Tag: action

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound vs. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Battle of the Ninja

Sometime in the last couple of years, the planets aligned on the same night that a full moon cast an eerie light over the bamboo forests at the base of Mount Fuji, and two separate studios came up with the idea of resurrecting a classic 2D ninja franchise for modern consoles at the same time. Lizardcube dragged Joe Musashi out of the shadows with the Sega-published Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, and The Game Kitchen shone a spotlight on Ryu Hayabusa, creating the Koei Tecmo and Dotemu-published Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. Well, kind of. Ryu Hayabusa is in the game, but he’s not playable.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound came out first, but Shinobi: Art of Vengeance was the first one to get a physical release, so it was the first one I played. I was going to buy them both on Switch, but the boxed release of Shinobi was a code-in-a-box, which I soundly rejected as everyone should, so I got that one on PS5. Still, I played Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound docked on my Switch 2, and didn’t notice any particular performance issues in either game, so I think it’s still a fair fight. As such, it’s time for me to figure out which 2D ninja action game is the best, and I do this as a fan of both franchises who is old enough to have played both back when they were first released. No ninja favouritism from me!

I’m going to use the most coveted and respected review setup of all, that being the method adopted by premier 90’s periodical, Mean Machines Sega. As such, we’ll be judging each title on the following aspects; Presentation, Graphics, Sound, Playability, Lastability, and Overall. Make sense? No, not to me either, but we’ll get into that shortly, so get your tabi on and bring your kunai, it’s time to take to the shadows.

Presentation

So, what’s the difference between presentation and graphics/sound, then? I guess I’m just not on the level of those fabled Mean Machines Sega writers of old, because I don’t really get it. I’ll tell you what, I’ll use this section to talk about each title’s story setup instead. That’s kind of like presentation.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance’s story is pretty basic, with a fairly unremarkable bad guy who is leading an enormous and incredibly well-equipped army of soldiers, creatures, and demons on a steamroller journey of world domination. The bad guy, known as Lord Ruse, has somehow cheated Death (yes, the Death) out of his scythe, and so wields incredible power. Ruse’s forces hit Musashi’s village early on and burn the whole place to the ground, murdering everyone except Joe and Joe’s pregnant wife. Mr. Musashi is obviously fairly pissed, and goes on his own rampage with vengeance on his mind.

Being able to play as a ninja of the Black Spider Clan is pretty cool for Ninja Gaiden fans.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound has an interesting story hook in which main character, Kenji of the Hayabusa Clan, ends up becoming a vessel for the soul of Kumori, an equally skilled kunoichi aligned with the shady Black Spider Clan. The two must work together to defeat the minions of a powerful fiend who plans to open the veil into the human world and wreak havoc. The bad guys feel less important than those of Shinobi: The Art of Vengeance, but the relationship between Kenji and Kumori is actually pretty fun to see develop, and the game’s finale wraps up their story in a surprising way, so I think this one takes it.

Winner: Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound

Graphics

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance goes for that playing-a-comic art-style that Lizardcube had previously used for Streets of Rage 4. It looked great for that game, and it looks great here, and most of the enemy designs are very memorable (I especially like the big guys with the electric gauntlet weapons).

The symbol over this unfortunate fellow’s head means that he’s ready to be executed. Finish him off, Joe!

The backgrounds can be spectacular, with highlights including the sparkling lantern festival, the gorgeous fields that the game starts in, and the rooftops of the night-time city stage. Where Shinobi: Art of Vengeance really excels though is in its animation. Joe’s movements are incredibly fluid and the battles look spectacular, and this helps you feel super cool and badass when you pull off spectacular moves while managing to avoid damage.

Do the visuals lose some personality and authenticity with the move away from pixel art, though? Possibly, and occasionally it feels like the backgrounds lack detail, but it’s a superb-looking game overall nonetheless.

Both games feature a really cool-looking bamboo forest early on.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound has more of a retro feel, opting for the familiar pixel art style. This looks great, although perhaps not as striking as Shinobi. Some of the backgrounds look awesome, especially the early-game bamboo forest and the areas in and around Mount Fuji. However, there were locations that I thought were a little bland with uninteresting colour palettes, especially the stage that’s a big construction area. I also found that Keni’s arms looked cartoonishly huge when he was holding onto the ceiling or hanging off a helicopter. Both he and Kumori’s sprites are gorgeous, though.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound gives players the option to turn off the gore, but honestly it’s pretty cartoony anyway.

Interestingly, both games have a couple of levels and a sub-section of enemies based around body horror themes, and both of them kind of fall flat when it comes to making it, well, gross enough. You know, that sort of stuff should send shivers down your spine, leave you morbidly fascinated and unable to look away despite the soul-clenching nature of what you’re seeing. For an example, look at Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master and its Hydra boss fight, as well as the stage that proceeds it. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance’s gribblies look too clean and sleek thanks to the art style. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s pixel art style gives the twisted horrors a bit more of a visceral nature, but they still look a bit too cartoony to be effective, even the monstrosity fought at the end of the train stage. Disappointing.

Honestly, there were times during Shinobi: Art of Vengeance where I found myself wishing it went for a pixel art style (especially in the underground laboratory level), but I think that it looks better overall. Both games look great, but Shinobi: Art of Vengeance has that extra edge. Lizarcube are winning this one, but it’s darned close.

Winner: Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Sound

While both games sound good, and both games have great, appropriately action-packed soundtracks, only Shinobi: Art of Vengeance had any pieces that I remembered after I’d finished the game. They were the track that plays during the “Ankou Rift” sections, and the battle music from the Lantern Festival stage, if anyone is interested.

Winner: Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Playability

Here we go, the meat and potatoes of any ninja game, or should that be the rice and tofu? Let’s get one thing cleared up straight away; Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is harder. I beat most bosses in Shinobi: Art of Vengeance on my second try, and didn’t have any real trouble until the very last showdown with Lord Ruse himself. The first boss in Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (a giant fire bat monster demon guy) took me numerous retries, and things only got more challenging. It never felt insurmountable, though, and I persevered and finished the game in the end. Incidentally, Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn (click here for my review), is harder than either of these games.

This floating boss might not look like much, but is an absolute bitch.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a decidedly old-school action platformer that plays like an updated version of the classic Ninja Gaiden games, and it’s definitely closer to its inspiration than Shinobi. Kenji can do two quick slashes with his sword, and can fling projectiles thanks to Kumori’s assistance. The pair have access to a few equippable special weapons and abilities, and can leap from enemies, projectiles, and certain pick-ups using a mid-air attack, which becomes very important for traversal and combat as the game progresses.

Most enemies fall in one hit, but others are much tougher and require Kenji to get up close and slash away, putting himself at risk of some health bar-sapping counter-attacks. However, there’s a nifty mechanic that can help to make these big boys and girls less of a pain. Certain enemies will have visible auras, and depending on whether you defeat them with the right kind of attack, Kenji can sap this aura, super-powering his next strike, which will make short work of the tougher enemies if you play it right. This mechanic also comes up during every boss fight, and it can feel pretty good when you take out a group of tough enemies or stun a boss thanks to smart use of the available auras.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance feels much more modern and further away from the Shinobi games of old, with Joe Musashi gaining directional attacks, upgradeable combos, and a satisfying execution move. There’s a similar system of equippable items that have in-game effects, but I felt more compelled to experiment with different loadouts in Musashi’s outing. Art of Vengeance will also have players going back to earlier stages once new abilities have been unlocked in order to get to new areas, and as such it has a bit of a Metroidvania flavour. I’m a fan of the ways Lizardcube have expanded on the traditional gameplay, and it still feels like a Shinobi game despite these changes.

Moving platforms over electrified water with rotating flamethrower turrets. Good luck!

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance also has some devious platforming sections. I didn’t find the Ankou Rifts too bad (optional areas that provide combat or platforming challenges that provide Joe with a stronger weapon if you beat them all) but there were occasional optional areas in the main levels that slipped from challenging to aggravating. The most egregious example of this was a platforming section known as the “secret bunker” in the battlefield stage late in the game. That place was a nightmare, and was the only time I felt like the controls were working against me, but I beat it.

Both games have some really cool set-pieces, including levels based on moving trains, and “mounted” stages, with Shinobi having a mechanised surfboard interlude as well as another one that’s a slight spoiler, and Ninja Gaiden having a couple of sections on a scrambler bike belonging to Kumori. One later stage in Ninja Gaiden has Kenji leaping from vehicle to vehicle in a military convoy, which was a nice bit of spectacle.

You wouldn’t believe how unnaturally talented Kumori is in the saddle.

Lastly, I encountered glitches in both games. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound had Kumori riding her motorcycle backwards after a collision in one of the on-wheels stages, which was a little confusing and immersion-breaking but didn’t hurt in the long run, but there was one instance of a section of a level starting with Kenji falling through the floor and dying, even when I restarted from the last checkpoint. I had to quit the game completely and restart the level from the beginning to get past it, which was annoying.

Shinobi: The Art of Vengeance hit me with a recurring glitch where the map screen wouldn’t correctly identify where Joe was in the stage, which actually proved to be a major setback when I was searching for the last few collectibles in a stage. Also annoying.

Both games are incredibly smooth and satisfying to play, though, and are challenging in such a way that rarely falls into frustration. However, due to the sheer spectacle and “cool” factor of Shinobi’s combat, I have to hand it to Joe.

Winner: Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Lastability

Well, the campaign in Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is a lot longer. With the expansive, Metroidvania-lite levels and the backtracking Joe Musashi’s adventure will last you a fair bit longer if you’re the type to play through a campaign once and then move on. When the campaign is completed an arcade mode is unlocked where the goal is to finish each stage in a good time while locating all the collectibles and taking as little damage as possible (as well as finishing the boss off using the awesome execution mechanic). Attaining S rank is pretty challenging, and then when you add in the Ankou Rifts, an unlockable boss rush mode, and the optional secret boss, there’s plenty there for completionists to get on with.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a more focused experience, with the ranking mechanic applied from the beginning of the game. In my experience it was slightly easier to attain an S rank in Ninja Gaiden (depending on whether one of the stage’s challenges involved beating the boss without damage or something crazy like that), but I didn’t especially try for the S ranks in either game so I can’t speak with too much authority on it. Once the campaign is completed a hard mode is unlocked, and there are also secret ops missions which are challenging optional stages in the vein of Shinobi’s Ankou Rifts.

When it comes to sheer content, though, I’ve got to give this one to Mr. Musashi again.

Winner: Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Overall

Well, it’s looking like a bit of a Shinobi whitewash at the moment, but that’s really not the case. Every single category was very close, especially the all-important playability category, and the relationship between Kenji and Kumori in Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound did add a lot of personality to win me over. Of course, Joe Musashi is a legend, and Kenji and Kumori are mere newcomers, but I really enjoyed their interactions and this iteration of Joe comes across as more of a personification of vengeance who says literally one word over the course of the entire game. That does give him a badass edge, though.

It’s just as cool as it was in 1993.

Like I said early on, both franchises mean a lot to me. I played and loved the Shinobi games as a kid on the Master System and Mega Drive, but I didn’t play any Ninja Gaiden games until the 2004 reboot and only played the classic games in retrospect. However, whereas I view the Shinobi games as great titles, 2004’s Ninja Gaiden is one of my favourite games of all time, so there’s no real favouritism here. Just based on how I feel about both games, though, I don’t think I can wrangle a plot twist and name Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound as the overall winner despite Shinobi taking most of the categories. It’s great, but Shinobi: Art of Vengeance just has that edge, a more palpable “cool” factor, and the combat is so darned satisfying.

Winner: Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Really, though, both games are winners, and I’m just grateful to have had the opportunity to play two brand new 2D ninja action games here in 2025. Which ever game you choose to play you’re in for a fun and challenging time that has plenty of spectacular content to offer, and if you’ve got a few extra pennies, you could always double up. Support your local ninja in these trying times. Buy both!

Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn

Blue Shadow (And a Pink One Too)

A modern remake of a “Nintendo hard” NES game that I’d never even heard of? No, it’s okay, I’ll leave it, thanks. What’s that? It’s got gorgeous, pixelated sci-fi cityscape backgrounds and super cool modern re-imaginings of 90’s ninjas and robotic enemies? Alright, you twisted my arm.

Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn, developed by Tengo Project, is a modern remake of the NES title Shadow of the Ninja, known as Blue Shadow here in Europe. It features two ninjas of the Iga clan, Hayate and Kaede, as they navigate six distinct stages in a direct attempt on the life of the evil Emperor Garuda, whose forces have taken over the United States of America.

There’s a bit of Contra in there, a sprinkling of The Ninja Warriors, and perhaps a slight bouquet of Metal Slug.

This re-imagining updates the visuals in bombastic style, with chunky sprites filled with personality, a grimy tech aesthetic juxtaposed with neon lights and splashed with delightfully garish, luminous colours, and fluid animation bringing bosses and set-pieces to life.

It’s a gorgeous-looking game, but you won’t have much time to take in the sights, as beyond a couple of basic grunt-type enemies, most of the mechs, monsters and mooks you’ll face are perfectly equipped to catch out sightseers and careless wanderers. Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn is challenging, and I can see how the original might have been a very tough nut to crack. This remake allows players to continue indefinitely from the last stage reached, but most areas still took me a lot of tries to get through, and the bosses take the difficulty up another few notches, forcing the recognition and memorisation of some devious attack patterns.

Both Hayate and Kaede control exactly the same, and can attack, crouch, jump, and attach themselves to walls and ceilings, flipping up onto higher platforms if the terrain allows. They both start off with a katana (that can be powered up to launch projectiles) and a kusarigama, which is basically a blade on a chain. The kusarigama packs a punch and can attack at range, but its longer attack animation will leave its wielder vulnerable and, unlike the katana, it cannot deflect enemy projectiles. As the game progresses, it becomes necessary to fully understand the strengths and limitations of each weapon to succeed, and knowing which attack to use and when so as not to leave yourself vulnerable to counter-attack is the key to success.

The heads fly off of these cute little laser horses when they take damage, resulting in a flying head drone and some charging, disembodied legs to deal with.

Successful players will also have to master jumping, as Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn features a few fiddly jumps here and there. The jump button has a slight delay, and this has led me to more than a few health-sapping plummets into nothingness. Luckily, falling off the screen isn’t an instant death, but the jumping is the most unsatisfying part of the game for me, and I feel like it could have been a lot smoother. The ninjas also have the ability to momentarily hover, and this is activated by pressing down and holding the jump button, which was a little too fiddly for an old and decrepit gamer like me at first. It all clicks into place eventually, but not before more than a few frustratingly missed ledges.

The “ninja gear” mechanic adds another element to the game. Throughout each stage crates will regularly hide limited-use weapons – including firebombs, larger swords, and even guns – that can be kept in a limited inventory and brought into action when they’re needed. There is a system where players can purchase unlocked items of gear to start the game with, which is definitely helpful in certain situations, but this starting gear is lost upon death, so if you’re having trouble with, say, the fourth stage boss, and purchased some gear you thought might help you with it, you better hope you get there without continuing.

If you repeatedly die on a certain stage, Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn will start to take pity on you, packing extra health-restoring goodies in your inventory like a proud ninja mum. I have no shame in admitting that I made use of these pity dumplings on numerous occasions. I did find myself getting better at the game, however, and was breezing through the formerly-difficult early stages upon a second play-through. The later areas could still be a bitch, though.

There’s also a two-player co-op mode, which I imagine is great, but I haven’t talked the daughter into trying that out with me yet.

This boss was really tough until I realised I could bash it in the head with a sword. It … wasn’t clear at first, okay?

Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn is a great retro platformer-action game with fantastic visuals and satisfying combat, that’s let down slightly by some occasionally fiddly jumping. It’s a stern test of reflexes, pattern memorisation, and patience, but if you think you’ve got the ninja skills, then I’d highly recommend taking a trip through this extremely dangerous neon metropolis.

Played on Switch

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth – Game Diary

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is a Metroidvania game developed by Team Ladybug and released in 2021 across multiple formats. I picked up a physical copy of the game for the Switch because I thought it looked cool and also because I own a copy of the Dreamcast RPG, Record of Lodoss War. 

The following is a spoiler-filled account of my time with the game, with some opinions and observations sprinkled throughout.

Session 1 – Tuesday 17th September

After a short break following knocking Visions of Mana on the head, it was time to play something a bit different. Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth was sitting on my shelf, and I fancied a Metroidvania. I’ve never watched the anime, I’ve never read the book, and I’ve played Record of Lodoss War on the Dreamcast but barely remember anything about it. I’m also quite inexperienced with Metroidvanias (I’ve finished Metroid Dread and that Shadow Complex game on Xbox 360 and that’s about it) so this will definitely go well. Let’s go!

Right, the whole thing has a nice pixel art style (even the title screen and the developer logos) and I was treated to a minimal intro explaining that Deedlit and a group of heroes once saved the island of Lodoss, and Deedlit fell in love with one of them. She woke up in a stone circle not knowing what was going on, and control was handed over to me. Six pages of tutorial text later and it was time to adventure.

A few first impressions; the game looks very pretty, Deedlit is really nicely animated, and the music is pretty cool. The controls seem precise, and the directional attacks are fun to pull off. The game started in the aforementioned stone circle, and Deedlit and I thought we’d be traditional and headed off to the right.

Our first enemy was an imp, which we stabbed with our sword, and it dropped a spear. Deedlit equipped the spear and we moved on. There are barriers and locked doors in the next few areas that we’ll have to come back to, and enemies respawn when you go back into a previously cleared area. There’s a dice theme going on, with enemies having a pair of die displayed under their health bar, but I don’t really get it. I should have read those tutorials.

We soon found Sylphid … I mean Sylph (still thinking about Visions of Mana), which is a wind spirit that gives Deedlit wind moves and allows her to hover. We then found a statue of Marfa, who is a goddess, apparently, and this allowed us to save and regain health. That was all the Metroidvania basics covered, now it was time to go and hover somewhere.

We passed by the stone circle again and Deedlit saw someone called Parn, and then a sorceress-looking woman appeared (whose name I didn’t catch) and asked for Deedlit’s loyalty. Deedlit refused and the sorceress said something about “trials”, and mentioned that another lost soul is coming and that it will be interesting to see who gets their wish first. A while after this, there was a small underwater area, and it became clear that Deedlit cannot hold her breath for long at all.

We found a fire spirit next (called Salamander, not Salamando) and now Deedlit can swap between fire and wind modes. There’s a mechanic where you can fill up your fire and wind spirit gauges if you don’t get hit. The more full each gauge is the more damage that element of attack will do, and if one or both are completely full, it’s possible to gradually regain health. You can also absorb attacks of the same element.

Moving on, we found a place with a big, hanging, half-eaten dragon flank and hitting it caused quite a bit of slowdown (and filled the spirit gauge). We found a bow next, and Deedlit seemed to be getting kitted out pretty early. We found some spirit magic pretty soon after this, and could use some magic points to shoot a load of balls of light at enemies. Handy.

We bumped into someone called Slayn (this was, like the sorceress earlier, preceded by a kind of video glitch effect). Slayn was all vague and then he ran off. Deedlit seems to know these people but they clearly aren’t being themselves. Poor Deedlit, she must feel very isolated. She met someone called Ghim next, and he was acting weird and evasive too, but appears to be the game’s merchant. We couldn’t afford anything from him that looked good, so we moved on.

After a bit more Metroidvania-style progress, we encountered a large, snake-like dragon called Abram the Blue. Again, Deedlit seemed to recognise the dragon and tried to converse but he was hell-bent on throwing down, so we obliged. We took him out first time, and Deedlit got a Soul Crystal Ball, but we don’t know what it’s for yet.

We soon found a snake statue that granted Deedlit the ability to slide, which enabled us to explore another area through a low gap. We met a Dark Elf girl called Pirotess (Deedlit called her this but she didn’t like being identified as such). She killed us. She was quick and tough, repeatedly leaping and throwing knives. We then fell to her a second time, and I was realising that I probably needed to stop taking this game lightly now. We got her the third time. She wasn’t dead, though, and she nicked our soul orb thing before she legged it, which was very rude.

Progressing to the next area after this fight led us to “Stage 2”, which had a different vibe and a background theme that kind of looked like the inside of a great hall that’s seen better days. I felt like we’d missed stuff, so we backtracked for a bit, but the only unexplored areas I could find seemed to still need other items or keys to get to. We went back to the Stage 2 area and got killed very quickly by some nasty bird-type enemies. Things were getting real in Stage 2, it seemed. Axe-throwing kobolds, goblin archers, and big, angry birds were absolutely everywhere.

We got the video glitch again (which I now realised flashes up a large eyeball thing) and Deedlit met someone called Woodchuck. This guy seems to offer a gambling mini-game. I’m good, thanks. This last bit of progress marked the end of Session 1, and the now-traditional wall of words this entails. I’ll try to keep the entries shorter, but I can’t promise anything.

Session 2 – Tuesday 17th September

I was excited to get going again with session two, and Deedlit immediately fell into some spikes and died. We will not be discouraged! She then died in spikes again because I pressed the wrong button, and then she died again moments later because I got knocked into spikes by a giant centipede enemy, and I decided that I’m going to stop keeping count of her deaths at this point. The Stage 2 area can very appropriately be called a difficulty spike.

After some cool sections where Deedlit needed to bend her arrow shots using magnets, we encountered a boss fight in the form of a couple of Djinn type creatures, one wind-based and one fire-based, and the fight required Deedlit to use her element-swapping powers to avoid and dish out damage. We beat these guys first try, acquired the double-jump, and encountered a character called Etoh. She too, is vague and unhelpful.

After a bit more exploring the game crashed on me while trying to use one of the fast-travel points. Luckily, everything was fine when I reloaded, and I’d saved moments before.

Upon reloading, Deedlit and I made some really good progress, exploring past some green doors (because hitting one green switch seemed to open all of them) and finding a better melee weapon, but then got absolutely shafted upon returning to one of the larger rooms by a combination of charging skeletons, pixies, kobolds and spikes. We lost a lot of progress, but that’s Metroidvanias for you.

We found a power-up for the wind spirit attacks next, and then did a bit of double-jump led backtracking and found a room with four intimidating dog statues. There wasn’t really anything here and the dog statues didn’t come to life. Maybe next time. Some more backtracking saw us find a power-up for the fire spirit attacks. It’s nice to feel powered up.

We stepped into another obvious boss area (they’re marked by a green haze leading into them) after exploring most of Stage 2, and the sorceress (who Deedlit called Karla) returned. She said some stuff and then we had to fight a gigantic red dragon called Shooting Star. That’s a very cute name, but it was a very tough fight, with a green poison attack and a green orb-firing attack proving especially hard to dodge. This took three or four tries, but we got it in the end, and were led into Stage 3. This is another outside area with a misty wood in the background. I liked it. It was filled with plant-type enemies and we also spotted some harpies and zombies.

We found an appropriately sneakily hidden invisibility spell and scouted out a save point, and it was time to end the session. I had to go and get some pizzas for me and the youth because, sometimes, pizza is all you need.

Session 3 – Tuesday 17th September

At the start of this session, a ghostly man turned into a key. It was the soul of a thief, apparently, and it is supposed to open a locked door. Not the one right in front of it, though. A little further on Deedlit and I found an MP boost behind a cracked wall, and we realised we’re going to have to really keep our eyes peeled for those secrets.

We found a boomerang weapon and it’s got great damage and great range. How are we going to ever go back to a regular old sword now? Incidentally, it’s worth pointing out here that even though I’ve never played any of the Metroidvania style Castlevania games (I’ve only played Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and its sequel), Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth definitely leans more towards the “Vania” half of the Metroidvania genre. Deedlit even leaves those shadowy echoes of herself as she moves around, just like the effect in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Deedlit and I found a long, nicely furnished hallway area filled with zombies and demons, all of whom were easily slain with our new boomerang. We also met a new enemy called the Lesser Dragon, and this is clearly the creature that’s been slaughtered and hung to make the meat that we keep finding around the place. They’re annoying so I don’t feel bad for them.

At the end of that hallway we found the switch that opened the yellow doors, making a fair amount of new areas accessible. We checked a suspiciously blank area on the map and found a water spell that causes a cascade of water. We also encountered a creepy, shadowy enemy called a Shadow Stalker, that only becomes corporeal when Deedlit is looking away. Lobbing boomerangs and then looking away before they come back catches these shadowy fellows out, but I’m not sure how we would’ve dealt with them if we didn’t have the boomerang.

We fought some Medusa enemies with bows, who kept turning Deedlit to stone and then shooting her with arrows, and then we found another ghostly figure who gave us a key. This one was a craftsman. Deedlit then overheard Karla and Pirotess talking about reviving Ashram. I don’t know who Ashram is, but he or she sounds like bad news. Pirotess swore loyalty to Karla and Karla gave her a magic sword. We found King Kashue next. Deedlit seemed to recognise him but the familiarity was not mutual. I think he’s probably nuts (because Kashue sounds like cashew … never mind). He was as vague as everyone else and mentioned an archery training range just past him. We tried it and got an F.

Next we found a ghostly sorcerer with a key, and I wondered at this point if these are Deedlit’s pals as this guy looks familiar. A big hexagon shape in the floor had a message saying we don’t have enough keys, though. A little later, we encountered some bug-looking enemies that made the area around them dark until we smashed them. Then we found a ghostly priest with a key, and I’m pretty sure it was Etoh, so I definitely think these guys are Deedlit’s pals.

There was a fight against Karla herself next. Somehow, we got her first try, but then she transported us to a void and made us fight a female, Templar-looking warrior called Flaus. This chick killed us twice, but we got her the third time. There was no explanation after this battle as to who she was or what she had to do with Karla. We got a knight key off of a knight apparition afterwards, and this meant we could activate the hexagon. As we did so, we received an ominous message about descending into the abyss. Alright, calm down, Nietzsche.

There was another boss fight pretty soon after this, and it was Karla again followed by a horned, winged female with armour called the Demon God who summoned wolves that were seemingly made of blood. We managed to survive both of these fights on our first try, and Karla said some more vague nonsense before fleeing.

The next area is identified as Stage 4, and it has a sandy ruins feel and there is rock music playing! We found a spell called Wind Storm, and on the way to picking up this spell we were forced to fight Goblin Shamans and Valkyries. What an odd combination. Why are they teaming up against us, eh?

In a random cavern a little while later Pirotess seemingly killed Parn and Deedlit vows revenge. I wonder if Parn is the guy you play as in Record of Lodoss War on the Dreamcast.

The difficulty has really spiked again here in Stage 4, with Minotaurs, death scorpions, soul-firing mummies and flying lizard everywhere, often placed in really annoying and awkward locations. I was planning to finish up soon, but we did manage to find the underwater breathing item, and quickly nipped back to a previous area of the map using the fast travel doors to find a shadowy magic spell beyond a waterlogged section I’d noticed long ago.

That small, crocodile-killing victory was enough for the night, and the third and final session of the day came to an end.

Session 4 – Wednesday 18th September

I started up this session forgetting that Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth had actually gotten really difficult lately. Just seeing the sandy brick décor of the ruins I loaded into reminded me, though.

We went straight into a boss fight, just to compound this feeling, and this one was with a huge black dragon called Narse. In the brief exchange before the fight, it was clear that Deedlit recognised this guy, too, but she didn’t seem to expect to be friends with him, like the other dragons. Some things the dragon said possibly implied that Deedlit is stuck within her own mind. Is this whole labyrinth a metaphor?

Narse was a pain in the arse. It took many deaths before Deedlit and I finally slew him. We knew what we needed to do, it was just easier said than done to do it. Narse had a really annoying attack where he’d create alternating screen-high walls of fire and wind power and zap Deedlit with pink lasers, and it was really giving us trouble. We were gradually getting the hang of avoiding it each time, but when we actually beat the dragon we managed to pile on enough damage to drain his health bar before he entered that phase.

Beyond Narse was the button that opened the red doors. We went through a nearby red door and found some new rooms, and we spotted Pirotess in a save room. I found my self using a tactic I’d used before here, where I’d been taking advantage of the quick room transitions and respawning enemies to farm spirit gauge. It’s viable but it can slow the pace a bit.

We quickly came to another boss fight, and sure enough, it was Pirotess again. It was another tough one, Deedlit fell many times, but we got her in the end. I like the bosses in this game. They really start to ramp up in difficulty after Stage 1, but if you get killed, you always feel like you can beat them if you try again. It’s easy to retry thinking “next time I just need to do this differently” and eventually, something will work and you’ll achieve victory. It’s good, and I’ll maintain this opinion until I get to something I can’t beat later.

Some story developments occurred after this battle, as Pirotess seemed to use her life force to resurrect Ashram. The camera cut to a spooky throne somewhere that looked like it had the opening area’s background, and a scary, warrior-king-looking fellow appeared on it. Ashram, I presume? After this, Deedlit woke up in what might have been her house with all of her items and abilities (save the rapier that she started the game with) missing. There was a sword in a nearby cabinet called “Heritage” that Deedlit could pick up and equip, but upon slashing it she’d go through a very long animation of trying to heave it back up. Symbolism? I don’t know enough about Deedlit’s lore to be sure.

There were enemies outside the house called Lifeless Kings that looked like reapers crossed with sorcerers. Deedlit could only do scratch damage to them, so we decided to run past them, although this was easier said than done as the last one was very annoyingly positioned. Deedlit’s pals were beyond this area, but they looked all desaturated and faceless. They would turn around whenever Deedlit walked past them, implying that she couldn’t look at their faces. Standing next to them made them disappear, and then Deedlit woke up in the boss arena again.

Moving on took us to Stage 5 (every time there’s a new stage a six-sided die is used to show the stage’s number, so I’m assuming there will be six total) and it has a grand mansion vibe with spooky green flames in the fireplaces and on the candlesticks. Sometimes this game really reminds me of Rogue Legacy, visually at least. That’s a Roguelike, not a Metroidvania, though. The first enemy we encountered here was a large griffon, but we didn’t get far before I had to save and quit. Other responsibilities were calling.

Session 5 – Wednesday 18th September

I had a late session tonight accompanied by some chocolate digestives. Deliciously sustained, Deedlit and I dove into the new Stage 5 area. New enemies types found here included; claw beasts (pale lions that never landed a hit on us once), earth magic-flinging gnomes, and giant spiders who skittered around rather creepily on the back walls. Incidentally, I found that Deedlit could now handle the aforementioned “heritage” sword with ease, but only because we’d found a better sword, as well as a handy homing bow.

I had another game-closing crash following fast travel after this. Like last time, a reload solved it and I’d saved moments before. Annoying but not game breaking.

A little more progress resulted in us finding another boss room and a bit more video tape fuzz. This time we were greeted by a cloaked, armoured guy who introduced himself as Beld. Again, Deedlit seemed to recognise him, but she called him Emperor Beld. He didn’t know anything about being an emperor, but he liked the idea, and a fight ensued. We beat him first time. I wasn’t expecting that this late into the game.

He caused a cave-in upon defeat, and Deedlit was unable to backtrack. In the next area we encountered a creepy, wooden soldier that repeatedly reanimated itself after we slew it. At first I thought it was scary, but then I realised it was a walking spirit gauge farm. After fighting this thing for a while we found the super flying double-jump item in order to gain even more height.

Following a spider and dryad infested climb Deedlit encountered Pirotess again. I thought she was a goner! She recited some more dialogue that hints at the “this whole thing is a dream” theory, and also hinted that Parn isn’t actually dead. Not that I thought he was. A very fiddly spike-filled room followed this, featuring elevators that we needed to operate by firing arrows at cog wheels, but once we got through those we found ourselves back around the area where we couldn’t backtrack due to Beld’s antics, and Deedlit and I did some exploring with the new extra jump height. We located a firestorm spell and a dryad spell.

Getting back on track, we quickly found another boss room, and Ashram was sitting on his throne in the background (although I could have sworn this wasn’t the room he appeared in during the cutscene). He stepped down and we fought, man to elf, and he had similar moves to Beld but was much tougher. We got him the third time with liberal use of the dryad spell, but he then puked green stuff and turned into a strange, green-coloured jade golem-looking thing. Deedlit was killed very quickly.

This second fight was even tougher, and every time we died we had to fight the first phase again. Luckily, we’d gotten the hang of the first fight, and handled it pretty well almost every time, but it still took us a lot of tries to get that second phase. This was a fucking tough fight. Once we finished him off, Pirotess reappeared and told Deedlit that she loved Ashram, before fading away. Looks like Deedlit and Pirotess were two sides of the same coin.

Parn appeared not long after this and led us to the purple door switch and a nice new bow. It was a dead end, though, and he’d disappeared, so definitely that whole dream theory is getting more and more likely.

I could’ve kept going, but I’d spent a lot of time on those boss fights, so it was time for bed.

Session 6 – Thursday 19th September

The die rolled six, and Deedlit and I entered Stage 6 to start this session. This next area had a semi-creepy, dark temple feel mixed with an almost technological vibe evoked by green, cuboid lights and dark stone patterned with straight lines. Weirdly, it reminded me of the alien base in Subnautica. There was also some cool, synthy music here.

There were lots of scary monsters for Deedlit to plough through; colour-changing dragon things, huge basilisks, nearly invisible dudes, and the return of the lifeless kings. This area was more of a simple monster rush than a maze. We got through it, and found the switch for the light blue doors. I noticed that there were no fast travel doors in this area so far. We still did a bit of old-fashioned backtracking and managed a very fiddly jump through different-coloured forcefields to get a not-all-that-great bow, though.

Back to the task at hand, and we met Karla again in another boss area. This time, she kicked off a boss rush! Abram, the two djinns, Shooting Star, Karla herself, Flaus (the Templar-looking woman), Demon God (the winged woman), Narse, Pirotess, and that’s as far as we got the first time. We went again, and got a bit further. Beld and then Ashram followed Pirotess, but Deedlit was killed again because I pressed the wrong button when trying to drink a potion while fighting Ashram.

We were stuck here for a while. Annoyingly, despite beating him easily when we met him earlier, and getting past him the first time we met him in this boss rush, too, Beld was proving to be the roadblock with his variety and combination of attacks. Luckily, one of Ghim’s shops was nearby, and we blew our Lodoss bucks on a load of HP and MP potions. It was the first time we’d held more than one potion.

It didn’t happen straight away, but soon we defeated Beld and Ashram, and the last fight in this hectic rush was gooey green Ashram, who we took down without issue. That whole boss rush felt pretty awesome.

The next room finally had a fast travel door (not that we used it – I was satisfied I’d found everything I was going to) and then beyond that was a section with extra-strange architecture and some trippy music. Deedlit experienced some haunting encounters with her pals in this area, all of whom said something strange, and a mysterious voice was speaking about Deedlit choosing to stay in this world. This whole area was like a spiral, and there were no monsters.

It looked like the final boss was going to be in the centre of this spiral, but we bumped into Parn first. Deedlit remembered at this point that Parn lost his life years ago. Wow. I could’ve done with that information. If I was a Lodoss enthusiast, would I have known that Parn had been dead for years? Whatever this version of Parn was, we had to fight it, and throughout the fight it took on the forms of all of Deedlit’s pals. It was a pretty easy encounter, though, and we were victorious first time.

The background changed at this point, and a huge, creepy, greenish statue (of Parn, I assume) raised up. Deedlit rejected it and it fell, and a huge eyeball creature emerged. It was the creature from the title screen and the one that briefly appeared in the video glitches. The energy bar called it Nihil.

This was another somewhat easy fight. While it did have some potent attacks that were hard to dodge, it was very easy to keep pummelling it with the water or light magic spells and keep one or both spirit gauges full so that Deedlit’s health would regenerate. I don’t remember even using a health potion, but we may have used one.

The actual Parn seemed to appear after this, and Deedlit had some words of endearment for him, then she disappeared. She woke up in the same house that she woke up in earlier in the game, but it was much brighter this time and the music was a lot friendlier. I was able to control Deedlit again and moved her outside, where she met a person called Leaf. Deedlit began to tell Leaf about all the people she encountered in the labyrinth but because Deedlit also encountered them all in real life, Leaf just thought she was talking about that and told Deedlit that “everybody knows that stuff.” Not me. I didn’t know any of that stuff. Maybe if I had I would’ve known that Parn had died years ago!

Deedlit and I continued through this pretty area with lots of birds and trees and a couple of nice, rustic buildings, and we eventually found the stone circle that the game started in (it momentarily shows the stone circle as it was at the start of the game; all dark and spooky). Deedlit seemed to finally come to terms with Parn’s death, and the credits rolled.

There is a quick post-credits scene where a young lad was in the woods calling for Deedlit. He said that she was needed because “an age of war has come to Lodoss once again”, but then a strange sound was heard and he fell to the ground. Deedlit found him and knelt next to him, and “The End” was displayed in the same spooky, green text that the game over screens have used. I have no idea what any of that is all about.

Well, I enjoyed that. It was nowhere near as complex as Metroid Dread, and much more combat focused, but it was a fun game to blast through and a nice-looking one, too. I don’t think I’ve been inspired to look into the greater franchise, but you never know. A Boss Rush mode was unlocked upon completion, but I think I’m done with Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth.

I’m glad I made the journey through Deedlit’s grief-fuelled dream labyrinth, though. She has some cool boss fights floating around in her head.

***

Some additional info; I read up on the story behind Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth later in the day, and found out that not only Parn, but all of Deedlit’s companions that we see throughout the adventure had died long ago. Deedlit has presumably outlived all of them due to elves in the Lodoss lore being immortal or long-lived like Tolkien’s elves. This explains why she is greeted by a character called Leaf at the end of the game, and not Slayn or Etoh or Woodchuck or someone. This gave the whole game a much more sobering tone, looking back, and Deedlit becomes an exceptionally sympathetic character.

I also learned that in the aforementioned Dreamcast game, Record of Lodoss War, you do not play as Parn, and instead play as a nameless hero resurrected to oppose an evil god. The story of that game has little to do with the greater lore of the franchise, it seems.

Sorry to any Lodoss aficionados reading, but at least I’m learning!