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Let me be blunt. It’s too late in the PS2’s lifecycle for us to have to wade through rehashed crap like Tenchu: Fatal Shadows. All the broken elements from the last game are completely intact in this installment, just way more infuriating because they weren’t fixed. It’s very sad when two years have passed and I could reuse the review from the previous game. If you don’t want to read through that review, I’ll sum it up here. Ayame is back with a new playable character, Rin. Both are nearly identical. The story unfolds from both perspectives. The stages and missions are new, as well as the double stealth kill. Everything else is exactly the same as Wrath of Heaven. There have been games that don’t add much to their sequels and are still strong. This is not one of them.
The camera is wretched. They give you full control over it, but I’ve come to realize that this just pushed the problem off onto the end user because they were too stubborn to make it right. “Here, we couldn’t figure it out, so use these buttons and sticks and see if you can do it.” It’s annoying when you’re standing out in the open looking for enemies, but it’s agonizing when you back up against a wall. It does stupid stuff like rotate 90 degrees when you flick the right analog stick instead of giving you full control. No, you have to hold a second button for that. The bulk of your effort goes into babysitting this cheap 3D camera, while some guard that you can’t see right in front of you ganks your ass. This leads to the inevitable melee fight, which is not what you play a ninja stealth game for. Luckily the AI has the memory of a goldfish. You can run back a few steps, hop a fence, and he’ll forget all about you. Now you know where he is and can properly stealth kill him the second time. The idea of playing a stealthy ninja has to appeal to large audience. It’s a shame you all don’t have a game to play. Tenchu: Fatal Shadows took a big step backwards by not making any improvements over Wrath of Heaven. Stay away. You’ve been warned.
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