Mark of the Ninja

🗃️ Specifications

📰 Title:	Mark of the Ninja	🕹️ / 🛠️ Type:	Game
🗃️ Genre:	Strategy	👁️ Visual:	2D Scrolling
🏷️ Category:	Strategy ➤ Stealth, Escape, Hiding	🏝️ Perspective:	Side view
🔖 Tags:	Stealth; Strategy; Ninja; Assassin; Puzzle; Action; Platformer; Adventure; Atmospheric; Short; Replay Value; Cartoon; Casual; Dark; Story Rich	⏱️ Pacing:	Real Time
🐣️ Approx. start:		👫️ Played:	Single
🐓️ Latest:		🚦 Status:	04. Released (status)
📍️ Version:	Latest: -	❤️ Like it:	9. ⏳️
🏛️ License type:	💰 Commercial	🎀️ Quality:	7. ⏳️
🏛️ License:	Commercial	✨️ (temporary):
🐛️ Created:	2014-11-03	🐜️ Updated:	2024-06-22

🚦 Entry status

📰 What's new?:		👻️ Temporary:
💡 Lights on:		🎨️ Significant improvement:
👔️ Already shown:		💭️ New version published (to be updated):
🎖️ This work:		🚧️ Some work remains to be done:
👫️ Contrib.:	goupildb & Louis	🦺️ Work in progress:
🎰️ ID:	14465

📖️ Summary

📜️[en]:	A stealth ninja game. Observe… your enemies from the darkness, and use your agility to gain the high ground. Plan your line of action, and execute it before they discover you. Manipulate… You foes with simple yet versatile tools. Blow out lights with a bamboo dart, create a diversion with a child’s firecracker, and kill your prey with a deadly trap. Experience… The tension and thril of being a ninja — powerful but fragile, quick but deliberate.	📜️[fr]:	Un jeu d'action et surtout de dissimulation et d'assassinat dans lequel le joueur incarne un ninja rapide et agile, dans un environnement urbain, planifiant ses actions en veillant constamment à rester discret (à la fois d'un point de vue visuel et sonore) pour atteindre ses objectifs. Il devra souvent distraire l'ennemi en utilisant les objets qu'il trouve en chemin, sans pour autant forcément l'éliminer, s'il ne constitue pas l'objectif.

🎥️ Videos

🎲️ Gameplay: (202xxx♺), (202xxx♺), [fr](202xxx♺),

📕 Description [en]

📜️ "blabla" 📜️

A stealth ninja game by Klei Entertainment.

Observe… your enemies from the darkness, and use your agility to gain the high ground. Plan your line of action, and execute it before they discover you.

Manipulate… You foes with simple yet versatile tools. Blow out lights with a bamboo dart, create a diversion with a child’s firecracker, and kill your prey with a deadly trap.

Experience… The tension and thril of being a ninja — powerful but fragile, quick but deliberate.

Steam:

In Mark of the Ninja, you'll know what it is to truly be a ninja. You must be silent, agile and clever to outwit your opponents in a world of gorgeous scenery and flowing animation. Marked with cursed tattoos giving you heightened senses, every situation presents you with options. Will you be an unknown, invisible ghost, or a brutal, silent assassin?
Upgrade new tools and techniques that suit your playstyle and complete optional objectives to unlock entirely new ways to approach the game. Finish the main story to unlock a New Game Plus mode with even more options and challenges.

🌍️ Wikipedia:

Mark of the Ninja is a side-scrolling action stealth video game developed by Klei Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios. It was announced on February 28, 2012 and later released for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade on September 7, 2012. A Microsoft Windows version was released on October 16, 2012, later released for Linux and OS X on September 11, 2013. It follows the story of a nameless ninja in the present day, and features a themed conflict between ancient ninja tradition and modern technology. Cutscenes for the game are rendered in Saturday morning cartoon animation style.

The game received critical acclaim from reviewers. Aggregate scores for the game hold in the 90% range at website Metacritic, and it received four perfect scores from media outlets. Reviewers praised the game's visual and audio atmosphere, strong gameplay and new take on the stealth video game genre, criticizing minor gameplay frustrations surrounding the control scheme and difficult puzzles.

Gameplay

Mark of the Ninja consists of stealth-oriented 2D platforming. The character is required to sneak through a series of environments while staying out of sight of guards and performing silent assassinations. Levels are divided into areas of light and darkness; the player character is visible to enemies in the former and invisible in the latter, though passing within a certain immediate distance of an enemy's face results in the player being spotted irrespective of lighting. Sounds such as running may also give away the player character's location and are represented visually by a rapidly expanding circle. Unusual for a platformer, Mark of the Ninja employs a line of sight mechanic, meaning that enemies which would be invisible to the character are also invisible to the player, though their sounds are represented on screen in the same manner as the player character's.

By approaching enemies undetected, the player character is able to execute a "one-hit" kill. To facilitate this, the player can extinguish light sources, hide behind objects and pass through narrow grates and shafts inaccessible to enemies. If detected, they must evade their enemies and remain out of sight for a set period of time, after which enemies will return to their original patrol routes and one-hit kills on them will once more be possible. Although fighting hand-to-hand with the goal of quickly disabling an enemy is possible, doing so risks being killed or disabled in turn, as well as alerting nearby enemies with a noisy scuffle. Enemies respond to their environment and one another; they will sound an alarm if they unambiguously spot the player character or find a body, which will alert all enemies in the area and prevent them from returning to their previous patrol routes. If they hear a sound or get a glimpse of the player character they become suspicious, displaying a question mark over their head and actively searching for the player character until they are convinced he is not actually present. They are also subject to terror tactics, and the player can learn to kill and display enemies in a terrifying manner, such as leaving a strangled enemy dangling from a perch or throwing a dead body at an unsuspecting live enemy, causing them to display an exclamation mark over their head, scream, stumble, and fire wildly at anything which scares or startles them.

The player receives points for executing a variety of tactics such as silent kills, passing by enemies without being detected, successfully preventing the discovery of bodies, terrorizing opponents to cause them to fall into disarray, and achieving optional goals such as recovering artifacts and a series of haiku which tell the history of the ninja clan. This score is reduced when an alert is sounded by enemy guards. Depending on the player's performance on the stages, they earn honor and complete seals that are used to buy or upgrade skills and weapons and also unlock alternate costumes. Players get honor by reaching a specific score on each stage, collecting the secret scrolls, and completing the special objectives present in each stage. Some of the scrolls are obtained through secret challenges, where the player is transported to a room to solve a puzzle.

Before each mission the player is taken to an upgrade screen, where they can spend their honor in three sections: Techniques (passive upgrades and skills such as new one-hit executions), Distraction Items (such as smoke bombs and firecrackers) and Attack Items (such as caltrops and poison-tipped darts). The next screen allows the player to select any unlocked costumes and equip items. Each costume (except the starting one) gives special bonuses, but also a side effect in order to balance its power, and must be unlocked by completing a number of seals in the form of optional goals related to the specialty of that costume (for instance, optionally terrorizing enemies in specific ways to unlock a costume which improves the ability to terrorize). Completing the game once unlocks a New Game Plus mode where the enemies behave more intelligently and can kill the player with only a single bullet or hand-to-hand strike, the player's line of sight is limited to a cone aimed in whatever direction the player is facing (preventing players from seeing what is behind, above, or below them unless they turn to look), the player is unable to see the enemy's line of sight and must intuit it from the direction an enemy's face is pointed, and the player can no longer detect the radius at which their actions will be heard by enemies.

Plot

The game's story begins with an attack by a heavily armed force on the dojo of the Hisomu ninja clan. The unnamed ninja protagonist, resting after receiving an extensive irezumi tattoo, is awakened by a female ninja named Ora. Gathering his equipment, the protagonist is able to defeat the attackers and rescue his sensei, Azai, as well as several other members of the clan. Before being rescued by the protagonist, Azai was being blamed by the attackers, who said "you picked the wrong people to steal from". However, Azai simply claimed that the clan has been hidden from the modern world for centuries until now, when "their enemies finally found them". Azai tells him about the power of his tattoo and the legend surrounding it, explaining that the ink comes from a special desert flower and grants greatly sharpened senses and reflexes when absorbed slowly into the body, but will ultimately cause one so tattooed with it to descend into madness. In the distant past, the first Hisomu ninja to receive the Mark became incredibly dangerous, but increasingly deranged, leading to a lengthy reign of terror that only ended with his demise. Therefore, to receive the Mark, a ninja swears to commit seppuku once the madness begins to take hold.

After the protagonist receives his second tattoo, he and Ora are tasked to take revenge on the PMCs responsible for the attack on the dojo: a corporation called Hessian, run by a ruthless Eastern European plutocrat named Count Karajan. Meanwhile, the horishi artist Dosan expresses concern over the tattoo ink's quality and promises to learn why Azai has not procured a fresh supply. The protagonist invades Hessian's East Asian regional headquarters and murders Corporal Kelly, the Hessian employee who lead the attack on the dojo, and, using a stolen GPS tracking unit, stalks Karajan to his castle in Eastern Europe and slays him. Upon returning home, the protagonist and Ora see that their clan has stolen a great deal of high tech military equipment from Hessian, leaving them to realize that Azai's plan had been to rob Karajan and replace the old Hisomu Path with a modern, technological approach to espionage. Instead of committing seppuku, the protagonist flees with Ora to find Dosan, who had left a message indicating that he had personally gone in search of the mysterious desert flower.

Following his trail, the protagonist and Ora discover that Dosan has been captured by bandits, who are holding him hostage in a war-wracked Middle Eastern city and demanding that he Mark them with his remaining supply of the sumi ink. Upon being freed, Dosan explains that the flowers from whose leaves the sumi is produced have died out, and appear to have been dead at least since the last fresh supply of the ink was taken by the Hisomu clan. As revealed by hidden scrolls recounting the history of the clan, Azai himself had failed to defend the flowers when the devastated region to which they were endemic was taken over by vicious bandits. Thus dishonored, but for the sake of the clan's survival, Azai hid his failure and had planned the Hessian heist in order to supply the Hisomu with cutting-edge equipment now that the unique source of their strength had been extinguished. Finally, he ordered that the last of the sumi ink be used to Mark one final ninja, whose strength would enable the heist and save the clan itself from extinction at Hessian's hands. Dosan uses the remains of the sumi to give the protagonist his final tattoo, shortly before some of Azai's high tech ninja stalkers ambush them and shoot Dosan to death as he and the protagonist attempt to escape.

Having left his equipment behind during the hasty retreat, the protagonist, now obviously hallucinating, uses the almost superhuman reflexes afforded to him by the final Mark to evade death at the hands of both the bandits and the Hisomu stalkers, and travels back to Japan with Ora, who recommends he kill Azai for the dishonor of failing to maintain the traditional Hisomu way. The protagonist uses his almost preternatural abilities to infiltrate past Hisomu-jo's new sophisticated defenses, and confronts Azai in his garden. When Ora arrives and commands the protagonist to slay Azai, Azai claims to be unable to see Ora, and, suggesting that she is a symptom of the protagonist's creeping madness, insists that he satisfy his honor and kill himself before he slips too far beyond reason. Suddenly uncertain, the protagonist is reassured by Ora that Azai is lying to deceive him, and she urges him to murder Azai and purge the dishonorable Hisomu clan who followed him. Upon retrieving the ritual sword, the protagonist experiences a brief psychotic fugue state, in which he symbolically relives the events of his life subsequent to taking on the Mark. He finds himself in a courtyard opposite both Ora and Azai, who kneels and places his own sheathed sword on the ground, awaiting the protagonist's choice.

If the player chooses to kill Azai another psychotic episode follows, in which the protagonist murders his sensei and becomes the maniacal Hisomu tyrant of legend, melting silently into darkness with a swift strike of his sword. If the player chooses to kill Ora, the protagonist disembowels himself with the ritual sword and Ora dissolves into inky nothingness as the Marked ninja sputters his last breath and dies in the courtyard.

📕 Description [fr]

Un jeu de furtivité et d'assassinat dans lequel le joueur incarne un ninja, par le studio Klei entertainment, portage Linux par le studio Alternative Games.

Mark of the Ninja est un jeu d'action et surtout de dissimulation et d'assassinat dans lequel le joueur incarne un ninja rapide et agile, dans un environnement urbain, planifiant ses actions en veillant constamment à rester discret (à la fois d'un point de vue visuel et sonore) pour atteindre ses objectifs. Il devra souvent distraire l'ennemi en utilisant les objets qu'il trouve en chemin, sans pour autant forcément l'éliminer, s'il ne constitue pas l'objectif.

Un jeu de dissimulation.
Observez vos ennemis ... depuis l'obscurité, et mettez à profit votre agilité pour gagner les hauteurs.
Planifiez votre ligne d'action, et exécutez-les avant qu'ils ne vous découvrent.

Manipulez ... Vos ennemis avec des outils simple mais polyvalents.
Projetez le feu avec une fléchette de bambou, créez une diversion avec le pétard d'un enfant, et éliminez votre proie avec un piège mortel.

Expérimentez ... la tension et l'effroi d'être un ninja - puissant mais fragile, rapide mais délibéré.

🌍️ Wikipedia:

Mark of the Ninja (littéralement « La Marque du ninja ») est un jeu vidéo d'action et d'infiltration en deux dimensions développé par Klei Entertainment et édité par Microsoft Studios. L'action se déroule durant l'époque contemporaine. Le jeu est disponible sur PC et Xbox 360. Il est sorti sur Steam le 16 octobre 2012. Ce jeu a été très apprécié par le public et par les sites de critique, recevant par exemple une note de 91 % sur Metacritic. Un DLC nommé « Special Edition » est sorti le 16 aout 2013. Il ajoute un niveau préquel, 2 nouveaux objets, 1 nouvelle tenue ainsi que des commentaires des développeurs apparaissant sous la forme de phylactères disséminés dans tous les niveaux.

Scénario et univers

Mark of the Ninja place le joueur dans la peau d'un ninja utilisant des armes traditionnelles (sabres, kunaïs, bombes fumigènes, pièges...). Au début du jeu, il se réveille au son de la cloche du monastère ninja secret auquel il appartient. Une sœur d'arme le guide vers l'extérieur et il comprend que le monastère est attaqué par des hommes en tenue militaire équipés d'armes à feu, il découvre le sonneur de cloche se faisant abattre sans sommations. La ninja précédemment rencontrée lui apprend les bases du combat et de la discrétion puis lui montre comment éliminer les premiers ennemis. Il délivre quelques-uns de ses frères ninjas et abat un premier « chef ».

Plus tard, les assaillants se sont repliés, le ninja écoute le discours de son chef de clan et comprend alors qu'il a consenti à un grand sacrifice : il va se faire tatouer petit à petit une marque (la marque du ninja). Elle lui permet d'augmenter ses capacités guerrières et de s'octroyer des capacités surnaturelles afin de combattre l'organisation qui a attaqué le monastère. Mais le prix à payer est élevé : la marque va le ronger peu à peu, jusqu'à le rendre totalement fou. La tradition ninja veut qu'un homme se suicide avant d'atteindre ce point de rupture.

Tout au long de l'aventure, il poursuit le chef de cette organisation, qui parvient toujours à s’enfuir peu de temps avant que le ninja ne puisse l'atteindre. Parallèlement, le tatoueur du clan continue d'octroyer au héros la marque du ninja, obtenant peu à peu de nouvelles capacités, telles que la rapidité augmentée et la capacité de ralentir le temps durant quelques secondes.

Finalement, après avoir éliminé le chef de l’organisation, le ninja fait de moins en moins de différences entre ses hallucinations et la réalité. Durant la scène finale, il comprend que la ninja qui l'aide depuis le début de son aventure n'est autre que lui-même. Vient alors le choix entre éliminer cette dernière et éliminer le chef de son clan qui s'offre à son jugement.

• S'il choisit de tuer la ninja, il se suicide en gardant son honneur et en laissant l'image d'un héros.
• S'il choisit de tuer le chef de son clan, la cinématique finale fait comprendre que le héros est définitivement devenu fou, devenant un guerrier sanguinaire.

Système de jeu

Lorsqu'il est furtif et qu'il n'a pas été repéré par des gardes, le héros peut exécuter des assassinats silencieux grâce à des QTE (actions contextuelles). Le héros est en partie très vulnérable : une fois repéré il meurt en quelques tirs ennemis (en mode expert une balle suffit). Il est toutefois possible d'étourdir les ennemis en attaquant avec ses poings.

Furtivité

La furtivité est une facette dominante dans le gameplay du jeu : lorsque le personnage est repéré par des gardes ou par des chiens, ces derniers sont beaucoup plus vigilants1 et commencent à inspecter les différents recoins de la pièce ou du bâtiment dans lequel ils se trouvent. Au bout d'une quinzaine de secondes sans être à nouveau repéré, les gardes reprennent leur ronde habituelle. Si le ninja se fait repérer par un groupe gardes, il est préférable pour lui de s'enfuir le plus rapidement possible et se cacher dans une trappe ou grimper sur un mur : se placer dans une cachette de l'environnement (jarre, caisse…) n'empêche pas les gardes de l'en extirper.
En mode facile les bruits causés en courant ou en brisant des éléments du décor sont représentés par des « ondes de choc » blanches partant de l'origine du son jusqu'aux limites où le son est audible. En mode expert les bruits provoqués ne sont pas indiqués : il faut faire preuve de plus de prudence, ou très bien connaitre la portée des sons. En utilisant la voie du silence, le ninja ne fait plus de bruit lorsqu'il court.
Voies

En réalisant des « succès » ou en progressant dans l’aventure, le joueur débloque des voies. Ces voies correspondent aux différentes tenues portées par le héros ainsi qu'aux capacités spéciales qu'il sera amené à posséder, ou encore à l'équipement qu'il aura emporté tout au long du jeu. Il existe six voies différentes, chacune correspondant plus ou moins à une façon de jouer différente.

• La voie du Ninja : C'est la voie utilisée au début du jeu. Elle correspond à la tenue standard et permet d’utiliser toutes les capacités de base du ninja.
• La voie de la Marque : C'est une voie qui offre la capacité spéciale de téléportation, mais qui en contrepartie empêche l'utilisation d'un objet de distraction.
• La voie de la Puissance : Cette voie octroie un bonus des points de vie grâce à un blindage supplémentaire. Elle permet de faire chuter les ennemis au sol plus facilement mais empêche de ralentir le temps avec la capacité « concentration ». Cette voie plus offensive permet de combattre plus souvent frontalement les ennemis. Toutefois le blindage supplémentaire n'offre pas une résistance accrue face aux balles de fusil en mode expert.
• La voie du Chasseur : Cette voie propose d’exécuter des mises à mort plus rapidement car l'action contextuelle (ou QTE) lors du « killmove » (cinématique lorsqu'un ennemi est exécuté par derrière) disparait. Il est en outre possible de porter un objet d'attaque supplémentaire.
• La voie du Silence : C'est une des voies les plus techniques. Avec cette voie il est possible de ne faire aucun bruit en courant, et de transporter deux objets de distraction. Il n'est en contrepartie plus possible d'assassiner les ennemis. C'est aussi la voie qui permettra de faire les scores les plus élevés si le ninja n'est pas repéré, et aucun ennemi tué.
• La voie du Cauchemar : La voie du cauchemar permet de terrifier les gardes proches d'un garde qui vient d'être tué. Les ennemis terrifiés tirent dans tous les sens, même s'ils n'ont à aucun moment repéré le ninja. Cette voie interdit l'usage d'un objet de distraction.