The Messenger

About the game

In a village of ninjas, an ancient prophecy foretells that a "Western Hero" will one day arrive to save them from the demons that plague the land. When the Demon King attacks, the promised hero appears and repels him, then entrusts a young ninja with a sacred scroll — naming him the Messenger and charging him to carry it east, to the top of a distant mountain. Aided along the way by a mysterious blue-robed shopkeeper, the Messenger sets out across a perilous world, his simple delivery gradually drawing him into a far greater struggle that spans centuries and bends time itself.

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Time to beat

14 h 25 minAverage completion time
12 h 2 minMain
14 h 29 minMain + Sides
16 h 9 minCompletionist

Trailers

Details

Genres
Platform • Adventure • Indie • Arcade
Game Modes
Single player
Player Perspective
Side view
Platforms and release dates

PC • Switch

2018-08-30

PS4

2019-03-19

XONE

2020-06-25

PS5

2025-01-23
Developers
Sabotage
Publishers
Devolver Digital
Game Engines
Unity
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Ratings

86
Metacritic42 ratings
87
IGDB8 ratings

Where to find

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Description

In a village of ninjas, an ancient prophecy foretells that a "Western Hero" will one day arrive to save them from the demons that plague the land. When the Demon King attacks, the promised hero appears and repels him, then entrusts a young ninja with a sacred scroll — naming him the Messenger and charging him to carry it east, to the top of a distant mountain. Aided along the way by a mysterious blue-robed shopkeeper, the Messenger sets out across a perilous world, his simple delivery gradually drawing him into a far greater struggle that spans centuries and bends time itself.

As a demon army besieges his village, a young ninja ventures through a cursed world, to deliver a scroll paramount to his clan's survival. Leveraging players expectations as a core game design ingredient, The Messenger is first presented as an 8-bit action platformer with a simple story, that unravels into an epic time traveling tale, eventually revealing itself as a 16-bit Metroidvania game packed with replay value and deadpan humor.

Details

Genres
Platform • Adventure • Indie • Arcade
Game Modes
Single player
Player Perspective
Side view
Platforms and release dates

PC • Switch

2018-08-30

PS4

2019-03-19

XONE

2020-06-25

PS5

2025-01-23
Developers
Sabotage
Publishers
Devolver Digital
Game Engines
Unity