There have been a ton of games about ninjas over the decades. From Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi to Tenchu and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, ninjas in video games come in all different flavors. Most notably they are in one of two categories (or clans since these are ninjas) action packed hack n’ slash (like the previously mentioned Ninja Gaiden/Shinobi) or tension filled stealth action adventure (Tenchu/Sekiro). You rarely see a game that tries to incorporate both, and if they do it’s shoehorned in. Then there’s Within The Blade.
Within The Blade (WTB for the rest of this review) is a 2-D retro styled hack n’ slack game with simple stealth mechanics WTB take place in medieval Japan where civil war has broken out. A daimyo by the name of Mamoru Imai seeks to have all of Japan under his control. And to do this he summons demons to join his army to turn the tide of the war. Demons are summoned and he is engulfed with darkness, thus bringing chaos to the country as he claims the title of Shogun. Players take on the role of Hideaki of the Black Lotus village who is tasked by his sensei Genshi to stop a bandit camp from raiding a nearby village. Little does he know that the evil radiating from Mamrou is slowly spreading towards his village and it’s up to him to stop it. The story is pretty simple but it gets the job done and is actually pretty intriguing as Hideaki make his way through the levels learning more about what is happening.
Now gameplay is where WTB differs from other 2D hack n’ slash ninja games.At first WTB looks like your typical hack n’ slash/platformer, hacking away at enemies, making seemingly tough jumps and collecting currency to buy weapons and other items. What the game doesn’t tell you, which is something that I had to find out for myself via the results screen at the end of a stage, is that you are able to perform stealth kills. Performing a stealth kill is pretty straight forward, don’t let the enemy see you and then attack. This is possible by either crouching in tall grass or attacking them from above. I didn’t find out that this was a thing you could do until I got to the end of the first stage and saw a section of the results screen that said “times spotted” and “stealth kills”. It turns out that you are encouraged to be as stealthy as possible in order to get a better/higher score. This gameplay mechanic is pretty unique and really cool, though I wished the game would have said something about it instead of me having to find out about it. WTB also offers a perma-death mode, in which you only have one life and once it’s gone, it’s game over and you have to start all over again from the beginning with a clean slate.
The art for WTB is the typical 8/16-bit retro pixel style, that although overused, never gets old. Even so, the graphics also influence the gameplay. During the action portions of the game, you’ll notice that Hideaki looks a bit darker, as if he’s hiding in the shadows. This is a visual cue to let you know that he hasn’t been seen by the enemy, is is out of the enemy’s line of sight. This also applies to all enemies too. As long as Hideaki is shadowed like this, he is able to stealth kill enemies, though if he is seen his spirit will lighten up. This is a really cool design mechanic that is incorporated into the art/graphics of the game.
There are a few minor issues I have with WTB: one is that the jumps are a bit on the floaty side. Another one is as I previously mentioned not being told that being stealthy affects the score and is encouraged. And the last minor issue I have that I’ll mention is that there are a few grammatical errors in some of the cut scenes.
Within The Blade is a really solid hack n’ slash platformer that took me by surprise. The fact the game encourages you to use stealth to dispatch your enemies really sets it apart from similar games. Not to mention The gameplay is pretty solid and I do like the fact that the game uses the graphics as part of the gameplay mechanics. I do have a few minor issues with the game but overall had a really great time slicing and stealth killing my way through enemies. If you’re looking for a another ninja game to add to the collection of good ninja games, then check out Within The Blade.
