Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun Review

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Fast Facts

Prepare to be Quiet as a Mouse

Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun is a platformer without any of the traditional platformer controls. Specifically, instead of moving around and jumping, my main character solely jumps to get everywhere. Additionally, the control scheme is further simplified because I automatically attack enemies when I am near them. The layout of the game is unique. Find out whether this simple control scheme helped this game stand out in this Rapid Review.

To begin Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun, I was shown a brief cutscene detailing the events that were going on in the game. There were a couple more of these segments, but they often were a bit confusing, and to me, the story seemed largely insignificant. The overarching story did not hook me. On the other hand, throughout the game, the developers included short segments where text displayed on the screen detailing interactions between my main character and a boss character. Again, while these segments were not overly riveting, I appreciated how I got to know the bosses before entering the arena, even if the conversations I had with them were not overly memorable or unique.

Apart from these brief conversations though, there was not much story content. Some other characters would talk about their lives when I enlisted them, but those segments were not overly engaging either. Though I was not expecting it to, Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun does not hook me with its writing. The story does have some good components though. I appreciated learning details about the characters. Plus, since I was not anticipating it to be the main draw of the game, I was not disappointed.

Don’t Walk Away!

Instead, I was far more interested in how the game felt to control. After watching the trailer, I was a bit sceptical, but I was interested to see how my main character would move around. It truly is simple. I clicked my mouse button to charge my jump and then aimed with my mouse pointer. That was it. Despite seeming a bit challenging to control, for the most part, I found it very easy to move around the levels. Moreover, I enjoyed how there was a dotted line indicating my jump trajectory. This made it easy for me to find my way despite the unusual control scheme.

My main character in Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun also just feels good to move around with. Additionally, my jumps had a lot of power, which made moving around satisfying. At the same time, it did not take too long to chain these jumps together, so I could quickly get through areas.

I even enjoyed how the attacking system worked. While I could find and equip different items on my journey, there were two main forms of attacks. I could either attack with my equipped weapon, or I could use ranged attacks. My character automatically swings my equipped weapon when I am airborne near my enemies. This makes it easy to fend off foes since I did not have to master any timing when it came to attacks. On the other hand, many of my ranged weapons were more manual. I could throw them with the other mouse button. Again, these were simple but effective. There were a lot of cool applications for these items such as deflecting enemy projectiles and of course, dealing damage. I had fun controlling my character.

Not a Rogue-like?

Though my main character was fun to control, I did not like navigating through every environment that I had to. Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun seems to compile the most frustrating components of level design and expand them tenfold. There is a whole world dedicated to dark levels where I could not see well. A lot of the time, the level designs made navigation exceptionally tedious. While I have multiple issues with this, I think the worst part is that many levels purposely made frustrating challenges instead of challenges that engaged me. I constantly felt like level themes were inconvenient just to add difficulty to the game. To be fair, many levels were great. I enjoyed many of the levels and level themes. However, those that were not fun made the game feel incredibly tedious to get through.

Additionally, I was disappointed that the game is not really a rogue-lite. The game is broken up into ten chapters and within each of these ten chapters, there are between ten and twenty levels. Moreover, to complete a chapter, I needed to complete every stage consecutively. Most of the levels were short, but sometimes playing through individual chapters could take around an hour, especially when I searched for secrets. Still, on-premise, this formula works well. Even for most levels in Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun, I had no issues with this format. However, nothing changed when I had to replay levels. The only components that would adjust were the loot drops, as sometimes enemies would drop different items. This means that when I died, I had to constantly replay the same levels to progress. I did not like this, especially combined with the frustrating level themes.

Enemy Ninjas

Though I had to fight my way through the same levels, many of the levels were very enjoyable. It mainly came down to the enemy designs. The enemies telegraphed their attacks very well while being easy to dismantle. At the same time though, there was a decent amount of different enemy designs too. While most were ninjas, they looked distinct and had different enough move sets for me to play around them a bit differently. I had fun taking out the different enemies.

Unfortunately, I found the boss fights to be a bit underwhelming. For the most part, these fights are grandiose, with these enemies usually spanning a whole screen. However, many of them were quite easy. Compared to some of the more tedious level designs, I found the lack of challenge from the bosses and enemies overall to be beneficial, so I did not get too frustrated. Still, more challenging boss fights at the end of each stage would have made the game more riveting.

Finally, the last component of the game is that there are permanent upgrades. As I adventured through the campaign, I encountered people who helped me reconstruct my hometown. There I could upgrade my character statistics, store items for future runs, and even switch characters altogether. This encouraged me to explore the levels, which was enjoyable, especially since many of the characters were not too tricky to find. This upgrade system helps make the game easier too, as I could improve various components of my main character.

Silent as the Night

Additionally, to supplement the main campaign, the developers of Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun included a very nice soundtrack. It was thematically appropriate, and it helped me get excited about exploring the different areas.

Similarly, I thoroughly enjoyed the visual style. I thought the characters and the backgrounds looked great. The enemies were also easy to recognize, which made the game a lot of fun to get through. Overall, the presentation of Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun is great.

In total, while I enjoyed playing through some of the levels, the level themes took away a lot from the game. Many of the core components seemed there just to frustrate, without making the game more enjoyable. There were a lot of moments that made me question whether I even wanted to play the game anymore. However, beneath that, and at the core, Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun is a fun game, and one I enjoyed playing. The movement is a joy to explore, taking out enemies is incredibly gratifying and exploring through the levels was fun.

You can find and read our reviews on OpenCritic.

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