Style With Substance: Shinobi PS2 Review

Style With Substance: Shinobi PS2 Review. When we talk about the foundations of the character action genre, games like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, and Bayonetta come to mind. And as much as I love these games, I think it's extremely important to recognize the fantastic ideas that Shinobi PS2 was bringing to the genre all the way back in 2002. In this review I also give a formal analysis of what I think qualifies as "character action" (at least a core requirement) and how "playing for style" works in a design sense, which I think will be really useful for conversations around the genre moving forward. I'm also really curious how SEGA elaborated on the sequel, Nightshade, but that will be the focus of another review someday (hopefully). While playing Shinobi PS2, I found it to be a breath of fresh air because, in comparison to the other games in the genre, Shinobi has a much stronger dedication for pure skill play by choosing to discard character progression/move upgrades, currency grinding, and opt-in style rank. Instead, as the developer outright states, Shinobi is focused on genuine skill progression being the defining experience of the game. You only "power-up" through knowledge and experience, which I love. On top of the skill progression, the director also has the cojones to actually enforce the game's pace and style system with a persistent health drain mechanic. Something I think many modern combat games need (especially with giant sprawling spaces) but sadly will never utilize due to the result actually putting pressure on players and the design of the game. But as much as I love the attitude of Shinobi PS2 and its approach to its systems, I think it does struggle in some areas in terms of balance, level design, and execution of ideas, but of course I'll elaborate on that more specifically in the review. If you want to play this gem, which I recommend if you are a fan of character action or arcade games especially, it seems you are either going to need to break out the goat that is the PS2, or PCSX2 (emulator) because this game has been abandoned by SEGA, or maybe it's more accurate to say it's been buried under the ashes of the fallen juggernaut that is my favorite era of SEGA (the late arcade era). It would be so awesome if this got a port on modern consoles like PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox, but the best of course would be a PC (Steam) release. Amazing thumbnail by the master ‪@boghogSTG‬   / boghogooo   Patreon   / electricunderground   [$2 tier = Monthly Game Review Vote, Name in Credits, Exclusive Monthly Podcast] [$5 tier = Double Monthly Game Review Vote, By Name Shout-out, Name in Credits, Exclusive Monthly Podcast] Website: https://theelectricundergr.wixsite.co... Electric Reddit:   / electricunderground   STG Revision 2020 Discord (Shhmup Community Discord):   / discord   00:00 Chapter 1 - Defining Style 05:21 Chapter 2 - Limitations of Style 08:30 Chapter 3 - Skill_BASED Progression 11:55 Chapter 4 - Incentives VS Enforcement 19:04 Chapter 5 - Chaining For Survival 23:27 Chapter 6 - Shinobi's Action Platforming 28:07 Chapter 7 - Combat and Enemy Design 38:23 Chapter 8 - Systematic Over-Reliance 45:25 Chapter 9 - Unify the Level Design (Please) 52:52 Final Thoughts #shinobi, #shinobiartofvengeance, #devilmaycry