Within the Blade | PS4 Review

Ametist Studio has been working to get their game rolling for a few years now. With early access on Steam starting late 2017 under a different name, a full release and name change in 2019, and now the console release in 2021, Within The Blade has had a long road. There are a lot of games that tug on my ninja wannabe heart strings, but this gave me flashbacks to Ninja Gaiden 2: The Dark Sword of Chaos on the NES with its pixelated wall running and swordplay; just a more modern feel with its own little twists.

It took a few minutes to understand the flow of gameplay and then it flowed until sunrise. This game could easily take hours away from you depending on your playstyle or if you are just a “one more level” kinda player. Either way you slice it, Within The Blade is going to leave a mark somewhere.

So, You Want to Be a Ninja?

Well, too late you’re already one. In Within The Blade you play as Hideaki, a member of the Black Lotus clan, one of the many clans caught up in the civil war happening across Japan. In the pursuit of power, the Steel Claw Clan enlisted the help of demonic forces to overpower the other clans and this leads to problems down the line. You are sent out to help discover why things are the way they are and to put an end to it. Being a sneaky ninja in dark areas might not be a new venture for video games and the story isn’t complex or lengthy, but what it lacks in some areas it makes up for in others.

I finished the game and half of another playthrough in about 12 hours and had plenty of fun and frustrations in that time. The missions are as long or as short as you want, and the methods used to complete the missions are up to you. Bonuses can be received when completing certain objectives, but you don’t lose if you don’t follow them. It is very much a “stealth optional” game and with that comes many different ways to play.

He Wasn’t Ready

The game is set up in short chapters split into levels. Each level has its own set of objectives and some levels allow you to return home after to prepare for the next one. Chapters end with a boss fight and send you home to continue the story. With new chapters come new areas and enemies to deal with. There is a New Game+ after you beat the game allowing you to face off against even harder odds of survival.

To combat those odds you are given an arsenal of weapons ranging from hand-to-hand to grenades, allowing you to choose how to handle the next challenge. Skulking through the dark and playing Bop-it with my enemy’s neck is how I like to play, but I had just as much fun laying mines for roaming guards to find. Don’t think you’ll just hack and slash your way through, however. Just as much timing is needed in between combos as making sure no one is watching you jump from shadow to shadow. Don’t leave yourself open by misjudging how many hits the guy in fancy armor can take!

Great, Now They Have Guns!

With each chapter the enemies become more troublesome turning a miscalculation into retries. Not all is lost; with struggle comes strength, new abilities to help dispatch baddies, or the abilities to build tools to prevent the fight altogether. As you play, you pick up items that seem almost random as to why they are there, and then new crafting capabilities allow such items to come together and make useful items such as smoke bombs or poisons. Along with items, big enemies means more experience to unlock even deadlier attacks and combos or better movement skills to avoid or to reposition yourself for the final blow.

The items are not the only thing you need to keep stocked. Your weapons don’t last forever and you will need to either make or buy more. Continuing to buy and collect resources to keep up with the items you get used to utilizing can be a chore in itself, but becomes necessary in later chapters.

What Is This?

There isn’t a lot wrong with Within The Blade other than the fact it did not come to console as nicely as it should’ve. They took the time to do the button tutorials so you can be told what buttons do, but did not change how certain skills explain the buttons to you. Crafting, buying, and collecting tools is important to gameplay, but unless you memorize what everything looks like it could get lost in your safehouse. To store items from your inventory on the PS4 is TRIANGLE, but is simply labeled “cancel” in game.

One of the many things Within The Blade gets right, and it’s so small people might not notice, every enemy type has its own execution depending on the weapon used. It actually had me running around trying out different weapons on different enemies just so I saw how they were dispatched.

Are You a Ninja Yet?

Within The Blade is easy to pick up and keeps getting harder so you feel a challenge throughout the game as you learn more efficient ways of playing. Some levels can take up to 30 minutes depending on how aggressive you want to play, but with the Switch’s and PS4’s ability to sleep and pick up right where you left off, you won’t have to force yourself to finish a level early. Basic training can be found on the main menu just in case you forget how to do things over long periods of not playing.

If, for some reason, fighting demons as a shadow gets boring, there are about 20 challenges to test your skills on. Level selecting seems to be another option, so whether you’re pushing yourself or just replaying for fun, Within The Blade lets you be the ninja you want to be, except evil. No one likes an evil ninja.

Zombie Ninjas or Ninja Zombies?

Easy to pick up and so much harder to put down, even when I was stuck I was having a great time and with so many ways to play this simple game, I will get a lot of replay value out of it. There is so much to like about Within The Blade it’s easy to overlook flaws that really have no effect on how the game performs. Honestly, this is less of a new release and more of a celebration for Ametist Studio. For four years an amazing game has sat and now it will get the attention it deserves and needs to become even more. Congrats, I can’t wait to see what comes next for you and your games!

P.S. Zombie Ninjas are undead Ninjas. Where Ninja Zombies are Zombies trained in Ninjutsu!

This review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy of Within the Blade provided by PR Hound for coverage purposes. It is also available on Xbox and Nintendo Switch.