THIS IS NOT a good game.
That’s right. No beating around the bush, no self indulgent discourse leading up to my ultimate conclusion. This one just plain clunks. However, let it also be noted that I am not saying this is a bad game either. The best description I can give, in a one word adjective, is disappointing. The Tenchu series as a whole has been a little scattershot over the years. The first was a real pain in the arse at times, but solid enough that it served as a good proof of concept. The second is still, in my opinion, the pinacle of the series. Wrath of Heaven took a few new turns with the gameplay mechanics, based on the new generation of consoles, some good, some not so good. The DS game worked far better than I’d expected. Z…not so much.
Initially I was optimistic. The fact that you create your own character rather than going back to Rikimaru and Ayame yet again was a bit of a sticking point for some people, but it does make sense within the confines of the Tenchu story. Rikimaru is a little long in the tooth these days. And whilst I’m sure he’s still just as lethal as ever, he is still well into his fourth decade, if not older, and has a lot of responsibilities as the head of the Azuma Ninja. As evidenced by the fact that you speak to him in the ninja village as a means of choosing your next mission.
The missions themselves are decent enough. A lot of regurgitated environments, and even a lot of missions that are carbon copies of each other. And, of course, yet again, Echigoya suffers the bite of your vengeful blade. That poor chap has been assassinated in every single one of the games (I think) for nothing more serious than being a greedy little bugger. Okay, he’s a self-serving little so and so, but him and a bajillion other generic merchants. What, exactly, does the Azuma ninja clan have against the poor fellow that they feel the need to continually kill him to death? Is once not enough? I mean, in Heaven, Rikimaru even comments on the fact he went back to kill Echigoya because he…already did it in the first game? WHAT THE HELL?!? But anyway. Repetitive, sort of. The fact that the environments are reused, some of them upwards of five times each, does have a positive effect in that the game is longer than previous instalments. A whopping fifty missions to work through, rather than the usual ten or twelve. Granted, there was some extra play value in previous titles by having different characters, but this is fifty missions all for one person. And you can customise your ninja with a variety of extra clothing options and skills you unlock along the way.
Overall, it’s not going down in the annals of Tenchu history any time soon. Likely to be one of those that slides into obscurity as the dirty little secret of the franchise. Which has not too surprisingly seen a steep decline in popularity since Z was released in 2007. However, the strength of the DS game and the recent Tenchu 4 on the Wii (which see’s the return of Ayame with a stealth kill animation that consists of repeatedly kicking a guy in the nuts) I can see it climbing back up over the three years to follow. For Tenchu fans, this isn’t really a must have. Though it’s interesting enough, and does begin to show signs of a compelling story developing towards the end, but it’s nothing majorly important that you will miss. And it’s unfortunate to note that the games strongest point is the ease at which the full 1000gs can be achieved. Probably not much more than three or four days if you knuckle down to it. It took me about a week to do, but I wasn’t really fixed in, and spent time doing quite a lot of other things as well.
All in all, a disappointing buy. I’m glad I waited so long and picked it up in a bargain bin. Though, calling it a bargain, even at a measly seven pounds, is something of a stretch. Though the fact you could sheath your sword at any time, grab people from behind and drag them away into a dark corner was a very nice touch for me. That is something I hope very much will carry over into future titles. But, dude, hopefully on a game that doesn’t look like it was ported from the Playstation 2 this time.
Graphics: 6/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Audio/Music: 8/10
Plot/Scripting: 7/10
Overall: 6/10
