Kunoichi are an elusive character archetype. History claims that it's not likely they existed in the first place, but the idea is still fascinating. Seeing there was a game about kunoichi (plus one other factor that I'll get into later), I wanted to give it a shot. There's also the fact that 3D ninja stealth games just don't seem to exist, outside of Tenchu and a few other series.

The story barely registered with me. All I remember is Kurenai and her friend Akemi (the only other character I immediately remember by name). I also remember the emperor's servant because he's voiced by Richard Horvitz (Invader Zim, I recognized his inflection immediately). The other notable character I found when looking up kunoichi junk was Chiyome, Kurenai's caretaker/master, who is vaguely based off of her nonfictional incarnation that lead her own group of kunoichi in service of her master (read more here!).

The camera was the most constant kick in the dick for this game. It's sluggish, inverted with no way to change it, gets stuck on literally everything in the game's more cramped environments, and I can safely say it's one of the worst 3D cameras I've ever used. It's also frequently looking up Kurenai's dress, staring at her low-quality texture panties. I'm sure most people will scoff at this inclusion, but panties have never stopped me from playing a game before.

Kurenai controls fairly stiff, but has some neat movement options at her disposal. I highly recommend you play the game's tutorial, not just because it teaches you these basic concepts, but it does so in a risk-free environment (something that I quickly realized I had taken for granted later in the game). Her more notable moves are a wall jump (self-explanatory), a wall run, and the ability to use her Tetsugen as a grappling hook. Wall running is finicky as all heck. Kurenai builds up speed as she runs at an unclear rate, and that speed transfers directly to wall running time when you either run up to or jump towards a wall. While on the wall, it's frequently unclear how much time you have to run on a wall before you either jump off (very large distance coverage) or unceremoniously drop off. I think running higher up kills your momentum sooner, but that's the only part I could figure out. With a bit of practice though, it feels pretty good to use. Grappling around is probably not as fluid as you imagine it being (or maybe it is, I don't know what you expect out of this game). Aside from grappling targets usually being more environmental and somewhat difficult to keep track of, your momentum doesn't really transfer when jumping between points, you have to start building it by swinging back and forth again. You also can't turn the camera (and the direction you're facing) without coming to a dead stop and building up your swinging momentum again.

The level design is both complimented and hindered by Kurenai's movement abilities. While fairly linear, most levels let you take a few different approaches to reach your next destination, which is always welcome. The checkpoints, while invisible, are fairly generous. If the game wants you to do some wall runs or grapple jumps over pits, there'll usually be a checkpoint before/after that section. The game also has handy unintrusive markings on surfaces, leading you in the right direction if you get lost. The stages actually have worthwhile secrets hidden about, like health/magic meter upgrades, and a few missable items. I will admit that there will be choke points that will probably make or break people who decide to play this though. Particularly, one room has you do a big long platforming challenge around a buddha statue, with your goal being to work towards it at the center of the room. If you mess up a jump (or more accurately, the game's innacurate controls fail you), you'll be starting from square one.

Kurenai's unique claim to fame is using the blade+wire she was hung by and nearly killed with as a weapon, the "Tetsugen". For such a simple concept, the game gets a surprising amount of mileage out of it. At close range, it's your basic melee attack combo. At a distance, you can throw it at a targeted enemy, and then yank it out to deal damage. While throwing the tetsugen, tilting the left analog stick up or down will aim for an enemy's head or legs respectively. This matters more for contextual parts of boss fights, but on standard enemies, it can lead to a variety of death animations. Another quality of the tetsugen is that its wire deals damage too. If you get into a fight with a group of enemies, you can throw the tetsugen at a guy in the back, and then lead the wire around the rest of the crowd. About halfway through the game, you get an alternate version of the weapon, called the "fundo". The wire on this one only stuns enemies, and deals fairly low damage as a melee weapon. This weapon's specialty is tieing people up, and yanking them around when they're knocked down. You can do things like yank unsuspecting enemies into hazards between you and them, like water or pits. You could also choose the extremely morbid (but admittedly very cool) tactic of hiding on a beam above the enemy, throwing the fundo around his neck, and then jumping off the beam, opposite to him, effectively hanging him. Yeah, it's incredibly grim, but I also can't think of another game that lets you manually perform something that raw.

This game is definitely no better than a 2.5/5, and I'd guess that most people would rate it lower. However, I can't lie when I say that I legitimately had fun for most of my playthrough. Perhaps I'm just accustomed to jank, but I personally find it difficult to punch down on a product that clearly had thought and passion put into it. If you decide to play this game, I highly recommend you play it on Easy difficulty. While it may make boss fights fairly underwhelming, Normal and Hard difficulty lean so far in the other direction that the game stops being fun in any regard. Feel free to consult GameFAQs if you're stuck as well, there's some shit that this game just doesn't explain to you (or just ask here in the comments, I'm listening).