SEGA's new side-scrolling Metroidvania is one of the most beautiful games ever made. With enchanting art direction, an incredible pseudo-2D style, and music straight out of heaven, we might just have the crown jewel of pretty games.
However, with a lot of caveats in its level design, various inconsistencies, but nevertheless awesome combat and fights, SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance provides a complete experience marred with small flaws that quickly add up.
Here is our full review.
The infernal path of vengeance
In SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance, you play as Joe Musashi (I know, the name is just pure comedy, but his story is anything but), a man stemming from the Oboro Clan. One day, his clan is attacked by the evil ENE Corp, an organization headed by one Ruse, who is hellbent on dominating the world and will stop at nothing to achieve that.
He perceives the Oboro Clan and Musashi as crucial barriers to his global dominance and strikes them preemptively. The majority of Musashi's clan is decimated, leaving him to pursue a path of pure rage and vengeance, where he will not stop until Ruse and his ENE Corp are history.
Following Musashi, you progress through various stages and locations in the game's universe, with significant variance between them. The story is simple yet effective at driving you forward, giving you a higher purpose to beat each individual stage. After clearing all the stages in a zone, you progress to a bonus stage, usually meant for giving you extra gold and upgrades, but also to drive the story forward in the most cinematic way imaginable.
Speaking of the stages, they're variably designed as metroidvania levels, with Soulslike checkpoints (i.e., bonfires) scattered throughout. Though it takes a lot from both Metroid and Soulslike design philosophies, SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance remains a beat-'em-up at its core.
With Musashi, you face off with various ENE Corp minions and ultimately the organization's many bosses, with some recognizable to those who have played previous SHINOBI titles. I, for one, never have, having not indulged in SEGA's games growing up (well, at least not this particular line of them).
Even so, SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance is a standalone story with an easy-to-follow plot, allowing newcomers to experience it without a hitch.
Visually breathtaking
The strongest point of SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance is certainly its art style. It utilizes a pseudo-2D perspective, which presents the game as a traditional 2D side-scroller, but actually has a 3D environment underneath. This perspective crossover allows the game to have incredible fluidity in motion, especially in how the backgrounds behave while you're moving across the stage.
Its use of strong, sharp colors also comes off as striking, both during gameplay when things are heating up and being as flashy as they can be and those moments of respite where you've just beaten a boss. Its whole art direction comes together so well that no bit of graphical fidelity can be criticized or negatively spoken of, and that's quite the statement.
What I found the most appealing and cool (and SHINOBI's cool factor is just off the charts most of the time) were the drawings of Musashi and whatever boss he is facing, like a fighting game card of sorts. No matter which boss was on those cards, they never failed to amaze me and inspire a level of awe I haven't had in a long while, and especially not while playing a side-scroller.
All in all, SHINOBI will easily go down in gaming history as one of the industry's most visually stunning games, and I sincerely hope it ends up winning some awards at least on that front.
Unreal combat, frustrating desings
Almost equal to its visual fidelity, SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance's combat is another strong point. It provided me with some of the most fun in a side-scroller ever, and perhaps even in the action genre altogether. There are tons of combos, each hit feels visceral and crispy, and chaining together multiple attacks on several enemies has unreal vibes.
It's the type of combat where things sometimes just click in succession, leading to your juggling the opponent like a football, all the while listening to those sharp sounds the SEGA team poured its heart and soul into. However, as opposed to some other combo-oriented games, Art of Vengeance does not really punish you for mashing, and the game's combos appear to have been tailored precisely to allow for immense fun and experience the “click” even in that scenario.
Musashi has several types of weapons at his disposal. His primary is the katana, which he can use in various ways and chain combos for maximum effect. Additionally, he has Kunai knives, Ninpo techniques (basic spells that spend a Ninjutsu bar, charged through combat), and Ninjutsu, which come by way of Musashi's vengeful rage.
All of these abilities and weapons have streamlined usage and situations in which they're most effective. For example, the Shuriken Ninpo is great for destroying enemies' armor, while Flaming Breath is great for dealing tons of damage quickly. The art style on them, too, is breathtaking, especially when it comes to the Ninjutsu arts, which have their own unique mini-cutscenes each.
However, where the stellar nature of the combat is cut short are various inconsistencies in level design, enemy placement, spawn rates, and rates of fire. Frustrations tend to stem from enemies spawning in groups too large to handle, with various defensive buffs that make them nigh unkillable, or having to seemingly get hit on purpose to cross a big gap guarded by ranged enemies.
The inconsistencies in how enemies behave, where they stand, and how powerful they are significantly detract from the overall experience and have led me to almost ragequitting on multiple occasions. Being forced into getting hit purposely or avoiding combat and enemies altogether isn't fun, and should be looked into by SEGA for subsequent patches.
As for level design, the game does not know if it wants to have a full Metroidvania experience or be a regular 2D side-scroller with sporadic secrets. Some maps are complex and massive and very much Super Metroid experiences, while others have a vibe that the only way is forward.
Additionally, secrets on maps tend to be locked behind various mechanics that you unlock only after beating them, making exploration inorganic and a conscious decision, which halts your progression. This means exploration tends to be more of a chore than part of the gameplay, aimed apparently at completionist types, rather than the average player.
Even so, the maps are significantly varied, and no level feels the same, which is always welcome.
Despite its occasional flaws and inconsistencies, as well as a story that isn't all too deep, SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance by far remains one of the best action-packed experiences I've played this year, as well as one of the better side-scrollers.
The post SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance Review — Enchantingly beautiful, brutally fun appeared first on Destructoid.
