NINJA KAMUI: SHINOBI ORIGINS Steam Charts & Stats

I will say this: this is pretty much exactly what I'd expect a game based on a relatively unknown but recent license made by a shmup studio in a genre they don't normally work on to play like. This game has extremely smart system design where nearly everything has a purpose and contributes to a pretty fun flow of combat, but the actual controls and animations have a lot of stiffness and weight to them even when you can cancel (which you can't about half the time; though that commitment isn't really an issue). The rail shooter sequences despite being played on analog sticks flow pretty well and reward target priority since you can only destroy environmental aspects with guns and your slash is your best way to defend yourself from projectiles. My biggest issue is honestly Stages 6 & 7; I was giving this game so much benefit of the doubt for the first 5 stages (even when a stage immediately started with you getting hit with half your health bar worth of bullets if you don't instantly start moving and then you have to face a bunch of bosses and sequences a second time just to pad the midpoint of the game) but the "maze" aspect of Stage 6 is just not well done at all and loaded with enemies that are more of an annoyance trying to get to where you want to go than anything, and all the optional rail shooter rooms are either not worth doing or totally worth doing depending on if it's the one with multiple barrels/crates or not. Stage 7 just felt like they had even less budget than the rest of the game with a bunch of rooms and doors that are copypasted, a fight with two of the exact same tank you fought at the end of Stage 6, and then a really short elevator segment before the final boss. I found the bosses to be mostly solid, though some were significantly easier than others and some of the easier ones are later on than others (outside of the Tank the first two bosses are probably the hardest). As for everything else, the music is actually very good though I can say the writing doesn't do anything to make me want to watch the anime this is a prequel to, and the art is pretty decent but very limited in variety. A good game, but one that is only for the 2D Action diehards who want something distinct and can handle a lot of jank.