. Kill them all! When you're ready, head on over to the huge crack in
the floor near the opposite end from where you entered and swim into it.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|If this crevice reminds you on anything, don't bother asking me exactly what |
|it reminds you on. You don't want to hear the answer. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Hey hey! Doesn't this place look familiar?

Say hello to your departed skeleton friend here, and swim across the room to
the other broken chunk of wall before going on through. There's not much room
for getting lost in here, so continue on until you come to the Sarcophagus
Chamber from before - it's the one where you got the Skull Key, and is the
biggest room you'll come to after the big dead skeleton boss one you just left.

In here, swim up to the ceiling to find another sneaky stuck
to a wall up near the roof. You may have noticed it last time you were here,
but since you can only collect it once the place is flooded... well, you know.

Head back down to the bottom of the room, and exit through the nearby skull
door you opened a while back. This is where you first got pulled away by the
torrential flood, remember? Ah, such fond, fond memories... keep moving through
and then kill all the giant fish in the next room when you come to them.

You may want to take the nearby elevator up at this point for an optional
bonus treat - so let's do that, shall we? Swim on over to that nearby elevator
and head back up to the Monk's Room one more time.

It's looking a little bit wrecked, but the safe is intact - and holding
something shiny and new! Let's steal from the poor, stupid monk again, shall
we?

The combination, as always, is written in his book over by the table, and he
also mentions that nobody will ever break into his safe again! The poor,
deluded fool. Head on over to the safe and start doing the following:

- Turning the dial left and choosing '1'.
- Turning the dial left and choosing '2'.
- Turning the dial right and choosing '2'.
- Turning the dial left and choosing '3'.

This will net you a Jewel of the Demon Seal to upgrade your ninpo with again.
And all it took was a vast amount of thievery from someone criminally stupid.

You should be ashamed of yourself, you really should. Anyway, head back down
the elevator and then swim off into the tunnel to the left with your ill-gotten
gains. Once you emerge from the water, save your game at the Dragon Statue and
head up this newly working elevator - we're gonna have ourselves a bit of a
Boss Fight as soon as you step into the arena above.

========
Cutscene
========

As Ryu steps out into this arena, he looks up at the clouds and sees that the
corrupting influence of the Dark Dragon Blade is leaking out of the Emperor's
Palace and flowing into the sky, spreading out over the capital of Tairon.

You'll see what this means for you in the upcoming chapters. For now though,
Ryu senses a malevolent presence at the other end of the grounds and looks
over - to find himself face to face with the subject of his vengeance, Doku.

He's still carrying Rachel around, anyway, which means he probably hasn't
been able to get to where he was going at the end of chapter 7 yet. Upon
seeing Hayabusa, he drops the hot chick and draws his sword as Rachel looks
pleadingly at you. Doku decides that a taunting is in order.

'Failed protector of the Dark Dragon... must I take your life yet again?'

Cheeky bugger. Let's kill him.

=================
Boss Fight - Doku
=================

You'll start the fight a goodly distance away from Doku, so start by running
in closer so you can actually get some hits in. He'll almost certainly plant
his sword into the ground and create a huge circular shockwave as you close
the distance, so be ready to jump over it, or dodge his sword if he throws it
at you. It'll return to him quite quickly, so watch for that as well.

Once you're in close to him, you'll probably notice that he's remarkably
similar to the boss battle with Murai at the end of the first stage. He moves
in the same, slow manner and loves to attack and grab you in pretty much the
same style Murai used to. He has, however, a crapload more attacks than our
Nunchaku-wielding friend used, and does tons more damage with each blow.

His in-close attacks are listed here for your convenience:

- He'll swing his sword at you a few times. Nothing special - but the first
swing will break your guard, so be ready to roll and recover.

- He'll spin in with a sword attack and burst into a six stroke sword combo
which hurts like hell, and of which you can only block the first stroke he
hits you with. It'll break your guard immediately, leaving you wide open for
all the remaining swipes. Needless to say, dodge until he's out of attacks
and then return a few of your own.

- He'll 'power up' for a moment from a close to medium range distance and
charge at you like Murai used to. This does substantial damage and cannot
be blocked, so keep an eye out for it and dodge when you see it coming.

Try to stay close to where he stops though - you can usually get in a few
hits before he recovers.

- He'll remove his face plate and spew fire out in front of him in a small
arc. It's one of his less dangerous moves since it's so slow, but, as
always, dodge it whenever he performs it.

- He'll 'counter' your attack by swinging around you, turning 180 degrees as
he does so, and slashing you across the back.

- He'll grab you. This generally does about half a bar of damage to you,
assuming that you've been keeping up to date with your energy bar
extensions. What's worse than this is that the longer he takes hold of you
before you break free, the more damage he does AND the more energy he
recovers for himself.

Yes, this attack actually heals him.

Since it's a grab, you can't block it - if you see him raise one of his
hands back in preperation to lunge at you, dodge immediately. And if he
does get his hands on you, hammer the buttons to break the hold as swiftly
as possible.

So, how best to beat him? The solution is embarassingly simple - Flying Swallow
the living hell out of him, dodging out of the way after you land, until he
keels over and dies. Even if he blocks, just keep on doing it.

That's the short, cheap way to do it.

Alternatively, get those Flails equipped and wait until he performs his charge
at you, then dodge and counterattack with Fwd+Y, Y, Y, Y before he recovers
his balance.

And remember, if you end up in a sword clinch with him, hammer the buttons to
overpower him and attack him while he's off balance.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Well, scrap that lovely Flying Swallow method described above. You'll just
bounce off his shiny metal exterior if you try to perform it on him.

Other than that, he's quite similar - only you can intercept his sword strokes
now, so be sure to do it during his six hit combo and retaliate in a
suitably painful manner that strips a chunk off his energy bar.

You CAN'T intercept his charging move, though, so don't even try - it'll just
end in bumps, bruises, sprains and tears. And possibly death.

One new technique you can use if you've enhanced the Lunar up to level 3 can
be quite useful for battling him. Get in close and perform the 'Lunar
Explosion' by holding forwards and pressing Y three times. It does a good
chunk of damage, and is one of my preferred methods for twisting that lovely
armour of his into a big pile of scrap.

Psst: http://www.aubg79.dsl.pipex.com/dokugrab.avi

It's not perfect, but check out the UT combo. Neat, huh?
____________________________________________________________________________

========
Cutscene
========

As Doku slumps to the ground in defeat, dropping his sword as he does so, Ryu
walks in and demands to know where the Dark Dragon Blade is. Doku replies that
it is now in the hands of the Vigoor Emperor. He mentions that Ryu's true place
is at the Emperor's side, as the Dragon Lineage has similar blood ties as the
Fiends, and that they worshipped the same ancient deities.

Not particularly happy at having his ass kicked black and blue, he then swears
that his hatred will not so easily be defeated as Rachel staggers over just in
time to hear Doku claim that he will be sure to bring about the 'awakening'.

Doku is then shrouded in a bright blue glow and rises into the air. He remarks
to Rachel that her sister must be very precious to her, and then disappears
into thin air.

Rachel, predictably, is out of here. She runs off to one of the corners, uses
her grappling hook to spear a high ledge, and flies out over the side of the
arena - not even bothering to try and get her hammer back from Ryu.

Sigh. She's brave, there's no denying that.

Gamov, meanwhile, looks down upon the unfolding events from up above with a
satisfied smile on his face...

==========================+=======+
/Chapter 12 - 'The Caverns'| xx12xx \
+===========================+=========+=======================================+
|'Although it appeared as though Ryu defeated Doku, his vengeance is still |
|incomplete. The Dark Dragon in the hands of the Holy Vigoor Emperor. What |
|will become of Rachel and her sister?' |
+=============================================================================+

You start this level pretty much where you finished the last - in the arena
where Doku's body once lay. While his soul and armour may have gone, his sword
remains so be sure to pick it up - turns out that this is the fabled 'Kitetsu',
an evil sword rumoured to feed upon the soul of the wielder.

Equip it and you'll soon see exactly what they mean if you keep an eye on your
health gauge. Even so, while it might not be quite as useful overall as a
powered up Dragon Sword, it's certainly not worth spitting on. Give it a whirl,
see what you think of it. It'll never kill you when you hit no health, anyway,
so don't worry about that.

Enough of the Kitetsu, let's move on. And what better to start a new level with
than an annoying little puzzle, eh?

It's not that hard, really, but I still failed to get it first time and started
backtracking through the Monastery for a while before I finally sussed out what
I was supposed to be doing. I'd been playing the game all night, though, so I
kind of had an excuse. Kind of.

Anyway! First thing to do is run right ahead into the tunnel Rachel and Doku
were in before your epic, era defining battle. There's a lever right in front
of you, so head over to it and give it a yank - this will cause a number of
floating stone blocks outside to shift their positions. Turn around, and before
heading out, check the right of the exit. See that golden glow? That's a
, if the vast amount you've picked up already hadn't tipped you
off at all. Grab it, and leave this little room into the arena proper.

Now, from this doorway:

1. Run over to the platform on the far left, hop up and pull the lever you can
now reach. This will cause another block to move into position.

2. Before you do anything else, turn around and run to the block directly
opposite and use the lever on top of that too for another block shifting
scenario.

3. From this block, turn right and wall run up to the next one. Then perform
another wall run, jumping onto the adjoining wall and running along to the
next floating stone platform. Pull the lever to send another block scooting
into place.

4. Turn right and jump over to the stone platform overhanging the doorway
below, grabbing the chest there for a . Continue past
it and jump onto the next floating block and pull the lever.

5. Now, head back across that last platform containing the chest and jump onto
the block described at the end of step 3.

You know, the other one up here close to the chest. You've already pulled
it, but it's time to pull it again. The block should return to the corner
over near where the lever in step 1 is.

6. Jump back down to the ground and run over to the block described in step 1 -
the first one you pulled in this main part of the arena. Don't pull the
lever here again, though - you'll want to wall jump into the corner, then
jump again until you land on a higher block.

From here, run up the wall in front of you to find a which
you should quickly pocket, then drop back down to this platform.

Now, wall run across the right wall, jump to the next wall, and then jump
again so that you're running across the side one of the balconies
overlooking the arena. If all goes well, you should run along the side of
said balcony and run right onto the top of a floating platform.

7. From here, jump to the next floating platform right in front of the balcony,
and then leap up onto the balcony itself. There's a broken section for easy
access, so use that and then take the two chests up here for a and a .

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

No Great Devil Elixers exist in this version of the game, mind, so see if
you can guess what they give you instead.

Correct.
____________________________________________________________________________

From where you initially landed on the balcony, head left and at the end
leap onto yet another floating platform. This is just a stop gap, so jump
forwards again when you land on it and head left. Pull that lever, and we're
done with this puzzle section!

Before you drop down, mind, continue along this ledge for a treasure chest
holding a and another hiding around the
corner. Then just drop down to the floor level - we're done up here for now.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|If you want to go back down the elevator and save your game, that's a |
|perfectly viable option at this point. However, once you complete the above |
|puzzle and open up the next section for exploration, returning here from |
|another section - like the bottom of that elevator - will automatically |
|initiate a Sixty Fiend Challenge as they come bursting out of the floor. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

=================================
Sixty Fiend Challenge - The Arena
=================================

Aha! Fun! After completing the puzzle described above with all those floating
platforms, returning to the Arena will initiate a Sixty Fiend Challenge for
you!

This one is easier than it seems - you'll be taking on a grand total of 60 of
those Red Dinosaur Fiends, which shouldn't cause you too much hassle so long
as you've powered up your Dragon Sword or Dabilahro. Generally speaking, the
Dabilahro's Level 3 Flaming Hell Slash (X, X, X, X, X, Y) will kill the big red
buggers off in one go, and the Dragon Sword's Blade of Nirrti attack isn't
far behind it on the effectiveness front.

So! Lure them into charging straight into a wall if you can, and then go for
them as they lie temporarily stunned by such a shocking display of stupidity.
Always be ready to roll aside when blocking if you see them preparing to munch
your head, and generally just kick their scaly asses from here to hell and
back.

One thing to watch out for, though - never, EVER go through either door leading
in and out of the Arena, or all the Fiends will promptly dive through the
floor and you'll have to do the entire challenge again.

And that would truly suck, wouldn't it?
_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Oh, for the love of Hell. One of the absolute toughest battles in the game
awaits you here, since all those comparitively weak Red Dino Fiends have been
replaced with a grand total of sixty Ogres for you to polish off.

I hope you're skilled, son, because you'll need every inch of skill you have
in order to get through this one. Fighting three of them at a time isn't easy,
and fighting so many of them in one battle is pretty much suicidal for less
skilled players.

One way to stop the little (cough) scumbags from leaping into the air and
coming down straight on top of your fragile little head is to run and hide
underneath one of the platforms you used in the previous puzzle - they can
still crunch your skull with their clubs, but they'll cut out all that
seriously annoying jumping unblockable madness.
____________________________________________________________________________

Once you've finished whatever battle the game presented you with, that familiar
invisible treasure chest will warp into reality up beside the final lever of
the previous puzzle. If you've forgotten how to get up there, refer to steps
six and seven of the puzzle guide, hightail it up there and grab the chest for
either a in the normal game, or a in the Hurricane Pack.

They're both rather nice, so be sure and get them if you're up to finishing
all those enemies off.

Congratulations! You've just finished the longest and probably the toughest
Sixty Fiend Challenge in the game!

=================================

Man, that place was packed with things to do. We're finally ready to continue
on with the game though, so saddle up those goodies you got your hands on and
let's go!

Head back into the chamber where Rachel and Doku were, and move straight ahead.
You'll notice that there are now some freshly raised walls in front of you that
you can run up, having completed that puzzle a short while back. Run up them,
and you'll find yourself on a whole new path. There's another of Ayane's
kunai stuck in one of the pillars in front of you, so move on over and pick it
up - this one mentions that Muramasa seems to have some important information
for you that's weighing on his mind to the point where he's unable to sleep at
night. We'll check in there before long, though it's a strictly optional
cutscene. For now, head right and continue along the path until you start
getting attacked by brown and purple demons, collecting the form the chest as you go.

Those demons keep coming?

Sixty Fiend Challenge?

All right!

=======================================================
Sixty Fiend Challenge - Stairway to the Imperial Palace
=======================================================

Man, this is excessively simple - especially after the previous one you may
have slugged your way through.

Your opponents here are simply a bunch of brown and purple demons. There are
two purple demons to every one brown demon, and they attack you until a total
of - get this - sixty of them have been killed.

Equip the Dabilahro, counterattack until they're all dead. Or just fight them
any way you like, since there's almost no chance you'll get killed here. Good
night my sweet, worthless enemies.

The chest will warp in at the bottom of the stairs, so walk on over to it and
open it up for an easily won . Simple or what?

=======================================================

Alright! Now, let's say that the bottom of the steps here are considered a
crossroad of sorts. There's the way you just came, which now has nothing of
interest to keep you going back. You can go running up the steps, which
currently leads to nothing more interesting than a massive set of locked gates
you can't get through.

This basically means that there are two ways to go. For now, search around the
base of the steps at the left side of the archway to find a dead ninja. Again.
This unlucky guy's name was Saru, and his diary mentions that there's a curse
sweeping through Tairon, turning people into Fiends. He mentions at the end
that he now knows that the Dark Dragon Blade is cursed, and... well, he's not
in great health.

From here, head to the doorway inside the arch and open up the door to step
out onto the Great Bridge. You may have seen this area before, but a locked
gate would have stopped you setting foot on it. Head on over to the nearby
gate and unlock it from this side to eliminate that barrier once and for all.

Continue straight ahead after going through. Another Kunai will fly into play,
mentioning that there's a rumour about a cave leading to the greatest depths
of Zarkhan near the Palace of Zarkhan's waterfall. That's back the way, so
ignore the information for now.

Keep moving onwards and soon you'll be ambushed by the first signs of the Dark
Dragon Blade's curse coming into play - Fiend soldiers. They're fast, they're
powerful, and they're able to toss you around like a rag doll if you let them
get in close to you. I'd advise you in the strongest terms to equip the
Dabilahro for these guys from here on out since the staple combo 'Flaming Hell
Slash' works wonders against them. It's the standard X, X, X, X, X, Y combo
the Dabilahro is famed for, so don't be afraid to use it.

If you go left from the fork where you got ambushed, there's a sealed up
doorway with a crack inside it - if you haven't been back here since getting
your hands on explosives and heavy weapons, smash it open and dip your fingers
into the nearby treasure chest to get your hands on an .

Obviously, that's not all there is in here. Look around and you'll see window
ledges a little bit above you - wall run up to the first one, then turn left
and wall run to the second ledge to find a waiting in a
treasure chest. Once you have it, drop back down and return to the fork,
killing all the respawned bad guys, before heading through the nearby door.

More Fiend Soldiers are waiting here - kill them, and then go in by Muramasa's
shop to pay him a visit and find out exactly what it is he wants to tell you.

========
Cutscene
========

Muramasa's hard at work and welcomes Ryu into the shop. Ryu, understandably,
asks about whether he's still open now that the majority of the population
are all turning into Fiends.

'Do you think I would shut up shop over something like this?' he asks in reply,
the complete nutter that he is.

He then asks to see Hayabusa's sword and gives it the once over, noting that
it's an excellent weapon but still incomplete. For a Dragon Sword to be truly
powerful, being carved out of a Dragon's fang isn't enough - it needs a gem
known as the Dragon's eye placed into the hilt. If that should come to pass,
he assures our hero, the sword will be more than a match for the Dark Dragon
Blade.

Ryu seems startled at the old man's words, and Muramasa simply chuckles
knowingly. Of course he's heard of it, he's the legendary blacksmith after all.

=======

Buy what you need and trade in all the scarabs you've been collecting, and
then it's time to retrace your steps to the steps in front of the Emperor's
Palace - turn left as you exit the shop, go through the door and simply go
straight ahead until you arrive back there. Go right at the base of the steps,
and follow the path around, leaping over the fallen tree on the way, until you
come to a small clearing. Search the dead ninja on the left for a Map of
Zarkhan, then head over to the odd head statues on the other side and vandalise
them with your Dabilahro or War Hammer. Smashing them into itty little bits
will yield a and another fabulous for your
collection. This done, amble over to the nearby Dragon Statue and save your
game.

This done, head further along the path. You can wall run along the right wall
and swing off the branch if you want to look cool, or you can run along the
surface of the water, or you can just go swimming. Indulge yourself.

When you're swimming around, however, make sure you go over and unearth the
hidden in an underwater treasure chest before getting your
hands on the equally submerged .

Once you've had your dip, swim on over to the side of the pool and haul
yourself back up onto dry land. Nice, eh? There's another chest with a up for grabs here, so take it if you need it. From there, head
left and go behind the waterfall to find a secret passage further into Zarkan.
It's blocked, however, so you'll need to solve a devious puzzle in order to
pass - take out your Dabilahro and smack the cracked wall with it.

Tough, eh? Head on in, the rest of the game's waiting for you.

Before long you'll come to a small hole, so drop on in and take care of the
swarm of bats that comes along wanting to suck your noble ninja blood.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Or, you know, THEM.
____________________________________________________________________________

Once you've taken care of your unwelcome friends, search the nearby ninja
corpse for a Map of the Caverns, then submerge yourself into the pool of water,
swim a short distance underneath it and surface out from the other side.

There's a slope in front of you, and nowhere else to go. Oh well. Button up
your courage, take a deep breath and plunge yourself headlong down that horrid,
horrid slope of icy death.

You'll soon drop into the imaginatively titled 'Ice Cavern', which at least
explains the place pretty well. A quick cutscene will show a semi-new enemy
jumping out of the ground in order to make your acquaintance - an icy version
of the Red Dino Fiends you fought from before. They're a little tougher and
do more damage, but aren't going to shock and amaze you with anything you
haven't really seen before.

There's a grand total of four of them for you to kill, and a couple of annoying
purple demons running around, so do them all in before we continue.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Sorry dude - no Dino Fiends for you. There's a bunch of hulking massive Ogres
to keep you busy instead, though, so at least you won't be lonely.

It's not just here, either. Any point where I mention Dino Fiends attacking
you will now be populated by a bunch of Ogres in their place. I hope you've
gotten yourself fairly skilled by this point in the game, I really do.
____________________________________________________________________________

From here, move over to the broken stone structure at one end of the cavern,
and run up the obvious wall and jump off to reach the platform above. There's
a chest up here with a inside if you need it, so grab it
if you like and then jump up to the next icy ledge above you. Continue along
into the tunnel, jump the small crevice when you come to it, and save your
game at this Dragon Statue.

The nearby door isn't of much use at this point given the Resident Evil style
pentagonal indentation on its surface, so drop down into the nearby pit and
kill the purple demons that warp in when you hit the bottom. The two brick
walls facing each other are there for you to climb back up, so head the other
way for now. Climb up the first ice face you come across, then the second and
smash the thin layer of ice with a heavy weapon.

Continue through heading right, and you'll be accosted by more purple demons.
Mail their body parts home to their loved ones, then run up the next ice face
you come to and haul yourself up over the edge. Ignore the nearby ice pillars,
since you can't break them - they'll disappear later on after a certain event.
Head right and perform a strong downward attack to smash the ice underneath
you and fall down like a heavy lump of heaviness.

Show the purple demons down here what it means to mess with an angry ninja,
then head around the wall on your left and climb up to the top, jumping through
the broken section of flooring above you and emerging in a new area, The Ruins.
Directly behind where you came up lies the item you're here for - the Shield
of Vigoor.

Ooo, Pentagonal.

Drop back down through the floor, make your way through the next room and use
the parallel walls to jump back up through that ice floor you broke just a
minute ago. Take the curving tunnel left, and head around and through the other
sheet of ice you smashed open. Head on in, dropping down a few levels, and use
the next set of brick walls to jump back up to the top.

You should be right beside the Dragon Statue at this point, so run on over and
save before examining the door with the interesting PENTAGONAL insert right
beside you. Believe it or not, that pentagonal object called the Shield of
Vigoor you picked up over in the Ruins fits like a glove, and the doorway will
swing open for you, which leads to the...

[Magma Cavern]

Well, walking next door from a cave resembling the arctic tundra to another
cave filled with molten lava isn't THAT great a leap of faith, I guess. As soon
as you enter you'll be treated to yet another variant of the Dinosaur Fiends
leaping out of a nearby lake of fire, so get that Dabilahro of yours ready for
some action.

Straight in front of you lies the left fragment of the Stone Tablet you should
have been collecting up to this point - if you've picked them all up like you
should have been doing, a message will kick into play mentioning that all of
the pieces have been found and that you can now place it on the pedestal of the
Twin Serpents Plaza - which is one of the first things you'll have seen when
you first came into Tairon.

For now though, we should just concentrate on the task at hand. If you haven't
killed those Fiends that were having a bath in the magma yet, do so now. To the
right of where you came in lies some handy iron ore - it's over a small patch
of lava, so navigate around or simply jump over it to get your hands on the
good stuff. There's a door directly opposite this point you haven't been
through yet, but ignore it for now since you can't get through. And there's
another maddening stone circle right in front of you. Bet you can't wait to
find out what they do, eh? Eh?

Now that we're done with this place, go over to where the Fiends were and jump
the first stream of lava, then the second. The next section is fairly tough to
do without falling in - you have to wall run across the wall to your right,
but stop short of going as far as you can so that you land on the small rock
at the right hand side of the hot stuff.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Don't worry too much about falling into streams of molten lava, though - you |
|simply lose a decent chunk of damage from your initial contact with the |
|stuff, then steadily (but relatively slowly) lose health the longer you stay |
|in there. |
| |
|That's not to say you can safely wade through the stuff, mind. Try and stay |
|out of it as much as you can, but you can be assured that you won't instantly|
|die on contact with the lava unless you've hardly any health left. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

From this rock, you can easily jump to the next safe patch in front of you, so
feel free to do so and pick up another chunk of iron ore for your collection.
Leap over to the last section of non-boiling rock, and wait a moment to sort
out the timing of these huge blasts of steam jetting out from the walls.

The first few jets shouldn't give you any trouble at all, so roll past them
when you think you've got the timing down. Don't worry - you can't roll off
the side of the drop in front of you and plummet into the lava so long as
you're actually performing a roll rather than sprinting into the drop like some
sort of deranged monkey.

Now, from the edge, take a brief look around. Hear that rat merrily squeaking
away to itself? That, of course, means that there's something to hang on
nearby. Face the drop, then run straight up the wall to your left. Hayabusa
will hang onto the small ledge overlooking the drop, and then you can shimmy
him along to the right. Watch out though - there's one more jet of steam
looking to cook your face and make you drop into that nasty pit of lava right
beneath you.

Get up close to it and wait - there should be two relatively quick spurts of
steam followed by a pause, then two more. Make your move during the pause, and
shimmy to the right like there's a fat kid trying to steal your cookies over
there. Once you're as far over as you can go, there's one more important thing
to take note of. So important, actually, that I'm going to give it a note
section all to itself.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Once you reach the end of this ledge with all your shimmying ninja antics, |
|you'll probably notice that the camera has turned in such an angle that |
|dropping off is quite difficult - if you tap Left and A to drop off, our |
|stupid hero will probably shimmy left and then drop himself straight into the|
|lava. Even ninjas can act like gimps at times, I guess. |
| |
|So, what can you do to in order to prevent this from happening? It's quite |
|simple, really. As soon as you've gone as far as you can on the ledge, tap |
|the 'R' trigger to centre the camera, then pull Down and A to drop off |
|safely. Awesome or what? |
| |
|If you do fall into the lava, just wall run up the other side and try again. |
|It's no big deal - unless, of course, it causes you to die horribly since |
|you're out of energy. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Once you're safely on the other side, look straight ahead - the path in front
of you leads to the boss chamber, but we can't get in there yet. As a result,
be sure to take the left path and drop down into a small pit in the tunnel,
dealing with the Dino Fiends that leap out at you. Hop up onto the other side,
and you'll come out in an area called the Magma Lake. It deserves its name,
anyway - mainly because it's a massive lake of magma.

Two more of those Rocky Dino Fiends from this area will jump up from their
swim in the lake to make their presence known - before you do anything, whip
out your bow and put shafts into the two of them until they die. It's not worth
getting in close, because they're not going to come out of the lava.

Are they dead? Or do you have no long range weapons you can kill them with?
Either way, let's continue. Right beside you, on this side of the lake will be
a large circular switch embedded in the floor. Hit it with a hard downward
swipe such as the Helmet Splitter, and a safe path will rise out of the lava
for you to walk on. You have to be quick, though, because it'll sink back in
before too long. Also, there's a bar to swing on midway - since the path is
broken into two sections, you'll need to make use of it if you want to avoid
taking damage.

So! Run across, swing on the halfway bar and leap to the next section, then
run to the end and jump onto the far side of the lake. If the enemies are still
alive, avoid them or kill them as quickly as humanly possible.

There's another switch on this side, but don't use it yet - it serves exactly
the same purpose as the last one, so it's only handy for getting back across.
The two doors in plain sight are a waste of time at present, since you can't
get through one from this side and there's a pretty big indentation in the
other one that looks like it should be holding something. Vague clue anonymous.

Apparently Muramasa doesn't mind wandering into volcanic caves during his
travels, since there's another bloody statue of him on this side.

Which is great! Go shop, buy some arrows and whatever else you've used since
last time you went shopping. Trade in those Scarabs as well - if you haven't
picked up the Armlet of Tranquility from him by now, you're missing out on an
awesome item that slowly replenishes your health over time. It works at about
the same rate as the Kitetsu steals your health, so equipping them both means
you won't lose energy using it!

Something to try, anyway. The health bonus alone is probably still the better
option, but if you want to use the Kitetsu that's the way to use it!

Once you're done, look to the right of the shop statue. See how a wall sticking
out from the lava curves around into a new section you can't quite see? Run
along the wall to get there and drop into the new section - more Dino Fiends
attack, so stab them all to death and collect the piece of Iron Ore lying in
once of the corners. Once you pick it up, turn and face the opposite corner of
the room. See that wall which leads up onto a platform right above a small pit
of molten lava? Run up the wall and onto the platform, then head straight
through the nearby door.

See the precariously placed platform in front of you? As you might be able to
guess, the slab of stone balanced on the rock below it acts like a see-saw,
so hop on to the end nearest you and run to the opposite side - but stay on
the slab! You won't slide off, even when the platform tilts as steeply as it
can. Wait until it tilts all the way to this side, and turn on the spot. Run
back quickly and leap off at the end to enter a secret chamber located right
above the door you entered from. In this room lies another chunk of Iron Ore
and a treasure chest containing the fruity reward of a bunch of multicoloured
orbs to heal and enrich you!

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Bloody hell, Itagaki. Nice little joke you placed here for everyone to die
horribly at.

'It's hidden so it probably contains something good', eh? My ass.
____________________________________________________________________________

Once you've got everything here, hop back down onto the nearest end of this
platform and wait for it to tilt, then run along and jump up to the entrance
on the opposite side. You'll be attacked by a bunch of bats here...

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

...Or some of our favourite ethereal flying friends...
____________________________________________________________________________

...so kill them off and work your way along this short tunnel. You'll come out
on the opposite side of the Ruins, which is where we're about to do magical
things with all that precious Iron Ore you've been collecting. The first
smelting pot is unusable, so ignore it entirely and run up to the next one
which is looking in altogether better shape than the other one. Climb the
short set of stairs to the smelting pot and interact with it four times to
fil it up to the brim with melted iron - as soon as this happens, the pot will
tip over and pour the iron out through a chute and into a mold on the other
side of the ruins - the icy side near where you picked up the Shield of Vigoor,
in fact!

Also, do you remember those pillars of ice I told you to ignore from before?
As an added bonus, the heat from the molten iron has melted them to nothing,
which explains the steam now floating around this section.

Well, we're done here for now! Head down those steps and drop off the edge
directly in front of you to land on a lower platform, then jump up to that
platform in front of you to your left and snatch that lovely
from its resting place. This done, climb the ledge in front of you and exit
the door to your left.

What you have to do now is retrace your steps back to the other side of the
Ruins. If you know how to get back there, fine - skip this indented section.

From the room we're now in, hop down to a safe piece of ground (there's lava
directly below the platform you're on, mind) and hang right. Climb the ledge
once more, and wall run across the wall in front of you to get back to the
side of the Magma Lake containing Muramasa's statue - refill your equipment
if you need to, then hit the nearby switch to raise the path through the
lava and cross swiftly, hopping up onto the safety of the other side.

Head through the tunnel in front of you, and when you climb up the opposite
side, take a right and leap across the pit filled with lava in front of you,
since as long as you hold forwards you'll flip over the opposite edge when
you hit the wall. Avoid the steam jets, and continue onwards avoiding the
lava (remember, you have to wall run at one point to remain unboiled), until
you come to the space you first entered this cavern at. Head through the
only door you can, and save at the Dragon Statue.

Hop down back into the pit and continue left, hopping up two ledges and going
through that first section of ice you broke. Instead of going right around
the tunnel, however, go left and wall run up the ice face in front of you and
haul yourself up over the edge - the ruins are just past the recently melted
ice pillars (you'll now be able to splash around in a puddle - whee) over
there on your right. Go there!

No matter how you got here, you'll notice that there's only one cast that the
molten iron could have sizzled its way into, and that's the one just across
from where you picked up the shield of Vigoor. Head over to it and climb up,
then be sure to pick up the newly created Cog of Vigoor.

You should be able to see a Dragon Statue from here, so wander over there with
that massive, back breaking lump of iron you just picked up and save your game.
Go a little but to the right and snap up that that's just lying
around in plain sight, then head further in and smash the thin sheet of ice
covering the floor at the end of the section. Allow yourself to fall in, and
then start warming up those homicidal tendancies of yours - it's time for
another lovely boss fight!

=============================
Mid Boss: Ice... Sloth Thing.
=============================

If anyone knows what this is really meant to be, please let me know. Is it
supposed to be a Yeti, or a really big white bananna with fangs or what?

Regardless of whatever species it is, however, the way that it took exception
to your sudden invasion of its privacy can mean only one thing - it's time to
send it down the river Styx with a broken spine and a ruptured boat.

There may be better ways to beat this thing, but the following method works
fine. Equip your Dragon Sword, look at the beast in a superior way, and then
get in close and start chopping away at it. The two best combos to use are your
good old Blade of Nirrti sequence (for maximum damage) and the Blade of the
Dragon's Tail (for guaranteed damage.)

That's the X, X, Y, Y, Y move in case you forgot.

Now, our huge, ugly buddy has a couple of noteworthy attacks. The most annoying
is when he starts pounding the ground around him, since you can't damage him
at all while he's smacking away at the floor. Small circular formations will
appear under your feet as he does this, so start running - they'll soon erupt
into razor sharp fragments that don't last more than a moment, but will cut
you up pretty bad if you're above them when the bloom in their own deadly
fashion - and you'll take block damage if you try and deflect the ice, so
don't bother doing anything else than moving out of the way.

He'll also start punching away at you if you stay in front of him - huge, slow
punches that alternate between his left and right hands. They're not tough to
dodge, which is a good thing since you'll take a decent chunk of block damage
if you try and block the attacks instead.

Likewise with his ice breath - he'll rear his head back then shoot a stream of
ice at you in a straight line. Easy as hell to avoid, but don't try blocking
unless you want to take damage.

After a while, he may decide that this is all just a big mistake and try to
make friends with you by spreading his arms wide open and giving you a big hug
to make up for attacking you on sight. Don't be deceived! As soon as he has
you in his loving grasp, his primal, animalistic nature will burst through his
loving facade like the energy from a thousand exploding suns and he'll
immediately start chewing ravenously upon your face. To avoid this bittersweet
end to your friendship, roll underneath his arms and perform the Blade of the
Dragon's Tail - he's crouched over wondering why you're avoiding his love, so
the Nirrti won't land every hit if you attempt it.

Other than these attacks, watch out for when he's moving around the place - he
loves to somersault and twist around the arena, and when he's hauling himself
around on his arms, he can squash you if you're ever unlucky enough to be
underneath them when they descend.

So! Now you know how he attacks, simply avoid them whenever here attempts them
and retaliate with the two combos I mentioned earlier depending on what he's
doing at the time. It shouldn't be long until you render him down into a large
chunk of frozen meat.

Oh well, he'll at least stay fresh for a while down here.

==================

As soon as our big, slothy friend has bit the dust, that familiar pulsing sound
will start up indicating that the boss has dropped something of note. Walk over
to the middle of the room to find out what it is - the Eye of Ice! Huzzah!
Hooray! Bless the lord!

Wait, what the hell does it do, exactly?

Well, we'll find out later, so for now head on over to the only door in the
room and open it with the Eye of Ice! It's making itself useful to you already,
it seems.

The room you find yourself in is pretty easy to figure out - walk over to the
parallel walls and jump like crazy to get up to the very top. You'll see chest
hiding away in a little niche as you ascend, so once you hit the top go to
the edge directly in front of the exit window (not through it, mind), and walk
off. Rather than immediately plummet back down to the ground, Hayabusa will
flip over and start hanging on the edge. Allow him to drop, and he'll fall for
a moment before catching onto the lip of the hidey hole containing that chest
you passed on the way to the top - let him pull himself up and kick open that
damn chest for a wonderful surprise... it's a !

Now, drop back down and wall jump back up before leaving this place through
the small windowlike hole at the very top.

Where to now, though? Make your way back to the Magma lake - you should know
your way there by now, so I'm not going to spell it out this time.

Yes, yes, I can be such a swine at times. Now, once you're back there, make
your way over to the side of the lake which contains the shop statue of
Muramasa, and then examine the door with the circular indentation on it. Ryu
will proudly place his self-made Cog of Vigoor into the depression, and the
door will unlock - head on through!

You're now in a cool little section known as the Path of Flame, which seems to
be an old, abandoned trial of some sort. Open up that treasure chest in front
of where you came in to be rewarded with a , then head to
the nearby Dragon Statue and save your game.

From here, head further in but be sure to STOP BEFORE THE JUNCTION OF THE
TUNNEL. The way that a burst of flame will caress your ninja nose instead of
suddenly engulfing your body and burning you to a crisp should tell you why
charging in wouldn't have been a great idea.

During one of the pauses, run quickly to the left and left again, rolling to
avoid the next blast of fire. Keep moving on until you come to another section
with fire flowing past - It'll be a crossroad section where the fire blows
through one way and then the next. As the first stream flows by from right to
left, prepare to roll into the section on your left as the fire ceases. You
should be able to make it in quite easily before the second jet cremates you
a little bit. Lo and behold, a awaits you here as a reward for
your bravery. collect it, and then turn around.

Once it's safe, run left towards the fire idol thing that'll blast fire at
you if you've timed it wrong, then dive to the right as you near it and into
the safety of a new tunnel. Head around the corner and excavate the contents
of this chest here for a ...
_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

...Or a bunch of yellow orbs. Hey, it makes a change from Ghost Fish spewing
out and attaching themselves to your nether regions.
____________________________________________________________________________

Once you've opened the chest, head through the new door towards that fiery
lake and it's time for another fight with an enraged mid boss. Splendid!

===================
Mid Boss: Fire Worm
===================

Look familiar? This is the scaldingly hot variation of those pesky Electric
Worms you killed off a few chapters ago.

This guy is pretty much the same as his dear, departed brethren, except for
one important thing - he shoots rings of fire at you instead of those
electric globs his pals used on you. What's more, they act differently, so
attempting to dodge them in the same way will probably get you singed and take
a nasty chunk of damage off you as a result. The ring of fire has a decent
radius on it, you see.

So, how to deal with this new and dangerous threat?

Hop. Believe it or not, all you need is a simple, quick hop straight up into
the air to avoid the firey ring of death. As he rears back, prepare to hop.
When he whips forwards and spits the ring at you, perform the hop. You'll go
straight through the hole in the centre of the ring and look like a total stud
muffin at the same time.

Other than that variation in tactics, he's insanely easy. Just roll into the
left corner nearest the lava, get your Dabilahro ready, and roll into the
corner as he swings out at you, smacking him with the Flaming Whirlwind
(forward and Y) as he leaves himself open to your counterattack.

He'll die in record time.

==================

Once our poor, pitiful friend has bitten the proverbial dust, cashed in his
proverbial chips and done a lot of proverbial and metaphorical things
associated with dying at the hands of a ninja, leap over the pit of lava
towards the safe section and pick up the big glowing object he was nice enough
to leave behind for you. Turns out that this is the Eye of Flame.

Hmm. It'll probably go well with the Eye of Ice, then.

Once you have it firmly in your grip, follow the new path around and simply
ignore the switch you come to, dropping down the ledge just past it. On your
right is a higher ledge containing a lovely little chest for you, so get up
there and boot it open to receive a .

NOW go back and use that switch. You'll notice that it turns off a wall of fire
a little further in, so from here:

1. Jump straight forward. Hitting the switch will have positioned you correctly
for this first jump so there's no need to reposition yourself first.

2. Same again, simply jump straight forward.

3. On this big ledge, head to the left and look for some swinging bars you can
jump to and swing along the way you were heading. There are two of them, so
be sure to be ready and use the second one as well without delay.

4. As soon as you jump off the second bar hold the analogue stick so that
Hayabusa runs along the wall he lands on, and then be sure to jump to the
next one and run along that.

If you've done it fast enough, you're through! If not, you can bask in the
hilarity of Ryu running straight into a wall of flame, burning himself badly
and then falling back into the pool of lava below.

You're though? Excellent! Keep going forwards and then open the door in front
of you with the Eye of Flame and you'll come out right beside the Muramasa's
shop statue. Go shopping if you like, since we're almost done with this level.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Now would be a very good time to head next door - through the door with the |
|Cog of Vigoor stuck in it, that is - and then save your game at the nearby |
|Dragon Statue. |
| |
|You never really know what the future holds in store for you, do you? |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Once you've restocked your flagging supplies, take a look across the lake from
here. You see that high up section over to the right of the lake? The one
fairly close to that... uh... lavafall? That's where we're heading next.

There are two ways to get up there - for simplicity's sake, we're going to
take the shortest route. Hit that switch on this side of the lake, then leap
onto the path that rises up from the fiery liquid. Run to the very first
corner of it, and then leap towards that higher section on our right and hold
forward. Our Ninja wonder should leap towards the wall, run up it a little bit,
and then hop up and over the lip of the ledge. Quick and easy!

The other alternative is to go to the other side of the lake and circle around
the place so that you run along the path above that swinging bar and can jump
down to the section we're now on - but why bother now, eh?

There are two thoroughly useless chunks of Iron Ore up here, so ignore them
completely - we've already finished off that particular puzzle back when we
made the Cog of Vigoor. Of more importance is the large, freaky looking door
up here adorned with a sculpture of some poor bugger missing his eyeballs.

Walk up and interact with it twice to give him the Eye of Ice and the Eye of
Flame, and the door will swing open from nothing more than the sheer gratitude
of the guy who's had his eyes returned to him once more. Aww.

You'll walk through into a large, large area called the Hall of the Flame
Dragon for some odd reason. It happens to be filled with a fairly large pit of
molten lava and a semicircular 'safe' area you can walk on as you enter.
Straight in front of you lies an important looking statue on a pedestal - so
walk on over and pick it up to obtain another of the Deity Statues. This one
is Devil, the Deity of Immortality.

========
Cutscene
========

As soon as you pick up the statue, the surface of the lava starts bubbling away
furiously and a huge Golden Dragon bursts forth from the surface and roars
away at you, breathing fire everywhere. Soon it comes in for a closer look,
and bloody hell - it's huge.

You didn't really think it was going to be that easy, did you? Tricks are
for... oh, forget it.

===================
BOSS: Golden Dragon
===================

Soon after the fight starts, the Dragon will come in close to sniff around at
you a little bit - waste no time in performing a Blade of Nirrti attack to do
some decent damage right off the bat, but try not to fall into the lava with
the final slice. That's just not cool.

So, what can we say about this Golden Dragon boss, then? First off - he's
golden. Secondly - he's a dragon. He loves to stay just out of range and pepper
you with far range attacks, coming close every once in a while to allow you a
stab or two before he retreats back out of reach. Since there's no easy way to
kill him off quickly, let us go over his attacks first.

In a manner reminiscent of the Worms you've fought up to this point, he quite
likes drawing back his head before firing fireballs off at you. If you see one
coming, start moving immediately. You can't block them at all, not even for
block damage. More are almost definitely going to follow, so keep running
until he stops spitting them at you.

Another favourite trick of his is to beat his mighty wings and send out a
shockwave at you which will knock you off your feet if it hits - and since it
covers the whole room, there's no way to hide from it. It's quite easily
identified by the screeching noise the dragon makes before performing this
move. What you need to do here is roll pretty much as soon as the 'screech'
fades out. The timing may take a moment to get, but just remember to duck and
cover and everything will be all right! If you really can't avoid it, just
block - you'll take block damage for doing so, though.

Sometimes the dragon will get all fiesty and lower his head in close before
breathing a stream of fire at you, sweeping the platform from left to right or
vice versa. Don't attack him at this point, since you'll probably just get hit
by the fire - as it approaches you, jump clean over it to the other side in
order to avoid this attack.

Finally, it loves to take a bite out of you every once in a while. There's no
real build up to the move, it'll just streak forwards and snatch you up off the
platform. If it grabs you in this fashion, start hammering the buttons on the
pad to prise open its jaws and escape from the horrific fate of becoming a
human hamburger. You still take damage, but it won't start chewing you up and
causing more harm to you. If he misses the lunge for this grab, you'll have
an excellent chance to counterattack and do some real damage.

While not a real attack, every so often it'll scream loudly and cause two
sections of the platform you're on rise up into the air - if you're on them
at the time you can ride them up to a higher set of platforms. Alternatively,
you can cause them to rise yourself by hitting the floor buttons embedded on
either section.

Other than that, what is there to say? Blade of Nirrti and Blade of the
Dragon's Tail the bugger whenever he's close enough for you to hit him. If you
have any Explosive Arrows you can fire them off at the beast, but don't bother
with any other type of ranged weapon as they'll just bounce off the hard
scales of the dragon.

Chances are that it'll take a while to kill, but eventually it'll die from
repeatedly getting stabbed and slashed in the face and throat.

Most things do, you know. Don't tell anyone I told you, though.

==================

========
Cutscene
========

The dragon dies. Shocking.

========

Now that the boss is dead, you'll notice that his corpse makes an excellent
bridge over to the other side. Leap on to his neck, run along his back and
grab the glowing object for a rather handy , and
then continue across down the tail and up onto the far end of the hall. Good
thing the boss didn't just disappear like the rest of them, eh? Otherwise you'd
never have managed to get up here - never!

Head through the door, move along a little bit and - BANG!

Chapter end.

=====================================+=======+
/Chapter 13 - 'The Fiendish Awakening'| xx13xx \
+======================================+=========+============================+
|'All events thus far have lead up to one place: the depths of the Palace of |
|Zarkhan. Will Ryu be able to discover the path inside?' |
+=============================================================================+

This level starts with a crapload of bats swinging in for a party on your juicy
ninja flesh, so kill them all in quick style. A little further along this
cavern you start out in lies another dead ninja, so check him out to get your
hands on a 'Complete Map of the Vigoorian Underground' and a sneak peek into
his personal affairs via his diary. It turns out that 'San' has discovered
that offering the lost stone tablet - which you recently rebuilt from three
seperate pieces, as coincidence would have it - to the Twin Sepents will offer
you passage into Zarkhan, then lists where the broken pieces used to lie before
you picked them up - if you missed any, shame on you.

Oh, and his last entry simply reads that he's hungry. Poor guy.

Well, on with the show! Continuing on the path we were going before, you'll
soon come across one of those handy Dragon Statue things that you can use to
save your game. Do so, then open up the chest behind it for a . Before long you'll notice that a bunch of flying wasp brains are coming
down to see what the fuss is all about. Kill them, and more take their place.

Sounds like another Sixty Fiend Battle to me!

==================================================
Sixty Fiend Challenge - Depths of the Magma Cavern
==================================================

There's not much of a problem here - the enemies will slowly float down to
your level at which point you can take them out in whichever way you feel
like killing them with.

The Art of the Inazuma's quite nice for splattering them with, as are arrows
and the Windmill Shuriken and all the rest of it.

You'll have no problem here, and the enemies drop a relatively decent amount
of Ninpo essence for you to absorb, so with the Armlet of Fortune equipped
there's a good chance you'll be able to just Inazuma through the whole lot of
them.

Once they're all dead, a chest containing a will warp
into play at the top of this section.

====================================================

So, question is, how do we proceed from here? The room's small and square, and
there seems to be no route to the top. The answer, obviously, is the wall run
technique. Keep running in a clockwise or counterclockwise around the walls of
this room and you'll steadily climb your way up to the top. If, by any chance,
the camera starts giving you a hard time at this point, just hold the analogue
stick in the same direction that Ryu's running and you'll still make it up
quite easily. Once there, grab that Talisman from the chest (assuming you did
the Sixty Fiend Challenge, that is), restock your arrow supplies from the
porcupine ninja lying over there, and then head through the door nearby.

Whoo! Back here, eh?

Continue on through the cavern as before, killing off all the enemies that
attack you on the way and head through the door at the far end - remember that
your glowing friends will attack you on the way if you're playing the Hurricane
Pack.

Once through that door, head forwards a little, then turn right and drop down
to the floor level, heading through the tunnel that starts from the base of
all these rock ledges. Replenish your Incendiary Shurikens from the ninja's
corpse when you come to it if you need to, and then head on, slashing and a
killing your way around the tunnel in front of you and going through the
wall you broke down during your last visit here.

As soon as you step out into the next section, a new cutscene will play.

========
Cutscene
========

'Where is Ryu?' demands the Dark Disciple huffily, turning his beady eyes on
the nearby Gamov.

'He's wandering somewhere around here, my excellency. Who knows what he's up
to?' You'd think as the head of information, Gamov would be a little more
interested in your progress than he is, but whatever. Our Evil Dark Disciple
chum shrugs it off.

'And what of the Dark Dragon?'

As if on cue, Gamov launches into a massive speech about how the seal's been
broken and is absorbing all the chaos of the battlefield, becoming a weapon
far more powerful than they could ever have imagined. Makes sense when the
ancients took such great measures to seal it away - by dumping it in a village
full of completely inept ninjas.

Interested by the impassioned tone that Gamov is using, the Disciple turns to
him. 'Do I detect Greed in your voice?' he asks.

'Not a chance,' lies Gamov blatantly. 'I'd rather rip out my own tongue and
feed it to some starving children than lie you you, my esteemed lord of
awesomeness.'

'Good,' the evil guy replies. 'That is wise. You will be rewarded handsomely,
I assure you.'

Classic bad guy banter. We can deduce, therefore, that this Dark Disciple
character is a villain and a knave. As the scene draws to a close and the two
of them finish their conversation, the camera pans out to reveal Ayane
standing in the shadows nearby...

========

We come back in control of Ryu at the exact same point we left him. Head left
towards the shaft at the end that leads up into the lower levels of the
Aquaducts, but remember to rid the tunnel of enemies before you reach the top.
Head out of this section through the only door you can, then go out into the
main tunnel and head left.

[Aquaduct B3]

You'll be accosted by three more purple demons here, so see then off and head
over to the main 'crossroad' point of this tunnel. Assuming we're facing the
way we first came in, left will lead to to a Dragon Statue where you can save
your game if you like, and right is the way to go. Make your choice about
whether you want to save or not, then go up the stairs currently to your right
and wall run up to the next floor. Head out into B2, then hang left - kill
everyone here, then head up the stairs to your right and out the door at the
top.

This will take you into Aquaduct B1, so kill all the purple demons out here
and head up to the door further up and go through. There's another save point
here (as well as a new infestation of bats), so do as you like and then head
up the nearby ladder which will take you back out into the streets of Tairon.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Remember, the streets are now populated by Fiend Soldiers. To make things |
|easier, getting that Dabilahro equipped might be a good idea. |
| |
|The Dragon Sword may be exceptonally handy for most enemies, but the |
|Dabilahro's huge attack radius and awesome destructive power is the perfect |
|aid for slaughtering these guys by the dozen. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Okay! From where you came out, head right of where Ryu's facing - this should
take you away from the Monastery grounds, though it can be amusing to go back
and read what that poor, pathetic Monk has written in his Diary this time.
Remember that there's a bunch of Explosive Arrows in a crate beside the train
wreck you caused nearby (through the gate near the sewers) if you need to
stock up on them for cheap.

Keep going that way until you come to the fork with the Dragon Statue to your
left, then head right and make your way down towards the Drawbridge via
Drawbridge Hill. Go all the way down, then run up and give the lever a yank.
Head across the bridge and do battle with these new enemies - very, very tough
versions of the Zombies you fought back in chapter six. If the Fiend Soldiers
look like mutated Special Forces troops, these guys are probably mutated
Army troopers.

Either way, they're not so hard to kill, they just take ages because of their
inhuman endurance. If you kill them off, a will warp
into the middle of the square and start flashing and peeping to inform you
it's there for your collection.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Those big purple zombie guys don't exist in the Hurricane Pack, by the way. |
|You'll be expected to take out three more Ogres instead, but the prize is |
|still the same. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

From here you can take any path you like to get to the Twin Serpents Plaza,
but for the sake of simplicity I'll lay out the fastest way there. Feel free
to deviate from this guide and go shopping or whatever if you feel like it.

Okay! Head through the nearby door with the single blue gem embedded in it,
then run all the way up this alley, past the (possibly open) treasure chest
and out the gate at the far end. Take a right from here, and head left up the
stairs when you get the chance. Take another left at the top, and simply follow
this twisting alley around until you come to your destination - the Twin
Serpents Plaza!

See the big statue in front of you? Go to the stone pedestal right in front of
it and insert the stone tablets you've been collecting - if you don't have
them by this point, read San's diary from your information archives in the
menu and then scoot off and collect them.

Also, did you notice how the ground in front of the pedestal is a curious
Stone Circle? Ooo!

Once the complete stone tablet has been inserted, the inscription shall read
'Offer me up before the twin-headed serpent; use me as a key to open the path.
There is another who travels the paths formed in the bowels of the Earth by
Dragons. These paths tie together far away places, making them but a few steps
away.'

See if you can guess what that means.

========
Cutscene
========

The statue kicks in to life, and starts spinning as it collects energy. A
blast of light appears underneath Ryu, and sends him flying through time and
space. The screen flashes white and...

========

He appears back in the Hayabusa Ninja Village! Isn't that convenient for us?
Why, we needed to get back here, there weren't any zeppelins available, and
BANG! We get back here without all the trouble of another airship level. It
turns out that all those mysterious stone circles were actually receptacles
for a teleportation device, which is really kind of handy.

Nice music, eh? Nice and sad, and the rain helps to convey the mournful effect
the designers were aiming for. Enough of that, though - we've a job to do.

Run up the hill, pretty much all the way to the entrance of the village, then
turn around at the top and look back. Take the slope up to the right that heads
towards the big cracked stone you found all the way back during chapter 2, then
smash the bastard open with your Dabilahro. This will reveal a for you, so use it if you like and then hop down to the lower
level.

Close to where you land will be the two walls you need to run up to reach the
window above you, so retread your steps from earlier in the game and make your
way up there, leaping through and...
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|If you're running through the game in successive play, don't drop down into |
|the warehouse below quite yet. Up here in the back left corner lies a very, |
|very tasty looking weapon for you. |
| |
|Check out the secrets section if you want to find out more about this one. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

If you're done up here or have nothing to do, jump down into the warehouse,
buy anything you like from Muramasa's shop down here, and then leave through
the back door. Steer your ninja left through the streets, past where you
killed all those horsemen that attacked you, and leap the wreckage at the end.
Save your game at the Dragon Statue if need be, then head left up the stairs
towards the graveyard. There was nothing there before, but there certainly is
now.

Something... awesome.

Once in the graveyard proper, head past all the crows lounging around on the
gravestones of the deceased and you'll trigger a cutscene.

========
Cutscene
========

Ryu stops at Kureha's grave and kneels down, lifting her softly glowing amulet
up from the stone it lies upon - it's almost a surprise that some thieving
magpies haven't just swooped down and snatched it up for their nests, but that
would be a little bit anticlimatic.

Just imagine - 'Ryu couldn't do anything in the end because some bloody
thieving magpies stole something he desperately needed. The end.'

Fortunately, it's still here and in Ryu's hands now. If you haven't guessed
already, this is what Kureha was trying to give him back while she was dying
at the end of chapter 2 - the fabled Dragon's Eye, the secret to unlocking
the full potential of the Dragon Sword.

He attaches the Dragon's Eye to the hilt of his sword, and the weapon starts
to glow a deep purple along the entire length of the blade in response.

Ominously, the Dark Dragon Blade feels what has just happened and pulses
softly in return, suspended as it is between two giant hands deep in the
depths of the Emperor's Palace back in Tairon...

=======

So, what does all that really mean? Well, it basically means that the Dragon
Sword is at full power from here on out - the attack power is up, you've gained
some new moves as a result and you now have a really cool new Ultimate
Technique for when you absorb essence into the attack, known as the 'Storm of
the Heavenly Dragon'. It looks cool, and does plenty of damage to anything
unlucky enough to be on the receiving end.

Also, you'll notice that if you had anything else equipped it'll have
automatically swapped you back over to the Dragon Sword instead. You can just
swap it right back if you like.

Well, we've got what we came for, so let's move on. Move through the last
section of the Graveyard to come to another teleporter and head on in. This
will take you to a fenced off area in the middle of nowhere - you can see it
from the small overpass leading to the Monastery (it's also quite near the
sunken ship section), but is impossible to get to without the aid of the
teleporters you created when you activated those lovely stone circles.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

While this area is completely empty in the original version of the game, in
the Hurricane Pack four chests have been placed into the corners. Two of them
contain a each, and the other two contain an infestation
of Ghost Fish ready to swarm out at you when you open them.

It seems that the safe chests and the dangerous ones shift at random, so
ready an appropriate weapon for dealing with these nasty blighters as you
open up the chests.
____________________________________________________________________________

Head on up the steps and into the next teleportation circle, and you'll be
transported over to a new section of the Magma Caverns. There's nothing in
here, though, so walk on over to the door, unlock it, and head out into a more
familiar section. You can kill or ignore the respawned enemies here, it's up
to you.

If you want to save your game, now would be the time. Head right through the
door into the Ice Cavern and save your game at the Dragon Statue that greets
you before coming back into this fiery section and taking the next teleporter
into another new area of the game.

This place looks kind of... templey, doesn't it? That may or may not be a real
word, but it seems to fit so I'm going with it. If you pull out your Strongbow
and zoom in to the top of the pyramid in the distance straight in front of you,
you'll be able to see how successful Rachel was in saving her sister without
even her Hammer to back her up.

In short, she failed. She's hanging up there as a living sacrifice to awaken
Alma to her true power. This would suck incredible amounts of ass, so run
towards the pyramid to see if we can't do something about it.

Operation 'Save Rachel' is now in effect!
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
| If you are utterly SICK IN THE HEAD, you can whip out your bow and arrow and|
| kill Rachel by shooting her in the face from afar as she dangles helplessly |
| amongst her chains. |
| |
| You rat bastard, you. I'll find out where you live, don't you worry about |
| that. |
| |
| And, fortunately, the game's instantly over if you're twisted enough to do |
| this. Serves you right. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

As you run across the grass, you may notice that there are small circular
patches that run around in a circle - once you cross the halfway point,
something rather interesting happens.

===========
CG Cutscene
===========


===========

=============================
Boss: Alma II - Alma Awakened
=============================

Oh, joy - she's back to make our lives miserable again, and looking even less
human than she was the last time. This version of Alma is widely considered to
be the easier one, but I'd probably have to disagree with that professional
opinion because I'm totally awesome.

Anyway, how does she fight?

Now that she's got lots of legs to run about with, she'll be spending a lot
more time down on the ground and getting ready to dash at you in order to
punch you clean in the face. Let's see what she can get up to now, shall we?

- As mentioned above, she'll simply run at you and attempt to punch you with
one of her claws. An excellent method for damaging her during this is to
run away and wait for her to start the attack, then ready a 'Roaring Gleam'
(the new name for the 360 twirl, hold 'Y' attack - it was the Annihilating
Gleam back then). As she comes in to punch you, release and do vast amounts
of damage to her!

The drawback is that if she doesn't do that move after all, you're at the
mercy of anything else she tries other than the new grab move she has -
while you're spinning in place, glowing fireballs could be biting chunks off
your health.

Oh, and you can still take damage from the punch, so use it with
discretion.

- She can still form a bunch of pink glowing fireballs and throw them at you.
Like before, start rolling and jumping to avoid them and try not to block
unless you have to - they'll still cause block damage and crush your guard.

- She still has a thing for chucking big pillars at you. They're the same
deal as before, so dodge them by rolling and jumping and don't block for
the same reasons as outlined above for the fireballs.

- She can now float around and charge up a rather huge fireball to shoot you
with. Don't bother blocking this either - it won't cause block damage,
it'll just smash you clean in the face as if you hadn't even tried to block
it. Jump and roll, duck and cover.

- A new move she has, given the massive tail she obtained during the first
stages of the awakening, is to run in close and scoop you up in her tail,
breaking every bone in your body before unceremoniously dumping you back
down to the ground.

To take advantage of this, run a short distance away and try to make her
run in with it - if she does, get that Roaring Gleam of yours going! You'll
go straight through the grab and tear ribbons out of her energy bar to
boot. Nice, huh?

Just don't get grabbed. The damage it does is insane.

What else? Well, the Flying Swallow will bounce off her most of the time, but
if you can catch her while she's trying a move you might hit her - or even
better, knock her back on her ass like you could when fighting her first form.

To take advantage of a knockdown, I would say that the best combination to use
is the new one you picked up when you upgraded your Dragon Sword into the
True Dragon Sword - the Blade of the Twin Dragons. Don't do it like it says in
the move list, though. Tap X, hold Y, then tap Y a few more times. It's
damaging, looks cool, and makes you feel like a stud every time you perform
it.

Watch out, though - you'll hardly ever knock her down. In fact, even hitting
with the Swallow is difficult enough, so don't rely on using it over and over
again or you'll just get hammered. I'd recommend abusing the Roaring Gleam
technique instead, but that's just me.

Another handy technique is to block her punches if she gets into a boxing
match with you and counter with a couple of slashes, block the next attack,
and repeat. Watch out for her grabbing you, but this can do a surprising
amount of damage to her in very little time.

As always, once her health bar hits zero, the fight is over!

===========
CG Cutscene
===========



===========

Way to go! Rachel's safe, Alma probably isn't, and Doku's just had another of
his nefarious schemes flushed straight down the crapper. You'd think that this
would be the perfect place to wrap things up for this chapter, but wait -
there's still work to be done, as you'll probably be able to figure out from
the businesslike manner in which our boy Ryu backflips off the newly risen
pyramid and drops into a stereotypical ninja stance.

Okay, see that massive glowing crack in the outer shell of the pyramid? The one
you can't possibly miss because it's staring you right in the face? Well, whip
out a heavy or explosive weapon and break it open for all the world to see.
With this done, venture on in and go through the door.

Get your Dabilahro back on for this bit - there's bugs in some of the rooms
waiting to be killed off in your signature bloody style. Head down to the
opposite door from where you come in and turn left, heading through the door
in front of you. Turn the corner and search the dead ninja to get your hands
on a Map of the Pyramid, then follow the stairs all the way down to the bottom.

You'll come out in a small room with an altar facing a mirror - if you check
the mirror it will mention that something seems strange about it. Take a good
look. The reflected image of the altar has two flames burning on the pedestals
beside it, but if you look at the altar as it is right now, there's no flames.

Shock! Spooky! OUTRAGEOUS!

Turn to the real altar and either cast your Art of the Inferno on the
pedestals, or shoot explosive arrows at them or whatever. A small explosion or
your fire magic will light them up, causing a to
appear across the altar. Pick it up, it would be rude not to.

Now that we're done down here, hoof it back up the stairs and turn right into
the first door you come to, right beside our decaying ninja friend. Kick open
the nearby chest for a , then go to the other side of the
room and pick up the small blue thing from the wall to gain the Tablet of
Water. Walk about two steps to the left and place it in the wall section with
the symbol of a drop of water below it. Doing this will cause a few doors to
open, another symbol to start lighting up, and a bunch of bugs to leap through
the floor and immediately lunge at your neck. You're locked in now, so kill
them off.

Once they're dead, the force field will disappear and you can leave via the
door with the water symbol at its base. Go left, then right at the door with
a newly lit up crescent moon on the surface. If you follow the path all the way
to the end, you'll find a Dragon Statue to save your game at. Do that, then
head back and go left through the door with the leaf sybol at its base. Open
the chest in the corner for a , and then go over to the
orange-red glowing symbol on the wall and grab it for the Tablet of Flame.

Go back into the previous room - straight through the newly opened door and
one room over - and place this tablet on the empty section in the wall. You
know, the one with the little flame pattern below it. This will cause the
crescent moon to become a half moon, and more bugs will appear, so do the
dirty on them and head straight back across into the other room where you
first picked up the Tablet of Flame.

Now pick up the Tablet of Leaves, which is the glowing green thing on the wall,
and head into the newly opened door behind you for another Deity Statue - this
one is the Serpent, the Deity of Creation. Now go back and place the Tablet of
Leaves into the final space for it - the one, strangely enough, with the leaf
pattern underneath it.

This will cause a few more doors to open and close, the half moon symbol to
light up into a full moon, the Pyramid will rise up some more, and the chapter
will end at last!

==============================+=======+
/Chapter 14 - 'Vengeful Spirit'| xx14xx \
+===============================+=========+===================================+
|'The fate of the sisters has been decided; They're both going to marry him. |
|Ryu now heads for the depths of Zarkhan, determined to fulfil his vengeance |
|once and for all... |
+=============================================================================+

From where you start this stage, head out the door and go right to reach the
Dragon Statue where you can save your game again if you want to. From here,
turn around and run straight ahead, curving around to the left and stopping at
that door which now proudly displays a full moon. You'll exit through the door
back out into the night air, so start legging it down the hill in front of you.
Ignore the pedestals that burst into fire as you pass - they're just there to
look cool.

You'll have a brief cutscene near the bottom with an eerily familiar blue glow
just visible on the other end of a locked gate. To go and find out what it was,
we'll need the key first. To that end, head left and through the doorway you
come to - there's a chest holding a to the right as you
go in, and there's also a Dragon Statue to save at and a statue of Muramasa
you can buy whatever you need from. Once you're set, head further in through
the corridor nearby, killing all the bats that try to attack you.

Why do they bother, exactly? Once you're ready, head into the teleporter at
the end for a cutscene.

========
Cutscene
========

You find yourself in an alternate reality known as the Fiend Realm. Sitting on
a throne far away sits one of the most powerful Fiends of all - Satan!

He welcomes you to the Hellish Depths of the Fiend Realm, and then poses to
you the most important question of all - can you defeat him?

Pshaw, obviously. We're not going to find out yet, though. He just chucks a
bunch of subordinates at you for the time being. They appear in a circle around
Hayabusa, and prepare themselves for the attack.

Idiots.

========

Depending on whether you're playing the Hurricane Pack or not, your enemies
will be purple demons for the normal game, or Fiend Soldiers for the Hurricane
Pack.

They shouldn't take too long to kill, so have a party and splatter their
useless brains around in an artistic fashion. You can't go anywhere until you
do them all in, as organic looking walls will rise up and fence you in if you
try to go anywhere else.

Once they're dead and gone, a new chest will warp into being nearby, so sing
a few praises and then amble over to it and open it up. You'll receive the
Griffin Key for your efforts, and then the teleporter you arrived in will
spring back to life. Satan boy will have to wait, it seems, so just take the
teleporter back out.

Run back to the Dragon Statue to save your game, and then head out of this
section and turn left towards the locked gate from earlier on. Unlock it with
the Griffon Key and head on through.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|It might be a good idea to equip the Art of the Fire Wheels as your Ninpo |
|and have something useful for killing Ghost Fish Equipped as your weapon. |
| |
|You're about to run into absolutely tons of the little needle teethed |
|scumbags, all waiting to strip the flesh from your bones and use your thigh |
|bone as a particularly stylish flute. Oh well. At least killing them pays |
|well... |
| |
|Secondly, from this point out until the chapter end there are no more Dragon |
|Statues for you to save your game at. If you want to save at any point, |
|you'll have to leave this section and head back to the previous one near |
|Muramasa's statue. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

[Labyrinth]

I know what you're thinking - 'Oh sweet Jesus, Mr. Forman. How in God's name
could Team Ninja be so cruel as to put a maze right at the end of an action
game? Revenge of Shinobi's last level made me pull out my eyeballs in fury
and nail them to my neighbour's front door in a juvenile act of rebellion!'

Well, the simple answer is that they didn't. This is about as simple a maze as
I've ever seen, for which I'm eternally grateful - I hate mazes too. Just head
on in, it's not as bad as you might expect.

Before long, a brief cutscene will detail what I just mentioned above - this
place is CRAWLING WITH GHOST FISH, so prepare yourself to become the object of
their attentions before long. Take a deep breath and then charge into the
middle of the little buggers, cleaving and cutting and killing them until
they're all dead. Or deader, at least.

Now, go left from where they all started attacking you from and go further in
until you liberate a from the chest at the end, and then
return here and head in the other way. Head up the stairs, and then head right
up another flight of these large blocks. Or stairs. Going left will uncover
a chest containing a , while going right will lead to the
body of yet another ninja who died on his recent excursion into Tairon.

Turns out that this guy's called Gen. We finally find out exactly why the
Spider Ninja clan has been unleashed into Tairon - they've been charged with
stealing the Dark Dragon Blade from the Emperor for their own evil deeds.

Are you ready for this? Their master wants to grind it up and use it for his
herbal tea, as Dragon's Bone is considered a delicacy of the ancient world.
What a complete and utter gimp. How he became leader of a ninja clan instead of
being, you know, drowned at birth is beyond me.

He also mentions that all his comrades have been slain... except possibly for
a friend of his named Dai, who must be hurrying to meet up with him at this
very moment with the key to the Emperor's Palace in hand. Well, at least he's
optimistic about things.

We're done here. Return to the steps and go down them, then move straight down
the path in front of you. As you head down this lane, there will be a brief
cutscene showing our favourite unholy ball of ephemeral hellfire and hate
casually strolling through a wall before heading straight through a locked
gate. Also, take note that even without his armour weighing him down it would
still take approximately three years for him to walk more than a couple of
blocks.

That Doku - such a crazy guy, even in semi-death!

There's only really one way to proceed since the door Doku just wandered
through obliviously happens to be locked, so keep going down the path until
you reach a section where a new enemy - the Crab Fiend - warps into being
amongst a bunch more Ghost Fish. If you want to finish him off quickly, equip
the Art of the Inferno and chuck a huge fireball his way.

Stroll on past the disappearing corpses of all the enemies down here, and head
on over to the chest that should be in plain sight - kick it open for a nice
selection of multicoloured essence, then run up the wall in front of you so
that you end up on the ledge above. Follow it left to another chest containing
the significantly more important Key of the Lion item, and then head back to
the gate Doku strolled through earlier and unlock it - just head back and keep
an eye on the left wall.

As you walk through, you'll see another quick cutscene of Doku wandering
aimlessly though another locked door - let's go and get the bastard.

First, go left from the door and follow the path around into a small section
containing one of the last to be found in the game. Snatch it
up and return to the door and head the other way. There's a crossroad of
sorts here - ignore the path where you came from for now, and head up the
steps nearby. At the fork turn left for a and then turn
back and head back down the steps.

Assuming you're facing away from the steps, head off to your right and take
the only path available - a whole bunch of Ghost Fish should come in and
attempt to make your life a misery for you. Kill them off, as per usual, and
wander down this lane until you come to a fork. Right leads nowhere, so turn
left and... wait! Before heading up that small set of stairs in front of you,
go left onto the grass and collect the sitting around over
there. This done, head back to the path you were following and continue left.

At the end of this lane, you'll find two paths leading off to the left. The
first one will take you to a chest containing a , so
head down there and then come back and take the other one to progress.

More Ghost Fish abound! Kill them as you find them, and then head around the
weaving section at the end until you find the chest containing the Key of the
Lioness.
_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

AAAGGGHHHHH!! ITHURTSITHURTSPULLTHEMOFFGETTHEMOFFOFMEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
____________________________________________________________________________

Key obtained, it's time to head back to that last gate Doku went through! The
directions would take too long to write, but... oh, bugger it. I'm too good to
you, I really am.

So, from the chest:

Hop down and follow the path to the right. Once you get to your first corner
after coming up the hill, head straight ahead ignoring the first path right.
As soon as you climb the steps, head right down that path and follow it all
the way along, killing all the Ghost Fish that have reappeared around here.
Once you reach the top, you're back at the crossroads!

Huzzah. Now, head back and save your game if you like, and then come back here.
From the base of the steps, look straight ahead of them and walk down the small
hill with the lit pillar at the entrance. As you come into the clearing at the
bottom you should see that last door Doku totally walked straight through in
ghost like fashion. Also, another Crab Fiend will warp in here and start trying
to kill you alongside his Ghost Fish buddies.

Dispose of them, steel yourself, and then walk through that door for a very
short cutscene of you becoming locked in with the recently appeared Doku.

=======================
Boss Fight: Spirit Doku
=======================

Man, this is almost ridiculously easy. Doku's a hell of a lot faster in this
fight now that his armour's off, but the problem for him is that he's much,
much lighter now - so light, in fact, that you can now perform the Blade of
Nirrti on him, lifting him up into the air for stupid amounts of damage.

Doku's pretty much the same as before, otherwise - so much the same, in fact,
that I'm just going to paste in the old strategy for him. He does have one new
grab move to his name, so keep an eye out for that.

His attacks are listed here for your convenience:

- He'll swing his sword at you a few times. Nothing special - but the first
swing will break your guard, so be ready to roll and recover.

- He'll spin in with a sword attack and burst into a six stroke sword combo
which hurts like hell, and of which you can only block the first stroke he
hits you with. It'll break your guard immediately, leaving you wide open for
all the remaining swipes. Needless to say, dodge until he's out of attacks
and then return a few of your own.

- He'll 'power up' for a moment from a close to medium range distance and
charge at you like Murai used to. This does substantial damage and cannot
be blocked, so keep an eye out for it and dodge when you see it coming.

Try to stay close to where he stops though - you can usually get in a few
hits before he recovers.

- He'll remove his face plate and spew fire out in front of him in a small
arc. It's one of his less dangerous moves since it's so slow, but, as
always, dodge it whenever he performs it.

- He'll 'counter' your attack by swinging around you, turning 180 degrees as
he does so, and slashing you across the back.

- He'll grab you. This generally does about half a bar of damage to you,
assuming that you've been keeping up to date with your energy bar
extensions. What's worse than this is that the longer he takes hold of you
before you break free, the more damage he does AND the more energy he
recovers for himself.

Yes, this attack actually heals him.

Since it's a grab, you can't block it - if you see him raise one of his
hands back in preperation to lunge at you, dodge immediately. And if he
does get his hands on you, hammer the buttons to break the hold as swiftly
as possible.

- The same idea as above, save for one spooky thing - his ghostly arm detaches
from his body and floats across to grab you by the throat. Scary, huh?

The throw's different too, and doesn't heal him. What it does is slash you
multiple times, impale you, and then slash you off the blade. Pretty cool,
but it's highly unlikely he'll ever actually catch you with it.

So, how best to beat him? The solution is embarassingly simple - Flying Swallow
the living hell out of him, dodging out of the way after you land, until he
keels over and dies. Even if he blocks, just keep on doing it.

That's the short, cheap way to do it.

Alternatively, get those Flails equipped and wait until he performs his charge
at you, then dodge and counterattack with Fwd+Y, Y, Y, Y before he recovers
his balance.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Well, scrap that lovely Flying Swallow method described above. You'll just
bounce off his glowing, unearthly exterior if you try to perform it on him.

Other than that, he's quite similar - only you can intercept his sword strokes
now, so be sure to do it during his six hit combo and retaliate in a
suitably painful manner that strips a chunk off his energy bar.

You CAN'T intercept his charging move, though, so don't even try - it'll just
end in bumps, bruises, sprains and tears. And possibly a large dose of death
into the bargain.

One new technique you can use if you've enhanced the Lunar up to level 3 can
be quite useful for battling him. Get in close and perform the 'Lunar
Explosion' by holding forwards and pressing Y three times. It does a good
chunk of damage, and is one of my preferred methods for twisting that lovely
armour of his into a big pile of scrap.

Oh, and the Blade of Nirrti doesn't work in this version. Them's the breaks.
____________________________________________________________________________

========
Cutscene
========

As Doku's spirit finally begins its ongoing spiral towards oblivion, he turns
towards you right before he disappears and says 'Receive the curse... become
a Fiend.'

This isn't friendly advice, mind, this is him putting the curse on you without
your consent. Hayabusa feels a sudden jolt to his body and watches his skin
briefly turn blue, back to normal, and then stay blue with white glowing veins
running along his arms. His eyes, moreover, turn blood red.

Ryu, understandably, looks a little freaked out by the change to his body. This
could prove to be rather nasty...

=======================+=======+
/Chapter 15 - 'The Core'| xx15xx \
+========================+=========+==========================================+
|'Doku's hate continues to slowly transform Ryu. Feeling the blood of the |
|Fiends pounding in his veins, Ryu stands before the gates to the source of |
|all evil, the Core of the Imperial Palace!' |
+=============================================================================+

Brilliant. You finally kill off your arch nemesis and he doesn't even have the
good grace to simply kick the bucket without unleashing some ancient curse upon
you.

As soon as this mission begins, Ghost Fish will gather around and mourn their
fallen leader - by munching you as soon as they can. Kill every single one that
appears, then climb up the hill and exit out the door that is no longer
blocked by the pillar.

Once you're outside, ransack the possessions of the dead ninja lying beside
you to obtain a Map of the Labyrinth - which you clearly don't need - and then
move over and save your game at the Dragon Statue right in front of where you
came out.

Going up the hill to your right will lead you to a treasure chest holding a
yummy , so go over and grab it if you need to - if not,
simply head left and up the hill. Before long you'll be attacked by a Crab
Fiend surrounded by a bunch of Purple Demons - kill the lot of them, then
search the edge of the area to find a chest containing a .
Get it if you need to, and continue on the way you were heading.

The path will soon narrow again, and as it does you'll be allowed to go right
across a very strange looking bridge/path that seems to twist completely
around - ignore this for now, but keep it in mind! This leads to the Emperor's
Palace, which is the last area in all Tairon that you can visit. However, the
front door is locked at present, there's not much point going there yet. As a
result, simply take the other path and head along it.

Before long, our ravenous friends will warp in and attack you again - kill them
all off, and then head up to the huge double doors blocking your path and open
them. It turns out that these doors are the ones at the top of the Stairway
to the Imperial Palace, so opening them up will mean you never have to wander
through the labyrinth again - good thing, given all the teleportation it takes
to get there. There's also a ninja lying around near the top of the steps -
dead, of course - so ruffle through his possessions to come up with the 'key'
item (ho ho) the 'Key of the Decayed Soul'.

Not only does it look disgusting, but it has a cool name to boot. Rock on!
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Once you have this key in your possession, it would be a good time to decide |
|whether you want to continue on with the rest of the game or go back and do |
|all the stuff you missed back in Tairon, such as Sixty Fiend Challenges and |
|the like. You don't HAVE to do it all now, but it would probably help a |
|little in the long run. |
| |
|I'll mention the rest of the subquests right before you hit the upcoming |
|point of no return - we'll simply carry on with the game until then. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

The Diary informs you that the dead ninja is Dai, Gen's friend. It doesn't
mention much of interest, merely that he was badly wounded obtaining the key
and sets off to meet Gen, but was ultimately stumped by the locked doors
leading to the Palace and met his fate here.

Apparently, ninjas aren't too well versed in the mystical arts of 'Ladders' or
'Grappling hooks' in the Black Spider Clan. Oh well, his loss is our gain.

Yoink! Now, head back through the doors you came through and head to that small
bridge leading to the Imperial Palace I mentioned not long ago - it's the first
turn on your left after doing away with all those pesky respawned Ghost Fish.
Try to ignore the fact that you're ignoring gravity by the end, since it's a
well known fact that ninjas can quite casually stroll along anything whilst
suspended upside down. Now, approach the doors for a small cutscene showing
off this final building and the mysterious set of doors up at the top of it...

===========================================
New Area: The Core of the Imperial Compound
===========================================

Head on in, using the Key of the Decayed soul to obtain entry. One thing to
point out here is that if you ever need to retreat and save your game, simply
head out this door and across the bridge, then head left to get to the nearest
Dragon Statue save point. You're not stuck in here, so don't be afraid to leave
the place and save if you need to.

[Imperial Palace Core 1st Floor]

After a few short steps into the room, all the doors will lock down and you'll
be accosted by a total of eight Red 'dragon' Fiends. This shouldn't be too hard
for you, so kill them all off and then head over to the pedestal in the glowing
part of the middle of the room. Interact with it to place the down the statue
of Raptor, Deity of Sentiment, which will unlock the next door out of the room.

Take it, and start heading up the steps - but watch out! There's a crapload of
Ghost Fish here, so take them all out before proceeding. There's around 28 of
the buggers, but it can vary by a couple of fish each time. Once they're dead,
head to the top and kick open the chest near the door for a which is usually quite a handy thing to have. Grab it, then head
through the door.

[Imperial Palace Core 2nd Floor]

Walk in a few steps and gasp in horror as the doors lock you in once again.
Looks like you'll have to fight your way out again, young man!

This time, we're lucky enough to be attacked by more of those Red Fiends,
backed up by their tougher 'Earth' counterparts from the Magma Caverns. Still
nothing too deadly, but remember that those Earth Fiends can do a chunk more
damage than the regular versions if they grab you.

Once they're dead, head over to the pedestal and plonk down the statue of Wolf,
Deity of Wisdom to unlock the next door. Head outside, kill all the Ghost Fish
that attack, and head up the stairs and through the next door you come to
lodged in between the huge skulls.

[Imperial Palace Core 3rd Floor]

Nice. Eyeballs everywhere. As usual, step in further to have the whole room
lock down and introduce a fresh bunch of enemies for you to kill.

Purple demons and a single Crab Fiend are the order of the day this time, so
maul them all and saunter over to yet another pedestal before placing down the
statue of Devil, Deity of Immortality. This, as always, unlocks the next door,
so head over there and go through the door to get back outside.

More Ghost Fish attack you here, so do the needful and head up the steps. Once
you reach the top, kick open the chest for another , and
then DON'T go through the door. A little further on from the door is a small
gap in the rock barrier that prevents you from falling off the sides - head
through it and fall down. You should land on a small ledge running around the
sides of the palace, so follow it around to find a wonderful treasure - the
very last there is to be found in the entire game! Isn't that
awesome?
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|Assuming you've gone and collected all 50 Golden Scarabs, you can now run off|
|and unlock the original Ninja Gaiden Trilogy! |
| |
|Please refer to the 'Secrets' section for more details on how to do so - for |
|now, we'll just continue along with our journey through hell. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//
_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Got all 50 Scarabs thus far? If so, you can go back and see Muramasa to get
your hands on a certain legendary weapon...

...what exactly is Muramasa doing with this thing, anyway?
____________________________________________________________________________

There's no way to get back up, so drop down from the ledge and head back up
the stairs, going through the 3rd floor room once more (ignore the enemies that
appear, since the door's still open from before) and head up the stairs,
killing the Ghost Fish that have respawned. Once you reach the top, head on
through the door.

[Imperial Palace Core 4th Floor]

Great, now there are unholy babies growing out of the walls. The Vigoorian
Emperor's taste in decoration and art sucks balls, I have to say.

This floor is a little tougher, unless you want to equip the Art of Inferno
and kill the enemies off easily - there's a total of four Crab Fiends in here
for you to kill, so maul them and use the next statue on the nearby pedestal,
which happens to be the Serpent, Deity of Creation. The door unlocks as per
usual, so head on through and up the stairs killing off the Ghost Fish you
encounter on the way. Once you reach the top, you'll also reach a new area.

===========================
New Area: The Gates of Hell
===========================

Awesome. We're off on a trek through Hell, it seems.

From the top of the stairs, head left around the rock pillars in the middle
of the plateau. Don't take the teleporter yet, mind - there's a Dragon Statue
beside it, so save your game there first. The treasure chest right next to it
holds yet another with which to revive your flagging
health, and a little past that lies another chest with a
inside.

The nearby pedestal mentions that 'He who wishes to pass must offer proof of
his divine acceptance', and has an image of a Demon engraved on the inscription
tablet, which can only mean one thing - time to run along and jump into that
nearby teleporter! Hop to it!

You'll be teleported into the Fiend Realm once more, with Satan idly sitting
on his throne in the background. A bunch of purple demons will appear and
start attacking you, so clear them out. As soon as you do this, that smug git
on the throne will teleport you away and dump you in a new area. A brief
cutscene ensues where he commands one of his servants, the Big Squishy Fiend
Thing you fought at the end of chapter 5 and halfway through chapter 7, to
rise from the underworld and take care of you once and for all.

===================================
Mid Boss: Big Squidgey Fiend Thing.
===================================

Again? Oh well.

If you can't kill this thing on your own by now, something's wrong somewhere.
He does take a little more damage than before, but is otherwise exactly the
same as the previous two times you fought him. Hence, I'll just cut and paste
the strategy from the first encounter you had with him:

Getting slapped is moderately painful, though generally not life threatening
unless you're low on health. Very rarely, it'll be able to grab you when it
whips you from a distance with its tentacle - I've seen it happen only once in
my hundreds of hours playing the game.

Finally, his outer skin is extremely tough - only his tentacles will take
damage until he opens up the eyes outside his skin.

So! Not much to this guy, then - he's really quite easy once you know how.

Basically, what you do is perform Flying Swallows on his 'arms' when he's not
flailing them around randomly, and after two or three passes, one of these
tentacle 'arms' will fall off and turn into essence. Do the same to the other
arm quickly, then suck in the essence it drops and unleash an Ultimate
Technique on the boss, since once both his arms fall off his eyes will open up
and you can start dishing out some real damage.

Do it twice per cycle if you can, though it might be an idea to collect the
blue essence rather than using it for a UT if you're low on health. If you
can't use essence for any reason such as collecting it for health or Ninpo, or
it disappears before you get the chance to use it, the Blade of Nirrti combo
will do considerable damage as well - assuming the eyes are open, of course.

Once it closes its eyes once again, it'll spew out fire through the top of
its body - simply avoid this attack and repeat until it dies.

---

See? It worked then, and it works now. Curiously, your 'True Dragon Gleam' move
doesn't seem so powerful on this version, so stick with the usual Ultimate
Techniques this time.

He's generally a complete wuss, so treat him like one.

===================================

Once our friend dies for the third and final time, a small teleporter will
appear in the centre of the arena. Handy, eh? We could have starved to death
out here otherwise!

If you have the Armlet of Tranquility, you can rest here a while to regain your
health. Either way, when you're ready, take the teleporter to the next area of
the Fiend Realm.

A brief cutscene will show that you've closed in on Satan, and he actually
takes notice of you this time - he remarks 'You're not as weak as I thought'
and sends more purple minions after you. As usual, they're a bit of a pushover,
but watch out for something new - Satan will start throwing fireballs at you
during the fight. As soon as you hear him laugh, start moving. You can block
them instead, but they'll cause block damage if you do and throw you off guard.

Again, once they're dead, Satan sends you off on another little teleportation
journey. Another small cutscene shows a familiar opponent being resurrected
from the dead for another chance at killing you...

=============================
Mid Boss: Ice... Sloth Thing.
=============================

Him again, eh? Well, he's no different from the last time save for taking and
dealing out more damage, so it's time for another cut and paste job!

(with the exception of one of the moves - the Blade of the Twin Dragons wasn't
available last time)

There may be better ways to beat this thing, but the following method works
fine. Equip your Dragon Sword, look at the beast in a superior way, and then
get in close and start chopping away at it. The two best combos to use are your
good old Blade of Nirrti sequence (for maximum damage) and the Blade of the
Twin Dragons (for guaranteed damage.)

That's the X, Hold Y, Y, Y move in case you forgot.

Now, our huge, ugly buddy has a couple of noteworthy attacks. The most annoying
is when he starts pounding the ground around him, since you can't damage him
at all while he's smacking away at the floor. Small circular formations will
appear under your feet as he does this, so start running - they'll soon erupt
into razor sharp fragments that don't last more than a moment, but will cut
you up pretty bad if you're above them when the bloom in their own deadly
fashion - and you'll take block damage if you try and deflect the ice, so
don't bother doing anything else than moving out of the way.

He'll also start punching away at you if you stay in front of him - huge, slow
punches that alternate between his left and right hands. They're not tough to
dodge, which is a good thing since you'll take a decent chunk of block damage
if you try and block the attacks instead.

Likewise with his ice breath - he'll rear his head back then shoot a stream of
ice at you in a straight line. Easy as hell to avoid, but don't try blocking
unless you want to take damage.

After a while, he may decide that this is all just a big mistake and try to
make friends with you by spreading his arms wide open and giving you a big hug
to make up for attacking you on sight. Don't be deceived! As soon as he has
you in his loving grasp, his primal, animalistic nature will burst through his
loving facade like the energy from a thousand exploding suns and he'll
immediately start chewing ravenously upon your face. To avoid this bittersweet
end to your friendship, roll underneath his arms and perform the Blade of the
Twin Dragons - he's crouched over wondering why you're avoiding his love, so
the Nirrti won't land every hit if you attempt it.

Other than these attacks, watch out for when he's moving around the place - he
loves to somersault and twist around the arena, and when he's hauling himself
around on his arms, he can squash you if you're ever unlucky enough to be
underneath them when they descend.

So! Now you know how he attacks, simply avoid them whenever here attempts them
and retaliate with the two combos I mentioned earlier depending on what he's
doing at the time. It shouldn't be long until you render him down into a large
chunk of frozen meat.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Pretty much the same as above, but he has some purple demons jumping around
the place helping him out and trying to annoy the hell out of you.

No need to change your strategy all that much, basically.
____________________________________________________________________________

=============

Again, once this sub-boss dies, you'll be greeted with a new teleportation
circle appearing in the middle of the arena and given a chance to rest before
continuing on your quest for justice and tons and tons of death. Once you're
ready, take the teleporter to the next area.

========
Cutscene
========

Your stubborn refusal to die, and your decision to chop his subordinates into
bite sized slices of mincemeat has finally cheesed off the big cheese himself.

'That's it!' he declares angrily as he rises from his throne. 'It's time for
me to take you on personally!'

Mwa ha ha ha... excellent. Time to show him just how much you disliked being
played around with as he cowered away just out of your reach.

Rip him a new one!

===============
Mid Boss: Satan
===============

Well, he's finally decided to stop being a wuss and try to take you out by
himself. This does not, however, mean that he's above summoning in his minions
to do their part at the same time as you're fighting him. The cheeky swine.

When he's fighting, he spends an awful long time flying around just out of
reach. Don't bother trying to take him down with arrows - it's not really a
worthwhile tactic, and only Explosive Arrows will damage him.

So! Let's list his attacks, and I'll tell you how to take advantage of them
to finally put the uptight little scumbag into a hastily dug grave.

We'll start off with his attacks from a distance.

- He'll cross his hands before holding them out in front of him, which is what
he does to summon more enemies in to attack you. This doesn't hurt you,
obviously, but it does make things more complicated since you'll then have
to deal with whoever he summons.

He can summon one enemy at a time, three enemies can be attacking you at
once, and he'll stop doing this after he's summoned a grand total of one
hundred and eight of the little buggers.

You should have him dead long before then, mind - and this does have the
rather groovy side effect of the enemies dropping essence for you to
collect.

- If he's a goodly distance away and suddenly drops down level with you, he's
probably getting ready to shoulder ram you. He flies pretty damn quickly,
so be ready to dodge!

- Every once in a while he'll hang back and throw a series of three fireballs
at you. Keep a look out for them and be sure to dodge them unless you like
the sensation of roasting hot magma cooking your flesh. Remember, they
burst into a pillar of 'flame' upon impact with the ground, so don't hang
around the area where they land for long.

HOWEVER!

This move often comes right before the next attack, assuming he's at a
reasonable distance from you, so be sure you're prepared for his follow
up - it's where you can do the most damage to him if he misses.

In Close Attacks:

- He'll take off into the sky, usually after hurling three fireballs at you,
and then streak towards you as he attempts to drill you with his wings.
This move cannot be blocked, cannot be intercepted, and hurts like hell if
he catches you with it.

That said, it's easily the best move you can have done to you, because
dodging the attack causes him to slam headfirst into the ground at a vast
rate of knots. This, thankfully, will stun the idiot so that you can get
some quality moves off on him.

Of course, you'll have to know when it's coming. If you can't see him for
any reason, keep your ears open for a 'whirling noise' as he powers up the
spin. The camera always flicks to him as he performs this move, so keep your
eyes peeled for a brief blue flash right before he comes speeding your way.
As soon as you see this flash, roll to the side and you should be completely
safe and in a great position to take advantage of him as he lies stunned.

My personal recommendation would be the Blade of the Twin Dragons,
(performed with X, hold Y, Y, Y) as he kneels on the ground, shaking his
head to clear out the cobwebs. Also, a nUltimate Technique will do the job
nicely if there's any essence floating around from defeated enemies.

Only do it once however - if you're still standing around sticking your
sword into him as he recovers, he'll grab you and swing you around for a
bit before simply bouncing you off the ground. Be sure and get out of the
way with a roll as soon as you see him draw his arm back - then immediately
perform a flying swallow to do a little bit more damage on him.

- Occasionally he'll fly above you and laugh. This signifies that he's about
to try and hammer you from above, so dodge like your life depends on it.
This is another non-blockable attack, and you can't intercept it either,
though you can get in a quick hit or two on him as he finishes the attack.

Well, that's about it for old Satan. Occasionally he'll shoulder ram you from
in close, but there's not really much else to his attack patterns. Just
remember to dodge his corkscrew attack before ripping the living hell out of
him, and you should be fine.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

No purple demons this time - just those good old Cat Fiends springing up as
he summons them.
____________________________________________________________________________

=================

Well, well, well. Taking you on personally wasn't the smartest move that Satan
ever pulled, and now he's been hacked into nothing more than vapour. As a
reward for killing him off, the fifth and final Deity Statue rises out of the
ground in the centre of the arena. Head over and pick it up to obtain the
Demon, Deity of Destruction statue. Then pull out an electric guitar and start
jamming away on it - we're almost at the end of the game!

We're done here, so take the pathways (that sort of look like tongues) to get
back to the only active teleporter available. Use it, then head off to the left
to use the Dragon Statue to save your game. Directly opposite this statue lies
the final Deity pedestal, so head on over and chuck your Demon statue on top of
it - did you notice that this statue looks exactly the same as the one in the
original Ninja Gaiden titles? No? Neither did I.

As soon as you offer up this final statue, the doors on the rock platform above
will open at last and reveal a walkway inside that is only visible by looking
through the open door - an effect that happens to be rather bloody cool,
actually.

Through this gateway to hell lies the Emperor of Vigoor, the target of your all
your vengeance, and the stolen Dark Dragon Blade that was the cause of all
this bloodshed. They're waiting for you.

_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|This is the last chance you'll have in the entire game to go and do whatever |
|it is that you haven't done. After you walk through these gates you will be |
|unable to purchase supplies, uncover items and health bar extensions, unlock |
|the original Ninja Gaiden Trilogy... you get the point. Go through these |
|gates and you're on a one way track to the end of the game. |
| |
|There's one Lives of the Thousand Gods I haven't mentioned during this |
|walkthrough, which lies near Muramasa's shop. Assuming you've just left the |
|shop, head left through the first gate, then head right at the first turn you|
|come to. In the fenced off area on the right lies a teleporter to the Sixty |
|Fiend Challenge - it's been active ever since the teleporters came online. |
| |
|Inside you'll fight a bunch of purple demons and Crab Fiends - if you've read|
|Muramasa saying something about beating them 'without a scratch', ignore him.|
|He's probably going senile, since doing that earns you nothing more than the |
|Lives of the Thousand Gods you'll get anyway. |
| |
|If you want to unlock the original Ninja Gaiden games, please refer to the |
|secrets section of this faq - it'd disturb the flow of the walkthrough if I |
|were to break off and lead you there now. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Are you ready? Then step through the gate and get cracking! Run up those
stairs!

========
Cutscene
========

As Hayabusa makes his way up the stairs, they inexplicably begin collapsing -
probably as a result of the Vigoorian Emperor hiring complete monkeys to build
his palace. Ryu wisely decides to turn around and leg it back the way he came,
but he's nowhere near fast enough - he begins to fall, then proper gravity
begins to reassert itself and he's sucked into the sky.

Odd, and curiously timed. A coincidence? I think not.

===========
CG Cutscene
===========

Ryu finds himself falling swiftly through wispy patches of clouds. As he comes
closer to earth, he soon plummets into a field of brightly coloured flowers. A
huge stone statue of an angel sits in the distance, and after a short spell of
rolling around aimlessly in the meadow our hero gets up and stares curiously at
the odd stone behemoth. He notices that the head is floating above the
shoulders, and goes to take a closer look.

A few steps towards it and he stops, suddenly noticing that the Dark Dragon
Blade is suspended in thin air above the statue. A great light flares in its
chest and it slowly rises to its full height, burning the flowers in the meadow
to cinders using nothing more than the powerful waves of its presence. The
earth begins to crack around the statue, sending bursts of flame and dirt
rocketing up into the air.

Knowing that chopping at the feet of the statue would be a futile task, Ryu
chants a few choice ninja phrases and then spins in a circle, cutting a section
of rock out from underneath him with the power from his hands - power that
obviously comes simply from being a ninja. He uses this previously unmentioned
skill to levitate the rock, presumably so that he'll be able to get in at the
bastard's eyes and then stab them out in his righteous, furious vengeance.

He takes a moment to test his footing on this new platform and then closes in
for the kill, drawing his sword as he does so.

===========

==============================
Boss Fight: The Vigoor Emperor
==============================

There's something different about this boss fight. The fact that the Emperor is
big enough to dwarf a small planet is part of it, and the other main change is
that Ryu is floating around, orbiting the boss on that rock he stole during
the last cutscene.

The controls for this boss fight have changed rather a bit as a result.
Basically, up on the analogue stick closes you in on the Emperor, left and
right go... well, left and right, and down creates some distance between you
and the boss. All other controls are the same.

So how do you raise and lower your height relative to the Emperor? Simple! Just
hold down the left trigger as you press up and down, and you'll start ascending
and descending on demand.

Don't worry about blocking during this fight, either. Every attack he has will
mash you if it connects. Jumping isn't much help, either - if by any chance
you leap off your rock or are otherwise dislodged from it and fall into the
lava below, you'l automatically teleport back onto it. Handy, that.

He has three weak points for you to target - when attacking, go for both his
shoulders and his strangely shaped chest. He's supposed to actually be a 'he',
right? Or is 'he' a 'she'?

Anyway! What attacks does our gargartuan friend possess? Not many, it has to be
said...

- If you hang around too close to him, he'll simply do what most people would
do and punch you square in the face.

- Other than that, he'll send up a bunch of lasers to swirl about and attempt
to render you down into a pile of sizzling dog meat. Hold the left trigger
down and sway in and out of then, attacking his weak points.

Keep your spells handy here - you're invincible as you cast them, so it's
a good way to stop Ryu from getting blasted off his rock.

The easiest way I've found to take him out - and I don't care if he has a pair
of breasts, 'Emperor' is a masculine term - is to get in close to either one
of his shoulders or chest, perform a powerful combo such as the Blade of the
Twin Dragons rpeatedly, and release a dose of your Inferno Ninpo as soon as the
lasers close in on you. They'll pass right through you, and the spell does
absolutely tons of damage to the big guy when you release it.

Once both his shoulders and his chest have been destroyed, the fight is over!

========
Cutscene
========

The Vigoor Emperor isn't having a great time of it - his huge, angelic body
starts falling apart right before his head topples from his torso and plunges
into the lava in truly comedic fashion.

Ryu lands on a safe patch of rock amongst the magma, and as the Emperor sinks
slowly out of sight his body begins returning to normal. Life isn't that easy
though - there's a pulse of light during which he suddenly staggers, and the
curse starts taking over his body once again.

'Enough of this. Your insignificant life ends here,' cries the Emperor as he
re-emerges from the lava, his body having inexplicably changed into a form
held together with huge, bony Skulls.

Ryu then suddenly pulls the most out of place pose in the entire game (RYU
SMASH! GRARGH!), and the fight for bloody, lethal justice continues!

Rock on!

========================================
Boss Fight: The Vigoor Emperor (Stage 2)
========================================

Hey, you got all your health restored. Neat! Shame about the Ninpo...

This boss fight is a lot more standard than the preceding one was. Taking place
in what looks like the bottom of a Volcano, you'll have to watch your step
while fighting this new form of the Emperor. Falling in won't kill you
instantly, but it will damage you a fair bit - picture the damage the lava did
during your romp through the Magma Caverns and you'll have a fair idea of what
to expect.

Now, during this fight the Emperor will be cavorting in the lava, just sort of
swimming around. He'll occasionally hop onto the platform so you can get at him
with melee weapons, but since your ranged weapons are so effective, you don't
really need to wait for him to come close to dish out the damage to his
cretinous features.

So, here's his attacks!

- His main attack is throwing skulls at you. If you have Ninpo handy, and you
should do, light up the Art of the Inferno to crush the skulls as they
strike you. Since his whole body is a mass of skulls, destroying them as
they hit you will directly damage the Emperor.

If you have no Ninpo, dodge like hell as the skulls swarm around you. You
can break them with your sword if you need to, but staying safe isn't a bad
idea either.

As the skull storm intensifies, the main head will slowly descend towards
you, picking up speed as it nears. Get the hell out of the way before it
reaches you, or it'll use our daring ninja as a common chew toy.

Once the head retreats, the storm abates. Start sticking the swine with
whatever you have at hand.

- When he jumps onto your platform, take care not to get squashed.

As I mentioned earlier, most projectiles will do you the world of good. The
best one you can use would have to be the Exposive Arrows, since they can take
out a group of those skulls at once, but the alternative arrows you have
aren't bad for this guy, either.

Putting arrows into his head does more damage - the main head, that is, the
horned one floating slightly ahead of the body - but attacking the body gives
you the chance to kill more skulls at once, upping the damage quotient
exponentially. The choice is up to you, though the body is a far easier target
to hit do to the size of it.

The Incendiary Shurikens do good damage to the Emperor, too, which puts them
on a more or less even footing with the Strongbow. You pays your money and you
makes your choice!

Finally, if you run completely out of ranged weapons to attack with, wait or
he gets in close and start relentlessly hammering into him with the Blade of
Nirrti. All things said and done, you shoudn't find him too hard to dispose of.

Once his energy is gone, so too is the Emperor - for real this time.

========
Cutscene
========

As the Emperor's body is finally destroyed, Ryu lands on a nearby slab of rock
and watches as the Emperor slowly sinks into the lava. The Volcano isn't in
particularly good shape, either - the whole place seems to be collapsing in on
itself, with jagged rocks breaking free of the ceiling and crashing down into
the depths below.

Lifting his head, Ryu spots the Dark Dragon Blade embedded in the rock of a
distant platform, shimmering away to itself with its own evil power.

Better go pick it up in case some poor kids cut themselves on the thing, eh?

====================================+=======+
/Chapter 16 - 'The Dark Dragon Blade'| xx16xx \
+=====================================+=========+=============================+
|'Ryu has defeated the evil Vigoor Emperor, and the Dark Dragon Blade is out |
|of the reach of the Fiends. Now, Ryu must quickly escape the depths before |
|the cavern comes crashing down on him!' |
+=============================================================================+

Well, we've finally made it all the way to the last chapter of the game. Feels
good, doesn't it? Yeah, it feels damn good!

Don't dislocate your arm trying to pat yourself on the back quite yet though -
it's not over, and the fat lady hasn't sung. Now that the Vigoorian Emperor
has been ruthlessly broiled alive in the murky depths of this volcano, it's
about time to get Hayabusa out of here so that he doesn't follow suit.

The first thing to do is boogie on over to the nearby Dragon Statue to save
your game - choose another save slot if you're out of healing items, since
there's no shops nearby. That might be a good thing considering all the chunks
of rock falling from the skies and threatening to bounce off your ninja noggin.

Some platforming coming up, so from the statue...

Head left and jump across the gap onto the next growth of rock sticking out of
the lava, then jump right and wall run up the rock face. Hayabusa will grab
onto the lip of the platform if you don't clear it right away, so be a dear
and haul him up then head left, hopping up onto the next ledge.

Steer him into the cleft between the two rock faces, and wall jump all the way
to the top. Another section of rock awaits to the right of the section you land
on, so jump onto the first part and then jump and wall run up the next. From
here there's one more ledge to run up the side of, and you'll land on a plateau
holding the object of all our desires - the Dark Dragon Blade. There's nowhere
to go from here but down, so pick it up!

========
Cutscene
========

Ryu reaches out and pulls the Dark Dragon Blade free of the earth, causing a
large pillar of stone to sink further into the lava as he lifts it up in front
of him. He looks sorrowful for a moment, and possibly resigns himself to the
idea that he'll die down here... when all of a sudden he senses someone nearby
and looks up towards the ceiling.

It's Rachel! And she's calling for him!

========

Ha, didn't think there was any way out of this one, did you?

Fortunately, dear, sweet Rachel has cottoned on to the fact that you're in a
pretty sticky situation and has therefore tracked you down in order to help you
escape. The length of her grappling hook isn't limitless, however, so she's
hanging around the mouth of the volcano and waiting for you to hightail it up
close enough to her to allow you both to escape.

_________
______/IMPORTANT\___________________________________________________________
| \\
|One other thing to keep in mind - with the recent demise of the Vigoor |
|Emperor and having reclaimed the Dark Dragon Blade, the whole place has |
|started to fall apart. Which, naturally, means|that you're now on a strict |
|time limit before you go and get yourself buried alive in rivers of molten |
|magma or crushed by falling rocks. |
| |
|If you take too long in escaping, you'll be treated to a cutscene showing |
|Hayabusa plunging towards a painful, fiery death. |
| |
|So what are you wasting time reading this for? RUN, DAMMIT! |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Chances are, you'll die during your first few attempts at this section - it's
a platforming challenge, and one against the clock at that, and since there's
been little opportunity up to this point to become Uber Leet(tm) at scaling
high walls without falling to your death it can be quite tricky the first few
times you attempt it.

About the best advice I can give is not to fall in - it may sound like I'm
being cheeky, but you probably won't have enough time to climb back up to the
top if you fall back into the lava at the bottom of the stage. Being fast is
important, yes, but it doesn't mean that you should forget to be accurate -
take the time to line up your jumps with the right trigger and right analogue
stick if you need to.

So, from the very place you retrieved the Dark Dragon Blade from...

1. Go right onto the rock platform that dropped down during the previous
cutscene. There are two ledges, and you have to make your way up to the top,
so do so. Vertical wall runs will be necessary.

2. From the top, looking left, you should see some strange clawlike 'branches'
sticking out of the nearby cliff face on your right. Swing across the three
of them and then run across the wall to get to the next platform.

3. Across the next gap lies another 'branch' - swing across it and leap to the
next ledge. The ledge leads nowhere, so follow it to the end and then run
up the wall beside you on your right to get up to a higher platform.

4. Again, run up the wall in front of you. Hayabusa will grab onto the ledge,
so shimmy left and get him up on top of the platform at the earliest
opportunity.

_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|No matter how blindingly fast you are at this section, a small cutscene will |
|play showing Ryu looking at the rocks collapsing around him by the time you |
|get up here. |
| |
|This is a friendly reminder that you're on a strict time limit during this |
|section, nothing more. Watch out though, you only get one... if another |
|cutscene happens to trigger at any point, it's simply to inform you that |
|you're dead. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

5. Having hauled yourself up, run left and jump the gap leading onto the next
stone platform. Run along it, climb up onto the higher section halfway
across, then run to the end and jump onto the next platform, wall running
up the side so that you flip over onto the ledge.

6. Run left along the platform here, but STOP at the edge. No matter how rushed
you are, it would be a good idea to use the right analogue stick to look
down in front of you so that you can see where you should be jumping to.
Once you have the small section of rock below you lined up, jump down to it
and then use the higher section of it to wall run up onto the next ledge.

7. Circle around this platform to the left and make a beeline towards the
waiting arms of Rachel, like any real man would do.

========
Cutscene
========

Rachel calls out Ryu's name again, as if he might have somehow made his way up
there whilst remaining completely oblivious of her presence. He sizes up the
distance between the two of them and then launches himself off the platform at
her, leaping majestically across the lava.

Their hands smack triumphantly together, but there's a problem - the added
weight causes Rachel's grappling hook line to snap, and they both plummet to
their deaths. An ignonimous end if ever there was one.

Oh, okay, I'm speaking crap. Rachel saves the day, and starts winding up her
grappling hook as the cavern beneath then starts to collapse in on itself.

Hooray for Rachel! I knew she was in the game to do more than just generally
act completely awesome and get rescued by our ninja hero repeatedly.

===========
CG Cutscene
===========

Hayabusa clings on to two of the most precious things in the game as Rachel
whisks him out of the collapsing volcano via her uber-handy grappling hook. A
stream of dust and air catches up with them as they near the exit, however,
and it sends the Dark Dragon Blade spinning out of Ryu's grasp and into the
air.

As it turns out, someone was waiting outside the volcano for this moment - two
someones, in fact. It lands right beside the Dark Disciple and Gamov, at the
same time Hayabusa and Rachel are struggling to climb out of the collapsed
remnants of the volcano.

'Ah, Ryu. I expected nothing less,' says the Dark Disciple, closing in on our
struggling hero. 'However, the power of the Dark Dragon is wasted on you.'

Gamov cuts in at this point, offering his own thoughts on the situation. 'Don't
you see?' he squeals excitedly. 'The Dark Dragon is now truly an evil blade!
His excellency, the Dark Disciple has been waiting for this very moment!'

The Dark Disciple is pleased. 'You've done well, Gamov,' he tells his
subordinate, right before pulling villainous bastard technique number three on
him - spinning on the spot and lopping off Gamov's head and right arm. Gamov
collapses, as you may very well expect him to after what just happened, and his
body disintegrates rapidly as he falls away from the blade.

Ryu slowly pulls Rachel behind him as this happens, clearing the way for an
attack and getting Rachel out of immminent danger. The Dark Dusciple,
meanwhile, reaches up to his mask and removes it. It turns out that it was
Murai all along!

Yeah, like I didn't guess that when he started going on about the nature and
pursuit of power all the way back in chapter one. Still, it might surprise
somebody, I guess.

'The Dark Dragon is mine!' Murai declares as his body rapidly changes into a
demonic form and he shatters the mask by crushing it slowly in one hand. 'No
objections, I presume?'

Cheeky bugger. Let's show him just how much we object to his absurd notion -
by killing him dead! As dead as a freshly squeezed grape! Ahahaha!

=======================
Boss: The Dark Disciple
=======================

For the last boss in such a tough game, Murai really is a complete pushover.
If you're not playing through the Hurricane Pack, you can simply Flying Swallow
him until he's dead. It's that easy, and honestly requires no further
explanation at all.

Oh, to hell with it. Here are his attacks if you're interested in them at all.
I won't go into too much detail, mainly because the fight is quick and easy.

- He'll teleport out of sight and appear again in mid air, throwing a ton of
shuriken at you at once. Dodging them isn't difficult.

- He can summon a bunch of shuriken to orbit his body, and he'll throw them
at you one at a time. They're quite easy to avoid.

- He can somersault backwards and then spring at you, the speed of the attack
causing his body to blur. You can block this no problem.

- He can jump into the air and perform a downward slash. Oooo!

- Multiple slashes, baby. If you need to block, dodge after you block the
first attack to prevent the blockstun from getting you hit by the following
attacks.

- He'll follow up a quick slash by leaping into the air and twisting into
another slash. It's really easy to avoid.

- He can go still for a moment, powering up yet another unblockable charge
and slash. You should be well acquainted with this technique by now, so
watch out for it and dodge as necessary.

- He'll grab you, impale you with the sword, and slam you down on the ground.
Needless to say, this rather hurts.

- He'll grab you, then throw you into the sky. As you rise like some sort of
glorious comet, he teleports above you and simply slashes you back down to
the ground. As you may expect, this one hurts as well.

- There will be a quick cutscene of him teleporting to a distant rock and
summoning a Black Dragon - his equivalent of Ninpo. It'll swirl around him
for a moment, and then the camera will get back to you so that you can dodge
it. It's insanely easy to avoid, it has to be said - I've only ever been hit
by it when I deliberately tried to get in its way.

It's not an instant death attack, despite what you may have heard about it.
In fact, it only does about half a bar's worth of damage. In short, don't
worry about it.

_______________________
___/Hurricane Pack Madness!\________________________________________________

Oh, so you ARE playing the Hurricane Pack, eh? Well, he's a different
kettle of Ninja now, my fine young friend.

First off, the Flying Swallow technique can be scrapped right away - it
doesn't work on him anymore, and you'll just bounce off harmlessly if you
try to do so.

What you'll have to do here is intercept his attacks, return a few quick
slashes his way, and then intercept again. If he tries to grab you, roll
away. If he tries to slash you, intercept. If he breaks out the Dragon
Blade Ninpo, just laugh at him as the magical attack sails harmlessly by.

He's definitely tougher than he is in the normal game - that goes without
saying - but you still shouldn't have too hard a time against him so long as
you have at least a few health elixers you can use whenever Hayabusa takes a
whallop from him.

Keep mauling him and it'll be over before you know it.
____________________________________________________________________________

===========
CG Cutscene
===========

Murai, defeated like the total waste of space he is, staggers back from Ryu
coughing up blood all over the place. He backs up to the edge of the volcano
and promptly falls in - creating one of those 'oh, he might not really be dead
after all' endings people love to argue over. He looks pretty dead to me, but
we'll see.

The true cause of all this grief, meanwhile, lies at Ryu's feet - the Dark
Dragon blade lies ready for collection at long last. Hayabusa doesn't really
feel like taking it home though - in much the same way as you can only
tolerate so much mischief from your kids before selling them into slavery,
Ryu's had it up to the teeth with the Dark Dragon Blade. He flicks it into the
air with one foot, then strikes it with the True Dragon Sword, shattering it
into tiny pieces and probably unleashing some sort of curse on the world for
the sequel.

The camera then pans back to reveal Rachel's backside as she watches him finish
off the cause of all our trouble, then shows that Ayane is watching over the
proceedings as well. She gets bored and leaves rather quickly however, or
perhaps she just feels like giving Ryu and Rachel some time together alone.

Much sexual tension ensues as they stare longingly into the eyes of one
another and then...

...Ryu, blessed with the endurance and self sacrifice that only a ninja could
ever possess - or perhaps being the thickest son of a bitch ever created -
somehow manages to resist her charms, rudely tells her that 'it's over' and
promptly spreads his arms and turns into a beam of light before flying away,
shadowed by an ephemeral falcon.

No, seriously. That's what really happens.

Damn you, Hayabusa. Get with the program.

The credits then roll, and you've finished Ninja Gaiden! Congratulations, You
now officially kick ass!

Be sure to watch them through to the end for one final scene with Ryu returning
to Kureha's grave for yet another touching, if somewhat brainless gesture.

_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

3. Hurricane Pack 2 Guide.
_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

And now, he must return to the very heart of darkness to fight for the greatest
prize of all.

Rachel. Encased in Carbonite.

---------------------

More than anything, really, this guide is to let you know what type of enemies
you'll be up against and a few vague suggestions as to how to beat them.

---------------------

Phase 1:
--------

========
Cutscene
========

One of a very limited number of cutscenes in this edition of Ninja Gaiden, it
stars Rachel doing what she does best - cracking the skulls of Fiends and
looking good doing it.

You may notice that these are new enemies that she's killing off, but Rachel's
mauling them all anyway - right up until the point that a few new enemies warp
in behind her. She turns to face them, and... it's a new, cybernetic Alma!
Worse than that, even, there's an unknown enemy right beside her with little
time for dressing herself, and even less for standing around not killing
things.

The short, sad end to the story is that she whips Rachel across the face with
her magnificent whip arm - one of her arms just so happens to be a whip,
incidentally - and Rachel immediately collapses with the camera showing a
cheeky 'through the legs' shot as she does so.

Man, they never miss a chance, do they? Oh well. Time to go off and save
Rachel once again!

========

Your mission begins here, in the depths of the Emperor's Palace. If you've
finished the normal game - and you should have, since this place will probably
chew you up and spit you out otherwise - you'll recognise this as the very
first floor after you first entered the Palace from the outside.

Floor 1:
--------

In this area you will be attacked right off the bat by some familiar enemies,
Black Spider Clan Ninjas and those White Greater Ninjas. As in the original
version of the Hurricane Pack, the Black Ninjas are able to grab you if you
stand around blocking too long, so don't give them an opportunity to do so.

These guys shouldn't pose much of a problem - if they do cause you untold
levels of grief, go off and train in the mountains for a while. It only gets
harder from here on out.

Head out through the only door you can, and collect the kunai that smacks into
the bannister beside you as you enter the outside area - this one merely
mentions that holding down different buttons as you start the game can change
your costume.
_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|It'll soon become apparent that the Hurricane Pack 2 hasn't had quite the |
|same care and attention placed on checking for spelling and grammar |
|mistakes. |
| |
|'Ninja has to be careful about his personal appearance' indeed. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Head up the stairs beside you and climb to the top, passing the door on the
way and kicking open the chest for some lovely little Incendiary Shuriken with
which to devastate your foes. Head back a little and another kunai message
comes swooping in, so walk over and pick it up. This one mentions that your
projectile weapons don't have a limit on them in this Hurricane Pack, so you
can throw them out all day and you'll never run out of ammo.

So, as the scroll tells you to, simply 'use them until you get satisfied!' and
then head through the nearby door.

Floor 2:
--------

As soon as you enter, you'll meet your first batch of new bad guys - the Shadow
Ninjas. These enemies are a lot like the Spider Clan Ninjas, but they take a
lot more damage and don't have any Incendiary Shuriken. That probably sounds
quite nice until they all start hurling their Windmill Shurikens at you
instead.

As usual, get the buggers on the ground and Fiend Seal them until they die, or
bust out an Izuna Drop on them and watch their neck snap quite spectacularly
on impact with the floor. Don't forget to intercept their attacks in order to
set you up for your own, and remember that tapping 'Y' after an intercept will
perform an instant UT - which these Shadow Ninjas will survive, but it'll still
hurt them a fair bit.

Oh, and get this - sometimes they can survive even the Izuna Drop, making them
the only enemy in the whole game able to do so.

Once they're dead, pick up the glowing, beeping Windmill Shuriken they dropped
and head out the door to the outside section again. There's nothing on the
outside this time, so just climb the stairs to the top and head through the
door.

Floor 3:
--------

Break time! There's only a small cloud of bats to do away with in here, and
then you're free to leave through the next door.

Run up the stairs, but don't enter the door quite yet - that chest located
directly in front of it contains the ninpo, so be sure
to snatch it up. Now, head up past that door behind you and fall through the
small gap in the rocks that are there to help prevent you from falling off the
side. You'll land on a small, handy ledge that weaves around the side of the
Palace towards another chest containing an immensely handy .

Be sure to collect it! Once you have it in your possession, drop down and run
all the way back up to the chest that held the Art of the Fire Wheels - there
won't be any repeated fights on the way back, so don't worry - and take a deep
breath before finally heading through that door.

Floor 4:
--------

More Ninjas await you on this floor, along with a couple of mages.

Generally, the Ninjas (both Spider Clan and Shadow) will rush in at you and
attempt to hack your legs off while the mages will float around out of reach
and hurl massive barrages of fireballs at you whilst you're otherwise engaged.

Getting the mages out of the way first might be a very good idea, but watch
for sneak attacks by the ninjas. Izuna drop them if they get too close, since
it does the most damage and is relatively safe - the Fiend Sealer good as well,
but may sometimes be too slow if other enemies are attacking.

Ah, and pinning the mage with an Incendiary Shuriken is instant death for him
if you can get a shot off.

Once these guys are buried, head out the door and climb the stairs to come out
at the top of the Imperial Palace. Head right and you'll be able to open a
chest containing an , and a little further on lies
a chest containing the Strongbow. Don't miss it!

If you climb up to where the path in the original game led to the Vigoor
Emperor, you'll find that the doors have been sealed and a treasure chest lies
in front of them. It's stuffed full of legions of bats, but you might want to
open it up for the extra essence they provide. If you decide to do this, you'll
have to deal with four swarms of them - pretty easy, but make sure you can
take a bite or two before opening it up. It's a stupid place to die.

Once we're ready, step through the big shining teleporter beam for a small
cutscene.

========
Cutscene
========

After stepping through the teleporter, Ryu finds himself once again in the
bowels of Hell. A brief look around reveals that he's stuck inside a very small
area, and - more importantly - Rachel is stuck inside a huge block of carbonite
and suspended several meters off the ground.

As he considers this information, two horsemen come in out of nowhere and
attack.

======================
Boss: Samurai Horseman
======================

This guy is the same as the Chapter 2 boss from the original game with a few
subtle differences. First off, there are no mages flying around trying to make
your life hell for you, though there is one bowman riding around firing off
shots at you. Whip out your Strongbow and shoot him when it's safe to - he
dies quickly, and it's easier to deal with the main guy when you're not
catching an arrow in the face every once in a while.

As before, block as soon as the boss charges you to avoid being speared, and
then start peppering him with shots from your bow. Do it. Make him resemble a
living pin cushion, though he's not going to be away for long - the arena's
rather small, so he'll turn around in fairly quick fashion and charge at you
again. Rinse, repeat.

After you do enough damage with the bow, the next difference between this
version of the boss and the old version will make itself apparent - the clumsy
sod falls off his horse and attacks you on foot like a regular horseman.

There's not much to say about this form of him. He takes a lot more damage
than a normal samurai, but doesn't have much in the way of new tricks to
impress and astound you with. If you knock him down, and this includes when
he first falls from his trusty steed, run over and start hitting him with
Fiend Sealers until he regains his footing to do some decent damage to him.

The Izuna Drop also works a treat on him, but a word of warning - don't get
hit. He's got a very nasty two hot combo where one slash sends you up into the
air and the other smacks you across the room, taking a hideous amount of health
off you.

He takes a pummeling, and doesn't have a health bar, so just keep mauling him
until he dies. You'll know when this happens, because he dies.

====================

First off, head on over and collect the that the
boss dropped, and not that Rachel's Warhammer is lying around on the floor
somewhere around here, assuming you didn't pick it up during the boss fight.
Be sure to get your hands on it.

You'll have noticed during the boss' death that some new objects have landed
in the arena - there's a Dragon Statue with which to save your game, a
Muramasa's Shop Statue where you can go over and buy lots of cool and
interesting things - and a big, mysterious switch in the middle of the arena.

Whatever you do, don't press that bloody switch first. That's actually what
you hit when you want to continue onto the next phase of the Hurricane Pack 2,
and doing so before you save, restock or upgrade our boy Hayabusa can have
alarmingly fatal consequences.

So! Go save, go shop, then go hit that big button with a downward attack.

_____
/NOTE!\_____________________________________________________________________
| \\
|There's nowhere else to go in the HP2, so from here on out, I'll simply be |
|describing each wave of enemies as it comes and offering advice on how to |
|kill them off. |
| |
|Oh, and while Rachel may be encased in carbonite, she's not bullet proof. |
|If you shoot her with a bow and arrow - you bastard - she promptly dies and |
|you get a nice little 'Game Over' for your trouble. |
|____________________________________________________________________________//

Phase 2:
========

As soon as you hit that button mentioned previously, the first wave of enemies
will teleport in.

Wave 1:
-------

Your first wave of bad guys consists of a full squad of Vigoorian Special
Forces guards. There's the normal ones, the commanders and the grenadiers, and
they all attack at once with more teleporting in as you kill them off.

This shouldn't be too hard for you to get through. Just keep on killing.

Total enemies: 8.

Wave 2:
-------

This wave is comprised of both types of the Army Troopers - machine gunners
and rocket troops. There's a bunch of them, so keep slashing and slaying until
you're done. You've handled worse, but watch out for the gunners grabbing you.
The swines can often go right through your attacks to grab you by the throat
and lavish you with punishment.

Total enemies: 7.

Wave 3:
-------

Now, we've an interesting bunch of bad guys for you here. Four Rocket Troopers
and nothing else at all.

Don't block, whatever you do - they tend to fire simultaneously and since
one rocket alone is enough to break your guard, four is enough to break your
body.

There's a bunch of methods you could use - the Dabilahro and left over essence
is a good option, as is simply never staying in the same spot for more than
the briefest of moments. Use attacks that don't require you to stay grounded
in the same place, and basically don't allow yourself to become a target or
you'll get bounced around like a rubber ball from rocket to rocket.

Total Enemies: 4.

Wave 4:
-------

Ah, getting a little tougher now. This wave is basically every enemy you've
come across in this phase so far, only now they're armoured and look a lot
more intimidating. Shurikens won't work on them, remember.

Word to the wise - don't Flying Swallow the armoured Army Machine Gun Troopers.
They have a nasty little counter that will hit you each and every time you
attempt it, and that means you will definitely lose life every time you Flying
Swallow.

Total Enemies: 9.

Wave 5:
-------

Four Armoured Rocket Troopers. This is more or less the same as Wave 3, so
treat it in exactly the same way. The armour doesn't really make them that much
harder unless you love your shurikens.

Total Enemies: 4.

Interlude:
----------

After finishing off Wave 5 of the enemies, a chest will warp in and demand your
attention. You have to open it to continue, so boot it open, grab the tucked away inside, and then prepare for the boss fight of this
phase.

Boss Fight: Dynamo
==================

Ah, the portly menace has come back for more, has he?

Well, this time he's brought along a few of his friends for company - during
this fight you'll also be butting heads with those bog standard Special Forces
types. They're not much to worry about, but try not to get shot in the back
as you face the big cybernetic dough ball.

To be honest, the involvement of the Special Forces troops makes this fight
even easier than usual. Kill them off and you'll be rewarded with essence.
Use this essence in your attacks and you can do absolutely tons of damage to
the big tub of lard, killing him off in record time.

Moreover, he's got no new attacks to watch out for, and his pals will keel over
and kick the bucket as soon as you defeat him so you don't even have to worry
about a cheeky throat-slitting episode once he's been chopped into tinned meat.

Basically, he's dead simple. Or simply dead by the time you get done with him.

==================

Once you've killed off Dynamo, two chests and a crapload of yellow essence will
appear. Suck in that essence for making your upcoming purchases with, young
ninja!

Now, kick open the chest on the left to get your hands on some good old APFSDS
Cores for your Strongbow, then boot open the one on the right to get some
Explosive Arrows. You probably suspected as much, right?

As soon as you collect the arrows from both chests, it's the end of Phase 2!
Make sure to save at the Dragon Statue and visit the shop before hitting the
switch - being forced into doing it all again if you die isn't the fastest way
to finish the Hurricane Pack 2, you know.

Phase 3:
========

Wave 1:
-------

If you can't do this one, I've no idea how you got here. A mere three Red
Dinosaur Fiends stand in your way - kill them with your Blade of Nirrti or
Dabilahro techniques, and don't get munched. Collect any blue essence if you
need the health and... well, just kill them.

Total Enemies: 3.

Wave 2:
-------

Ah, things are getting a little more serious. For this wave you'll be fighting
three different enemy types - brown demons, Reapers and a couple more Red Dino
Fiends. Keep moving, and if you're good at intercepting, use it to instantly
execute UT attacks from the essence of dead enemies.

It's not as hard as it might seem. The Dinosaurs tend to do their own thing
while the demons are attacking, and the Reapers' spells are very easy to spot,
allowing you more than ample time to dodge away from them.

Total Enemies: 13.

Wave 3:
-------

A lot of bugs await you here, my friend. Whip out the Dabilahro and shower them
with plenty of Ultimate Attacks to score an easy win. If you want money, be
sure to collect most of the essence - but remember to save a few orbs - between
your UT's.

Total Enemies: 30.

==================================
Mid Boss: Big Squidgey Fiend Thing
==================================

GYRAGH! NOT AGAIN!

What to do here is simple. Chop off his arms and kill him. You'll likely have
done this three times before, anyway, so if you don't know what to do by now.

Sorry. This guy's repeat performances make me lose my mind at times. He's also
got a few brown demon buddies helping him out, but they've really no chance
of stopping your rampage if you've managed to get this far by yourself.

Remember to use the Annihilating Gleam (or even the weaker variants) with the
Dragon Sword and you'll chop him into bits in no time. After killing him off,
you'll be treated to a spattering of yellow essence and a will appear on the ground nearby.

==================================

Interlude:
----------

A chest will appear which holds the Kitetsu inside. Open it up and carry on
with your game.

Wave 4:
-------

A bunch of Zombies will rise up from the floor and attack you. They're weak,
so you shouldn't have too much problems with them. Remember to watch out for
the bloody archers, however - getting shot by these flea infested punks is
never a pleasant experience.

Total Enemies: 6.

Wave 5:
-------

Ack! Now there's a bunch of ill bred enemies trying to hack you down in the
prime of your youth. Purple Demons, a Zombie Archer and a cloud of Wasp Brains
are all swarming around this tiny arena doing their best to beat you to death.

Again, UT attacks are your friend, especially with the Dabilahro. And hey, be
sure to make space before going for the UT, or doing them off an intercept -
if you don't, you'll often be hit during the short 'charge' period.

Oh, and kill that bloody archer. He smells funny.

Total Enemies: 20.

Interlude:
----------

Another chest warps in for your to collect. Why not go and collect it, then?
A lies inside for you to collect, after which you'll
immediately be thrown into a confrontation with...

=============================
Mid Boss: Ice... Sloth Thing.
=============================

Oh, for the love of hell. Another repeat performance by our favourite actor.

The only thing different about this fight is that the arena is tiny, which
makes avoiding the great big git a little harder than it used to be. You'd do
well to keep the wall run in mind if he traps you in a corner, since taking
even a single punch from him hurts like hell.

He's also got those Purple Demons running around underfoot giving him a helping
hand and getting punched in the face by him every once in a while, but that's
not exactly new either - it's basically the same as it was in the Hurricane
Pack.

Go forth and cream him. You've done it before, you can do it again.

=============================

Interlude:
----------

A chest appears, containing an awesome treasure - the True Dragon Sword! Snatch
it up and lay waste to your upcoming foes!

After you pick this up, you'll be presented with two lovely chests you can open
up. You can only choose one, however, and then the other one will disappear for
good.

Maybe it's just me, but I always get blue essence orbs no matter which chest I
choose. It might be random, or it may just be the same reward no matter which
one you open up.

Once the chests disappear, it's time for the next phase - this phase of our
attack is finally over, baby!

Phase 4:
========

Wave 1:
-------

Ach! Those Special Forces Fiends you find in Tairon near the end of the
original game have made their way here at last, and they're as annoying as
ever. Trying to pull off a UT when they're close is almost futile, since the
yak punching buggers will usually just jump right on top of you and flip you
away into a corner somewhere - often right before you get pounced on by his
friends.

Izuna Drop city, or Dabilahro Plaza? You decide. There's also one of those
stupid purple Army Zombie Fiends that have ridiculous endurance shambling
around as you fight, so take him out last. He's easy, but he'll take some time
to kill - the Dragon Sword's UT should help, though. And remember that you can
now use the Blade of the Dragon's Tail combo, which does good damage as well.

That said, if you UT him with the Dragon Sword during the fight the other
enemies will sometimes idiotically leap into your attacks and die horribly.
Fun!

Total Enemies: 10.

Wave 2:
-------

Whoo! We finally come across those weird demons that Rachel was smashing into
mush during the introductory cutscene. They're pretty strong and annoying, so
watch out for them. They have a nasty little sliding move that will trip you
up right before they jump on top of you and start punching their nasty little
claws into your torso, so watch out for it. It doesn't go through your guard,
but it will throw you off balance if you try and block it.

Hmm, I think I'll call them Great Demons from here on out. Makes sense.

Also, our Cat Fiend friends are back. Isn't that just awesome? Lots of UT's,
Izuna Drops and plenty of EXTREME AND SUDDEN VIOLENCE is the order of the day
here, my friends.

Total Enemies: 12.

Wave 3:
-------

Augh! It's obvious that Team Ninja got serious with this Phase of the HP2,
since the enemies scattered throughout are pretty bloody nasty. More of those
Great Demons will do their best to syphon the blood from your body, and those
damn Crab Fiends are running around throwing fire at you and grabbing you
whenever they get the chance.

If you've been buying Ninpo, this is a good place to use them - otherwise,
start using UT attacks like each and every one makes Rachel a playable
character.

Use them lots, in other words. Go for the Crab Fiends first - they're deadlier
and more annoying with their attacks, but don't really have all that much more
endurance than the Great Demons do.

Or don't. Go for the Great Demons first, since they drop essence for UT's. Up
to you, really.

Total Enemies: 8.

Wave 4:
-------

Ogre orientated joy this time! This is fortunately easier than it looks,
though you can still easily get hit a few times and die a messy, ninjalike
death.

See, the thing is that aside from the Ogres, you're also being assailed by a
swarm of those little green bugs. If you kill a few and then use the UT from
your Dragon Sword, the bugs will mince themselves trying to attack you as you
perform the move, releasing yet more essence for your next UT.

Go for the Ogres with the UT, mind. They're the scary, horrible bad guys with
the most chance of killing you. And be sure to kill the bugs first and not
collect the essence! Every second you're not performing a UT is one more second
that the enemies will be able to pound you into mush.

There's four Ogres in all, so make sure that you don't waste your UT's... and
if you're having problems killing enough bugs for essence, start using the
Helmet Splitter off the wall so that you're at least invincible half the time
you're trying to creat enough essence for the UT.

Total Enemies: 16.

Interlude:
----------

Ooo! A chest! Quick, pilfer the contents!

Turns out to be a bunch of blue essence orbs, which is decidedly handy since
we're about to face...

=============
Mid Boss:Doku
=============

Exactly the same as before, only now he has two Shadow Ninjas backing him up.
Don't worry so much about using the essence they drop to attack Doku, since
he's pretty handy at blocking your UT attacks.

You've fought him before, and he's more or less the same this time. As in the
Hurricane Pack, the Flying Swallow is more or less useless against him now so
attack him in the same way I mentioned back during the main walkthrough. The
Lunar's 'Lunar Explosion' and the Flails' 'Dragon Slaughter' are good attacks
to use when he leaves himself open to counterattack.

In fact, you can use the Lunar Explosion whenever you're in close, so long as
you leave some time aside for the move's 'startup' period which leaves you
open. It's a fairly safe move to use on Doku, so just watch for when the
attack ends - you become vulnerable again, so be sure to dodge any incoming
attacks as you land.

Oh, and those ninjas can be as annoying as hell if you don't watch out for
them. There's nothing quite like intercepting all of Doku's attacks only to
have one flip over you both and grab you before rudely sticking his sword
into your back. Or even that damn Windmill Shuriken hitting you in the face
as you roll away from him. Gyeh.

Your reward for beating him will be some yellow essence and the good old Dark
Dragon Blade - suppress that groan, however, this time it will actually serve
a purpose!

=============

Interlude:
----------

Two chests appear, one will disappear after you open one of them. I chose the
basic wooden chest and was rewarded with a handful of blue essence orbs -
handy enough, since you're about to fight another boss. Hooray!

If you choose the other one, however, you'll get a flood of Ghost Fish in the
face instead. Hey, it may still be random as to which one holds the reward,
I'm just telling you how it went with me.

Edit: It IS random.

===============
Mid Boss: Satan
===============

Again, nothing new from the Hurricane Pack. He starts out with three of his
Cat Fiend friends running alongside him, so kill them and if their essence is
floating around when you dodge his drill attack, use it to increase the damage
you do to him. If not, simply perform the Blade of the Dragon's Tail as he
lies there stunned.

Easy! As a reward for killing him, another will
land alongside his cold, dead body.

===============

Interlude:
----------

Two more chests, this time identical. Opening the right hand one caused a
swarm of Ghost Fish to pour out and tear off my face, which sucked ass on a
seismic scale. Four whole waves of the little needle teethed bastards.

For the purpose of this guide I let myself die - nothing at all to do with me
forgetting that the X, Y... X, Y Dragon Sword trick doesn't work in the
Hurricane Packs, mind you - and fought my way back before opening up the chest
on the left. I was rewarded with...

Yellow orbs? Huzzah! That said, what's in either chest is actually random
every time you play. It's all luck whether or not you get something nice or
a plague of bloody fish decending upon your sweet ninja head.

Once you've chosen your chest and killed off anything nasty that might come
your way it'll be the end of Phase 4, and thank God for that!

Phase 5:
========

A phase of three sections, inhabited by new enemies. I'll change the format a
little here, since it's almost classifiable as three boss fights.

=========================
Section 1 - Skull Knights
=========================

Crikey. These guys would be tough if there wasn't an incredibly easy way to
take them out without sustaining much damage. And that secret involves... the
Dark Dragon Blade! Who'd have thought it?

What you have to do is stay strong in the face of adversity and intercept like
crazy. When they attack, intercept the blow and counter with X, X, Y. Sometimes
it may be an idea to not go for the 'Y' part if they look like they're about to
smack you regardless, so use your own discretion.
When they explode into their Berserker form, intercept the explosion as they
change and continue using the same technique.

After one dies, hightail it to another part of the arena and intercept the next
attack and tap 'Y' for an instant, full powered UT. The Skull Knight will leap
backwards to avoid it, but you'll be able to close the distance and attack him
very quickly before he backs out of range. After this, just continue the above
until all four of them are dead.

If you take too long, you'll end up fighting two at a time. Watch out for the
guy at the back, since he'll spend time casting spells that turn the floor
below you into patches of superheated lava. Kill them quickly if at all
possible!

Total Enemies: 4.

=========================

Interlude:
----------

Ah, a chest! How convenient. Boot it open, collect the blue orbs lying around
inside it, and prepare for...

===================
Mid Boss - Alma III
===================

Don't worry too much when you're introduced to the scary looking metallic
woman, her changes are mainly cosmetic. The special 'Flails' method of taking
her out no longer works, however, and she's got a bunch of Great Demons
running around making life hell for you as you battle it out with her.

She's based on her very first form, so her Alma II attacks aren't going to be
bothering you during this fight. However, she takes more damage than she ever
did, her Great Demon chums are as annoying as hell and I'm sure her grab is
quite a bit faster than that of regular Alma - or perhaps it's a result of
the smaller battleground you have to manouvre around.

Interlude
---------

No chest for a change, but a bunch of standard bats will attack you at this
point and try to suck your blood. They're no problem, so take care of them and
collect the essence that they drop.

A short cutscene will play after you take care of the bats, introducing your
next and final opponent to the rousing sound of the Ninja Gaiden main theme!

That opponent is...

==========================
Final Boss - Shadow Rachel
==========================

Remember when Doku once mentioned that Rachel might have become an even
stronger Fiend than Alma? Believe it or not, he wasn't kidding. Shadow Rachel -
if indeed, this is Shadow Rachel - is a pretty bloody tough opponent unless
you throw away all the skills you've learned up until this point and simply
cheese her to death.

Get in close, intercept like bloody hell, and repeatedly use the X, Y, Y Dragon
Sword combo on her whenever you can. She'll dodge a good few of them, but will
be hit far more often than with almost any other attack string you can use on
her.

Alternatively, intercept then pull off a simple X, X, X, Y combo for good
damage - and when she's swinging around, charge up your Annihilating Gleam and
then give her merry hell when she's foolish enough to land near you. You'll
hear her yell before she streaks towards you, so let go a split second later to
shred her life bar by a significant amount.

Epilogue
========

As he walks towards her, the screen fades to... white. I have to admit that I
find this a little disconcerting, and probably means that he's not quite as
uninterested in her as his manly ninja countenance would have you believe.

I hope there's nothing subliminal about this one. I really do.

And that's it! You've finished the toughest challenge Ninja Gaiden has to
throw at you. Kick back, relax, and wait for Ninja Gaiden Black which will
undoubtedly pwn you like a total n00bzor once again!

_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

X. Character Cast
_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

/============/
/Ryu Hayabusa/
=============

The tragic hero of our story. Only, replace 'tragic' with 'enraged'. His
village has been levelled, so he's off to level the entire Vigoorian Empire in
return. Certainly not a man to do things by half, then.

It's fairly well known that Ninjas are famed for following one of two paths
through life. They can either follow the silent, subtle and stealthy approach
to combat - or merely flip out and kill people.

Fortunately, Ryu subscribes to the latter outlook on life, and therefore has
some of the greatest, most stylish killing manouvres ever shown in a videogame.
He'll need them in order to randomly slaughter everyone in his path, believe
you me.

/=====/
/Murai/
======

Previously associated with the Hayabusa Ninja Clan, Murai left some years ago
to form his own school of ninja known as the Shadow Clan. He is known to be
possessed with unsurpassed skill in all known Ninja arts, and loves to hit
things hard over the head with a pair of nunchaku until their skull fractures
and they die.

Rumours that he manufactures illegal steriods in his underground factories and
eats them all at the end of every day are as yet unconfirmed - but likely.

/=====/
/Ayane/
======

A young Kunoichi from the Mugen Tenshin Ryu (Hajin-mon side), she is the half
sister of Hayate and Kasumi from the Dead or Alive series. Oh, and if you check
out the Dead or Alive Ultimate introduction CG movie, you'll find out that her
father is Raidou, one of the greatest psychopaths ever to grace a videogame.

Currently apprenticed to Murai for training, she acts as his messenger and has
been told to help you out as you continue along on your quest for revenge -
this takes the form of kunai with notes attached that will streak into view
as you play through the game.

Oh, and at one point she'll be told to 'take care' of an oiled up Rachel by
Ryu. This probably isn't quite as perverse as it sounds.

/======/
/Kureha/
=======

Ryu's friend since early childhood, she serves the purpose of a random Shrine
Maiden protecting the Hayabusa Ninja Village.

Well, she lasts about a grand total of three seconds or so during the Vigoorian
Empire's assault on the village, making her one of the least consequential
characters in videogame history.

Seriously. She gets killed so quickly that you don't even learn her name before
she kicks the bucket, nor at any other point in the game - you have to look it
up in the manual if you're that interested in finding out who she is.

That said, she is in possession of something vitally important to Hayabusa's
quest...

/====/
/Doku/
=====

Doku is the Lord of the Greater Fiends, and the main focus of Ryu's revenge.
Responsible for both the attack on the Hayabusa Ninja Village and for luring
Alma into the fold of the Greater Fiends, he's not too popular with our
heroes right now.

He is known to be completely loyal to the Emperor and will fight to the death
for him. He is also heavily armoured at all times, and seems to be made from
some form of spiritual fire.

He's probably quite popular with the ladies, but it takes him years to walk
around anywhere. I blame the armour. It looks quite heavy.

/======/
/Dynamo/
=======

He's big, he's round, he bounces on the ground - Dynamo! If his bald,
cybernetic head doesn't make you want to flee in terror, just wait until you
check out his crazy armoured suit and the huge laser cannon he carries around
with him just for kicks.

One of the great Commanders of the Vigoorian Air Assault squads, Dynamo doesn't
really have much to say or do in the game, but he does get in your way at one
point and try to stop you.

Foolish, foolish Dynamo.

/========/
/Muramasa/
=========

A legendary blacksmith currently residing in Tairon, he is able to work on any
bladed weapon known to man and has come across almost every type of weapon
there is on his many travels. He loves to wander around and build small statues
of himself at various locations around the world - such as in a sewer or in
caves filled with molten lava - and it is known that these statues work in
exactly the same manner as if you were standing in his shop. Handy, that.

Of course, he has a dark, dark secret hiding beneath his saggy, wizened
exterior - he trades in souls!

Seriously. He doesn't accept money for his work, preferring to collect the
essence of all those you slay on your travels. Forget everyone else, there's
something scary about this man.

/======/
/Rachel/
=======

Rachel. Rachel, Rachel, Rachel. Sweet, awesome Rachel.

A Vigoorian Fiend hunter currently located in Tairon, she has been spotted
wandering around the capital hunting down Fiends in search of her sister, Alma,
and a more casual set of clothes that don't show off quite so much flesh.

She possesses incredible strength, and has the handy ability to sense where
Fiends are located, thus allowing her to hunt them down before they start
biting chunks out of her or anyone else who happens to be around at the time.
However, this ability comes at the expense of being susceptible to becoming a
Fiend herself, rather like a certain sibling of hers...

If you need proof of just how incredibly hard she is, just check out her
introductory sequence with the fiend. Whoa, baby.

She's also really, really cool and deserves her own game, or at least a place
in the Doa series.

You may have noticed this at certain points during the walkthrough, but I
think she's rather ace.

/=====/
/Gamov/
======

A special agent working for the Vigoorian Empire's Internal Affairs Bureau,
he's basically in the game to check out what you're up to and report it back
to those concerned. As if anyone wouldn't be concerned by a crazed ninja
running around their country and ripping the very guts out of it.

It appears that he's not only working for the Vigoor Emperor, however... and
he's pretty good at pulling that 'go out of sight for half a second and
completely disappear from the whole area' trick so popular in games and anime.

Moreover, his interest in the activities of the Dark Dragon Blade seem to go
beyond the usual...

/====/
/Alma/
=====

Rachel's sister, and currently employed as one of the Greater Fiends - an
Elite combat group within the Vigoorian Empire. She became a Fiend after being
lured in by Doku, though it's currently unknown as to whether she was willing
to go through with the change or not.

She makes gamers everywhere try to chew through their control pads in
frustration, which is also rather amusing.

/==================/
/ The Dark Disciple/
===================

A shadowed figure who disguises his true identity with a metal mask and a large
black hood, his voice is distorted beyond recognition through machine based
vocalization.

Appearing in Tairon during the course of Ryu's revenge, his appearance cannot
be nothing more than a mere coincidence - especially since Gamov has been seen
reporting to him on the progress of Ryu and the Dark Dragon Blade.

/==================/
/The Vigoor Emperor/
===================

The ultimate power within the Vigoorian Empire, the Emperor is considered to
be nothing less than an actual God, having control over all creation - real
or ephemeral.

Although Doku is the subject of Ryu's initial revenge, it was the Emperor who
ordered the attack on the Hayabusa Village as a means of obtaining the Dark
Dragon Blade. With this is hand, the Emperor has a very real chance of taking
control over the entire world.

And that would just suck.




_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

X. Secrets and bonuses
_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________


1. Very Hard Mode
=================

Find the game too easy? Want to make things harder for yourself? Simply
complete the game once on either Normal or Hard mode to unlock the next level
of difficulty to torture yourself with.

Enemies take more damage, there's more of them, some of them have new or longer
attack patterns... it's the perfect way to prove your ninja manhood without
getting arrested by the police!

2. Movie Theatre
================

During your playthrough of Ninja Gaiden, you'll no doubt have been marvelling
at some of the particularly well done CG cutscenes the game contains. Well,
finish the game and as a reward you'll unlock the Movie Theatre in the main
options menu, where you can choose to view any of them at any time.

This is only the CG cutscenes, mind. Unfortunately, you can't choose to play
any cutscene produced via the in game graphics engine.

3. New Costumes For Hayabusa
============================

After completion, and upon downloading the Hurricane Packs posted up on Xbox
Live, a variety of new costumes will become available for our hero to wear.
They don't do much to alter the way the game plays, but it does add a bit of
visual variety for you.

Note: These costumes cannot be selected in successive play. New Game for you if
you want to these trendy new duds, matey boy!

+----------------------------+
|'Ninja of the Future' Outfit|
+----------------------------+

After you complete the game, it will inform you that you can select the Ninja
of the Future costume by holding down the left trigger as you select the 'New
Game' option. You'll hear a brief yell to confirm you've done it correctly, at
which point you can select the difficulty you require and start the game.

From the very beginning he'll be wearing this odd white getup - no Blue Ninja
phase during the first couple of chapters this time!

As an additional extra, say goodbye to the Dragon Sword - it'll be replaced by
a plasma sabre that looks kind of like a lightsabre and emits similar noises
whenever you use it. Think Star Wars, but with legions of ninjas dying at the
hands of it.

+---------------+
|Original Outfit|
+---------------+

To be honest, I'm unsure whether or not you need to complete the game first to
unlock this particular costume. Either way, what you need to do is hold down
the right trigger whilst selecting the 'New Game' option. You'll hear Ryu
grunt to confirm that the code has worked correctly.

Nothing much will seem to have changed when you first start the game - the only
difference is that Ryu will not change over to his main costume after you
reach stage 3, preferring to remain in his original outfit from the very start
of the game.

+-----------------+
|Cursed Ryu Outfit|
+-----------------+

After you've beaten the game on 'Very Hard' mode, you crazy psychopathic ninja
you, you can hold down both the left and right triggers before selecting the
'New Game' option to choose this outfit.

Once you start the game, you'll find that Ryu looks exactly the same as he
does towards the end of the game after Doku attempts to turn him into a Fiend.
You know, the one that makes him look like he's suffering from a nasty bout of
hypothermia.

+-------------+
|Ashtar Outfit|
+-------------+

This outfit is only available while playing through either of the Hurricane
Packs.

Before you start whichever version of the Hurricane Pack you intend to choose,
hold down the '' button to select this outfit.

As soon as the game begins you'll find yourself in an evil looking costume,
with patterned veins along the armour that looks rather a lot like streams
of blood flowing along the outfit. You're also wearing a full helm outlined
with bone that curves around to your face - added to which, your eyes are
dead white and it looks like tears of blood are flowing down your face.

This costume makes you look a bit like Ashtar from the original Ninja Gaiden
Trilogy, hence the name of the outfit. You don't get a cloak or anything
similar, but the helm does make you sort of look like him.

+--------------------+
|Dead or Alive Outfit|
+--------------------+

Likewise, this outfit is only available while playing through either of the
Hurricane Packs as well.

While selecting either version of the Hurricane Pack, hold down the '' button
to select this outfit.

Once the game starts you'll find yourself in an outfit resembling Ryu
Hayabusa's main costumes from the Dead or Alive series. While his face is still
masked, this is the only costume that allows you to have his hair flow freely.
He's sort of a hippy in that regard.

Makes sense - the Dead or Alive series has taken inspiration from his Ninja
Gaiden costumes in the past (and the present - Doa Ultimate features his main
Ninja Gaiden outfit from this game as well), so why not have it work the other
way round and allow him a Doa costume for this game too?

Besides, it looks pretty damn cool - most of his costumes do.

4. Early Scarabs
================

Selecting successive play to continue your game will provide you with all the
Scarabs you collected during your previous game - handy for trying to unlock
all the older Ninja Gaiden titles.

You can also hand them over to Muramasa, but you won't get certain rewards such
as the Dabilahro until you pass a certain 'trigger point' during the game
before going back to speak to him. Don't worry - he'll hand over the items as
soon as they're available, so there's no problem with giving him all the
Scarabs at the start of the game. Just consider it as paying him for the items
in advance.

You can't take the Scarabs with you between difficulties, however - successive
play always follows on from the same difficulty you selected during your
initial run through.

5. The Sound Test
=================

After you complete the game once, you can dash into the options menu and choose
to listen to any of the tracks from the game. Keep an eye out for one in
particular called 'Take it Easy' - this track never plays during the standard
game, although it's the main piece of background music for the second
Hurricane Pack.

6. The Evil Dark Dragon Blade
=============================

Hey hey! You know what would be really great? Getting your hands on that Evil
Dark Dragon Blade everyone's going on about and kicking some severe ass!

Alas, you can only collect it after completing the game AND continuing on via
the 'Successive Play' option. And to put the boot clean through your teeth, you
can only use it in its 'unawakened' form, so no Dark Disciple-type move madness
for you! It's a powerful weapon, but intensely limited in what it can actually
do - the combos attributed to the weapon suck, to put it bluntly.

However! This section isn't to talk about its good and bad points, but rather
to point you in the right direction then slap you hard on the buttocks so that
you automatically run that way, yelping in pain all the while!

What you need to do is simply play through the game a second time (in
Successive Play, mind), and make your way all the way along to chapter
thirteen - 'The Fiendish Awakening'. From here, play until you teleport back
to the Hayabusa Village, and then enter the warehouse containing the Muramasa's
Shop statue where you first found the Standard Bow and Arrow.

On an upper ledge, near the back left of the warehouse from where you enter
through the window, lies your demonic prize. Try to hide your disappointment,
though - it's highly damaging, but that's about it.

7. The Ninja Gaiden Historical Collection
=========================================

Aha! This section will take a little bit longer to get through than the other
secrets, since there's a certain amount of work you have to put in to obtain
these groovy little games. All in the name of Nostalgia!

Remember, they have to be obtained sequentially - you can't run ahead and get
your hands on Ninja Gaiden 3 before you collect the first one, for example.

---------------
Ninja Gaiden 1:
---------------

As soon as you've collected all 50 Golden Scarabs in the main game, backtrack
to Muramasa's shop (or one of his statues, either way is fine) and talk to him
to hand over the glowing little wonders.

Muramasa will burst a blood vessel in gratitude that you'd go so far out of
your way to locate every Golden Scarab in existance and lavish upon you a
rather nifty reward - the Snes edition of the very first Ninja Gaiden on the
Nintendo Entertainment System!

Rock it on!

---------------
Ninja Gaiden 2:
---------------

After obtaining the pure, undiluted joy that is Ninja Gaiden 1, make your
way over to the door leading from the street outside Muramasa's shop over to
Pleasure Street, which, as you may recall, is where Han's Bar is located.
You'll need some standard arrows for this trick, so restock at Muramasa's if
you need to.

Remember the lever you had to pull to open the door up in the first place? The
lever located on the ledge above the door? Well, it's time to make your way
back up there, so exit via the door to the left of Muramasa's shop (assuming
you're leaving the store) and work your way up from that side.

Once you stand proudly atop that lofty perch, what you'll want to do is look
around for the clock tower high above you. Stand fairly near the treasure
chest and loose a shaft into the clock face - all being well and awesome, this
will cause a new chest to warp into existence directly below the time telling
monstrosity!

Hop down from the ledge, run up the steps leading to the base of the clock
tower and then boot the chest open to discover an awesome treat waiting for
you - Ninja Gaiden 2!

---------------
Ninja Gaiden 3:
---------------

Two down, one to go!

Now, this one doesn't have a weird and wacky method associated with it - simply
hoof it down to the Peristyle Passage (in the Aquaduct, a few rooms before
fighting the boss for that chapter) and jump up the pillars so that you land
on the space where a Golden Scarab was initially hiding from you.

No Golden Scarab this time, which makes sense since you collected them all,
but it's been replaced with a chest containing the very last collectable Ninja
Gaiden game!

To play them, simply go to Han's Bar and examine the empty arcade cabinet, and
it will prompt you as to whether or not you wish to insert the cartridges.
Remember to save your game first, though - obviously enough, selecting to
play them will exit your current game.

8. Classic Ninja Gaiden from the Title menu
===========================================

An easy secret this - once you've got hold of those lovely drops of videogame
antiquity, simply complete the game with the cartridges in your possession.
The option to play 'Classic Ninja Gaiden' will appear as a choice in the main
menu, negating the necessity to run over Han's Bar every time you get the urge
to play the older Ninja Gaiden titles.












_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

X. Item Guide
_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

Since I don't see the point in making an entry for every single item you can
pick up in the entire game, only those of instant benefit to Hayabusa at any
point in the game are listed.

I'm such a lazy organic meatbag.

+------------------------+
|Elixer of Spiritual Life|
+========================+

Cost: 500 essence.

Feeling a little run down? A little roughed up? Possibly suffering from a
little internal bleeding and wondering where chunks of your flesh have gone?

Well, take a sip of this liquid-blue darling and watch your health shoot right
back up! It may not be a total overhaul of your dwindling life bar, but it'll
keep you stabbing your enemies in the face just that little bit longer.

+-------------------+
|Great Spirit Elixer|
+===================+

Cost: 5000 essence.

Are you on your last legs? In fact, do you still even HAVE legs? Is the next
cut you suffer going to be your last? The next white hot bullet caressing your
kidneys and shattering your spine going to be the fatal one? Are you just as
close to death as you could possibly be without strapping on a body bag and
leaping majestically into a nearby grave?

Well, fret not! When all seems lost and your energy bar has almost expired,
quaff this magnificent beverage and watch your health streak back up like a
glorious summer sunrise!

Then kill all those enemies foolish enough to think that they might actually
have been going home tonight!

Ahahahaa! Ha! Ahahahaha....!

+-----------------------+
|Elixer of the Devil Way|
+=======================+

Cost: 2000 essence.

Do you ever think to yourself, 'Man, I could really use more magic right about
now'? Don't worry, friend - 85% of men will suffer from the same embarassing
problem at some point in their lives, so it's really nothing to be ashamed of.

Once your Ninpo gauge is no longer full, simply take a mouthful of this hearty
revival agent in order to regain a single spurt of Ninpo.

Isn't that just grand? It might very well save your life, you know, and head
off potentially shameful results.

So, don't delay - buy today!

+------------------+
|Great Devil Elixer|
+==================+

Cost: 10,000 essence.

Time for a joke, I think.

Q. What's better than being dead?

A. Being alive!

Okay, calm down. I know it was a great jest, but there's truth in them there
words. And what better way to remain alive than smiting your enemies with magic
as they foolishly attempt to do you harm?

That's what this baby does. When you're all out of Ninpo, simply glug this
refreshing red brew down your gullet in order to regain a full rack of Ninpo
uses! All your Ninpo returned to you via the merest swig of a potion!

Awesome, eh?

+---------------------+
| Talisman of Rebirth |
+=====================+

Cost: 15,000 essence.

The point of this item isn't exactly tough to figure out - if you get killed
at any point whilst romping around on your roaring rampage of revenge, this
handy little item will freeze time for a moment and resurrect you with full
health and some shiny new Ninpo. It's the total refreshment package for the
recently deceased!

There are two instances in particular where this crafty magical contraption
won't step in to save you, however, so don't get too carried away with allowing
yourself to get stabbed to death frequently.

If at any point you're visiting the caverns underneath the Monastery, there's
a cutoff point right below the Altar where you're supposed to place the Holy
Grail. If you fall down the pit past this line instead of taking the route
down through the side tunnels, you die instantly. It's kind of odd, since it's
the only place in the whole game where you can fall to your death other than
falling from the Zeppelin in chapter three.

Secondly, if you happen to drown while you're off out for a swim, you're not
going to be coming back to shore, baby. The Talisman doesn't know how to
perform the kiss of life on waterlogged Ninjas, it would seem.

It's obviously extremely handy to own if you're prone to getting yourself
killed but, if you're a good player you'll initially be better off purchasing
weapon upgrades and the like since it's, you know, a tad expensive to purchase
and only works once.

+-----------------------+
| The Armlet of the Sun |
+=======================+

Cost: 5000 essence.

This handy little fashion accessory will boost your attack power beyond the ken
of mortal men. However, it actually sucks considerable ass - the attack boost
is minimal, with a capital 'minimal'.

You know, like this: MINIMAL.

If you hit an enemy about seven times, it may do another hits' worth of damage
and no more - so don't waste your time on this one. Spend your souls on
something more useful instead, like shampoo.

+------------------------+
| The Armlet of the Moon |
+========================+

Cost: 5000 essence.

Taking too much damage from the enemy attacks, are you? Well, get a load of
this baby! It'll reduce the damage you take from enemy attacks...

... by a completely insignificant amount. This will save you a sliver of health
from a heavy attack at best, and is another armlet not particularly worth
dishing out your stash of souls on.

Heck, get some healing potions instead - you'll at least see them doing you
some good.



_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

X. Enemy Bestiary
_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________



Enemy Bestiary
==============

+-------------+
|Lesser Ninjas|
+=============+

Mobility - Low

Endurance - Weak

Lethalness - Low

Attacks: Two generic swipes of a sword. That's it.

Comments: These guys are Murai's lowliest minions, and as a result are
incredibly weak. They're easily identified by their stylish brown
costumes, a complete lack of attacks and their insanely low
endurance.

While they'll likely get the odd hit in when you're first starting
the game they're unlikely to do much damage and they're easy to
hit. They can block, but don't do so all that often.

Just rip them apart as you come across them, and saunter past
their corpses with the utmost contempt.

Hurricane
Pack: They were removed for the Hurricane pack because, as enemies,
they're an absolute joke.

+--------------+
|Greater Ninjas|
+==============+

Mobility - Average

Endurance - Average

Lethalness - Low

Attacks: - Up to four swipes of a sword.

Can throw shuriken at you.

Comments: A step up from the lesser ninjas, they're still not all that hard.
Remember that they can attack up to four times in one combo, and
that they can use the walls to their advantage - often throwing
shuriken as they do.

A good air combo (followed by a Fiend Sealer if they survive) will
teach them the errors of their ways.

Hurricane
Pack: No changes, but they do replace all the lesser ninjas from the
original version.

+===================+
|Black Spider Ninjas|
+===================+

Mobility - High

Endurance - Average

Lethalness - Average

Attacks: Can attack with up to four slashes in a row.

Throws Incendiary Shuriken.

Can somersault towards you, grab you and then stab you in the
back. (Hurricane Pack Only)

Comments: The dangers of fighting these little buggers are vastly
overstated. They might be fast and able to dish out damage, but
they have one fatal flaw in their armour - they can't break your
block. Added to this, you have a counterattack scroll when you
first come across them, so all you have to do is block until they
attack, tap 'Y' and stab them as they land with the Fiend Sealer.

Simple!

Hurricane
pack: Ah, now we're talking. The filthy little oiks have learned how
to throw you, so blocking non-stop is out of the question. Added
to which, you won't have the counter scroll the first time you
come across them (they now appear in the very first chapter) so
that particular method is now utterly useless.

To overcome them now, you'll need to know how to intercept and
counterattack with a decent combo, preferably stabbing them when
they hit the ground with a Fiend Sealer.

Also, get it into your head that when they roll to the side, it's
time for you to roll out of the way - chances are that they're
setting themselves up to throw you.

Other stuff: If you get hit by one of their Incendiary Shuriken, perform an
'invincible' move as it goes off (rolling, attacking from a wall
jump, etc) and you'll take no damage from the resulting
explosion.

+----+
|Bats|
+====+


Mobility - Low

Endurance - Very low

Lethalness - Low

Attacks: They can bite you. What did you expect, missiles?

Comments: Not the most hardened of adversaries you'll encounter on your
travels, a single attack with anything you have will kill them
dead.

The only real danger they can possibly offer is if you get swarmed
by them while you're extremely low on health.

Hurricane
Pack: No changes, but they do crop up in some very unexpected places...


+-------+
|Samurai|
+=======+


Mobility - Low

Endurance - Average

Lethalness - Low

Attacks: Up to three swipes of their swords.

Comments: Well, these guys do block a lot more than the ninjas, and take a
couple of hits to polish off, but you still shouldn't have that
much problems with them.

The best thing to do is use a move that breaks their guard, get
them on the ground and use the Fiend Sealer for a quick, painless
fight. Failing that, just rip them to bits with your usual combos
and air attacks, making sure to break their guard before moving
on to your more deadlier attacks.

Hurricane
Pack: Nothing much new with them, just that a few of their attacks will
now break your guard and leave you open to follow up attacks if
you don't break the stun by rolling, grinding out a Ninpo or what
have you.



+-----+
|Mages|
+=====+

Mobility - Average

Endurance - Weak

Lethalness - Low

Attacks: At a distance, they'll cast a spell and throw a fireball at you.
In the Hurricane Pack, this becomes a LOT of fireballs at once.

If they get in close, they'll attack with a flurry of Sai blows.

Comments: Ah, those crazy levitating, teleporting magician types. Will they
ever change?

They'll try to hang back and chuck spells at you - fire an arrow
at them to kill them outright, or close in, block the flurry of
Sai blows as they teleport in next to you, and counter with a
couple of decent attacks. They can't block or take much damage, so
killing them isn't really all that hard once you've closed in on
them.

Something that should be noted is that attempting to block a
fireball will result in block damage. Roll out of the way if at
all possible.

Finally, they won't fire their spell until the circle they draw
with their hands is complete - the circle starts wide and narrows
in as it nears completion. This'll let you know when it's time to
dodge.

Hurricane
Pack: As mentioned in their attack list, they fire a ton of fireballs
at the same time, which seem to have a slight homing ability into
the bargain. Roll out of the way as they fire, and jump at the
end if you have to cover some more distance to escape. Or
intercept the barrage with your nifty interception techniques.

Other Stuff: Curiously, they won't start their spells if they're not on-screen
at the time. Don't worry about being blindsided - but don't expect
them not to fire if they're finishing up a spell as they go out of
your view.



+----------------------------------+
| Vigoorian Special Forces : Guard |
+==================================+


Mobility - Medium

Endurance - Low

Lethalness - Medium

Attacks: - Pistol fire from a distance.

In close combat, they can pull out their stun rod and smack you
with it a couple of times.

They also have a three hit combo, starting with a body check and
ending in two additional kicks.

If they get in close, they can lunge at you with a grab - which
ends with them slipping behind you and slitting your throat,
regardless of whether or not you blocked the attack. As the blood
sprays from your throat, they'll finish the move by kicking you
in the back.

Comments: As you trek through the Airship and when you first enter the
Vigoorian Capital of Tairon, you'll be coming up against a lot of
these guys. They're not really that hard, but they're the first
regular enemy outside of the Hurricane Pack that can punish you
for sitting back and just blocking all the time.

The best way to finish them is simply to perform the Blade of
Nirrti on them, or the Izuna Drop when you get it. This'll keep
you out of harm's way when there's more than one of them, and also
damage anyone underneath you as you come down.

For quick results, running by them and tapping 'X' twice for the
'Violent Gale' attack with the Level 2 Dragon Sword equipped is
usually an instant kill.

Hurricane
Pack: Did these guys change at all for the Hurricane Pack? I don't know.


+-------------------------------------+
| Vigoorian Special Forces: Commander |
+=====================================+


Mobility - Medium

Endurance - Medium

Lethalness - Medium

Attacks: - Pistol fire from a distance

Comments: All things considered, these guys aren't that much harder than
their underlings. They are, however, markedly tougher and block
more often as a result of the additional shield on their arm.



Hurricane
Pack:

+-------------------------------------+
| Vigoorian Special Forces: Grenadier |
+=====================================+

Mobility - Low

Endurance - Low

Lethalness - Medium

Attacks: - They'll hang back at a safe distance and pepper you with grenade
rounds.

Once the Grenade Launcher is dropped, they essentially turn into
a common Vigoorian Special Forces Guard.

Comments: If you cause these guys to drop their Grenade Launcher, they
basically revert to being a Vigooran Guard again. They can't pick
their launchers back up, so don't worry about turning your back on
them and getting a grenade in the face for your troubles.

Hurricane
Pack: These guys no longer exist, though the virtually identical
mechanized versions have replaced them.



Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:

Hurricane
Pack:


+----------+
|Cat Fiends|
+==========+


Mobility - High

Endurance - High

Lethalness - Medium

Attacks: -

Comments: Non-existant in the original version of the game, these feline
bastards were introduced specifically for the Hurricane Pack.

Hurricane
Pack:




Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:

Hurricane
Pack:




Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:

Hurricane
Pack:


+------------+
|Brown Demons|
+============+

Speed - Medium

Mobility - Medium

Endurance - Medium

Lethalness - Low

Attacks: -

Comments: These guys are really quite simple, especially since they arrive
after you've had your teeth - not to mention your torso and legs -
cut on the Spider Ninjas.



Hurricane
Pack: Several of their attacks - namely their dashing slash and the one
they use whilst jumping out of the ground - will now knock you
off balance. As always, intercept their efforts and punish them
accordingly.


+-----------+
|Axe Zombies|
+===========+

Speed - Low

Mobility - Low

Endurance - High

Lethalness - Medium

Attacks: -

Comments: Big, slow, ugly and lumbering - but enough about me, let's talk
about these guys for a bit.



Hurricane
Pack: You know, if these guys were changed at all for the Hurricane
Pack, I totally failed to notice the difference.

Other Stuff: Performing a Wind Run and stomping on their heads will stun them
long enough for a subsequent Flying Swallow to completely
decapitate them. Not merely aesthetic, this will both prevent them
from executing their grab attack (since they can no longer use you
as a chew toy) and stop them from being able to actually aim blows
at you.

They can still hit you with their wild swings, of course, but they
won't be able to target your specific location in order to dish
out the damage.

Unlucky for them, eh?

+---------------------------+
|Army troops: Assault Rifles|
+===========================+

Mobility - Low

Endurance - Average

Lethalness - Average

Attacks: Constant gunfire from a distance.

Up to three bayonet stabs in close quarters combat.

The chance of impaling you in a type of 'catch' throw.

They hurl grenades at you from mid-range.

Grab you, throw you to the ground and stab you, then kick you
away. (Hurricane Pack only)



Comments: These guys love to sit back and pepper you with bullets. While
their machine gun fire doesn't do that much damage, it will
whittle away your health quite rapidly if you don't take certain
preventive measures to dissuade them from gunning you down - such
as tearing out their innards, for example. That'll teach em.

If you get in close, they'll try to stab you with their bayonets,
which can have some nasty repurcussions - such as getting our
ninja chum impaled before getting blown off the blade by a shotgun
blast. Ouch.

One other thing to watch is that they can deflect your attacks
and counter with a stab of your own. If they try this, your own
counterattacks are a perfect way to punish them.


Hurricane
Pack: Much the same, but they now have a genuine, bona-fide throw added
to their collection which can actually go through some of your
moves in order to grab hold of you. It may not look all that cool,
but it does hurt.

+--------------------------------------+
|Army troops: Rocket Propelled Grenades|
+======================================+

Mobility - Low

Endurance - Average

Lethalness - Slightly above average

Attacks: - They fire rockets at you. That's about it.

Comments: While not being particularly tough as such, these guys can
certainly be annoying. While you're trying to kill off their
friends, these guys will often be hanging back and firing rockets
at you. Add this to the fact that their reloading speed is really
rather fast, and they can be a royal pain at times.

Blocking rockets with a sword, much as in real life, cannot be
recommended. You'll take damage and end up in the Blockstun state
if you try to so, leaving you wide open to attacks from any
buddies Mr. RPG might have wandering around with him. For this
reason, roll the hell away whenever they fire at you.

Oh, and they're fast at reloading, so strike quickly when you
think you have a chance to attack, and keep going either until
they're dead or someone else is gunning for you.

Trust me. If you ease up on them, they'll simply reward you with a
rocket in the face as soon as they get back up.

If they're really giving you hassle, whip out the Explosive arrows
or Explosive Shuriken and nail the buggers from miles away.

Hurricane
Pack: No actual changes to these guys, but they will now pop up in every
group of troops that you run across - usually two Riflemen to one
RPG unit. A potent mix.


+-----+
|Ogres|
+=====+


Mobility - Medium

Endurance - Insane

Lethalness - Extremely high

Attacks: With Mask
---------

Without Mask
------------



Comments: Mercifully missing from the original version of Ninja Gaiden,
these swines were placed into the Hurricane Pack in order to make
your life a living hell.

Hurricane
Pack: Oh geez, where to begin? They're big, brutal, incredibly strong
and you'll often come up against at least two of them at the same
time. The camera doesn't always help against these guys, because
they're one of the few enemies that will attack from offscreen -
and their clubs give them a horrendous amount of range.

You'll also notice that they have masks covering up their face -
breaking this personal affectation of theirs will cause them to
scream in rage, turn their whole body red and then go utterly
barking mental. They'll attack faster and be blessed with more
damaging combos into the bargain - a three hit combo from their
clubs can tear your energy bar in half, or worse.

Not the easiest of enemies, then.




+----------+
|Ghost Fish|
+==========+


Mobility - High

Endurance - Very Weak

Lethalness - Extremely high

Attacks: - They swim through the air and stick their wicked little fangs
into your soft ninja flesh.

Comments: Oh man, everyone loves the Ghost Fish.

Their attack pattern isn't hard to follow - they'll swim happily
around in midair until you come into range, at which point they'll
suddenly streak towards you in an attempt to tear your face off.
The more that hit you at once, the faster your health will
decrease... though 'plummet' is perhaps a better description for
it.

Whilst they're not much of a threat individually, having six
suddenly latch onto you at once will rip your energy bar a new
one. If such an occurrance doesn't kill you outright, you won't be
far from death's door.

Oh, and don't even think about using ranged weapons on these
blighters - your projectiles will go right through them due to
their evil, ectoplasmic ways.

Ninpo, on the other hand, works quite well - especially the Art of
the Fire Wheel or the Inazuma which will send them fleeing into
the next life faster than a million moths charging headlong into a
bonfire.

Hurricane
Pack: Well, they haven't changed all that much - but they do appear much
earlier in the game, and the rewards for killing them are far less
valuable and enticing.

One thing to note, though, is that the X, Y, ...X, Y combo with
the level 3 Dragon Sword which obliterated the spectral pests
with such ease in the original version will merely get you munched
now.

Hey, life's tough. Deal with it.







+-------------+
|Laser Turrets|
+=============+


Mobility - Low

Endurance - Low

Lethalness - Low, but they're bloody annoying.

Attacks: - A laser beam.

Comments: Man, these things can be a right pain in the rear, especially
during chapter eleven when you're in the water and your own
mobility is drastically lessened.

Basically, these things hover around aimlessly, often out of reach
of any physical attacks you might attempt, and as they get close
they emit a thin blue laser beam which will sweep over your
current position, cutting through anything you might be hiding
behind and going straight through any attempts to block it.

The annoying part, of course, is that getting hit causes Hayabusa
to get knocked back a few steps as if he's just been hit by a
rocket - which makes lining up shots with your bow a bit of a
nightmare. Also, if you're trying to climb onto something - say,
out of the water and onto a ledge for example - you'll likely get
shot right back in.

They're not tough, but they are completely and utterly
frustrating.

So, to take them out, use arrows from a distance, or the Windmill
Shuriken from mid-range. Incendiary Shurikens do the trick too,
but you'll likely miss from far-range with them, so the Windmill
is often your best bet when they're closer since it doesn't eat
into your ammo reserves.

While swimming, two shots from your Speargun or two whacks from
your sword will do the trick.

Hurricane
Pack: I don't think these guys got changed for the Hurricane Pack...
if they did, it's nothing significant.

... good.




Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:

Hurricane
Pack:





Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:

Hurricane
Pack:




Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:

Hurricane
Pack:




Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:

Hurricane
Pack:


HURRICANE PACK 2 BADASSES
=========================

Oh, sweet God. if you though the original Hurricane pack enhanced the
difficulty of Ninja Gaiden, you haven't seen anything yet. Well, except
everything you've seen to date obviously, but what you've seen before does not
compare with the difficulty of the second Hurricane Pack.

If you're not an accomplished Ninja Gaiden player, you'll probably end up
putting your head through the nearest wall if you attempt to fight your way
through this installment. You have been warned.

Anyway, if you really think you're up to the task, here's all the new enemies
you'll fight on your journey through hell.

+-------------+
|Shadow Ninjas|
+=============+

Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments: These guys are updated versions of the Black Spider Clan ninjas.
They're roughly on the same level of speed and viciousness as their dark robed
cousins, but it takes a surprising amount of extra damage to finally kick them
into their graves and close the lid on them.

One Izuna Drop will still do the trick, or get them down and give them three
Fiend Sealers to seal their fate.




Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:




Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:




Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:




Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:


Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:


Mobility -

Endurance -

Lethalness -

Attacks: -

Comments:












_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

X. Ninja enhancing collectables
_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

This section, as you may very well expect, is dedicated to finding all the
items hidden away from you that will increase your health, your magic gauge,
and your arsenal of weapons to bring death to the enemy with.

And no, I couldn't think of a better name for it.

=======================
Golden Scarab Locations
=======================

Chapter 1
---------

No Scarabs are found on this Chapter.

Chapter 2
---------

No Scarabs are found on this Chapter.

Chapter 3
---------

1. Waltz into the Captain's Quarters and you'll see it on a window ledge
behind his desk. Nab it.

2. Once you have destroyed the Primary Power Unit aboard the Airship, all the
doors will simultaneously unlock for security reasons. From here, backtrack
to the door at the end of the first hall - right outside the room you
started this chapter in - and enter. Clamber over all the cargo stored in
this room, and you'll find it lying near the back wall.

3. In the Gas Compartment Passageway, right after you kill your first bunch of
enemies, you should notice a large metal crate close to where you killed
them, right above the stairway. Climb atop this, then wall run up the side
and perform a wall jump to land on a hidden walkway containing the Scarab.


NOTE: All the Scarabs in this chapter must be collected before you continue
on into the next chapter. You cannot return and collect them once you begin the
next chapter, so be sure to collect them before then.


Chapter 4
---------

4. Once you do through the door closest to Muramasa's shop, immediately head
left into the alcove and you'll find it nestled in amongst the drinking
water.

5. As you head towards unlocking the gate leading into Pleasure Street, you'll
find a dead Ninja named Suke on an upper walkway - he's the one who pervs
over Rachel all the time. Just past him lies a Scarab in plain sight.

6. Directly opposite Han's Bar lies an alley leading in to where this Scarab
lies. It's just a little further in from where the Windmill Shuriken is
located.

Chapter 5
---------

7. In the alley where you find the Pegasus Key, just off Drawbridge Square,
look directly opposite the chest containing the key. There will be a gap in
the railing you can jump through, and a golden glow just off to the left
which signifies Scarab goodness.

To reach it, simply hop through the gap in the railing and wall run across
the wall to your right, jump onto the next wall as soon as you can and
simply run along to where the Scarab is hidden.

8. After you have crossed the Drawbridge and are running along into the next
section, a Dragon Statue save point will come into clear view, and you'll
also be attacked by enemies as you near it. Right alongside the statue in
the same alcove lies the Scarab, hanging from a window shutter.

9. After leaving the Save point above, take a left. If you've went the right
way, there will be stairs leading down almost immediately - at the bottom,
hidden away in a small niche, lies another Scarab for your immediate
collection.

Chapter 6
---------

10. You'll easily find this one as you smash the hell out of the display cases
located inside the Monastery Archive. You know, the Library place where
you find the Incendiary Shuriken.

11. This one is also located in the Archive. After making your way up to the
top walkway (on the same level as the cracked wall), you'll find it lying
in wait for you almost as soon as you've wall jumped up there.

12. In the circular section overlooking the Altar Hall inside the Monastery -
directly before entering the Monk's room - there is a ledge you can jump
from in order to get your hands on this Scarab.

Look around once you get up into that section, it isn't hard to find.

NOTE: This Scarab must be collected before you fight Alma for the first
time. After this it will no longer be reachable, and therefore impossible
to obtain.

13. As soon as you decend into the passageway beneath the Altar (the one
created by placing down the Book of Eons), you should see it directly
opposite you in the same room as the Dragon Statue save point.

14. In the room where you first come across the flying brain things, you can
find this Scarab in an alcove directly below the ledge you first enter the
room from.

If it helps, this is also the room connecting the upper and lower parts of
the underground section - fall past it rather than going through it and you
die.

15. On the same level as the Sealed Floor Plate (initially held up by all those
chains), exit through the cavern off to the side and you'll soon see it
towards Hayabusa's right in a little shelf type recess.

Chapter 7
---------

16. After the Bone Dragon has fallen through the Sealed Floor Plate and opened
up the new pathway, decend to the bottom level where the remains of it lie
broken. Search around the body near the walls, and you should find it
quite easily, hidden away in a recess.

17. In the area where the Vigoorian Zombies smash the suspension bridge you
walk along, you can find it located on the ledge right before you venture
onto the bridge. It's just off to the right of the doorway you enter from.

18. In the Chamber of the Blue Eye, you can find this Scarab nestled under the
ledge that the Zombie Archers are attacking you from. It's right on the
opposite end of the room from where you come in.

19. Just before you enter the lift leading back up to the Monk's room, you
should notice a distinct golden glow coming from the bottom of the water.
Just swim on over and pick it up.

Chapter 8
---------

20. Beyond the Skull gate, located in an alley through a gate near the the
front of the Military Base, lies the Scarab. It's right beside the
Muramasa's shop statue.

If that description sucked ass, it's beyond the Skull Gate near the area
where you go to pick up the Strongbow and open the gates of the Military
Base.

21. As you leave the area where you pick up the Strongbow, stop before dropping
back down to street level and look across to your left. The Scarab lies on
a ledge which you can reach with a well placed wall run and jumping across
to it. Simple!

And yes, this is still in the area beyond the Skull Door.

Chapter 9
---------

22. As you exit the first tunnel you run through, look to your left. It's lying
on the ground in plain sight.

23. Once inside the Military Warehouse, you'll notice this Scarab lying on top
of a train carriage. There are two ways to get hold of it:

Method one: Having started up the moving platforms by restoring electricity
to the Warehouse and flipping their individual switches, you will be able
to access the top of the carriage nearest the one containing the Scarab.
Attempt to jump across, and tap 'X' during your jump to get the extra air
you need in order to clear the gap.

Method two: Simply run up the side of the bugger, and as Ryu automatically
backflips at the top, tap an attack button to slam him down on top of the
carriage via use of a wall attack.

24. As you approach the guard hut containing the Warehouse Map and Card Key,
leap into the side of it and run straight onto the top of it. A Scarab
lies here, the cheeky little sod.

25. After the attack on the Assault Chopper and during the approach to the
Radio Tower, you will be forced to perform multiple wall jumps to reach a
door leading to the tower. At the top of this jumping section lies another
Scarab.

It's incredibly easy to spot, and not far from a Muramasa's shop statue.

NOTE: In a similar fashion to Chapter 3, all Scarabs within this chapter must
be collected by the time you progress onto the next. The Military Gates will
close later on in the game, locking you out for good.

Chapter 10
----------

26. Once you have killed the first Elecric Worm sub-boss and collected the Art
of the Inazuma Scroll, head through the doorway it was guarding and then
turn around immediately. The Scarab lies on a ledge right above the
doorway, so just wall run up the walls beside the arch of the doorway in
order to obtain it.

27. Once you're on the upper platform of the Hall of Balance, overlooking the
Statue of Balance (the one with the scales sticking out of it), simply run
around the ledge and collect this Scarab.

28. Near the Red Water Reservoir, where you place the Red Tablet of the Stream,
you should quite easily be able to locate the Scarab nearby. On one side
of the room lies a chest - it's directly on the opposite side from that,
a little past the iron grating covering most of the floor.

29. In the Underground Waterway, the large green caverns after you first fall
down the huge shaft, go staight ahead from the base of the shaft and take
a look around the rock directly in front of you to your left. There should
be a Scarab there awaiting collection.

30. Immediately after killing the two Electric Worm mid bosses in the
Underground Waterway, scoot into the cavern the left one was guarding and
pick up the Scarab that lies within.

31. When you get to the pedestal where you need to place the Blue Tablet of
the Stream, dive into the water in front of it (or leap into the pit after
the water drains away) and it should be near the centre in plain sight.
Just walk or swim over to it and collect it.

32. In the Peristyle Passage - the large marble hall leading to the Underground
Sanctuary which houses the Boss fight of this chapter - there are a bunch
of pillars standing to each side of the hall. Assuming you enter the hall
from the room containing the Statue of Balance, locate the nearest set of
pillars on your right and wall jump to the top between them. If you're in
the right place, one of the pillars doesn't quite reach the ceiling and is
hiding another Scarab for you to collect on top.

33. In the Underground Sanctuary where you meet the boss of this chapter,
there is a Scarab holed away in an adjoining room. To find it from the main
section of the sanctuary, drop down to floor level and enter a room through
a small doorway approximately halfway across the hall. The Scarab lies in
there.

34. The final Scarab of this chapter again lies in the Boss room also known as
the Underground Sanctuary. When you're up near the roof about to pick up
the Brand of Valor, take a look around one of the pillars to your left.
A Scarab lies in wait here, initially hidden from your sight.

Chapter 11
----------

35. Near the start of the chapter having newly left the Aquaducts behind you,
you should find yourself on a small pier overlooking the Moat of Zarkhan.
Dive in and swim down to your right to find it in more or less plain sight.
Since you have to pass it in order to get your hands on an important item,
it's rather hard to miss.

36. Soon after you come out of the section of the Moat containing Muramasa's
shop you'll come across a small section filled with laser turrents firing
lasers at you. If you swim to the other side and climb up on top of the
pipe you swim through in order to reach the next section, it'll be right
there in front of you. Now, kill those turrets!

37. As soon as you enter the large part of the Moat where you can branch off
towards the Sunken Ship, look right from the entrance to find a Scarab
lying around. You'll easily notice it when you come back this way after
collecting the Silver Medallion and the Oxygen Cylinders, so it's quite
hard to miss.

38. In the initially sealed off section of the Sunken Ship beside the Oxygen
Cylinders lies this Scarab. This is another one that's hard to miss.

39. When you're swimming around in the chamber containing the Sarcohphagus
which held the Skull Key - it's the large room you first came across in
Chapter 7 shortly before the passageways flooded with water - swim up to
the very top of the room and you'll notice a golden glow up near the top
in the centre of one of the walls.

As always, swim on over and pick it up. It's another Scarab for you!

Chapter 12
----------

40. In the small room Doku was in while holding Rachel before your fight
during the last chapter, there's a Scarab lying behind a few of the
pillars. It's not hard to find - after you pull the first lever of the
Arena puzzle, you should see it almost as soon as you turn around.

41. During the Arena puzzle, you will reach a stage where you climb on top of
a floating platform directly beside where you first came in. From here,
run up the wall so that you end up directly on top of the doorway and
you'll find another Scarab lying around up here.

42. After you pull the last lever in the Arena puzzle, continue along the
balcony you're on past said lever and turn left at the end. The final
Scrarab in this Arena section awaits you there.

43. Once you've passed by the steps leading up towards the Emperor's Palace,
but before you cross the small lake leading to the waterfall, there will
be a clearing with a Dragon Statue, a dead ninja, and some Stone Heads
lying on one side of the clearing. Walk over to the Stone Heads and smash
them to bits with a heavy weapon or explosives - one of them is lying on
top of the next Golden Scarab.

44. Past those Stone Heads mentioned above, and before heading in past the
waterfall lies a small lake of water. Dive in, and head to the deepest part
of the lake on the left to find a fairly easy to spot Golden Scarab. Just
swim over to it and pick it up.

45. In the room with the smelting pots in the Magma Cavern, if you drop
directly down from the operational one where you melt the Iron Ores, you'll
see the Scarab in front of you on a small platform above the lava. It's
fairly close to the see-sawing slab of rock, to the bottom right of where
you first come in.

46. Right before you come up against the mid boss in the Ice Caverns, there
will be an incredibly easy to spot Scarab right beside a Dragon Statue
save point. It's on the opposite side of the furnace where you melted the
Iron Ore (on the Ice Cavern side, of course), and very close to where you
pick up the Cog of Vigoor you make.

47. In the Path of Flame during the run up to collecting the Eye of Flame from
the Fire Worm mid boss, inside the tunnels with idols shooting blasts of
fire at you, lies a passage containing a Golden Scarab. When you reach the
part with streams of fire crossing by one another, duck into the left
passage to find it lying in there.

Chapter 13
----------

No Scarabs are found on this Chapter.

Chapter 14
----------

47.

48.

49.

Chapter 15
----------

50. When you're running around in the Emperor's Palace, on the stairway between
floors 3 and 4, fall off the side of the platform where the door leads to
Floor 4's enemy challenge. Run along the ledge for a short while to
uncover this fiftieth and final Scarab.

Now, go call all your friends and have one hell of a party! I command you!

Golden Scarab Reward Guide - Normal Game
========================================

As you should be well aware of by now, choosing to talk to Muramasa will hand
over any Golden Scarabs you've found in return for juicy rewards. Just so you
know what you're aiming for, I've written out a quick list of what you can get
below, as well as how many Scarabs you have to fork over in order to get your
hands on them.

1. Life of the Gods: 1 Scarab.

2. Spirit of the Devils: 10 Scarabs.

3. Armlet of Benediction: 15 Scarabs.

4. Dabilahro: 20 Scarabs.

5. Armlet of Fortune: 30 Scarabs.

6. Armlet of Tranquility: 40 Scarabs.

7. Ninja Gaiden Classic: 50 Scarabs.

Golden Scarab Reward Guide - Hurricane Pack
===========================================

And, since the rewards differ somewhat in the Hurricane Pack, I feel compelled
to point out the changes that Team Ninja made for this Live downloadable
version. I'm great like that.

??. Intercept Scroll*: 1 Scarab.

1. Wooden Sword: 5 Scarabs.

2. Armlet of Fortune: 10 Scarabs

3. Vigoorian Flail: 15 Scarabs.

4. Armlet of the Moon: 20 Scarabs.

5. Dabilahro: 25 Scarabs.

6. Armlet of the Sun: 30 Scarabs.

7. Armlet of Benediction: 35 Scarabs.

8. Jewel of the Demon Seal: 40 Scarabs.

9. Armlet of Tranquility: 45 Scarabs.

10. The Dark Dragon Blade: 50 Scarabs.

* The Intercept Scroll will only be handed over if you were careless enough to
miss the chest containing it at the start of the game.

How did you manage to miss it, exactly?

==========================
LIFE OF THE GODS LOCATIONS
==========================

Chapter 1
---------

No Life of the Gods are found on this Chapter.

Chapter 2
---------

1. Once you reach the broken bridge leading to the Hayabusa Village - the one
crossing a fast flowing river which signifies the point of no return - hop
down and climb up on to the far bank on the same side as the Dragon Save
Statue.

From the 'pier' section, turn around and look the way you just came. Across
the river lies a small doorway section, so run into the water and keep
tapping 'A' to force Hayabusa to water run across the water via a surface
run that would make a certain holy figure very proud indeed. Steer him into
the doorway (in other words, point him towards it before beginning the run),
then kick open the nearby chest to claim this lucrative reward.

You can't swim there normally, mind - debris blocks the way underwater, so
sprinting across the surface is your only option.

2. Soon after entering the Hayabusa Ninja Village, you may spot a group of
statues lined up on your right - one of which is clumsily missing a head.

Once you retrieve the statue head from the bottom of the hill, make your
way back to them and place it back onto the statue's neck. He'll be so
utterly chuffed with your thoughtfulness that he'll reward you with your
next Life of the Gods!

Chapter 3
---------

3. After you use the Wing Key and walk into the '' (the room with two spiral
stairwells heading towards a shop and a save statue), head to the large
oak doors and search to the left of them - on the side with the stairwell
leading to the shop, not the one leading to the statue.

Just around from the double doors will be a single door leading to a small
room with a chest containing the Lives of the Thousand Gods. Isn't that
nice?

4. Down at the Helm (where you fight two Special Forces guards followed by a
Commander who drops a keycard), turn and face the elevator you came down on.
There's a room to the right of this elevator containing a chest which has
the Life of the Gods lying around inside.

You can't open the door until the commander is dead, but that shouldn't be
a big deal - why search for treasure when enemies are still trying to gut
you?

Chapter 4
---------

5. After passing by the Military Gate and weaving through the streets of
Tairon, you will come to a more open area with Special Forces agents firing
at you from nearby balconies with a stairway leading down to your right -
you'll know it's the right place because a Kunai will streak into view
informing you about the blue markings leading to good stuff.

Kill anyone attacking you, then head back to this first part where the Kunai
landed. You see the blue pipe on the ground? Run past it and Hayabusa will
flip over and hang on to the ledge, so shimmy him off to the right and pull
yourself into the small opening that you reach. A chest lies inside holding
your next Life of the Gods.

Chapter 5
---------

No Life of the Gods are found on this Chapter.

Chapter 6
---------

6. As soon as you start this chapter, search behind you.

Good Lord! A chest containing a Life of the Gods already? Well I never!

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

====================================
LIVES OF THE THOUSAND GODS LOCATIONS
====================================

1. During the first chapter, not long after you begin storming the Ninja
Fortress there will be a room where you are attacked by ninjas dropping
from the ceiling which also has an exit hidden behind a wall scroll.

Inside that room lies a treasure chest in plain view between two candle
sticks. Simply walk over and kick it open for your first Lives of the
Thousand Gods item.

This isn't the room that locks you in, mind, it's the second occurance of
raining ninjas that I'm on about.

2. Soon after you enter Tairon in chapter four, you will come to a relatively
open section with some stairs going down to your right and there will also
be Special Forces agents firing at you from the nearby balconies.

Instead of going down the stairs, wall run across the wall to your right
to get onto the balcony nearby balcony, then hop up onto the telephone line
above you and shimmy across to the next balcony where a chest containing
the next Lives of the Thousand Gods awaits.

3. At the beginning of chapter seven, there will be a familiar beeping sound
to signify that the boss you killed at the end of chapter six has dropped
something useful - in this particular case, another Lives of the Thousand
Gods. It's on the platform you start off on, so just wander over to the
nearby shiny bit and pick it up.

4. During chapter seven and onwards, if you return to the Ritual Room where
the Holy Grail was being kept (and where you first fought the Vigoorian
Zombies), there will be a Sixty Fiend Challenge waiting for you there.

Complete the challenge, and the chest holding the Lives of the Thousand
Gods will warp into view. Kick it open and claim your prize.

5. As you battle your way through chapter seven, you will be forced to fight
another version of the chapter five boss again - that big squidgey fiend
thing.

After you kill it off, it drops a Lives of the Thousand Gods for you to pick
up, so simply follow the beeping and look for the shiny object. You'll know
the drill by now.

6. Once you come across the Peristyle Passage in chapter eleven, you'll no
doubt notice that the enemies here appear to continually respawn. This
signifies yet another Sixty Fiend Battle, so take them all out and collect
the Lives of the Thousand Gods from the chest that warps in after they're
all dead.

7. In the arena where you fought Doku at the end of chapter eleven, returning
there after finishing the floating platforms puzzle causes a sixty fiend
challenge to leap into effect.

Kill all the fiends that attack you here and that familiar warping chest
will appear on the balcony high above the arena - you've already been up
there, however, so you shouldn't have any problems getting up to it.

8. Almost immediately after you complete the floating platform challenge at
the start of chapter twelve and continue on, you'll come across the front
steps of the Imperial Palace and be attacked by a bunch of brown and purple
demons. Kill them all, as they're actually a sixty fiend challenge and will
reward in the usual by warping a chest containing your Lives of the Thousand
Gods into existence at the bottom of the steps.

Go get!

9. This Lives of the Thousand Gods is pretty easy to spot. As soon as you kill
the Golden Dragon boss at the end of chapter twelve, he'll drop the item
for you to collect in the usual manner - simply run across onto his back
where he lies and collect the item.

_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

X. Other Stuff
_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

Aka: Stuff I couldn't think of a place to shove into the guide without
something spilling out the other side and making a complete mess of things.

Questions and Answers
=====================

Q: My game occasionally seems to be taking ages to load, yet at other times it
takes almost no time at all. Why's that?

A: The Xbox stores the data of the last three games you've been playing on it,
then deletes the last one used to make room for a new game you put into the
machine. If the last one happened to be Ninja Gaiden, the next time you load
it up it'll spend a while longer than normal loading the data into one of
these 'Caches', and offer you once of those scrolling pages of text to read
while you wait.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: When playing, I've noticed that Ryu has a move that looks like a roundhouse
kick he can perform instantly without a combo. How do you do it?

A: It's actually a finishing move, good sir. Once he kills them, or they're on
their last sliver of energy, pressing 'X'before they disintegrate sends
them on their way across the arena.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: So, do you think it was warranted that Ninja Gaiden was censored in Europe?

A: Definitely not. It was an extremely disappointing move.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Is that really Satan you fight during the game?

A: I doubt it, but the description seems pretty accurate so I'm sticking with
it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Is Rachel going to be featured in the Dead or Alive series?

A: Hopefully. Probably not, though - she's too awesome to just appear in every
game Team Ninja makes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How about Muramasa?

A: Oh, shut up.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Finally, what's this Ninja Gaiden Black I've been hearing about?

A: Ninja Gaiden Black is an upcoming title from Team Ninja that will basically
allow offline users to experience the majesty of the Hurricane Packs and a
whole bunch of bonus features. New enemies, new difficulty levels, new
costumes, 'a mission mode'... the complete package is currently unknown,
but it sounds like it's more than worth buying.

And one of those new difficulty levels is 'Ninja Dog' - so if you shy away
from Gaiden because it's too hard, this might be the very thing you need
to finally give in and become hopelessly addicted.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Oh. Are you going to be doing a faq for that too?

A: Not a chance. Maybe for Ninja Gaiden 2, or even enemy and boss guides added
to this faq concerning the monsters found in Ninja Gaiden Black, but that's
about all I'll do. This faq alone took ages to finish off, and rewriting the
guide with new enemy and item positions the whole way through... I'll leave
off on that for now, thanks.

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_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

X. Credits
_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

I mean, what good would any Faq be without a damn huge credits bit tacked on to
the bottom somewhere?

The following people have made life sustantially more awesome for me, and I'm
forever in their debt for putting up with me without punching me repeatedly in
the ribs until they fracture and splinter off into something vital.

Alphabetical order? You bet!

I hereby thank...
=================

Andrew Jenkins: For being such an awesome guide and benefactor during the
Master Ninja Tournament. He's the guy who welcomed us, got us
around Tokyo for the tournament, made sure everything was going
swell, and then buggered off and disappeared in a most
ninja-like fashion at some point during day three.

Cheers, dude! Did you ever get your hands on that DVD I sent
you?

Ben Talbot: For post tournament awesomeness.

Mambo Penguin: For finding out some tactics on Ninja Gaiden and for taking
that footage of the finals in Tokyo.

My family: Ahh. He loves his family.

Shut the hell up, they're awesome. And my dog just head butted
my knee, so I guess she expects to be included in this mention.

Tecmo: Just basically for being there and being awesome during the
trip. I'm talking about the employees, not the company - and
in particular, thanks go to John O Connell and Melody Pheiffer.

Since I suck, they're the only two whose names I caught during
the trip - but every single person I met there was uber
friendly.

Team Ninja: For making a game that isn't just the action game of the year,
but also a viable contender for the title of the best game ever
made. It's that damn good, and that damn satisfying.

Oh, and for the Doa series which I also love to bits. Here's to
the next generation of your games, guys!

Finally, special mention goes out to my fellow Master Ninjas and the One True
Ninja: Master Ninja Grantisimo, Master Ninja Maruyo, Master Ninja SnapDragon
and The One True Ninja: PanzerOrta. I had one hell of a blast hanging with you
guys in Tokyo. You were all such wonderful competitors, and it was really
great to meet you all. Much love and respect and all that.

Oh, and here's to the greatest Ninja Gaiden player I never met - Saryah.
Certain murky circumstances caused him to be disqualified from the finals in
Tokyo, which is a shame - you can tell from certain videos he has posted on
the net that he's an exceptonal player, possibly even better than the rest of
us Master Ninja types that made it there.

_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________

X. In Conclusion
_________________________ ________________________
\____________________________/
____________________________
_________________________/ \________________________


Copyright
=========

Yes, the part of the faq that's about as enjoyable as having your skin flayed
from your body by an enraged duck at the same time as you get sexually molested
by a tramp. Don't ask me how I know that, I just do.

This guide was created on the 26th of May 2005, © Forman. All rights reserved,
whatever the hell that means. The long and short of it is that everything
written here belongs to me, so don't bother stealing vast chunks of my faq and
claiming that they're your own work. The Ninja Gaiden series itself belongs to
Tecmo, and the people and objects that I reference throughout belong to
themselves.

Yeah.

I should become a lawyer, I really should.














Well, that's pretty much it for this guide, folks. It's been long, it's been
fun, and it's been damn near enough to turn my head into a giant gelatinous
blob of goo called Charley at times, so I hope it actually helped you out at
some point or other.

If you'd like to donate, take that sum of money and put it into a nice tasty
hamburger for yourself or something. I'm doing it for the love, baby, I'm doing
it for the love.

Later, 'gator! See you all for Ninja Gaiden 2!

And, you know, Ninja Gaiden Black which will be out around the time I finally
publish this, thus making this entire guide almost completely redundant. Gah!

...

... You want more? Fine.

Further Reading
===============

http://www.aubg79.dsl.pipex.com
-------------------------------

My very own website. Don't expect a design on the level of Doatec.com, since
I'm at best an indifferent web site designer. However, it does contain a bunch
of photos and other stuff from the Master Ninja Tournament in a manner designed
to do little more than inflate my head a bit.

There's some honestly cool photos and stuff over there, so feel free to go and
get your hands on them.

http://weibull760.dyndns.org:8989/NinjaGaidenVids/
--------------------------------------------------

Walkthroughs are awesome indeed, but occasionally you may feel the urge to
see what you should be doing at a certain boss or section rather than simply
read about it. That's what this site is for - good old Weibull has recorded
and collected an extensive range of Ninja Gaiden videos on his site and put
them up for download.

Not only is he a damn good player, he's collected those videos from damn good
players - generally speaking, if you want to learn how a top class gamer plays
Ninja Gaiden, this is one of the very best places you can visit in your quest
for truth.

http://www.tecmogames.com
-------------------------

The American web site for Tecmo. It's recently gone through a redesign, and has
information and screens on the upcoming Ninja Gaiden Black as well as Dead or
Alive 4.

Dammit, now I need an Xbox 360. I'll get you, Tecmo...

http://www.gamefaqs.com
-----------------------

While I've tried to make this as complete a guide as possible, there's a bunch
of other great faqs on this game to be had there.

Of particular note would have to be Aaxe's Advanced Combat faq which goes into
frankly silly levels of detail on pretty much everything Hayabusa is capable
of. Impressive stuff, it truly is.

http://www.Neotaku.com
----------------------

Mainly for the forums, but the fansites for Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive are
extremely well done. You want pictures? They got pictures!

===============================================================================
===============================================================================
===============================================================================

Well, that's really it this time. I'm outta here for real, and here's to Ninja
Gaiden 2, which will undoubtedly blow your mind like a landmine placed inside
your head!

._. - Seriously, that's it.

PS: Rachel.

Ninja Gaiden: FAQ/Walkthrough by Forman
Version 1.0, Last Updated 2005-08-08 View/Download Original File
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