First Swings and Stick Feel
Right from the opening screen, the stick response is immediate. You press attack and Joe Musashi snaps forward with zero dead weight, slashing his Katana Oborozuki without the floaty buffer lag that ruins so many modern retro revivals. Lizardcube built the brawling here on the back of what they learned on Streets of Rage 4, and you feel that pedigree the second you connect with your first guard. When your blade meets enemy flesh, the hit stop holds just long enough to sell the force of the strike without stalling your combo chain.
Movement carries genuine momentum. You can dash, cut, and throw Kunai in mid-air to halt your drop, adjusting your spacing before landing into a crouch sweep. Full English voice and interface options are right there in the menus, and everything mapped cleanly to my controller on Steam without me having to fiddle with external profiles or deadzone tweaks. It feels dialed in out of the gate.
Dissecting the Arsenal
The offensive kit does not mess around. The basic ground strings link into air launches cleanly, and the hitboxes on the Katana Oborozuki match the hand-drawn sprites to the pixel. If your steel clips an enemy shoulder, damage registers instantly. If an overhead swing misses by a hair, you do not get cheated by an invisible phantom box. That kind of hitbox honesty makes high-speed skirmishes feel earned, especially when you start canceling normal slashes into Ninjutsu arts to blow through incoming shields.
Defense demands respect, too. You cannot mash your way out of corners. Your recovery animations leave you open if you whiff a heavy strike, forcing you to pick your spots. Throwing Kunai keeps ranged pests pinned down, while Ningi tools let you break through environmental barriers and bypass shielded defenses. Finding Amulets hidden in side routes modifies your properties just enough to matter, altering your resource burn or giving specific moves faster follow-up windows. It is a tight, deliberate system where sloppy button presses get punished fast.
Stage Hazards and Platforming Snags
You fight across more than a dozen stages, running through scorched deserts and sprawling military bases. The visual clarity stays surprisingly high even when five attackers swarm your position with rifles and blades, thanks to the bold line work and clean animation silhouettes. You never lose Musashi against the background art. Every enemy telegraph gives you enough visual information to react, provided you are watching their shoulders instead of admiring the scenery.
Platforming sections are where the pacing wobbles a bit. Wall-climbing and trap-dodging feel fine on their own, but a few rooms ask for awkward vertical leaps over instant-death hazard pits while snipers pelt you from off-screen perches. Ningi tools help clear these paths, yet missing an air dash because an enemy projectile caught you mid-flight brings the combat flow to a screeching halt. The combat is so good that anytime the game forces you into slow, puzzle-heavy climbing, you just want to get back to cutting.
Value and Verdict on the Cut
At thirty dollars, the campaign gives you plenty of meat to chew on. The boss encounters force you to memorize startup animations and exploit narrow recovery windows after massive area attacks. Using your Ninpo clears out screen clutter when things get hairy, but the real thrill comes from baiting out a boss combo, stepping just outside their reach, and punishing them with a full aerial loop before they touch the floor.
A couple of late-game encounters lean a little too hard on flying pests that waste time out of melee reach, which tests your patience more than your execution. Even so, the core combat engine is tough, fast, and remarkably honest. If you care about sharp hitboxes and snappy melee action, Joe Musashi's return gives you exactly what you want.
Comments 18
BestNewest★ Best comments
Wait, did I miss something? Is there a hidden boss or a second campaign? I breezed through in like four hours and now I'm just staring at the menu wondering if the water level lighting is actually hand-drawn or just a filter. How do they get those reflections so sharp without slowing down the framerate?
y'all just need to watch that second phase pattern on the final boss. the hit-stop gives you time to breathe, it's not slowin down combos if you know how to cancel with a dodge. platformin traps are the real enemy here tho, caught me twice before i learned the timin. might could have used a checkpoint before the spike pit section.
Proper brilliant that mate, only played twenty minutes of the campaign and I'm already hooked on the melee combat. The hand-drawn colours pop so nice on my IPS panel. Reckon this is the best 2D Ninja game I've played since the old Shinobi days. Would buy it again if I could forget it
Mate, I've been slashing through this on Steam Deck and the hitboxes are tighter than a kangaroo's arse in a drought. The platforming traps though? Absolute dog's breakfast. Who thought putting spike pits in a game where you're meant to be a ninja was a good idea? My thumb's still sore from the checkpoints. Stoked for the swordplay, but those flying enemies can get stuffed.
@tpr93Mate you're spot on about the hitboxes, proper old-school feel that. Reminds me of the original arcade machine down the local chip shop where you had to time your throw perfect or you'd eat a shuriken. Shame about the platforming though, they used to let you just run through everything back in the day. Would kill for a proper game manual with these sprite sheets
Yeah the combat feels good (I spent like an hour just parrying the first ninja dude over and over, no stress) but I dunno if the price is fair for how quick it is. Finished it in one sit-down on the train. Platforming was whatever, I just threw kunai at everything until it died. no rush
@oofyeah i watched my friends play through this in discord and the combat looks sick but the platforming bits killed the vibe. is this fun with a group or just tedious? we usually talk over everything anyway so cutscenes dont matter lol
Anyone else find the hit-stop feedback a bit much? It's satisfying for the first few fights but does it slow down combos too much? Also, is the hand-drawn look running at 60fps on Steam? My monitor's 144hz and I swear there's some microstutter in the water level
@timberY'all complainin about hit-stop when this thing costs thirty bucks? That's two breakfast platters at the Waffle House right there. For a short slasher that's pretty steep imo. I'm fixin to wait for a sale before I pick it up. The demo was fun though, those swords feel nice.
@guten_garythirty bucks is kind of steep when my wallet is completely empty right now, but man the sword combat looks crisp. might just grab it anyway and skip takeout tonight.
@Stevie CStevie C, I get it, thirty bucks is two Waffle House platters right there. But if you're fixin to skip takeout anyway, maybe wait for a sale? The combat's real smooth but it's over before you can say 'bless your heart.' I'd rather save that cash for a game I can sink a whole weekend into.
@timberdid anyone else get absolutely flattened by that water level microstutter or just me? thought my deck was bricking for a second. hit-stop is fine imo, makes the parries feel meaty.
@bramley_danThe water level microstutter is on my list. I didn't see it during my playthrough on a 60Hz monitor. Could be a refresh rate mismatch. The hit-stop is intentional to make parries feel weighty. It cancels into dodge so combos don't slow down once you learn the timing.
@timbernah the hit-stop's fine for me (i mean i play soulslike so i'm used to chunky pauses). the microstutter though, i didn't notice on my steam deck but maybe i'm just not looking for it? platforming traps are the real pain though, i just kunai'd everything from a distance to be safe. no stress either way (just my two cents though)
Proper brilliant that mate, only played twenty minutes of the campaign and I'm already hooked on the melee combat. The hand-drawn colours pop so nice on my IPS panel. Reckon this is the best 2D Ninja game I've played since the old Shinobi days. Would buy it again if I could forget it
am i wrong for finding the flying enemies funny? just standing there with my kunai like a disappointed dad waiting for them to come down. great game otherwise.
@Rory PRory P, I'm with you on the flying enemies. I just stood there throwing kunai and muttering 'come on, I got laundry to do' (actually I did have laundry, that's why I was playing in short bursts between loads). The combat's good enough to keep me coming back though, even if the platforming makes me sigh every time.
y'all just need to watch that second phase pattern on the final boss. the hit-stop gives you time to breathe, it's not slowin down combos if you know how to cancel with a dodge. platformin traps are the real enemy here tho, caught me twice before i learned the timin. might could have used a checkpoint before the spike pit section.
Remember when ninja games were all about running on walls and throwing stars? Now it's a 2D sword game with spike traps. Thought this would be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it's pretty stale folks! Still, the hit feedback is so crunchy I can feel it in my teeth.
Wait, did I miss something? Is there a hidden boss or a second campaign? I breezed through in like four hours and now I'm just staring at the menu wondering if the water level lighting is actually hand-drawn or just a filter. How do they get those reflections so sharp without slowing down the framerate?
Thirty bucks feels pretty steep for how short it is. Combat feels great, but those platforming trap rooms just drag it down and there isn't much reason to run it back once you finish. I'd just wait for a sale.