 Tenchu: Stealth Assassins for Sony Playstation
Tenchu is set in 16th century feudal Japan, in the days of ninja and
samurai. You assume the role of a ninja, either male or female, with all
the talents and abilities you would expect. The male ninja, Rikimaru,
wields a katana, is very powerful, but is slow of foot, and not very
adept at stealth. The female ninja, Ayame, wields two small daggers and
is not as strong, but she is fast and much more suited to being
stealthy. Each of them can also choose from a range of other items like
shuriken (throwing stars), caltrops (razor sharp four-pointed items
shaped like jacks to be dropped behind you to slow pursuers), smoke
bombs and grenades. The most useful item, however, is the grappling
hook. Using the hook, you can climb onto the roofs of buildings, making
your way from place to place undetected. In fact, stealth is the key to
the game, both in terms of success and enjoyment.
The game hinges on your success in avoiding detection. A meter at the
corner of the screen lets you know how close you are to an enemy, and
gives you feedback on your "status" with that enemy. If your meter is a
question mark, the enemy has no idea where you are, and the point is to
keep it that way. The easiest way is to monitor your enemy from the
roof, since they almost never look there, and wait until they turn away
from you. When their back is turned, you can leap or roll off the roof
to the ground and attack. If you get the attack off without being seen,
you will succeed in killing your enemy with one strike. The ultimate is
when you get close enough to an oblivious enemy, you are rewarded with a
cut scene. This amounts to an animation being shown of your character
assassinating the enemy in some suitably gruesome way, such as slitting
his throat, or stabbing your sword clean through his belly to come out
his back.
If your meter turns to an exclamation point, you've been spotted, but
you have not yet been identified as an enemy. Usually slowly slinking
away into the shadows results in your enemies dropping their guard once
again. If you are made as an enemy, however, your meter will turn into a
flashing red double exclamation point, and your enemy (or enemies) will
attack with intent to kill. At this point, the best strategy is to run
and find a safe spot to grappling hook to the roof. If you manage this,
your meter becomes a question mark and exclamation point, meaning that
your enemies have lost you, but are actively searching for you,
including on the roof. Once you make it to the roof, though, they will
always lose interest eventually.
The advantage of staying invisible becomes fairly obvious by the middle
of the second level, so it is imperative that you master this skill as
soon as possible, to further your enjoyment and your progress. It is
possible to battle hand-to-hand with enemies that have spotted you, but
it is not as rewarding as stealthy assassination, and in later levels,
it can be quite difficult. You are rated during each stage by being
awarded or deducted points for certain events. Undetected kills score
big while "necessary" kills (meaning you kill someone who has spotted
you) score less. Being seen deducts points, while killing an innocent
does the same. If you score high enough you attain the rating of "Master
Ninja," a rating which previously only Lee Van Cleef had attained, or
even "Grand Master," the highest possible rating.
The gameplay itself can take some getting used to, as the camera angle
can be a little disorienting at times, but once you get accustomed to
it, it isn't hard. You have the typical buttons, jump, attack, use item,
and so on, and each responds quickly. One very important button on your
controller serves as the "look around" button. When depressed, the
camera takes on a first-person look, as though seeing through your
character's eyes. Moving the D-Pad will in turn make your character look
up or down, left or right. This function is extremely useful while
you're on a roof waiting for that blissfully ignorant guard to turn away
from you. The game does not support analog control, which is somewhat
disappointing, but it does support force feedback, but the extent of its
use is minimal. During battle, your options are minimal, limited to
mainly mashing the attack button, and pushing down on the D-pad to
block. Each character also has a combination that they do with their
weapon, each blow causing slightly more damage than the last, but often
the last blow leaves you open to retaliation.
The sound, music and graphics are all very good. Not surprisingly, the
music has a very Japanese feel, and while it can get a bit repetitive
(as most video game music does) it usually just fades into the
background if you're immersed in the game. The weapons sounds are great,
from snapping bowstrings to clashing blades to exploding grenades, while
the speech is sparse, but acceptable. The pre-stage narrations are fine,
but some of the in-game speech is a bit cheesy. The guards uttering a
hateful "You!" upon spotting you, or lamenting "Where are you?" once
you've lost them are all right, but the full motion video in which you
battle a samurai that tells you "Looks like you chose the wrong party to
crash" in a poor Japanese accent is just cheesy.
Tenchu overcomes its few minor flaws to be an excellent game,
and one I'm glad to have in my collection. The game is fairly easily
learned, but difficult to master, kind of like Othello. The difficulty
level is significant to begin with, and it only increases as the levels
progress. There are ten levels in all, and coupled with the difficulty
level, this game could potentially take quite a while to complete, even
for the experienced gamer. Having two characters boosts the replay value
a bit, and if you're a real perfectionist, you might feel compelled to
finish every stage as a "Master Ninja", but I don't think my Lee Van
Cleef aspirations are that high. I might just settle for the Timothy Van
Patten rating.
Review by Mario Speedwagon |