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He’s back from the dead and is threatening to destroy all of Japan, starting with Hokkaido. Does Musashi have what it takes to defeat this evil spirit? Players are going to have to jump into Ganryu 2: Hakuma Kojiro to find out. These tips should make the fight against the dead a bit easier.
8 Be Prepared For A Challenge
If players are hoping for a vast amount of difficulties to check out, think again. There are no assist features in Ganryu 2: Hakuma Kojiro as well. There aren’t many settings in general unless players care about adjusting their music and sound effects volumes.
Ganryu 2 is a brutal callback to the good old days of arcade games. The only way to succeed is to “git gud” which can be enticing for hardcore gamers.
7 Learning The Controls
There are no controller settings in the menu either. There isn’t even a tutorial. Ganryu 2 is one of those types of games where players have to learn by physically testing out each button.
Let’s go over the PS4 controller as an example: Square shoots kunai, Triangle slashes Musashi’s sword, and Circle is a dash. All attacks can block incoming attacks as long as players time their moves right. Before jumping into war, check out the controller to get comfortable.
6 Jumping Off Walls
Players can double jump and dash in the air. These moves are great for platforming around obstacles or enemies. Musashi can also climb up walls sort of like Samus’ move set in Super Metroid.
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To get up walls quickly, players can jump away from them and then dash back with that button. It makes climbing a lot easier. Also, on the subject of walls, some can be destroyed with a normal swing of the sword. There are secrets around every corner in Ganryu 2.
5 Hit Lights And Posts
Sometimes it’s hard to tell if video games allow for destructibility in their environments. Ganryu 2 does. Players should keep an eye out for posts, urns, torches, and so on. All of these objects and more can be destroyed. Most objects found within won’t do anything besides raising the player’s score.
This doesn’t translate to any kind of spendable currency, making the score somewhat useless. However, players should still destroy everything on the rare chance they find items like food for healing or extra kunai.
4 Always Be Dashing
Ganryu 2 is sort of like the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Technically, those games are platformers; however, the goal is not to take one’s time delicately platforming over obstacles. The point of the series is to go fast.
That’s how Musashi controls as well. It’s a better idea to dash through levels to make it to bosses as soon as possible. With practice, players can parkour their way through stages with their eyes closed.
3 Watch Enemies
Most of the normal ninja-like enemies in Ganryu 2: Hakuma Kojiro can be dispatched in a single hit with the sword or kunai. However, some enemies are a bit more brutish than that. For example, in the first stage, there is a giant green ogre with a polearm.
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If players try to hit it, all attacks will be deflected. Enemies like that should be observed. Learn the enemy’s move sets to get in close for the kill. For players that like to use more brute force tactics, some can be paralyzed if they are dashed into. Either strategy works in Ganryu 2.
2 Defeating The First Boss
Studying the first boss’ moves is a good strategy, however, since this game is brutal, here is how to defeat him. The rest of the bosses are up to other players to figure out. The first boss, an adept red ninja, starts by throwing kunai. Eventually, he will roll and attack players to get to the other side of the map before throwing kunai again.
After that, he will jump in the air, throw kunai, land on the other side, and then throw bombs before going back to his original strategy. Players could throw kunai opposite of the boss’ position. They could also go in close to strike with the sword while ducking when the boss is throwing kunai overhead. Either strategy for this ninja/samurai game is sound.
1 Extra Lives And Length
Players may not realize this, but there are extra lives in Ganryu 2: Hakuma Kojiro. Once the player’s lives are all depleted and they get a game over screen, they have to restart from scratch no matter how many checkpoints they passed. The game is short so it is doable to finish in a single sitting.
Extra lives have almost been entirely destroyed in the industry as well as games that force players to finish them in a single run. The only genre that still does this is roguelikes. Ganryu 2 couldn’t be farther from a roguelike though.
Ganryu 2: Hakuma Kojiro was released on April 22, 2022 and is available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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