![]() ![]() It ended up being the license holder and having the rights to a number of games, and in 2009 announced it would bring games like Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, Armored Core 3, Armored Core: Last Raven, Silent Line: Armored Core, and Tenchu: Fatal Shadows to the portable in 20. Tenchu 3 Portable was one of many PS2 to PSP ports FromSoftware was working on at the time. But, this version never ended up being released outside of Japan. It ended up getting a PSP port in 2009, six years after the original PS2 release. Japan-exclusive installments in established series that don’t make it outside of the region tend to be interesting. ![]() What’s the Deal with the Tenchu 3 PSP Game and FromSoftware? But, what loose ends remain from Tenchu: Stealth Assassins? Who is Tesshu Fojioka, a doctor who possesses skills he shouldn’t? People essentially get three campaigns to go through, with Tesshu’s being a bit shorter and a little more unique, while Rikimaru and Ayame’s offer different looks at the quest to stop Tenrai. However, there is no peace for the Azuma ninja.Ī wizard named Tenrai is attempting to collect the Jewels of Heaven, Earth, and Virtue, with both Rikimaru and Ayame dispatched to use all of their skills to stop them. Rikimaru has returned to Lord Gohda, his master, after the extraordinary circumstances following Lord Mei-Oh’s defeat. This third entry takes place about a year after the previous one. Skimming through this video you can see what I'm talking about.The Tenchu series has always been about pairing ninja fantasies with stealth gameplay and supernatural elements, and Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven is no exception. It was low budget so they recycled a lot(probably why they adapted the whole episodic format to begin with) but I think the presentation stood out to me and I remember it vividly, even if I didn't like the game very much. The announcer was great and gave the whole thing a good gravitas. At the start of each level you got a brief recap and at the end they gave you an episode preview for the next level. The levels were presented like episodes of a TV series or an anime. The last thing I have to say about the game is my favorite thing about the game. But in Fatal Shadows even the start of the game had very restrictive enemy placements and it made the game frustrating. The challenge is getting grandmaster in every level. Towards the end of the game they usually have hard levels where the enemies have a lot of line of sight coverage and you gotta be good. A lot of dopes looking off into the distance. Most of the enemy placement in Tenchu is to make you feel like a ninja. The enemy placement was annoying in the game. But it kinda became a chore and it wasn't always clear when to do the timed press. I would always do this in WoH even tho I didn't need to, but this game made it a feature. At certain points in the stealth kill animation you can tap the attack button to get more XP, these timed point usually coincide with the stabby or slashy parts of the animation. They added "timed hits" to the stealth kills. So there were more check marks and replayability which I thought I wanted. They added difficulty select in the level select and each difficulty had the three layouts that WoH introduced. The game has some cool stylistic choices that makes me remember the story and cutscenes fondly but I don't think it holds up besides the style. TL/DR: It has a lot of features seemingly made for me but for whatever reason I had less fun with it. Here's my evaluation of Fatal Shadows from a big Tenchu fan and someone who play Wrath of Heaven to death. Oh, and flashy stealth kill animations help as well. ![]() I'm fine with its awkward controls and basic stealth gameplay as long as that grounded ninja-sim feeling is there. It seems to me that Fatal Shadows actually marked a return to mostly human enemies, and that makes it very tempting to me. I really don't enjoy the inclusion of those types of supernatural elements in my ninja/samurai games, and that's a big part of why I feel that Acquire's Shinobido series surpasses Tenchu by keeping things mostly grounded in reality. While the first few levels are classic Tenchu with corrupt samurai patrolling moonlit streets, the rest of the game features flat-out stupid enemy designs like wooden automatons, floating paper spirit things, and pot-bellied demons that behave just like regular people. The one thing that really hurt Wrath of Heaven for me (despite it having the best gameplay of the series) is the overuse of uninteresting, supernatural enemy types. The lack of Rikimaru is no longer much of an issue for me, and the game seems to avoid my biggest criticism of Wrath of Heaven. Fast-forward all these years later, and now I'm wondering if I should check out Fatal Shadows. ![]()
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