Score
Gameplay:	7
Graphics:	7
Sound:	7
FunFactor:	6
PlasmaFactor:	6
Overall:	6.6

Ninja Blade Review
May 8, 2009 by Jereme Puik

Looking eerily similar to Team Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden, From Software’s Ninja Blade takes everything about the hack/slash genre and tries to form it into its own entity. When it was first unveiled at TGS about a year ago, the first impression seemed to be that it was a Ninja Gaiden rip-off and really had nothing going for it other than its own story set in modern-day Tokyo. The game mixes fast hack and slash action and large scale boss fights with an unthinkable amount of quick time events. If you looking for great B-movie action hack and slash of the ninja kind should Ninja Blade be first on your list?

Gameplay

Ninja Blade follows the story of Ken Ogawa, after an alpha-alien worm infestation takes over the city of modern-day Tokyo to the point that it was out of the governments hands to control. Ken Ogawa is part of an elite ninja force established to be on-call for these types of catastrophic events. Ogawa under the watchful guide of his master must learn the skills to overcome the massive beasts with the infamous Ninja Blade. However during a twist of events, Ken’s father, leader of the elite force, uses the Ninja Blade against him and leaves him for dead. Ken must now gather composure and fight on to eliminate the alpha worms in Tokyo and restore peace to the city while unlocking the secrets of the Ninja Blade and discovering his own blood to master the Ninja Blade. It’s a story worthy of a B-movie you get from Hollywood these days, which seems to be exactly what From Software was hoping for including a rather overly excited American who guides you through your adventure. It’s a pretty entertaining experience albeit in the cheesy sense.

The game guides you through 9 mission chapters through Tokyo rooftops, infected tunnels and more. The game no doubt puts all its effort into the cinematic quick-time events which are advertised on the box. You’ll be fighting through 3-4 boss fights per level and with save points practically non-existent except after bosses, expect to be sitting through the game for at least an hour, if not more during each session. Most of the levels are pretty repetitive and none is a bigger victim of this then mission 7 where there’s even an achievement for it called “Déjà vu”. You’re weapon types are composed of 3 sword types and 3 ninjutsu spells. Your standard katana helps carry you through most situations and there is also a pair of twin-knives that’ll cut up anything in its path ten times over. Finally there’s the heavy stone render which you’ll be using a lot in boss fights to cut down armor and obviously heavy material. While you’ll get to use the ninja blade itself over time, it unfortunately drains your health because you are not the blood type needed to take hold of the swords power. You’ll end up utilizing more of your secondary weapons then anything else.

Ken is offered 3 different elemental powers. These include a wind spell to disband flames, a fire spell to destroy objects and distract enemies, and lightning to stun enemies. There is a tiny upgrade system that’ll help you make yourself stronger over time and helps you gain the experience needed to take on the enemies in the later levels. There are collectibles throughout each level aside from health orbs, but there really isn’t much for you to go out of your way to look for. With health gems helping you regain health, blood gems dropped from defeated enemies will help you upgrade your ninjutsu. Inside the game there is quite an entertaining costume editor. You can come up with something as wacky as a clown outfit to fit on Ken. This doesn’t really affect the value of the game at all, just a little fun fact to think about. With a run time of around 9-10 hours, it’s about as average as an action game can be and the repetitive level design doesn’t help much to boost its replayability.

The game is pretty straight forward; you’ll be hacking and slashing your way through countless monsters to advance. You’ll be traversing through each level by wall running, grappling across gaps and breaking down barriers here and there. If you happen to get stuck at times, you can activate Ken’s “Ninja Vision” with the B button allowing you to slow down time and seek out hidden targets and pathways. With the game centered heavily on quick time events, you’ll be experiencing these mostly during the end of boss fights as well as just about every cinematic sequence. On the smaller side of things you’ll also be able to these quick times on enemies during normal gameplay. There’s a lot here that can be said about Ninja Blade, and the gameplay will remind you most of what Ninja Gaiden did to the Ninja name in general. Ninja Blade in the end of it all feels as if it’s trying to take some of the glory out of the hard work of another franchise.

Graphics

Ninja Blade doesn’t have that bad of an art direction. Every cinematic sequence is derivative of the gameplay engine itself considering its quick-time event nature. Ninja Blade at times seems a bit off when you give the game a closer look. Texture pop-ins is apparent on some boss fights and even characters. Ninja Blade also doesn’t seem to know whether it wants to be a pure Japanese title or American. Characters are a mix between American ninjas and pure Japanese traditional characters. Everything of course is about as realistic as it needs to be despite its average setting with nothing too much in the way of variety.

Sound

Throughout the game you’ll be hearing a jump between English and Japanese voice acting throughout the script. It’ll make you scratch your head wondering why they couldn’t pick just one language and stick with it. It makes for some awkward cinematic sequences when you hear for instance a black ninja speaking his native, American tongue, when all of a sudden the chatter between Ogawa and his master is all Japanese.  It would be nice if there was some consistency in there. Other then that everything is pretty straightforward here; cinematic sequences are supported by an orchestra of events and a rather generic orchestrated musical score.

Plasma Factor

What does Ninja Blade have going for it though? Aside from the rather silly addition of the costume editor, this really could be used just for the laughs. Ninja Blade is a rather average compilation of a ninja game. It does a small amount of things right like providing at least a decent challenge in boss fights and random enemy fodder. There isn’t much you can dig out of this game that’ll see its replayability boost up. With no online play, you can expect Ninja Blade to slowly disappear towards the budget price of 20 bucks in the bargain bin sooner rather then later.

Conclusion

Ninja Blade should get at least some credit for turning itself into an entertaining 9-10 hours of pure ninja. Not very often do you see developers taking on the genre and providing a formula to pass the time with.. Ninja Blade is about as average as it gets when it comes to an action-adventure game and once it starts it doesn’t stop till you reach the end credits, and I mean that literally. Take Ninja Blade in small doses if you can and rent before you buy.