Samurai and ninja. Legendary Japanese warriors in the world of video games

Katana Zero

Pixel Ninja Craves instant death. Others too.

Modern games are too user friendly. All these first aid kits, auto-regeneration, armor, and the very concept of health calm gamers down, forgive mistakes and encourage them to make new ones. Katana Zero goes against the grain.

In this action platformer, the main character dies from every hit he misses and from every bullet he catches. Harsh? Maybe. But it’s also fair - enemies die according to the same principle. And the quantitative superiority of opponents is compensated by the protagonist’s ability to slow down time and even deflect rolled bullets. Add to this stylish pixel art and a surprisingly deep plot, and we have one of the best indies of 2020.

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Total War: Shogun 2

The country is torn apart, but enough is enough. The shogun raised his sword.

This is the classic strategy of the Total War series, so anyone who is at least a little familiar with the franchise can easily name its main features. The game is divided into global and tactical parts, the gameplay of which is strikingly different and, if desired, can be almost completely ignored.

On the global map, the user will lead one of the clans of the Sengoku period - the “Era of the Warring States”. In a step-by-step format, you will need to develop your settlements, conduct religious policies, study technologies, engage in trade and diplomacy. Special agents - geishas and ninjas - can help with the latter.

In tactical mode, the player has a different task - to fight and win. You will have to control units - infantry, cavalry, archers and their various subtypes - in real time. The outcome of battles always depends on competent command: the general must know the strengths and weaknesses of each unit, correctly deploy troops and choose the right time for maneuvers.

Total War: Shogun 2 also released the Fall of the Samurai addon, which covered a later stage of Japanese history. In it, the establishment of relations with foreign countries and technical development significantly influenced the political situation. The player will have to decide: to follow the path of the West or remain true to tradition.

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Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

Commandos from heaven Smiles at us all. The heir is good.

Shadow Tactics is a ninja Commandos or a samurai Desperados; a more accurate and concise description simply cannot be found. In other words, the game is an isometric real-time party tactics game with an emphasis on stealth.

The game takes place in the Edo period - the one that began after the events of Nioh, Sekiro and Shogun 2. On the instructions of the shogun, five warriors must uncover a conspiracy that threatens their master. Each of the heroes has their own unique abilities and weaknesses. For example, a samurai is effective against any enemy, but is not very mobile. And the old sniper can kill at a great distance, but is defenseless in open battle. The group also includes a ninja, a thief with a set of traps and a master of disguise.

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Content

• 1 Armor before the samurai era 1.1 Tanko (短甲)
• 1.2 Keiko (挂甲)

Mark of the Ninja

A katana in the darkness will not touch the innocent. The shadow has evaporated.

At first glance, it may seem that Mark of the Ninja is another representative of two-dimensional platformers, which many have become tired of since the eight-bit times. However, take a closer look and it becomes clear that this is a real stealth action game.

Technically, each level of Mark of the Ninja is a multi-faceted puzzle, the goal of which is to get from point A to point B undetected. Various security systems and guards will interfere with this. The latter need to be bypassed, hiding in the shadows or distracting them. Kills not only take away points, but also attract unnecessary attention. However, no one is stopping anyone from using the vast arsenal for more destructive purposes. The main thing is to remember that in an open battle against a pair of machine gunners, a katana will not help you.

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Shadow Warrior 2

Cannons and Ninja magic are ready to be accepted, but jokes about dicks?

What should a ninja game be like? It most likely must have stealth elements, like in Sekiro, Shadow Tactics or Mark of the Ninja, because the word “ninja” itself translates as “one who hides.” At the very least, it should definitely be an action game with close combat - and probably very serious and mysterious.

Well, Shadow Warrior 2 fails miserably on all these counts. This is a first-person shooter with a huge number of “meaty” shootouts and outhouse humor. Thanks to this and the presence of an RPG-style loot system, the game takes the user to the vast expanses of Pandora from Borderlands rather than to Japan. But it has melee weapons, and the main character is a ninja, so Shadow Warrior deservedly deserves a place on our list.

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For Honor

Steel Armor and Wrath of the Berserker are empty. Katana swing, death.

The main advantage of For Honor is that it puts an end to the thousand-year-old dispute about who is stronger - a knight or a samurai. Or rather, an ellipsis, because this is a multiplayer competitive third-person action game, so the one with the straightest arms is usually stronger.

After a mysterious cataclysm, knights, Vikings and samurai collided on the same battlefield (and in the DLC, Chinese warriors were also brought there). Users can fight for different heroes, including classic samurai and ninjas, as well as more exotic fighters. Depending on the mode, players will have to capture points, destroy bots, or fight one-on-one.

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Onimusha: Warlords

Resident branch On the Samurai Way. Where is its remake?

After reading several games dedicated to the samurai theme, you begin to notice certain clichés. The plot always takes place in the era of feudal wars - the Sengoku period (XVI century), and historical events are closely intertwined with fantasy ones - not a single battle is complete without spirits and demons.

However, Onimusha: Warlords can be forgiven for this, because it is already almost 20 years old - its creators hardly looked back at Nioh or Sekiro. But for them, Resident Evil turned out to be a real role model. At the initial stages of development, the game was even conceived as a spin-off of this survival horror.

The influence of RE can be seen with the naked eye, but still Onimusha is not a direct clone of the zombie franchise. The game differed both in its setting and in its much lesser emphasis on “survival” mechanics. For example, with the help of a magic glove, the main character in it could suck the souls out of enemies, which is why fights began not to waste the user’s resources, but, on the contrary, made him stronger. If frankly outdated game design doesn’t scare you, the remaster released in 2019 is an excellent reason to get acquainted with the classics.

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Nioh

Life is suffering. The best loot will not help clumsy hands.

Nioh is the true embodiment of duality. The game intertwines seemingly completely opposite things in an incredible way. Its plot is dedicated to feudal Japan, but the main character is Irish. It is based on real events, among its characters you can find many historical figures - but at the same time it is a purebred fantasy. Even the foundation of the plot here consists of two parts at once: the script by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and the book by American writer James Clavell.

The game tells the story of William, an Irish sailor who went to Japan to return his guardian spirit. In a foreign country, he learned the art of samurai, encountered numerous demons from local folklore, and also took part in the formation of the Tokugawa shogunate.

From a gameplay point of view, Nioh is a classic souls-like action game - the battle is based on timely dodges and counterattacks, and after death the hero loses all unspent experience. A characteristic feature of the game are stances that affect the strength of blows and their speed, as well as an extensive Diablo-like loot system that allows you to slightly level out the complexity of battles with the help of new elements of equipment. In addition to samurai techniques, users can learn ninjutsu and onmyodo magic.

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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Life is still pain. And it will be as long as FromSoftware creates.

Unlike Nioh, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a direct successor to Dark Souls. Despite this, FromSoftware's latest game is much more different from the usual souls-likes. However, not so much as to attribute the creation of another genre to Hidetake Miyazaki.

In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, players take on the role of the Wolf - a shinobi by profession and the owner of a miraculous prosthesis by fate. The occupation allows the hero to move secretly around the level and eliminate enemies or even sneak past them. The prosthesis provides the Wolf with various gadgets and adds verticality to the gameplay - with the help of a grappling hook.

The main feature of Sekiro is the concentration scale, behind which a health bar is hidden. Concentration damage can be caused not only by a flurry of blows, but also by counterattacks and even well-timed blocks. Normal enemies and often the hero himself can be killed in one hit if they allow this gauge to empty: this mechanic forces players to act more carefully and not hide behind the block button, like in Dark Souls.

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