Because blocking does nothing in NG2. Outside of avoiding projectile spam, anyway. And therein is my biggest issue with NG2. In the rush to make it more "offensive" they threw the baby out with the bathwater to where it's more "Ninja May Gaiden" than a "Ninja Gaiden" game, IMO. Because now you're going to have to roll around and block projectiles and stay on the move instead of blocking and watching your opponents movements and then punishing their screw ups like NG1/NGB did.
even in NG1 hard+very hard+mn, you can get thrown or guard crushed pretty easily if block too much. but NG2 is definitely more aggressive. You can block for the quarter of a second that you need to, but then you gotta get into some invincible frames fast in the more hectic fights on mentor. I find NG2 pushes you to combine all the defensive moves into one to create your primary defense, which is pretty cool. Warrior mode is not that bad, but then again, it doesn't have projectiles all over the place.
You didn't even have to do that since you could stay the same place they placed you to fight him (though your lifebar might have made it tricky).
Volf was hilarious since you could Flying Swallow spam him to death.
the lifebar was a problem. I kept getting bit or I'd dodge the bite and get hit by his dive underwater or his jump back out afterward, which was one hit kill on me at that point.
still made it through most of the game on the og bar. Pretty much up until ch.12. I was raging so hard at the game on certain parts of ch.12-14. Game is a cakewalk, then bam, a bunch of annoying encounters. The spider ninja nests are bad ass though. Love that those guys are literally mutated spider people in NG2.
also, Sonia doesn't say anything in the last half of the game except "Ryu..." with an enchanted look in her eyes, which just doubles the rage when you can't skip cutscenes.