Inindo - Way of the Ninja

Something I've always felt interesting looking on the past of gaming,
is that there were many kinds of games, for many kinds of people,
and they were made by many kinds of developers, sometimes
created in a very specific way for a very specific public and
created by people with very specific angles and tastes.

It was possible because in the past, it took less money to
make stuff and be profitable, which let companies of all sizes
to create stuff that your developers might feel passionate about,
even if it's not going to put the world on fire, as they say.

That is not to say it doesn't happen nowadays, far from that, but in
the interconnected and global industry we live with today,  things like
trends, focus group testing, a much larger consumer base and the search
for the "lowest common denominator" in order to maximize the money you
make have changed not only how games are made, but which ones are made
and what your average consumer wants (and flat-out ignores) in a game.

Specially if we talk about middle to big companies, where the business
mentality has grown so much that in the eyes of higher ups and investors
anything that does not give you an assured certain amount of profit is seen
as a risk, a problem that also plagues the music and movie industries.

That's probably why small studios and indies have become such a beloved
part of the industry for many game enthusiasts. They can bring stuff you
want and the bigger guys don't care about. They can take more risks,
and they also can make way more specific and niche experiences
that scratch some itches your typical blockbuster stuff just can't.

Now, you may be asking why the hell I'm saying all this.
Well, you see, the game I'm talking today is such a strange and specific beast that
I can hardly look at it without thinking this was a passion project that only their
biggest fans would give it a chance blindly, making it a rather risky product...
Yet it was green-lighted, and it managed to get localized.
I don't see it having such luck in these times.

So today I'll take a look at Inindo - Way of the Ninja.

And if you think this introduction is too long, wait to see the rest of this entry.

Developed and published by Koei Corporation in 1991 in Japan (and brought outside in 1993), Inindo - Way of the Ninja is a rather fascinating piece of software to look with an analytic eye and see its mixture of elements, but at the surface level you could say it is an RPG and call it a day. That works too, I suppose.

Now, I'm guessing that anyone that cares about gaming (anyone that finds himself/herself in this unimportant blog, that's for sure) will know what is Koei even if it's just by coincidence, but I'll explain it quickly.

Koei Corp. is a video game company founded in 1978 and is well known by people for their large amounts of different kinds of simulation games related to historical events, sometimes with very high accuracy, while others using history as a canvas for telling fictional stories, often with more fantastical elements. They are also known for coining and popularizing the "Musou" term and style of games, which are quite the opposite from their simulation offerings as they are 3D Action "hack 'n slashy" games with loads of soldiers running around in big maps. They even have a division of games designed specifically for female audiences, a type of visual novels named Otome.

In 2009, they merged with another famous company, Tecmo, to create Tecmo Koei Holdings, although they Koei part gained more importance and started to be used in first place, funny enough.

Some of the games and series that may ring a bell made by this company are Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Uncharted Waters, Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, Aerobiz Supersonic, Genghis Khan, or even the "recent" Ni-Oh. Although they also released the oddball game here and there, like Saiyuki - Journey West, Gitaroo Man and Opoona, and even published others' games in Europe, like Nippon Ichi Software's Disgaea, La Pucelle and Phantom Brave. Both facts make me quite happy.

And that's without talking the gigantic amount of deals they did to make games based on licensed properties. One Piece, Gundam and Fist of the North Star are some of them, but they company also teamed up with Nintendo to make crossovers like Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors, the first one being re-released recently on Nintendo's current system, the Switch.

Because they made their "empire" around styles of games that are not precisely popular to general consumers outside Japan, they've always been seen as sort of the most famous "niche" company, and it's also one that has a quite faithful following. As of today, they still stand quite strong, even if some of their games have been stumbling lately, like Dynasty Warriors 9.

And I should leave it at that; because there's way too much to ramble with today's game to keep talking about other things.
It's going to be quite long, so let's get on track, shall we?

The game takes place in a fantastical version of our world, where magic and fantastic creatures exists alongside what we know. Our story, as you may imagine, happens in Japan, on the year 1581.

Better enjoy the intro, the game has not much in the way of cutscenes.

You play as a youngster from the Iga Village, a secret place surrounded by mountains and home of the most emblematic and famous Ninjas (all of that is historically accurate, actually!). Sadly, in typical fictional work fashion, peace is not going to last long. Oda Nobunaga, one of the biggest and strongest feudal lords, has been expanding his empire and has for goal to conquer all of Japan; which he has been starting to do, some say, in very dark ways. While his plan is working well, he's aware that some will rise against him, and the Iga clan could prove to be a big problem if they ally with those strong enough to stand in his way. After some time, he discovered where the location of the secret village is, and ruthlessly attacked it.

In desperation, the leader of the Iga, a ninja by the name of Momochi, forces you to flee, and to look for refuge on another secret village far away, under the wings of an old elder acquainted with him, as you're too young to fight, and you would be wasting your life. You're sent off as the place gets completely destroyed and burnt down, while Nobunaga watches from the distance that hellish landscape. After traveling to another region and finding the elder, you decide to take revenge on Oda, and he decides to train you as a Ninja, alongside a familiar of him, a young lady by the name of Rei. But warns you that it won't be easy, even less when any Iga survivors are now appointed outlaws by Nobunaga and you'll be persecuted.

Even the horse looks to be evil, check those eyes!

But luck is obviously not on your side, as, after a time of training, reports of Nobunaga's forces being around appear, and not too after, they start invading the village and manage to get to you. They are just seconds away of ending with your life when a soldier of their army comes alarmed, mentioning the rest that one of Nobunaga's allies, a man named Akechi Mitsuhide, rebelled and is attacking the lord himself at Honnoji; and they leave you to die of your wounds as they rapidly go to help their general.

Fortunately, the elder manages to mend your wounds just in time. He says that this place is no longer safe, and that if you're truly intending to make Oda Nobunaga to pay for his crimes, you must take your training elsewhere, traveling Japan, across all the special Training Grounds, with your first stop being a small dungeon where a secret Ninja Password lies, a code that will let you enter these places. With this, you start your journey and the game proper.

Are katanas supposed to be so curved? Maybe they come back if he throws them.

While the game is set on a fantasy version of our world, and deviates from this point forward, the attack on the Iga and Akechi's treason against Nobunaga are in fact historical events. And there are more facts and details about the warring states period sprinkled around the entire game (probably many more I could sort of see, as I'm in no way an expert or well versed in this subject).

Now, let's be very clear from this point out: "Inindo - The Way of the Ninja" is not only a Koei game, but a very, very old school Koei game, so if the company is usually rather niche, this might be a niche inside that. It requires patience, something that seems getting rare... Unless if there's a constant carrot-on-a-stick mechanic to keep you playing, I suppose.

Specially if you're that type of person that turns his/her nose the moment you look at a screenshot and see that the game is not very visually appealing. In fact, be prepared if you're like that, as this game is very humble technically, feeling exactly as what it is, an extremely early Super Nintendo game (it released on 1991, same year the Super Famicom did, after all), to the point where it looks like a modest NES game as far as the complexity of the visuals go.

Inindo showcases some of the tiniest sprites I've seen on a Super Nintendo game, which no joke made my sight tired when I tried to take a good look at them to define their designs while playing on my TV (not a very smart idea, mind you). Not just that, but they are tiny with little to no animation too, to the point that NPCs actually move around in a very choppy way (the sprites get "teleported" to the next tile of walkable ground, instead of smoothly sliding across the ground, like your character does, thankfully). And alongside these tiny characters, the game also has some of the most simplistic terrain visuals, with little variety and detail.

As you can see, maps can look rather blocky and simplistic. 

The font is gigantic in comparison which contrasts tremendously with the tiny everything else. Battles look a fair bit better than the overworld, but they're also very modest, with little animation. And sound wise, the game reminds me more of the Sega Mega Drive than the Super Nintendo's usual sound (and I'm not saying this in a bad way, I just find certain instruments to sound very similar); so overall, as far as a audiovisual level goes, it really doesn't compete against the vast majority of the system's RPG line.

Also there's a lot of menu handling, and it can be seen as clunky by your usual modern consumer. But well, it's a game from 1991; I think it does better than many earlier games.

Now, I might be coming off as very critical, yet there is a reason. While its humble technical side shows (some would say tremendously), specially having in mind how many Super Nintendo games can hold up very nicely today, the game, doing honor to its Koei pedigree, has no shortage of interesting ideas, concepts and mechanics that overall shows the great ambition (no, not that Ambition) that sometimes we can find in old games, to the point that these aspects can overshadow its oversimplified exterior if you look at games as more than just a piece of entertainment.

That's because the good parts of "Inindo - The Way of the Ninja", like the titular mysterious warriors, can't be seen or even suspect to be there by a mere first glance.

First, let's take a look at the most obvious gameplay elements before we start with the really interesting stuff. because there's a lot to talk about.

Inindo is an RPG with grid-based movement. It's also probably the top-down view RPG with the fastest walking speed I've seen in my life. You see, maybe is because you play as a Ninja, but you actually have three different speeds to move at, and you're not particularly slow to begin with.

Your average speed is pretty good already, but you can use the L and R Triggers to change it. By pulsing L, you'll toggle Speed Level 2, which is a fair bit faster. Pulsing L again will make you back to the original Speed. Now, holding the R trigger will make you move at Speed Level 3, which is simply ridiculous... No, that's too slow. Ludicrous Speed is more appropriated for it. I'm not even joking.

And while Speed Level 3 might be overkill on towns and cities, it certainly comes of as incredibly handy to travel around Japan; as it has a really huge size, and if you don't know it (like me, for example), you'll get lost quite often at the beginning. While its size is impressive, it's as simple visually as the rest of the game, with only points of interest being the aforementioned populated areas, ports, training areas, dungeons and caves.

The first few hours of the game focus on you trying to find your way through the early Training Grounds, while you visit the different cities and try to survive. And talking about surviving...

















The game features, like many RPGs of that era, your usual random encounters. Thankfully, the ratio of encounters can be generous, sometimes taking quite some time before a new group of baddies tries to maul you down, not to mention that battles on the overworld are actually quite rare to happen compared to finding trouble in dungeons. Battles are structured visually in a similar fashion to early Final Fantasy games, with both sides of the battle at opposing sides of the screen. Gameplay wise, though, they're not the same.

Inindo's battles have a small tactical touch, as the battleground is actually divided in different hexagonal spots you and your enemies can move to. For someone to attack at close range a unit of the rival side, they must be on adjacent spots. A character can move and then attack, if it's in range, but the attack will be less powerful than if that character attacked without moving, so moving around pointlessly can work against you, and at the same time makes it so forcing enemies to move towards you is rewarding. But waiting for them to come might get boring, and it's not recommendable either, not when in this game characters can have two weapons equipped at the same time, one for short range affairs, and one for long range attacks.

Ranged attacks are incredibly useful in the early game, and in fact you'll most probably be struck down by a ranged attack from one of Oda's soldiers at the beginning of the game. Ranged weapons are, as you may expect, less powerful, but the possibility to attack incoming enemies makes them rather a very helpful ally, and some of them have the natural ability to cause critical hits and are very dangerous.

Now, a detail you have to understand is that enemies will always be looking at the right, while you will always be looking at the left, and characters can aim at what's in front, or diagonally up or down of them. You can't attack backwards. The same happens to the enemy. This, for the most part, is something you won't see much to happen, but knowing that getting behind an enemy leaves you outside of its attack range can be useful for a desperate moment, even if you can't attack either.

Of course, like any RPG worth its salt, there's Magic involved with battles. Although you start without knowing any (you learn them as you successfully pass each Training Ground), spells in this game can be quite useful, not only to hurt enemies or to heal you, but status effects are also quite handy, and some even work on bosses. Defending is another useful command. It reduces any physical damage to around half, and it also reduces magic damage considerably.

And that's the basics of normal battles. All this may sound a bit complicated at first, but in practice it is actually rather simple. Which can give you some problem, though, are enemies themselves, as the game can be challenging all around whenever you reach a new place, specially if you're not paying attention. They take advantage of items, spells, some will tank your long range attacks, forcing you to be the one to move, and some can even summon more monsters to the battle. While I don't think is a incredibly hard or complex game or anything like that, I found myself getting whipped a couple of times for not being careful.

This is one of the early Training Grounds. It's pretty big, and has some traps, but is not too bad.

As I said earlier, most of the battling will happen inside caves, dungeons, and Training Grounds. These places start of simple enough, but they become much more labyrinthine, with multiple pathways and floors, and start having traps, like holes that sent you to lower floors, spikes, that hurt you with each step you take, and deceiving mechanisms like doors springing from the ground to stop your advancement. They are also thematic, with forests, fiery caves, underwater places and such. You need to be prepared before entering these places, in case things get ugly.

Now, if it was just walking around them, there wouldn't be much reason to visit these places. Each of the Training Grounds has one goal and one reward, both being retrieving an item from these places and learning a magic ninja technique named Ninjutsu. Early objectives will be just lying is mall shrines easy to spot, but later ones, though, will require lots of exploration, finding keys, or figuring out tricky obstacles that might be put in your way.

Being rewarded with magic knowledge by exploring places? Now this is a quest I can dig!

Traveling, finding cities to rest and buy items, talk with citizens to guide you around (many of them give you directions to all sorts of places, including Training Grounds), reaching dungeons, leveling and learn Ninjutsu techniques is what encompasses the early game parts of Inindo - Way of the Ninja. Here is, though, the point where I sort of remove the curtains and let you see the entire picture.

You may have caught in an earlier capture that it showed a date, July 15, 1582. Indeed, time pass as you play. Walking around Japan will consume time quickly, with nights and days cycling continuously as you walk, with the need to rest after three days of traveling. Sleeping at an Inn will make a day pass as you recover; and another will be lost if you stay in a Tea House or Inn speaking with a character you met (more of this in a moment). Likewise, an entire day will pass when you step inside into a dungeon.

Days become months, and months become years. In fact, your mission to take revenge on Nobunaga has a limit. You must succeed in your revenge before 1601 ends, or everything you worked on will be in vain. You have around 20 years of game time. But time is not just a simple ticking bomb around your neck. It actually impacts most of aspects of the game, just like it does in real life.

That's the first dungeon, where you'll get the Password for entering real Training Grounds.

This universe is not centered around your story. All around Japan there are people like you, travelers with their own classes, hometowns, preferred regions, ideas, goals, ways of behaving and even opinions about Nobunaga himself. Each one is categorized in one of the four big groups of classes, with each group having different sub-classes that not only affect their stats and overall "RPG archetypes", but also how they go around doing their things.

These four big groups are Ninjas, Warriors, Sages and Wizards. Between all four the game holds sixteen different classes.

Ninjas are separated depending on their clans, like being a Iga Ninja, just like the protagonist, but there are also Fuma and Koga Ninjas, for example. Not only that, Ninjas are the only group to also have female members, like Female Iga or Koga Ninjas. This group has access to Ninjutsu techniques your character also learns, a powerful set of abilities that can become really in handy in most scenarios.

Depending on the clan, their stats have different spreads but overall they're the most balanced characters... If they're male. If we talk about female Ninjas, they usually sacrifice physical Power for higher Speed and a larger amount of Energy (basically, MP) so they can act faster, and use Ninjutsu more freely, which can be quite great, although their physical attacks will be limited against foes with medium to high Defense (although a very late Ninjutsu can help with that).

Sages are the support classes of the game, the group encompasses Hermits, Mendicants, Soheis and the titular Sages (yeah, they could have called the group "Healers" so they don't repeat words, but alas...).  Most of them actually dislike Nobunaga for his ways of violence and cruelty, and usually travel around Japan to spread their teachings, even on lands conquered by him.

Their healing and supportive powers are always welcomed, and each class offers its own perk, like the Mendicant's higher Energy, to use spells for longer, or the Sohei's higher physical power to deal some damage when not healing. Sages could be seen as "better" than others, but are quite harder to get. Overall, they're useful when exploring Training Grounds or optional dungeons, but in certain situations you might want someone that can whack bad guys on their heads instead of healing power.

You start as a wimp, but man, with a bit of luck when leveling up, you can end up becoming
a pretty damn great and powerful Ninja. 

Wizards are the trio of classes that dwell in the arts of Mysticism, a branch of magic that has a whole bunch of Status inflicting spells, some offensive spells and other curious enchantments. These classes are Sorcerer, Magician and Mystic.

Sorecerer and Mystic are your usual "High MP & Intelligence" classes, and while Mystics are usually seen as the better ones, they're also squishier than Sorcerers and harder to find. Magicians have more differences, as they're faster, have more physical power and are able to fire guns, which while not very accurate can pack a punch, specially with critical hits. Overall, Wizards are very useful in certain situations (more of this later), some spells like Dizzy can work even on bosses!

Lastly, we have Warriors, and are... the least special and interesting ones, if you ask me. They have no spells or interesting abilities, and for the most part are just what I usually call "Weapon Swingers", characters which their most valuable asset is being able to equip things. Inside this category you have the classes of Samurai, Ronin and Swordsman.

The Samurai class has the most balanced stats, but also the lowest physical power, so their usefulness depends on how powerful the weapon they hold is. They usually stay in castles of generals they feel positive towards. Ronin characters usually have much higher Power and HP, but they're slowest, and unlike Samurai, they roam the land in search for work. Lastly, Swordsman are the ones with highest Power, and good Speed, but their HP is the lowest, so they can't take hits as well. These also travel, but usually don't have the nefarious intentions of Ronin. Warriors can be useful if you need raw Power, but overall they don't have enough Defense to withstand much time in front rows, so you need to be careful. Their critical hits are the most powerful, though.

And now that I talked about these travelers and their classes, I can say that you can interact with each one of them, and how all of them are affected by the passing of time.

You can spend quite a few days trying to make a traveler character join you.

You can meet people in a few different ways. Most normal ways are visiting Inns and Tea Houses, places you would go to rest and learn stuff, which makes perfect sense as these characters are traveling just like you. Each characters has their own habits, some will stop in a play for a couple of days before continuing their journey, while others may stay for a longer amount of time, like for example a Wizard may stay in a Training Ground for a month or two, training to improve their abilities. before start marching back to his hometown.

Some people will actually look for you, and they may find you while resting on the overworld, or after leaving a dungeon, o reaching a city that they happen to enter to rest while looking for you. These things can occur because the game has a Reputation and Trust system. As you progress through the game, and interact with these characters, you start to get more famous and your relation between characters will get deeper and stronger.

The more Trust a character has with you, the more things you can do with him or her. Of course the main one is asking to join your group (and the higher Trust, the easier), but there are more actions, like asking who is and what a character does, what is their goal, their stand on Nobunaga, and even challenge someone to a battle, which can be a risky move, as winning a challenge can raise Trust, but there's always the nasty chance of actually killing someone (or killing yourself if you challenge someone stronger). Lastly, you can simply talk to them, which makes you spend a day with a character talking to improve Trust.

Now, not always they will feel like pass time with you, or even to respond your questions. Your opposition to Nobunaba is not liked by everyone, some characters won't like to have any contact to you at all; although you can be very persistent and they'll end up warming up a bit, although that takes a lot of time. Not just that, Oda has quite a few supporters as well (specially if Oda promises money for your head!). So some characters populating this world will seek you to end your life, and rob you. Fuma Ninjas and Ronin are the most common, but don't be surprised to see other classes going against you. They will follow you anywhere, and you may be assaulted any time.

You should have tried this before I learnt how to create and manipulate fire, buddy.

And all of this is quite cool to see as you play. Things change as time passes. Characters come and go, sometimes they even die by their own actions, never to come back. If you meet with someone, they will greet you whenever you two happen to be in the same place. And also gives you a gigantic amount of characters to find and recruit, even if your party can only be formed by three members at most.

With so many characters populating Japan, and even characters of the same class having differences in stats, or even special "out-of-battle" abilities unique to only a few, there's a lot to check and find. Special characters also appear from time to time, but I do not know how to make it happen exactly. Some appear as the story progresses, others might need certain actions, or who knows. Maybe they even appear when somebody in this world dies.

Reaching a new region and finding a super strong character, or a new class you didn't see yet is quite exciting, specially because you may never know what you're going to find thanks to the passing of time. It can also be a bit frustrating because you may not be able to interact with that traveler enough time to convince he/she to join you before it goes away, but there are ways to track people down.

Feels a bit creepy to have a business centered around being able to control people's each and single move...

Some places, besides Inns, shops, and Tea Houses, also has Seers. They come quite in handy, as you can get information about travelers you've met before. You can ask where they are, which is their next location, and how compatible are with you, all three being really useful.

Knowing already that people move around and such, being able to know the first two becomes tremendously useful. The third one, compatibility, is entire dependent on how they feel about you. The more positive is the response of the seer, the higher compatibility, and the faster Trust improves when interacting with that certain character, making recruitment easier.

As far as what type of parties are best to travel around and do normal battles, to be entirely honest; I think it does not matter much as long as you're happy with your team. If you want a heavily physical party, you can have it and it will work well as long as you bring enough healing items. A healer is useful like in any RPG, but they're almost entirely useless as far as damaging enemies, so some people would rather not have one and use three offensive characters. Having a magically oriented party can be pretty great, but certain enemies are immune to magic attacks and some status effects.

While certainly there are some characters that shine more than others, there's really no perfect group. You also have to have in mind that the hero himself gets a pretty good set of Ninjutsu for magical damage and some support, and he's probably the best character all around, with some great stat growths, even if stat gains on leveling up are random; so you'll always have a useful unit in your team regardless.

Throughout my playthrough I changed characters often, and the only classes I recommend to skip are Fuma Ninjas, they were pretty disappointing, not to mention they also hate you tremendously (they will assault you often) and are pretty hard to recruit.

Another important point is to set your party correctly. Each character can only hold a number of items (not counting equipped gear, thankfully), so you must be mindful of having enough supplies yet also room for the usual treasure lying around, and the occasional item drop from enemies. Besides healing items, or items to recover from status, from time to time you'll also find objects with magical properties, like Idols, which heal 100 HP to you, but have a chance to break, or a magical fan in an optional dungeon that can make enemies fly away from battle (very useful for enemy healers!).

And changing Formation depending on your group is also important.

Choosing to put character further back will give you some extra time for a few spells or ranged attacks, which is nice, but also makes it so you can't move if enemies move to your side and use the three spots in front of each character. Likewise, sometimes putting a well geared healer on the front can be very damn effective, as he'll be defending most of the time (because he has nothing to do when there's no healing to do), receiving little damage and tanking surprisingly well, but if you need healing someone though, he'll be in danger until he can Defend again.

Very important to have in mind your formation, not only to protect squishier allies, but to make
things faster for you, depending on what party do you have. 

But if you thought that was all, well, far, far from it, because time also affects the countries in this game.

During the early game, you will sometimes be interrupted by a screen with a big map of Japan, separated in different regions, each one having a castle occupied by one of the clans. They'll be plotting against adjacent regions, and from time to time it will be pointed out that, in fact, a certain faction is attacking another country, and if the defender fails to protect that country, it will retreat and lose such spot of the map, now owned by the attacker. Entire factions can even disappear forever if the last region they hold falls, with their leader dying even.

For example, Suzuki Sadayu's clan will be attacked not so long after you start the game, and by Nobunaga of all people. He has no chances of survival by himself, and will die and his army will be destroyed, forever gone from the rest of the game.

This month not only is the end for the Suzuki army, but also for the army on the region of Bungo.

All this is just background stuff, happening without much relevance to you while you get your Ninja Training going, and trying to make characters to join and such. But it doesn't stay in the background forever...

As you progress through the game, you'll be getting more and more famous. With fame, not only more of Nobunaga's men will try to hunt you down, but the roadblocks around Japan start to let you go through, thus having more of the land to explore. The warring clans start to make their moves a bit less subtle, and Nobunaga starts to get angry. What's more, the leaders and generals of each clan start to notice you, opening a lot of possibilities.

Once you reach around Level 15 and have solved several Training Grounds, a new set of mechanics become available to you: being able to work like the Ninja you are.

Now you can start going to cities to offer your spying abilities to countries' leaders by entering the castle of a country (unless it's a Nobunaga land, then you'll get the boot). With feudal lords (or should I say Daimyos?) getting more anxious with their individual goals of unifying Japan, all of them are on the look for having the best data on the status of their neighboring enemies.  This data contains number of generals and soldiers, alongside their statistical power, which become of importance and I'll talk about it later.

This is when Time and its constant flowing becomes the most important. Previously, you could go do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted, for the most part. Now you need to follow the rhythm of this warring period, as it seems all of Fantasy Japan has this unwritten rule about strict timing.

From days 1st to 15th in a month, countries can look for the services of ninjas depending on what future actions they want to take, and what clans and countries are surrounding them. Countries with powerful clans next to them will feel quite a bit more paranoid and will want to check on their ranks more often. Other times, they may look for weaker places to see if they can invade. And they'll pay very nicely if you manage to be successful, that is, if they find they can trust you enough. Of course, you only have until the 30th of that very month to come back and give them the information.

It's hard to gain trust initially in a country, but a job or two well done will put you in a much better place.

Doing these jobs is simple enough. Reach the country you need to spy, and chose Spy on the main menu and then Snoop to see a small cutscene of you infiltrating the castle. Just go back to the country that hired you and they'll be happy to see you back. Of course, there are chances to fail, specially at lower Levels. Each attempt to spy will use a certain amount of Energy, failing multiple times will empty your Energy, forcing you to rest and waste time. Not much of a problem, in this case at least.

Successful attempts of espionage will build a good relationship between you and the faction (not just the country), just like increasing Trust with travelers. Let's say that you do a spy job for Date Masamune. If successful, any land controlled by Date Masamune's army will be happy with you. Better relations means easier times getting jobs, among other things.

Now, with Japan being so huge in this game, and time having a limit, going around each city looking for jobs probably sounds very inefficient. And it is. That's why you have to be smart and use the resources available. You can ask about jobs to travelers which have enough confidence with you, and they'll point to the neighboring countries that are seeking help. But more useful and complete are Tea Houses, which I mentioned earlier. Inside these places you can meet characters, and also take a cup of tea; doing the second will start a small conversation with the shop owner.

He can point you to places that look for ninjas, just like travelers do, but they can also inform you about the relations between feudal lords, which countries seem to be more productive and powerful, and other tidbits of information. All this can be extremely helpful to hasten things later into the game, as drinking tea is quite cheap, gives you all this useful information, and does not waste time at all. Early on, these jobs you will do mostly for the money, but a smart person will start checking and focusing on clans that clearly oppose Nobunaga or are strong.

Hey, Oda, I hope you like the great flavor of burnt rice!

But espionage is far from the only thing to being able to do. As you continue your journey, and keep getting better and better at being a Ninja, the more well known you'll be, and the bigger your influence will become, to the point where you can sway your way into meeting the Daimyo of a country and try to convince them to do certain things.

One of them is Sabotage. While sometimes they'll ask for this instead of mere spy work on their own accord, more often than not it will be caused by you giving the idea to the general of a country. It's done in the same fashion as snooping around. Reach the correct country, choose Damage, and see the cutscene to find if you were successful. Sabotaging a country can affect in two ways, lowering the number of Soldiers in good shape capable of fighting, and lowering the food reserves, Rice, making them slower to recover from losses caused by the sabotaging itself, or warring other countries. Damaging a castle can cause one or both, depending on your luck. If you're successful, you can then go back and claim your reward money.

Sabotage can be a tremendously dangerous tool (specially as I explain later), but also risky. It has higher chances to fail, takes more Energy to try to do, and each attempt wastes a day, and depending on what schedule you have for the month, failing too much can be costly in time. In any case, when lords start looking ways for sabotaging others, it usually means that they start to plot bigger and more serious stuff... Like, I don't know, War.

As time passes, you can see how countries will attack each other more frequently, trying to become larger empires. And while larger and better prepared countries usually can act by themselves, sometimes don't have the resources for defending or attacking alone. That's why sometimes they don't ask for espionage, but to directly hire you as an official for war. And thus, an entire new aspect of the game opens again.

Took a lot of sabotaging and convincing, but at last, were taking back this territory.

In pure Koei fashion, the game does in fact include a strategic side, and it's a rather big part of the game too. Let's check all this by parts:

Because the entire game is made around the Sengoku Period and the ideas unification, wars always involve a castle that's invaded in an attempt to conquer it, with one side attacking and the other defending. Both sides make rounds and the different unites start acting depending on what side they are (defending ones will always surround the castle and their lord, as you can imagine). Alongside officials and groups of soldiers, there's always a general, which acts sort of like the King piece in chess, in the sense if you manage to bring it down, you win. If the defending group manages to deal with the invading forces, they get to maintain the territory; but if the attacking side proves to be superior, they'll get ahold of the castle and rule that territory from that point.

This point onwards is when many of the things I've already mentioned before unite.

You're not the only one getting hired. Other travelers might in fact offer their fighting abilities as officials in exchange for money; and yes, that means you can find yourself battling alongside or against people you may know. One thing to take into account if you want to participate in a war, is to get hired as soon as possible, don't waste time, get it done the first few days of the month. If not, you run into the problem of not being needed because they've already hired other people. Not only that, but if you go early, you're not be hired alone, you'll get to choose one of your other two party members, giving you two units to control directly. Swordsmen, Ninjas and Wizards can be found as officials during these bigger battles, and the last two as I already pointed out have magic abilities. They work differently in this environment.

See, there are two types of spells, ones you can use in normal battles, and others only to be used in wars. Ninjas have techniques like Blaze, which creates a large circle of fire around themselves, damaging any enemy unit unfortunate enough to be inside that circle, or Geyser, that can be used to trap enemies and impede their movement, or to protect your lord. Wizards have spells like Fright, a single target attack they can cast from very far away, to maintain themselves safe, or the ability to summon Ogres (they look like your stereotypical Oni, with the horns on the top of the head and everything) into battle, huge and dangerous units that attack enemy forces. If magic can be a useful thing in the normal places, in wars they are of the utmost importance.

Swordsmen, again, take the shortest stick, as they're not nearly as useful in this environment. I guess that what happens when your biggest asset is being able to move around a pointy object in a world with mystical arts.

Oh boy, you will learn to hate enemy official wizards...

Each unit present in the battlefield is composed by a leader, like a general, a hired character, or one of the clans own generals (which are just like Swordsmen, but usually weaker), and a number of Soldiers. These guys act like HP, when one unit fights another physically, the number of Soldiers will decrease; in a way very similar to one of Capcom's early series, Destiny of an Emperor. When a unit has 0 Soldiers, the next hit will go directly to the important character, and will finish him/her of.

Now, generals that fall in battle are not killed, but captured. You see, when a battle ends, and the victorious group looks at the results, those captured can deflect to the winning side, increasing the number of generals for that clan, or they can sometimes escape and go back to one of their clan's region.

These bigger fights have a limited number of turns, too, but I've never reached the limit, so you probably won't have to worry about that. In any case, war battles are something that starts to gain much more importance the more you advance. Why, you ask?

Oh, okay, I'll just go grab it a- wait... Why do you want to read his diary, mister?
I hope you're not getting any funky ideas...

Well, because of Oda Nobunaga himself, of course. He's the entire reason this game is happening at all!

This guy has already tried to send people against you, and also showed to have other tricks under his sleeves, but when he sees that you're not stopped yet, he gets serious and starts attacking other countries much more brutally, expanding his dominions.  In the map screenshots you can see above, he owns the center area of Japan, every red colored country is controlled by him. Oda has basically established himself in the middle and divided the rest of Japan in two.

The reason of doing this is not just unification, it's to protect his own rear too. See, Oda himself stays in Omi, the center country of his ruled lands, and is impregnable. You can't reach his castle at all. The only way to have a chance is to invade and take the neighboring countries of Omi so it has to deal with them and you can slip through the barriers that surround Omi. But the more lands he conquers the harder it gets, because you'll have to retake more ground to reach him, and time is always against you (although 20 years are quite a bit, so don't feel too pressured) among other things.

But you're not a nobody now. At this later point is when the entire game opens and, in a way, shows its beauty.

Woah, more Giant Enemy Crabs... And they're immune to magic and REALLY buff.
These guys have no weakpoint to attack for massive damage!

Your spying abilities can be sold, but also be used for your own benefit, although of course, you won't get paid. Snooping countries will let you know how strong they are, as already pointed out. Knowing the number of Soldiers and Generals alongside knowing what neighboring countries surround it, and how strong they are, can tell you how easily a clan can be convinced to attack others. A city with a single General won't be able to attack, as at least one needs to stay in the castle to defend it, that's why capturing enemy generals to deflect to your side is important. Having too few soldiers means they will turn your advices down, although sometimes they'll accept and send a paltry amount of Soldiers.

You can sabotage as much as you want on your own accord, but be sure to look at the time. You can even stop battles from happening if you ruin the attacker's troops and resources enough, which is a smart tactic as you assure the defending country losses no Soldiers. At the 30th of the month the Japan map screen will inform that the attack is cancelled. But sabotaging too much can be negative as well. If you ruin a castle too much, when the clan you are working with conquers it, it will be weak.

Likewise, you can win the trust of the clans by working for them, but you can also get into their, let's say "hearts", through gifts. Daimyos are quite capricious, and a nice little something might make them look you with better eyes. There are many things you can gift them, some of them, for example, are prizes you can win in a Bingo. You can gain a lot of chips if you play smart, but of course, luck must be in your side.

Believe it or not, that Bubble Gum is treated like a "Grand Item" by Daimyos. They love it. 

Other things sought by Daimyos are, for example, guns. Firearms were something brought to Japan by trades with Spain and Portugal (something the game actually points out when talking to NPCs, cool little thing), and they can be a great gift. Being able to win Trust quickly in the later game through this lets you have much more control over what clans other than Nobunaga's do, and at a much faster rate.

And that's really the neat thing: Control.

You start the game being a wimpy guy that gets threatened by rats, and assaulted by douches wanting a bounty while things happen around you. But you keep improving, getting stronger, learning Ninjutsu and other stealthy arts. You meet loads of people traveling around, some will like you, some won't, and you'll get allies. Not too long after, you see yourself working with clans and figuring stuff out. Then you'll be fighting in big battles, making a difference in how the lands are ruled. When you stop and look at yourself, you reached the point where, with enough skill and time, the land can literally be shaped by your sole actions.

You can see how each country is doing. 

You can discover and take advantage of who likes who, and which leaders have bad blood between them. 

You can choose who attacks who. 

You can choose which clans grow. 

You can choose which ones disappear. 

You choose how and with who you bring Nobunaga down. 

You can control Japan, not through brute force, like him, but with strategic movements in the shadows.

Through the Way of the Ninja.

Very few RPGs left me with such a strong feeling of power, or responsibility. Funny to find it in a game that's so humble and so "old school".

Oh, c'mon, I've been destroyed by enemies named Bushwackers. I have no dignity.

Writing this entry up to this point has felt like constantly climbing something, every element mentioned paid off later by being connected to different parts of the game, and going back and forth to see if everything made sense and advanced well was a bit tiring. So for the rest of this, let's relax a bit.

A few other things I didn't mention, are for example the fact that death is permanent. I've mentioned it about travelers doing their things, but the same happens to people in your team. Someone dies, and he or she is never to be seen again, for the rest of that playthrough. Now, at the same time, being struck down doesn't necessarily mean you will die. When a character is brought to 0 HP, they can survive the battle... But not in good shape, as that character will have a special status effect, Injury.

An injured character will have much, much higher chances to die permanently if they're left with 0 HP again. Healing injuries are vital, because critical attacks can strike at any moment, and they're incredibly dangerous. Thankfully you can find Elixirs to heal them, or reach a populated area to visit a Clinic.

All of this means you can lose a normal battle and still survive, which is good, seeing how certain caves and such can be quite tricky. You'll be weakened, of course, but you can try to exit and rest without losing your progress. Now, boss fights are completely different, there's no way to survive a losing boss fight, so don't get your hopes up!

...I get it, Koei, I get it. You made me chuckle. You get a gold star.

The game also has some side content. There are a number of optional caves to explore, and a couple of sidequests you can do. They offer some interesting rewards, too. You can find about them by talking to the citizens of each city or town. In fact, talking to everybody is very recommended, they have loads upon loads of information, either about game valuable tips, or historic trivia, and also some funny things to say from time to time.

The game also has another very interesting thing going on: the story can branch into two different ways very early into the game. Depending on how things go in your incursion to the Password Cave, they way how the rest of the story continues might change, which affects several aspects of the game besides the story, giving you even more replayability.

The game can be quite long, even with the time limit (as, for example, time does not pass during visiting cities, battling or exploring caves), specially if you dig the strategy part of the game and want to take a clan and make it expand as much as you want. My playthrough I say it took around 40 hours, maybe a bit less, without going full strategy. You can get quite "nerdy" about this game and don't drop it for a looong time if it clicks with you, and it seems to have had a small but very faith fan base.

Oh hey, Avenging Spirit. Now that was a cool little Game Boy game.

Now, with all that said, I want to stress again this: It is not a game for everybody. In reality, no game is, but you understand what I mean, this is not a crowd pleaser. This is not a game that's desperately doing things to grab your attention. If it interests you, by all means, please try it. But is not holding your hand, which can alienate many people today.

Another little thing, if you can, please manage to get a manual. That thing is filled with information, and Koei put a lot of time and effort into explaining many aspects of the game with detail, and even historical facts and trivia, it's probably one of the most extensive instruction booklets I've seen for such an old game. It's one of those manuals that really make you miss them all.

The last thing I really have left to talk about is the music. Composed by Hiori Wakakuwa, it's a small collection of early Super Nintendo music. For the most part, it tries to replicate the music of that period, which is cool, and I have to admit I have a couple themes stuck in my head, like the City theme. But just like the visuals, the sound is very modest and simplistic too. Nothing too special, and a tune or two can get very old, but it accompanies the gameplay accordingly.

You can check the soundtrack by clicking on DK here. 

And at long last, is time to finish this. You know, I tried to play Inindo several times, but this was the first time I managed to stick with it, and I have to say I'm happy I did. While it probably can't rank with overall smoother and more focused RPGs of the system, it is actually a game I found amazing to analyze and learn, and I can say I respect it a lot. There's nothing like it, not on the SNES, or more modern systems. It's a very unique game. I would have loved to find out that an obscure PS2 spiritual successor exists, or something like that, but I haven't found anything.

The way it evolves and changes into something bigger puts it in a very special place. While its different aspects do look simple and for the most part they are when examined separately, I really think this is one of those games which ends up being bigger than the sum of its parts when you look at the entire picture.

This game also made me think... In most cases, game developers sacrifice certain aspects in order to focus on others, because there's no time or money for everything. Different people, different philosophies. Some games prioritize their visuals as the most important thing, but then have mediocre performance or shallower gameplay to accommodate the visual spectacle. Others may chose to have very deep and curious gameplay systems, or quirky and fun writing and character interaction, or even choose to be weird and unique, at the cost of how they are technically (even when often enough quirky and unique games don't have much of a budget to begin with, though).

Inindo - They Way of the Ninja is one of those, and while it may make it a harder game to pick up for your usual folks and even some fans of retro-gaming, I'd rather have a game that's interesting to talk and think about, than being interesting to just look at. But that's just me.

Now if you excuse me, I've been writing for way, way too long. I need to sleep, and a shower. And probably something more action-oriented as the next game.

...But maybe not in that order. Anyway, take care!

Hey wait a minute here! Oda, did you change classes mid-game? Dude that's not cool!