Game #990: Tenchu - Wrath of Heaven

 Two hours later I still couldn't my witty headline. Ninjas must've murdered it.

 Took me a bit of time, but I finally got to the only Tenchu game I had played in my youth, Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven. I'll tell you this, I definitely don't have the same patience I used to have for Stealth games or stealth sections, which definitely affects just how much enjoyment I can get out of this games, that said, it evens out considering I have some nostalgia for this game.

 Why change what worked well? Once again, we have three protagonists. Rikimaru and Ayame get 10 missions each, and once you finish both storylines you unlock Tesshu, who just like Takemaru before him... gets a reduced 6 mission count. I felt like the story elements weren't as prominent as they were in Tenchu 2, which was a bit disappointing since I enjoyed having a stronger narrative element. Plus, Rikimaru and Ayame's stories don't compliment each other, in fact, some details actually change depending on who you are playing as! Missions don't feel as different as they felt in Tenchu 2 between characters, however, characters get different bosses AND every missions has THREE different layouts, so there's plenty of replayability. Speaking of bosses, just like Tenchu 2, while their appearances are brief they are all very memorable and distinct.

 The game has a small multiplayer element, both co-op or versus, and while I didn't try it out, I remember playing it a lot with my friends back in the day. You get a TON of playable characters in this mode, with their own assassination animations as well as attack combos. It's a really great extra!

 The brunt of the game remains the same, pick a few ninja tools before each mission, a grappling hook, a ki-gauge that alerts you if an enemy or a civilian is nearby, etc. That said, fighting feels tighter than before, I didn't feel like the hitboxes were wonky at all. Overall movement was streamlined, now you can move stealthily while crouching or standing, the long jump was removed since your basic jumps are better because moving around in general is much smoother thanks to the removal of tank controls. So yeah the controls make this game much more fun to play than the previous games, not that the previous games were bad, they weren't, but the improvements are welcome. The grappling hook feels MUCH better too, I don't think I ever failed to grab onto an edge I aimed for.

 On the other hand, I think a couple of levels are a bit poorly designed, at least in my opinion. The game employs many more bottomless pits than even Tenchu 2, but they feel a bit unfair. Tenchu has never had checkpoints, and losing all my progress because I didn't know the floor below me would crumble left a bitter taste in my mouth. Even the revival item won't bring you back from a bottomless pit. That said, they put the power of the PS2 to good use, as stages are much, much larger than before and they pulled off some pretty interesting and creative environments to sneak around in.

 While Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven doesn't do absolutely everything better than its predecessor, but there were so many important improvements to how the game plays that make it clear in my mind that this is the best Tenchu I have played.

 7.5