Path of Shadow Dancer - Final v1.12

[realnabarl]

I find most bonus stages are just trouble maker, this loses its point IMO.

Another problem is the first scene of the alternative path, there is a car event + sevaral repeat bikers assignment, this would cause top line bug with a high probability.

Yet another problem, is stage 2 factory outdoor? I can use helicopter there...

[BigDarsh]

just one thing: what would be a mod without a maze?
first playthrough stuck and died in a maze lol

other than that, huge work. Beautiful mod, battle design is ok (if you like ring out, grenade/bike explosion trap, gang train etc), enemy placement is good. I will make a review if I manage to get out of that maze

[Don Vecta]

HOLY SHIT! This is what happens when your internet gets fucked in the last minute by some random DNS bullshit that leaves your connection rendered useless and have to use the office's internet.

Downloading as we speak. Slow as hell, hope it's done after finish my work today.

[Iceweb38]

Another thing that I liked is, even though it's nice to have mods recreating games (such as the Final Fight and Turtles ones), I was happy to see that you didn't just do that with the Shinobi games. This is, by all accounts, a new game, that uses stages from the original, but renewed for a new experience. I dare say it's almost "Shinobi Remake".

And this is exactly what I was aiming to. Enjoyed reading your review and thanks for the kind words ^^

Rudra is perfect for this mod. I rarely use her but I'm considering a change of heart.

Well I have an idea for her that you should be able to see if you can unlock the extra folder

I find most bonus stages are just trouble maker, this loses its point IMO.

Another problem is the first scene of the alternative path, there is a car event + sevaral repeat bikers assignment, this would cause top line bug with a high probability.

Yet another problem, is stage 2 factory outdoor? I can use helicopter there...

Yeah, I really tried to make the bonus stages the less troublemaker possible and that's why I put chickens in most of them. It really depends on how you play them I suppose, though the first time you may naturally not do well in those. Try to redo them later and see if you can get better ^^

Regarding the highway stage, I betatested it like many dozen of times and so far, I never got a bug with that event. I hope it wasn't because of my luck.

Also, another stage in which you can call the police?! Guess a new patch is in order...

[smashfreak]

I always wondered how would shinobi background sprites look like on sormaker, I can't wait to play this.

[DEIA GAMES]

I congratulate you, my dear friend on the wonderful taste in your game design beautiful and wonderful .

[Iceweb38]

Why thank you very much

[Don Vecta]

Okay, got the file and the first patch. Will put this on my USB and try it at home. Tomorrow when I return to the office I'll do my feedback.

Rest fucking assured I was looking for this babe. And must play tonight.

[Iceweb38]

I had no doubt about it, looking forward to read your review.

[Largamon]

I tried this today. I thought the mod was decent, and I agree positively with what LucasHB wrote earlier:

LucasHB wrote:
This is, by all accounts, a new game, that uses stages from the original, but renewed for a new experience. I dare say it's almost "Shinobi Remake".

However, the maze section really turned me off. It was way too long and frustrating beyond belief. I don't think I'll be trying this again because of it.

Sorry Ice, I knew you worked long time with your mod, but I can't honestly give any higher accolade than this.

[realnabarl]

Yeah, I really tried to make the bonus stages the less troublemaker possible and that's why I put chickens in most of them. It really depends on how you play them I suppose, though the first time you may naturally not do well in those. Try to redo them later and see if you can get better ^^

I was thinking if we could get more score there, that would be better. Now it was available for the elevator stage only IMO.

[Iceweb38]

I tried this today. I thought the mod was decent, and I agree positively with what LucasHB wrote earlier:

LucasHB wrote:
This is, by all accounts, a new game, that uses stages from the original, but renewed for a new experience. I dare say it's almost "Shinobi Remake".

However, the maze section really turned me off. It was way too long and frustrating beyond belief. I don't think I'll be trying this again because of it.

Sorry Ice, I knew you worked long time with your mod, but I can't honestly give any higher accolade than this.

It's ok, you may see a guideline for the maze later. ^^

I was thinking if we could get more score there, that would be better.

Well, you can get a lot of points in the last bonus stages and a lil more than 10000 points in the first one if you do well. I didn't want them to give too much.

[realnabarl]

I found and unlocked the extra folder, thank you Ice

I will download the patch too.

Wow you have unlocked that?
There're many dialogues in the game so I didn't check them carefully. But I saw there is a dialogue with "- Don't move too far or you will stop the conversation -" in the last stage, I think this must be important and would have some secret in it, but I was fail to guess things from that.

[Iceweb38]

Nope, has nothing to do with the conversation ^^

[Benny26]

So yeah, played this today, and i must say not bad. I did find a few little niggles here and there (spoiler tag below), and some annoying problems, but overall it turned out quite well done in places.

The graphics were great i thought (in fact, the best part of the mod). It was always as though every scene you made had so many layers which obviously just means quality all round. My favorite scene (not for any big reason) has got to be the underground train with the little flies around the lights, such a good scene with the layers the train and what not. Most of your other scenes were just so good i don't need to mention them i don't think.

Music i thought was so-so. It may be fine and good in Shinobi itself, but i thought it was a little 'reserved' when it came to a beat'em-up. I also thought the music was a little quieter than it should have been, so maybe that's why i didn't really notice it that much to have a big impact on the mod as a whole.

The enemy placement i thought was the second-best thing in the mod. The placement in variety terms was right on the spot i thought, although there was the difficulty aspect....I didn't think it matched up right. I was playing on Hard and the difficulty on enemies alone was a tad high for me, but not really that high.......BUT THEN throw a deadly maze into the mix and scenes with potential life-sinks in the mix and oh boy, your mod is seriously hard for the difficulty IMO. I failed twice to make it through (1st time not my fault, see spoiler below). I also lost loads of lives in the "platform" scene, although I'm not complaining about this as it's a great scene.

The maze i thought was really well put together...in fact TOO well put together, I failed to escape it without looking at the path in Maker (I have a damn good reason why though in the spoiler below). To be honest, I like a maze stage, I really do, but yours is just too complex with too many punishments. I could definitely understand a rage-quit in that thing

The bonus levels were mixed for me. The clown one was great, but the seeker one i didn't like: All i got from this "Bonus" level was -1 life and a lost blitz. I can understand the bonus thing being about points, but hell, you get enough points kicking ass in the main story, so i don't really class that as a bonus. Bike bonus was good though, and i actually did well with that launcher.

The story:.....Ah, well...The cut-scene script speed was way faster than i was expecting to read it. 2.7 seconds per box just wasn't enough for me. 3.5 - 4.0 seconds (210-240 frames) is best IMO. I did though read the story back through the script files and liked it's simpleness to be honest. It worked very well, but just was delivered a little fast and shallow; Shallow meaning that you can spend ages going round in the maze and actually forget what it's all about, and having that many bonus levels can make the story shallow also.

Pros:

Graphics and scenes: Just awesome with so much quality in them.
Enemy Placement: Great use of the mooks and enemies, didn't feel random.
Story: Nice and simple, works well.
Music: Even though i said i thought it was so-so, I'll say "pro" because it is a Shinobi tribute and thus you couldn't have really used anything else.
Some bonus levels....are very clever.

Cons:

The maze: Too complex for my liking I'm afraid. The maze itself was very well done, just too well like I've said. If this was a little simpler it would have been great.
Script speed: Too fast at present for me.
Difficulty: Again, It's the maze's fault. The EP is a tad harder than expected but boy it shoots up with the maze involved.
Seeker "Bonus": Just not a bonus IMO.

Bugs and niggles:

Spoiler: show

1b Layer 9 needs setting to -240.

2a extro can be spoiled easy (My Max just exited through the fence). Change to Instant?

The water in the little pit in 2b overlaps the floor. Can be fixed with a little floor layer placement, although you have no more layer space and none of the existing ones share a descent z-axis I think.

The vertical wall/partition near the steel plungers in 2b could do with the C-map extending out a little due to a large overhang with the char (I was using Max)

Layer 5 in 2d can be got behind and made to look a little strange. C-map adjustment to stop this?

Music track 10 seems to skip on the loop

No special in stages that clearly are suitable (is this deliberate?)

Game-breaker/(-1 life): 3c Ninja was stuck in the crouched position over the pit in between the train cars. Looked at the level in Maker and looks fine, may have been random. The cause looks like when Ninjas are jumping around and falling in pits they might sometimes get bugged and stick. Killed myself to un-stick him.

C-map needs extending a little around the Container boxes in 4a (Char overhang)

No need for alternate route icon to scene 7 in 6f, scene 5 in 6o, and scene 13 in 8l.

In 6g, the middle door is the correct one. However, enemies drop just before it and infront of it in the "standing" position, and because there's no camera lock here, or alternate route activated when enemies are on screen you can fight past this door not ever knowing it was there, which happened to me which kinda gave me bad rage...I got killed and had a look in Maker at where i went wrong and then i found out why. I'd suggest adding a camera lock here to be fair.

Basically a Game-breaker: In 6h, the correct route cannot be accessed because there are enemies activated further down the screen preventing the alternate route. What makes this worse than a Game-breaker is that a person wouldn't notice it is a game-breaker until after they had been round in circles a few times. You can activate the enemies and bring them back to the door and then beat them, but damn that's complex thinking and I'd still call this a game-breaker for some people.

7c layer 3 needs changing to -240.

The last little platform in 7b is bugged, C-map needs to be looked at again here.

All in all, this is a fantastic showcase for a mod with the graphics and enemies, but it just needs some tweaking on other things at present. If you tweaked it, it would be a hell-of-a-lot better. So well done Ice! quality mod you have, and i really enjoyed playing it through bud

....Also, I never found the password in the game, although i did find it by accident elsewhere. Liked the "extra" snack