REVIEW: Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (Spoiler Free)
By Jacob Bond
June 6th, 2009

I would be the worst ninja EVER. At least that's what I learned while playing this game. If I were to become a ninja I better hope for some kind of voodoo ninja magic you always see in these games, because I would need to be brought back to life a LOT.

Although the review is horribly late I hope I'm forgiven for it. After all, this was a game that appeared with a glut of other highly touted Wii games back in February. Also, there's the fact I'm horribly slow when it comes to playing games.

Um. Anyway. This is a game I almost passed on. I was dead set on picking up Deadly Creatures and it was only when IGN began pointing out Tenchu was surprisingly fun that I started to find myself salivating on my shirt. With a choice to make I found a way to pick up both games. You know my feelings about Deadly Creatures. Did this one suffer the same disappointment?

Surprisingly, no. Let me begin by saying I have never in my life played a Tenchu game. My understanding is this is just like any of the others so if you are looking for a new experience from the franchise you aren't going to find it here. Despite this fact it seems the original creative team behind the first two games (generally referred to as the "good games") was brought in on this one. What they've made is an incredibly fun experience, even for newbies prone to being caught many many times like I was.

The game follows Rikimaru as he, along with Ayame, attempt to uncover a plot of betrayal against Lord Gohda. Soon they learn there's much more going on than anyone suspected. As the story progresses the player is shown events through Rikimaru's eyes, then through Ayame. It's an interesting story, though incomplete; this is apparently only part one of a trilogy so the ending doesn't feel as satisfying as it should. Still, this is a series that apparently crafts stories meant to be enjoyed as larger arcs rather than each individual game, much like the .hack games did.

The game play is pretty simple: stay hidden in the shadows, don't get spotted, and sneak up on guards to kill them. Placement of certain guards, such as watchtowers, can trigger quicktime events, although not quite hitting them right merely alerts the enemy to your presence. To aid the player in the art of invisibility are weapons and accessories, such as ninja stars, water tubes to douse lights, and even a ninja cat that can spot hidden enemies your character can't see with his "ninja vision". The cat can even pick up weapons and items normally beyond reach.

Some people might find the lack of real combat boring since the objective of the game is to avoid confrontation. Although the kill scenes are somewhat satisfying they are really only activated movies using simple motion controls or button presses. I can see and understand why this might turn a lot of people off to a game like this, but the challenge and fun isn't in the kills. It's in developing a strategy and discovering the proper path to take. Which, as I've said a few times already, I'm evidently pretty terrible at. It's still fun, though, and more challenging than one might think.

If you are looking for more action you can still find some in the game, so long as you either carry a sword or reach a boss fight. If discovered while carrying a sword the player is given the opportunity to fight back, but holding the sword (Wiimote) at the wrong angle will cause stress on the blade, eventually breaking it. The player has to quickly adjust to the direction his opponent will swing and block the attack just right. At some point the player will be allowed to attack, which sort of works as long as the controller isn't swung wildly around. The accuracy of the sword movements in relation to the Wiimote is surprisingly great. The problem with is the horribly flawed system designed for the sword fights. Your character can take only three direct hits. If you do not block hits perfectly the sword will break, resulting in instant death against bosses, regardless of whether you still blocked the attack or not. It can be incredibly frustrating to be off only a little bit, still block the shot, yet die because the sword breaks after two hits. This sole issue nearly ruined the game for me as I was beginning to wonder if I could even get past the sword fights and finish.

Fortunately after what felt like a dozen or more tries I eventually succeeded, but it was a terrible experience. If it ends up returning for the sequel I will avoid buying the game for this one issue alone. Challenge is one thing. No More Heroes had some incredibly tough battles that took me forever to win but even after replaying a boss for the fifteenth or sixteenth time I never felt frustrated enough to quit. This sword system made me feel like unless I was absolutely perfect there was no chance to win. That is the easiest way to cause a player to abandon an otherwise good game.

Some of the voice overs were irritating as well. During cut scenes most of the voices were fine. During gameplay, however, was a different story. If Generic Bad Guy #1 gets a whiff that you might be around he constantly repeats the same lines of dialog. If he winds up alerting Generic Bad Guy #2 they both spout the same dialog but slightly off from each other. After a while this really begins to grate on the nerves. That, however, is one of the few issues with audio as the music itself is beautiful and captures the mood perfectly.

The game is also visually stunning as a Wii game. It's certainly one many companies could use as an example of what they easily could do if they put more effort into their titles. The cutscenes look terrific and there are few noticeable flaws during real time gameplay. It's really telling during thunderstorm levels when the lightning and rain are coming down. Aquire did a very good job with this game visually.

You will not find anything groundbreaking about this game but for a system that has so far been light on quality content it's certainly serviceable. For someone who keeps only a handful of games and sells the rest I can tell you there's a reason this is still in my collection and Deadly Creatures is not.

SCORE: 8 / 10