Red Ninja: End of Honor

"The Ideas Put Forward Are Awesome, But The Implementation Is Terrible"

The box art looks really impressive, and to be honest, if you buy it based on that, you've fallen for this game's “seduce” attack (that is a move in the game!). Unfortunately, the in game art is nowhere near as impressive, but the awesome wire weapon should be able to distract you from that. Well, it does for about ten minutes anyway.

===
Storyline (4/10)
===

Kurenai's father was the inventor of the gatling gun, a weapon that the current ruler didn't approve of since it could level legions of his army in seconds. Thus ninjas were sent to destroy the weapon and kill it's creator, they succeed in killing her father, but Kurenai manages to survive and is taken in and taught the ninja ways, ready to seek her revenge. The story doesn't really develop much further than that, and since you see this in the opening there's not storyline development past the first five minutes of the game. That is a bit of an exaggeration, since there are a couple of plot twists along the way, but they're incredibly generic and if you've played a game or seen a movie before you can pretty much predict them. The story doesn't get in the way of playing the game and at least gives you a reason for why you're there taking out the enemies, but it's nothing special.

===
Gameplay (5/10)
===

Red Ninja's weapon is the selling point of this game, and is worth overlooking all the other game's problems just to have a play around with. Kurenai uses a coil of razor wire as a weapon, which can have different attachments; spear, hook and weight. It can be used in a variety of ways, but usually involves attaching it to an enemy's body part, increasing the tension in the wire to maximum and then tearing the enemy's limb off. This can then be built upon, for example, you can climb onto a beam above an enemy, wait for them to get near, attach it to their head, then drop down the opposite side of the beam; hanging and killing the enemy. Attaching it to an enemy you can drag them around somewhat and if there's enough tension in the wire and clothesline other enemies using it. Other implementations of it include using it to climb with and even swing while hanging, allowing you to get to areas that look impossible to get at.

However, what's extremely good about this game is also it's downfall; despite being an awesome and innovative weapon, the way it's programmed is terrible. The controls are awkward and make doing even the slightest of movements difficult. Thus you spend fifteen minutes just trying to set up a stealth kill only to have it ruined by not being able to pull off what just be an easy command. The stealth system, similar to Tenchu, doesn't work very well as the enemies are pretty much automatically become aware of you as soon as you get within range. This makes stealth kills practically impossible, and is best displayed by the game's “seduce” command, which when used is supposed to attract the enemy and have them walk up to you as you disappear back behind a pillar ready to kill. However, it just doesn't work and the enemies go into attack mode and start slashing away while you're stuck waiting for this seducing animation to finish before you can even regain control.

While this game is fine enough as an action game, but it's supposed to be a stealth game and it just doesn't provide that part of the gameplay. It's awkward to play but there is some fun to be had but for the most part the game is infuriating due to the bad controls.

===
Graphics (5/10)
===

Nothing to go crazy about, but they're sufficient to an extent. The camera system leaves a lot to be desired, since no matter where you position the camera it always swings back around to where it wants to be, which is usually behind a wall. The characters aren't stunning but they look good enough, and this game does seem as if it was relatively low budget, so the graphics are as good as they probably could have been. As with everything else, the levels look alright and they're design is ok, but there's a lot better out there.

===
Sounds (3/10)
===

It's probably supposed to be “traditional Japanese” music, but the flutes and panpipes just get annoying. The sound effects are pretty bland and uninspired, just as with the background music. The voice acting doesn't feature very heavily, which is a good thing since it's not that good.

===
Lifespan (3/10)
===

As said, the game is fun for the amount of time you spend experimenting with the weapon. As soon as you get bored of it's novelty, then there's pretty much nothing else to do in the game since the game itself just fails to keep your attention. If you can put up with the difficult controls then you may be able to salvage more time out of the game, but even if you play the game through, it doesn't last very long.

===
Summary (4/10)
===

I purchased this because it sounded like Tenchu, and in some ways it does offer a similar idea, however, this game has so many problems it renders it almost unplayable. The wire IS an innovative weapon and it is fun to play around with, but I could have had the same experience from a tech demo rather than going out and paying money for this. From the looks of the game and the many broken functions contained within, it seems that this game was probably released as is due to the developers running out of money and deciding to cut their losses. It's a shame as with some extra work this could have probably surpassed Tenchu and offer a pretty unique experience, unfortunately in it's current state it fails to do so.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/18/07