Sneak up and surprise him
One new feature that has been added is customisation, but it's extremely basic. Before you begin your adventure across the dangerous streets of Japan you can choose to be either male or female, pick a generic face type and choose from a selection of nice frocks to wear. You can then tinker with the ability settings and decide to either balance your three abilities equally or play the game to certain strengths, such as agility. Unfortunately, this appears to be the only improvement to what is shaping up to be an uninspiring and forgettable addition to the Tenchu series.
The main problem with Tenchu Z is the combat, which is rigid, unresponsive and just plain boring. Stealth kills are still a skill to master and exciting if you time them right; you can jump down from rooftops behind unsuspecting guards and execute one hit stealth kills, where your character plunges his sword deep through the body of an enemy, or you can watch the patterns of the patrolling ninjas and then time your run so you catch them by surprise from behind and slit their throats. However, once you've been spotted and the guards begin their attack, close up combat is awkward and tedious. This may be a harsh judgement when I haven't played the full game, because you will be able to unlock additional moves once you progress, but currently the combos, which consist of three button presses and the same animation over and over again, are lacklustre to watch and even more unexciting to perform. Ninjas should have grace in combat, but this hasn't been captured at all in the animations; fighting feels far too restricted and is visually unimpressive with stiff animation. Fighting against multiple combatants also feels uncomfortable because the character doesn't always react speedily to your commands and the AI of the enemy is erratic at the best of times; one knuckle-headed ninja thought it was a good idea to run around in circles instead of pursuing me.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageThe mapping of the control system to the joypad hasn’t been thought out very well at all. The action buttons aren't in the most convenient places (compared to other games of this ilk) and it often feels awkward having to press the right thumbstick to activate your grappling hook, use the left bumper to activate an item in your inventory or press the right bumper to crouch. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be an option to change the control settings. (Don’t quote me on that, it may be added in the full game).
The grappling hook, which used to be one of Tenchu's unique gameplay conventions, has hardly changed since the old days and feels unresponsive and fidgety to use and the targeting reticule used for throwing Syuriken and other ninja items is jerky and on occasions inaccurate.