| Tenchu: Shadow Assassins | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Acquire (Wii) From Software (PSP) |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Composer(s) | Noriyuki Asakura |
| Series | Tenchu |
| Engine | Gamebryo |
| Platform(s) | Wii, PlayStation Portable |
| Release date(s) | Wii PlayStation Portable |
| Genre(s) | Stealth |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | |
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (known in Japan as Tenchu 4) is a stealth game developed by Acquire for the Wii and From Software for the PSP and published by From Software in Japan and Ubisoft in North America and Europe for Wii and the PlayStation Portable in 2008.
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In the land of Lord Gohda, peace has not been fully restored and rumors of betrayal have been swirling around the lord and his subjects. As a result, Lord Gohda calls upon the Azuma Ninja, Rikimaru and Ayame, to investigate. Rikimaru soon discovers that someone is planning to start a war. Meanwhile, Counselor Sekiya, Gohda's right hand man, arranges for a fortune-teller to predict the future of Gohda's kingdom. Unfortunately, the fortune-teller turns out to be an imposter and kidnaps Princess Kiku, Lord Gohda's daughter.
Ayame chases after her without hesitation, while Rikimaru goes on another mission for lord Gohda instead: resume the investigation on the nuisances that have been troubling the land. He then discovers that Daimyo Tado is the one behind all this. Gohda then decides to declare war on Tado and travels to his land with Rikimaru. After Rikimaru succeeds in taking Daimyo Tado's life, the woman who posed as the fortune-teller, a Kunoichi named Rinshi, appears and tries to kill Rikimaru, but fails thanks to the intervention of Tachibana Hyakubei, who was hired by Gohda. After Lord Gohda's order, Rikimaru heads back to the castle. When he arrives however, he is attacked by the guards, who were ordered to consider him a traitor by Sekiya. Ayame had actually succeeded in rescuing the princess but had been attacked by someone who seemed to be Rikimaru, who was actually Rinshi in disguise. Ayame and Kiku then flee the castle as the real Rikimaru arrives, and the two women head for a secret hideout suggested by Sekiya. The Princess then reveals to be Rinshi in disguise and wounds Ayame, but Rikimaru arrives just in time to save her and kills Rinshi.
Gohda, noticing his castle in flames, realizes that it was all Sekiya's doing and orders Rikimaru to get back there and eliminate him. After he seemingly takes Sekiya's life and saves Kiku, Sekiya rises again and reveals himself to be Onikage, who then challenges Rikimaru to a duel. Rikimaru ultimately gains the upper hand but Onikage uses the princess as a shield, forcing Rikimaru to drive his sword through her to get to Onikage and kill him. Ayame, who had followed Rikimaru, cries upon Kiku's death. The extended ending (attained by collecting all of the map pieces in normal mode) shows Ayame speaking in Onikage's voice, suggesting his hatred survived in her since Rikimaru murdered her best friend.
Shadow Assassins allows players to take control of both Rikimaru and Ayame. The camera is an over-the-shoulder point of view. All of the 10 missions are ground-based. Players will play the first five stages and the last one using Rikimaru and stages six to nine as Ayame. There are also 50 side missions called "Assignments".
Ayame is faster but weaker, making it harder for her to hide bodies. According to From Software, their stages are also completely different, Rikimaru's more straightforward, while Ayame's being "a little trickier, she can use the environment more." There are about 10 multi-purpose items in the game, for example a cat can be used as distraction or as a scout.[1]
On Wii, players use the Wii Remote's analog stick to move, A button for actions, holding B button while moving forward to run or while moving sideways to strafe and uses the C button for jumping (a long jump can be performed while running). Wii Remote is also used for first-person perspective sword fighting.
The gameplay of the PlayStation Portable version is generally the same. However, controls have been altered to fit the console's functionalities, thus removing the motion controls, although some similar controls have been retained such as moving the analog stick of the PSP to move forward and pressing the D-pad to choose between items in the player's arsenal (same functions as the Wii Remote). The controls for doing a stealth kill have been slightly changed; the player now has to press the face buttons of the PSP console to trigger it and moving the analog stick.[2]
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | (Wii) 70.16% (PSP) 65.18% |
| Metacritic | (Wii) 70 (PSP) 68 |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
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