Just finished Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. It's really cool to see both Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden suddenly reappearing at the same time, and if you like one, I'm comfortable saying you'll like both.
That said, Ninja Gaiden definitely clears it for me. Shinobi sits at this crossroads between action platformer, metroidvania and DMC-esque hack n slash, and it's pretty good at all of them. None of them are hurting each other, but having just played an excellent action platformer in Ninja Gaiden and an excellent metroidvania in Silksong, I kind of wish it had committed more to one or the other. The game is structured as a set of levels, with some exploration in them, but certain abilities unlocked later require you to replay old levels to access some areas. Awkward for an arcade style game, and too disconnected for a metroidvania. NG has more of a concentrated purity to it.
It's interesting the areas where they're similar, too. Both games have gorgeous art (pixels from the Blasphemous devs in NG, hand-drawn for Shinobi). Both spend a little too much time on their stories (although the cutscenes, in-level interruptions and voice acting make Shinobi more annoying about this). Both have intermission "vehicle" autoscroller levels (Shinobi's feel awkward and tacked on, but NG maintains most of your core moveset). Nearly every main level in both games ends with a boss (every boss in NG is great, but Shinobi has a couple of duds). Both games even have screen-clearing special moves that charge up as you kill enemies.
The biggest point where your mileage may vary is combat. Ninja Gaiden's is simple, just a sword and a projectile. Most enemies die in one hit, but the challenge comes from the few that don't: big guys who take multiple hits, have armor and usually counterattack quickly. The best way to deal with them is by first killing enemies who have glowing auras around them, which, if killed with the proper weapon, will make your next attack supercharged and kill anything in a single hit. Encounters in Ninja Gaiden are about carefully prioritizing enemies, dashing above and around to make sure you hit the right ones with the right attacks in the right order, and don't get hit yourself in the meantime. I could see some calling it a bit simple or linear, but to me it feels like an elegant flow through a high intensity puzzle, perfectly accenting the lightning fast arcade gameplay.
Shinobi, on the other hand, takes some cues from hack n slash games with light/heavy moves, combos, and unlockable attacks in a shop. I like some games like that but they've never been my preference. What makes Shinobi interesting, however, is that attacks damage not only health but also the enemy's execution guage; which, when filled, will allow you to instantly kill that enemy with an execution attack. Your executions hit all vulnerable enemies on screen, so encounters become a dance of trying to leave each enemy not-quite-dead while dodging their swings and bullets, setting up for the perfect multi-kill. More executions in your chain causes the enemies to burst into more rewards, and it's the main thing that kept me enjoying the game all the way to the end. That said, even with some unlockable special moves and passive abilities, I don't think it's the kind of game a seasoned hack n slash player could put hundreds of hours into experimenting with. It's fun and stylish for a playthrough, but I unlocked all the moves pretty quickly and the game stopped introducing new enemies earlier than I'd have liked. It could've used a bit more meat here.
I liked Ninja Gaiden on first playthrough, but where I really came to love it was in the post-game, returning to old levels to chase high ranks. The requirements are simple and communicated clearly on the results screen: For the best rank, you need a certain time, a certain combo, a certain number of kills, every collectible, and to accomplish 3 goals unique to that level. Equipping items which make the game harder will increase your rank, up to S++. S ranks and higher require nearly perfect play, and I had a great time bashing my head on all of them until I had every S. I plan to go back and get the rest of the S++ ranks at some point - and then maybe hard mode after.
After being disappointed to not get ranks at first, I was delighted to see Shinobi actually unlocks an arcade mode at the end of the game. Unfortunately it leaves a lot to be desired. Shinobi's ranks are based on a point requirement, and while you can see a tally of points during gameplay (including kills, collectibles and secret encounters), certain factors are not revealed until the results screen, and their point contribution is not shown, making it difficult to discern where you need to improve. You get points for your highest execution chain, but only as a bonus at the end, when it seems to me like chains should offer exponentially more points per enemy killed rather than doing them one at a time, to reward riskier play. Unfortunately it's also quite exploitable; dying doesn't seem to affect your final score, and it also doesn't decrease your score when you respawn, even while resetting enemy positions. This seemed exploitable to me and googling it confirmed my fears - you get points based on how high your combo count reaches, making the ideal strategy to continually hit a single healing enemy as long as your patience holds out. One post even claimed to have gotten an S-rank despite an extremely slow and poor run just by racking the combo count to over 1000. It feels like an afterthought more than a carefully considered mode; something to pay lip service to old school fans of the arcade style Shinobi games.
I'm dunking on Shinobi a little here, but really, I want to emphasize I had a really good time with it. Shinobi has a demo on Steam, and I recommend giving it a try if it looks fun to you. I could totally see people liking it a lot more of the two; especially if you're a hack n slash fan. It's getting a DLC next year where you fight Eggman and some Sega villains, and I'll definitely be picking it up. But more than anything else, it really cemented how right they got it in Ninja Gaiden for me. Shinobi is a good game, and Ninja Gaiden is a great one. In fact, were it not for Silksong, Ninja Gaiden might honestly be my Game of the Year at this point - it's definitely better than some games I've given that title to in the past.
I'm glad I played both and I'm glad we have them here to compare to each other. I hope they both get sequels to polish off the kinks and really hone in on what works. I recommend both - it's been a pretty strong year for games, and these two still stand out as highlights.
But I'm a Ninja Gaiden guy. At least until I get brave enough to try the older ones and get viciously humbled
Thanks for reading, if you did. If you didn't, go to hell :)
