The quality and ease-of-use of a game's controls is one of those things you tend to take for granted. That is, until they become an active problem. While the low-res platforming and ninja action of Within the Blade is reasonably good, and has a pretty satisfying old-school feel, unfortunately its needlessly cumbersome control scheme absolutely, and with great regularity, gets in the way. The thing is, this is pretty well-trodden territory, and the wall scaling and various attack and traversal mechanics aren't terribly revolutionary. Fumbling to execute critical moves becoming a headache then becomes all the more painful. When getting through the tutorial means struggling to do things that feel more like simply breathing in other games... it's a bit of a problem.