Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, known in Japan as Shinobi: Slash's Revenge (in Japanese: 復讐の斬撃), is an upcoming action-platformer game developed by Lizardcube and slated for release in August 29th 2025 for all major platforms. It is the first new Shinobi title in 14 years since Shinobi 3D for the Nintendo 3DS.
Story[]
The ENE Corporation, a military organization led by Lord Ruse, has conquered cities all over the world in the blink of an eye. The man wields a stolen artifact that grants him immortality, and has a vicious ambition to make sure nothing stands in his way.
The evil lord sees the legendary ninja clan Oboro Clan, led by Joe Musashi, as the only obstacle in his path to world domination. The organization invades and attacks the village, burning it to the ground and reducing it to ashes, while Musashi's brethen are turned to stone.
As the sole survivor, Musashi vows to avenge his clan and take down the ENE Corporation. Counting with the help of his faithful dog Yamato, as well as a mysterious and unexpected ally, they begin to track down Lord Ruse.
Gameplay[]
Art of Vengeance's gameplay harkens back to the Mega Drive Shinobi titles but with a bigger emphasis on combat. Joe Musashi can slash enemies in close range, creating combos by attacking continuously and being able to juggle them in order to extend the combos. Joe's arsenal also includes Kunais for long range attacks, Ninpo, charged ninja magic attacks for high damage in close and medium range which can break through enemies armor, and Ninjutsu, limited use techniques which cause devastating damage to all enemies on the screen.
By attacking enemies the player builds up the execution gauge, once is full Joe can perform a Shinobi Execution, instantly killing all enemies on the screen whose health is on critical, signaled by the Shinobi symbol appearing over the enemies heads. Performing the Shinobi Execution grants the player bonuses such as filling the Ninpo gauge and restoring a small portion of Joe's life gauge. Joe Musashi's movement techniques were also expanded, with a grappling hook to grab into floating spots, a pair of claws to climb up walls and a glider to slow down Joe's aerial descent, allowing him to cross large gaps.
Characters[]
- Joe Musashi
- Lord Ruse
- Yamato
- Tomoe
- Naoko
- Shopkeeper
Levels and Bosses[]
| Stage | Name | Boss |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oboro Village | Ghost Samurai Kozaru |
| 2 | The Chase | |
| 3 | Lantern Festival | Arachno Tank |
| 4 | Neo City | Kijima |
Development[]
In an interview with Kagasei Shimomura, director of Sega's content production department, he revealed that his team analyzed Sega's catalogue of IPs and pushed the idea of bringing back various inactive franchises through the Power Surge program, which was revealed during The Game Awards 2023. Among the announced game series are: Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, and Shinobi, all being handled by different third-party game studios and published by Sega.[1]
Officially revealed in February 12 2025, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is meant to kickstart this new strategy and will be the first title released as part of the Power Surge program. French developer studio Lizardcube, which had already worked on other Sega-related titles such as Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap in 2017, and Streets of Rage 4 in 2020, was approached by Shimomura and his team, impressed by their previous work and how they managed to simultaneously deliver a brand new experience for those titles while still capturing that nostalgic energy. Shimomura informed the studio about the legacy IP initiative and asked about which Sega series they would like to bring back. Lizardcube's CEO, Ben Fiquet, pitched the idea of reviving Shinobi, followed by concept art whose quality and detail impressed Shimomura, and thus Shinobi: Art of Vengeance was born.
Unlike in Wonder Boy and Streets of Rage 4, Sega would be directly involved to provide more assistance to Lizardcube's development flow. Toru Ohara, a game developer with over 30 years of story at Sega, would serve as chief director for Art of Vengeance. The teams led by him and Shimomura were closely in touch with Lizardcube to ensure fidelity for the IP, helping with all aspects of production, from art direction and music to characterization and gameplay. Despite this, they still gave Lizardcube a lot of creative freedom.
Both Lizardcube and Sega agreed that a 2D-styled art direction gameplay would be the most effective and appopriate way to bring Shinobi back, while also playing to the strengths of Lizardcube's art and animation team. According to Ben Fiquet, who serves as the creative and art director of Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, one of the goals for the game was to push and expand the limits of 2D animation in games to deliver the ultimate next-gen ninja action, an evolution of the games from the 90's for the Sega Genesis. The animation team tried to convey both strength and speed through Musashi's movements and attacks, as well make enemies feel threatening and dangerous. [2]
Ben Fiquet expressed that the market for fast-paced action games has a lot of competition, but Shinobi has the advantage of being a very nostalgic series for old-time fans; but also said that nostalgia can only go so far and that the game needs to appeal to modern audiences and new players who didn't grow up with the original Shinobi series.
The team used the first three games of the series as a basis for Art of Vengeance, and began experimenting on new ways to engage players. Fiquet explained that they wanted to make combat more interesting, which led to the game having some elements from the beat 'em up genre and combining it with platforming, which is the root of the series' DNA. Combos and special moves became a core part of the gameplay.
For visual design of the game, the team focused on a sense of unity and consistency, honoring the legacy of the original games for the SEGA Genesis while re-imagining the series in a bold new art style.[3] Julian Nguyen-You, background supervisor, explained that 1998's Akira has always been a huge influence to his work; for Art of Vengeance, in order to achieve the desired art style, him and the team sought to strike a balance between the highly illuminated areas with deep dark shadows, as Shinobi is a character who operates in the darkness.[4]
Julian expressed the team's desire to have a varied level design with contrasting areas, such as beautiful green fields and landscapes inspired by Studio Ghibli's art direction, desecrated Japanese temples touched by time and destruction, to hi-tech cities and neon lights on towering skyscrappers.
Toru Ohara expressed that Lizardcube's European artstyle combined with Japanese aesthetics created a distinct, vibrant and beautiful visual for the game. Lead game designer Frédéric Vincent explained that the Lord Ruse's design philosophy is the inevitability of his final confront with Musashi, reinforced by an imposing and powerful presence that reflects his ambition for world domination.
Fiquet has also expressed that the development team and SEGA wanted to create a story marked by a strong narrative and flashy cinematics, emphasizing Musashi's thrist for vengeance against Lord Ruse and the ENE Corporation.[5]
For the combat system, both Ben Fiquet and Frédéric Vincent expressed the team's desire to sell the power fantasy of ninjas, being able to move and attack swiftly to dispatch enemies effectively. The Shinobi Execution mechanic was introduced to reinforce that gameplay style, and was described by Fique as being "very satisfying" to land. While combat is fast, the team also wanted players to be tactical with how they approach enemies and when to use the right ninja tools: Ninpos and Ninjutsu are both types of "magic", with the latter being devastating fullscreen attacks but that have limited uses.[6]
Vincent stated that at some point during development Musashi was too powerful, which resulted in the team creating unique abilities for the enemies, such as armor to shrug off attacks or counter attacks to strike unexpectedly. The goal was to make enemies powerful in a meaningful way, and provide higher challenge to the player, forcing them to adapt to different situations.
Gallery[]
