Shinobi: Art of Vengeance Review

When I first started to look more and more into the game, it sounded like "is this Guacamelee but it's with a ninja rather than a Lucador?" For the most part, it was that with some shake ups put in for good measure.

One thing I want to point out that while Art of Vengeance could be considered on the "easy" side, playing the game without respawning closer to the death location accessiblity option on would've soured my enjoyment if not made me apathetic towards the game. There are some very challenging platforming sections thrown in every once a while especially those involving the glider so dying at the last save point would've made those sections ungodly frustrating due to the repeated content.

Have that checked out but keeping everything the same on custom difficulty played a big role in liking the game as much as I did.

Other than that, I really enjoyed Shinobi Art of Vegenace. It's said to be a metroidvania but it's more of a metroidvania lite than a full on game in the genre due to the level based structure.

It is interested how the game never tells you where exactly to go but it still feels like there is a good direction of where I'm supposed to go due to the compact nature of the levels and the objectives themselves being very clear.

Platforming feels very smooth and responsive however trying to master the wall run after touching it by holding x can feel very tricky to get down consistently especially when the final escape sequence in the castle forces you to master this move in order to get past it. This can feel jarring since in the main story, this move can either be ignore and can be done casually to get by.

Any platforming section involving gliding and avoiding spikes can really feel like a fiendish jump in difficulty due to how careful you must be not to touch a tiny pixel of any spikes.

The movement system can also feel very nice chaining jumps into dashes into grapples. It can feel very Guacamelee but I don't mind since the level based stucture can make it stand out. Apart of me would've liked to have seen an attempt to have a variation on the enemy bouncing system from The Messenger and Ninja Gaiden Ragebound since the platforming sections with enemies doesn't feel as smooth in those games since they are more like obstacles that are in your way rather using them to quickly get to the next platform.

Speaking of that Guacamelee, there are forced combat encounters and they can be pretty enjoyable. It does try to be more like Devil May Cry and 3D beat em ups focused on style where there's a lot of moves that don't feel very practical in the movement and an emphasis on high combo counters. It does have Guacamelee's focus on crowd control which I really like and prioritizing certain enemies particularly enemies that throw projectiles.

One gripe I do have is that shield enemies with purple aura can take too long to take down when widdling away at their health. They are more tedious to fight due to how much HP they have and how little HP you have when hit by them.

Bosses are mostly solid, some being harder than others. Chiyo surprisingly being a pushover due to how much build up she got prior to her fight. Ruse being the hardest due to the game breaking it's rules at the end where you don't finish the boss off after depleting his health the first time. Kijima is my favorite in a lot of ways due to trying to avoid his sword while also trying to get hits in.

Overall, that's Shinobi Art of Vengeance. I had low expectations considering how much I wasn't big on Ninja Gaiden Ragebound but I ended up enjoying this a lot more.