Eddy Wang
Skarlet scientist
As some of you know, i'm a huge fan of Ninja culture, heavily influenced as a kid on the time Ninjas used to be ridiculous, today i wanted to bring a review on this game, which came out back in 2005/2006 and still holds up today in my opinion as not just another Ninja game, probably not the best Ninja game, but definitely The Best Ninja Simulator you will ever find since its release.
Shinobido or as its translated to English, "The way of the Ninja" its a game developed by Acquire corporation, the same responsable for the first 2 tenchu games. It appeared that back in the day, the director of the Tenchu Franchise wanted to do a different Ninja game from the rythm that Tenchu usually offers and the result after delving into it, was this game.
So what this game is about?
Well Shinobido puts you on a Skin of an Asuka Ninja named Goh "Crow" which his hometown was recently attacked by an evil monk named Gamuran and anihilated his entire village, which very few managed to escape and survive, Goh in his case ended up losing his memory in the process and the lords of the land take advange of it to try to control him.
As a Ninja in this game there isin't a single soul you can't kill or stealth kill, while it gives a strong moto, it also not advisable to kill everything you see and that's the beauty about this game.
Goal
The game has 4 different endings, in the first 3 you will leave one of the lords alive, but the real ending its the harder to achieve because the thrustworthy of the Asuka clan must remain neutral among all 3 lords and Goh must not kill neither one of them until he kills the final boss of the game, so it has a strong replayablity feature not seen in todays games sadly.
Mission system
The game gives you a bucket list of missions to complete and there are rase cases where they will giving game deciding missions, they're usualy 3 and you can only do one of those, these deciding missions do affect the game forever and it cannot be reverted, so how you decide the outcome its really up to you.
So when a lord offers a mission to sabotage someone, the other one being sabotaged will give you the same mission but with the intend to protect it and this will affect the thrust if you take sides.
If you sabotage a food supply mission, that region will suffer with faminine and it becomes easier to sneak on enemies, and they can also be easily baited into poisoned food.
if you sabotage a technology carriage the opponent remains weaker, but if you let it pass in order to complete a high priority mission that region gets stronger firepower it can be anything, first arrows then fire arrows and by the end they even get rifles.
Day and Night system
All missions are done at evening, and there is a time limit which is before the sun rise, when you stay in the open too long and its almost day time the game will tell you to hurry, i never tried to find out what happens if i stay before the day breaks.
Competition and enemy types
As you progress in the game, Goh will be face with competion its basically an increase on Enemy types that appear in the game, first you deal with basic guards and samurais, then you deal with Skilled Samurais named Yojimbos (Bodyguards), savage, bears and soon other Ninjas will start to make Goh's life harder, because they have all the abilities your character have, can jump higher, use grapling hooks, alchemy, can stealth kill you, and utilize camouflage, noise reduction anything you use in the game against them can be used against you.
The Ninjas
This is probably my most favorite part of the game, there is 3 clans that appear in the game in competition with the asuka clan,The Mosu Ninjas, Kenobi Ninjas and Taraba Ninjas.
Mosu Ninjas
The first one Mosu Ninja, its a clan of Kunoichis (Female Ninjas) who have the ability to multiply themselves you engage them in combat, they cannot be stealth killed by stalking on their back they have very sensitive hearing and the only way to kill them its with a jump straight into their heads for a stealth kill or with a sleeping bomb, its leaded by 3 females, Ageha, Utsuba and the 3rd one which Goh Kills, they are also the first boss fights.
Kenobi Ninjas
Probably among the most challenging ones, they are the ones that look the most like Goh, they wear dark Green costumes which its extremely hard to see in the dark so areas covered with shadows and so one makes them extremely hard to see, they are fast and agile as goh, can use alchemy as well and when they're hired to guard duty they stay in one place which makes infiltration missions harder, however when they're hunting they usually do in packs and by the most time you want to avoid them, they give away they position often because they talk alot while hunting, This clan its lead by Hebitonbo and Utsumunji
Taraba Ninjas
Those wear strong and bulky armor, are not really worried about hiding themselves are more like walking tanks and engage them in combat its the worst idea, however they are very vulnerable to stealth kills alchemy in general, and are usualy hired to do escort/delivery jobs advisable to take good potions with different effects if you're on a mission where they make themselves available.
When go refuses to take a mission the lords usually hire Ninjas to do the work Goh was supposed to do, and if you accept another lord's mission to sabotage it you will usually be pitted against them usually 2 different clans depending on the difficulty.
Alchemy
Another well though out part of the game, you can craft bombs, or potions which buffs goh, or debuffs enemys, it can increase stregth, speed, health, resilience, give status like, sleep or confusion, or you can craft Ninjustsus remember these same effects can be used against you if pitted against kenobi ninjas, confusion makes you feel drunk and the environment becomes a huge roller coaster which makes it impossible to accurately control the character, harder to escape ambushes, sleep will put you sleep.
The alchemy can be researched at Goh's own house and you can try different effects, there is a good ammount of formulas and incredients and they feel like endless each one giving a different effect, goh has a good amount of giant pots at home where he bakes those effects and you can keep it by adding to its to increase the quantity, there is no limit to what you can do with it.
I remember of doing an high speed potion to last for an entire mission where it was pitted with Ninjas.
Characters
As the story progresses, an Kunoichi of the Asuka clan will start dividing her missions with Goh, her name is Kinu "canary" so you can play with one or the other, Goh uses a sword and she uses a chain sickle, and the game gives you an option to kidnap every person you see in the game and leave the mission with them, when this happens you will be able to play as that character, this includes Kenobi Ninjas, mosu Ninjas anything, there is also another costume for Goh where he dresses himself as a classic 80's Ninja.
Zaji
There is another Asuka Ninja who survives and for the entire game until the almost the final mission your goal will be to escape him he is too strong, named Zaji and if you played Shinobido 2 Revenge of Zen he is the one to takes Zen under his wing and starts training him
While the game its pretty good, there is a few things which i think it was excuted poorly but that's mostly due the limitations of the PS2 at the time
- The maps feels a bit lackluster there is some houses you are not allowed to enter which would make some missions far more interesting, and you can't see other people on streets outside of relevant people like guards, yojimbos or some concubine being protected
- Some enemies like guards should be a bit stronger
- Maps could definitely be longer and should be able to link some cities and allow goh to run through it until it reaches his house.
- Its story might not be the greatest thing but the gameplay its absolutely superb.
I know Sekiro Shadows Die Twice is supposed to be a Ninja game, but i doubt it will get to the level Shinobido ever achieved since from what i see, i looks more like the Dark Souls distant cousing, one of the reasons why i can't wait for Acquire to decide to make another one for current gen, its because this formula doesn't really gets anyone bored.
