House of Shinobe (series)

''This article is about the series. You may have been looking for the game.''

House of Shinobe is a turn-based role-playing video game series developed and published by Square Enix. The first and second games were released for PlayStations 2 and 3, the third and fourth only for PlayStation 3, Reavers Legacy for PlayStation Portable and Reavers Legacy 2 for PlayStation Vita.

The series focuses on its main protagonist's, Shinobu Reijis life or on Reavers Legacy and Reavers Legacy 2 on Kasasagi Wataris life before meeting Reiji. Shinobe Reiji is a spirit born from non-spiritual blood, as neither his father Shinobe Yoshi nor his mother Shinobe Chiro are spirits as opposed to his friend Watari, whose father Kasasagi Goku is a full-blooded devil.

The series is based in modern-day Japanese archipelago in the middle of the Pacific.

Beings
There exist four different kinds of beings as which House of Shinobe's characters appear.

Humans
Humans are mortal beings without spiritual or devilish abilities, unless they have abandoned their spiritism or devilry to become human, i.e. through being a reaver where they have little to no control over some of their powers to some extent. A human can give birth to a spirit even if its father is a human as well if their child has a spiritual grandparent or ancestor as the 'missing link'.

Spirits
Spirits are immortal beings able to practice elemental magic, metamorphosis, mentalism and various other spiritual abilities. They have usually good to neutral karma and a friendly alignment towards humans. Spirits appear as humans with an ethereal glow emanating from their bodies. They can embrace humanness or devilry by turning into a reaver first.

Devils
Devils are immortal beings able to practice black magic and various other devilish practices and abilities. They have usually bad karma and a hostile alignment towards humans. Devils appear as a distorted fusion between an animal and a human with several human's body parts being replaced by an animal's body parts. They can embrace humanness or devilry by turning into a reaver first.

Reavers
Reavers are incomplete beings in transition from one being to another. They are incapable to control some of their powers to some extent due to their incompleteness. Reavers are rare, since there are only five known reavers in the series: Kasasagi Watari, Hayabusa Bofuu, Kaminari Akio, Hokazai Akira and Lang Jie-Shuang. A reaver will stop being a reaver by severe regret of ever existing as the previous being of the transition, be it any of the three aforementioned.

The Ræver
Main article: Kasasagi Watari

The Ræver (alternative spellings Raever, Rayver, Raver and Reyver) is one of the two special reavers and Kasasagi Wataris epithet after he regretted his deeds as a devil and the assistance of the attempted murder of the Shinobes. The name is a combination of the Norwegian word ræv (eng. fox) and reaver. The name also resembles the word raven, which Watari himself resembles (jap. ワタリガラス, translit. watarigarasu, eng. raven) since he can turn into a three-legged crow (jap. 八咫烏, translit. yatagarasu) and a black fox. He is the only devil, reaver and spirit (in the aforementioned order) to possess two alternative forms alongside his normal form.

Nazomeita Satsujin
''Main article: Hokazai Akira

The Nazomeita Satsujin (also Kira no Nazo) is Hokazai Akiras pseudonym.