Ryu Hayabusa, who has inherited the blood of his clan, is one of the most skilled ninja’s in his village, being able to perfect the control of chi he is considered to be one of the bravest and strongest men after the Dark Dragon Blade incident. Ryu was given the legendary Dragon sword, a sword to be held by the leader of the Dragon Clan which was earlier led by his father. Ryu is gifted with many skills, having already died once and resurrected, Ryu was given new gifts and skills that only added to his power of someone so young and powerful.

  Ryu Hayabusa returns in this re-made version of Ninja Gaiden 2, which takes place one year after the events on Ninja Gaiden. Sigma 2 ha a lot of new features from the original 360 title, similar to what they did with Ninja Gaiden Sigma they added Rachel, a demon hunter who was in the original Ninja Gaiden/Ninja Gaiden Black title, but this time you can play as her during her missions throughout the game. Ryu was also given, for the first time, the ability to double wield swords which gives him more movements and different skills. New enemies and bosses have also added to the game, giving it more of a challenge.

  “Ryu’s village is attacked by the rival Spider Ninja clan, as his father is injured, unable to fight at his full strength but in the original version it was never told why, until…….”
The first thing you notice is the need to install the game to the PS3 hard drive, a dreaded 3 gig install takes about 10 minutes or so, but Tecmo made the effort to make you want to install it!! Even if you did not get the Gamestop Limited Edition version which featured a comic book, the game itself installs as a comic. The introduction to the game is taken care of while you install, explaining the events beforehand of Ninja Gaiden 2 /Sigma 2 and why Joe Hayabusa is not well at all. Sigma 2 begins as a blond woman, named Sonia, enters Muramasa’s shop, revealing she is from the CIA and needs to find Ryu Hayabusa. Soon, she is kidnapped after Ryu enters and then chases the kidnappers, who are from the Spider Ninja clan, he then rescues Sonia as she warns him about the plot going on.

  Ryu is entered into another battle with the Spider Ninja clan but it soon escalates much further as the true goal was to awaken the Fiends in a goal to resurrect the Archfiend and once against destroy and rule over the human race. This time Ryu isn’t alone, in his quest to defeat the fiends, 3 allies join him in his PS3 adventure:

*Ayane – A female ninja (kunoichi), who first appeared in the Dead or Alive series, who’s helped Ryu previously in Ninja Gaiden. 
*Rachel – Making her first appearance in Ninja Gaiden, and playable in Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Rachel is a demon hunter who possesses some friend blood, and wields a machine gun and a large Scythe.
*Momiji – a Shrine maiden, and member of the Hayabusa clan, her first appearance was in Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the DS, where she was playable once you beat the game. After the events of Dragon Sword she trained with Ryu to improve her skills.

  The 3 new playable female characters are exclusive in Sigma 2, as they are added stories to the game, adding chapters where each must complete a mission: Ayane to obtain the Dragon eye, Rachel to defeat fiends attacking the city and Momiji protecting the clan.

  Other than new playable characters, a ton of new features are added to the game giving it a whole new experience for those who have already beaten the original Ninja Gaiden 2. Ryu has a new weapon called the Enma’s fang which is a large blade used to just slash his opponents, as well as a few new bosses who replace previous bosses, but 2 bosses were added to the game, making a big difference and I do mean big. The biggest add on to the game, is the online team mission mode where you can command solo missions with the CPU or have another player online work with you to take down missions that include fighting enemies, or bosses. The online mission mode lets you choose what character you would like to use that include: Ryu, Ayane, Momji and Rachel. Each character has the same techniques they have in their missions. While Ryu has all his techniques gained from leveling up his weapons, and multiple ki attacks, he will only be able to equip one weapon, one ki and be able to chose which outfit he equips, based on what you have unlocked. The girls are similar though they only have one weapon, one ki but have one or two unlocked outfits which you can choose. Lastly, since the merger of Tecmo and Koei, a small gift you can say to fans of the Dynasty Warrior series was tossed in, all 4 characters can unlock outfits from different Dynasty Warrior characters making it a bit of Dynasty Gaiden Sigma 2 (yes I know lame joke lol).

  But now that we talked about the good, let’s talk about the bad, having played both versions you can notice quite a few differences. Ryu’s projectiles are quite lacking, they have replaced the Incendiary Shuriken, Windmill Shuriken and The Harpoon Gatling Gun (hence removing almost all under water battles). The bow Fiend’s Bane bow also lacks the ultimate charge making it a simple bow, and replacing the other weapons is the new howling canon. The howling canon is a new destructive force for Ryu, shooting a powerful shot that can travel far and do a large amount of damage to an enemy, the only draw back is that moves very slowly but both weapons now have infinite ammo. Why some of the weapons were removed is a good question, but the incendiary shuriken is still in the game, it just was given to Ayane. Enemies have been heavily affected, many enemies that attack ae minimized, but balanced out by given more health. Many flying enemies have been removed and the game difficulty has been tweaked making it easier at some points. In Ninja Gaiden 2, you used the yellow spirit ki to buy items for healing, replenish your ammo and also to power up your main weapons, Sigma 2 changes that, as now with infinite ammo, there is no need to buy any. Weapon upgrades are now done one at a time. When reaching Muramasa statues with a glowing blue light you can upgrade 1 weapon 1 level, some stages only have 1 upgrade statue, while others have 2, so choose wisely which weapon you want to power up to help you through the game. Loading times are a bit of a problem, even with the install time, going into the main menu, Muramasa’s store or collecting scrolls can keep you waiting for awhile when exiting, and in the middle of a battle that can really hurt you. It did annoy me but I waited it out because I was deep into the game. However, it did get me to stop playing a few times as it really slowed down the action.

  One of the biggest concerns of the game was the change of blood and the tone down of certain violent aspects. To many, this was a bad thing but really it doesn’t make a difference unless you spend minutes standing over a defeated enemies head. It really doesn’t make the game any worse or better it’s just a change.

  With both the negatives and positives of the game, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is still one fun ninja style action game where you can take out your enemies with a large amount of weapons at your disposal. Sigma 2 is well beyond just a port of the original making, it’s a whole new experience for Ninja Gaiden fans, even if you had played and beaten Ninja Gaiden 2, so make sure to check it out for your destructive needs.

***Written by Christopher Del Castillo