Players take on the role of Goh the Crow, a ninja belonging to the Asuka clan. Unfortunately for Crow, he’s had a nasty bout of amnesia, unable to remember his past. On the bright side, his memories have been contained in various soul gems – if he collects them all, he should have total recall. But, it’s not that simple, as each of the gems are scattered around the region of Utakata. Of course, three Japanese warlords – Ichijo, Sadame and Akame – are at war, all vying for control of the region. In exchange for helping them out, they will help Crow track down his soul gems. It’s a fairly complex story, but it starts fitting together quite well once you get into it.
Matt's 'jokes' typically get this response.
Way of the Ninja is structured around Crow’s home – a broken down hut. There he can buy/sell equipment, listen to advice, read letters, and, most importantly, decide what mission he will choose next. All three warlords will send Crow missions on a regular basis – usually there’s around six available at a time, so there’s plenty of choice as to what to do next. When Crow completes a mission for a warlord, as well as paying him, they will have more respect for him, giving him more important missions. It’s up to the player to decide whether to be an equal opportunity ninja, working for all warlords, or stick to just the one. You must remember that if you are caught interfering in another warlords affairs, they will lose respect for you. One thing worth mentioning is how few actual levels there are in the game – there’s a forest, a few towns and not much else. This becomes evident when a town is full of allies on one mission, and the exact same town HATES you on the next one – despite working for the same warlord.
As Way of the Ninja is more or less a stealth game, these missions are usually of the ‘sneak through this village/forest and kill this person/steal this item’ mould. But, there is some versatility here. While stealth kills are always the best case scenario, the fighting mechanics are good enough to allow Crow to fend off several attackers at once, if the player is up to it – no more instant death, ala Tenchu. So, expect to have plenty of ‘guard this item/kill all these people’ missions too. However, there is one mission type that is ridiculous. These involve transporting/stealing objects. Apparently, in feudal Japan, everyone stored their documents in oversized boxes made of steel – instead of taking out the piece of paper, the game forces Crow to carry the box throughout the level, completely restricting his mobility. As well as being a logic flaw, this puts a severe dampener on the game, as Crow’s mobility is the most fun part of the game.
Crow can jump ridiculously long distances, run along walls, grab onto ledges – you name it, our shadowy hero can do it. Aiding him here is the trusty grappling hook, which basically means that there is no building that Crow cannot climb. Running throughout the towns leaping from rooftop to rooftop before dropping to the ground behind an enemy for a stealth kill is tremendous fun. Combat controls are basic – square is the only attack button. You can string together three hit combos, although more become available later in the game. There’s also an array of dodging maneuvers and a one button finishing move, but this can only be performed when an enemy is weak.
Crow faces off against the fearsome cat ninja.
The controls are far from perfect, though – they generally always feel a bit stiff. Crow has a habit of trying to run across a wall when you want him to grab it. Jumping when running is not very natural. Hell, trying to turn when running at full speed is a bit like trying to drift in Project Gotham Racing. Despite being a stealth game, movement is digital – moving the stick in any direction sends Crow into a sprint. You can hold R1 to centre the camera behind Crow and move at a slower pace, but this is still unacceptable. When in the midst of a battle, if you press L1 to lock on to a target, it’s hard to tell who exactly you are targeting – you might end up killing an ally. Why not have some sort of marker above the head of your target? Then there’s the item controls. You can assign four items to each of R2 and L2 – holding one of these buttons, then pressing the corresponding face button will let you use one of the items. But, try doing this when locked on to an enemy and moving slow – you’ll have to be holding four buttons, PLUS move the analog. And these are just a few examples – you’ll find more equally annoying control quirks in the game. But, despite a complete lack of refinement, they still allow for some fun.
Shinobido: Way of the Ninja is a pretty lengthy game, thanks to its open-ended nature. You’d have play the game through several times to see the how each warlord reacts to you working for/against them – although, chances are you probably won’t. There are also different difficulty levels, should you feel like an extra challenge. Aside from the campaign, the only additional content comes in the form of a mission editor – but this won’t engage too many people, to be honest.
Now for the worst part of Way of the Ninja – the camera. It’s dreadful. Awful. Hopeless. It is as if it’s from the early 3D days. It’s slow, unresponsive, stiff, prone to getting stuck on walls, moving when you don’t want it to – you name it, the camera sucks at it. It makes the game borderline unplayable at times – particularly when you’re closing in for a stealth kill, only for the camera to fill your screen with the wall of the building, leaving you exposed. But, the visuals get worse. Despite this being 2006 (the game came out last year in Japan, but there’s still no excuse) there’s an awful lot of fogging. Seriously. The draw distance is one of the smallest we’ve seen in quite some time, and it makes it hard to tell if your pursuers are following you, or whether you’ve managed to lose them in the fog. Animation is choppy, and town environments are surprisingly sparse, with the exception of guards.
Superman was a ninja, you know.
So, being feudal Japan, you’d think there’d be subtitles or, at worst, Japanese accents, right? Wrong. There are plenty of inappropriate American accents, of course, but it gets worse. For what has to be a first, Way of the Ninja has Japanese ninjas with a BRITISH accent. We are not kidding. The most obvious is one particular rival ninja who looks like a fearsome cyborg… Then trots out what is a half pirate, half British accent. Despite killing any immersion you may have had in the game, it is absolutely hilarious.
Despite being enjoyable a lot of the time, Shinobido: Way of the Ninja suffers from what appears to be a small budget, and lack of development time. The basic gist of the game – helping warlords in their quest for domination by jumping from rooftop to rooftop – is fantastic and good fun for a while. But, ultimately, the game’s many problems start become really bothersome. For example, when the tenth enemy appears out of the fog to catch you and ruin your mission. When you spend a few minutes fighting the camera for a better look around the corner. When you crack up laughing at yet another inappropriate accent. It’s fun, but too flawed for most to bother with. A good weekend rental, but not much more.
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