Mutants, ninjas and an eccentric storyline…

by Betheo

© 2009 Beth Sasagi

In the epic battle of Pirates vs. Ninjas, I have always been a pirate person. I just feel a rapport with the swashbuckling, treasure hording scoundrels, but with From Software’s release of Ninja Blade I have begun to question certain aspects of this timeless battle.

Namely, why don’t pirates get to battle gargantuan mutant spiders?

A brief  ‘G. U. I. D. E.’ to the Ninja way

To give you a basic grounding in the Ninja Blade story, evil parasites, known as ‘Alpha-Worms’ have, in the past, infected a small town in Africa, either killing the inhabitants, or transforming them into hideous creatures known as carriers.

• Ninja Blade Initial Cutscene & gameplay

Of course, these, now insane and mutated survivors turned on the researches holding them, and then, as they seem to enjoy doing, the military ‘sanitized’ the site (yes, they bombed it).

It was at this point that the powers that be decided that secrecy was the key, and establishing a secret organization became necessary to deal with any future outbreaks.

Cut to the present game and you are standing in the soft-soled shoes of Ken Ogawa, a top ninja/soldier in G. U. I. D. E. or, Global United Infestation Detection and Elimination as he and the other soldiers await drop off in Tokyo City from a large transport plane flying overhead.

To start off with, Ninja Blade is nice looking game that, as far as I am concerned, is worthy to sit up with the big boys as far as the visuals go.

The graphics are fairly impressive with the in-game visuals differing very little from the cinematic cut scenes. The biggest part of the game (graphically speaking) that I was impressed with was the cut scene which explained the background of the ‘Alpha-Worm’ and the carriers which consisted of brief images and very flashy scientific images of cells and skin suffering from, wait for it, Necrotizing Fasciitis (yeah, that’s flesh eating bacteria).

Although the quick-time scenes where the swift pressing, or constant mashing of buttons did become a little tiring, the actions that took place with them was more than enough to keep me playing.

Ninjutsu: How make your sword bigger in 7 days

The weaponry of the game is at first glance, the very staple of ninja myth, with a katana named the Oni-Slayer Blade and a shuriken.

That staple ends pretty fast, when, flying (falling) through the air, your master throws to you, yes, throws, a pair of whip like duel wielded swords, ‘mystically’ named Twin Falcon Knives, which have the effect of what appears to be ‘bitch-slapping’ your opponents. They are weak, but they are incredibly fast.

The next weapon hurled in your direction (literally) is the gargantuan sword aptly named, the Stonerender Sword, which, with little effort, is able to obliterate the armor wielding ‘carriers’ with a few crushing blows. The shuriken in itself appears to be little more than a pretty basic tool.

Upon closer inspection, this little piece of swirling metal is revealed as an elemental colossus as it blows your opponent away with hurricane force winds, scorches your foes to the bone with waves of fire, or shocks the surrounding enemies with storms of lightning.

The use of a special ability titled, ‘Ninja Vision’, is very useful when facing off against large boss enemies and you really need to spot their weak spots. The Ninja vision also allows you to see weak points and clear paths you need to run on when, in the many times in the game, Ken needs to haul butt out of there before he is left as bug-meat.

The leveling system is something reminiscent of older Role Playing Games (RPG’s) and Japanese Role Playing Games (JRPG’s) of the late nineties, as with each boss level battle experience points are handed out.  The ability to upgrade Ninjutsu techniques and your weapons allows for a greater freedom in terms of battling your opponents.

Leveling Up – akin to RPG’s

As you advance in levels, you are given the option to upgrade certain weapons and abilities any time within the game.

Upgrading weaponry leads to increased speed or power, a new set of available moves and the added bonus of a physical change in your weapons.

Upgrading your Ninjutsu, or you shuriken results in an increase in ‘Ninja Vision’ and the power of the shuriken itself.

The use of the upgrade system is very useful as any leftover points can be put towards the next level up on a weapon or Ninjutsu, allowing you to send those last dozen or so points to your sword so they just don’t sit there, or else they can just be left in the experience pool and saved for another time.

Although not as important as weapon upgrades (or perhaps even more important depending on your priorities…) is the ability to change your clothing. From the basic neo-ninja apparel to yakuza style pin stripe suits, the outfit types were fun to play with but perhaps the best thing to do was to change the color of the clothing.

From a gothic ninja, to a referee ninja to a ninja who looked as if he had been thrown up on by a five-year-old after they downed an entire box of crayons, the choices were truly limitless. Face it, watching a serious ninja battle a gigantic mutant leach in bright pink and white armor is probably one of those little joys in games that developers tend to overlook.

The combat system in the game is hard to fault; fast weapons for your fast enemies, heavy weapons for the armored ones and your stock standard weapon for the stock standard enemies. The physics involved are very neat and feel as if they have been polished well as enemies are knocked over or your character is forced to charge out of the way of an attack.

You’re my WHAT now?

The storyline is, for lack of a better word, odd.

The premise of the game is quite sound (except for the ninja part) and the basic idea of mutants and parasites sits well with most people used to the plethora of these in TV shows, films and games.

But the small, yet startling revelation early in the game doesn’t leave you shocked, or even empathetic for poor Ken Ogawa: it just leaves you plain confused. And sitting there wondering (or shouting in my case): what the hell?

Perhaps the basic idea was solid when this big surprise was announced, and maybe (I doubt it) I misinterpreted the entire first mission within the game and therefore was confused by the brief cinematic revelation.

If it’s not already obvious, I’m not going blab the little in-game drama as you my not have played the game, and, like a book, probably don’t want to know the entire plot line.

Suffice to say, idea good, execution, really, really weird.

Voice acting throughout the game was a little inconsistent, sometimes it appeared that the actors were working well together and the writing crew had done marvelously, other times, it felt as if the lines were pulled from the tackiest scene in any action movie.

Although the acting was a little annoying, I was thoroughly impressed with the use of both the Japanese and English language throughout the game where it was most appropriate.

When two people were speaking privately, they switched to Japanese, otherwise, group wide discussions were left to English, which felt a little more realistic than the sometimes over the top American accents.

This is a game worth playing more than once.  The gameplay is fast and flowing, the graphics are well up to scratch and the leveling systems allow a great amount of freedom. On the downside, the quick-time events do grow a little old and the acting is grating after a point and could be better.

Overall, Ninja Blade is a good game with some little things that will get under people’s skin after a while, but are easy to put up with in the long run.

© 2009 Beth Sasagi

“8.5/10

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