From Software left off a few "Z"s in the title of this so-so installment of the Tenchu series.
Tenchu Z is actually an ambitious attempt at bringing something fresh to the series, but alas, it wasn’t enough to keep this ninja occupied. You start out by “creating” your own character… which is an aspect of gaming that I fully support if character creation is done properly. (Like, the EA GameFace in Tiger Woods ’06, or World of Warcraft or Star Wars: Galaxies character creation.) Tenchu Z has “semi-character creation”. (By the way, NEVER trust what your Blockbuster employees tell you about a game… they don’t know what they’re talking about. When I rented this game, the guy said that the character creation was BETTER than the EA GameFace. Uh… sorry dude, but this isn’t even close… can’t even touch EA’s GameFace.) Tenchu Z character creation consists of choosing different aspects of a character model to kind of make it unique, but really its more like playing with a Mr. Potato Head. You have heads you can choose from, which for females is about 7 or 8 total (although it’ll say either 14 or 16… but each “head” has 2 different skin tones, so you really only have half of the total number available to choose from… you just get to choose whether you want a pasty-pale skin tone, or a somewhat tan skin tone), and males have 11, I think. However, you will only want to use about 2-3 of each gender’s heads because the rest are just butt ugly. (This game has some of the manly-ist looking women I’ve ever seen.) Then you get to choose the hair, clothes… well, that’s pretty much it when just starting out. Then you get to select your skill ratio (Strength, Health, Agility), which you can change to have more of one skill than another. Finally, you get the honor of doing one of many pointless aspects of the game: choosing the appearance and name of your “companion” character. (The only time your companion appears is at the cut-scene at the end of certain stages… thanks for the help, buddy…) Once you get into the game, you can purchase different types of clothes at the “shack” near where you accept your next mission in solo mode (“outerwear” – your top… tunic… whatever, Hakama – your britches, “Arms” – different styles of arm décor, “Legs” – same as Arms except for your legs and feet, Hair, etc.), but again, its really just a handful of items for each category, just in about 5 or 6 different colors/styles. It would have been better if you could purchase a certain style of a category, then adjust its color, designs, etc to fit your tastes, but I guess ninjas have no use for fashion sense.
Now that you’ve been highly disappointed with the character creation, its time to move on to the actual game and gameplay. (Expect more disappointment…) If you have played any of the previous versions of Tenchu, then there’s no real surprises or anything relatively new to speak of. Hide… attack… hide… attack… rinse… repeat. If this is your first Tenchu experience, see the previous sentence for a preview of things to come. Most of your time is spent sneaking around in the shadows or on rooftops, waiting for the right moment to dispatch your enemies, who have the AI of a brain-dead chimp. No running around, hacking and slashing as you would in Ninja Gaiden. No way… action is not the true style of the ninja. Adversely, it also means that the game can get old really quick, and make you wish you were playing Ninja Gaiden. The stealthy gameplay of this game is what makes it unique, but its SUCH a mandatory aspect of the game that it ruins it for those who prefer more fast-paced gameplay.
When you do get to eliminate your foes, you have several ways to go about doing this. One, which is the most recommended and “scores” you the most points, is the stealth kill. Unfortunately, they don’t impress you with different animations for the stealth kill… you get about 5, depending on how you approach the enemy. (Dropping down on them, sneaking from behind, up against a wall, while hanging from a ledge, and consecutive SKs when multiple enemies are close together.) You can also use the sub-par 3 or 4-hit combos, but that’s usually only if the enemy has detected you. You also have some special moves you can acquire as you progress through the game or unlock achievements, but most of them are quite useless. Speaking of useless things, about 95% of the items you get in the game are useless. If you can’t kill these simpleton enemies with just your sword, then you should just hang up your sheath and take up underwater basket-weaving. (Besides, you get bonus points for completing a level without using any items… and your grappling hook does NOT count as an item, so you can use it as much as you like.) Some of the “innate” skills you can purchase are actually decent. (Feet, Lurk, Blade, and Energy are some you’ll definitely want to have.) Even so, you’ll tromp through 50 levels of same ‘ol, same ‘ol… so it could get monotonous very quickly.
Graphically, this game could have easily been handled by the original XBOX. Ugly character models, so-so levels/environments… nothing to make it stand out as a “next-gen” game. Sounds are… well, they are there. Nothing special, but not really bad either. No real music to speak of. The storyline is somewhat awkward and can be confusing at times. Previous versions of Tenchu had more coherent plots to them. For those who like online play, you can play co-op on XBOX Live, but I haven’t had the urge to try it out yet.
For all you aspiring ninjas out there, I suggest renting this mediocre ninja experience first before flushing your cash down the bamboo chute.