If you scroll through the PlayStation store under the VR offerings, you’ve probably noticed a peculiar lack of sword-based games. Outside of the obvious on-rails shooters and exploration based games, you’d think that fighting a VR opponent with a sword or the other tools of the ninja would be a given, but aside from Beat Sabre I have yet to see a lot of options. That is, until I was sent a code for Ninja Legends. 

As you probably picked up from the name, this is a ninja based game where you don their standard tools of death, as well as some supernaturally styled abilities like shooting a Hadouken in first person. It’s about what you’d expect from the current limitations of in-home VR – you play as a ninja where every other ninja is bad and you stand in a locked position as they surround and attack you in waves, only changed up by the occasional boss battle that plays out in the same fashion. The enemy ninjas run in, take their stance, attack/parry/block, and then you act accordingly. It’s not the most immersive experience, but it does provide some mindless, gory fun that helps work on your real-world blocking skills because who knows, the next civil war could be fought with swords and sticks as opposed to guns.

The title takes place across a staggering 18 levels (a lot for a VR title in my experience) via a story mode as well as an endless option and some smaller tutorial-like modes that are suited to improving your blocking and deflection techniques. On paper, this sounds like it’s a wealth of content, which if the game followed an on rails or exploratory structure, it would be – the difference here is you’re always stuck in the same spot, with your movement limited to turning around that same space. The varied environments only provide fresh backdrops with little going on aside from the enemies crawling out from doors, windows, and corners. The end result is something that is just slightly more realistic than Beat Sabre, without the flashing lights and catchy music. Even without the bright and shiny display, the game looks a bit dated when it comes to the backdrops and character models that honestly would’ve been right at home twenty years or so ago on Virtual Cop. The one saving grace here is the buckets and buckets of blood that spew from your slashes, arrows, and the like.

The combat itself is a mixed bag of greats and train wrecks – I really enjoyed the swordplay, especially when it came to dealing with the enemies up close, aside from when technical issues popped up. Usually, the VR world feels like you’re moving your arms around holding some plastic bobbles going through the motions, but when it comes to the swordplay here, it really feels like you’re swinging some deadly weapons at soft targets as the game recognizes how hard or fast you’re moving, and is one of the more responsive and accurate VR titles I’ve played… at least in melee mode. Even when using other primary weapons like the staff, it gave me the feeling of being Donatello facing off against The Foot Clan. Sadly, this does not transition to any of the ranged options – using the bow is extremely clunky. You’re trying to make the motion of attaching the arrow to the string with the PS Move wands, but the rubber balls on the end of the PS Moves end up hitting each other, making aiming a downright chore if you’re looking at a target directly to your front, and it’s downright impossible lining up a sideways shot. The same can be said for the energy ball, which should have been groundbreaking as my first chance to throw Ryu’s signature move via VR, but is a complete let down that usually results in you shooting said fireball to your left or right unless you twist the Move controller around in a weird position to line up the shot as if it’s shooting directly down at the players’ floor.

From a technical standpoint, the game is kind of rough as of this writing. I missed out on a large chunk of the story, as the audio prompts were completely missing outside of the tutorial for the first three levels of narrative. These audio drops, as well as the screen going black intermittently plagued my time throughout the game with either or both of the issues rearing their head in each and every level or mode I sampled. Additionally, I would like to mention for the trophy hunters out there that this game does not currently have any trophy support, which didn’t sway me from finishing the game nor impact my score, but I know some folks base their purchases on this.

Ninja Legends is both the best and worst ninja sim I have found on the PSVR system. It’s something that could be patched into a downright amazing and immersive experience, but currently misses the mark due to some repeated technical issues and a lack of proper ranged options.

6 out of 10

Pros

• Buckets of Gore
• Solid Sword/Staff-Play
• Fair Amount of Content

Cons

• Ranged Mechanics are Downright Awful
• Some Nagging Technical Issues

Ninja Legends was developed and published by Coinflip Studios. It is available on PC and PSVR. The game was provided to us for review on PSVR. If you’d like to see more of Ninja Legends, check out the developer’s site.

 

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