Tenchu: Fatal Shadows

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx_assets/pr...ges/246587.jpg

Preview.

Developed once again by K2, who did a fine job on Wrath of Heaven, and published this time by Sega instead of Activision. The game is set after Rikimaru's 'death' in Tenchu 1 but before the events of WoH. You play as ass-kicking series regular Ayame and some newcomer named Rin...yup, it's an all chick game.

Based on the videos I watched it looks like business as usual, with the addition of nifty things like the ability to stealth kill more than one enemy at a time. Ayame managed to jump and land in-between two guards who had their backs away from each other and she automatically slashed the first one, then did a cool behind the back stab to the other. Nice.

I've always been a big fan of this series, so I'm looking forward to it. U.S. release date is Feb. 15th.

And with the proper AR codes you can play through the game as a chicken, dog, bear... actually any model in the game, including the villians. At least in the Japanese version. It even replaces the models during the cut-scenes. I still have the vids of this in action, though I lost the website url, sadly.

It's still Tenchu, and it is one of those series that I enjoy and I am quite not sure why. I wish they went back to the more open-ended level design of the original Tenchu game, and the game still at times looks like a PSX game on crack (nothing as bad as the final level in WoH though... jesus fucking christ). Actually bothering to make the AI somewhat believable/intelligent would be a nice bonus, too.

With all that said... it's still enjoyable. Maybe I am just a f*****-**** who likes sultry ninja girls. I'll never understand Rin though -- she carries around a katana but perfers to fight people hand-to-hand, and I do not quite get that. But she can run without bending her knees.

This game is significantly harder than Wrath of Heaven though. I was able to get through all of WoH without items and without getting spotted, but trying to do that now is much more difficult, expecially if you turn the difficulty up.

-Dippy

I love the series but I'm kind of burnt out on it. I don't know if I need to play another similar sequel yet. I will probably buy the game, just way late.

is there an xbox port planned?

Does this Rin chick play like Ayame or is she similar to Rikimaru. I was never a huge fan of playing as Ayame, so I'm hoping Rikimaru shows up in spirit with Rin....or something.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dipstick

With all that said... it's still enjoyable. Maybe I am just a f*****-**** who likes sultry ninja girls.

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Did you censor that yourself?

I've always thought the Tenchu series was cool, but I just can't get into it. I've sworn off just about every stealth based game now.

I like the series quite a bit, the main thing that I didn't like about the last game wasn't the game itself, but moreso just that there wasn't a damned quick restart (which is reason enough to make me want to pick up the Xbox version). I'll pick it up eventually, but I get the feeling that this is going to sell sixteen copies now that Sega is publishing it. :( I'm surprised Sega hasn't bought From Software yet, they're publishing most of their games in the west now, and FS's franchises would compliment them well (specifically Otogi and Tenchu).

Seems they brought back hiding bodies and swimming from T2...hopefully they're not totally broken like in that game.

BTW, check out this video. In the first stealth kill, isn't there something, I don't know...unusual about where the sword comes out of the victim? :)

Dolemite: You know that video is an Insider-only download, right?

Moving bodies was in the Xbox version of WoH. It's funny, since you could bait enemies with dead bodies. I do not think it was broken though, since picking up and dropping people took a significant amount of time. I do not know how swimming worked in Tenchu 2, but in this game if you jump in water it seems like everyone in a three mile radius hears it. You can hide under the surface of the water indefinately though, so unless somone is in immediate viewing distance you are usually safe in water.

Andy: The Xbox version in terms of loading was no better; it would force you to sit through the same loading screen, even if you loaded the game on the HD. That is annoying as hell.

Korly: Yeah, I censored it myself. The forum has not gotten that bad... yet.

My biggest problem with these "tatcital stealth action" games is that you do a lot of sitting around waiting for something to go right or waiting for a location to cool down once you screw up. I swear, they should give the player an ability to speed up time to reduce all of the waiting. Make it representative of a ninja's infinite paitence and ability to concentrate on the task with an unrelenting singular focus... or some equally cheesy shit.

-Dippy