Any Tenchu fans?

The ninja gun thread made me think to ask if there are any fans of the Tenchu series around here? The new game, Fatal Shadows, just came out, and I got to play a couple hours of it last night.

It's pretty cool, and I like it. The controls are a carbon copy of Wrath of Heaven, which is nice, because I went into it already in practice from playing WoH. The experience is a bit different though. The atmosphere is much more organic. It feels more like a real place than a "level." Right off the start you're in a small cave opening with a female ninja patrolling outside. I noticed this archway on the path with streamers hanging from it, and the streamers were blowing in a low and steady wind from time to time. Ayame's hair also moves a lot more when she's moving around. The water, bushes, and general environment seem to be more immersive.

The ninjas have the same sight angles as before, but they have more heightened senses. They can see farther, and it seems like they can hear more.

The grappling hook is vastly improved over WoH. You don't have to clip the exact edge of something at a square angle to grab the ledge. You can be at a pretty steep angle to the side and at a greater range than before, and not quite on the upper edge and still grab on. The camera is a bit different, with some good and some bad points.

The camera movement is much faster, allowing you to take in the surrounding area much more quickly, but sometimes that can be nauseating. A problem came up when I would creep to the edge of a roof and want to look straight down. I'd find that the ninja was completely in the way. I had to turn a bit and fiddle with the camera to see right below me. Also, I tried a blowgun dart, and when trying to aim I found the ninja's head in the way, so I couldn't see when my reticule was on the guy. That meant I had to shoot him while he was on his way towards me.

Special items are much more common in this game. You'll find a bunch of regular items in a level, and some special ones. I found a box with a pair of blowgun darts sitting in a level out in the open. Weirdness. They also have some odd items. Hand claws for climbing walls. A wasp's nest to throw. They have the mine, but they also have a couple of other explosives.

The story isn't really developed yet as of where I left off, but it has a very Kill Bill feel to it for me. The main villian (at this point) has wiped out a whole village, leaving one girl alive. He has a team of assassins working for him, each with a weird personality. The main guy has an eye patch instead of one of his lackeys, but still, the feel is there. It's even kind of cut like that, with chapters. And before each level you get a preview cutscene of what's ahead.

Oh, and the voice-over guy is different. ::sigh::

Edited by reifidom

I was a big fan of the first game, but the second wasn't so great. The option to draw and put away your weapon was an ok idea, but it gave me problems when I'd start a boss fight effectively unarmed sometimes. Wrath of Heaven was a great Tenchu game, and this one is looking to be pretty cool as well.

They are definetly games for the careful and patient. The levels in Fatal Shadows play much more quickly than WoH though. I'm spending a litte more than half the time as I did on a similar level in WoH.