I'm guessing this is the same game. Comes out on the PSP in Europe at the end of June.

quote

Sega Europe has announced the European release date of the forthcoming PlayStation Portable exclusive, Tenchu: Time of the Assassins. The stealth action game will be available from June 23 and will feature full 3D environments.

Veterans of the PlayStation 2 franchise will notice enhanced stealth actions and new kill moves as well as the classic Tenchu characters Rikimaru, Ayame, Rin, and Tesshu.

Each of them will have a unique story in the single-player campaign, and there are 50 further stand-alone missions to play through as well. Gamers will also be able to connect wirelessly to play missions cooperatively or head-to-head.

According to Matt Woodley, creative director of Sega, the game's ambition is to "offer all the strategy of a stealth game but none of the frustration". With this in mind, every enemy in the game can be killed using stealth tactics, including the bosses.

IGN shinobi taizen

Rikimaru is back!

puzzled as to why there isn't more activity on this board. Saw the game the other day and it's only a matter of getting paid before I pick it up!

I didn't realise it had been released... do you know if it's out in the UK at all?

'cat, I'm in the UK and it was out on the shelves in my local GAME on friday and it's listed as available on Amazon.
Haven't seen any reviews yet, and I'm in work so most game sites are blocked.

Cheers for the info.

That's so weird- you'd think there would have been some sort of advance publicity for it- I just did a quick goole search for reviews and the only one I could find was from the Manchester Evening News-

Evening News

I did find this posted on a chat forum-

quote

OK after playing this for a few hours I can say without doubt that if you are a fan of Tenchu you will LOVE this game.

The graphics are as good as PS2 and the controls (while strange at first) are almost perfect. The fact that we will all be able to design our own levels and share them with each other is awesome. This means that this will be the ultimate Tenchu! We will never run out of levels!

I hope we can upload highest rankings into a online leader board too, that would be great.

But of course the game has a few problems. For a start as everyone knows by now, the draw distance is bad, VERY bad. Like Tenchu 1 and 2 bad. Does it spoil the game? No. Does it make it frustrating at times? yes very much so. Especially when I can't see the other side of a large room! It makes finding guards difficult even when you are almost right on top of them, causing very annoyingly cheap occurrences of getting spotted.

It seems very strange after playing games like Tony Hawks, Ridge Racer, Spider-man 2 & Hot Shots golf, all of which have great draw distances, that the draw distance would be so poor. Especially when it is so crucial to gameplay. Just because we put up with it in the first two games when we didn't know better is no reason for it being acceptable now. I know all the Tenchu fans will buy the game anyway, but the could lose a lot of casual gamer sales based on the poor reviews it might receive if this issue isn't addressed before western release.

Also the camera is set up to rotate around you when you do a stealth kill, so sometimes while adjusting for surroundings it will go through walls or through you and make it impossible to see the kill. There are a few other small problems, like not being able to rotate while crouched (can only sidestep). but nothing that would come close to spoiling the game for Tenchu fans.

Overall I would give this game - 8.5 / 10

But I remember playing the first Japanese Tenchu and the English release having a lot of small bugs fixed. We can pray to the video game gods that they improve the draw distance and some of the other bugs before it gets a US release. Hell they should use 333mhz if it would increase the draw distance by 30%!, I'll take that over battery power! I can always recharge (and I have a spare). With fixed draw distance this would be one of my all time favourite games!

Yeah that's really weird, I would have expected some sort of previews in the big PS magazines. The draw distance sounds abysmal though, might have to wait until I hear some more on that before I buy it.
Even though it has got Tesshu, the necksnapping doctor in it
or should that be Chiro?

This message was edited by CURTCONNORS on Jun 26 2006.

quote CURTCONNORS

or should that be Chiro?

I found out-I found my self irresistibly drawn into GAME last night after I'd had a couple of pints
Anyway the draw distance is awkward, but I only had time for one quick charge through a level this morning. Four characters to play, one to unlock, Unhappily no mention in the manual of unlockable ninja attacks and skills like there normally are.
Tha level editor thing looks impressive if you're that way inclined, but as I say this is all based on a couple of quick skims of the manual and one proper go. They've also massively reduced the cutscenes, the level I played had one at the start and then, after I smacked down the boss, there was this weird comic style cutscene with speech bubbles, where you press X after you've finished reading to go onto the next one.
Very strange

Yeah, I try to avoid drinking and shopping.

Let us know what you think of it once you've played a bit more. I've got a long train journey on Friday morning so I'm thinking of picking it up, but still I'm unsure whether to get this.

Yeah, drink shopping's murder

Anyway I didn't have any time to play last night but one thing that I didn't manage to mention before, the minimap looks almost literally like this,

where the two dots are you and the boss and the brown lines are walls. The real maps are more complicated obviously, but I haven't noticed any function for making them better. How bad is that?

Anyway I'll post more when I've had a chance to explore the game for longer than ten minutes, damn real world interfering.

well, i picked myself up a copy, haven't played through it much but it seems pretty solid. The draw distance is a bit of a pain but nothing too bad. It's your classic Tenchu. Mission editor is pretty good though.

Gamefaqs has a list of all the unlockable ninja moves- like a say I haven't had a chance to really play it yet but Tesshu appears to be able to make noises like a cat or a dog as one of his special moves. I guess that's pretty cool...

The distrActing noises thing was in Wrath of Heaven IIRC, always did like Tesshu though.
I still haven't had much of a chance to play it either, beetween Oblivion and the other crap that's going on at the moment. The Map sucks though doesn't it?
Did you hear there's a next gen Tenchu in development? All I know is apparently the working title is Tenchu 360

Yeah, the map is crap. I guess ninja's don't use maps anymore. I'd never really played around with the special moves before, so the whole animal noise thing was a surprise to me. I triggered it accidentally and couldn't work out what the hell he was doing.

Here's the special moves list for the main characters-

quote

From shadowpantha at gamefaqs and http://www.tenchu.de

--------
Rikimaru
--------

Basic Attacks
-------------

Slash - Square

2 Slashes - Square (x2)

3 Slashes - Square (x3)

360 Slash - 360 on Left Analog, Square

Upper Slash - Hold R, Square

Flip Slash - Hold L, pull back on Left Analog + Square

Thrust Attack - Tap up on Left Analog (x2), Square or hold L, up + X, Square

Jump Attack - X, Square

Grab - Hold O close to opponent

Stab Fallen Opponent - Hold L, Square


Special Moves
-------------

Shoulder Thrust - Square (x2), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Ninjitsu Block - Square the exact moment the enermy attacks

Ninja Vision - Hold L + R and use the up and down arrows on the d-pad to
zoom in or out

Grappling Hook Catch - 360 on Left Analog, Square, Triangle

Cling To Ceiling - Throw grappling hook to smooth surface of ceiling, while
doing this hold R

Ninjutsu Bind - Press O near unaware opponent


Combos
------

2 Slashes - Square (x2)

3 Slashes - Square (x3)

Heel Kick Combo - Square (x3), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Leg Sweep - Square then pull back on Left Analog + Square

Shoulder Thrust - Square (x2), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Thrust Attack Combo - Square (x2), hold L, up + x, Square

3 Slash Grappling Combo - Square (x3), 360 on Left Analog, Square, Triangle
(Repeat to juggle opponent)

360 Slash Combo - Square (x3), 360 on Left Analog, Square, Triangle (Repeat
to juggle opponent)

360 Slash Shoulder Thrust Combo - Square (x3), 360 on Left Analog, Square,
Triangle, Square (x2), pull back on Left Analog + Square



-----
Ayame
-----

Basic Attacks
-------------

Slash - Square

2 Slashes - Square (x2)

3 Slashes - Square (x3)

4 Slashes - Square (x4)

5 Slashes - Square (x5)

Upper Slash - Hold R, Square

Flip Slash - Hold L, pull back on Left Analog + Square

360 Kick - 360 on Left Analog, Square

Thrust Attack - Tap up on Left Analog (x2), Square or hold L, up + X, Square

Jump Attack - X, Square

Grab - Hold O close to opponent

Stab Fallen Opponent - Hold L, Square


Special Moves
-------------

Cresent Kick - Sqaure (x4), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Ninjitsu Block - Square the exact moment the enermy attacks

Ninja Vision - Hold L + R and use the up and down arrows on the d-pad to
zoom in or out

Grappling Hook - 360 on Left Analog, Square, Triangle

Cling To Ceiling - Throw grappling hook to smooth surface of ceiling, while
doing this hold R

Cheetah Run - Hold R, X + O

Wrath - Hold Square for 2 sec, release, press Square on successful attack
to attack near by opponent

Ninja Sense - Hold R, O

Ninjutsu Bind - Press O near unaware opponent


Combos
------

2 Slashes - Square (x2)

3 Slashes - Square (x3)

4 Slashes - Square (x4)

5 Slashes - Square (x5)

Backflip Foward Thurst Combo - Square (x2), pull back on Left Analog + Square
(x2)

Heel Kick Combo - Square (x3), pull back on Left Analog + Square (x2)

Cresent Kick Combo - Square (x4), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Thrust Attack Combo - Square (x3), hold L, up + x, Square

5 Slash Grappling Combo - Square (x5), 360 on Left Analog, Square, Triangle
(Repeat to juggle opponent)

360 Kick Combo - Square (x4), 360 on Left Analog, Square




---
Rin
---

Basic Attacks
-------------

Elbow - Square

Palm - Square (x2)

Overhead Heal - Square (x3)

360 Slash - 360 on Left Analog, Square

Upper Kick - Hold R, Square

Foot Stomp - Hold L, pull back on Left Analog + Square

Jump Attack - X, Square

Thrust Attack - Tap up on Left Analog (x2), Square or hold L, up + X, Square

Grab - Hold O close to opponent

Elbow Drop Fallen Opponent - Hold L, Square


Special Moves
-------------

Decoy Sound - Hold R, O

Crimson - While grabbing opponent, quickly rotate the Left Analog, while
tapping O

Crimson Final - When Crimson is executed, during the arm break, press
Up then Down on Left Analog, O

Ninja Vision - Hold L + R and use the up and down arrows on the d-pad to
zoom in or out

Ninjutsu Bind - Press O near unaware opponent

Cling To Ceiling - Throw grappling hook to smooth surface of ceiling, while
doing this hold R



Combos
------

2 Hit - Square (x2)

3 Hit - Square (x2)

Sweeping Slash Combo - Square (x3), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Pile Driver - Square (x2), pull back on Left Analog + Square (x2)

Thrust Attack Combo - Square (x2), hold L, up + X, Square



------
Tesshu
------

Basic Attacks
-------------

Punch - Square

2 Punches - Square

Upper Pummul - Hold R then press Square

Kick - Hold L, pull back on Left Analog + Square

Thrust Attack - Tap up on Left Analog (x2), Square or hold L, up + X, Square

Jump Attack - X, Square

Grab - Hold O close to opponent


Special Moves
-------------

Power Punch - Square (x3), on 3rd time hold Square, let go when you want to

Upper Straight - 360 on Left Analog, Square

Power Block - Square the exact moment the enermy attacks

Decoy Sound - Hold R, O

Cling To Ceiling - Throw grappling hook to smooth surface of ceiling, while
doing this hold R

Ninja Vision - Hold L + R and use the up and down arrows on the d-pad to
zoom in or out

Ninjutsu Bind - Press O near unaware opponent



Combos
------

2 Punches - Square

3 Hit Combo - Square (x3)

Thrust Attack Combo - Square (x2), hold L, up + X, Square

I've got this vision of you now frantically stabbing buttons going 'barnyard impressions? ****ing hit him!'

This message was edited by CURTCONNORS on Jul 05 2006.