The Ninja/Gameplay: Difference between revisions

The Ninja is set in the year 1630, in early Edo era Japan. You play as Kazamaru, a ninja from the Ohkami province in the western region. When the feudal lord died, his evil vassal Gyokuro seized power and oppressed the people. After Gyokuro imprisoned the princess in his dungeon, you challenged his army of ninjas to a fight to free both the princess and the land. You must make your way through the land full of Gyokuro's ninja minions and infiltrate his castle. Starting out with nothing but simple throwing knives, you must learn ninjutsu techniques from scrolls during your travels to increase your power and eventually bring peace back to Ohkami.

| Upwards shot (always shoot upward regardless of your direction)

Different scrolls are located throughout the game and they each serve a different function. The power-ups you attain for finding scrolls stay with you until you die, so you don't have to continue finding them in successive levels if you don't get hit.

Five '''green scrolls''' are hidden throughout the game, and must be found in order to make it into the secret entrance in the final level. If you don't have all five scrolls, you will start over again at the first level after scaling the castle wall. The green scrolls can be found in steps [[../Walkthrough#Step 1|1]], [[../Walkthrough#Step 4|4]], [[../Walkthrough#Step 6|6]], [[../Walkthrough#Step 8|8]] and [[../Walkthrough#Step 9|9]].

'''Red scrolls''' upgrade your weapon and change the music in the game. When you get a red scroll, your normal shuriken will turn into a ninja throwing star, which goes through enemies and has a faster rate of fire.

'''Blue scrolls''' upgrade your running speed, which become important later on as enemies become faster and faster.

All enemies except for the bosses take just one hit. Some of the enemies come in different variations as the game progresses. The only way to find red and blue scrolls is to defeat an enemy, who will then drop it. Some of the enemies also have green scrolls on the earlier levels. Running through the stages without killing anyone prevents enemies farther along from spawning. In all levels except for [[../Walkthrough#Step 13|step 13]], once you kill an enemy he is gone for good. This means once you have cleared out a stage and before you've triggered the boss fight, you are free to roam around. On the final stage of the game, the enemies recycle, so you can't clear the level and just concentrate on the boss.

This is the basic '''gray ninja''', who either throws a ninja star or a scythe. This ninja starts out slow, but later in the game can pop out of the ground, or go much faster. At the last levels of the game (starting with [[../Walkthrough#Step 8|step 8]], the gray ninjas gain the ability to circle quickly around you and shoot their ninja stars. While circling, they can pass through solid objects like walls and trees.

These '''wolves''' come from the top of the screen in packs of five or more. They don't have a ranged attack, but if they touch you it will kill you, presumably from their ferocious bites. When you kill a wolf, you will see the outline of a ninja, letting you know that the wolves are yet another disguise.

Unlike the other two samurai, the '''light blue samurai''' is much faster. These samurai always come in groups, sometimes with up to seven members. Like the other samurai, these enemies only attack with their swords, so you don't have to fear a ranged attack.

This is the '''level boss''' at the end of the first nine stages. He enters at the top of the screen and runs toward you until you kill him. The weapons he employs are the ninja star and the boomerang. While his ninja star can be blocked by your weapons, his boomerange, which circles around both you and him, cannot be blocked. The only time he uses a different weapon is on [[../Walkthrough#Step 3|step 3]], where he just has an unstoppable shuriken that forces you to dodge to the side every time he throws it. As you score more hits on the level boss, his vest turns red, until finally he is beaten.

This is the main bad guy, '''Gyokuro''', who usurped the feudal lord's power after his death. From [[../Walkthrough#Step 10|step 10]] and beyond, this is the enemy you will face at the end of each stage. If you get all five green scrolls on the first run through, you will only have to face him once on [[../Walkthrough#Step 13|step 13]]. Like the level boss, he takes multiple hits to beat, but is actually easier since he just throws a small shuriken which can be blocked by your weaponry. As you score hits on Gyokuro, his face will become read until finally he is beaten.

Completing any stage with 0% accuracy will max out your bonus, giving you 9,999,999 points. On levels where you have to beat the boss to finish the level, you will have to spend a lot of time firing off random shots to make your accuracy low enough to round down to zero (15+ minutes). On other levels, such as [[../Walkthrough#Step 10|step 10]], it's much quicker because you can just run through the level without shooting anyone, then open the secret passage to finish the stage. Note that you can't speed up the addition of the bonus points or skip it, so you're in for a long wait as your bonus points get accumulated to you overall score.