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.
