Hundreds of years ago, people faced a rather trivial scourge — an army of embittered demons who, for no particular reason, set out to wipe humanity off the face of the earth. Because of the bloodshed of the battle, which littered the earth with tens of thousands of bodies, even a sedate ocean rebelled. He stretched upwards, carefully covering the bodies of the dead, until only a miserable patch of land remained above him, surrounded on all sides by water. It was here that the remnants of humanity took refuge, defending the right to life at a colossal price.
According to the prophecy, one day the demons will return to finish what they started and rid the world of human race, but in the midst of the final battle, a hero will appear from the West with a scroll that can save humanity. Therefore, for many centuries, a ninja clan, which does not have even a couple of hundred members, has not left the very village that their grief-stricken ancestors founded. They hone their killing skills all day and night in order to one day fulfill their destiny.
Just a few minutes after the start of the game, demons crawl out of the underground holes, the last stronghold of humanity turns into burning ruins soaked in the sweet smell of smoldering flesh, and the main character prepares to die from the demon king himself. But at the last moment, a savior from the West appears, dispelling the hapless demons, handing the dumbfounded ninja a tattered scroll, points to the top of the mountain lurking on the opposite end of the island and dissolves into thin air.
“The Messenger” It is a linear 8-bit platformer in which, even at first, the main character is deadly: he kills most opponents with a single wave of katana, and overcomes deadly traps and gorges with the grace of a doe. Thanks to the abundance and insignificance of ordinary threats, the game is in constant motion, similar to the original “Ninja Gaiden” trilogy.
But despite the abundance of events, “The Messenger” is not confusing with its unnecessarily high level of complexity. It's exactly the opposite: she slowly and patiently introduces you to the gaming features, carefully increasing the complexity. Even the cornerstone mechanics, which are used to overcome most obstacles, manage to become more complex.
In essence, it is very similar to the spurts in the recent “Celeste”. The fact is that after making a jump, the main character can hit the elements of the environment, enemies or the projectiles they fire, after which he will be able to make a new jump. And so on ad infinitum. Although this opportunity seems simple in words, in practice it allows you to do amazing things in its ingenuity.
On his way to his cherished peak, the new Messenger runs into a suspicious portal leading to the shop of a mysterious merchant. From a short but extremely witty dialogue, it turns out that he intends to help the main character save the world, and not only with a scattering of valuable advice, but also with quite practical improvements. But to buy them, you'll have to hunt for local currency — fragments of time scattered in abundance around the world.
“The Messenger” is one of the few games with a truly useful and meaningful progression system. The upgrades that can be obtained from a merchant not only make the main character stronger, increasing his health or reducing the damage he takes, but also open up new opportunities for interacting with the world. In particular, one of the improvements allows you to dive underwater, while the other allows you to repel enemy projectiles. And this is not just an addition to basic mechanics, but their impressive development that deforms the gameplay.
Plus, the improvements lurking under the merchant's counter aren't the only things in the game. During his journey, the Messenger will meet a lot of characters and artifacts that will give him new abilities. If at first everything is limited to the ability to cling to walls, then later the main character will get a cat hook, a wingsuit and learn how to run on water. During the journey to the mountain, the game constantly evolves: it regularly introduces new mechanics and develops old ones, while increasing complexity.
In addition to its strong gameplay base, “The Messenger” has a clear storyline — not very intricate, but rather slender and fun. At least, it is more than enough to explain the characters' motivation and give meaning to what is happening.
So, at some point, the main character meets the little ball-shaped demon Quarble, who has a magic ring that allows you to control space and time, and with its help he is able to save the Messenger from death. But after each rescue, Quarble swallows a certain amount of time to pay for its own services. In addition to the fact that every appearance of the biliary demon is accompanied by a funny monologue, his presence eloquently explains one of the game's cornerstone mechanics.
But Quarble isn't the only witty character — the merchant is also the root cause of a lot of funny scenes. Almost every meeting with him is crowned with a sweeping dialogue or monologue, at least a third of which consists of excellent humor. He constantly mocks the Messenger, draws him into non-trivial arguments and appropriately breaks the fourth wall, ridiculing the usual nuances of video games.
As a result, an 8-bit journey to the cherished peak, which takes about five to six hours, turns out to be as self-sufficient and extremely intense as possible. And when the Messenger does his duty and the final credits prepare to run onto the stage, it turns out that the pilgrimage that came to an end was only the first half of the game.
After a beautifully played plot twist, “The Messenger” makes the final breakthrough in systematically complicating its own concept, and the main character is transported 500 years ahead, straight to the 16-bit era. First of all, the appearance of the game changes dramatically — the already pleasant picture gains additional depth and detail. And then music evolves.
But that's not all — it soon turns out that all this time, the main character was fluttering not a mysterious scroll with illegible letters, but a map of the island that he didn't even bother to look into. As a result, the linear structure of the first half of the game gives way to an open world of impressive dimensions.
Unfortunately, the rejection of compactness does not benefit “The Messenger”. As soon as the main character breaks out into the open world, the flow of new content ends. Quarble's speeches begin to be repeated, the merchant stops telling new stories, boss fights become rare, and game mechanics refuse to evolve. In addition, progressing through the story requires visiting familiar locations, and collecting pieces of time makes no sense, since really important improvements are obtained before the scroll is opened. As a result, in contrast to the first half, the second half seems less fun and more routine.
The only activity that can somehow justify an open world is to find seals of power that can be used to open a mysterious chest in a merchant's shop. These seals are located in secret locations scattered around the world, and you'll have to work hard to get them. However, they are far from the berries from “Celeste”. But the most annoying thing is that collecting all the seals is not rewarded with anything worthwhile.
However, one simple thing should not be overlooked: when the game world changes shape, “The Messenger” does not turn into a bad game and does not lose its former charm. It just stops doing the impossible and stops expanding the number of gaming features and content exponentially. But the rich gameplay, the unique variety of the game world and the fascinating story do not disappear.
Despite the slightly oiled second half, “The Messenger” is a large-scale and versatile adventure in which history, along with strong gameplay mechanics, plays a truly important role, the wit of the characters can be pretty entertaining, and the mixture of 8- and 16-bit styles has no worthy analogues at all. In other words, “Ninja Gaiden” has never been so good.
