For better or worse it's more Tenchu
First the bad I suppose. This game isn't very impressive. Level design is pretty redundant. You will generally be sneaking around rooftops in similar-looking villages and towns killing all enemies you come across to either kill someone specific, find a certain item, or meet up with someone. There is a story behind everything you're up to, but it's barely coherent and reading through all the text is pretty pointless. It's mostly a shallow excuse for why you must go cut people
s vitals with your sword. Enemy AI makes this a very easy task. If you are spotted all you need do is run out of sight and wait for the enemy to forget about you. This usually happens between 10 and 30 seconds regardless of the situation. I've seen plenty of guards forget about me after 20 seconds even after watching me kill the guard they were just talking to and slashing them with my sword before running away. It takes quite a bit away from the immersion when your mistakes have no consequences besides ruining your end rating. Next on my list o' complaints is the graphics. These graphics could very well have been done on the last generation of consoles. You would think with the massive power behind modern consoles a franchise as well established as this could at least improve the look of the series for the shift to next gen. That would really be my last complaint. This is a next gen game, so why does it play exactly the same as all previous entries in the series? There is absolutely nothing new to how this game is played compared to past entries in the series. Sure it controls better than Fatal Shadows did, but that simply means it controls basically like Wrath of Heaven. Nothing is streamlined, the same old bugs and glitches exist and the same flawed controls and camera plague this entry that have been bugging fans for years. There's absolutely no reason these things couldn't have been worked out by now. C'mon! This series has been on 4 different consoles now (more than that for spin-off games). You'd think someone would mention something at the next meeting as their planning these games.
OK. So I think I covered all the bad. There is quite a bit of it . Now onto why I'm conflicted with my review and score. As much as I want to give this game a lower score for it's myriad flaws, I also want to give it a higher score for how fun it is. Yes it plays nearly identical to the original games, but those games were really good. Feeling like a super ninja as you zip from rooftop to rooftop with your grappling hook is still an awesome feeling. No other franchise has been able to pull that feeling off like the Tenchu games do. Not to mention this game gives you a massive amount of levels to do this in. Somewhere around 50 unless I miss my guess (I've only made it through around 40+ so far, but I know I'm coming up to the end). So close to 50 levels of ninja killing. That's a pretty good amount of time-wasting material to keep you busy. Sure these levels aren't often too diverse and your missions rarely stray from the go kill this guy or find this item variety, but with an average of 10 to 20 minutes per mission (unless you choose to fly through them all, which is an option, although that takes all the fun outta the game) you can easily kill a couple hours at a pop and stay entertained with new levels for a long time. So I guess the good really boils down to being more of a good thing. A lot more. There's also the fact that characters are customizable. This feature isn't as well realized as I'd have hoped for, but it still helps you feel invested in your character. You can also play online co-op if you feel like going stealth with a friend.I haven't used this feature yet so I'm not sure how fun that is. I'll add more later about that if it's worth mentioning.
So to sum it all up, this game has failed to innovate in any significant way, is ugly, offers often irritating controls and is full of bugs. Yet despite that ninja fans and fans of this series both have plenty to enjoy in this game despite it's shortcomings. As long as you don't get into this game expecting something amazing, you can enjoy quite a few hours of ninja-filled goodness. Would I have recommended this for it's original 60$ pricetag? Not very likely. Am I happy with my 17$ used purchase of it? Most definitely. I'm always glad to have more Tenchu to help me get my ninja on.