Nil-Ninjahtic: Ronin

Over all review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8dK71r3XGg&t=217s Okay blaze... if you're actually tired of making games, just say so. Move over to a new engine or actually put some work into making a new world, story concept, or game mechanic design. Because this is quite possibly the weakest game in the series and if you were trying to ramp up the stakes to your previous title, let me just say that: YOU HAVE TURNED "NINJA" INTO ONE BORING ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. You know i might not actually give this game a thumbs up, because youve practically ripped out nearly all of the abilities from the second ninjahtic and also made your marketing blurb into poison. "While it integrates gameplay mechanics of the previous titles in the series, they are combined in a manner which differentiates itself from its predecessors." ... Oh i see, what you meant to say was, "while its another wall based platformer, we basically use the wall RUN mechanic of the last game and thats all. I couldn't even be bothered to write a save system for this game, and its a stand out because all the obstacles were seen in other games or theyre so hard, even someone who practically masters the last two will want to rage quit from how difficult and boring this game can become." HOW DO YOU MAKE TENSION BORING, HOW HAVE YOUMADE PIXEL PERFECT TIMING JUMPS INTO A ♥♥♥♥ ING CHORE And im serious, the game has no save function which would be infinately easier to do here because the levels arent an open world/key hunter (for the most part), and are instead mostly linear. I know a huge section check point is all you really need to have here, but jeez, you couldn't use the single screen save from the last game? Private Save(sect 5, screen 7){ MakeTextFile (save1); WriteToTextFile (save1, sect+","+screen); // <--thats all you need right there } The game story is basically you're still in the same coma from the last game and SOMEONE, IT COULD BE ALIENS COULD BE THE HUMANS, has you strapped into an animus machine and are trying to repair your mind bit by bit and thats about it. after each boss fight the game pops up text descriptions of ninja's adolescence Which im just going to sum up here: apparently a normal kid, a musician, looking for more tutors, but what drives you to do all of these things like killing people? are you a monster? Or do you just crave being the best blood thirsty thug out there? The game mentions something about having a good job that less deserving people are being promoted for instead of you, so my theory is this: Either the aliens have ninja and they're brain washing him to be the worlds best killer, or the humans have him and they're piecing together his mind, and making him relive this "summer job" of being a hitman for the yakuza, either way ninja may be a total psychopath. and each of the "kills" sort of seem to relate back to the text dumps that ONCE AGAIN accuse the player of some deadly sin, but looking back at the game as a whole, they may be right about ninja. So the stories annoying, but what about the gameplay? Its boring. Tell me if youve seen this before: two death traps, directly across from each other in a vertical shaft that you are trying to climb. a long bit of floor with only 2 spaces free of death spikes on which to land. Switches that open doors behind which a new switch can be reached. timed death spikes on the walls that halt your organic pace. ENemies that use guns against a lone fighter with a swort or short ranged attack. MOVING Turrets that fire at the player from a close range that can only be dodged if you're moving in the opposite direction. There is one form or another of each of these in the game and now you have less movement controls to get past it all. Some of these are made artificially harder. And finally the boss fights... oh my god the boss fights! Let me tell you something, i'd expect this kind of thing more from silent hill or some other horror game. the bosses are almost totally reaction based, waiting for you to attack or come close. it seems more like a guard thats reluctant to kill you, so you are in essence the bad guy, OR ELSE they seem like wind up toys, or reanimated corpses, more like a necromancers spring trap than a samurai fighter or rival ninja. In a game like these ones im actually surprised that now of all times you're actually starting to forget how to tell a story in gameplay. is ninja a psycho? THEN FIND A BETTER WAY OF SHOWING IT THAN A CHIDING TEXT DUMP Are the people you're looking for connected to you in any way? THEN ANY EVIDENCE OF THAT AT ALL WOULD BE NICE. Just to compound my confusion further, i thought that this game would be staring the ronin, like ronin killed someone close to ninja or mentored him in some way, well actually, no. ronin is just the 3rd boss and possibly the music teacher of ninja (if the retarded text dump is anything to go on). I think that the 4th boss is actually from samurai jazz. i dont know, maybe ninja really is the one who killed ronin and his master... or tried to anyway... but then why is the next boss from samurai jazz? wasnt ronin supposed to kill him? how can he do that if he's dead? You know what ♥♥♥♥ it, if you want some cool challenge then this is a good game to pick up, but it throws the series out of wack, its the third game with this same style, and over all it feels like a crapy, wall jump clone/de-make of samurai jazz, right down to the protagonist who sets out to kill some demonic branch of the yakuza. ♥♥♥♥ this game

Nil-Ninjahtic: Ronin brings a nostalgia feel that you would get from classic titles on old portable Nintendo devices, with a simplistic style the game has a cleverly laid out retro level design which reminds gamers of that 80's feel when playing a video game. Blaze Epic created a game that is progressively more challenging as you progress through the game, although difficult to master where eventually you have to solve puzzles while defeating enemies and doesn't follow the linear game structure making it hard to predict future events. The game has controller support if you want to play the game in a living room environment or if you are used to the feel of a console controller. If you want a short small sized game that would last 2-3 hours of gameplay that is full of action and adventure then this is the game for you. At the low price tag, this game is a steal, even when it is not on sale. *Please do note that I have received this game for the purpose of reviewing it*

A really nice 8bits game ! The only wrong think i see is you can't change the keys in game, im on a azerty keyboard, and on qwerty change nothing for me, i will try with a controller later Recommended !

A fun game to play when your bored, decently difficult too

Sehr netter kleiner Retro-Platformer. Es ist wie alle Spiele von Blaze Epice mit viel Liebe programmiert, doch hier gibt es endlich Achievements und sogar Trading Cards. Der Schwierigkeitsgrad ist von Anfang an schon recht hoch angesetzt, aber nicht unmöglich. Es erinnert etwas an die guten alten C64 Jump 'n' Runs. Xbox-Controller wird problemlos unterstützt. Ich kann das Spiel uneingeschränkt empfehlen, zumal der Preis absolut fair ist. Danke an Blaze Epic für dieses schöne Spiel.

A rōnin was a title given to a samurai who, upon the death of their master decided to go rogue instead of committing seppuku during the feudal period of Japan. The other samurais would banish and exclude a rōnin, isolating them from their groups. In the modern world, the word can be used in comparison to a person who has trouble fitting into certain social groups; always wandering around, searching for a place to be at ease. [h1] Overview [/h1] Nil-Ninjahstic: Ronin combines the elements of wandering samurai into a platformer. Essentially a derivative of super meat boy without all the crazy speeding and sliding, you play as an outcast of society, where you’re always picked to do the dirty tasks that no one else wants to do. As such in this game, you are put through a ‘test’ where everything and everyone tries to kill you. In order to pass this initiation, players will need to run, jump and slash through 5 chapters of increasingly difficult levels of platforms and their respective level bosses. [h1] The Good [/h1] Being the third game in the series of Nil-Ninjahtic, the most well done part of the game is the control scheme in relation to character movement. Blaze Epic has mastered the basic controls for the game throughout 7 games and the result is a smooth and polished feel. The character does not move to fast and is extremely responsive in terms of fluidity. Air strafing is done extremely well and allows for predictable pathing and enables speed runs. The alternative to running past everything would be to slow chip your way through a level. Blaze Epic has provided the tools necessary to accommodate for this playstyle by incorporating a sword slash function and block. Block stops most projectiles and melee attacks, while allowing you to strafe in a direction with no real penalty except moving slower and being unable to turn. However, it comes at the cost of being not able to counterattack, and limits your movement by restricting the use of block while in midair. Nil-Ninjahtic Ronin might not have the best music around, but it serves its purpose extremely well. Since there is no auditory feedback from enemies in the game, Nil-Ninjahtic Ronin can afford to play the role of metronome and pace the game for the player. Entering different areas of the game whether it be in the streets of Japan, or in the locker room of a gym, will change the music to suit the appropriate setting, a feature not usually found in smaller platformer games. [h1] The Bad [/h1] Nil-Ninjahtic: Ronin is a five chapter game with many levels in between. However, the most obvious flaw is that it only saves at the end of a chapter. In order to save your progress, one must completely the whole chapter completely. Since this game’s skill requirements are quite high, players may find it difficult to find the time or even the abilities to make it to the next chapters. Implementing checkpoint saves between each sub-chapter would allow for greater re-playability and would make the game feel more complete in a sense. Though the game’s difficulty increases at a reasonable rate, the game gets pretty frustrating in chapter five where the game slowly becomes more of a chore. I cannot fathom the amount of times I was so close to completing a level only to accidentally run back into the previous screen, resetting all the progress on the current level, or running through the most annoying chainsaw run only to be slashed down by an edge-guarding samurai on the last platform. Another huge flaw is the fact that the chapters are also too long, with no dialogue in between the smaller sub-chapters. The small bits of monologue between the chapters feel out of place and only serve to string the game together. The writing is not that interesting to begin with and by the time you finish a chapter, you will have difficulty remembering what the story was talking about already. Nil-Ninjahtic: Ronin not only test your skills, but also your patience as seen with its pixel perfect platforming. Jumping horizontally into a wall will result in your character bouncing off, but jumping vertically into the ceiling will allow your character’s head to clip through it. I personally found this out after spending a good 15 minutes trying avoid spikes in a tunnel, thinking I would bounce off the ceiling and die to the buzz saw below. [h1] Overall Score [/h1] I personally rate this game 7/10 for the really fun gameplay. Like all good things come in moderation, this game is best enjoyed in short bursts of 1-2 hours, just enough to completely one chapter each time. This works to keep the game from getting too repetitive, too quickly. Had the game included checkpoints between the sub-levels and had more consistent art, it would have been a solid 8/10.

This is probably the best one out of the games Blaze Epic has made. The issue I have with it is that its the same assets, the same controls, the same functions (for the most part), the same enemies, the same back grounds, ex.. as the 9 other games this developer made.

Nil-Ninjahtic: Ronin - лучший в серии Ninjahtic и заслуживает право на существование в steam больше, чем предшественники. Я не особо знаком с играми Larry Stover'а, но касаемо именно этих трёх платформеров по сути представляющих одну и ту же постоянно переделываемую игру - это апогей и самое точное попадание в направлении инди-игр. Во-первых, маленькая деталь - достижения, без них нет смыла играть в хардкорные инди-платформеры, в первых частях серии, замечу, не присутствуют. Во-вторых, гемплей и управление - гемплей должен быть интересным, а управление отзывчивым. С первыми частями всё выглядело очень плохо. В первой управлении было убогим, казалось, персонаж не мог бегать по стенам, казалось, что иногда независимо от тебя срабатывают заранее заготовленные скрипты, некоторые игровые моменты для меня остались непроходимыми. В Mind Trick Ларри добавил рывок в прыжке, который несколько разнообразил и упростил управление, а также появилась возможность бегать по стенам, но абсолютной глупостью можно считать наличие полоски XP. В этой игре она ни к чему, ибо умереть можно разве что, на уровне, который сейчас отображается на экране (тупо звучит - знаю, но это так, вы как бы проходите один экран игры без ошибок и смерть на следующем экране не откидывает в начало игры). Nil-Ninjahtic: Ronin - скурпулёзнее (к примеру - отсутсвуют моментальные сейвы, как в прошлых частях), но при этом тяжелей. Кажется, Ларри нашёл верный баланс. Сложный, но при этом играбельный платформер. В-третьих, атмосфера и сеттинг - тоже по-видимому долгие, мучительные попытки попасть в нужную атмосферу, которая отлично сочетается с саундтреками, гемплеем и тематику восьмибитной эпохи. Даже своим навзанием Nil-Ninjahtic: Ronin игра как бы хочет абстрагироваться от неудачной серии Ninjahtic, ибо если подумать приставка nil может расцениваться как отрицание, или как "ноль" - это у программистов по-моему. Отдельное спасибо за боссов, мне пришлось несколько раз проходить уровни, чтобы найти к каждому подход. Всё как раньше в восьмибитную эпоху. Серия в целом мне очень понравилась, выгодно приобрёл целиком на распродаже. Рекомендую любителям платформеров, инди-хyинди и просто как игру.

Nil-Ninjahtic: Ronin is yet another of literally thousands of 2D retro platformers infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere. It's essentially a sequel to Ninjahtic and Ninjahtic Mind Tricks, which is apt because it pretty much seems like a copy + paste + reskin of those games. This keeps mostly the same art assets as Ninjahtic Mind Tricks, so it's pretty repetitive stuff at this point. Just like the last two, this is some badly implemented GameMaker Studio platforming with a bit of brawling. The controls are clunky and again, the visuals bad. One important note is that even though this is an amateur project, it does seem to be sincerely and genuinely made. I couldn't find any flipped assets, plagiarism or any other kind of insincere actions from the developer, but unfortunately genuine intentions alone are not enough to produce a brilliant PC gaming experience. Let's wade into all the usual defects. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result. There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. The controls and game handling are notably very clunky and unsmooth here. It's janky and unsatisfying to play... and any experienced gamer will tell you, the handling, responsiveness and general gameplay feel of the control scheme must be well polished for this kind of game to succeed. Unfortunately, this is something the developer seems to have phoned in, with little to no apparent gameplay testing. They dropped the ball on this one. The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts. To make matters worse, there's no mouse input, despite this being sold on PC as if it were a PC game. This is unacceptable and somewhat insulting to PC gamers. It's a good demonstration of the poor attitude the developer has towards PC gamers, and this attitude has resulted in yet another defect in this game. Some of the defects in the game can be attributed to the choice of using the GameMaker Studio construction kit/toolset. This is a very poor quality toolset favoured by amateur developers as it's cheap and requires little in the way of development skill, but unfortunately has very limited capabilities. Just as you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, you can't make a great video game if you use a terrible engine. GameMaker Studio is most commonly used to make retro pixel shovelware and cash grabs. A strong argument can be made that construction kits like GameMaker Studio should never be used to make games for profit, as the "developer", Blaze Epic has done here. These construction kits are intended to teach people some of the basic principles of game development, and to make small demos to pass around with friends. They're not intended to replace to actual work of real, professional game developers. So it's inappropriate when amateurs try to use these for profit, without any actual, real game development effort taking place. This doesn't result in products that have any real meaningful value for gamers. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. You don't have to take my word about how bad the game is, we can measure the interest in a game by how much people bothered to play it. Nil-Ninjahtic: Ronin has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game absolutely failed to capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is for finishing the first level, trivial to achieve, but less than 6 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. That's a tiny, tiny proportion of gamers who even bothered with this. Ouch. Reviewing SteamDB to check how popular this game was with players reveals a surprise... there's a modest spike in player counts for the game. But this only happened once, and isn't consistent with the achievement stats, that show less than 6 percent of players bothered playing the game for any reasonable amount of time. How is it possible for this game to have so many concurrent players who didn't bother engaging with this game? Trading cards. People will use card idling software to collect the cards and sell them, but this won't trigger any achievements in-game. That tells us people only really bought this game for trading cards, and that's a damning indictment of the woeful quality. A closer look at the numbers shows the game just has a couple of players every week running up the game and idling it for cards, then deleting it. We must ask how it benefits gamers for there to be so many games like this, with little merit as a serious game, that only generate sales from people idling and selling the trading cards. Nil-Ninjahtic: Ronin is relatively cheap at $2 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. This is also competing with over 11,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.

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