Tenchu: Fatal Shadows

“Ninjas - you can not go wrong with ninjas.” There is something about Ninjas that fascinates millions of people worldwide, and this can be seen in many different avenues. The biggest avenue comes from television and movies. There are tons of different anime cartoons that feature ninjas and even more movies that do the same, showing how “cool” the life of a ninja was. Since videogames are mainstream now there has been a huge surge of ninja games, and they range the gauntlet from action to more stealth oriented. The Tenchu series started off its life on the original PlayStation, and there have been many different sequels to its stealthy goodness. How does this latest game in the franchise hold up against the others? Read on to find out!

It is a time of feudal wars and Ayame and Rikimaru are two famous ninjas from the Azuma Clan who served the Lord Goda by rescuing his daughter. Since that time Rikimaru has been missing in action, but Ayame has been patrolling the lands owned by Lord Goda and making sure peace is maintained. One day Ayame came across a village that had been slaughtered by some unknown evildoers, and the only clue to go by was the word “Kyroya”, said by a dying ninja. As Ayame was leaving the village a young ninja named Rin comes back from her training. As she lunges forward toward Ayame with her sword, it is up to the players to figure out what happened and see if they can right the wrongs that had been done here.

In Tenchu Fatal Shadows, gamers will have the opportunity to play as two different main characters: Rin and Ayame. Ayame's main goal is to find out who massacred everyone in the village and prevent them from doing it again. She is very good at her job because she was initiated into the Azuma Clan when she was only 14 and because she has great skills with her sword. Rin is from this small village and seeks revenge against the people who annihilated everyone in it. Having these two different characters will provide gamers with a fresh outlook on the game since each character has a different strength, and plays slightly different.

There are three modes of play. First of all there is the tutorial mode, which teaches players all of the ins and outs of the game. It instructs them how to be super sneaky and get their combat action on. After players complete that they go into the real meat of the game, and that is the Story Mode. Players will take on the role of two different characters and see if they can complete their goals. After players defeat the different bosses in the game, they will be available to fight at any given time in the Boss Battles mode.

What happened to the multiplayer? The last Tenchu game, which was on the Xbox, featured a really fun co-op mode that was highly enjoyable and kept players entertained for hours on end. After players complete the Story Mode and have had it with the Boss Battle mode, there is nothing to keep players coming back for more. This game’s lack of extra modes really hampers it even more, and kills any replay factor it could have.

The thing that really kills Tenchu Fatal Shadows is supposedly its main two staples “stealth and combat.” The stealth in this game is too easy to pull and even not needed because the enemy AI is as dumb as a rock. It is to the point that it is unbearable and hilarious. For instance you could be spotted by an enemy, but if you cover up with a small branch it will be as if you are literally invisible to them, even if they are in high-alert mode. I know that you are suppose to be sneaky thoughout this game, but it makes it too easy to get this accomplished. If that wasn’t enough then the next staple of a game like this is its combat mode. The combat is extremely easy to do, and there are only a few different combinations that players can perform. The combat is a pure joke and something that needs to be seriously worked on in this post-Ninja Gaiden world.

The graphics for this game gets the job done, barely. The levels are really low textured and feel just “blah.” The character models would have been really nice at the beginning of the PlayStation2 life cycle, but now there have been many improvements and this is something that the developers did not take into account when they made this game. It just seems that paying attention to all of the details of the levels is something that the developers should have focused on strongly since this game is all about stealth and finding places to hide and even dispose of bodies. Instead all we get is moderate character models and simple environments.

The music for Tenchu Fatal Shadows fits its theme really well. Players get the sense that they are in feudal Japan and that gets them right into the game. That is until players hear the voice-over work for each of the characters, it is down right horrid. It pains gamers almost to hear the really cheesy lines said by the actors. In this day and age where voice acting in videogames is commonplace there should be no excuse for this level of talent. If that wasn’t bad enough, all of the sound effects that you will hear throughout the game are just as bad and extremely generic.

Tenchu Fatal Shadows is rated M for Mature for Blood and Violence. It will take up to 46kb on your memory card for game saves.

Gameplay: 6.0
Tenchu Fatal Shadows' main focus is on stealth, and yet I found that you can get by most of the game without ever having to use it. The combat is underdeveloped and feels really clumsy. It is such a shame that since the game's main focus is on these two things and it fails at both.

Graphics: 6.5
What happened to this series? The previously Tenchu games looked really nice, but this one just fails even in comparison to the previous game in the series.

Sound: 6.2
The music in this game is pretty decent, but the problem lies with the sound effects. The sword crashing and other sound effects are really generic.

Difficulty: Easy
The AI in this game is a dumb as a rock, which makes this game extremely easy. You can be hiding behind a leaf and it seems like the enemy will not find you.

Concept: 5.8
The previous games in this franchise really added things to make the game better, but this game goes not continue in this fashion. Instead of a step forward it appears that it has stepped back.

Overall: 6.3
What happened? The previous games in the Tenchu series were really good, but the developers of this game really dropped the ball. This is sad because this series has so much potential and yet all we are left with is a half-baked game.