Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (Wii) Review

Tenchu: Shadow Assassins is a competent stealth-action game that suffers from some awkward design and control choices. The storyline is intelligent, with some interesting characters that display varying levels of depth, but some of the voice acting is truly awful, almost ruining the authenticity. Technically the game is well made, but the controls can sometimes be very frustrating and almost counter-intuitive. The audio-visual presentation suits the game well and helps to raise the overall quality of the storytelling. While the story mode is quite short, there is plenty of extra content to explore, upping the replay value considerably.

The game is set in feudal Japan, where the kingdom of Lord Goda Matsunoshin is enjoying a period of relative peace after the defeat of a dark sorcerer who threatened the land. However, this time of peace is more fragile than it seems, with whispers of betrayal and dark schemes afoot. While consulting a fortune teller in an effort to uncover the source of the threat, Lord Goda is betrayed and his only daughter, Princess Kiku, is abducted by the mysterious soothsayer. Lord Goda turns to Azuma Clan ninja Rikimaru and Ayame to rescue his daughter and uncover the evil plot that is threatening the kingdom.

The story is told through a series of well crafted in-game cinematics, which not only reveal the motivation for the next bit of action, but also parts of the plot behind the whole story. It is mature storytelling that doesnt always bludgeon the player over the head with what is going on, but always gives enough away to keep the storyline interesting. While the story itself isnt too deep, it is well paced and maintains an excellent edge throughout.

Rikimaru and Ayames missions are varied and fun, with plenty of opportunities to try out the large range of ninja skills on offer, including the wonderously gory hissatsu, or instant kills. The gameplay is a mixture of third person action and puzzle solving, with plenty of thought required to complete each mission. Players must make use of the available cover to keep out of sight of the guards and move towards the exit of the stage. Enemies can be avoided or killed, depending on the situation and there are a range of ninja tools available to help defeat the enemies or overcome obstacles.

The controls are handled via the Wii-remote and nunchuck combination and they are a bit of a mixed bag. The analogue stick used to control movement and the controls can be quite counter-intuitive, with the “tank-style” movement making it difficult to move with any precision. This causes some serious problems when trying to sneak up on unsuspecting guards. Motion controls are used effectively, but are also beset by inconsistencies and inaccuracies. A quick flick of the Wii-remote will cause the character to dash quickly and quietly or move to an area of cover and flicking the nunchuck will quickly turn the character 180 degrees. The moves work well and increase the level of immersion. The motion controls are also used to perform the deadly hissatsu moves, which are loads of fun and add a visually cool element to the action. These work by following an on-screen prompt and they mostly work well, except when the player is required to use the troublesome forward stab motion. There are a few motion controls that are not implemented well including is the first-person sword fighting. In this mode, the player is required to tilt the Wii-remote to match an on-screen prompt. This enables the player to defend against a guards attacks. While it will work most of the time, the Wii-remote is not capable of making the precise movements needed to make this kind of control work every time. While it is not as badly implemented at something like Red Steel, it does result in a lot of frustration.

Another element of the game that can cause plenty of frustration is the camera. It doesnt always move to the optimal view of the action and it can make it very difficult to see where the enemies are, or the location of an important ledge or piece of cover. The minds eye ability, which allows the player to see enemies and objects more clearly, does help a little, but too much time and effort is spent fighting against the camera. Enemy artificial intelligence is also sadly lacking with plenty of instances where enemies will set themselves alight or just walk right past their dead comrades without noticing them. While these instances never ruin the game, it is something that is noticeable and definitely reduces the quality of the overall experience.

The audio-visual presentation is one of the better efforts from a third party on the Wii. Characters and environments are well crafted and detailed, textures are crisp and the overall visual design is coherent and strong. Some of the enemy models re-appear a little too frequently though. The audio is similarly excellent, with a superb soundtrack, great sound effects and mostly excellent voice work. There are a few instances though where the supporting characters’ voices are poor and the accents are all over the place. The game is set in Japan and features Japanese characters, but the accents range from tough-guy Americans to weasel-like Englishmen. The English voices in particular are especially bad and feel well out of place with the majority of the actors using American accents. It is a lowlight in an otherwise excellent audio production.

On the technical side, the game is well put together, with a steady frame-rate, easy to navigate menus and no technical glitches. While the game does not support 480p, the visuals are still displayed in widescreen and are nicely put together. The audio reproduction is also clear and strong, allowing the quality of the soundtrack, sound effects and voiceovers to shine.

Even though Tenchu: Shadow Assassins is quite a linear affair, there is plenty of value in the overall package. Outside of the 10 hour story-mode there are loads of unlockable side missions, which are opened up by achieving high rankings in the story mode missions. These side missions provide plenty of incentive to revisit the game and add greatly to the lasting appeal of the title.

Personal thoughts

Tenchu: Shadow Assassins is a difficult game to critique. For everything the game does right, it does something wrong in return. The audio is a perfect example of this, as you will no doubt be wowed by the excellent music and the great voice work for the lead characters, but as soon as you start to hear some of the poor efforts from the supporting cast, you will be left wondering, “why on earth did they do that?” Throwing English-accented voices in the middle of an all-American cast is just plain ridiculous, especially when the game is set in medieval Japan.

Other elements of the game which left me wondering were the controls and the camera. The tank-style movement is clunky and difficult, and certainly doesn’t make you feel like you are controlling a stealthy, black-clad killer. Also, when the Wii-remote is capable of being used as an on-screen cursor, why am I using the analogue stick to aim my projectile weapons? Countering these odd choices are the deadly hissatsu moves, which are excellent fun to perform, but even this element is countered by the inclusion of moves which require you to stab the Wii-remote towards the screen. This has never worked and I can’t remember how many times I had to restart levels after creeping up perfectly on a guard, initiating the hissatsu and failing because the stabbing motion didn’t register correctly. When any developer includes this kind of movement, I have to wonder about the quality assurance testing. The camera also makes it difficult to see the stages, and considering the game is essentially a skill-based puzzle game, that makes it very hard to plan the right strategy.

It’s too bad that these problems crop up though, because even with all of these deficiencies, Tenchu: Shadow Assassins is still an excellent game. None of the problems are so bad they are game-breaking, but they do eat away at the overall quality. Anyone who likes stealth, or puzzle based gameplay will definitely love this game and I really hope that it does well, as a sequel would give the developer a much needed chance to build on the already strong foundation.