Ninja Gaiden Sigma guide

In the following room, you'll see a big, circular platform with a button of some sort in the middle of it. In order to depress this button, you'll need to jump and hit the triangle button to do a hard, smashing strike into it. This will cause it to start to move down. As you're enjoying your little elevator trip, you'll be accompanied by several more of those cute little demon guys. In fact, they're so cute that it will make you want to just murder all of them and that's precisely what you should do!

After you hit the bottom, you'll see another passage. Inside lies a new weapon, the Vigoorian Flails. These, like the Nunchaku and Lunar, are heavily combo-oriented and are particularly useful for taking out swarms of weaker enemies at close range. Press onwards into another section of the cavern, where you'll be greeted by yet more of the bug things. Exterminate them all to meet a new enemy type: the zombies. In case you ever found yourself wondering who would win in a zombie vs. ninja battle (who hasn't?), now you can find out!

Zombies come in three types: Archers, mace-wielders and axe-bearers. They take a lot of damage, can hit very hard and have a potentially very painful grab attack should they get close. But there's one factor working heavily in your favor: these zombies are very, very slow. You can see their attacks coming long before they will hit, giving you ample time to block and dodge. You can easily hold them at bay from a distance with repeated Windmill Shuriken throws. You can even shake off their grab attack by mashing the attack buttons as fast as you can. There's lots of ways you can trounce these things without working up much of a sweat. You should, however, focus on eliminating the archers first - they like to hide near the edges of the room and try to hit you from a distance when you're not paying attention. Getting rid of them all ASAP will definitely make things better for you.

When they're all dead and re-buried, grab the Holy Grail and make with the backtracking. You can make the elevator ascend in the exact same way you made it descend - by hitting the button in the center. Along the way, you'll have the opportunity to grab another Golden Scarab and a Life of the Gods by using careful wall running and jumping in the room where you first encountered the wasp-looking things. Take a bit of time out to try and get them. Make the hike back upwards through the various tunnels and spiraling paths, taking out any enemies that may be foolish enough to cross your path. When you get back to the area labeled "Econtra Babel Specus," use the Holy Grail on the small altar you'll find there. After a short cinematic, you'll have another boss fight on your hands.

Stage 7 boss: Dragon Zombie

From this point on, the bosses and their attack patterns start to get a bit more complex. While this guy isn't as tough as some of the upcoming mega-fiends you'll be fighting, you will need to pay more attention to his movements to successfully dodge and block his attacks.

This undead lizard's weakness is its legs, which are its support pillars in this big, circular arena. He'll usually have one on the platform right in front of you and it's your duty to slash the hell out of it. There are some complications, though. For starters, our undead foe likes to launch a group of bone chunks at us as we're trying to cut its legs up. These can be blocked or dodged, but they have a nasty tendency to break Ryu's guard, so dodging is your best option. If it lifts its claw, it will attempt to swipe at Ryu with it, which will require yet another evasive maneuver. If its tail is moving, it will try to sweep you off the ground with it - again, well-timed dodging is key to avoiding it. When the boss rears its head back, that means that it's going to go for its mega-damaging bite technique. Stop whatever you're doing and focus on moving quickly, because you do not want to get caught by this at all!

Again, watching the boss's movements is key to victory. It's easy enough to attack its limbs, but if you're preoccupied with all-out aggression, you're going to be stuck taking a lot of unnecessary damage.