Shadow Ninja: Ink Roguelike

Do not dodge. Graze.

Shadow Ninja is a one-handed ink art roguelike. This is not a ninja game about avoiding blades — it is an action game about passing as close to them as you dare.

■ The closer you cut it, the stronger you get
The nearer a blade passes to your heart, the faster your score multiplier and ink gauge fill. Back away in fear and the gauge stalls while the stage accelerates, and you die with nothing. The only way to survive this dodge-based action game is to dance right in front of death. It rewards the player who grazes narrowly, not the one who dodges safely.

■ Ink Overdrive
Fill the ink gauge and the screen slows while points pour in at double rate — brief and intoxicating. Choosing when to trigger it decides the ceiling of a roguelike run.

■ Bank it, or bet it
Every gate presents a choice. Cash out the score you have collected, or wager all of it and descend into a deeper, more dangerous stage. Die and everything not yet banked disappears. That single decision creates the tension of an entire run.

■ A three-card skill draft
At each gate you pick one of three techniques and build your own combination. Assassin widens the graze window, Blunt Blade slows blades and doubles score, Greedy Ink ramps the multiplier faster, Narrow Heart tightens the hitbox and pushes you to the extreme. Every run takes a genuinely different shape — a real roguelike, not a difficulty slider.

■ What is in it
• Graze scoring where narrower means a bigger multiplier
• Shuriken, kunai, scythe-blade, crescent — the storm changes per gate
• 18 stages from bamboo groves and waterfall cliffs to snow ridges, moonlit duels and a chaos dimension
• 8 ninjas — Shadow, Vermilion, Snowwind, Gold, Traceless, Ogre-mask, Thunder, Asura — each with a distinct art
• Character abilities like a phoenix revival, shuriken-burning lightning and unbreakable momentum
• Daily rewards and missions that yield shards to summon new ninjas

■ A screen drawn in ink
The visuals are built from ink and empty space. Instead of the effect noise common to modern action games, the black-and-white presentation keeps the arc of a single blade perfectly legible. The screen has to be quiet for the graze to land.

■ Runs are short
One-handed controls, works offline. Die and you restart, but a run is short enough that restarting costs nothing emotionally. A boldness grade of S, A, B or C is awarded at the end of every run, and bolder grazing yields rarer techniques.

Ads for revival and skill rerolls are entirely optional. You can play the complete ninja game without watching a single one.

One graze is a score. One lapse is death. Step into the ink storm.

Recent changes:
You can now leave a rating from inside the app when you are enjoying it.