It's interesting how beloved Dark Souls is, with so many eagerly telling others to "Get Gud" when they struggle, but when a platformer does this it's a bad game. I happened to try this game right as it came out via Game Pass and fell in love instantly. While I thought some of the mechanics could be annoying with my control style of preference (I use a controller with joystick, but parrying was so unreliable with that method I had to switch to the D-pad purely for parrying) I was honestly somewhat baffled at all of the difficulty complaints this game had. Comparing it to Ninja Gaiden? How?! Every time you die you instantly respawn just a few screens away and the game has a built-in difficulty mechanic that allows you to make the game easier for yourself by upgrading the checkpoints you respawn at. You don't lose lives, you don't start over at the beginning of the level, and their are no game overs here. Now that's truly Ninjastic! I really hope to see more games like this in the future as I truly miss this type of game in the current gaming landscape.
Gaming press doesn't know how to talk about difficulty. I'm not a "git gud" guy but don't believe difficulty should be slammed. Even lives, which are called an outdated mechanic, i don't think ruin a game at all. Did find it odd gaming press slams hard plafformers but loved COTM2 (which i personally feel relied too hard on cheapness with enemy placements and overly fast bosses and enemy patterns compared to NES games). Not every game needs to allow the player a free pass; you're playing for what the developer made and that goes for any game not just hard ones. Difficulty is part of that experience if the developer felt it was appropriate (as long as its not due to poor design its not an issue to challenge players). Ninja Gaiden NES Trilogy are some of my favorite games ever, and the checkpoints of Cyber Shadow don't stray far from Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2- those games had lives and game overs but always put you a few rooms back (until the final boss). It knew punishing the player too hard would make the game less enjoyable, kinda like the Super Metaboy difficulty but made in the NES era. This looks like a modern "retro" game ill enjoy once I eventually get it.
I thought the difficulty of the game was fun and loved it. My issue was with the freedom of movement. The Messenger felt as if you could travel around the environments so fluidly. Cyber-Shadow's single best movement trick (The dash move) comes way too late in the game. Plus the Messenger's way of going "Surprise, we're a Metroidvania" was a gotcha moment that floored me. I like The Messenger more, but Cyber-Shadow is still a solid game.
dark souls gives you 15 heals, infinite leveling, and a fucking shield. Also Dark Souls SOMEHOW has more rigid enemy patterns that FUCKING ACTION PLATFORMER. At one point the ggame just became "fly over bottomless pits on boost or die trying" and checkpoint WAS a few screens of that BS away.
@Tom Ffrench according to whom? I find darksouls easy as shit and castlevania downright impossible. Making those comparissons is pretty fucking weird cause its two different sets of unrelated skills
9:50 your complaint with Parries whiffing any time you try to use them while in i-frames after taking damage, has been addressed in a patch. Mekaskull is paying attention to feedback.
The dragon boss was frustrating at first, but ended up being one of my quickest bossfights once i figured it out. The enemies drop SP, so I ended up camping beneath his neck when he throws fireballs and spammed the fire uppercut. He goes down super ninjastically quickly with that!
I love that yacht club is expanding their repertoire. Cant wait for shovel knight dig. And whatever they will do after that. i know they are just publishing cyber shadow but still.
The Messenger kinda solved the "not enough time to enjoy the mechanics" thing, by..... making it kind if a metroidvania. More than half of the game is left after you get all your upgrades. Ninjastic
I'm one of the few who thinks the metroidvania half of The Messenger drags the game down, though. It feels so underbaked and the levels feel like they have a bit of an identity crisis at that point. It was a fun experiment but it needs to be done better next time imo.
@@ingeniousclown I see your point, it wasn't particularly good as a metroidvania, but blasting through old levels, seeing them in future vision and exploring all those new zones was still tremendously fun for me, the movement just felt that good to me. Plus I really enjoyed the story too and everybody "doing the thing" at the end was so damn hype, it was worth every bit of irritation.
the air down slash is my favourite attack, the slight lift it gives as you use it coupled with being able to reach slightly further distance. It's how I beat the water/electric dragon boss so easily by dunking on the floating enemies. The player progression for movement felt like good improvements so that the level design could be made more difficult as you play through the game. And the electric area is some of the best enemy design I've seen, how the electric orbs were interacting with the floors, lasers and most enemies in the area.
Very interested in checking out this ninjastic game thanks to your video. Like you, I'm usually not interested in speedrunning, but the first 2 Ninja Gaiden games for the NES inspired me to do precisely that. Adding dash and double jump mechanics to movement and level design I already enjoy sounds outstanding. Hard boss battles are just the cherry on top.
13:58 that squence is so nintastic! And the parry at the end is just a cherry on top, feels good wathcing it, I imagine playing poses a danger of creaming your pants
Ninjastic review, I'll definitely check out some more of your stuff. One thing I noticed from your footage was that you never used the Lightning Strike ability, something else the game doesn't tell about. With SPUH, Hit Down + Attack in the air to initiate an Airstrike, then hit Attack again to instantly hit the floor or whatever is in your way. Big time-saver on vertical drops. So if you haven't discovered that since writing/publishing the review, there you go.
Alright, last thing. If you got the game on Steam, you can go into its install directory and find a CSV file named "cs_text - dialogue.csv" that contains all of the dialogue in the game. CSV stands for "Comma-separated value," but you can edit it in any text editor (or spreadsheet program, but exporting back to CSV is sometimes tricky). Anyway, the point is that you can mod all of the text in the game. With this, you could almost tell whatever story you wanted to! Or just put a certain word into every ninjastic situation possible.
Hi! I noticed you mentioning that youre stuck in the animation when you do the airstrike (downward strike). You can tap the attack button after initiating the attack to quickly strike down. Example: (Down + Attack, Attack) You can do this over and over again on strong enemies to jack hammer them to death instead of waiting for the bounce.
"i better get to it, while im still able to..." no truer words have ever been uttered... but for real... no one would believe me anyway... now its just reconnecting with that old old old hobby of mine...
3:33: Me, who grew up with TMNT: "What's he talking about?" Also, I feel like it's worth pointing out that neither Shovel Knight nor Cyber Shadow stick very closely to the technical limitations of those eras. They're not trying to mimic how those games looked, so much as how it _felt_ like they looked back when 8-bit home consoles were cutting-edge. Which I think is actually _more_ impressive! _I_ can mimic the exact style used by Mega Man, but I can't imagine trying to make a game that feels like Shovel Knight.
Great review mate! I really hope they add a harder NG+ that lets you run the full game with the end game move set. Also, a new update changed it so you can parry after being hit, so glad they fixed that issue! I rate this video Ninjastic/10
I wonder how much people appreciate this game is nostalgia for older games and being used to them. For people who are younger and didn't play these types of games back in the day, how did you like Cyber Shadow?
I thought it was alright. I didn't like it nearly as much as Shovel Knight, it ultimately felt pretty dull. It may be because I didn't feel like there were really any standout moments in the game -- it felt forgettable to me. The difficulty wasn't that much of an issue for me, I'm pretty used to hard games, but it did feel cheap at times. Another big thing is that I think the color palette results in every area looking fairly similar with a few exceptions, so it all kind of blends together. So, yeah. I didn't really like it. I have played other nostalgia-throwback games that have appealed to me more, like Shovel Knight, but something just didn't click for me.
This video is pretty ninjastic. I recall seeing the developer saying only around 25% of the story he had written up making it into the actual game, and the way you unlock power-ups as well as how quickly the game is over afterward makes me wonder if it was originally planned to be a Metroidvania, but at some point Machinehead realized he'd bitten off more than he could chew and decided to make it a linear platformer. The game took 10 years to develop as is, I can't imagine how much bigger of a project it would be if he tried making it a Metroidvania. I have some minor gripes with the game but all in all it's a fantastic platformer, and it really sucks it hasn't gotten much attention despite being published by Yacht Club Games.
I like your videos a lot and have thought for awhile now that you sound very similar to another UA-camr gamer, but I couldn’t quite place who until now. It’s Superbunnyhop. Your voice, tone, cadence is all very similar to his. You’re both great at critique as well. Big Ups and thank you for the video! Edit: Ninjastic!
To your point about the first half. It feels like this game was trying so hard to be like a retro shinobi or ninja gaiden that it fails to just be its own entity, until much later
I'd heard a whole lot about this game before watching the video but I wasn't really sure if it was truly ninjastic. Your review really solidified it for me.
Honestly with the first game pain stakingly establishing the recollection of shadows move set. The developers should listen to feedback and make a sequel with all of his abilities in mind from start to finish. It would probably be much better received, more fun, and better paced I’m excited to think it would be possible. Imagine how fun a speed run would be of that compared to the slog that this first “foundational” game can be
Pretty ninjastic video! I went from hyped for this game's release to nervous because of steam reviews to now excited again! Thanks for the ninjastic work you do.
As a speedrunner, the knockback is one of my favourite parts of the early game especially. You always get knocked back opposite to the way you were facing, so if you're about to get knocked into a pit, you can quickly flick backwards on the D-pad to save yourself. You can also use it to skip certain sections or hard enemies, and its one of the reasons I actually don't think the early game is as boring as you think, since the challenge isn't going as fast as possible, but just stopping as little as possible (I know you weren't saying anything bad about the knockback, I was only saying my opinion about it, just in case it looked like that)
Hey, the moves you made in this video were pretty ninjastic! ~_^ I admit, this game got pretty hard for me and for a while I was not enjoying it. I just died over and over again making very little progress -- but I come from an era of games where that's common -- so I just pushed through it (due in part, because the music was so awesome) until I got on the other side. I can see why someone who didn't grow up with these games would think it's not for them. What makes NO sense, is when these same people defend Dark Souls -- when the process of learning from your mistakes, learning your environment/enemy patterns and practicing moves until you have achieved proficiently -- is largely the same (though the tone/presentation is quite different). I, (for one) found the parry to be SUPER unreliable. It's the first time I've used this type of mechanic in a game (pressing TOWARDS the bullet coming at you) and I just couldn't wrap my brain around it for a while. I had to fight my natural instinct which is to duck (which you can't do) or slash the bullet away (which you can't do until you successfully parry it). 'Twas not fun. On Twitter, I saw that the dev added a visual indicator to show the range of the parry (which is VERY much appreciated since I thought that was too ambiguous). It's cool to see subtle improvements are still happening. I agree, the movement mechanics at the end are superb. While I haven't beaten it yet, I hope to soon. Thanks for the awesome video and have a ninjastic day! ^__^
I understand everything they were going for, but if the dash can be on a button, so can the parry. What's more, I wanted a separate button for the "SP" version of attacks like the dashing slash and the jumping downward strike as well, so that when I was only using them for mobility, I wouldn't burn SP just getting around. It's a solid game overall, I just find some of the decisions the team made were frustrating.
As ninjastic of a game as it is, I think the biggest barrier for entry isn't the difficulty or controls, but rather the 20 USD price tag. I understand all too well that dev's have to eat, and making and selling a game is a huge risk, especially for indie. Even with the Yacht Club seal of approval though, it just feels like a bit much to ask for an indie throwback, especially when it's competing with classics that can be played for little to no cost. It's better to sell 100,000 copies for 5 bucks, than it is to sell 25,000 for 20, because people tend to come out of it with more good will, and you get a lot more free word of mouth advertising from it.
I followed the development of this game on twitter and have been hyped for its release. It wasn't made by the people who made shovel knight it was just published by them. People compare it to Ninja Gaiden but its not that similar in terms of level design or enemy AI. Overall its a good game but not as good as shovel knight. I think the creator focused on making the stages give you hard obstacles to overcome but didn't give it the polish to make them more fair and approachable. Shovel knight had plenty of challenges but none of them felt as cheesy as some of the obstacles this game throws at you. The atmosphere and visual style are amazing I'd love to play an actual metroidvania based in that world. Hope his next game he has more level design influence from the designers at Yacht club.
I'd say "fair" and "cheesy" can often be in the eye of the beholder, so I personally disagree but you already know that. But with the way this game controls and feels, the movement would feel right at home in an actual metroidvania. That'd be sick!
If we're thinking of the same kinds of things when you say "cheesy," I think we're on the same page. If you're sitting in one place waiting for one of the turrets to come back out, there's a rolling enemy on a timer to harass you from behind while you do. It's almost like punishment for playing slower and more methodically. But then, if you try to go faster and more recklessly, you get smacked hard for that, too. This almost felt more like playing R-Type for all of the sneak attacks that are thrown your way. Overall, I agree that there's a lack of polish in level design and enemy placement. Not that what's there is bad, just that with more time and iteration, it could have been even better.
I hadnt heard of the game before. Im not very good at something like Smash or something, but with how you explained the game I think it would be both amazing to play, like Shovel Knight or Celeste were for me, and should with its relatively slow rollout of new abilities help me understand how these kinds of controls work so that if I want to do something like Smash or Street Fighter in future it wont be as overwhelming. I dont mind playing a tough game, and if it gives you this much ease in how it lets you experiment I do think its a good place to start. Im no master with the controls of Spectre, King or Shovel Knight but they pushed me in ways I didnt expect. I do look forward to playing this game and seeing how it can push me in future.
That's funny. The game actually tries to convince you that the downward thrust is a very helpful utility. In my opinion, it's a glympse of the double jump.
I would say that this Ninjastic game actually is kinda close to celeste. Well for sure celeste's platforming is different in a way, but I felt almost the same fun when playing them :D great Video, love your stuff !
Hmm. Nobody like knockback anymore they say? Well then, maybe we should talk about all the games that have knockback just to troll this guy!! I didn't know where to put Ninjastic, so... I'm putting it here.....
i bought this day of release and only have 20 mins into it...now i just want to play shovel knight again, i didn't complete the other two campaigns... retropixelroguelite/likemetroidvania thanks for recognizing the publisher isn't the developer
Welcome to 2022 Ninjastic things like knockback which allow for interestting speed running tricks still exist. I just got this video in my recommendaiton. I am definitely going to have to get this game either this month or next now thanks for showcasing what this game is actually about. Definitely clicking Subscribe.
I didn't realise that there was a alternate button for the dash, after i fishned the game. I personally don't think holding on to this 2 button control scheme is a good idea. I play a lot of Metroidvanias and Action-plattformens and i still really disliked the 2 button controls. It just resulted in me dying a ton followed by "thats not what i pressed, what the heck". Every even remotly modern controller these days has like 10 buttons, why not just use them, it's silly and very not ninjastic.
That's the thing though, it IS what you pressed. I get the argument for using the multiple buttons but your issues can literally be solved by being way more deliberate with your button presses.
one of the rare games i've dropped. Having a choice of taking it slow and extremely annoying or eating shit trying to speedrun is pretty ninjastic in a bad way
This video was pretty "ninjastic". Love your channel btw. Also, I got here from the community post, had no idea you posted such a "ninjastic" video. Okay, I'll stop...
Gotta say tho, even with the option to map the dash to the R button, the game's controls felt a bit stiff to me... Not very ninjastic. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed Cyber Security, bur maybe not as much as you.
I know that's a typo but now I want a gritty 2D action platformer where you play a cyberninja doing physical and cyber security in a server farm. "By firewall or dns, no penetration attack will ever make it past me!" --Cyber Security Ninja, probably
24:11 Why do you need me to use that word? Can't you just look at your metrics to see whether your audience is engaged? Oh wait, I see...you're assuming the sale. "When you comment" presupposes that I will...clever boy. Of course, I've already made five comments by this point, so I don't see the need to use the word "Ninjastic." No wa
This review was totally Ninjastic! But it is floating around in the same space I've seen - and commented - around before. I think I have a better handle on what's rubbing me the wrong way with a lot of your reviews and content and I want to say up front that I'm not about to tear you down. I love your videos and you. Here goes: There are two kinds of games. Mass market products, and art games. There is obviously a lot of crossover, but I want to make this distinction here because which type of game a team is trying to make changes what players should expect from them. A mass market game - like any mass market product - should not artificially gate people out of using that product if it can avoid doing so. Games are software, and if a software package is asking for money and is on store shelves, people have a reasonable expectation around the software being usable. In games, this really means that at minimum all mass market games should have some kind of difficulty modes or sliders, full action/button remapping, FOV slider in first person games, motion blur settings in 3D games, the ability to limit flashing lights if they exist at all, big text or text size slider, subtitles, and should either have been designed with colorblindness in mind or have a mode for it. To do any less is an inherently hostile and pig-headed decision. Period. I'm not drawing a line between indie games and AAA here. If you are promoting your game for everyone and some of those people can't play the game because of any reason, you're being a jerk. Especially on platforms where you can't easily get refunds. Art games, however, can throw all that shit out the window. If your game is completely free, a rom hack, or in a very niche genre like bullet hell metroidvanias or something where you are making games for a specific audience. These rules CAN apply, but don't have to. I certainly think all these games would be better if they were made so everyone can play them - but I get both that romhack makers don't have the time for that shit and that no one playing kaizo mario wants an easy mode. This is all about the group you are targeting with your game. And unfortunately a lot of art games - especially when made by AAA studios - go on to market those games to the masses. I'm looking at you, Dark Souls. Cyber Shadow is somewhere in the middle, obviously. It is in a gray area, and if I were making a game in that space I would personally err on the side of accessibility. I get wanting to make a game that sits very close to the restrictions that classic games HAD to work under. And it is 100% cool to design the game that way. But they should have then gone on to add the ability to remap all the overloaded actions onto different button configurations that make use of the whole controller. I love the multiple path approach, giving players a long easy path and a short hard one is great. But locking players out of being able to play the game they bought on their Switch and can't return, that's fucked up. That's not the kind of thing you do to customers if you can avoid doing so. If you're in this gray area - especially if players can't return the game - you owe it to your players to make it possible for the most number of people to finish your game. Bottom line, if people are complaining that your game is too hard or not fun because of the controls - you need control options.
If the price of making your game more accessible outstrips the amount of money you can make by selling the game, you have a choice to either sacrifice that market segment just so you can get your game made, or hope that you can make the deficit up selling something else. This might be the real reason that The Last of Us Part II had such great accessibility features, because they knew they were going to sell a lot of copies. And now, they may even be able to reuse some of that accessibility technology in other games, share it with partners, or sell it to other studios.
I think what makes people call this a metroidvania is because of the progression system. Who cares if it's not a single large interconnected level if it has the same get power-up then get backtrack to find new stuff? It's probably the same thing that made people call Dead Cells a metroidvania as well. Maybe the fact that we have no word to describe this game other than "metroidvania", which is the closest thing to it even though it is not accurate. Eh, semantics I guess? Either way, I'm betting most people that enjoy metroidvania progression might enjoy this game too.
Had to skip the video a couple times, just so I don't get spoilered too much, as I do want to play this game at some point. Either way, I enjoyed it and glad you made another game so soon. #ninjastic
I heaven't heard about this game before watching this video at all, looks sick, (ninjastic even) probably will try it later.(Those dashes look satisfying as hell man.)
I honestly didn't like Shovel Knight that much as a diehard of NES action plafformers. The attacks and platforming didn't have much impact. Cyber Shadow looks so much more like what I love. Glad Yacht Club published this one like they did Gunvolt for 3DS (a game i love a lot more than Megaman X, yes hate me)
Wow, I could not disagree with you more on the music. I found it to be forgettable at worst and merely serviceable at best. I had no problem with the fidelity or style (we're in the same cohort, you and I), it just lacked the kind of distinctiveness I would want out of music for a game of this type. It's the kind of soundtrack that fits the game's scenes, but I'm not eager to listen to it outside of the game. Meanwhile, to pick a random example, "Strike the Earth" is fun regardless of whether you're playing that game or not. Maybe I just prefer Jake Kaufman's style to Enrique Martin's, but either way, it didn't do anything for me. To each their own, I guess.
Oh believe me I want to so bad, I'm just struggling with what I want to say and how to say it. Besides I haven't played GPW 1 or 2 yet. They're on the docket but right now I'm finishing Hark 2 and Dram 1, and Akogare 2 just came out and I'm deciding on whether or not I want to play that before GPW. I stream every Monday evening on Twitch and the VODs are cut up into digestible episodes on my LP channel if you're interested in my Kaizo progress!
19:49 I would have loved to have seen what this game could have been if the double-jump and dash were available from the start. Most of the games it draws inspiration from were designed around giving a character a great set of tools from the start and then surrounding that character with sharply-designed challenges to test the player's application of those skills.
Imagine having to learn the basic movement skills or a game before getting a sprint, double jump and wall kick. The early stages of Cyber Shadow are built for the basic moveset, and would be far too simple if the player had access to all the fancy movement upgrades off the bat. Instead, they're fun to return to with your expanded moveset later in the game, to find any secret areas that were previously inaccessible.
@@thrillhouse_vanhouten The idea isn't that you give the player the full moveset and leave the stages untouched. You design the stages around the full moveset from the start. What's more, a "New Game+" feature is in the works, anyway.
Lack of an upward or downward attack in the beginning combined with flying enemies that fly at you from off-screen basically killed the game for me, because it made it feel like a boring and unfair shovel knight fame bait. And although your video made me consider trying it again at some point, I do have to point out that only using two buttons for your control scheme (especially if an upward attack is set to down + attack) just because that's how it was done in older games is just dumb. And I'm not someone who struggles with these games either, as I've beaten shovel knight, celeste and hollow knight, just to name a few famous ones. And while shovel knight did feel like a great game that had a lot of thought put into it, I can only call cyber shadow ninjastic if it's a derogatory term.
fair...i quit playing right after getting the shuriken, i kept accidentally throwing one (up+attack) i can only blame my inputs, i guess (8bitdo sn30pro) don't have this problem with sfv
I've been playing games like this since I was young, but even having a transferrable skillset, I still felt that there were times in this game that it was just being too rough. I also felt that the difficulty curve wasn't gradual enough, especially when it came to mobility challenges. There are advanced techniques with the dashing slash and downward thrust that become required in the last stage of the game that the player should have been eased into long before then so that they weren't having to both practice and perform so close to the finish line. I found The Messenger to be a much smoother experience overall. It never felt like it was presenting an unfair challenge. It's worth checking out if this didn't scratch your 2D ninja itch.
@@akalyx I was using sn30pro+ and didn't have that problem, but it seems to me that firmware on those derps out sometimes. Adjusting dead zones helps when that happens.
nin·tas·tic
/ninˈjastik/
_adjective_
extraordinarily ninja- or shinobi-like
That title almost gave me a stroke
It's interesting how beloved Dark Souls is, with so many eagerly telling others to "Get Gud" when they struggle, but when a platformer does this it's a bad game. I happened to try this game right as it came out via Game Pass and fell in love instantly. While I thought some of the mechanics could be annoying with my control style of preference (I use a controller with joystick, but parrying was so unreliable with that method I had to switch to the D-pad purely for parrying) I was honestly somewhat baffled at all of the difficulty complaints this game had. Comparing it to Ninja Gaiden? How?! Every time you die you instantly respawn just a few screens away and the game has a built-in difficulty mechanic that allows you to make the game easier for yourself by upgrading the checkpoints you respawn at. You don't lose lives, you don't start over at the beginning of the level, and their are no game overs here. Now that's truly Ninjastic! I really hope to see more games like this in the future as I truly miss this type of game in the current gaming landscape.
Gaming press doesn't know how to talk about difficulty. I'm not a "git gud" guy but don't believe difficulty should be slammed. Even lives, which are called an outdated mechanic, i don't think ruin a game at all. Did find it odd gaming press slams hard plafformers but loved COTM2 (which i personally feel relied too hard on cheapness with enemy placements and overly fast bosses and enemy patterns compared to NES games). Not every game needs to allow the player a free pass; you're playing for what the developer made and that goes for any game not just hard ones. Difficulty is part of that experience if the developer felt it was appropriate (as long as its not due to poor design its not an issue to challenge players).
Ninja Gaiden NES Trilogy are some of my favorite games ever, and the checkpoints of Cyber Shadow don't stray far from Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2- those games had lives and game overs but always put you
a few rooms back (until the final boss). It knew punishing the player too hard would make the game less enjoyable, kinda like the Super Metaboy difficulty but made in the NES era. This looks like a modern "retro" game ill enjoy once I eventually get it.
I believe that's because Dark souls is not actually hard and it's actually super easy.
I thought the difficulty of the game was fun and loved it. My issue was with the freedom of movement. The Messenger felt as if you could travel around the environments so fluidly. Cyber-Shadow's single best movement trick (The dash move) comes way too late in the game. Plus the Messenger's way of going "Surprise, we're a Metroidvania" was a gotcha moment that floored me.
I like The Messenger more, but Cyber-Shadow is still a solid game.
dark souls gives you 15 heals, infinite leveling, and a fucking shield. Also Dark Souls SOMEHOW has more rigid enemy patterns that FUCKING ACTION PLATFORMER. At one point the ggame just became "fly over bottomless pits on boost or die trying" and checkpoint WAS a few screens of that BS away.
@Tom Ffrench according to whom? I find darksouls easy as shit and castlevania downright impossible.
Making those comparissons is pretty fucking weird cause its two different sets of unrelated skills
9:50 your complaint with Parries whiffing any time you try to use them while in i-frames after taking damage, has been addressed in a patch. Mekaskull is paying attention to feedback.
The dragon boss was frustrating at first, but ended up being one of my quickest bossfights once i figured it out. The enemies drop SP, so I ended up camping beneath his neck when he throws fireballs and spammed the fire uppercut. He goes down super ninjastically quickly with that!
Even knowing that strat it just never seems to line up for me. I swear I can kill the final boss faster.
23:22 I played Cyber Shadow on Game Pass. I imagine that had an impact on the hard number of actual copies sold, regardless of the platform.
I love that yacht club is expanding their repertoire. Cant wait for shovel knight dig. And whatever they will do after that. i know they are just publishing cyber shadow but still.
Have nothing ninjastic to say, just commenting for the algorithm.
Just did my own review of this game. Your video goes way more in-depth than mine though (and is probably just better in general). Nice work!
The Messenger kinda solved the "not enough time to enjoy the mechanics" thing, by..... making it kind if a metroidvania. More than half of the game is left after you get all your upgrades.
Ninjastic
I'm one of the few who thinks the metroidvania half of The Messenger drags the game down, though. It feels so underbaked and the levels feel like they have a bit of an identity crisis at that point. It was a fun experiment but it needs to be done better next time imo.
@@ingeniousclown I see your point, it wasn't particularly good as a metroidvania, but blasting through old levels, seeing them in future vision and exploring all those new zones was still tremendously fun for me, the movement just felt that good to me. Plus I really enjoyed the story too and everybody "doing the thing" at the end was so damn hype, it was worth every bit of irritation.
the air down slash is my favourite attack, the slight lift it gives as you use it coupled with being able to reach slightly further distance.
It's how I beat the water/electric dragon boss so easily by dunking on the floating enemies.
The player progression for movement felt like good improvements so that the level design could be made more difficult as you play through the game.
And the electric area is some of the best enemy design I've seen, how the electric orbs were interacting with the floors, lasers and most enemies in the area.
Very interested in checking out this ninjastic game thanks to your video.
Like you, I'm usually not interested in speedrunning, but the first 2 Ninja Gaiden games for the NES inspired me to do precisely that. Adding dash and double jump mechanics to movement and level design I already enjoy sounds outstanding. Hard boss battles are just the cherry on top.
I loved this game. I hope it did well enough to warrant a sequel.
13:58 that squence is so nintastic! And the parry at the end is just a cherry on top, feels good wathcing it, I imagine playing poses a danger of creaming your pants
Ninjastic review, I'll definitely check out some more of your stuff.
One thing I noticed from your footage was that you never used the Lightning Strike ability, something else the game doesn't tell about.
With SPUH, Hit Down + Attack in the air to initiate an Airstrike, then hit Attack again to instantly hit the floor or whatever is in your way. Big time-saver on vertical drops.
So if you haven't discovered that since writing/publishing the review, there you go.
I also didn't used the charged version of parry in the footage!
Alright, last thing. If you got the game on Steam, you can go into its install directory and find a CSV file named "cs_text - dialogue.csv" that contains all of the dialogue in the game. CSV stands for "Comma-separated value," but you can edit it in any text editor (or spreadsheet program, but exporting back to CSV is sometimes tricky).
Anyway, the point is that you can mod all of the text in the game. With this, you could almost tell whatever story you wanted to! Or just put a certain word into every ninjastic situation possible.
Hi! I noticed you mentioning that youre stuck in the animation when you do the airstrike (downward strike). You can tap the attack button after initiating the attack to quickly strike down.
Example: (Down + Attack, Attack)
You can do this over and over again on strong enemies to jack hammer them to death instead of waiting for the bounce.
"i better get to it, while im still able to..." no truer words have ever been uttered... but for real... no one would believe me anyway... now its just reconnecting with that old old old hobby of mine...
Would love to see a video that compares and contrasts Cyber Shadow and The Messenger to see which game is truly more Ninjastic.
3:33: Me, who grew up with TMNT: "What's he talking about?"
Also, I feel like it's worth pointing out that neither Shovel Knight nor Cyber Shadow stick very closely to the technical limitations of those eras. They're not trying to mimic how those games looked, so much as how it _felt_ like they looked back when 8-bit home consoles were cutting-edge. Which I think is actually _more_ impressive! _I_ can mimic the exact style used by Mega Man, but I can't imagine trying to make a game that feels like Shovel Knight.
Great review mate! I really hope they add a harder NG+ that lets you run the full game with the end game move set. Also, a new update changed it so you can parry after being hit, so glad they fixed that issue! I rate this video Ninjastic/10
This video (and Cyber Shadow) was pretty ninjastic
You Ninjastic delight, you. I'm glad to see this game given more of a fair look from a fellow oldboi!
I wonder how much people appreciate this game is nostalgia for older games and being used to them. For people who are younger and didn't play these types of games back in the day, how did you like Cyber Shadow?
That's a really interesting question, I hope people answer it!
It's the worst game I've ever played. Not exaggerating at all.
I thought it was alright. I didn't like it nearly as much as Shovel Knight, it ultimately felt pretty dull. It may be because I didn't feel like there were really any standout moments in the game -- it felt forgettable to me. The difficulty wasn't that much of an issue for me, I'm pretty used to hard games, but it did feel cheap at times. Another big thing is that I think the color palette results in every area looking fairly similar with a few exceptions, so it all kind of blends together.
So, yeah. I didn't really like it. I have played other nostalgia-throwback games that have appealed to me more, like Shovel Knight, but something just didn't click for me.
This video is pretty ninjastic.
I recall seeing the developer saying only around 25% of the story he had written up making it into the actual game, and the way you unlock power-ups as well as how quickly the game is over afterward makes me wonder if it was originally planned to be a Metroidvania, but at some point Machinehead realized he'd bitten off more than he could chew and decided to make it a linear platformer. The game took 10 years to develop as is, I can't imagine how much bigger of a project it would be if he tried making it a Metroidvania.
I have some minor gripes with the game but all in all it's a fantastic platformer, and it really sucks it hasn't gotten much attention despite being published by Yacht Club Games.
If you French fry when your supposed to pizza your gonna have a bad time.
I like your videos a lot and have thought for awhile now that you sound very similar to another UA-camr gamer, but I couldn’t quite place who until now. It’s Superbunnyhop. Your voice, tone, cadence is all very similar to his. You’re both great at critique as well. Big Ups and thank you for the video!
Edit: Ninjastic!
To your point about the first half. It feels like this game was trying so hard to be like a retro shinobi or ninja gaiden that it fails to just be its own entity, until much later
2024 and the video still is quite ninjastic!
I'd heard a whole lot about this game before watching the video but I wasn't really sure if it was truly ninjastic. Your review really solidified it for me.
Idk if I'll play it, but this game does seem pretty ninjastic, yeah
Subscribed for the personal touch you deliver on your videos. PEACE
Honestly with the first game pain stakingly establishing the recollection of shadows move set. The developers should listen to feedback and make a sequel with all of his abilities in mind from start to finish. It would probably be much better received, more fun, and better paced
I’m excited to think it would be possible.
Imagine how fun a speed run would be of that compared to the slog that this first “foundational” game can be
This and THE MESSENGER are the most Ninjastic games ever!
Love 'em both.
I understand the idea of using 8 bit music, but I would love to see a game that is like the PC Engine CD that mixes pixel art and actual instruments.
Been enjoying your let's play of Cyber Shadow alot!!!
You could say this video was... Cyber Ninjastic
What's Ninjastic mean?
The genre is clearly Ninjastic, not Metroidvania.
Pretty ninjastic video! I went from hyped for this game's release to nervous because of steam reviews to now excited again! Thanks for the ninjastic work you do.
As a speedrunner, the knockback is one of my favourite parts of the early game especially. You always get knocked back opposite to the way you were facing, so if you're about to get knocked into a pit, you can quickly flick backwards on the D-pad to save yourself. You can also use it to skip certain sections or hard enemies, and its one of the reasons I actually don't think the early game is as boring as you think, since the challenge isn't going as fast as possible, but just stopping as little as possible
(I know you weren't saying anything bad about the knockback, I was only saying my opinion about it, just in case it looked like that)
Your videos are always ninjastic
This video was a ninja stick.
I hope for the next shovel knight to be somewhat ninjastic
I love shovel knight as well. I might get this a try. Thanks for the Critique ingeniousclown 😀
"It's not a metroidvania." Words that don't compute in 99% of players heads, even 3 years later.
metroidva... ninjastic?
Hey, the moves you made in this video were pretty ninjastic! ~_^
I admit, this game got pretty hard for me and for a while I was not enjoying it. I just died over and over again making very little progress -- but I come from an era of games where that's common -- so I just pushed through it (due in part, because the music was so awesome) until I got on the other side. I can see why someone who didn't grow up with these games would think it's not for them. What makes NO sense, is when these same people defend Dark Souls -- when the process of learning from your mistakes, learning your environment/enemy patterns and practicing moves until you have achieved proficiently -- is largely the same (though the tone/presentation is quite different).
I, (for one) found the parry to be SUPER unreliable. It's the first time I've used this type of mechanic in a game (pressing TOWARDS the bullet coming at you) and I just couldn't wrap my brain around it for a while. I had to fight my natural instinct which is to duck (which you can't do) or slash the bullet away (which you can't do until you successfully parry it). 'Twas not fun. On Twitter, I saw that the dev added a visual indicator to show the range of the parry (which is VERY much appreciated since I thought that was too ambiguous). It's cool to see subtle improvements are still happening.
I agree, the movement mechanics at the end are superb. While I haven't beaten it yet, I hope to soon. Thanks for the awesome video and have a ninjastic day! ^__^
I understand everything they were going for, but if the dash can be on a button, so can the parry. What's more, I wanted a separate button for the "SP" version of attacks like the dashing slash and the jumping downward strike as well, so that when I was only using them for mobility, I wouldn't burn SP just getting around.
It's a solid game overall, I just find some of the decisions the team made were frustrating.
This guy must have never double tapped to dash in MMX1.
As ninjastic of a game as it is, I think the biggest barrier for entry isn't the difficulty or controls, but rather the 20 USD price tag. I understand all too well that dev's have to eat, and making and selling a game is a huge risk, especially for indie. Even with the Yacht Club seal of approval though, it just feels like a bit much to ask for an indie throwback, especially when it's competing with classics that can be played for little to no cost. It's better to sell 100,000 copies for 5 bucks, than it is to sell 25,000 for 20, because people tend to come out of it with more good will, and you get a lot more free word of mouth advertising from it.
I followed the development of this game on twitter and have been hyped for its release. It wasn't made by the people who made shovel knight it was just published by them. People compare it to Ninja Gaiden but its not that similar in terms of level design or enemy AI. Overall its a good game but not as good as shovel knight. I think the creator focused on making the stages give you hard obstacles to overcome but didn't give it the polish to make them more fair and approachable. Shovel knight had plenty of challenges but none of them felt as cheesy as some of the obstacles this game throws at you. The atmosphere and visual style are amazing I'd love to play an actual metroidvania based in that world. Hope his next game he has more level design influence from the designers at Yacht club.
I'd say "fair" and "cheesy" can often be in the eye of the beholder, so I personally disagree but you already know that. But with the way this game controls and feels, the movement would feel right at home in an actual metroidvania. That'd be sick!
If we're thinking of the same kinds of things when you say "cheesy," I think we're on the same page. If you're sitting in one place waiting for one of the turrets to come back out, there's a rolling enemy on a timer to harass you from behind while you do. It's almost like punishment for playing slower and more methodically. But then, if you try to go faster and more recklessly, you get smacked hard for that, too. This almost felt more like playing R-Type for all of the sneak attacks that are thrown your way.
Overall, I agree that there's a lack of polish in level design and enemy placement. Not that what's there is bad, just that with more time and iteration, it could have been even better.
I hadnt heard of the game before. Im not very good at something like Smash or something, but with how you explained the game I think it would be both amazing to play, like Shovel Knight or Celeste were for me, and should with its relatively slow rollout of new abilities help me understand how these kinds of controls work so that if I want to do something like Smash or Street Fighter in future it wont be as overwhelming. I dont mind playing a tough game, and if it gives you this much ease in how it lets you experiment I do think its a good place to start. Im no master with the controls of Spectre, King or Shovel Knight but they pushed me in ways I didnt expect. I do look forward to playing this game and seeing how it can push me in future.
Cyber Shadow was such a joy to play!! Absolutely lived up to my hopes for a throwback to Ninja Gaiden-type titles.
Shovel Knight is pretty lit tho.
More like pretty ninjastic
Ninjastic Video! Need to get this game
That's funny. The game actually tries to convince you that the downward thrust is a very helpful utility.
In my opinion, it's a glympse of the double jump.
I would say that this Ninjastic game actually is kinda close to celeste. Well for sure celeste's platforming is different in a way, but I felt almost the same fun when playing them :D great Video, love your stuff !
The parry mechanic in this game isn't Ninjastic. But the rest is pretty awesome!
Pretty ninjastic(why do you do this to me) lookin' game. My fault for not keeping up with your channel more, it seems.
Hmm. Nobody like knockback anymore they say? Well then, maybe we should talk about all the games that have knockback just to troll this guy!!
I didn't know where to put Ninjastic, so... I'm putting it here.....
i bought this day of release and only have 20 mins into it...now i just want to play shovel knight again, i didn't complete the other two campaigns...
retropixelroguelite/likemetroidvania
thanks for recognizing the publisher isn't the developer
Welcome to 2022 Ninjastic things like knockback which allow for interestting speed running tricks still exist. I just got this video in my recommendaiton. I am definitely going to have to get this game either this month or next now thanks for showcasing what this game is actually about. Definitely clicking Subscribe.
I didn't realise that there was a alternate button for the dash, after i fishned the game.
I personally don't think holding on to this 2 button control scheme is a good idea. I play a lot of Metroidvanias and Action-plattformens and i still really disliked the 2 button controls. It just resulted in me dying a ton followed by "thats not what i pressed, what the heck". Every even remotly modern controller these days has like 10 buttons, why not just use them, it's silly and very not ninjastic.
That's the thing though, it IS what you pressed. I get the argument for using the multiple buttons but your issues can literally be solved by being way more deliberate with your button presses.
one of the rare games i've dropped. Having a choice of taking it slow and extremely annoying or eating shit trying to speedrun is pretty ninjastic in a bad way
This video was pretty "ninjastic". Love your channel btw. Also, I got here from the community post, had no idea you posted such a "ninjastic" video. Okay, I'll stop...
Ninja gaiden meets dustforce
This game looks ninjastic! Have you played The Messenger? It's pretty dope too.
Gotta say tho, even with the option to map the dash to the R button, the game's controls felt a bit stiff to me... Not very ninjastic. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed Cyber Security, bur maybe not as much as you.
I know that's a typo but now I want a gritty 2D action platformer where you play a cyberninja doing physical and cyber security in a server farm.
"By firewall or dns, no penetration attack will ever make it past me!" --Cyber Security Ninja, probably
@@PadChords xD
My phone's auto correction is to blame here.
But sounds interesting and funny, nice idea
24:11 Why do you need me to use that word? Can't you just look at your metrics to see whether your audience is engaged?
Oh wait, I see...you're assuming the sale. "When you comment" presupposes that I will...clever boy.
Of course, I've already made five comments by this point, so I don't see the need to use the word "Ninjastic." No wa
Same reason you like your own comments 😉
@@ingeniousclown Game respec game
This review was totally Ninjastic! But it is floating around in the same space I've seen - and commented - around before. I think I have a better handle on what's rubbing me the wrong way with a lot of your reviews and content and I want to say up front that I'm not about to tear you down. I love your videos and you. Here goes:
There are two kinds of games. Mass market products, and art games. There is obviously a lot of crossover, but I want to make this distinction here because which type of game a team is trying to make changes what players should expect from them.
A mass market game - like any mass market product - should not artificially gate people out of using that product if it can avoid doing so. Games are software, and if a software package is asking for money and is on store shelves, people have a reasonable expectation around the software being usable. In games, this really means that at minimum all mass market games should have some kind of difficulty modes or sliders, full action/button remapping, FOV slider in first person games, motion blur settings in 3D games, the ability to limit flashing lights if they exist at all, big text or text size slider, subtitles, and should either have been designed with colorblindness in mind or have a mode for it. To do any less is an inherently hostile and pig-headed decision. Period. I'm not drawing a line between indie games and AAA here. If you are promoting your game for everyone and some of those people can't play the game because of any reason, you're being a jerk. Especially on platforms where you can't easily get refunds.
Art games, however, can throw all that shit out the window. If your game is completely free, a rom hack, or in a very niche genre like bullet hell metroidvanias or something where you are making games for a specific audience. These rules CAN apply, but don't have to. I certainly think all these games would be better if they were made so everyone can play them - but I get both that romhack makers don't have the time for that shit and that no one playing kaizo mario wants an easy mode.
This is all about the group you are targeting with your game. And unfortunately a lot of art games - especially when made by AAA studios - go on to market those games to the masses. I'm looking at you, Dark Souls.
Cyber Shadow is somewhere in the middle, obviously. It is in a gray area, and if I were making a game in that space I would personally err on the side of accessibility. I get wanting to make a game that sits very close to the restrictions that classic games HAD to work under. And it is 100% cool to design the game that way. But they should have then gone on to add the ability to remap all the overloaded actions onto different button configurations that make use of the whole controller. I love the multiple path approach, giving players a long easy path and a short hard one is great. But locking players out of being able to play the game they bought on their Switch and can't return, that's fucked up. That's not the kind of thing you do to customers if you can avoid doing so. If you're in this gray area - especially if players can't return the game - you owe it to your players to make it possible for the most number of people to finish your game.
Bottom line, if people are complaining that your game is too hard or not fun because of the controls - you need control options.
If the price of making your game more accessible outstrips the amount of money you can make by selling the game, you have a choice to either sacrifice that market segment just so you can get your game made, or hope that you can make the deficit up selling something else. This might be the real reason that The Last of Us Part II had such great accessibility features, because they knew they were going to sell a lot of copies. And now, they may even be able to reuse some of that accessibility technology in other games, share it with partners, or sell it to other studios.
I think what makes people call this a metroidvania is because of the progression system. Who cares if it's not a single large interconnected level if it has the same get power-up then get backtrack to find new stuff? It's probably the same thing that made people call Dead Cells a metroidvania as well. Maybe the fact that we have no word to describe this game other than "metroidvania", which is the closest thing to it even though it is not accurate. Eh, semantics I guess? Either way, I'm betting most people that enjoy metroidvania progression might enjoy this game too.
People will call anything 2d that's not a mario a metroidvania, same people will call anything 3rd person in fantasy setting as a soulslike.
Ninjastic is the way to go
Had to skip the video a couple times, just so I don't get spoilered too much, as I do want to play this game at some point.
Either way, I enjoyed it and glad you made another game so soon.
#ninjastic
Great ninjastic review
I heaven't heard about this game before watching this video at all, looks sick, (ninjastic even) probably will try it later.(Those dashes look satisfying as hell man.)
I need you to put out your ninjastic videos at more ninjastic rate
Too busy putting time into my day job to put out videos more often :(
@@ingeniousclown yeah, i figured that was the case. i understand. thanks for the vid, and best of luck.
I honestly didn't like Shovel Knight that much as a diehard of NES action plafformers. The attacks and platforming didn't have much impact. Cyber Shadow looks so much more like what I love. Glad Yacht Club published this one like they did Gunvolt for 3DS (a game i love a lot more than Megaman X, yes hate me)
Your channel is Ninjastic!
Ninja tastic, ninja fantastic, ninjastic
Wait, by your logic, wouldn't it be "the Smash Bros of Ninja Gaidens"?
Don't think about it too hard, that was a throwaway line that I just decided to run with haha
This game sounds exactly like The Messenger, which was a dope ass game!
“Ninjastic!”
Lolz! "The same image... I did that effect where you focus in between and the merge into one.
your videos are so Ninjastic!!
Wow, I could not disagree with you more on the music. I found it to be forgettable at worst and merely serviceable at best. I had no problem with the fidelity or style (we're in the same cohort, you and I), it just lacked the kind of distinctiveness I would want out of music for a game of this type. It's the kind of soundtrack that fits the game's scenes, but I'm not eager to listen to it outside of the game. Meanwhile, to pick a random example, "Strike the Earth" is fun regardless of whether you're playing that game or not. Maybe I just prefer Jake Kaufman's style to Enrique Martin's, but either way, it didn't do anything for me. To each their own, I guess.
This is the most ninjastic video ever
Pretty Ninjastic video. You should make some videos about Kaizo hacks. Particularly Invictus, and Grand Poo World 1/2
Oh believe me I want to so bad, I'm just struggling with what I want to say and how to say it. Besides I haven't played GPW 1 or 2 yet. They're on the docket but right now I'm finishing Hark 2 and Dram 1, and Akogare 2 just came out and I'm deciding on whether or not I want to play that before GPW.
I stream every Monday evening on Twitch and the VODs are cut up into digestible episodes on my LP channel if you're interested in my Kaizo progress!
@@ingeniousclown Ohh definitely play GPW at some point soon. I'll have to check out those VODs at some point.
19:30 Ho, boy, you need to play Mega Man Zero 3. EDIT: It’s a very ninjastic game.
Ah yes more ninjastic tales of Freaking Reviews skinnier twin.
19:49 I would have loved to have seen what this game could have been if the double-jump and dash were available from the start. Most of the games it draws inspiration from were designed around giving a character a great set of tools from the start and then surrounding that character with sharply-designed challenges to test the player's application of those skills.
Imagine having to learn the basic movement skills or a game before getting a sprint, double jump and wall kick. The early stages of Cyber Shadow are built for the basic moveset, and would be far too simple if the player had access to all the fancy movement upgrades off the bat. Instead, they're fun to return to with your expanded moveset later in the game, to find any secret areas that were previously inaccessible.
@@thrillhouse_vanhouten The idea isn't that you give the player the full moveset and leave the stages untouched. You design the stages around the full moveset from the start.
What's more, a "New Game+" feature is in the works, anyway.
Lack of an upward or downward attack in the beginning combined with flying enemies that fly at you from off-screen basically killed the game for me, because it made it feel like a boring and unfair shovel knight fame bait. And although your video made me consider trying it again at some point, I do have to point out that only using two buttons for your control scheme (especially if an upward attack is set to down + attack) just because that's how it was done in older games is just dumb. And I'm not someone who struggles with these games either, as I've beaten shovel knight, celeste and hollow knight, just to name a few famous ones. And while shovel knight did feel like a great game that had a lot of thought put into it, I can only call cyber shadow ninjastic if it's a derogatory term.
fair...i quit playing right after getting the shuriken, i kept accidentally throwing one (up+attack) i can only blame my inputs, i guess (8bitdo sn30pro) don't have this problem with sfv
I've been playing games like this since I was young, but even having a transferrable skillset, I still felt that there were times in this game that it was just being too rough. I also felt that the difficulty curve wasn't gradual enough, especially when it came to mobility challenges. There are advanced techniques with the dashing slash and downward thrust that become required in the last stage of the game that the player should have been eased into long before then so that they weren't having to both practice and perform so close to the finish line.
I found The Messenger to be a much smoother experience overall. It never felt like it was presenting an unfair challenge. It's worth checking out if this didn't scratch your 2D ninja itch.
@@akalyx I was using sn30pro+ and didn't have that problem, but it seems to me that firmware on those derps out sometimes. Adjusting dead zones helps when that happens.
Yeah, wishlisted. Don't have the funds right now, but this is certainly on my watchlist for the future.
get gamepass ult bro, first month is free and its on there:)
What a ninjastic game and review
Im not gonna use "NINJASTIC" in a statement thankyou very much
Wow what a ninjastic video.
ninja stick?
"quoting the design docs much?" - Pixels
Have you played Rivals of Aether? I get the sense you would love that game if you gave it five hours of your time.
Great review.
Ninjastic editing!
This video is interesting and ninjastic