OD - KNOCK looks to be the long awaited spiritual successor to the greatest horror game of all time

by Gamatroid

For anyone who was lucky enough to play P.T. on PlayStation 4 back in the day, you know how amazing a horror game can be when it's created by a master like Hideo Kojima.

I was one such lucky soul, and I ended up being even luckier than most.

When I first saw P.T. on the PlayStation Store, I thought it looked like an interesting indie game. Most likely a chill walking simulator.

I knew absolutely nothing going into it, and it remains the single greatest video game experience I've ever had. 

As an aside, honestly it makes me wish more people could know absolutely nothing about games they are going to play. All you should need to know is the game is good and worth experiencing. Other than that, it would be great to dive in blind, but I realize that's not realistic in almost any other situation.

But for my experience with P.T., that unique impression it left has stuck with me all these years later.

Sadly, the "Playable Teaser" (P.T., get it?) for the cancelled game Silent Hills was pulled from the PlayStation store, and the lucky souls who never uninstalled it (like me) could continue to play it on their PS4's indefinitely, but it was never officially ported to any other platforms, nor was it downloadable once it was cancelled.

If you are unfamiliar with P.T., shame on you. But you can rectify your disgraceful circumstance by watching some of my playthrough before you continue:

Cut to 2025, and Kojima Productions just released an incredible teaser trailer for Hideo's newest project: OD Knock, which very much seems to be a spiritual successor to the horror game he was developing back when he created P.T. 

You can watch the trailer from YouTube below:

OD - KNOCK is very visually impressive, and it has the same "we're just in some average looking house but everything feels super creepy" vibe that made P.T. so memorable.

Check out this rather average looking room from the trailer:

Sure the candle-laden shrine looks kind of creepy, but the room itself is rather average looking.

Everything looks incredible; not quite photo-realistic, but the graphics are getting damn close.

As the character walks to the shrine, she takes out a matchbook and strikes a match. The flame looks incredible, as does the details on her arms and hands.

As she lights the baby-shaped candle, you suddenly hear a baby crying in the background, much like the strange crying fetus in P.T.

You can see the rest in the trailer (hopefully you already watched it), but it all looks really creepy and absolutely amazing.

Even if OD doesn't end up living up to the incredible legacy of P.T., I'm just grateful that there's even a chance we will get to see a full length Hideo Kojima horror game. Even if I haven't played all of this games, I really respect Kojima-san as an incredible creative mind, and it will be great to see his take on the horror genre in something more than just a playable teaser, even if it is the greatest horror game of all time.

I can't wait to see more of this.

Yuzo Koshiro Triumphantly Returns to Shinobi - His New Music in Shinobi Art of Vengeance

by Gamatroid

Sega recently released a new entry in its classic SHINOBI series, titled Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. It was developed by the same team that did the outstanding Streets of Rage 4, and just like in that game, the original composer of Sega's classic Revenge of Shinobi, Yuzo Koshiro, returned to create a few new tracks for this latest entry.

The only issue is, it's hard to find information online which details the tracks Koshiro contributed to the soundtrack.

Luckily, when I purchased Shinobi Art of Vengeance, it came with a digital art book and soundtrack download, and in that it lists the tracks Koshiro composed.

Here are all of the tracks on the soundtrack, and which ones were composed by Koshiro:

1. The Silent Oath (Tee Lopes)
2. A Tale of Vengeance (Yuzo Koshiro)
3. Secret Steps (Tee Lopes)
4. Whispers in the Bamboo (Tee Lopes)
5. Deep Voids (Yuzo Koshiro)
6. Festival of a Thousand Lights (Tee Lopes)
7. Unleased Fury (Tee Lopes)
8. Shadow District (Tee Lopes)
9. Rogue Tides (Tee Lopes)
10. Fortress Zero (Tee Lopes)
11. Trial of the Warborn (Tee Lopes)
12. Broken Hourglass (Yuzo Koshiro)
13. Bloodlust Express (Tee Lopes)
14. Dark Experiments (Tee Lopes)
15. Inside the Titan (Tee Lopes)
16. Crimson Plains (Tee Lopes)

If you want to hear the tracks composed by Yuzo Koshiro, you can check out my video below:

If you want to check out the tracks he composed for Revenge of Shinobi on Sega Genesis, you can check out this YouTube video:

Hell is Us Hands-on Impressions - A Surprisingly Badass New Game Coming Soon

by Gamatroid

I recently played the demo of Hell is Us... twice. I first saw, downloaded and played it on Xbox Series S, and it impressed me enough that when I saw it was also available on PlayStation 5, I downloaded and played through it there as well.

Holy Hell.

I absolutely love it when I discover new games that I had absolutely zero knowledge of beforehand that just completely wow and impress me.

I highly advise if this is all the information you need to make you want to go play the demo, then just do it first and then come back to read my impressions.

If war is the closest we get to hell on earth, it's because Earth harbours the worst of demons: humankind. In an isolated country ravaged by infighting, discover the secrets of your past and deal with the repercussions of a mysterious calamity.

HELL IS US

• RELEASE DATE: 9/4/2025
• MSRP: $49.99
• DEVELOPER: Rogue Factor
• PUBLISHER: Nacon
• PLATFORMS: PlayStation, Xbox and PC
• PLAYED ON: Xbox Series S, PlayStation 5

Hell is Us is being developed by Rogue Factor, who previously released Mordheim: City of the Damned, and Necromunda: Underhive Wars, neither of which were exactly award winners, but all that seems set to change with this game.

The game reminds me of some blend between The Last of Us, Dark Souls and Stellar Blade, however its really none of those things exactly.

The story is rooted in a future Earth and seems gritty and realistic, kind of like The Last of Us, and it has good voice acting and writing (at least so far). Then the combat is kind-of souls-like, but more action oriented like Stellar Blade. It's hard to exactly describe, but its a very cool combination that feels perfect in practice.

Even on Series S the graphics are impressive, and the whole thing comes together in a cohesive package that proves why releasing demos can be so important. This demo completely made me want to get the game upon release. The exact opposite that the Final Fantasy XVI demo had on me (that one convinced me NOT to buy it).

You can watch my playthrough of the demo in the video below, and see if you can spot the differences between the Xbox Series S version and the PlayStation 5 version (played on quality mode). Honestly I think they both look great and any differences weren't obvious to me.

I wholly suggest, if any of this sounds interesting, that you download and play the demo and see how good it is for yourself. 

Perhaps I'm overselling it, but I'm completely sold.

Shinobi Art of Vengeance - Another Great Reboot of a Classic Series

by Gamatroid

Unleash the power of the Shinobi!

Sega's iconic SHINOBI returns in an all-new 2D action platformer with a unique hand-drawn look created by the team behind the hit brawler Streets of Rage 4.

Play as the legendary Joe Musashi, master of the ninja arts. After finding your village burned to the ground and your clan turned into stone, you must set off on a quest for vengeance, ready to face an unparalleled evil and avenge your clan.

SHINOBI: ART OF VENGEANCE

• RELEASE DATE: 8/29/2025
• MSRP: $29.99
• DEVELOPER: Lizard Cube
• PUBLISHER: SEGA
• PLATFORMS: PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC
• PLAYED ON: PlayStation 5

Sega's classic series SHINOBI returns in an all new 2D adventure by the creators of Streets of Rage 4, and practically everything about it is absolutely excellent.

The gameplay is fast, smooth and responsive. The way you can perform finishing moves on enemies and obliterate them is super satisfying (even more so if you execute it on multiple enemies at once), and the dodging and combat mechanics are a lot of fun. Traversal is also very smooth, responsive and intuitive. Honestly no complaints in the gameplay department.

The music is good as well, but maybe not quite as good as the music in the classic Revenge of Shinobi, by legendary video game composer Yuzo Koshiro, but hey, that's a really high bar (same was true in Streets of Rage 4, outside of the tracks Koshiro did).

I've been playing it on PlayStation 5 and overall its a very enjoyable experience, outside of the very-mid story and awful/cringy English voice acting (in my opinion). Honestly to me, that's the only thing I have a complaint with, but if you change the audio to Japanese that at least solves the bad voice acting issue. Then you can read the text as quickly as you want and just skip ahead. To me that's a much better experience.

Ignoring that one complaint, however, I've very happy with the way Shinobi: Art of Vengeance turned out, and it makes me hopeful that SEGA might be as thoughtful in picking excellent development partners for the rest of the classic series reboots they have announced. Probably a long shot, but hey I can certainly hope can't I?

You can check out my beginning gameplay video below:

I would highly recommend picking this one up.

Hands on impressions of the brand new Ninja Gaiden Ragebound demo

by Gamatroid

Dive into an untold chapter of the NINJA GAIDEN saga!

To stand against a new threat, Kenji Mozu, a young ninja from the Hayabusa Village, rises to the challenge! Trained by Ryu, he fights fiercely but soon finds himself in desperate straits. Forced to tap into forbidden power, Kenji sets aside centuries of animosity and forms an alliance with Kumori, a member of the sinister Black Spider Clan, convinced that combining their souls and skills is the only way to protect the world out of the Demon Lord’s grasp!

I've been excited for Ninja Gaiden Ragebound since it was first revealed, so I was ecstatic to play the demo that was recently released for Steam's Next Fest.

NINJA GAIDEN RAGEBOUND

• RELEASE DATE: 7/31/2025
• MSRP: TBD
• DEVELOPER: The Game Kitchen
• PUBLISHER: Dotemu, Joystick
• PLATFORMS: PS5, Xbox Series, and PC (Epic Games Store)
• PLAYED ON: PC (Steam)

The opening cinematic recreates the classic NES opening, albeit without the amazing music from the original.

Even though you can imagine a bunch of ways this recreation could have been improved, I can also imagine a lot of ways it could have gone all kinds of wrong. I think they did a good job finding a middle ground.

After the opening cinematic, the game switches to show Ryu and another ninja discussing their training routine. I already knew Ragebound wouldn't star Ryu, as it focuses on another ninja in Ryu's clan: Kenji Mozu. 

The interesting part is that the story takes place at the same time as the first Ninja Gaiden on the NES, but when Ryu travels to America to investigate his father's death, Kenji is left to defend the Hayabusa village.

The first stage acts as a tutorial and has Ryu putting Kenji through various trials that let you learn the different nuances of the game's combat and traversal mechanics.

Then at the end of the tutorial area you face off with Ryu. Of course, you don't have to defeat him, but I've read that it is possible (although difficult and unlikely your first time through the game - think of it like some of those first Dark Souls battles that you are meant to lose, but it is possible to win).

Once combat with Ryu concludes (either through victory or defeat) a messenger arrives and let's Ryu know that his father has been killed, thus kicking off the events of the first Ninja Gaiden. Ryu leaves and Kenji is left behind to defend the village.

I'm sure the full game will better explain the events which lead Kenji on his quest, but the demo is meant to just let you experience different scenarios. The combat is fast and fluid and feels really good, and (as you can see) the graphics look amazing. There is a CRT filter as well if you want an old-school twist to the visuals, and that's what I used for my playthrough (and you can see it in all these screenshots).

From the demo it appears that the regular difficulty won't be too bad, but if you really want a challenge, the harder difficulty level available in the demo proves that it won't be smooth sailing for people seeking a greater challenge.

One of the previous video reveals showed that you also get to play as a second character, a female ninja from a rival clan, but based on the demo gameplay, this is only partially true.

While you do get to play as the other ninja, she appears to exist primarily in spirit form (although its unknown exactly why at this point), and as Kenji you can leverage her powers to throw projectiles and you transform into her to traverse some areas within a specified time limit to unlock doors and solve puzzles.

I'm glad some of this wasn't revealed too early because it might have negatively influenced my opinion going into the demo, but experiencing it while playing the demo makes it seem like a fine extension of the gameplay.

In fact, I might go so far as to say that the Ninja Gaiden Ragebound demo is a perfect example of what a demo should do. It lets players experience select parts of the game, find out additional information in the context of the game and story, and get a feeling for how the game will play upon release, without giving away too much. Even the reveal of the second ninja was carefully staged, so all the changes didn't seem too overwhelming at first, and in hindsight I think that was a genius move.

Overall I really enjoyed the Ninja Gaiden Ragebound demo, and I'm simply even more hyped to get the game as soon as it releases.

You should just go download the demo on Steam and play it now, but if you want you can check out my playthrough of the demo in the YouTube video below: 

July 31st can't come soon enough!