Lizardcube impressed many when they released Streets of Rage 4 back in 2020 and managed to capture the essence of why people loved the series while also bringing new updates to its existing formula. Now they have set their sights on the long-dormant Shinobi series with their newest release, SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance. Can Lizardcube go two-for-two on reviving classic SEGA titles? After spending roughly twenty hours with SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance, I can safely say that they are batting one thousand in my eyes. Art of Vengeance is an absolutely stunning-looking game that injects some Mega Man X DNA into its design, which may not always work, but it evolves the series in an interesting and compelling way.
Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold in SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance
The story of Art of Vengeance finds longtime series protagonist Joe Musashi peacefully living in his village with his wife, Naoko, who is pregnant. Musashi is the leader of the Oboro Clan and spends his days training his disciples on how to protect the world from evil. After leaving his wife to train with his disciple Tomoe, their village is attacked by a group called the ENE Corporation led by their leader, Ruse. This sets Musashi on his journey to avenge his fallen clan and stop Ruse from using his newly gained powers to conquer the world. Along the way, Musashi meets new allies and gains powers and abilities that help him overcome the overwhelming obstacles in his way.
It isn’t the most unique story ever, but Art of Vengeance actually manages to build a compelling narrative that successfully makes you care about Musashi’s journey and even those around him. Every character is fully voiced, and each actor does a fantastic job bringing personality to each and every one of them. The absolutely phenomenal art style and animations also do a lot of heavy lifting in order to bring this world and its inhabitants to life. Each new stage and location has such beautiful designs that you can’t help but stop and admire at points.
I was pleasantly surprised with how much I found myself invested in the story of Art of Vengeance. Even the ending, where so many other titles drop the ball, comes around in a satisfying way that doesn’t feel rushed or ham-fisted in its delivery. There are a few levels that go on a little too long and some predictable story beats, but these are minor complaints in the grand scheme of things. Art of Vengeance also has a pretty decent length campaign, with my save file clocking in at around 18 hours, having completed almost every activity in the game.
The Ninja Way
Art of Vengeance is an action/platformer at its core, but it brings a few wrinkles into its combat system that separate it from others in the genre. You navigate Musashi through each level using light and heavy attacks to form combos, throw kunai at enemies, and use combos and abilities that you unlock as you progress through the story or purchase them from a merchant that appears throughout each stage. These new abilities and combos are extremely useful and really deepen the combat the more you unlock them. You can actively feel yourself getting stronger, and enemies that may have given you trouble in the past become barely an obstacle later on. This becomes doubly so when you start unlocking new abilities that allow you to build up enemies’ execution gauges faster.
Below every enemy health bar is a smaller bar that builds up as Musashi does damage to them. Different attacks and abilities build up the bar faster, usually in exchange for dealing less damage. When their bar is filled, a symbol appears over their head, and Musashi can perform an instant kill move that zaps him across the screen to the enemy position. If more than one enemy has their execution bar filled, Musashi will zig and zag his way across the screen and kill each of them in one attack. On top of this, killing enemies with an execution makes them drop more gold or health pickups upon death. It was always extremely satisfying when I managed to clear a whole screen with an execution and be showered with gold.
I will say that combat can be extremely hectic at times, especially as I got into the latter half of the game. There were moments where I would lose myself due to the number of enemies or attack effects happening while fighting, and take hits or fall into a pit or hazard. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it was frustrating at times when I would die from a hit that I couldn’t see coming amidst all the chaos.
Tools of the Trade
You will also gather new equipment as you progress through the game that grants Musashi the ability to traverse into areas he couldn’t reach earlier. You will find items like a pair of claws that allow Musashi to latch onto certain walls and ceilings and climb to new heights, and a glider that allows Musashi to ride wind torrents to carry him to new locations. After finding these tools, you can return to earlier stages and use them to find new items, chests, or even entire sections of the level that were inaccessible previously. As I mentioned earlier, this reminded me a lot of Mega Man X, which had a similar ability and unlock system that allowed you to return to levels after gaining boss abilities or upgrades.
While I mostly enjoyed this system, I will say that the map for each level left a lot to be desired and made finding some of these secrets, or sometimes just trying to figure out where to go in general, frustrating. There are inconsistent times when I would go through a screen transition, and the map still would have a fog of war separating the two areas, making it look like I hadn’t explored that area yet. This doesn’t seem like much of an issue at first, but I found myself lost in one of the later areas because I kept thinking that I had already explored an area from the way this effect looked on the map. I even left the stage and went back to backtrack through all the other stages, thinking I must have missed something that I needed to progress, but after gaining 100% on every previous level, I was still unsure where I was supposed to go.
There was also a small bug I ran into on this level that prevented me from seeing where I was on the map, and I had to completely close out of the game and jump back in to get it working again. Map gripes aside, I still really enjoyed exploring each level for the most part and almost wish the whole game world were seamlessly connected rather than broken down by stages. The game teases with some ideas and mechanics from Metroidvania titles that I wish it had embraced a little more.
SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance Brings a Welcomed Challenge
For those looking to truly test their skills, Art of Vengeance has a lot to offer. Hidden throughout each level are combat challenges against elite enemies that you can choose to take on for rewards, new outfits for Musashi, hidden collectibles that upgrade your health and kunai capacity, or unlock more inventory in the shop. Completing all the elite combat challenges in a level unlocks a new passive or combo ability for Musashi to use that he can equip from his gear menu. On top of these other challenges, there are also special areas that test not only your combat ability, but also how efficient you are at platforming and using your ninja tools.
Completing all of these challenges unlocks a more powerful sword for Musashi to slice through enemies, which I feel was almost essential to overcome some of the last few bosses of the game. These challenges and optional goals were extremely fun to take on, and the rewards I would gain from them were more than worth the effort of completing them. There are also lab keys that you can collect from completing certain challenges. These are used to access a very specific event that I won’t spoil, but fans of past Shinobi games will be thrilled to uncover this.
Additionally, upon completing the game, I gained access to Arcade and Boss Rush modes. Arcade allows you to fully play through any level and be timed and graded on your performance throughout the level. Those who pride themselves on perfecting runs or speed running will surely have a blast with this mode. Boss Rush is the ultimate test of your abilities, however. You must face off against every boss in the game back-to-back without any healing or breaks. I only managed to make it through six bosses after hours of attempts and playing around with different builds and strategies. The bosses in Art of Vengeance are so varied and difficult that only the most skilled and dedicated fans will be able to overcome this mode.
A Great Foundation
I had an absolute blast playing through SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance and was blown away by the beautiful art design and presentation. I had some issues with the game’s map, and I do feel that some fights can be hard to follow with all the action on the screen. However, I still fully recommend Art of Vengeance to both fans of the series and those seeking a fast-paced action game that rewards skilled players and exploration.
Lizardcube has laid a really solid foundation for SEGA to build upon if they commit to bringing Shinobi back to modern times. I would love to see a new game that takes what Art of Vengeance has added to the formula and goes even further with it. I’m not saying that SEGA should make the next game a full-on Metroidvania, but I think if they lean into the exploration and refine the combat just a bit more, the Shinobi series could return to the heights it had in the late 80s and early 90s. Still, as it stands, Art of Vengeance is a great return for the Shinobi series and should not be missed.
Disclaimer: SEGA provided a PlayStation 5 version of SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance for review purposes.
