The Messenger's combat is less varied than the platforming, but is still an important part of the game. At the start, you can only attack to the side, but an upgrade allows you to attack downward while gliding. You can also buy an upgrade that allows you to throw shurikens, but they can only be replenished by lanterns or enemy drops, so they are not very useful against bosses. Most bosses get stunned when you hit them enough, giving opportunities to deal lots of damage. A few have rather annoying instakill attacks, but none of them are prohibitively difficult except for one in the DLC.

While The Messenger may seem to be a typical linear platformer at first, it soon reveals itself as something more when the ninja enters the shop. Far from being a glorified “exchange currency for upgrades” button, the Shopkeeper is a very important character with a lot to say. She often breaks the fourth wall to comment on the current area, upcoming boss, or the game's lore, and you can ask her for a different story on each level. The stories are quite interesting. Some of them stand by themselves, while others have thought-provoking lessons attached. They are always worth reading.

Furthermore, there is another mechanic that makes The Messenger stand out: time travel. In the first few levels, the game is 8-bit. However, later on there are sections where you travel to the 16-bit future, where the music sounds different and the ninja wears a really cool hat. The future doesn't just look and sound different, the levels also change. There are quite a few parts where you have to use time travel to get across otherwise impassable obstacles, and even some of the boss fights involve time travel. Unfortunately, the excellent writing starts to dry up in this part, with the shopkeeper's dialogue sticking to the bare minimum exposition.

There are some moral warnings for this game. As previously stated, there is combat, but enemies simply disappear when they die without blood or gore. The word a** is used twice. Two of the bosses wear nothing but a loincloth, and one of them has an attack where he turns away from the camera, then takes it off and uses it as a whip. His buttocks can be seen during this attack. At one point, the shopkeeper tells a joke involving multiple meanings of the word “high”. The DLC takes place on a voodoo-themed island, and its plot involves the antagonist using voodoo magic.

Overall, The Messenger is a very good game with a great sense of humor. However, I would only recommend it to people who already enjoy platformers due to how frustrating some sections can be.