Inindo: Way of the Ninja

"Koei can make great Chinese bases games, but not Japanese"

Inindo, the way of the ninja, meaning the code of honor the ninja live by. Well, if it's in the name, this game most have some ninja action. Yes, it does in RPG form. But the game is very boring, slow, and annoying. Here are the reasons why.

Graphics 5/10
Graphics do not live to its 16 bit platform. They are full of pixels, choppy, the sprites almost looking like stick figures. Towns can be big, and with only colored signs to distinguish what building it is, you can get lost very easily. Each and every town looks almost identical to the other, and trust me, even though each town has its own name and shape, can you memorize Japanese town names? I sure can't and I can get very easily lost in towns and maps due to the repeatitive textures. All the graphics in this game resemble 8 bit graphics (except the ending), all these bland graphics will not impress you at all. There are some cutscenes but they number to about 3 or 4, even though they are like drawn pictures, they are many pixels to give an eyesore to many.

Controls 6/10
Controls can get rather slow and annoying, and due to the lack of speed, you'll keep on pressing buttons to actually make something happen! I kept on pressing all these buttons to make the menu pop up but since I pressed so many buttons, it didn't open up and finally when I made it open, I closed it accidentily. Even playing for a long time, you will still be confused by the slow controls, I know you will.

Plot 10/10
This actually follows what really happened in Japan and that, to me, was pretty cool. Actually using a real (or close to real) plot was pretty innovative to me. A strong Japanese warlord by the name of Oda Nobunaga suddenly calls for the extermination of the Iga Ninja. Even some clans, like the Koga, team up against you. Even though ninjas are fast and skillful, they stand no chance against guns, a new European weapon used by Nobunaga's armies. So, as one of the last of your ninja clan, you must take your honor and avenge the death of your comrades... with his life! Hehe, cool huh?

Sound 7/10
The fresh Japanese like music is cool to listen to. I whistle to it now and then. They are pretty cool, from the drums and all. What I did NOT like was the annoying battle sounds. When you hit your oppenent, made this ringing bell type of noise. I asked myself, "Does this happen when I hit someone with a metal katana?" I think not. All the battle sounds, from spells and all, went terribly with its action.

Gameplay 6/10
This game can get a little boring. I hated to get attacked every few steps and do the same annoying sequence of attacks to take my enemy down, WHILE listening to those annoying battle sounds. But there are many innovations that boosted to score here alot. As a ninja (ninjas actually did this), you can get a job from a warlord to either spy or burn a castle of their desire. Heck, you can even burn and burn and burn a castle when you're bored. You can get some easy cash by this. It can be a little fun to burn a castle, but how many times can you do this? It can be boring after a few thousand times. And in this RPG, you can actually get another two people in your party. There are many characters to chose from, healers, other ninjas, samarais, ronins, etc. You can even fight them to kill them off. But, what I LOVED about this game are the battles between warlords finally happen (why would they spy and sabatoge in the first place?). Battles are almost like traditional strategy games that Koei makes, with magic to inflict major damage and make you stronger. I did this until 3 warlords ruled Japan, 1 being Nobunaga and the other being the future ruler of all of Japan. But, as I said before, you can do this so many times. Armies will deplete and deplete until there is a stalemate, which I also did by myself. Normal battles (walk around and get attacked randomly) can get boring, slow, and repeatitive and since that's the gameplay you'll see the most, I deducted some points because of that.

All, in all, Inindo had some interesting things in it and also some boring things in it, the boring things majoring unfortunately. This is only for hardcore RPGs or lovers of Koei. Anyone else would not like this game for its slow speed, repeatitve battles, and bad graphics.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99