It surprises how Shinobido tries to be different and is a pity that it didn't end up being the good game it could be.
As with a lot of other things, I tend to think about scores that 0 is nothing, 10 is absolutely perfect (couldn't be improved in any way) and 5 is decent, acceptable. The 6.5 I gave to the game is not to pull it away from the "5 - It's decent" but rather to push it above "6 - It's good but could improve" and below "7-It's actually pretty fun"... It's still away from "8-It's excellent" or "9-It's almost perfect" (on a side note, I don't really think high scores (about 8) are usually objective but I can't really resist that myself with a few games)... So, the 6.5 of this game could be something like "Good game, fun, but leaves a whole lot to be improved".
So, let's go back to the game itself. In Shinobido you are to take the role of "Goh - The Crow" an amnesiac ninja (mildly original, as you see) in a quest to recover his memory and eventually defeat evil. Okay, sounds quite typical but at least this sets the game apart from the Tenchu series (who surely are to be mentioned in any Shinobido review, as Shinobido creators were involved with Tenchu back then) and it's storyline. As it seems to be the norm in ninja simulations, Crow is s lot of lives away from his objective but berserking through them is not enough. Instead, Goh must relay in his equipment and stealth skills to either avoid his enemies or kill them before they can even notice: direct confrontation with enemies can cause even more enemies to come to the point where Goh will be outnumbered and easy prey.
The above stage seems to be the bottom line of almost every level in the game but the way each level is laid out actually separates Shinobido from other games and gives it a lot of personality. Instead of having a fixed array of levels to play trough, Shinobido boasts a very open ended mission system: in a region under the shadow of war, three main factions can use of Goh services for their own good and the player is able to choose whatever mission they may offer, which are meant to represent different approaches for winning the war. This way, you can have Goh staling important documents from a side in a mission, eliminating enemy forces in a market in other and killing generals in a third... Each successful mission benefits the contractor and harms the target faction so, in a sense, Goh can be directly responsible from the outcome of war itself, as every enemy in the game is loyal to his own faction as is affected by actions taken against it.
If this seems interesting, there's even more: as Goh successfully completes missions for factions he gains the trust and confidence of their respective heads, who can give him hints on missions to help him recovering his own memory, which is the ultimate objective of the game. Of course, staying loyal to a faction means taking their missions (they'll start sending Goh letters asking for his whereabouts if he doesn't take their missions for a long time) and, of course, not taking any missions that can harm them, but even this is relative: if Goh manages to finish a mission without witnesses he doesn't have to fear any retaliations and can double and triple-cross factions as the war rages on. Of course, being discovered means that any trust gained can be easily lost, meaning less interesting missions and less chances to recover his memory.
Interesting enough?. Well, still some more... As the game goes on, different ninja clans will be called into war with their own allegiances. These ninja clans can have rough feelings to Goh and try to hunt him down, not only during missions, but also between them. That's it, between missions Goh can rest home but once he's located he'll have to protect his garden from intruders (with, traps, mercenaries or his own hands) trying to steal his goods.
So, that was a lot of good things, wasn't it?. At least the idea of Shinobido is exciting enough to give it a try... Gameplay itself is, however, not that exciting. Given the open-ended nature of the game (pitting you in many different missions), stage and objective reusing is the norm. It doesn't matter in the few missions when you visit the market, the mountains, the town and other environments but once you get the hang of it you find Goh in the very same place, trying to kill a person that is where a valuable document was four missions ago or snatching food from the building he did the one earlier. The only changes are enemy placement (even many items remain in the same place) and mission objectives that, in the end, also repeat themselves. Still, it is possible to play some hours with this game without feeling the "Been here, done that" syndrome due the number of layouts available...
The "Been here, done that" feeling does still raise and, again, forces Tenchu comparisons... Goh himself doesn't exactly control like Rikimaru (actually he's a bit stiffer if you ask me) but has a similar assortment of ninja skills: jumping, bouncing on walls, stealth kills, creeping in shadows, peeking behind corners... Most of the things seen here have been represented before with the possible exception of the huge assortment of items Goh can use. That said, you can imagine how a level plays like: you try to sneak your way around unnoticed, with large stretches of observing your environment and enemy patrol routes and slowly moving towards your target. These times that you can't actually sneak through you can plot a way to take out any enemy forces and depending on your skills the outcome will be finding a way to dispose of the body or triggering the alert on the place and having to find a safe place to hide, since enemies will start looking for you and facing a lot of them is not a good option.
Sounds familiar?. Well, it is. The gameplay and flow of the levels itself has, in my opinion, been done better in other games: stealth kills are not always easy to perform and the outcome of your actions frequently differs from what you tried to achieve. Triggering the alarm (not exactly an alarm, or at least not in the Metal Gear Solid way, but rather a "frantic search mode") without even knowing who saw you is perfectly possible and moving into a place without noticing nearby guards is also commonplace as you begin your first missions...
The answer to these problems?. Well, patience. While in Tenchu (I don't really want that lot of comparisons, really) you can usually watch your enemies from a safe place and predict their behaviour, Shinobido isn't that predictable and forces you to a lot of observation and quick execution. That's not actually that bad, since is really exciting but ruining you plan because you slipped in a movement can be frustrating, specially when you have been stalking the target for a while... Again, the key?. Patience. There are missions where you can safely run around in a killing spree due to convenient enemy placement but for the most time I took my good minute to explore the surroundings and the possibilities before planning every single move.
The system can be deep and satisfying but, in the end, you can play the game as you want to and I'm sure you can actually aquire enough skills with the controls to perform flawless plans and deadly kills. As far as I am concerned, once you get the hang of it the game is reasonably easy to control but still there are moves that slip here and there, somewhat ruining the illusion that you control an expert, deadly ninja. Of course, if you're having a lot of problems you can rely on the items that Goh can find, buy or, ultimately, create himself. That's it, back at home Goh can combine different items (like herbs, mushrooms and so on...) at his wicked cauldron to obtain useful potions. These potions can temporarily raise your attributes or even affect you in negative ways and you can take them on your missions to help you in tight spots where you need extra strength or a speed boost.
Of course, the process of making them is relatively obscure and it takes a bit to figure out the relationships between the many ingredients but once you get used to it the system is very fun. But, I hear you asking since the previous paragraph, why would I want to carry a potion that can negatively affect me?. Well, you can actually have others taking them so it makes sense. You ended up with a really spoiled potion that wouldn't even take?. Fine, put it into a bomb and throw it to a really though enemy. Are you in a escorting mission and really fear for your target's life?. Hand him some healing potions and that should make it. The whole item crafting is as important to the game as you want it to be: you can play through without paying attention but if you take your time on it you'll find good help and fun in collecting items and combining them at home.
So far we have a combination of good ideas and passable execution. What's left?. Presentation, of course. Graphics on the game are very much reminiscent of those in that... Ahem, other ninja game series so you can expect them to look very much the same. How much variation can you bring to feudal japan?. Well, you can have forests, mountains, suburbs, markets and such but much of the graphical design is quite functional. There aren't many flourishes in the level design or in characters other than those important to the story. Sound and music were unremarkable in the sense that I don't really remember a single tune that played through the game and the interaction between the player and the presentation was acceptable: I had my issues with the camera like everyone else has. In a single word, the presentation was quite average, and that's two averages out of three elements of the game.
Is the story interesting enough to push this score forward?. That's a complicated issue. The story itself is compelling and intriguing but advances happen too far in between and given that the game starts to repeat itself a handful of missions into the game I happened to play the last ones in a rush just to see what happened. The system itself is fair enough: once you have the trust of a faction they can assign you a mission important for your own objectives. These missions and some other fixed events push the story forward in different levels, helping developing Goh and his devastating story... Again and unfortunately is difficult to play the illusion of a powerful, amnesiac ninja struggling to recover his life killing the same guards in the same places over and over again. In the end, interesting plot development and the inherent repetitiveness of the game´s nature balance each other and while it may seem a good thing, it would have been much better with an interesting plot development and varied gameplay.
And that's exactly the problem with this game. Ideas are fair. Execution is not perfect but enough to grasp the possibilities behind the ideas but once you play for a while it becomes much too repetitive for its own sake. The main gripe of this repetitiveness is how clear the game manages to reveal it to you: by the third time you enter a stage to complete a mission you may already know the surroundings well enough to end the sensation of discovery and effectively know the places where your objective is. And actually it's a real shame: a better execution could have helped this but it just adds bits to the frustration of hunting for a giant bear where you stole food yesterday. On the other hand, of course, the game offers you enough ways to take on your missions as you can imagine but, again, it's hard to maintain the illusion when you can just try it the same way as you tried before.
So, what could I say?. The game itself is not bad at all: it lends itself to short bursts of play well enough and has content and replay value to retry the game if you liked it. The main storyline can have its limits but you can carry on taking missions as long as you like if you think the already lenghty campaign is not enough... Just consider one thing if you want to try: avoid long hours of gameplay to preserve the illusion and enthusiasm. You may forget then about how repetitive this otherwise fun game can be.