The Official Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven thread

[SamuraiMoogle]

Well I played a lot last night after work. I stopped playing at the 5th mission. I had to force myself to stop playing and get to bed. I just kept saying to myself just see a little more, a little further then I'll quit. The game is as good as I was hoping it would be. Its everything I wanted from a Ps2 version of Tenchu. Fuck those shit reviews!
Careful in level 3 cause there is some nasty little pitfalls like in the caves of Tenchu 1. Otherwise level 4 was easy but it looked fricking cool. Running around rooftops slitting throats in the rain is slick!


"War, its FANTASTIC!"

[Ozzie]

Games like these are a sure fire cure to any jadedness one might have at the moment. The music is spectacular, the graphics are gorgeous, etc etc etc, everything about this games screams cool. They can pump out Tenchu games like this every year, and I'd eat it up.

[Dolemite]

Originally posted by omfgninjas

2) The boss at the end of the level saying "C'mon, c'mon" to the nearby girl.
5) The level design itself is very, very similar to the first level in Tenchu 1. The first thing you'll do is grapple onto the nearby roof and run across it past a girl, dog and a guard. Very cool.

According to the stage intro, it's supposed to be the same compound from the first level of Tenchu 1, though rebuilt, and the guy saying "C'mon, c'mon" is the guy from the first game's kid. Like father like son, I guess.

[Arc]

Ninjas. Monkeys. Pie.

The three universal elements that, if added to anything, is now at the very least 900% cooler.

Tenchu III:Wrath of Heaven doesn't have any monkeys, or pie as far as I can tell, but it makes up for it with enough assassin/demon/mecha ninjas to fill all of frickin Florida.

GOOD: Smooth animation. Incentive bonus moves from stealth kills. Soundtrack that rivals the first. Refined controls. Monks. Ninja Vision Zoom. Hang-Off-Ceiling. Intricate & variable levels. Orgasmic co-op mode.

BAD: Facial design looks cartoonish. Direction of cut scenes could be more coherent and lively. Too many small and restrictive areas in most levels.

FUGLY: I just flipped onto this guys shoulders, chopped off his head, landed on the ground, and the pulled off a roundhouse kick into his carcass, sending what was left of him flying into a booby trapped pit.

This thread is informative, but I am going to repeat a bunch of stuff because it still seems like many people no clue what the new installment is like, or what Tenchu is even about, so I am going to make a quick FAQ based on misconceptions I read on many other sites.

Q: What is Tenchu?
A: Ninja Game series that focuses on stealth, bizarre dialogue/characters, and quick executions that don't pull any punches.

Q: Is it in English only?
A: No. The North American version of Tenchu:WoH has both the English and Japanese voice tracks. All the English voices are new and all the Japanese voices are done by the same cast that performed on the last two installments. Tenchu:WoH doesn't come out in Japan until April 24th.

Q: Is Tenchu made by Sony?
A: No. While Tenchu has been a Playstation exclusive series, the development house "Acquire" created the first two titles, and "K2" (made up of ex-Capcom & SNK teams) created the latest installment, while Activision has published all three editions. Sony has had no involvement.

Q: Does the story suck?
A: No, but the dialogue from the last games has been hilarious. Who can forget such classic lines like "I am the man who will cut off your nose....at the neck." or "Burn in hell, you heretic!" and best of all "You mean Genbu the drooling idiot, one of the four idiots of Idiotland!".

Q: The picutre is too dark / the music is too loud.
A: Turn up the brightness level on your TV with the help of the color bar in the options menu (so you can see in the freaking caves), and turn down the music level under the red zone (so you can hear the freaking dialogue).

Q: Why is Rikimaru (the male ninja) such a badass?
A: He is so confident that he won't be seen, that he doesn't even cover up his gray hair, and only wears the rest to conceal himself in the shadows. Plus he is the ultimate silent killer.

Q: Is it like Shinobi?
A: No. The game is not as faced paced as Shinobi. It also is much more realistic in many respects. Here, gore flys, you have access to authentic Ninpo weaponry and there is much less restriction in the level design.

Q: When is Ninja Gaiden coming out?
A: Ninja Gaiden will be released September 2nd for the Xbox. Tenchu is the only major Ninja game I know of until then.

Links:
http://www.tenchu.de/
http://www.realultimatepower.net/

And because no topic is complete without at least one… Sung Hi Lee, the obligatory hot Korean Chick.

[Drewbacca]

The co-operative and deathmatch modes will do wonders for it's value.

[Green]

About Co-op, is co-op the entire game 1p game, or something else? Also, does co-op make the game too easy like Halo?
I haven't read the entire thread, so I'm not expecting anyone to be through with the game.

[LOL]

Co-op has its own levels. There's a time limit, and the two of you have to find a certain amount of an item before time runs out. The items are usually being held by enemies, so it plays a lot like the regular game, except with a time limit instead of a goal to reach.

[Green]

Cool beans. I'm certainly interested in this game now. I only rented the first one and thought it was ok for a few levels, it came out too close to MGS for me to really care.

[johnk_]

Originally posted by omfgninjas
This game is total fan-service. I've only played through the first level, but I've already experienced the following things that were also in the first Tenchu: (not spoilers at all, but I'll mark it as such anyway in case)

1) The guard laying down on the ground resting.
2) The boss at the end of the level saying "C'mon, c'mon" to the nearby girl.
3) The two music tracks in the level are remixes of the first level theme and boss theme from Tenchu 1.
4) The random girls and cats running around just to get you caught.
5) The level design itself is very, very similar to the first level in Tenchu 1. The first thing you'll do is grapple onto the nearby roof and run across it past a girl, dog and a guard. Very cool.
6) Pretty much the same exact character select, story, and item selection screens.

a couple of those do seem to be fan service, but most seem like they're simply just similarities to the original.. fine with me, either way.. it's all good

Originally posted by Dolemite
And it wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention the guards. The shit they say is pretty funny...last night, I cut a guard's head off, and then got spotted by another guard. I grappling hooked up to a roof and hung out, watching the new guard. He sees the behead corpse, runs over to it, and does the following:

Yells, "NINJA!", and draws his sword.

Looks around for 5-6 seconds.

Says, "Ah, forget it!", and puts his sword away, the bloody, decapitated body still at his feet.

that's the type of classic situation that made tenchu 1 so great..
I remember one mission in the original where a caught a guard and cut his throat.. there was a nearby cliff that i slid down to hide until the heat cooled off... so a nearby guard came around to investigate, saying things like "What?!" and "Where are you?!" while running around the other corpse..
and literally 11 seconds later he's standing next to the corpse saying "Nice night!"

too awesome.

[Dolemite]

Tried out the miltiplayer mode lat night with my girlfriend. Sadly, she doesn't have the patience for sneaking around levels, so this game wasn't really her thing. She actually had a lot more fun watching me play the single-player mode. Though what I did play of the two player modes seemed fucking awesome- I can't wait to get a friend over to try it with me.

Playing the single-player mode though, I'm really getting that same amazing feeling I used to get playing Tenchu 1. That feeling of being alone in the night, sneaking around, the mysterious feeling of not knowing what's out there...the atmosphere of Tenchu games (well, 1 & 3, anyway) is amazing. No other game can match it in that department. K2 really captured the feeling of the original Tenchu here. Fuck Aquire, I think K2 did an fantastic job here.

Oh, and here's the positions for all the stealth kills that I know of, based on playing around last night-

1. Behind
2. Left
3. Right
4. Front
5. Jumping (not off a roof, just jumping normally)
6. Jumping (off roof)
7. While enemy is standing on a slope (hill, ramp, whatever)

Another improvement in T3 over the demo? You no longer have to be holding R1 when you do a stealth kill- you can just run up and hit square, just like in T1.

Oh, and anyone see Ayame's stealth kill where she twists the guy's head all the way around backwards with her thighs and then kicks him in the face? Brutal. But nothing beats Rikimaru's kill where he jumps on their shoulders and drives his sword through their head and out their jaw...