| Wooden Sword / Unlabored Flawlessness | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Strength | Low (Wooden Sword) High/Very High (Unlabored Flawlessness) |
| Speed | Medium (Wooden Sword) Low (Unlabored Flawlessness) |
| Range | Medium (Wooden Sword) High (Unlabored Flawlessness) |
| Maximum Level | 7 |
| First Appearance | |
| Debut | Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) |
The Wooden Sword is a wooden training sword. Its move list resembles that of the Dragon Sword, but it can only strike, cannot perform Essence/Ultimate Techniques, and cannot decapitate, in addition to lacking several other moves of the Dragon Sword. This weapon can be upgraded 7 times.
When fully upgraded, the Wooden Sword's visual appearance changes to resemble an eku (an oar used for combat in Okinawan Kobudo) called Unlabored Flawlessness. The Unlabored Flawlessness has a unique ability to it; when the user is at low health (under 25% health), the characters imprinted on the back of the weapon begin to glow, signifying an increase in the weapon's power. The lower the character's health, the more powerful the weapon becomes. Damage is increased by 150% when the user is just under 25% health. Damage is increased by 200% when the user has the least amount of health possible. When the character is low in health, the Unlabored Flawlessness does the most damage out of any weapon in the game.
Description
Wooden Sword
Unlabored Flawlessness
Source
The Wooden sword can be bought from Muramasa at any point in the original Ninja Gaiden game and in all versions of the original Ninja Gaiden. The unlabored Flawlessness is obtained by fully upgrading the wooden sword.
Moves List
Wooden Sword
Normal
- Crimson Slash: X, X, X
- Tiger's Roar: X, X, Y
- Fiend's Bane Kick: X, X, Right X, X
- Early Winter Rain: X, X Right X, Y
- Blade of the Undefeatable: Y
- Sweeping Kick: Right X
- Scarlet Dragon: Right Y
- Earth Slide: (While running) X
- Thunderclap Kick: (While running) Y
- Fiend's Bane Kick: (While blocking) X, X
- Gleaming Cross: (While blocking) Y
- Fiend Sealer: Y next to downed enemy
In Air
- Blade of the Empty Air: X
- Helmet Splitter: Y
- Air Destruction Slash: Forward + X
- Falling Dragon Blade: Forward + Y
- Guillotine Throw: (Jumping over enemy) Y
On Wall
- Cicada Slash: X or Y
- Divine Cicada Slash: (During Flying Bird Flip) X or Y
In Water
- Ripple Slash: (Floating on water surface) X or Y
- Wave Reverser: (Floating on water surface) X, X or Y, Y
- Gleaming Water Dragon: (Underwater) X or Y
- Floating Blade: (Underwater) X, X or Y, Y
Note that the Wooden Sword cannot perform Ultimate Techniques.
Unlabored Flawlessness
Normal
- Flaming Hell Slash: X, X, Y
- Flying Dragon Falling Slash: X, Y, X, X, X, X
- Izuna Drop: X, Y, X, X, X, Y
- Forest Fires and Mountain Winds: X, Hold Y, Y
- Boulder Splitter: Y
- Steel Splitter: Hold Y
- Tempered Steel Splitter: Hold Y (Essence Technique)
- Earth Splitter: Hold Y (Ultimate Technique)
- Hundred Demon's Bite: Right X
- Flaming Whirlwind: Right Y
- Reigning Spiral: X or Y (While blocking)
- Hundred Man Slash: Circle Y
- Corpse Crusher: Y next to downed enemy
In Air
- Flying Dragon Slash: X, X, X, X
- Izuna Drop: X, X, X, Y
- Avalanche Drop: Y
Trivia
- Has the most upgrade slots from any weapon in any game.
- Although the Wooden sword is the weakest weapon, it turns into (potentially) the strongest weapon.
- The Unlabored Flawlessness deals massive knockback to smaller enemies.
- In the right hands, the Unlabored Flawlessness, using its low-health trick, can act as a game-breaker, rendering almost all challenging enemies in the game useless. This technique requires the user to be incredibly good at blocking and dodging because one slip-up can mean death for Ryu.
- It is the only heavy weapon to be capable of performing aerial attacks/Izuna drop in the original Ninja Gaiden and its remakes.
- A possible, though unlikely, precursor for the Enma's Fang (aerial attacks/Izuna drop combined with heavy ground attacks).
- The Kanji on the Unlabored Flawlessness reads 天衣無縫 or "Ten I Mu Hou", which when translated essentially means "Perfect beauty with no trace of artifice", or simply, "Flawless".
- When fully upgraded it is a reference to Miyamoto Musashi's famous duel where he used a bokken (wooden sword) carved out of a boat oar against Sasaki Kojirō.[1]
- In the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Gun Runners' Arsenal, one of the added weapons is a katana, whose special attack references the Unlabored Flawlessness.
References
Gallery
