Entering the forest, he moves not the grass;
Entering the water he makes not a ripple
So goes the wisdom of the Zenrin Kushu, and although perhaps not intended as a description of ninja stealth, the saying applies to the overall strategy of Xbox 360’s first ninja stealth title, Tenchu Z.
While not particularly fond of stealth games, I am quite particular to all things ninja and martial arts in general. The original Xbox was seemingly awash in martial arts games and two of the standouts, Jade Empire and Ninja Gaiden provided a depth of game play that, in my opinion, has yet to be recaptured in martial arts games hence.
While Ninja Gaiden’s revolutionary combat engine made for thrilling game play, the fantastical, demon-themed storyline was a little confusing and wasn’t as true to the ninja aesthetic (if indeed there is a ninja aesthetic) as I would have hoped. It also lacked even minimal stealth strategy – something I thought would be a given for a ninja game with any variety or depth. Enter Tenchu Z, a game that takes great pains to capture the elusive shadow quality for which the ninja were so notorious. And it succeeds in making the ninja stealth experience engaging, but only for a short time.
Tenchu Z quite simply lacks depth. In a nutshell, the game play boils down to sneaking up behind enemies and decapitating them with your katana. There are surprisingly few ways to do this, which is my main beef with the game. The lack of variety of kills and skills makes for a repetitive experience that grows tiresome early into the game. Thus, forty plus stages of what basically amounts to searching villages for your target and finding them in a remote room - either sitting, standing or walking around mumbling - and then dispatching them can seem monotonous despite the grand effort to bring the art of ninja stealth to your 360 console.
And although one can spend 20 plus hours playing the game, it’s not all that challenging. Sure, it’s difficult at times. But after a few failures in a scenario, one figures out the best route to accomplish the objective and then it becomes relatively easy. Some stages are just a matter of memorizing where targets are and then going right to them without facing many obstacles on the way. And the actual layouts of the environments start repeating early and often, so by the time a player finishes the game, he knows by memory the geographic layout of several levels.
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