Original Release: Jamus Tiberian, 2003, Flash
One of the most well-regarded Newgrounds games of all time, Ronin teases you with tittyninjas but surprises you with quality design and gameplay once you’re in the door
Ronin: Spirit of the Sword (Flash, Jamus Tiberian, 2003)
Where to Buy: Play for free at Newgrounds (age-gated login required)
How to Emulate: Flash Emulation Guide
Review by: Master-B
While largely forgotten now, Ronin was in the Newgrounds top 50 most played games from its release in 2003 straight through to 2006. A deserving run given its unique and intriguing combination of gameplay elements, combined with about as much professional polish as you’ll get from early 00s no-budget Flash games. It has booba too, but really that’s barely even a selling point next to the quality of the game itself.
The single thing Ronin reminds me most of is the Horrorsoft Elvira RPGs, in that it’s a first-person dungeon crawl but combat switches to more of an action-oriented system backed up by player stats. But instead of the adventure game tinge, it’s more of a roguelike: room layouts, enemy encounters (which seem to be in fixed spots), treasures and girlies to rescue all seem to randomly generate each time you play a level.
The story plays out with some nicely done manga sketches before and after levels. Our nameless drifter opens the game by being caught by the deadly Red Fox, a female ninjer wreaking havoc on some province or another. He’s freed by another female ninjer named Rei, who asks him to put an end to Red Fox with his swordly skills.
So we’re off through what turns out to be three levels to do all that, though it is strongly suggested you do the small tutorial level first to learn the game’s offbeat combat style. It has some odd ways to perform sword swings that are alright once you know them, but not something you would intuit without instructions. Casting spells is a little tricky too.
The enemies in the first level are all easy to handle once you’re familiar with the game’s combat, but the next two levels scatter in wolves and ninjas that are more of a handful. Complete the three levels and you can repeat them on two harder difficulties that start sending multiple enemies at you in battle.
The well-done combat combined with the roguelike randomization element is the core of the game’s appeal. Each level merely requires you to find Rei to exit (except for the third, in which you must first find and duel Red Fox), but you’ll really want to comb them as much as possible to upgrade your stats and find health and damage items that are extremely helpful as the enemies get more fierce. But, as always with the roguelikes, you don’t want to overextend yourself once you’ve found the path to freedom and it’s all a delicate balancing act of risk and reward.
And then there’s the lewds. Occasionally in the dungeon you’ll find some animu ladies in a state of undress lounging around; getting their name and number allows you to summon and pose them in your private Garden of Eatin’. It’s all pretty much just Duke 3D/Shadow Warrior level titillation, though the manga panels between levels also include a little action as Rei always manages to get herself into some compromising position somehow.
Overall the game is pretty well balanced, with only a few little frustrating touches (that aren’t dealbreakers). If you’re looking to Catch Em All (in terms of the anime ladies), they may not all randomly generate in a playthrough, sometimes you get ones you already have. The sword thrust attack is supposed to be the quick and precise combat option, but is kind of cumbersome and annoying given that you have to double-click to ready it, and then there’s no good way to precisely aim it other than eyeballing (can be really annoying with the bamboo gun traps). And sometimes the game generates more shuriken attacks than you can possibly block at once, so there are some cheap hits once in a while.
It’s quite an impressive effort, though, and leaves one wondering if the pseudonymous author went on to more professional game design under his real name … he seems to have only done two or three Flash games under the “Jamus Tiberian” name in the early-mid 00s.
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