Ninja Stealth II | a Review
originally published on 20/10/2022;
Hello everyone, I am the ludicrously powerful ninja, G.E.M.Simov, a stealthy goon come to tell you about Ninja Stealth II.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
This is an RPGMaker game. If you know what that means, you know what kind of game it is, and, frankly, there’s very little in the way of gameplay for me to talk about in relation to that. However, you might not know what an RPGMaker game is, so let me get into it.
RPGMaker games tend to be pseudo RPGs - pseudo, due to the fact that the allocation of Stats is nonexistent, there is never a chance for customization of progression - it is always up, there is no horizontal growth - and there is no character creation. This is very surface level, but let me go more in-depth.
Ninja Stealth II is a top-down game, set in a vast number of rooms, which rooms are situated on a square grid. You (the Player) can navigate by using the Arrow Keys, and you also have the opportunity to interact with objects by pressing the Z or Enter key. The Player may also press the X or Escape key to enter the menu, which menu serves as a means of accessing the game’s settings, saving the game, accessing the Player Character’s inventory and ending/exiting the game.
Interestingly enough, this one allows for the use of the Left mouse button - it can be used to click on a tile, after which the PC will walk up to that tile (to the best of his abilities, as some tiles that require turning are very difficult for the pathfinder to deal with). Not only that, but it will interact with the object, if the object is interact-able.
In most rooms of the game’s world, one will find enemies - at least one - wandering about. If the PC walks within a certain radius of them, they will start chasing after the PC in an attempt to engage a battle with him.
Battles in Ninja Stealth II take the Player to a different ‘screen’ - it’s better referred to as the battle menu - in which the Player has a number of options, such as ‘fight’ or ‘escape’ (though that is grayed out most of the time, meaning that it isn’t actually an option).
If one chooses to fight, they get the options to:Attack (to do some damage), use an Item (most often something that heals the PC), or Guard (to take less damage when stricken). The way combat works is simple, and in the case of Ninja Stealth FAR too simple, even for an RPGMaker game.
Combat is turn based - first goes the Player’s Character(s) and then goes the Enemy. If the Player has selected the ‘Attack’ option, the PC will attempt to attack the enemy character, with the attack having an almost equal chance of either missing or being a critical strike, after which the Enemy will attack, and then it is the Player’s turn again, during which they can decide what to do, and then it goes on and on, until either the PC loses all its health and dies, or the enemy loses all its health and dies.
Upon the end of a combat encounter, the PC gains experience - which serves to increase one’s level, and when one’s level increases, their stats grow as well, making the PC stronger in combat. There appears to be almost no purpose to leveling in Ninja Stealth II,
A most unpleasant part of playing Ninja Stealth II (I should really just refer to it as ‘this game’ now) is that there is no consequence to defeating an enemy, as leaving and entering the room will just respawn that enemy. That is bothersome, because there’s a lot of backtracking to be done in this game - as in all RPGMaker games, and most JRPGs, too - so the constant assaults performed by the enemies really cut up the gameplay, if it can even be called that…
So what is the game here? Well, this one is more of a puzzle game with a story. The puzzles aren’t very engaging, as most of them boil down to trial and error, and the remainder of them boils down to find the key so you can progress. It almost has that Point&Click Adventure Game feel to it, but the puzzles are sensible in that there’s literally no other options for their solutions other than those that are the solutions.
Then, however, at one point in the game it seems as though it just gives up on the idea of presenting the Player with puzzles, though it then turns out that it is so because of the fact the game is almost over at that point.
In any case, this game is bad. Not just because it is an RPGMaker game (those CAN be decent), but because it’s more of a joke than a real game, OR it could be that it was made by a youthful teen, rather than an adult. In any case, it’s not good. On top of all that, this game has 5000 Steam Achievements. What are you going to do with that many? Around 4995 of them don’t actually require any activity on your (the Player’s) part, you can just turn the game on and wait for an hour until they get added to your account, 1 by 1, slowly, very slowly. Actually, you might need to wait more than an hour.
It COULD be a little amusing, but no. 1/3
Presentation
This, as mentioned, is an RPGMaker game. It does not look too good. It does not sound too good. The only neat thing about it is the battle music - which starts off nicely - and the font in the menus. Everything else is quite underwhelming, even if it is not bad. 1/3
Story
This game HAS a story, unlike the previous game of this developer that I’ve played (Barro), but I don’t think that’s a good thing. It starts off with the Main Character captured by the villain. He goes on to use his urine as a means of destroying some cords (prior to which he breaks a wall with his bare hands) so he can get out of his cell. Why is he imprisoned, rather than dead, I don’t know.
There’s a big, evil villain that shows up through computers, who taunts the Main Character constantly… Even if there’s… There’s nothing to it. He’s just being an evil villain (there is no real conclusion to that).
The Main Character - the Ninja - gets a dog at one point. That dog then dies in an explosion - caused by the Main Character - and the Main Character says, and I quote: “Poor little thing… Anyway…” This is real writing right here. That’s it.
Then, there’s a friendly android who deactivates when the Main Character (MC) deactivates the power source for the baddie. MC then turns the source of power back on and goes on to later blow it up, which makes the friendly android not get deactivated, but every other android does. That’s… That’s some WEIRD dookie.
And the game just ends after that. We WON! Let’s go home, nevermind the fact that you don’t have a home, Mr. or Mrs. Friendly Android! Huzzah!
The story is there, but it’s so bad it’s almost worse than if it wasn’t there! The developers are not native english speakers, but this appears to have been written by people who have never actually engaged with any form of story-telling, OR it’s an elaborate shitpost. Either way, I don’t like it. 0/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? What kind of question is that, considering the content of this review? No, it does not get the point. 0/1
Conclusion
2/10. Compared to Barro, I am speechless. This is horrible, and I’ve barely any idea how it could have come from the same developer. Don’t play this, don’t buy it, don’t do anything with it. If you want 5000 Achievements, maybe you can get it (on a sale), but don’t. It’s not worth it.
I feel as though hanging it on the Wall of Shame gives it too much recognition, but there it will be. What a horrible thing.