Incurring a lord's favor plays an important role in the game progression of bo
Lord Akames status menu displaying his favour
th Shinobido: Way of the Ninja and Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen. Increasing or decreasing a lord's favor can affect a variety of details and change the flow of a playthrough. The most common way to affect a lord's favor are in the ninja's performance during a mission, but some other factors are at play as well.
This game mechanic is absent in Shinobido: Tales of the Ninja since all the story progression and missions are predetermined. This is also the case in Shinobido: Takumi.
How to Affect Favor[]
Depending on the actions the ninja takes it may affect a lord's favor in them positively or negatively
Note: These examples are taken from playthroughs of Way of the Ninja. While the amounts may be different in Revenge of Zen the actions are still the same.
- Completing a lord's mission (+3 for excellent performance, +2 for decent performance, +1 for poor performance)
- Completing a lord's priority mission (+4 for excellent performance, +3 for decent performance, +2 for poor performance)
- Failing a lord's mission (-4, in most cases also causes witnesses to testify the ninja's intentions to the enemy lord, see below)
- Sending a desirable gift to a lord (+1)
- Sending an undesirable gift to a lord (-4)
- Ignoring a lord's mission requests (-5)
- Leaving witnesses alive at the end of a mission to testify the ninja's hostility to a lord (-7)
- Being spotted by a lord during a mission against them (-7)
- Betraying a lord after accepting one of their missions (-12)
- Betraying a lord after accepting one of their priority missions (-15)
- Killing a lord (permanent loss of all favor)
What is Affected by Favor[]
What makes favor important is the amount of things that can be affected by it.
- Endings unlocked Favor is neccesary to unlock certain endings of a game. In particular the case of Way of the Ninja's secret ending, which requires all lords alive and favor above %70 with minimum difference (%5 to %2) between them.
- Better missions More favor means more confidence a lord has on the ninja. The higher the favor the more confident the lord feels of the ninja's skill, the better, more lucrative and more difficult missions are issued.
- Gifted items Once a lord has sufficient favor on the player, they may send gifts to them. In Way of the Ninja this ranges from items for their garden to unique medicines and bombs (this only if the player favor exclusively one lord).
- Enemy attacks to base Specific to Way of the Ninja. If a lord is sufficiently angered by the player (by, for example, being told of their hostility) they may send enemies to their base. This can range from Barbarian attacks to enemy ninja clans. While it's not the only factor that causes attacks to the garden, it's one of the most definite ways.
- Preparedness If a lord has little confidence on a ninja they may suspect them of conspiring with their enemies, thus during mission their troops may be more alert and better prepared against the ninja's attacks. They may even contract the aid of enemy ninja clans.