The Situation
Ninjas have the option of either doing a regular attack (blue squigglies) or a multi-swing move (yellow squigglies). Picking the appropriate response is simple enough when you have the squigglies to go by, but on New Game +, it's a bit trickier.
Solutions I don't really like
- Jump over heads. This is an appropriate response to just about everything, which makes it boring.
- Wait for the problem to go away. Story mode just doesn't have enough ninjas in it for your ninja-fighting skills to make a big difference.
- Blade dodge when one ninja attacks and multi-counter when several of them come at you at once. A blade dodge against a single regular attack will become a counter, and multiple simultaneous attacks have to be regular swings. This is what I try to do, but I'd like to be more awesome.
The Question
Is there a difference in their movements you can use to tell what kind of attack is coming, so you can tailor your response to their attack instead of using tactics where it doesn't matter what they do?
Best Answer
Well over time you will learn their animation pattern - for example if ninja is jumping from some other guy's shoulders, it's normal attack.
But in any case, if you press counter + direction, it will work either way. If it was normal attack, you will counter, if it was blade attack, you've just dodged the first one and have to repeat.
To perform dodge takedown, which looks more awesome, you must release the counter button between swings