Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, développé par ACQUIRE Corp. et publié par Sony Music Entertainment Japan au Japon ainsi que par Activision Publishing dans le reste du monde, est sorti sur PlayStation le 26 février 1998. Ce jeu d'aventure en monde féodal japonais suit Rikimaru et Ayame, ninjas du clan Azuma au service du seigneur Gohda, confrontés au sorcier démoniaque Mei-Oh et à son guerrier Onikage. L'œuvre se distingue par un gameplay d'infiltration s'appuyant sur le ninjutsu, mêlant arts martiaux et éléments de fantasy historique et de mythologie japonaise, avec des mouvements de combat capturés via motion capture par Sho Kosugi et son fils Kane. La presse a salué le titre, Game Revolution évoquant un portage japonais « fantastic » et Gamezilla! louant la simplicité de la manette et la bande-son pour un jeu à petit prix, tandis que certains joueurs sur Metacritic y voient un jeu incroyable pour l'époque et d'autres expriment leur déception. L'agrégat de notes s'établit à 80,88.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« Just plain fantastic... One the best Japanese ports ever. »
« The simplicity of the controller functions, along with a decent soundtrack, combine to make a great game for a low price. »
« A hard, gritty adventure that should be enough to hold off the "MGS" cravings until the domestic release. »
« The game rivets you to your seat with challenging gameplay, a thought provoking storyline and non-stop suspense as you sneak your way through level after level of action and intriguing twists. »
« The heart and soul of this game lies in stealth, which is splendidly conveyed through the visuals. »
« The kind of game that'll steal days of your life without you even noticing. It's absorbing, puzzling, and it's absolutely the quintessential PlayStation game. Hard-core, smart, bloody, and fun as hell. »
« If you're a gamer who isn't' into twitch action, but you want something a little more intense than an RPG, step into Tenchu's dojo. »
« When games such as this are developed with such style and elegance as Tenchu, this relatively new style of gameplay can be incredibly effective and enjoyable. »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« This game was incredible for the era. The most complex action game we played were stuff like pitfall, stealth was not really a thing, and then tenchu comes and youre a ninja that can zip up in 3D. It blew our minds. »
« Maybe I'm the anomaly, here. I didn't like this game at all. I love stealth games where I'm required to kill my enemies without alerting others. But this was just too slow and punishing for me. Maybe it requires more time and skill to really enjoy this, but I can't say this is for me. »
« Wonderful game, especially for the time it was released, so perfectly crafted. The soundtrack is in my top 5 game OST's, it's magical, and it deeply enhances the experience of each level. I love the way a story is interwoven with levels, each mission feels like a compact short story, and with each successive mission you uncover more of Tenchu's creative a richly packed world. Fantasy is masterfully interwoven with era accurate sociopolitical drama, without overdoing it like many modern games being tacky copies of generic Hollywood drab. Gameplay is mostly of it's time, veterans won't have a problem because everything works well, but newcomers may struggle getting to grips with them, and nothing is explained, i remember finding out the full arsenal of moves via pure trial and error, but there are some really neat abilities to use in combat once you've mastered them, from sidesteps to acrobatic aerial flips over your opponent to the stab their back. However, the best thing about this game for me is the stealth elements, plotting your path forward, needing to think, observe, have patience, wait for the right time to either assassinate or go past quietly without being noticed. I like the blocky ps1 graphics, full of charm and character. I love the homage to feudal Japan and it's honour system, mixed with subterfuge and the mystical. A truly unique game from a very special time in gaming history. »
« One of the games that defined the stealth genre. Played it in the late 90s and recently played it again and it's still a classic »
« This game set the standard for ninja stealth games. Innovative for its time, it laid the groundwork for today’s stealth genre with atmosphere, strategy, and silent kills. »
« El mejor juego de Ninjas de todos los tiempos, y uno de mis favoritos en general de todo el catálogo de Playstation. Definitivamente un juego del cuál valdría la pena tener un Remake y que definitivamente compraría el día de su lanzamiento. The best ninja game of all time, and one of my favorites in the entire Playstation catalog. Definitely a game worth a remake, and one I'd definitely buy on release day. »
« A great game with beautiful music that matches perfectly the rythim of the game made by the great Noriyuki Asakura. It is still to date one of the best stealth action game of all time excellent animations with the collaboration of Sho Kosugi and Kane Kosugi »
« Tenchu es un juego que aspiró a ser el que evolucionara el gameplay en 3d de los juegos de sigilo, penosamente toma malas decisiones, una tras otra en cada apartado. La música no va de acuerdo a lo que hacemos, el protagonista nunca suelta su llamativa espada, jefes finales con combate cuerpo a cuarpo que no vienen al caso, historia simplona, inteligencia artificial ridícula (si nos agachamos después de ser detectados seremos invisibles o en ocaciones se ponen a vigilar paredes), y cuando el juego si funciona su diseño de nivel hace que la experiencia sea aburrida. »
