History VideoGame / MarkOfTheNinja

* AssholeVictim: Karajan is established as a snobby and arrogant jerk who [[BadBoss handicaps his own security's safety by selling their equipment for personal goods]]. Needless to say, it's cathartic to see him slowly lose his composure as the Marked Ninja cuts through his forces before finally assassinating him. [[spoiler:His actually have legitimate reason for raiding the clan diminishes this only slightly.]]

** Do three special actions per stage. Normally, they are [[SelfImposedChallenge Self Imposed Challenges]] like "break 20 lights", or ''not'' breaking any lights until a certain point and sometimes trickier stuff like getting guards to shoot each other.

* ArrogantKungFuGuy: Dosan in his youth did not use a sword out of pride of his skills at hand-to-hand combat.

* AmazonBrigade: The Stalker enemies

** '''Path of Wisdom:''' Available only to people with the ''Special Edition [=DLC=]''. [[spoiler:Dosan in his prime]]. Trades the sword killing for a NonLethalKO tackle and room for more quantities of items, but removes the Farsight and causes the Focus to lose the time-stopping trait.

* AssholeVictim: Karajan is established as a snobby and arrogant jerk who [[BadBoss handicaps his own security's safety by selling their equipment for personal goods]]. Needless to say, it's cathartic to see him slowly lose his composure as the Marked Ninja cuts through his forces before finally assassinating him. [[spoiler:His actually have legitimate reason for raiding the clan diminishes this only slightly.]]

* AssholeVictim: Pretty much all of them. Count Karajan in particular stands out. The man traded a shipment of body armor meant for his guards for a bottle of white-wine, and doesn't even particularly like it. [[spoiler:...But come the night where you infiltrate his castle, he's breaking down into a desperate, shivering coward. He even has the Terrified mark above his head when you're about to kill him!]]
--> '''Count Karajan:''' [[spoiler:...Where is he?... Is he gone?...]]

* AwesomeButImpractical: The titular ink itself. You become a human with super reflexes capable of doing time-stopping stunts. The downside? ''You go insane.''

* BadassBoast: The second [[EliteMooks Elite Guard]] the player encounters is overheard boasting to another guard that he has studied several different martial arts and is in the [[UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts MMA]] hall of fame. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Doesn't stop one from getting one-shot by getting a chandelier dropped on the head, though.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Neither Ora nor Azai put up a fight when facing the Marked Ninja's final judgment. They just bow their heads and quietly accept it.]]
** [[spoiler:Particularly noteworthy for Azai, whose fear of committing seppuku for his failure in the first place is what led to the events of the game.]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Azai. After [[spoiler:the player goes rogue during the second part of the game upon learning that Azai lied about his motives for having the Marked Ninja attack Karajan, and that he plans to phase out the old ways in favor of advanced technology, he nontheless engages his wayward student in polite conversation, and allows said student to decide whether to kill himself or not. Bear in mind, he knows full well that the Marked Ninja is suffering from the madness brought on by the toxin of his tattoos, and may well decide to murder him and the rest of the clan, yet he doesn't even put up a fight.]]
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: AvertedTrope -- the Marked Ninja is red and black in the dark (with white serving as the colour of lines), but is the protagonist.

* SincerestFormOfFlattery: This game is like a love letter to every stealth game made in the past fifteen years, but done in a genre (2D platforming) that's [[VideoGame/StealthBastard almost]] never seen this type of gameplay before. Where to begin?
** [[VideoGame/TheArtOfTheft 2D stealth]] [[VideoGame/StealthBastard with visible cones of vision and one-hit kill lasers.]]
** [[{{VideoGame/Tenchu}} You play as a ninja sneaking past easily distracted guards.]]
** [[Franchise/AssassinsCreed Lots of jumping puzzles and free-running, as well as a Death From Above attack that looks very similar to air assassinations.]]
** [[VideoGame/MetalGear There's an alert noise very similar to the classic]] [[JumpScare "!" when spotted]]; [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/MetalGear a late-game plot twist which completely changes the way you look at the game on your next playthrough]]]]; [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid a number countdown for alerts]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty and caution]]; [[VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake you get a cardboard box]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker from which you can attack your enemies]]; [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty bodies can be moved to hiding spots where guards will never check]]; [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots the villain has a personal squad of elite female soldiers who don't wear revealing clothing; an unlockable costume causes guards to freak out instead of going into alert.]]
** [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum You can use a grappling hook to move to perches and observe the scene from above; there's an extra incentive to terrorize guards before attacking, such as hanging bodies from said perches; and the mid-game upgrade Farsight acts a lot like Detective Vision.]] [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity Upon completing the game, you unlock a New Game Plus that ramps up the difficulty considerably.]]
** [[VideoGame/SplinterCell An emphasis on staying out of the light]] [[{{VideoGame/Thief}} and keeping to the shadows. Additionally, NPCs hold elaborate and entertaining conversations while you're sneaking around, and have a surprising tendency to carry important keys on their person.]]

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: One region is called T'''a'''briz or T'''e'''briz. The game gives one name, the [=DLC=] gives the other.

* [[TechnicolorNinjas Technicolor Ninja]]: Played with: Whenever the ninja is in the shadows, his outfit appears to be completely black. However, once he is exposed to light, it appears to be a dark blue with red stripes.

''Mark of the Ninja'' is a [[StealthBasedGame Stealth Based]] PlatformGame developed by Creator/KleiEntertainment and released on UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade, and later on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. The player takes on the role of a {{Ninja}} of the Hisomu Clan who must track and slay the man responsible for the decimation of his clan through modern cityscapes, employing all his stealth abilities and quasi-magical feats granted to him by a [[PowerTattoo mystical tattoo]].

* ADayInTheLimelight: The Special Edition DLC level stars Dosan, the main hero's mentor who oversees the use of the ink. In this level, the bandits guarding the ink find out what it does and try to steal it, so Azai sends in Dosan to give them a little "reminder" of who's really in control.

Published by Creator/MicrosoftStudios, the game was released on September 7, 2012, and a DLC was released on August 16, 2013. An enhanced version for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch scheduled to be released in Fall of 2018, thanks to the rights to the game lapsing from Microsoft back to Klei.