Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is an awful lot like Hades. Instead of venturing through the Greek underworld as a demigod, you’re fighting through New York City as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. TMNT: Splintered Fate is a roguelike action RPG where each run is a little bit different, partly thanks to having four playable characters instead of one.
TMNT: Splintered Fate’s story begins with Leonardo training, only to be ambushed the Foot Clan and Shredder, who breaks the news that Splinter has been kidnapped. This starts a chain of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles facing off against the Foot Clan, as well as some other groups that have it out for the Turtles.
As a roguelike, progress is made through repetition. At the start of a run you can choose which of the four turtles you want to play as, with each having their own unique specials and skills. Michelango has the largest attack area size and has the most chance to deal multi-damage. His tool is taunting, which damages enemies and briefly stuns them when they are hit. Leonardo has a master strike that hits at the end of a combo, and his base tool is throwing three shuriken. Raphael has increased chances to deal critical hits, and his tools are a turtle line that pulls enemies towards him while dealing damage. Finally, Donatello has a shield blast that deals damage and briefly makes him immune to damage. His tools also charge 80% faster than the others, and at the start of each level he regains some health.
While all of them have these unique abilities and own weapons, the basic combat remains the same for all. That is getting in close and dealing damage to multi enemies in various ways. Even so, my personal preference was Donatello purely because of the health advantage, and being able to use tools faster than others.
Of course, picking your Turtle of choice is just the first step. Every run is different due to the random nature of the bonuses you can acquire. You may get bonuses that deal flame or water damage, and others that allow you to move faster. Some of the elements, which are flame, water, electricity, ooze, astral light, and astral dark, can be combined together to improve the damage you deal. However, there are also times when one selection can replace another bonus. This could be a good or bad thing. For example, I had an unstable ooze container tool that dealt decent area damage, and accidentally replaced it with a shuriken storm, which dealt less overall damage. If you get lucky, you will have higher powered versions of these abilities appear at the end of each level, which can lead to attacks becoming more powerful.
Like any roguelike, you lose all of your acquired abilities at the end of a run, but can unlock permanent upgrades through the Dragon and Dreamer bonuses. These unlock after a few levels, once you hit that skill brick wall where you cannot advance without permanent buffs. Dragon bonuses focus on direct effects, like increasing attack power, health, and improved rates for critical attacks. Dreamer bonuses impact the intangible aspects of the game, increasing chances of various drops and items appearing during a run. To unlock these you have to collect Dragon and Dreamer coins, which can then be spent back at base.
On top of these, there are artifacts which are unlocked for completing specific events and tasks in a run, like beating specific bosses. You can change which artifact you want to equip between attempts. Some artifacts increase the likelihood of specific element ability options appearing for you to select while others increase odds of dodging an attack.
There are four stages within TMNT: Splintered Fate, with these being The Sewers, The Docks, The Streets, and The Rooftops. These areas follow the same pattern with rooms of enemies to power through, with a miniboss battle taking place halfway through, and a boss battle at the end of the stage. What TMNT: Splintered Fate does well is mix up the mid boss and boss level fights. The mid bosses switch between each run, and a couple of the bosses grow stronger following the end of a successful run. Completing your first successful run is satisfying but it also really marks the true start of the game.
At the end of this run optional Dreamer and Gauntlet challenges are added to the game. Dreamer portals grant boons but can require some sacrifice to obtain those bonuses. Gauntlet challenges are the true tests of TMNT: Splintered Fate. These challenges are available for midboss and end boss fights for every stage, making bosses stronger and introducing additional strong enemies. For example, in one boss fight, the boss gains more powerful elemental abilities while also being accompanied by elite enemies that are essentially mini bosses themselves.
One of the issues with TMNT: Splintered Fate is that while it is entertaining, it starts to feel repetitive and the story is really not that gripping. The voice actors do a very good job, but the story feels elongated to pad the game out. After my fourth successful run, April exclaimed we were likely halfway through the process to rescue Splinter. It is supposed to come across as encouraging, but instead I asked out loud if the game was serious. There is only so many times you can go through the same four stages and bosses, even if they have tweaks each time, before wanting to stop.
