The Legend of Kage
The Legend of Kage is a 1985 arcade game by Taito and was released in 1986 for various contemporary video game home systems. The player is armed with a Kodachi short sword and an unlimited number of shuriken. By grabbing a crystal ball, the player character Kage's clothes change color, gaining certain powers (larger shuriken and/or faster speed); if Kage is hit while wearing green or orange clothes, he does not die, but reverts to his normal red clothes. When he grabs a scroll, Kage stops and meditates for several seconds while approaching enemies fall to the ground dead (the scrolls appear in the arcade version, but the crystal balls do not). This MSX version was brought to the SG-1000 in Taiwan without a license.
Story
The player takes on the role of a young Iga ninja named Kage ("Shadow"), who is tasked with saving Princess Kiri (Kirihime) from the villains Yoshi (Yoshiro Yukikusa) and Yuki (Yukinosuke Kiri). Kage must fight his way through the forest, the secret passage, the fortress wall and through the castle, saving the princess twice (three times in the NES version) to win the game. Each time the princess is rescued, the seasons in the game change.