Video Game / Cyber Shadow

Cyber Shadow is a retraux Platform Game developed by Mechanical Head Games and published by Yacht Club Games, released on January 26, 2021 on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. It is the second non-Shovel Knight indie game to be published by Yacht Club (the first was Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack, though it was a physical Compilation Re-release and not a new game like Cyber Shadow). Inti Creates published the game in Japan.

Following a freak explosion, the futuristic Mekacity has been reduced to ruins. The synthetics that used to serve the city have gone berserk and take orders from the mad Dr. Progen, who plans to spread the destruction even further. The city's protectors, a clan of ninjas, have been almost completely wiped out. One of the few survivors, a robot named L-Gion, takes desperate measures and prematurely wakes up Shadow, one of the strongest members of the clan, from stasis. Now in a robot body without much time to live, Shadow takes his final mission to defeat Dr. Progen and save his clan and its Master, slicing through as many synthetics as it takes.

Cyber Shadow is an action-platformer inspired by many on the Nintendo Entertainment System, mostly ones developed by Sunsoft and Natsume, with fast action and lots of close-range combat. There are also light metroidvania elements; the game's world is interconnected and there are new abilities and upgrades to obtain throughout the story, but each area is a "chapter" that works as a linear level.

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Cyber Shadow provides examples of:

• 100% Completion: The game keeps track of how many extra life containers, SP and abilities you've collected.
• Almost Dead Guy: Most of Shadow's clanmates are found after breaking apart their containment tubes, nearly sapped of their essence. They share a few words before passing on and granting their power to Shadow.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Shadow's items normally break after he takes three hits. However, their hit counters won't go down if he takes a hit immediately after his Mercy Invincibility wears off, preventing the player from losing an item to a Cycle of Hurting.
• Bait-and-Switch: During Chapter 8, Apparitor drops in, and it has the usual boss meter fill up...but alas, he is never fought in the chapter at all, only proceeding to electrocute Shadow while he is in Exo, even mentioning that his powers would go to waste if he can defeat Shadow without even needing to battle. And even when Exo tells Shadow that it’s time to battle, Apparitor simply smashes Exo into a wall and cuts off her head before firing a beam similar to that of the Biohunter to destroy what's left of Exo.
• Barrier Maiden: The Master’s chief duty as the leader of the Mekacity ninja clan is to balance the flow of Essence from the Ethos to the physical world. Dr. Progen sealing her in stasis to keep her alive disrupts that balance, causing Essence to flow out of control and threatens to consume the world unless she is freed.
• Big Bad: Dr. Progen, father of the Master, who wants to use the power of the Elementals to allow the two of them to become gods and live forever.
• Bittersweet Ending: Shadow finally succeeds in freeing the Master from stasis, but their reunion is cut short when her body gives out and she dies. Shadow's body also gives out and succumbs to the same fate. However, their spirit essence lives on, and Together in Death, they join the Elementals and pass onto the Ethos.
• Charged Attack: The final upgrade in the game lets Shadow charge all of his moves up by holding the attack button, increasing their power and adding additional effects. Standard slashes become stronger and turn parried orbs into homing shots, shuriken become kunais that stick into enemies and explode shortly afterwards, Rising Fire's flames become falcons that move faster and further, the airstrike adds an aura around Shadow that allows him to damage enemies normally immune to his uncharged sword slashes, the sprint-slash leaves behind an afterimage that attacks the enemy hit by the initial attack again in a cross shape and the hidden Sword Beam attack gains full screen range.
  • One of the powerups is a gun that shoots a wave of zigzagging shots when fully charged.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: There are four Elementals, powerful ninja that are more attuned to the flow of Essence than any others who surround the Master at their clan's center. While Fire, Water, and Wind are accounted for, the Lightning Elemental hasn't been seen by anyone. The ending implies Shadow is the Lightning Elemental due to the similar glow he takes to the other three (albeit yellow) right before releasing the Master, his Essence also resembling the other three as they all depart to the Ethos.
• Cognizant Limbs: The tank boss has multiple turrets and a core to attack.
• Conspicuous Electric Obstacle:
  • Reactor level contains surfaces that get electrified, and pairs of node pairs with electric current flowing through them. Both are activated by moving spark emitters that are usually located deeper inside the walls.
  • Meka Island Spaceport has electrified wire-filled surfaces.
• Cores-and-Turrets Boss:
  • The first boss: Smasher, consists of a few turrets and a crusher that has a core on it.
  • Vessel Defense System is another boss that has cores that shoot at the player. It also has turrets.
• Cyber Ninja: Shadow is a robotic ninja who incorporates synthetic and spirit powers into his moveset. The same applies to his rival, Apparitor. When Shadow finally frees the Master, she's been turned into one as well.
• Cyberspace: The "cyber dive" areas, small digital worlds that Shadow jumps into in order to destroy security measures throughout the game.
• Deadly Droplets: One section of Mekacity Ruins have cracks in the ceiling from which green liquid leaks down from.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Shadow's parry ability, which is performed by tapping in the direction of a projectile that's just about to hit him. Mistime the input, and he walks right into the attack and takes damage. Time it right, and not only is the projectile nullified (and it works on plenty of strong attacks, even ones that don't look parry-able), it turns into an orb that Shadow can bat right back at the enemy. Once you unlock charge attacks, swiping at an orb with a charge shot splits it into three sparks that home in on enemies.
• Discovering Your Own Dead Body: Chapter 5's boss Subject Alpha is implied to be Shadow's original human body, modified into an essence-infused Cyborg. The details as to why this was done is unclear. After defeating Alpha in its second form, it's reduced to a humanoid figure wrapped from head to toe in purple overflown essence. When you speak to it, it catches sight of the Master's locket that Shadow is wearing, stating that it's the proof of its bond with the former and demands it back. Tapping into Shadow's memories, Alpha thinks that it's Shadow. It's completely unaware that it's speaking to the real deal, who has been placed in a synthetic, metallic body prior to the start of the game. It's safe to say that Shadow likely never imagined that he'd encounter, let alone fight his own undead body.
• Easter Egg: On top of the already existing hidden rooms with the Shout Outs described below, version 1.04 added 3 new hidden rooms with a literal hidden easter egg inside each of them: collecting all 3 grants Shadow a hidden Sword Beam upgrade.
• Energy Ball: Some enemies have attacks in form of ball of energy.
• Face–Heel Turn: Apparitor used to be a member of Shadow's ninja clan, but at the start of the story he serves Dr. Progen as a synthetic and viciously taunts Shadow. As shown in one of the flashback cutscenes, even when he was part of Master's clan he was a jerk that showed contempt for Shadow and openly disagreed with Master's decision to bring him into the fold, despite everyone else agreeing that Shadow discovering their hidden temple was an impressive feat.
• Fireballs: Some enemies and surface-mounted turrets shoot out balls of fire.
• Flame Spewer Obstacle: Disposal Facility has flame emitters that periodically shoot out flames. In Meka Island Spaceport, there are flame exhaust as well that do the same.
• Flash Step: Shadow's dash attack can be used to slash through enemies, which also makes him invincible and intangible during its execution, letting him pass through them and avoid triggering laser traps. They can also be chained together as long as he has SP available, letting him also change directions with it repeatedly to turn the attack into a Speed Blitz.
• Foreshadowing: The red displays in Chapter 4 are displaying a message about a "transfer failure", hinting at the fact that the hologram of the Master Shadow runs into in that area isn't the complete, digitized version of their clan's leader but just an incomplete AI copy of her with some fragmented memories of her life.
• Goomba Stomp: Airstrike lets Shadow bounce off enemies by landing on them blade-first and can also be combined with Double Jump to reach even further heights, something that's necessary to reach the end of the final area.
• Green-Eyed Monster: It’s heavily implied that Apparitor’s descent into evil was driven in part by jealousy over Shadow being both the Master’s favored pupil and her lover.
• Green Rocks: Essence, the life force of humans, is a major driving force of the plot and is also tied to how Shadow powers up checkpoints and increases his health.
• Healing Checkpoint: The checkpoints are a flexible version of this. Normally, they only save your progress and respawn you, but Shadow can power them up with essence so that they fully restore his health (otherwise they respawn him with five hitpoints), replenish his spirit points, or produce a fixed item when used. Most checkpoints come with the health-restore function already active and the other two available for purchase, though some don't support the other options and/or require the health-restore to be bought.
• Heart Container: Mystical essence orbs with three smaller shards slotted in serve as the game's life-ups. Full ones are granted after defeating certain bosses, and others can be formed by finding shards hidden throughout the areas (three shards equals one extra hit). There's similar things for your Spirit points, but without the need to collect 3 to increase it.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The AI construct of the Master sacrifices herself in order to shield Shadow’s fall off the space elevator after killing the final boss.
• Hive Mind: A benign example is revealed if you find a secret room which reveals L-Gion actually being a series of robots with the same mind, with one saying the set up keeps things stable for him. This also explains how he can keep on coming back should you thrash him.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The first encounter with Subject Alpha in Chapter 5. You find it in agony early on in the area and can wail on it for a while, but once it fully forms and gets up, it proceeds to grab Shadow and choke him down to a single hitpoint. Thankfully, it chooses to throw him against a wall and run ahead rather than finish the job, and L-Gion flies in with a health pickup afterwards.
• Hypocrite: Apparitor will call out Shadow if the player attacks him In the Back during his first boss fight, saying even the ninja trainees weren't backstabbers, which is rich coming from him considering he was the one who betrayed and sold out the clan.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: If the flashback cutscene during chapter 8 is any indication, Apparitor was devoted to Master and had romantic feelings for her, which was why he heavily opposed Shadow's induction into the clan after Master showed interest in him. His unrequited love and jealousy over Shadow's and Master's relationship seems to be the reason he joined Dr. Progen in hunting down his former clan.
• Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Conveyor belts appear in some of the stages and their placement makes little sense.
• Killer Yoyo: The Swag Blade is a spinning blade attached to Shadow with a string of energy that can be flung around either via his momentum or attacking it.
• Living on Borrowed Time: For a number of reasons, Shadow's synthetic body isn't entirely stable and it's implied that it'll eventually fail in short order. L-Gion even states the trope name exactly in one of his initial dialogues. There's scenes of him collapsing and leaking yellow fluid (reducing him to 1 hp). Luckily L-Gion comes by with a few life restoring power ups. Though his essence ends up ascending in the ending before that point arrives.
• Love Makes You Evil: Love for the Master is major factor in Dr. Progen's and Apparitor's descent into evil (Daughter, Love interest respectively)
• Meat Moss: Unchecked essence can grow wildly into purple, spiky biomass that infests machines and surfaces. Chapter 5, a Progen Cytech research lab, is almost fully consumed by it.
• Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: Shadow can only hold a single item at a time, and picking up another replaces the previous one.
• One-Winged Angel: Subject Alpha's final form is a giant made of biomass.
• Orbiting Particle Shield: One of the powerups creates a circle of energy balls around Shadow that expand whenever he attacks.
• Pre-Final Boss: The final fight against Apparitor is just before the actual Final Boss.
• Recurring Boss: Subject Alpha is encountered three times in Chapter 5. The first meeting is a Hopeless Boss Fight. The next fight is a proper toe-to-toe, and the third fight sees it absorbed into a biomass-filled wall.
• Robot Buddy: L-Gion, a short three-legged robot who serves as Shadow's Exposition Fairy and frequently drops in to provide pickups. It's heavily implied that he used to be Gio, a young ninja.
• Samus Is a Girl: The game hints that Exo the transforming Cool Bike and the unnamed kunoichi with the BFS seen in a Chapter 8 cutscene are one in the same. Said cutscene plays right after the Apparitor destroys Exo. The hints are in both characters' dialogues, making statements in a similar fashion and flat out saying what could be considered catchphrases word-for-word:
  Exo (after being freed): You fool! You fell right into my trap! Prepare to die! ... Just kidding... Sorry, my banter's rusty! It's been forever since I've talk to someone.
  Exo (against the Apparitor): Come on, Shadow! It's time for a good bashing!!
  Kunoichi (first meeting Shadow): Well, he won't find it without gettin' through me, which means it's time for a good bashing. Prepare to die! ... Sorry, I'm just messin' with ya. Been a while since I've had a good fight. That was just the first thing that came to mind...
• Sentry Gun: Some enemies in this game take a form of wall-mounted turrets.
• Sequel Hook: In the game's stinger, a figure with a hawk comes down into the room where the Master's body was kept, and hooks something up to Shadow's essence-less body, implied to be a sort of energy transfusion as the last shot has a close up of the eyes, which resume glowing.
• Shout-Out:
  • Many of the items work like the attack drones from Shatterhand, floating behind Shadow and attacking whenever he does.
    • The basic design of Shadow, the animation of his basic sword attacks and the powerup that extends its range and some of the early stage elements and bosses (the circling platforms on a track in the first chapter, the large tank with guns that can be destroyed before attacking a weak point placed higher up in the second chapter and part of the third chapter taking place amongst city ruins high in the sky) are similar to the ones in Shadow of the Ninja.
  • Right before the fight with the Dropship in Chapter 7, Exo says "A huge battleship is approaching. Let's attack aggressively!"
  • One of the secret areas is a set of three power-up boxes in a room that looks like a warp zone from Super Mario Bros. It's even reached by jumping onto a ceiling and running right.
  • A room that can be reached by using Airstrike to bounce on several enemies in a row looks like a sewer and contains a skateboard and a large stack of empty pizza boxes.
  • Apparitor is an obvious expy to Solo from Strider.
• Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: A few levels do feature instant death crushers.
• Soul Eating: The mutated Dr. Progen seemingly devours Essence, the soul, to empower himself.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Apparitor is frequently called "The Apparitor" in the game's text.
• Spikes of Doom: Spikes show up here and there.
• Spirit World: After dying, most members of the ninja clan depart to the Ethos, a pseudo-afterlife that flows through the world. Shadow visits it several times by meditating at statues, usually getting a new ability in the process.
• Steam Vent Obstacle: It's not long you have to wait until the first sections of damaging steam coming from surfaces start to appear in the first set of levels.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: The final boss has the Elementals trapped inside orbs around his body empowering it, but once broken open, they break free and assist Shadow in different ways by countering the boss' attacks: the blue Elemental provides him with a shield that blocks the boss' rain of fire, the green Elemental creates platforms that can be used to reach the boss once he rises higher into the air or avoid the ground spikes and the red Elemental makes Shadow's next 3 attacks fire out a projectile, letting him easily destroy the large spikes and the ground spikes the boss throws out, or just use them to attack the boss directly. Furthermore, the spinning blades the boss throws also embed themselves into the ground and can be destroyed for SP-restoring powerups, which are needed to likewise hurt the boss with charged Rising Fire at the later stage of the fight as an alternative to the green Elemental's platforms.
• Together in Death: Shadow and the Master, after everything they've been through, finally pass on to Ethos in the ending.
• Uncommon Time: Research Lab's theme is in 5/4.
• Unique Enemy: Chapter 4 contains the only "jellyfish cluster" enemy in the game: it looks like a grey mound with a rotating eyestalk on top of it, and if damaged, it bursts into a group of robotic, electricity-conducting robotic jellyfish enemies commonly found in earlier points of the chapter, and if you save after killing it, it won't respawn.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • It's possible to attack L-Gion whenever he shows up, causing him to compact in fear. Hit him enough times and he breaks into pieces, though thankfully it's only temporary and he'll return at the next opportunity. This also applies to the secret room with 5 L-Gions with one of them saying that losing too many bodies wouldn't be good.
  • In another secret room, you find 4 red robotic creatures harmlessly dancing with an 8-bit cat, and one of them even pops out a life restoring power up. You can easily slash the robots, with the music/dancing stopping with the first one's destruction.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Scrambler, the boss of Chapter 2. The three bosses fought before it aren't pushovers, but they have glaring openings in their attack patterns and/or rely on add-ons that can be destroyed permanently. Scrambler is a lot more aggressive and a lot less predictable, and there aren't many opportunities to get up close and slash at it. It also reveals a second form after its health bar is depleted; it only has a quarter of the health that the main form did, but it can easily catch you off-guard.
• Warm-Up Boss: Smasher is the first boss. It doesn't move and its attacks are easy to avoid.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Dr. Progen’s descent into villainy was driven by desperation to save the Master, who is also his own daughter, after she mysteriously began dying following a freak accident.
• What the Hell, Hero?: If the player attacks Apparitor from behind in the first fight against him, he'll call out Shadow for having no honor, no spine, and say that even the trainees weren't backstabbers. One of the feats is not using this tactic against him.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Said word by word to Apparitor by Dr. Progen before Dr. Progen reveals that the real Master was sealed away. Also overlaps with You Have Failed Me, which is also said practically word by word.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Shadow almost retrieves the synthetic vessel that preserves the Master at the end of the fourth chapter, only for Apparitor to swoop in and steal it.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: The antagonist and some of his minions seem to do this on people he captures to empower himself. He does this to the Elementals, powerful ninjas, absorbing them into his body.
• Zero-Effort Boss: Subverted. When Subject Alpha first appears, it limps in agony and just lets you attack it...then fully forms and reduces Shadow's hit points to 1.

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