Score
Gameplay:	5
Graphics:	6
Sound:	8
FunFactor:	7
PlasmaFactor:	8
Overall:	6.8

Tenchu Z Review
July 1, 2007 by Kenneth Seward, Jr.

Tenchu fans will be in for a surprise when they get their hands on the new Tenchu Z for the Xbox 360. Whether or not they like their surprise is another story. Tenchu Z was developed by K2, the company that brought you Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven. Tenchu Z is the first title in the franchise to come to a next-gen system.

Bad Ninja!

 

Being a fan of the Tenchu franchise myself, when I heard that a new Tenchu was coming to the Xbox 360 I got very excited. My excitement continued to grow over time as more and more news about the game was being released. I remember reading about how there was going to be online play, the ability to create you own ninja and at least fifty missions in story mode. I almost lost my mind waiting for the review copy Tenchu Z. Once I got my hands on the controller and started playing, my high level of excitement fell to the earth like an enemy ninja taking a shuriken to the head.

I will start with the cons of Tenchu Z, that way we won’t end on a bad note. When K2 announced that there would be fifty missions in story mode, I thought, "Ok, this is going to be a long yet fun experience". Not True. What they should have said was that you would have to play through five different missions ten times each. The amazing list of mission activities includes: assassinating someone, delivering secret messages, defusing bombs (not as fun as it sounds), and rescuing captured allies. This decision to make players replay the same mission types over and over wouldn’t have been so bad. This decision wouldn’t have been bad if it weren’t for the fact that there are only a couple of levels (maps) to play them on. Each mission starts off with you being placed outside a fortified area. You then have to sneak in and complete one of the goals from the list I mentioned earlier. After you completed the goal for that level, you are given another mission to do. Don’t be surprised if you happened to be sent back to that same level to complete a different mission (or the same mission with different enemies). After playing the first ten missions, the rest of the game was easy. I knew where everything was in each level because I had to keep revisiting them.

Another thing to note was the enemy AI. Now I know the Tenchu franchise has had its share of bad AI, but that shouldn’t be the case on the Xbox 360. I am sorry if I am being hard on K2 and Microsoft but there is no excuse for this. The Xbox 360 is a next-gen console with powerful hardware, which gives developers more freedom when it comes to the limitations of their games. When playing Tenchu Z, I shouldn’t be able to stab a guard and run away without being hunted down for my crime. All I have to do is hide for a couple of seconds and the guard will forget about me. Despite just being "shanked" with a sword, the guard returns to his patrol route as if nothing happened. Speaking of patrol routes, why do guards in hostile environments seem to love staring at walls? It’s almost like they’re thinking to them selves, "No one would dare sneak up on me. It doesn’t matter that all of my companions were killed by ninjas earlier tonight. I will continue to stare at this beautiful wall before moving on to an enclosed location where no one can see or hear me." It’s no fun being a ninja if the enemies are this stupid.

There are some good choices that were made in the development of Tenchu Z. The ability to create a ninja is pretty cool. There are a decent amount of clothing, armor and accessories to choose from. You even get to buy abilities to use in the field. Of course, all the cooler abilities don’t become available until you have completed most of the game. The controls are great and your ninja’s movements are extremely fluid. While playing you actually feel like a ninja. To help with being sneaky, K2 has enhanced the KI meter. For those of you who don’t know, the KI meter is used to show the status of nearby enemies. In Tenchu Z, instead of just detecting an approaching enemy and whether or not he sees you, the KI meter will also show his awareness level. The enemies will be able to hear and smell you this time around. If you fall into dirty water or get blood on your ninja duds, the guards will notice and become more alert. Because you can’t stealth kill alerted enemies, this could pose a problem. However, all you have to do is wait a couple of seconds and their awareness level will go back down.

Dirty Ninjas

 

The graphics in Tenchu Z are passable. This game, by no means uses the power of the Xbox 360’s hardware to its advantage. The level of quality is on par with the best-looking PS2 games (which is not a complement). One thing I did notice was the use of shadows. Sometimes they were great; like when a patrolling ninja’s shadow gives away his/her position. Other times they were bad. Like when a patrolling ninja’s shadow is seen through a wall.

 

Shhhh! Did You Hear That?

The sound quality in Tenchu Z is better than the graphics. The sounds allow you to slip into Tenchu’s world undetected. This would be great if the bad AI didn’t sound the alarm, causing reality to catch up with you. Everything from the voice actors to the sound of you unsheathing (drawing) your sword is great. During gameplay, the music will change to fit what's happening on screen. If you are sneaking around, the music is soft. When you are being chased the tempo ramps up, adding to the overall mood. The sound of your footseps will also change, depending on what you are walking on. The last thing you'd want to do is alert an enemy because you walked over creaky floor boards.

How Fun Is It?

This all depends on how much you like pretending to be a ninja. If you can look past the repetitive gameplay and bad AI, then you might get over the fact that the story is paper-thin. Rikimaru, one of the main playable characters from former Tenchu games, assigns you missions. After completing them, and if you’re lucky, you will get to see a brief cinematic about characters you don’t know or care about. Other than the fact that your enemies are against you, you don’t know anything about them. Nor do you ever find out why they are against you in the first place. To make matters worse, you are given a partner that you only see in cut scenes (even though they apparently accompany you on missions).

Online

The one feature that kept me coming back to Tenchu Z was the online multiplayer mode. To be honest, this mode almost makes up for everything else. I had the most fun I have ever had with any Tenchu game when I was playing online with friends. Being a ninja was made cooler by working with other ninja’s. One weird thing I noticed when playing online however, was the fact that the NPC’s (non-player-controlled characters) were experiencing lag. I have never seen this before. Usually, it’s the players who are the ones lagging on a server. Fortunately this wasn’t too big of a problem for online play.

 

The Bottom Line!

I really wanted Tenchu Z to be the best ninja experience on the Xbox 360. Unfortunately, this is not the case (even though it’s the only ninja game for the 360). As it stands, Tenchu Z is not worth $59.99 and not everyone shares my enthusiasm when it comes to the online multiplayer modes. There is relatively no story, bad AI, PS2 like graphics, overly repetitive missions and very low replay value. A more fitting retail price would be $39.99!