>>12110910
Are you blocking?

You're supposed to block attacks, the enemies aren't just fodder to hack away at.
Don't stay rooted in place though, because most enemies have grabs.
Jump on the walls.
Use Flying Swallow (jump + strong attack) to decapitate multiple people.
Use weak attack + jump to jump onto people. You see those trailing shadows? That means this jump will home onto the nearest enemy and jump onto them. Jumping onto enemies disables their block and leaves them open to whatever else you want.
Lastly, this only becomes an issue later on, but see those orbs the enemies drop? They're not just experience, they also let you charge your UB attack faster. Instead of holding strong attack for 10 seconds, you can just hold it when an orb is onscreen and charge it instantly UBs will instantly kill most enemies. They're not really necessary at the start, but when you meet fucking dinosaurs, they'll be needed.

Ayane sex.

>>12110923
Oh that's how you charge essence fast? Thanks.

>>12110942
Yes. It may feel like you're losing experience at first, but once you can use an orb to instantly kill several strong enemies, you'll see you're getting way more out of it than what you spent.

>>12110910
Just block. White and brown ninjas can't even throw you out of it. Second most important thing to learn is that you can skip the startup animation of charging an essence attack by pressing Y just as you land from a jump. Otherwise, use shurikens and wind path (Mario jumping on their head) to stagger the scarier enemies with grabs, and you will be a master ninja in no time.
>I can't see it getting easier
It does, mostly, because you get way more healing items later on and can just brute force your way through the hard parts. Getting to grips with the combat in chapter 1 is the game's steepest learning curve.

>>12110910
>old guy with nunchucks
Murai is there to teach you not to stand next to enemies with grabs. Stay outside his melee range and attack him whenever he rolls at you. When he does a telegraphed charge attack, roll through it and then attack him.

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>>12110942
>Oh that's how you charge essence fast? Thanks.
not him but INSTANT charge is hold Y right before landing from the air.
also if you hold block, essence won't auto suck in.
homing jump is good if you're lazy. (A+X). this can go into guillotine throw or flying swallow if correct range.

think of enemies as being other players in a fighting game.
play very defensive to learn movesets. its basically blocking 24/27 and learning when to roll.
some enemies can't even get past your block, you can also roll if your guard is broken by certain heavy attacks.
assuming you died 3 times and unlocked ninja dog mode, blocking/rolling and flying swallow will destroy most of the game.
later difficulties add new enemies, some even counter flying swallow because itagaki saw players were overusing it.

also shurikens are very very important. they keep ranged enemies "busy" and let you ATTACK CANCEL and freeform combos.
players get stuck on spamming "XY,XXXY" for izuna drop later but adding in shurikens can let you cancel the final X for on landing instant UT.
pressing Y and towards whatever direction simultaneously is a stand-alone launcher that can go into XXXY.
pressing X and towards whatever direction simultaneously has minor invincibility.

>>12111007
>not him but INSTANT charge is hold Y right before landing from the air.
this is the meta. instant ults using yellow orbs when landing. its way better than the combo ult from charging/blue orbs

>>12110917
are you blocking too much and being grab-bait?

>>12111013
>>12111007
>>12110923
>>12110946
Naruhodo. Instant charge, flying swallow, and shuriken. Thanks.