The first game, Sinjid: Battle Arena, was released circa 2003. The point of the game is to defeat all the monsters you can. The higher difficulty you choose, the more monsters you get to fight. You can go to a shop to buy stat increases for your character, learn new skills from a man in a green cloak, and go to your old master to get advice, change your weapons and armor, and use cheat codes. There is little plot beyond battling monsters in a portal.
The second game, Sinjid: Shadow of the Warrior, was published circa 2004. An evil warlord named Lord Baka has ordered an attack on Sinjid's village, and so Sinjid is taken in by a heroic ninja named Fujin and is taught the ways of the ninja by him so he can combat the warlord's Fallen Army. However, he had never killed another man in battle before, and so Fujin sends him to the Shadow Temple and orders him to kill all the warriors in the Human Portal so he can fulfill his task. Like the first game, it is turn-based, and it introduces new mechanics such as a class system, the ability to use items in battle, a hunger system, and a physical/special split.
The third game, simply titled Sinjid, was released in 2013. In this game, Sinjid is falsely arrested for murdering Fujin, and is sentenced to seven years in prison while the real killer remains free. His captor, Lord Masaru, states that the Imperial Empire is at war with the Shogun, and that they need someone skilled enough to have killed the greatest Shinobi to fight the war for them. He promises that Sinjid will be pardoned for his alleged crimes if he cooperates with him, and he sets off on his quest to kill the Shogun's warlords and find his master's true killer. He receives assistance from Scout Eri, a scout assigned with giving him tactical information so he knows what he's going up against. The game uses a real time battling system and is more action-based than the other games, but it retains characteristics of RPGs such as the class system. Unlike the past two games, Sinjid has access to a wide array of skills, some of which are exclusive to certain classes.
This work contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Kasumi in Sinjid. She later becomes the dark variety.
- The Alcoholic: You can encounter drunken ninjas in Shadow of the Warrior, and there's an NPC named Baro the Drunk who's tired of drinking sake and wants to get drunk on European wine.
- Apathetic Citizens: Ryomura Village's citizens in Sinjid don't seem to notice or care that Mistwalkers hired by the Shogun stormed their village and kidnapped your allies while you were away. It's even lampshaded; Sinjid questions why the villagers are so calm given the situation they're in, and Midori states that it's because they're slow.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The Ivory Dagger in Sinjid. It looks nice and is rather expensive, but it's basically a slighty stronger Shaman's Spellblade. Its Flavor Text even describes it as such, stating that it's beautiful but impractical.
- Badass Boast: Sinjid makes one when Eri tells him about Warlord Niroshi and his undead soldiers.Sinjid: Don't worry. If they died once, they can die again!
- Bag of Holding: Sinjid carries one in the second and third games. It enables him to hold many things, from food and empowering potions to whole weapons and armors.
- The Berserker: Dai'Jin Berserkers. They're very strong, can lower your defense whenever they strike you, can make the effect to stack with every hit, and can enter a state of Rage which boosts their damage potential even further.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Kazuro is a quiet man who leads a solitary lifestyle, but he's also a murderer and a master manipulator, and set off the events of Sinjid by killing the titular character's master. The Old King is well aware of this due to past experience, and warns Sinjid not to underestimate him because of his quiet nature.
- Big Bad: Lord Baka in Shadow of the Warrior, the Shogun in the first half of Sinjid, and Kazuro in the second half.
- Big Good: The Emperor serves as the leader of the Imperial Army in Sinjid.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The Purple Critter, the Metal Tailed Moth, the Spirit Bug, and the Poison Wasp.
- The Blacksmith: Shigeru in Sinjid. He creates and sells weapons, and can help you upgrade yours, providing you have a valuable mineral handy, such as gold.
- Blade Spam: One of the Warrior's attacks involves striking the opponent multiple times with their weapon.
- Bloodless Carnage: Aside from the High-Pressure Blood released from dead Mountain Nagas, Shadow of the Warrior is bloodless.
- Booze-Based Buff: In Sinjid, drinking sake grants you the Tipsy buff, which increases the damage you give and receive by 15%.
- Boring, but Practical: Selling bottles of medicine in Shadow of the Warrior. The bottles don't sell for much money and getting to the lady who makes the medicine and returning to the merchant who gives you the leaves to make it is tedious, but doing so ensures that you never run out of cash.
- Break the Badass: When Kazuro tells Sinjid that Fujin and the Imperial Army have been murdering innocent people and forcing their children into war, he becomes distraught and begins to lose faith in his beloved master. Unfortunately for Kazuro, he has no proof of these crimes, and Sinjid pulls through, killing him and ultimately saving the day, but not without losing his idealism.
- The Brute: The Bandit Brute serves as this to Mad Lord Yuji, fittingly enough.
- Cheat Code: Battle Arena contains three of them: thebestdress, which maximizes base health, asfastascanbe, which maximizes base speed, and mayntndbewithyou, which maximizes base power. You'll be denied awards if you use them.
- Clear My Name: The whole plot of Sinjid. Sinjid is framed for the murder of his beloved master, and he goes on a quest to prove his innocence and exact justice on the real killer.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- Midori, who was last seen leading the heroes to the Emerald Temple and giving Sinjid his quests until Lord Masaru returned, informs Sinjid on where he can find the Old King, who happens to know who Kazuro is.
- The Dutch trader, who happens to hold items needed for some later side quests.
- Kasumi, who is introduced far earlier than either of the previous two, all the way back in Ryomura Village. Introduced as the deadliest Shinobi in the Imperial army and leagues ahead of Sinjid, later turns traitor and serves as the next-to-last boss.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Areas marked with a green flag in Sinjid are peaceful towns containing nothing but friendly NPCs while those marked with a red flag are battlefields filled with hostiles.
- Cooldown: Every attack in Sinjid has a cooldown effect. Some passive skills and equipment can reduce the cooldown effect, though.
- Counter-Attack: Blood Mirror in the third game, which makes the attacker take just as much damage as the user.
- Critical Hit: In Sinjid, both you and your enemies have a chance of critical hits. They're easier to land if the character is fast or if they hit their opponent from behind.
- Critical Hit Class: Assassins in Sinjid have the best chances of doling out critical hits due to the chances of landing them being based on speed, which happens to be their best stat.
- Crutch Character: The Balanced class in Shadow of the Warrior starts out great due to its balanced stats and ability to utilize both physical and magical attacks, but becomes a Master of None lategame due to having no particular strengths.
- Dark Action Girl: All of the female enemies in Sinjid, from the Mooks to the minibosses. Kasumi becomes one of these later in the game.
- Deadly Gaze: Lady Shiori's paralyzing stare, which does heavy damage and immobilizes Sinjid if he's looking in her direction. You must look away from her to avoid this effect.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: Ghost Shuriken, which involves the target getting shredded with magical shurikens. Each shuriken does low damage, but they quickly hit their target for a good length of time. It's quite useful for taking out enemies with a strong Healing Factor.
- Dem Bones: Skeletons, Skeleton Mages, the Gel Skeleton, the Golden Skeleton, and the Titanium Skeleton.
- Desperation Attack: Vengence Blade(sic) in the first game and Avenger in the second game do more damage the lower the user's health is.
- Disappeared Dad: Hattori. He died fighting Lord Baka's forces while sending Fujin and Sinjid to the mountains.
- Distressed Dude: Shigeru and Lord Masaru in Sinjid. The former is held hostage by Lord Dai'jin while the latter is captured by Mistwalkers and interrogated for information by Lord Takeshi.
- Dual Boss: The Shadow of the Reaper in Battle Arena has a Time Bomb to assist him in battle.
- Dual Wielding: Sinjid and his enemies in Sinjid can wield two weapons in battle if said weapons are listed as one-handed.
- Elite Mooks: Mistwalkers qualify as this thanks to a very potent poison they utilize. If they infect you with it, you're pretty much dead.
- Enemy Scan: The Dragon Eye armor and the Third Eye skill in Battle Arena allow you to see the stats of your enemies, which are otherwise invisible to the player.
- Evil Counterpart: The Venomwoods residents serve as this to the Emerald Temple residents; while both groups utilize poison and have an affinity for the color green, the former are allied with the Shogun while the latter work for the Emperor.
- Evil Knockoff: Kazuro was widely feared among the residents of the Old Kingdom due to his ability to create evil doppelgangers of his opponents. The Old King and his allies, unprepared for this dark art, were effectively curb-stomped by the doppelgangers, who forced the former to go into hiding and killed the latter. This carries over into gameplay, where Kazuro will create clones of Sinjid who share his exact same stats and abilities to stall him.
- Eye Scream: The Small Demon and its variants in Battle Arena all have their eyes sewn shut.
- Face–Heel Turn: Kasumi betrays the heroes and joins Kazuro's army later on in the game.
- Fallen Hero:
- Warlord Izumi used to be a respected war hero, but changed sides because he was afraid that he would lose the war.
- Kasumi used to be the deadliest Shinobi in the Imperial Army. Later on in the game, she cuts off all ties with them and joins Kazuro's forces.
- Final Boss: The Shadow Reaper in Battle Arena, the Samurai duo in Shadow of the Warrior, and Kazuro in Sinjid.
- Fragile Speedster:
- Shadow Ninjas in Shadow of the Warrior and Assassins in Sinjid are the fastest of the available classes, but have low health. They double as Glass Cannons; Assassins can land critical hits better than any other class thanks to their high speed, and the Shadow Ninja packs a punch with Speed Strike, which does damage based on speed.
- Assailants are very fast, making them hard to hit with any class that's not a Shadow Ninja, but they have poor physical defense. They also count as Glass Cannons because their attacks do damage based on speed, which is their best stat.
- The Poison Wasp is the fastest enemy faced in the Monster Portal, but isn't very sturdy.
- The Anti Ninja is the fastest enemy in the game, making him really difficult to hit, but has non-existent defenses. He also falls into the Glass Cannon trope due to his high physical strength.
- The Ghost: Lord Baka and the Shadow Wolves in Shadow of the Warrior and the Emperor and Shogun in Sinjid are alluded to in-game, but never make proper appearances in their respective games.
- Glass Cannon:
- While normally lacking in power, Shadow Ninjas in Sinjid: Shadow of the Warrior can become this through the use of Speed Strike, which does damage based on speed.
- Agents are the only enemies in Shadow Of The Warrior with negative physical defense, but they make up for it with their above average (for the Human Portal, anyway) strength and speed. Their magic defense is decent, though.
- The Anti Ninja hits hard, but has nonexistant defense. He doubles as a Fragile Speedster due to his incredible speed.
- The Goomba: The Purple Critter in Battle Arena, Thieves in Shadow of the Warrior, and Bandit Scouts in Sinjid are the easiest enemies to beat in their respective games.
- Gotta Kill Them All: The goal of Battle Arena, the main campaign of Shadow of the Warrior, and the first half of Sinjid is to respectively kill every single monster, human warrior, and warlord aligned with the Shogun.
- Grim Reaper: The Reaper enemies in Battle Arena and the Shadow Reaper in Shadow of the Warrior.
- The Heavy: Kazuro's not a part of the war between the Imperial Army and the Shogun warlords, but he is the one who killed Fujin, setting off the events of the story.
- High-Pressure Blood: Mountain Nagas in the second game release a fountain of blood when killed. It's quite jarring when compared to how the other enemies die.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: Both playable and enemy Assassins in Sinjid have the ability to stun or slow down their opponents, attack them while they're weakened, and then flee when they recover until they can incapacitate them again.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- It's possible to lure Ryota the Sly's Homing Projectile back at him, which slows him down and does damage over time, allowing you to kill him faster and easier.
- Using Ghost Shuriken against an enemy who can use Blood Mirror is a deadly mistake; the former does a lot of damage over time and is used by Priests, and the latter causes the attacker to take just as much damage as the user does and is used by Warriors, who tend to be a lot more durable in comparison.
- Infinity -1 Sword:
- The Kabuki Mask in Sinjid is a great early-game piece of equipment for Warriors thanks to the Madness skill, which converts Intellect into Strength, allowing them to hit much harder and block more effectively than usual. The only downside is that your Focus gets cut in half, limiting the amount of moves you can use at once, but the increased Focus regeneration caused by the increased Intellect makes up for it. And it can be found as early as the second level.
- The Shogun Flame Bo, also in Sinjid, is a very effective tool for Priests to use. It does decent damage and provides boosts to both Intellect and defense, helping you survive bouts for longer periods of time, and comes with the Fire Jailor skill, which has the chance to completely immobilize opponents for 3 seconds, giving you time to recover or strike before they can move again. While it does get outclassed in terms of damage potential near the end of the game, its properties make it a great all-rounder weapon.
- Infinity +1 Sword:
- The Shadow Armor in Shadow of the Warrior is this to Warriors. It provides great speed boosts, which improves their accuracy and helps them keep up with their opponents while still maintaining their power and durability, making them much more efficient than they were at the start of the game. However, it's fairly expensive and cannot be accessed until defeating all the enemies in the Human Portal.
- The Viper Kusari and Obsidian Kunai are this for the Assassin class. They do excellent damage and provide great boosts to the holder's speed. Even better, they give the holder two skills that are quite beneficial for a class that relies on Hit-and-Run Tactics: Precision, which increases your chances of landing critical hits, and Toxicity, which deals poison damage over time. You don't get them until really late in the game, though.
- Kazuro's armor provides decent boosts to all stats, and can take this further with the Solidarity skill, which boosts all stats by 5% based on how high the wearer's Vitality is, easily turning them into a Master of All. You can't get it until you beat the Final Boss, though.
- In the Back: You and your opponents will do more damage if you strike each other from behind. An Imperial Guard in Ryomura Village lampshades it, stating that while it is useful, it's also a dirty tactic.
- Invisible Monsters: The Grim Reaper, Soul Reaper, and Spirit Reaper from Battle Arena are all invisible due to a glitch. This can make fighting them very painful due to them having One-Hit Kill attacks that would otherwise be predictable (they visibly raise their scythes in the air before dropping them on the player when the glitch isn't in effect).
- Jack of All Stats:
- The Balanced class from Sinjid: Shadow of the Warrior is this. It benefits from both physical and magic attacks, and its stats are well-rounded.
- When he's not activating his Rage mechanic, which doubles his strength but reduces his speed by 35%, Mad Lord Yuji from Sinjid is well-balanced.
- Lightning Bruiser:
- Warriors in Sinjid: Shadow of the Warrior are normally really slow, but if you give them Shadow equipment, you get a class that moves fast, hits hard, and can tank most hits with ease.
- Although the Semi Demon has low magic defense, he still fits this archetype due to his high physical strength, great physical defense, and decent speed.
- The Flesh Fiend has high physical strength, good physical and magic defense, and is the second fastest enemy found in the Monster Portal.
- The Shadow Reaper is very powerful, has the highest defenses out of any enemy in the game, and is the second fastest enemy in the game, second only to the Anti Ninja in terms of speed. His only weakness is his low health, but his defenses make up for it.
- Warlord Izumi in Sinjid is fast, powerful, and has a large amount of health. For these reasons, the battle with him is considered to be the part where the game stops pulling its punches and goes all out, both in-universe and by players.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Both Sinjid and his enemies in Shadow of the Warrior can carry shields into battle, which negate all damage done to the user until destroyed.
- Meaningful Name: Midori's name means "green" in Japanese, and she certainly fits the part, wearing a green outfit and living in an area called the Emerald Temple.
- Mighty Glacier:
- Warriors from Sinjid: Shadow of the Warrior and Sinjid are the physically strongest and most resilient class, but have the worst speed and magic abilities.
- The Undead are physically strong, have high health, and are resistant to magic attacks, but are the slowest enemies you'll face in the Monster Portal.
- Liquid Metal is the slowest enemy faced in the Dark Rift, but has high physical strength and defense to make up for it.
- The Blood Spirit in Shadow Of the Warrior is a combination of this and Squishy Wizard; it isn't very evasive despite its base speed of 35 and can't use physical attacks, but makes up for it with its powerful magic attacks that never miss and its nearly impenetrable shield. If you happen to be facing it with a Shadow Ninja, which revolves around evasion at the cost of durability,
you will be in for a world of hurt. - Mad Lord Yuji's Rage buff turns him into this; it doubles his power but reduces his speed by 35%. Otherwise, he's a Jack of All Stats.
- Lord Dai'Jin is slow, but can unleash powerful shockwaves and has great defensive power thanks to his Immunity ability. Immunity stacks up every time he's struck, and for every stack of it he has, he takes 15% less damage along with rapid healing. If Immunity's present, do NOT attack him until it wears off.
- Mook Medic: Medics and enemy Priests fill this role.
- Morton's Fork: Things will not end well for Lord Haruki no matter what choice he makes. If he reveals Kazuro's location, he'll kill him. If he doesn't, Sinjid will kill him. He chooses the former due to Sinjid pressuring him.
- Ms. Exposition: Scout Eri's job is to inform you about the areas you go to and the enemies that reside in them.
- Night of the Living Mooks: Lord Niroshi's soldiers are all undead.
- Nintendo Hard: Battle Arena falls into this, especially on the higher difficulty levels. Very durable enemies, no visible information about foes unless one uses a certain skill or armor, invisible monsters who can kill you in a single hit, and a rather limited ability to gain skills and upgrades due to a lack of a training system.
- No Fair Cheating: Battle Arena will deny players awards if they use cheat codes.
- Non-Action Guy: Lord Haruki doesn't put up a fight when you confront him, and he compliantly reveals Kazuro's location when Sinjid interrogates him for information.
- One-Hit Kill:
- Reaper-type enemies in Battle Arena can instantly kill Sinjid by raising their scythes into the air, then striking him with them.
- Spike pits in Sinjid will immediately kill any enemy who falls into them.
- Lady Asari's Fireballs have this effect on higher difficulties.
- Playing with Fire: Lady Asari in Sinjid utilizes mostly Fireballs to attack, with the occasional air-lock. While they move slowly, they also pack quite a punch, and are said to be hot enough to melt human flesh. The spy found in the Dai'jin Mines will inform you about this if you convince him that you're his ally.
- Pride Before a Fall: This happens to Warlord Asura. Kazuro has offered to help him numerous times, but he always refused his help because he was overconfident in his abilities. Now that Sinjid's out for his blood, Asura needs his help more than ever, but he refuses to help him, having had enough of his pride, and leaves him to die at Sinjid's hands, costing Asura his last remaining ally.
- Purple Is Powerful: The Final Demon in Battle Arena and the last Seer in Shadow of the Warrior respectively have purple skin and a staff that emits purple light which show how powerful they are compared to their weaker counterparts.
- Shop Fodder: Gold rings in Sinjid offer very negligible stat boosts, and are only there to be sold at a high price. Their Flavor Text lampshades it.
- Shout-Out:
- There's an A Song of Ice and Fire reference made early in the game. An NPC named Sutaku the Gray asks you to give him a lineage scroll, and if you comply, he'll give you a steel greatsword named Ice.
- Lord Masaru states that Fujin was a real human being and a real hero, a reference to the College & Electric Youth song "A Real Hero".
- Warriors have an attack that involves throwing a kunai tied to a rope at the opponent, then dragging them closer.
- Sinister Scythe:
- Reapers of all kinds wield scythes as weapons, and could pull off a One-Hit Kill with them in Battle Arena if the player failed to attack them when their scythes were raised.
- Scythes and sickles can be wielded by both Sinjid and his enemies in Sinjid. They generally provide boosts to Intellect and Agility, making them efficient weapons for Priests to use, and some come with Damage Over Time effects like bleeding and poison, which helps if you're playing as an Assassin, who utilize Hit-and-Run Tactics to their advantage.
- Snake People: Mountain Nagas in Shadow of the Warrior are humanoid snakes that appear as enemies in the Monster Portal.
- SNK Boss: The Shadow of the Reaper has extremely high stats, can instantly kill the player, and is assisted by a Time Bomb in battle, which will instantly kill the player if they fail to kill the Shadow within 70000 seconds. Even cheat codes won't save you from this thing.
- Spikes of Doom: Spike pits can be found within the Dai'jin Mines, and they're a threat to both Sinjid and his enemies; the former will take massive damage if he falls into them while the latter will be immediately killed by them.
- Squishy Wizard:
- Mages in Sinjid: Shadow of the Warrior and Priests in Sinjid have powerful magic abilities, but are lacking in health and physical strength. Depending on the build you choose, the Priest can either be a magically-based Glass Cannon or a magically-based Fragile Speedster.
- Skeleton Mages have no physical attacks and are fragile without their cloaks, but make up for it with their healing abilities and magic attacks.
- Warlord Niroshi is both this and a Stone Wall; He has poor physical strength, but has high vitality and speed, can summon barriers that block all damage, and likes to summon and hide behind his Risen Fighters while sniping you from a distance.
- Time-Limit Boss: The Time Bomb from Battle Arena, whether fought alone or assisting the Shadow of the Reaper. You only have 5000 seconds (70000 if fighting the Shadow) to destroy it before it blows up, and failing to do so results in instant death.
- True Final Boss: The Shadow Reaper in Shadow of the Warrior, who can only be fought by completing the Human Portal and killing the other enemies that show up in the Dark Rift.
- 24-Hour Armor: Warlord Izumi never takes his armor off because he's aware that the Imperial Army is hunting him down for his betrayal and will eventually find him, and wanted to be prepared at all costs.
- Underground Monkey: All three games to various extents have reskinned enemies whose colors indicated that they're stronger than the original enemies. For example, the Spirit Bug in Battle Arena is a blue version of the Purple Critter, and the Raider in Shadow of the Warrior is a Bandit who wears green and grey clothing instead of blue and brown clothing.
- The Unfought: You never get to fight Lord Baka.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Lord Masaru accuses Sinjid of being this, stating that he killed Fujin despite all the nice things he had done for him. Sinjid, however, is completely innocent, and he really appreciated his master. The real Ungrateful Bastard is Kazuro, who killed his caregiver just so he could get stronger.
- Unskilled, but Strong: The Kabuki Mask turns you into this. It increases your Intellect and Strength, but cuts your Focus meter in half, limiting the amount of moves you can use at once.
- Verbal Tic: Pazu the doll collector has a tendency to yell out his name at the end of his sentences.
- Wake-Up Call Boss:
- Warlord Izumi in Sinjid is certainly a step-up in difficulty when compared to Mad Lord Yuji, the boss who preceded him; in addition to being very fast, powerful, and durable, he can exemplify his power with Shadow Reflex, which raises his Agility, and Spectral Dash, which does damage based on Agility, making it easier for him to demolish inexperienced players. He's this in-universe as well, with Sinjid saying that he was a lot more difficult to kill than Yuji was.
- Lady Asari, also from Sinjid, is this as far as mini-bosses go; while the mini-bosses who preceded her had simple AI, mostly relied on simple melee attacks to do damage, and saved their special attacks for later, Asari immediately starts utilizing slow but powerful fireballs that cover a wide range in addition to dealing boatloads of damage (and they can instantly kill the player on higher difficulties), and she's smart enough to flee or air-lock the player when she needs to recover. She appears to be this in-universe as well, as she's the first mini-boss to have the same flashy kill screen the bosses do instead of dying unceremoniously like the aforementioned mini-bosses do.
- Warm-Up Boss: Mad Lord Yuji is the first boss you face in Sinjid, and he's by far the easiest one to beat.
- Weak, but Skilled: Hunters in Sinjid are this. Their base attacks are weak, they can't regain Focus as well as the other classes, and if they run out of Focus during a fight, they're toast. On the other hand, they can be devastating if the right strategies and combos are used.
