Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: History of Gaming

Tenchu

Posted on by Viljami

I think many of us old school gamers and maybe some retro game enthusiasts do recognize Tenchu. It was released for PS1 back in 1998. I can clearly remember these moments back in the day when I saw some footage from actual television about Tenchu. What made it interesting as a PS1 video game was that you were mainly using a sword as a weapon. The fact that this game was a stealth game more than just a simple action melee game that we saw many times in the mainstream of video gaming during the 90s. So, Tenchu was something different.

I do have played this. Not recently but it hasn’t been many years since I last time played the first Tenchu game. There have been several sequels. In actually had to search for some information. There have been at least thirteen games with some relevance to Tenchu. Tenchu 2 was released for PS1 in 2000. There were games released for PS2 and also to PSP. The latest in this series that I have played is Tenchu – Wrath of Heaven that was for PS2. I think it isn’t a bad way to start getting into this ninja combat series by playing the first Tenchu game on  a PS1.

The game did impress back in 1998 and it is still a very nice game to play even today. Maybe you have to have a certain retro type of attitude to actually enjoy this game. If we make a comparison to modern era there could be some improvements on the controls and graphics. So there is some adjusting in this sense. If you do like PS1 games I recommend this game especially.

So, what is the game all about? You try to move around in this three-dimensional environment and avoid enemies. If you get caught the enemies will call help and you usually end up  fighting too many enemies and you eventually end up dead. So, avoiding contact seems to be a working strategy. Also, when you encounter an enemy that hasn’t yet noticed you you can take that person out with only one stealth attack. If the enemy detects you the enemy will call help and you end up in a difficult fight.

You can use a grappling hook to move to for example up to some roof of a house. You use a sword to defeat your enemies. You also use throwing weapons try to take out enemies. Ther weapon, the sword I mean, is a melee weapon. This gives you a different feel of combat than if there were some ranged fire weapons used. The concept hasn’t been used in my opinion so much. Instead there are tons of shooting games available as retro and also as modern games. I think the idea of Tenchu is very good and original. Being that it is a game from 1998 makes it even more inventive as a video game. It was somewhat a pioneer as a three dimensional sword and melee fighting game.

Financially Tenchu was very successful in Japan and also all around the world in Europe and USA. It sold over 1,4 million copies worldwide. It was also successful as well appreciated game and received good grades in different reviews of gaming media of the time. Actually this many times meant magazines that were printed on paper. That was the method that was used back in the day. The gaming media wasn’t yet so strong on the internet. This particular fact has changed since Tenchu was first released.

Tenchu isn’t a pricey game to pick up. If you do find it from game shop I think it can be bought with a price tag of maybe 20 euros. I haven’t seen a copy available in a long time but that price of twenty euros was the price that I bought it for. It was one of my favorite games back in the 90s. It was also among the first games I wanted to own as I started collecting and buying PS1 games to my collection again about seven or eight years ago.

Resident Evil 2 Is The Most Significant PS1 Game for Me

Posted on by Viljami

What a game Resident Evil 2 was and still remains to be. It was released in 1998 for Sony PlayStation 1. My first game for this system was Gran Turismo. So, I cannot tell you that Resident Evil 2 would have been my first PS1 game. I did have a demo disc that featured this survival horror game. I remember playing the demo. Resident Evil 2 had a time limit. I don’t remember how long you could play the game. I think it was maybe fifteen minutes or something like that. That was enough to get me hooked to this game. I had to buy the game.

PS1 had been released already some years ago and game developers were already comfortable to design games for this console. This wasn’t among the first games that were released for PS1. Actually the first game in the horror game series was available for players back in 1996. Resident Evil 2 continued and expanded the story line. It actually represents the view of happenings from the perspective of two different characters that belong to the police department of Racoon City.

I can still clearly remember how the game starts. I remember more clearer the beginning with playing as Leon (Leon S. Kennedy). You can choose the character that you play in the start of the game. The other option is Claire (Claire Redfield). Leon starts his journey after a car collision. He is surrounded with zombies. There are burning flames all around. The best option seems to be to run away and maybe try to kill some zombies that are trying to bite Leon. The story progresses and Leon heads over to the police station trying avoid attacks of zombies.

I think the plot is a good one. So, I am not going to spoil it for you in case you want to play this game. I think Resident Evil 2 is still today something that a gamer that’s interested in retro games can pick up and play. You do have to consider that it is almost 30 years old as a video game. The graphics aren’t as sharp as with some modern video games. I especially recommend it for someone that likes horror games as it is a pioneer in this field. I also recommend it to someone that wants to get an idea of what kind of games there have been made for the Sony PlayStation 1.

For me this was a very significant game. It hit me even harder than Gran Turismo or a game like Metal Gear Solid. It was so good that I wanted to play the first Resident Evil game also. Of course I played also the third game in this survival horror game series. I enjoyed the grim environment and the limitations of ammo, saving points and camera angels which were causing me an interesting mix of anxiety and a deep interest in the world that was presented through this game. There have been some more scarier games released later but Resident Evil 2 was a true pioneer in the field of survival horror. All this was introduced to video game hobbyists already in 1998.

There were actually three games released in the main series for PlayStation 1. There were also a light gun supported spin-off, Resident Evil – Survivor. You can also count the first games release with “Director’s Cut” added to the title but I think the point is clear here. There were many sequels because these games were popular. The game series went on to get many new games for many newer systems.

You can actually see some more recent episodes for this series in some recent games like Resident Evil 7 or 8 and there is also a new game coming that is titled as Resident Evil 9. It is currently in development and it might get released in 2026 which isn’t so sure because it would be a huge release. For me it is actually something very big like GTA VI or something. We are dealing with a major video game release that is continuing the series that Resident Evil 2 is a part of.

Character Progression in Video Games

Posted on by Viljami

Character progression in video games was back in the 90s when games like Golden Axe II were released very much nonexistent. I played the first Golden Axe just a while ago. I almost suddenly started to realize how this game would feel like if there would be some sort of character progression in it. It is very sad that a game like Golden Axe that has very nice visual look and very fantastic character design along with a fun game play to not have something we have seen in so many modern games – a character progression.

Take Donkey Kong Bananza for example. The game isn’t overly obsessed with the development of the character but you get to update your skills with “bananas” that you collect while progressing in the main story. You get to update your hitting force and health level along with many other skills that you can update with the bananas that you collect. You get to choose very much how you will spend your hard earned skill points. This molds the experience and gives you some strategical point of view to the game.

We are today seeing this also in many sports games. In modern NBA games you have to keep developing your player to perform better. There really isn’t a such a solid goal in these basketball games but you can have achievements like winning a championship or getting awarded as the “most valuable player” and things like this. Basically you can play these NBA games almost forever or as long as you will. You kind of get hooked in developing your character and some people are also willing to buy stat upgrades with real money. You can of course have multiple and different types of main characters.

The origins of character progression are in my thinking something adopted from today so popular role playing games. The origins of RPGs then are from something called Dungeon & Dragons. Of course we cannot forget also how fantasy literature has shaped the scenery of today’s role playing games. The components of modern video games have everything to do with the creative power of those people that keep on creating and telling stories and describing different characters, missions and stories. We owe a lot to these foundations and there has been a long time that modern video games have been getting developed.

First we had some games that were organized as turn based games. In the middle of the 90s we saw something new as a very popular game called Diablo was released. The year was accurately 1996. Blizzard was the game house that finally brought us a video game that had along with role playing elements also elements of pure action. I have to bring up once again a spectacular game that inspired the creators of Diablo. This game was NHL 94 for Sega Mega Drive. Also it was a game that inspire many other game developers like the makers of Doom. NHL 94 was a very good game and it inspired also me at that time.

The question that still remains unanswered and might not be answered even after we go through these thoughts a bit more is that how come no one has ever utilized the characters of Golden Axe in such a long time? Maybe they don’t have the copyrights? Then what about Sega? Why haven’t they come up with a new Golden Axe game or spinoff?

The short answer to my question is that we have seen some Golden Axe games after the third game was released for Mega Drive back in 1990s. It just happens to be that they weren’t successful games either financially or content wise. And once again we have a question that needs to be answered and all I can say is that time will probably give us an answer of some kind. We will have to wait and see. There have been many games that have a character progression but I think we would need a new and decent Golden Axe game for modern gaming platforms.