Previously, Hanzo Hattori
junior Joe Musashi is allowed to retreat from Iga Ninja's last battle but
tasked to take revenge on Nobunaga Oda who's responsible for the onslaught.
Time goes by, Joe is old enough as warrior but not as legit ninja as he lack of
ninjutsu/ninja magic lesson. As some elder suggestion, he raids fire dungeon
alone for fire gem. After he gets said gem, he's now capable of fire magic but
his quest doesn't stop there.
Now that Joe is more legit ninja,
i reckon he needs companion. This hermit declines my recruitment with 'Our
abilities are quite different' reason. Dude! Did you know the basic of party on
every RPG? Each member completes other with different ability that they have.
You reason there is really unacceptable. Did you expect RPG members to be homogenous? That's not RPG
party! That's boring division group on real military/police, you dolt! Now that
i know you're such a idiot, i immediately blacklist you from recruitment.
In other recruitment attempt,
some ninja name Shiranui (who's probably member of the ninja clan with the same
name) attempt to attack Joe for bounty. But he soon serves as guinea pig for
newly acquired 'Flame' magic. The impudent fool. After defeating him, there's
option of see his status, enlist him, or leave him be. I was hoping i can end
his miserable life but the game doesn't allow me. Soldier_jeers10.wav
I won't fall for your sweet
talking there, bastard. This sod comes up when i get out of Mt. Fuji training
ground on my way to next training course which is Mt. Tsukuba, northeast from
here. Note: i looked on screenshot of previous part, i have terrible memory
sometime.
Following that direction i arrive
at Hitachi castle (which -i assumed- is home to some electronic home
appliances). First NPC here is a reminder if i have finished my training in Mt.
Fuji. In short, he's slightly more useful than any NPC so far. Just slightly.
While another NPC says that Mt. Tsukuba is west from here thus i go there.
Later on Mt.
Tsukuba training ground...
I can learn healing magic white
mage ninja style? Cool! This time i have to retrieve earth gem on earth
dungeon, of course. Now that i think about it. All dungeon are supposed to be
earth dungeon, right?
One of the guards on dungeon
entrance said that i should bring companion for this dungeon. Therefore, i try
to recruit this hermit but he softly refuse by saying if he will join if he's
more trusting me. You see happy face and number beneath his photo? That shows
you someone's affinity to you. Because he has good mood here, i can chat with
him. By doing so, i skip entire day and also increasing his affinity. Speaking
all day to make some stranger become friendlier, is something that i can't do
at all. Game makes you do something that you can't do in real life, indeed.
When i want to talk to the hermit
again, hoping i can recruit him. Suddenly, Tateoka (who's there since
yesterday) interrupts me and asks me to enlist him. I can't turn him down
because he's also fellow Iga Ninja. Maybe i should recruit more teammate but i
don't know the cost of doing so and i'm not dare enough to find it out yet. In Shadowrunner (Genesis), you recruit
members by paying them money. The more affiliation to related members and the
higher your reputation, their fee will be cheaper. While in here, you just have
to increase your relation with related member by talking and i recruit them for
free. Sounds too good to be true.
What's Tateoka good for? He's
also a ninja with ninjato so there's no different with me. But he uses 8 points
(throwing) star as ranged weapon that does more damage than me (who uses 3
points star), i think.
The guard who told me to recruit
member also said that i should recruit mendicant so i'm on right track, i think.
But this dungeon is quite dastard as there's giant venom snake that can and
will poison us. Strangely, the poison takes effect not on battle phase
but in dungeon-exploring phase. Every few steps, our hitpoints will be drained
by 2 - 3 points. Because we didn't pack many antidote before, we have no choice
but to retreat to local healer ASAP. Scout_Medic02.wav
I decide that Tateoka should be
behinds me because he (maybe?) has better ranged attack than mine. He also has
more ninja magic than me. One of them is 'Repair' which is uncommon name for
healing magic. I mean 'Repair' should be mending skill for mechanical
recipient, don't you agree? Anyway said healing magic has probability to fail. I
should ask white mage priest to join my party instead, but i don't have the
heart to bail him. I mean he's my fellow Iga Ninja that volunteer himself to
join my cause for free (and most likely has same revenge against Nobunaga Oda).
I just can't.
It seems there's no earth element
theme for this dungeon instead the theme here is poison/toxic/etc.
Luckily/strangely, these Toxic Worms don't poison us or anything just regular
attack and with occasion dropping antidote. They don't have big hitpoint but
their durability to physical attack are high. Thus i use ninja magic against
them. Later on, they can poison us. Silly me. :p
Remember when i said there's no
cost for extra party member? Well, there's kind of. Our lodging cost doubled
now but that makes sense as we need to pay for 2 rooms/futons now. That goes
the same with medical cost. On plus side, i have doubled inventory capacity.
This RPG doesn't adapt shared nigh-unlimited inventory like Final Fantasy series,
instead it uses inventory-for-each-member system. But it's quite tedious to
manage the inventory among us. That's just my opinion.
Then i talk to this hermit for
2-days straight that his affinity to 44. When i try to recruit him, he says
maybe later. He said that he's currently studying here until October. So he's
still busy learning some sacred philosophy about how the live supposed to be
and... nevermind. He accept my offer when i accidentally press 'Enlist' option
again.
I don't regret recruiting the
Hermit he has more healing magic and guard magic which i don't know what it
does yet.
Oh, i see. It boost recipient's
defense. I'm hoping for attack increase but this is nice too.
Soldier_thanksfortheheal02.wav
Initially i put Amagi Koji (the
hermit) in front line. But on second thought, he's better be in the back. He
can't attack from afar but he inflict much less damage than Tateoka so it
doesn't matter that he can't attack at all. He's our healer afterall. He can
take an arm a bit and he's not so fragile. Perhaps he's equivalent to Cleric.
On 3rd floor, i found these
markings and Joe says "There's
nothing special". That's rubbish. At least you should be wonder about how
they can make them or how esthetic they could be. Just say anything! They're
such wonder that can raise a dozen question at least.
Starting in this level, we find
dorky-looking giant spiders but they can slow all of your party by -you can
probably guessed it- spreading spider web. There's chance that you have
advantage of first turn on the battle just like in this case or the enemies get
it instead. It's pure luck.
I reckon doki-doki means 'heart-beating'. But here, Doki are these horned goblin and
they're not so difficult to deal with.
Exploring this dungeon, doesn't
feel fun. Tiring, even. Just look at this! I have to walk around needlessly
long corridors here. Just put decent shorter ways and it makes no different yet
easier for me. I concur, they're meant to make the dungeon exploring more
challenging and also increase the chance i get random encounter. But most of
them ends up with just dead end without any chest or anything.
Scout_jeers10.wav.
On next
floor...
This is the opposite. It just
wide blank space. If this is Action game, i suspect there's boss fight around.
There's giant slugs on this floor
but they're hardly boss or anything. Noticeable thing about them: they're
resistant to sleep magic that's casted by Koji or he sucks at it. Still superb
at healing department and able to cure poison, mind you.
Later on same
floor...
Oh, no! Not, again! Fine, i will
manage our inventory a bit and...
Goddamit! Our bag is full with
antidote and medicine. We have so much spare antidote because in this floor and
previous ones, there's no enemy that poison us. They're only in first floors.
Luckily, there's some space on Koji's bag. I know recruiting him won't disappoints
me.
Beside the stage with earth gem,
there's another one with 2 chest that contain Tengu Wing and Light Mail. Did
Aya Shameimaru lose her wing here or something?
Another enemy type! Let's see!
Mato means target and kage means shadow. Therefore they're shadow targets,
maybe? Whatever these lizards are, they can't be hard to fight.
What the heck! One of them can
summon another? They're like some reinforce-calling monsters in Sora no Kiseki/The Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky. Demoman_sf12_badmagic07.wav
Hah! You fail to call your
friend because you suck! Said someone who never call his friend if he has any.
Another shock! Turns out, Doki
can use healing item. This reminds me of tedious memory on Eragon RPG. In my defense when we faced with 3 of them, they didn't
do thing like this before.
Actually we can use Tengu Wing
for instant teleport to dungeon entrance but i refuse to use it because i'm
stingy person. But we can explore more in this dungeon for more
experience/money and...these 3 Chest! Even though they're contain use item that
we have in abundant amount.
Amagi Koji the hermit, has skill
named Cure1 that you can only activate outside battle. But it requires Health
Food that we don't have yet, sadly. If only there's more description on it.
Heck! There's not even any detail on everything like use items or magic. That's
my main gripe so far besides the slow pace of this game.
Finishing this trial, grants me
Repair which is the scrappy healing magic. But at least i also get Purge which
is poison-removal magic.
Next training takes place in Mt.
Haguro (which i assume Heavy Cruiser Haguro's name based on) which is north of
Dewa Castle that's also north from here. But i can ask from direction in Rikuchu,
the elder adds.
Before i go there. I visit this
guy Gao inside the inn. Due to his appearance that similar to legendary Benkei,
i assume Sohei is monk warrior. I like to recruit him but his affinity is 0
besides the capacity of my party is 3 members.
I arrive at Rikuchu and some
citizen asks me about the sinister Masamune Date. When i say no, he immediately
tells me that i'm dimwit. Actually, what i want to refuse is his status as
honorable not his fame. Of course, i know him a bit from Warriors Orochi 2. In fact, Rikuchu is where the git and his family
reside. So that man is upset about me not knowing Masamune Date, is acceptable.
There's seer at Rikuchu.
Normally, i don't believe in fortunetelling but i reckon there's some benefit
to believe it if in game. Turns out, the fortuneteller will inform you about
any recruit-able person with the cost of 5 gold each. The information are their
hometown, what they're doing right now along with their location and how our
relation works. Unfortunately for me, most of these names are unknown to me
except for the bastards: Toriyama and Shiranui. Thing for sure is: Kagero here
isn't the werewolf, the destroyer, or the 2nd game of Deception series.
I planned to have work at some
castle. But it seems there's no work for me here. There's other option for me
in this castle: 1) I can see territory map but i reckon it's not useful to me
as i talk about that later 2) I can chat to other visitor like inn or teahouse
but there's no one here right now 3) I can ask for appointment of this castle's
ruler but the guard here says that he's busy. Screw you, Masamune Date! >:I 4) I
can wait i here for next day but i don't think this will replenish our
condition as this doesn't count as lodging. 5) Or finally i can leave this forsaken
palace.
Here's the map. This map denies
my statement of "No map in this game" in previous part, sure. It
informs me about castle town's location but compare to -say- world map in Final Fantasy game, this is barely
intuitive and useful. You can't see where you're in the map without entering a
castle town. The true potential of this map is showing you political
jurisdiction for official job. But still useless to me, for now at least.
This is more like it! Rikuchu has
more advanced weapon shop than other town i visited. Why steel blade has worse
property than iron sword? Whatever. I take that Iron Sword...what? Ninja can't
use it? Fine! Give me that Steel Blade. At this point, i realize the advantage
of some naive bloke who only know how to swing sword around than Ninja. Sniper_negativevocalization05.wav
As i walk long way north from
Rikuchu, i arrive at this small town. Hey! I idolize Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
He's my favorite in Warriors Orochi 2.
Conversely and naturally, i dislike Kiyomori Taira. Although this is neither
Mt. Haguro nor Dewa Castle, i will take a look around to honor Minamoto no
Yoshitsune.
Hey! I found Tenkai the Mendicant
in this inn. I though mendicant is someone needy or volunteer-y like Tateoka
but turns out there's Mendicant class. Judging by his fashion, Tenkai is monk.
The healer and spellcasting ones, mind you. I can part with one of my member
right now but that sounds like hassle. Especially Tenkai guy here is complete
stranger.
Wait. What? Minamoto no
Yoshitsune is a ninja. I didn't know that. Let me see.
Here's his short biography that i
found in Toukiden 2. There's no clue
of him being ninja, not even the slightest. Unless there's tale of
trouble-making child named Ushiwakamaru that's as agile and tricky as Ninja or
sort like that.
Later on
Mutsu Castle, north from Hiraizumi...
Mutsu, huh? Like the name of the Battleship? It seems Mt. Osore is my next training ground after Mt. Haguro.
Time to backtrack and hopefully don't get lost again.
Near Hiraizumi, i found this
dungeon. Is this it?
This one dungeon sure is not
friendly. But no text box can prevent me from moving forward. Soldier_go01.wav
There's spikes around soon after
i descend 1 level of this dungeon. These convince me to get out. Some NPC in
Hiraizumi told me that this dungeon is where Minamoto no Yoshitsune's secret
treasure lies. So this is not the place that i'm looking for.
Upon exiting the dungeon, another
ninja want my head on silver platter. But he's no match for us.
Heavy_taunts04.wav
Later, back
at Rikuchu...
Oh, i see! I missed this guy. Northwest
from here. Gotcha!
Ah, here it is! Though i don't come across
that Dewa Castle. I wonder how godly is that place. Hint: 'Dewa' is god in
Indonesia. Turns out, it's Nobunaga Oda's place. So it stinks.
Another gem retrieval? I pass!
Koei's Inindo - Way of The Ninja (1993) on SNES is game featuring ninja
but it's RPG, like none other before (in my knowledge). The main premise is
good but its practice is kind of off or not so satisfying. For example, the
pace is slow compare to other RPG because the text boxes is slow moreover most
of them can't be removed automatically so you have to often press button to get
rid of them like in battle or shop menu. Also as i have mentioned before about
how tedious the dungeon maze layout. I prefer first 2 dungeons. From the
graphic you can tell that Inindo is modest
(yet distinctive), like it works on not even 40% graphic capacity of SNES. The
music also simple and grainy. The good thing that i see from the game is mostly
in gameplay. Your main character is Ninja who seeks revenge to the infamous
warlord as oppose of some warrior that's destined to save the world and fight
some demon lord. But you can regard Nobunaga Oda as demonic due to his
ruthlessness if you want to think that further. The battle takes place in
narrow gridded field that make the battle faster yet defines front/back line, as
opposed to any TRPG with field that way too wide. Kind of like Koudelka but with
smaller field. I very like the free-recruit system that allow you to have
companion that you can choose freely. But it requires simpler system and/or
money cost, not solely depends with related person's affection. The difficulty
gradient is quite stagnant as there's no boss battle (at least on my
playthrough here so far) that gives me bigger money and experience than normal
enemies . Quite worth to mention that at the start of the game, i have
prominent leveling problem: Can't level up in first dungeon due to no more
encounter but 2nd dungeon's encounters feel too hard. In 3rd dungeon when i
have companion, the game become smooth yet shallow. Perhaps if there's any overworld
encounter, that should fix that. Actually outside of this playthrough there's
one encounter: Bandit that's tough to beat but later he runs away. The most
significant different with other JRPG is you can work for some Daimyo/Warlord
either as spy or war officer but i kind of hesitant to test that feature.
Recruiting other member is crucial as your hero doesn't get new magic as he
levels up as opposed to his companions.
Inindo
- Way of The Ninja (1993)
is slow-paced RPG that have distinct features. I want to continue this game but
i feel that the game drain my patience/interest too long. What a shame. So if
you have bigger patience toward RPG than me, maybe you can enjoy the game. If
not, i can't recommend you to play this game. One more thing to say: there's no
running button to speed things up even though you're Ninja, the agile and
tricky warrior. Think about it!