Kamiwaza: Way of the Thief Review

Kamiwaza: Way of the Thief by developer Acquire Corp. and publisher NIS America Inc.—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

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Well everyone, are you ready for a blast from the past? Are you ready to sneak? To hide? To steal for your sick daughter? Well then, look no further than Kamiwaza: Way of the Thief.

Kamiwaza: Way of the Thief is a remaster of Kamiwaza, an old PS2 title released in 2006. Finally, after 16 years, we get a North American release. In case you are wondering, yes, Kamiwaza is adjacently related to Tenchu and Way of the Samurai. Kamiwaza, both original and remaster, is a very niche title, but one that I think stealth game enthusiasts will get a kick from. So without further ado, let's take a look at how Kamiwaza may steal its way into your heart.

In Kamiwaza: Way of the Thief, you play as an aspiring virtuous thief, Ebizou. No killing, no stealing from those who take care of the community, giving back to the poor: these are the ideals that Ebizou strives for. During his first job working for the Silver Ravens, things go awry. Turns out the group of "virtuous thieves" he joined isn't so virtuous, as they start killing all the inhabitants of the mansion, servants and all. Ebizou then takes a young girl, Suzuna, away in hopes to have her live. Many years later, Ebizou has been making an honest living. Things don't always last though, as Suzuna has fallen ill. Without money, Ebizou is unable to afford the medicine for Suzuna, and so he returns to his ways of thievery.

As you might expect from the title, Kamiwaza: Way of the Thief is primarily a stealth based title. Or, well, at least it's supposed to be. Like with many games, Kamiwaza ultimately lets you decide how to play, although ignoring the stealth aspect just makes it all the harder for yourself. Let's take a look at the gameplay flow before we get into any thievery techniques. After your first basic of basics tutorials are finished, you will have the ability to take requests from the local boss of the area, who also happens to own the local bathhouse. The informant under her employ will give you new missions to select every day at 10am and 10pm in-game time. In-game minutes pass roughly every second, so days will progress pretty fast if you aren't paying attention.

Once accepting a mission, you must make your way over to the target location, find the item, or items, you are supposed to steal, and then escape. Sounds simple enough, but with locked doors, guards, and doors that may or may not be open, it can get a lot more difficult than it seems at first glance. After absconding with the treasure, you usually have a choice whether to donate it to the people in your village's "people's box", or to exchange it for cash at the bathhouse. I found myself often alternating between cashing in the rewards and helping out the people, but it's up to you how you want to play. Be warned though, as Suzuna is sick and needs some rather pricey medicine, so you may want to be aware of how much you have so her condition doesn't get worse.

Suzuna herself is something of a gameplay mechanic. You need to make sure she stays healthy by giving her medicine, or else her condition will worsen. This will probably involve you purchasing roughly one panacea per day to feed to her to keep her healthy. Speaking of mechanics, your reputation amongst the villagers will also provide benefits for you. Higher reputation means the people are less likely to report your crimes, and high enough values may see the people cheering for you as well! They may even remove some of the wanted posters around town to help you out.

Yes, that's right, the local guardsmen will put up wanted posters of you, which get progressively more accurate the more they see you. Get spotted too many times and everyone will know the thief is you. Guess what? It's really easy to figure out where someone lives in rural Japan when you know exactly what they look like. Yeah, they can and will show up to your house. Before you ask, yes it's a "game over". Thankfully there's a sort of new game + feature, where you get to carry over any items and skill levels, so you start out in a better spot. Yes, this is how my first playthrough went. Turns out it's really hard to avoid people when walking through a very populated town and everyone and their grandma knows and reports you.

So, how do you keep your face off the wanted posters? Well, the easiest way is to not be seen, or at least not seen in any real capacity. As you are sneaking around your targets, you have the option to put on a disguise. This disguise helps prevent people from recognizing you, although if you do get spotted and attacked by a guard, your disguise may come off. Be careful not to wear the disguise in town though, as people will notice how shifty you are wearing a face covering in the middle of town in broad daylight. Also, the stuff you steal gets put in the bag you carry around, which will visibly grow as you collect more items. A bigger bag not only slows you down, but also makes others suspicious. Make sure to find a good balance between loot and getting spotted.

Of course, the best way to not get reported is to just plain not get seen. Crawl around an area, hide behind bushes, on top of walls, on stairs, or between buildings, make noises and then circle around people while they are distracted, or just try and find ways into areas where you won't get caught. If you do get seen, you usually have a short timeframe where the screen will go red. If you hit the "hide" button during this time, you will do a dodge-roll out of the person's vision so they won't see you. This also gives you a stylish multiplier, something I'll talk about soon. Be warned though, as evading one person's sight to fall into another's probably won't end well for you.

So, stylish multiplier. Essentially, as you steal things and avoid people's sight, you can earn stylish points. These points can be redeemed at the trainer in the bathhouse in order to learn new techniques, unlock new disguises, or to purchase licenses. Stylish points can be earned in a number of ways, but most of yours early game will probably come from kicking your loot bag and a few vision dodges here and there. To earn points of kicking your bag, you can choose to try and kick your bag into either the box to either redeem your loot for cash or the box to donate to the people. The further away you are, the more points you get.

Speaking of kicking your bag, the bag itself is a very interesting item. You can't steal anything if you don't have it on hand, and if it gets too big it alerts the guard and townspeople. You can kick it at objects to steal them, or at people to knock them out. You can also drop it and then pull it towards you with a wire. It's interesting for sure, but the bag tends to roll a lot when you don't want it to, and lining up a kick to go where you want it can actually be pretty tough sometimes.

As you go about stealing your way to a healthy daughter, there are a few things you may take notice of. The first is probably that some items are "tougher" to steal than others. To steal, you basically "attack" an item, and some items will have more "health" than others. Good news though, the more you try and steal things, your level will increase, making stealing easier! This level will also carry over to new game plus, which is handy. The second thing you'll probably be curious about is the licenses available from the trainer. These have special requirements, and must be in your inventory in order to complete. Once complete however, they give you a permanent passive buff, such as a 10% increase in time it takes for people to spot you. These can be tough, but are also a good way at getting you familiar with some of the game's mechanics.

As a thief, never forget your preparation. You can change your disguise and bag to your liking, increasing the stats associated with your thievery job. New disguises and bags will become available as you continue paying your tribute to the boss, so don't neglect your daily dues. Even if you can't afford new equipment, don't worry too much. Kamiwaza features an autosave system, where every time you make a map transition the game autosaves. This means if you bungle a mission too badly, you can simply return to the title screen to try again by loading the autosave data. Super handy for some of the licenses, by the way.

Kamiwaza: Way of the Thief is a fun title, but you do need to remember that it's a remaster of the PS2 game, and the graphics really show it. It looks like a PS2 game, it feels like a PS2 game, but I'm still really glad they finally brought an official translation to North America. The story tends to be equal parts wacky and compelling, the gameplay is smoother than I expected, and the missions you take are generally short enough that botching one isn't worth hours of work down the drain, which is a lifesaver to your sanity. The method of storyline progression however is…weird, I suppose. Basically, you will encounter cutscenes when you enter certain areas and fulfill certain conditions. Pro tip, the Gaigasaki Manor "storeroom" is the area off the entrance to the left on the map, not the back right corner. That took me a few real life days to figure out…

Overall, Kamiwaza: Way of the Thief is a really fun game. Really niche, yes, but also really fun. The stealth aspect is pretty fun, and the stylish points earned through your actions are an interesting take. The gameplay loop is pretty easy to get, allowing you to hop right in to your thieving ways, and you will probably find yourself easily racking up mission after mission.

While this may be a re-release of an old PS2 title, it has aged surprisingly well, if not in graphics then in gameplay. It's fun and quirky, and I definitely suggest you give it at least a chance.

Score: 8 / 10

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Winter Ember Review

Winter Ember by developer Blowfish Studios and publisher Sky Machine Studios—Microsoft Series X|S review written by David with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes. 

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Winter Ember is an isometric stealth-action set in a Victorian-esque setting in which you seek out vengeance as Arthur Artorias for the slaughter of his family. Between the setting and the amount of loot in a violent revenge-plot game, the inspiration behind Winter Ember shows clearly in those classic Thief: The Dark Project roots, despite the perspective differences. I’m not sure of the actual resources involved, but I’ve always found graphic novel tie-ins ambitious, and this title’s got one. Ambition and roots don’t always get us where we’re going though, so let’s see where Blowfish Studios takes us.

Arthur’s a bit of a party boy, and we open on a carriage arriving at an urban victorian manor, out of which steps a confident, attractive, rich young man and his feminine accompaniment for the night. Arthur is greeted by the butler, berated by his father, and retires to his room as planned. Flash forward, and we witness the family murdered one-by-one by a group of hooded intruders, Arthur is knocked unconscious but is rescued by one of the women he’d brought home. All of this is shown in an anime-style cinematic and is pretty engaging; I’d watch a full production of what I saw there without hesitation.

The game shifts from here though, and we skip forward eight years, shift to an isometric viewpoint with a realistic art style as Arthur steps out and we take control, given no further information on who we’re about to encounter. The tutorial is a pretty solid level itself, though it’d be better if the game allowed you to use certain abilities before it tells you about them. Stealth knockouts mostly, as the combat is both punishing and boring. It doesn’t really get better either. More varied, kinda, but most enemies still boil down to “Parry, slice” or “guard break, slice” without any real thought beyond watching the animation.

This felt so familiar and fluid to just dive right into. Hold 'til it shakes, release it in time or break the pick

There is a lot of loot throughout this beginning zone. By the time I could sell my inventory, I’d made over 15k to start off with health potions and bandages, which was useful while I got the hang of parrying everything, and lockpicks because those tumblers get finicky. That’s a specific strength this game plays to. The lockpicking feels nice, and works well even while in a hurry trying to avoid being spotted.

After the tutorial, you’re in the first open zone. South Anargal, complete with side quests, a shop (after you open it fairly quickly), and a couple avenues of diegetic fast travel options to help you avoid running or sneaking across the whole city just to unload your loot or top up those supplies before a job. I love the design of this place, even with the tight camera and inexplicably-hostile guys that look like guards.

There’s another faction here established as extortionate thugs upon your first meeting with them, but they’re different. These cop-looking guys just start swinging in the tutorial and you’re enemies for life despite having taken a train across the country and not having rapid-communication technology. The design though is fantastic, simultaneously elaborate, broken, filthy, and ornate. The city is a snow-covered maze of alleyways and looping streets. It’s the first night of Winter, and the townsfolk are well-wishing and sharing good tidings.

Save often, these shrines aren't always obvious before you activate them

You get Skill Tokens as a reward for various tasks and at various intervals, and use these at hard-save points to put points across three trees: Combat, Stealth, and Utility. Inventory management is a thing, using a grid-system you’ll see everywhere from Deus Ex to Path of Exile, every item being worth a number of slots in one of a handful of rectangular patterns, making its management (and expansion through the skill tree) familiar and easy to manage. Your loot stacks, thankfully, meaning you only need space for unique items and overflow. Your weapon doesn’t count, though your arrows do, but things you drop in the world persist for you to find where you left it, should you need the extra room.

Arrows are another spot I see a massive nod to Garrett from the Thief franchise. The bow, and the breadth of use that it has is where I think I had the most fun. From blasting water arrows into street lamps to darken an intersection before popping off a smoke arrow to get the drop on a trio of baddies. It’s nice, and works well once you get used to it. The crafting system for them is great too, with each arrow being split in its construction between “Head,” “Shaft,” and “Misc.”. You attach things like Rope to your Claw headed arrows to make climbable Rope Arrows that help you reach new areas and entries, and the official page for the game boasts 30 varieties.

Quest variety is another strength that the game makes up for its lack of narrative pacing with, and you’ve often got a couple ways to handle things. Too often conflicts require lethal options though, but that seems pretty standard, regardless of how disappointing it always is. A trio of thugs mugging a couple in need, helping a man into his building, fetching a woman’s lost necklace, and swiping an alchemist’s stash of seeds are among the first things you can do when you get to Anargal.

Getting stuck on furniture was a consistent issue, usually due to a cover or climb prompt from the game

When I say lack of narrative pacing, I know there’s a level of that to be expected with sandboxes, but it really feels like they left the whole of the storytelling out. With a work up to their handful of cinematics and the graphic novel, dropping even the voice acting effort for anyone but Arthur, the story aspect was missing. Characters pass by, quests are assigned, and without that side media, I don’t know that I’d have found a reason to care. I mean, at this point, the game hasn’t even shown you itself in what way Arthur is disfigured. You have to sit idle at the title screen, have caught the announcement trailer, or sought it out. Or purchased the graphic novel, of course.

I like the gameplay. I love the setting, but I can’t help feeling like the title lets itself down, that it wasn’t the more that it could have been had a bit more care gone into it. Between the lackluster combat, getting stuck on objects, prompt-required actions, and the lack of engagement the game itself has with the story, it quickly became just Something To Do. It’s gonna keep being Something To Do though, because while sword fighting is boring, nothing else about the experience playing the game is, and Faceless Man mode is a challenge I haven’t conquered yet. It’s a short game, and I’ve not spent grand hours with it yet. I doubt I’ve seen all there is to see with how this game plays. After all, I’ve got three skill trees and 30 arrows.

Summary

Winter Ember is an ambitious isometric stealth-action that pays strong homage to its genre roots while holding its own entertaining identity, but fails to stick the landing on telling their story.

Score: 7.5 / 10

 

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