Game:

Rittai Ninja Katsugeki: Tenchu (1998)

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Here's a game that requires no introduction for those familiar with the PS1. The tenchu series has since fallen into near obscurity in today's gaming world, but back in 1998, it made a pretty big splash. A modern stealth ninja game that had similar elements that are common to the genre, but released before Metal Gear Solid. Metal Gear Solid was the standard bearer for the modern stealth genre, but Tenchu was a nice appetizer to the main course.

It looks like you chose the wrong party to crash. I still, to this day say that all the time, but no one ever gets my geek reference. In tenchu, you take control of either rikimaru, or Ayame, a female ninja, and you traverse openly designed levels, trying to avoid detection, while killing enemies silently. Without being seen, you score stealth kills on your opponents, however, upon detection, disposing of your opponents becomes quite a bit more difficult, especially with the quirky fighting system in place that takes a bit of learning to get the hang of, before which, means getting pummeled by your opponents. The levels leave the players open to explore, and open to choose how they want to play. If you don't want to be stealthy, there is no punishment for running in with blatant disregard for stealth. Well, aside from your life being drained from the tough fighting.




The coolest gameplay mechanic has to be the grappling hook. Players aim the grappling hook at any roof or high structure and watch as their chosen character zooms away to the spot they aimed at. This allows players to stalk an enemy, unseen from the rooftops, drop down for a stealth kill, and then zoom back to the safety of the rooftops. The grappling hook isn't without it's quirks, you have to line it up just right or your character won't grab the edge of the roof, or structure you are aiming for, but it adds to the exhilaration, dropping down to stealth kill an enemy, knowing another enemy is close by, and having a few second window to zoom away before you are seen by the other enemy in the area. Amongst the cool stealth kills, tough swordfighting, and other cool items you gain and use along the way, the grappling hook is still the most distinguishing feature in Tenchu's Gameplay.

Every level you play gets graded by your performance, and it seems to be random, but preset enemy layouts, like the game rotates preset layouts every time you play a level to keep you guessing. The good thing is, once you beat a level, tat level is opened up, and you can go back and play it to get the best rank. I have no doubt that many people spent hours upon hours replaying the levels in tenchu to get the higest rank in each level, which requires absolute stealth.

Graphically, the environments have a respectable amount of detail by PS1 standards, they get the job done, but certainly aren't top tier. The game, as you can see, is plagued by a poor draw distance making visibility poor, and sometimes getting you discovered by enemies that pop into view, seemingly out of nowhere. Luckily, this is combated with the quick look feature allowing you to look around and take notice of your environments on the fly. The controls take some getting used to as well, the basic movement controls, are the Tomb Raider, “Tank” controls, though, faster turning, and the combat has quite a few maneuvers you can pull off outside of the basic combo. There is no analog support, so those not familiar with early 3D d-Pad controls will have a tougher time learning them, though the movement isn't as straining on your thumb as the previously mentioned Tomb Raider series. The music is also a spectacular highlight, but the voice acting is so-so.


Tenchu is one of the more fondly remembered PS1 games, It's design and feel is uniquely Playstation One, that the best way to describe the overall feel. It's one of those series that had it's height of popularity on the PS1, but didn't carry it too far into the next generation. Wrath of Heave, first rleased on the PS2, was released in a generation of gaming where popular tastes had shifted, and as such never had a fair chance in the gaming media, but that's another subject for another time. However, if you have fond memories of playing Tenchu, or have recently gone back and are trying to collect for the PS1, having maybe missed out on the system in it's height of popularity, Tenchu is definitely a must play for every PS1 gamer.

#Tenchu #ps1games #gameplay

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