Alma

Alma
Race	Fiend
Nationality	Vigoorian
Gender	Female
Professional Status
Affiliation	Vigoor
Rank	Greater Fiend
Personal Status
Relatives	Rachel (sister)
First Appearance
Debut	Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
Voices

Alma is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Gamov) of Ninja Gaiden. She is one of the Five Greater Fiends of the Holy Vigoorian Empire, along with Doku, Marbus, Ishtaros, and Nicchae. She is also the younger twin sister of the Fiend Hunter Rachel.

She is a recurring boss in Ninja Gaiden, and its enhanced versions, fought twice, at the end of "Chapter 9: Hidden Underground" and "Chapter 16: Fiendish Awakening". Alma also appears as a boss in Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, in one of the Tests of Valor as well in some Ninja Trials.

Appearance

In her original fiend form, Alma has pink skin and huge wings on her head, as well a tentacle-like green hair. Her body is covered in jewelry, with golden bands on her arms, legs and waist. In her awakened form, Alma's skin becomes purple and her lower body takes on a centipede-like appearance.

In her human form, Alma looks exact like Rachel, given they're twins, although with a bob-cut instead of a ponytail.

History

Early history

Alma was the twin sister of Rachel, once a kind-hearted and innocent girl. But when Doku untapped the potential of her cursed vigoorian blood, corrupting and transforming her into a Greater Fiend, and became greatly favored by both Doku and Gamov. Enraged, Rachel became a fiend hunter and made a vow and duty to kill Alma and free her soul.

Ninja Gaiden

During Ryu Hayabusa's incursion into Tairon, the heart of the Vigoorian Empire, he encounters Alma at the Dworku Monastery after returning from the depths of the catacombs below. After Ryu defeats Alma, Rachel, appears and prepares to deliver the finishing blow, but is unable to kill her own sister. Alma's vanishes and retreats. After Ryu leaves the monastery, Doku shows up and kidnaps Rachel.

Once Ryu reaches the pyramid, Doku uses Rachel to awaken Alma, which unleashes her true strength, although she is once again defeated by the dragon ninja. Doku prepares to kill Rachel and convert her into a fiend, and during this moment, Alma snaps out of Doku's control and regain a bit of her humanity, jumping between Doku and Rachel and ultimately sacrificing herself to save her sister. Alma reverts into her human form and dies in Rachel's arms.

First Battle

Alma will remain most of the time in the high in the air, hovering around Ryu. She is very agile and can easily dodge direct attacks. In Ninja Gaiden Black, Sigma and Sigma Plus, Alma receives help from two Shadow Fiends, which will be summoned again once she reaches certain health thresholds; the higher the difficulty, the more powerful the fiends will be; in the Master Ninja difficulty they'll be Crow Shadow Demons.

She'll often start the fight by launching a volley of homing energy spheres, which will break Ryu's guard and deal a small amount of damage. She can also use telekinesis and lob pillars towards Ryu, which are unblockable and will knock him down if they hit. On higher difficulty levels, both her energy volley and flying pillars attacks will be more powerful; she'll launch a higher number of spheres and pillars, making harder to dodge. She'll often use these attacks when the player is far away from her.

While Ryu is in mid-range distance, she'll either use a dive attack, where she'll fly low towards Ryu, or use a dive kick on the ground; both these attacks will launch Ryu in the air if hitting directly; both can be blocked, but will break his guard. After the dive kick, Alma will fight on the ground, where she can use a series of punches and kicks, as well a grab attack that will slam Ryu on the ground. She'll fly back to the air after some time or after dodging a player attack.

Alma's most dangerous attack is her beam of light grab, where she'll hover towards Ryu while enveloped in light; if she reaches him, Ryu will be pulled upwards and them slammed on the ground. This attack cannot be blocked and deals massive damage.

Strategy

The best weapon to deal with Alma is the Dragon Sword, thanks to its Flying Swallow technique, which is the most reliable way to knock her down. Alma will often dodge the Flying Swallow and retaliate with attacks, so the player should be ready to dodge. After knocking her down, the player can use Blade of Nirrti (X, Y, X, X, X, X) to launch her in the air and deal a lot of damage.

Ideally, the player should remain in mid-range to bait her diving attacks, since her energy volley and flying pillar attacks are devastating, specially in higher difficulties, since the high numbers makes them hard to dodge. Alma is often in her most vulnerable state during her aerial dive attack or right after using her dive kick and moving to the ground. If she uses her beam of light grab, the player should dodge away as quick as possible.

Second Battle

Awakaned Alma

When becoming Awakened, Alma retains most of her moves, although unable to use her beam of light grab; instead she can grab and crushing Ryu with her lower body. She also has a descent rush and a massive fireball, which she must charge. In this form she'll have more attacks while on the ground, and may favor them over her flying ones.

Strategy

In this form she is Cheap as fuck. Alma can block Ryu's Flying Swallow with her hard shell, making it less reliable. Given her higher mobility, the player can't use heavy weapons. or light weapons . Or anything. Good luck dodging projectiles for the next thirty minutes on any harder difficulty. The boss fight is random chance to deal damage and she has an unseeable , unbreakable grab. The Best strat is to spam flying swallow in the hopes that you will end up getting a good knockdown for free damage. Do not use Ultimate Techniques (UT) as they are widely unreliable.

NG1: Alma human form

NG1: Alma (pink fiend form)

Alma transforming.

Alma prior to becoming fully awakened.

Alma fully awakened.

Awakened Alma defeated.

Trivia

• Alma was the second Greater Fiend Ryu battled against. The first one being Doku after Hayabusa Village, whom he failed against.
  • However, in the original and Black versions of the game, she is the first Greater Fiend that the player can fight directly, since the fight with Doku was a cutscene. This was changed in the Sigma version, which made Doku fightable in Chapter 2.
• Alma is notoriously known in the community as one of the hardest bosses in the original Xbox game.