Five warlords signed a pact in cursed ink. One shinobi survived it. Slip into their castles by moonlight, climb them floor by floor and cut each lord down at the summit, then take his province on the war map.
Five names on the scroll.
The ink signed its own name beneath theirs.
The war for the sixteen provinces had run for a generation. Four great houses grew tired of winning it slowly, so they signed the Black Covenant in the ink of a cursed inkstone. Kage, the scribe who ground that ink, watched his own lord refuse to sign and die before morning.
Kage quenched his sword in what was left of the ink: the only blade that can cut what the ink has made. Now he climbs every castle on the scroll, and strikes the names out one by one.
A new castle every raid.
Five procedural floors: the outer grounds, the garden, the palace halls, the keep and the summit. No two fortresses are built alike.
Stay unseen, or don't.
Guards walk patrols with vision cones and rising suspicion. Leave a body where it can be found and a runner rings the bell. The castle locks down.
Cut down the lord.
The cursed lord waits at the summit with what's left of his guard. Defeat him and his castle, and his province, are yours.
Moments from a raid.
Ink, lantern light and steel.
Kage doesn't do quiet.
A Black shinobi in feudal Japan, told with a 1970s grindhouse swagger. The castles, the lords and the history play it straight; Kage talks back. He's cool, unhurried and funny under pressure, with 82 voiced one-liners across 24 moments of a raid. Everyone else speaks Japanese, so he stands out in every scene the way he stands out in every castle.
Alright, castle. Let's see what you got.
Okay, okay. Plan B. Plan B is violence.
Shh. Sleep tight, baby.
Too slow, slick.
Poof. Magic, baby.
That's the end of the reel, jack.
Strong language can be switched off, and so can the commentary.
Every cut lands.
Strike out every name.
- 鬼Akagane GendōThe Oni Lord. His granaries are full; his villages are empty.
- 水Minase SadamoriThe Drowned Daimyō. He broke a dam to drown a valley, and the river took him too.
- 蜘Kumoi TadaokiThe Spider Shōgun, waiting at the top of his web.
- 狐Lady TamamoThe Nine-Tailed Regent, who rules from behind her masks.
- 墨The Ink SovereignBokuō, who wrote the Covenant.
Each fight is framed by in-engine cutscenes, voiced in Japanese with English subtitles.
Seven kinds of enemy, and the lord.
Archers watch from the walls, guard dogs run you down, bell runners raise the alarm and a key carrier holds the way out. Geisha heal the wounded. The exit stays barred while anyone is still hunting you, so finish what you start.
Sixteen provinces. One clan left standing.
Between raids, rival clans fight over a 3D hex map of sixteen provinces. Each rival house has its own playstyle and skill. Every castle you take grows your army; fortify your holdings, put down revolts, collect bounties and use the underdog bonus to come back from behind.
Rules of war stop a runaway leader from winning by default. Win by domination, or by holding the most land when the season ends.
Career, Survival and the leaderboards.
Painted in ink.
The castle is waiting.
Wishlisting is the best way to support Inkblade. Steam will let you know the day it launches.
Developed and published by Revenant Machine.