Ninja All-Stars: Gameplay Demo Video! Shojo Spotlight!
One of the most famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) ninja on Kagejima, Shojo is one of the biggest proponents of drunken boxing as a legitimate fighting style. While most ninja find it preposterous, Shojo always seems to be just out of reach as she reels and tumbles around her opponents. Despite her love of drink she never lets it get in the way of her trading and negotiating. Many a merchant has turned up to haggle with Shojo dazed and confused by the previous night’s revelries while she is fresh and poised.
Let’s take a look at her attributes:
Shojo is a little bit faster than normal with a movement of 6. While she isn’t as fast as most Kunoichi she is able to cover more ground than most Kaiken.
Shojo’s attack and defense are both below average but when you figure in her Yopparai special ability things change drastically. She becomes the equal of a chunin on attack or defense depending on what you may need from her. The trick is guessing which will be more useful each round.
As with most Ronin Shojo has a few keyword abilities in her arsenal:
Close Combat Master: A ninja with Close Combat Master may reroll a single die during a non-ranged Attack.
Nimble: When a ninja with Nimble dodges they may reroll any of their dice.
Redirection: When a ninja with Redirection is targeted by a Ranged attack they may make an affinity test. If the test is successful, the ninja may pick any friendly or enemy ninja within range of the attacker as the new target of the attack.
Resilient: When a ninja with Resilient is Injured or Stunned roll a die. If any of the ninja’s affinities are rolled then Injured is downgraded to Stunned, or Stunned is downgraded to nothing happening to the Resilient ninja.
Ronin: Ninja with Ronin follow all of the rules for ninja with Hero. Additionally, a team must pay Ronin a fee after each game so that they will stay with the team. This fee is a number of Koban listed after the slash on the model’s cost.
Since Ronin references Hero lets include that as well for the sake of completeness.
Hero: Ninja with Hero cannot gain XP, cannot increase their attributes, and cannot get new Keywords during league play. Heroes are unique characters and can only be included in a team once.
Overall Shojo is very flexible. She can be an offensive or defensive asset and also has good movement and maneuverability and survivability due to the combination of Nimble, Resilient, and Redirection. Additionally she will help pay for her own upkeep if she ends the game in your healing house so don’t be afraid to let her take some risks because Shojo sure isn’t.
Gameplay Videos!
We now have 3 gameplay videos that take you through a 3 round demo game between designers Dave Freeman and Deke Stella. Watch as Dave destroys models and Deke proves his Janken mastery.
*Note: These videos represent the game in its Beta format. No components or rules used in the video are final. Also, because it is a demo game no advanced rules are used.