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| Undead Fred 2136th Post
 
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
    
    
    
    
    
|  "Re(1):Tenchu: Kurenai/Fatal Shadows" , posted Tue 22 Feb 03:24:
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I'm not sure at what point the Tenchu series turned into a playable homage to old, crazy chambara stories. While most games are content to stick with lifting characters from other forms of media, Tenchu Kurenai/Fatal Shadows has done one better by making the game so closely resemble an action series that there are previews for the upcoming chapter after you beat a level. Since I'm a fan of the material that's being referenced -as well as a fan of ninja girls in general- I'm getting a real kick out of the game.
The reason I'm posting this is because while I feel that there are aspects of the game that need updating I'm afraid the somewhat negative reviews out there are going to hurt the game. While T:FS has minor tweaks instead of a major overhaul of the game it's still as enjoyable as the previous Tenchu games. If you can still find joy in the simple pleasures in life such as slitting someone's throat or disrupting guard patrol routes by throwing the corpse of their dead friend at their feet this is the game for you.
As a final, minor point I got a kick out of having the narrator for the Japanese language track be Kiyoshi Kobayashi. It's nice to see that guy is still going after all these years.
Ah, damn. I was going to start a thread about this game too, but you beat me to it. Heh heh.
I got this game last week and beat it yesterday... I've got some complaints about it, though. First off, it feels pretty rushed. I can overlook recycling some old models, but the story itself just didn't seem as worked out as the other games... It also felt a lot less compelling than the other games, too. I did like the episodic format, though.
As for gameplay, I didn't like the way you couldn't choose which character to take to which level in story mode (you know, how the others had separate story tracks for each), but I got used to it after a few levels. The camera system, though, did seem a lot clunkier than in past games, and I KNOW the double-jump to catch low fences and low-hanging rooftops and other edges is not working as well as usual... I had quite a few times where I really had trouble catching edges that were really low enough to be able to catch under normal circumstances. Also, it seemed like the enemy swords had kung-fu movie physics to them... I'd see one swinging at me, and I'd step back to avoid their strikes, but they'd still manage to hit me even after I was at a good step or two away from their range. Giving stealth kills to normal guards was also pretty aggravating, too... Every time I got hit with one, it was after I managed to somehow screw up a high jump down to stealth kill a guard from above (I'm usually really good at those...). I'd land right in front of them, they'd go "aaa!" and then grab me and kill me in one shot. I've also had another type of guard pull a one-hit kill from the front in a middle of a fight (two separate times). And did the levels seem a lot shorter this time?
I did enjoy the game, and I liked Rin a lot, but I just wish they could have spent a little more time tightening up the gameplay.
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Just one little question, is Rikimaru or Tesshu playable?
If the answer is no, then I won't bother with this game.
I don't know yet, but yeah, I can definitely understand not wanting to play the game if they aren't... they were the only characters I had really used before. Not sure why, but I never really liked using Ayame. If anyone knows if Rikimaru or Tesshu are playable, could you make sure to put it in a spoiler tag? Since the game's supposed to be be a prequel to 3, I'm not really holding out much hope for Rikimaru....
[this message was edited by Undead Fred on Tue 22 Feb 03:29] |
| Undead Fred 2139th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(4):Tenchu: Kurenai/Fatal Shadows" , posted Tue 22 Feb 09:42
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Feh. Stupid. It's the same damn mechanics. Tenchu is pretty okay, but it's just mediocre enough that if you're gonna play Tenchu you're just gonna play Tenchu. Doesn't seem to be worth excluding just for a character if you actually signed up for Tenchu.
At first, I thought "I agree", but then I realized that perhaps Tenchu is so mediocre that little details like that become important. Like..."Well, the game isn't that awesome, but at least I get to use an awesome ninja."
I only played 3 levels of Kurenai (I don't own the game) and it was amazingly better than Tenchu 3 to me (so, I had a good time)...but then again, I've never been a big Tenchu fan. I don't really like ninja and the games are conistantly sloppy.
I'm not really sure what is so mediocre about the games... the graphics aren't knock-out great, but I thought they had fairly good characters and stories. Again, not the greatest ever, but they're not that bad...
The game mechanics work out well enough in the previous ones, but it would be nice if they would have worked on tightening up the swordfighting a bit more. Maybe they tried to in Kurenai, but the fighting and camera are actually worse in my opinion.
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| ONSLAUGHT 3273th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "OK" , posted Tue 22 Feb 13:39
quote:
Feh. Stupid. It's the same damn mechanics. Tenchu is pretty okay, but it's just mediocre enough that if you're gonna play Tenchu you're just gonna play Tenchu. Doesn't seem to be worth excluding just for a character if you actually signed up for Tenchu.
1.-No, it's not stupid.
2.- It's not the same damn mechanics if you lack certain character.
You see, I always saw Ayame like a nifty extra, a nice adition to Rikimaru, an optional character, a bonus...
If my main character is out, I don't want to play a game composed only of the bonus character, and if it's the sama damn mechanics, then the game would feel incomplete without the character that made those damn mechanics work in past games.
I don't like weak women in my games, unless the game has been designed that way since the beginning (Metroid, RE, etc.), and since this is not the case with Tenchu, then I refuse to play it.
Say whatever you like, but there's a world of diference between Ayame and Rikimaru.
The only good temporal substitute for Rikimaru would be Tesshu or Tatsumaru.
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| Undead Fred 2140th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(1):OK" , posted Tue 22 Feb 14:50
quote:
Let's take a look at the words you are using.
1: Aren't knock-out great
2:Fairly good
3: Not the greatest ever
4:Not that bad
5:Work out well enough
6: Maybe they tried
7: Actually worse
These are all terms used to describe a mediocre game. I pretty much agree with you, though...it's just that I think Tenchu is easy (and fun) to make fun of.
 Well, you can take those out of context and make it look bad, I guess. I was actually being a bit "light" on my comments so the thread wouldn't turn into some fanboy rant... I actually like Tenchu a good bit. I've heard people whining about the camera in the past and little nitpicky things like that, but I never understood what the problem was...
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Well, fighting was never supposed to be easy in Tenchu; it's more of a punishment for not being stealthy enough. That said, after I got used to it I found the fighting and camera in Kurenai were much better than previous versions. You just have to learn how to use the R-stick well to see and use the R2 lock-on for boss battles.
And BTW you can play Rin in Ayame's missions and vice versa, it's just a seperate mode.
Well, yeah. I kind of figured that would come up... I know you're not really supposed to fight anyone and stealth kill them all instead, but you DO have to fight bosses, so I'd want the fighting to be really solid for that part of it. I do like the dodging system with holding R2 and hitting jump and a direction (which I'm pretty sure is a new feature), though. I'm not sure if the camera's what's bugging me about the fighting, or the lock-on... I guess I just assume a lock-on would turn you to face whoever you're locked on to so you could block incoming attacks, but they don't turn at all. All of the little bugs and stuff seem like they can be worked around, but it's still frustrating. It's good that not everyone's having that ledge grab problem (I don't mean the anti-ninja rooftops... I'm talking about all of the other shorter ledges that you can totally reach).
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Say whatever you like, but there's a world of diference between Ayame and Rikimaru.
The only good temporal substitute for Rikimaru would be Tesshu or Tatsumaru.
I agree. The Tenchu series is centered around Rikimaru, really. Ayame's a supporting character, but she's always been sort of secondary to Rikimaru. They DO play differently, and I think that's why I don't like playing with Ayame. I like Rikimaru's look and style, as well as the way he plays. Like I said before, though, at least Rin sort of plays like a Rikimaru/ Tatsumaru/ Tesshu.
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| deisied 262th Post
Copper Customer
| "Re(1):OK" , posted Tue 22 Feb 16:13
quote:
I don't like weak women in my games, unless the game has been designed that way since the beginning (Metroid, RE, etc.), and since this is not the case with Tenchu, then I refuse to play it.
Sigh...Awesome. Well, pretend this game is stand alone or something. Besides, the game is centered around them, it's not like they're going to be falling all over themselves. They're pretty much just Riki in perspective, minus the aesthetic. But...yeah...awesome...
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