Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven Review

Tenchu Wrath of Heaven overall is a solid sequel and is the best Tenchu game released up until that point and even the best Tenchu game overall. 

I'll start with the good, the stealth kills are fantastic. They even more gratifying and guresome than they were in the previous games, there is more variety of them like air kills and the front kills from Tenchu 2 are back and more satisfying to pull off here, when the human enemies add a death bark after the kill, it kinds of adds a weird comedic charm to the kill after pulling it off. The best part is, unlike Tenchu 2, the game's stealth kills never bug out and they always play. When it comes to polish, Wrath of Heaven is easily the best game in the series, stealth kills will mostly always be consistent to pull off, the collision detection with the grappling hook has mostly if not entirely ironed out from the last game, and you no longer have to be on an even slope in order to take cover behind a wall. The addition of double jumping being easy to pull of with a tap double tap of the x button makes it great to reach platforms and even get a quick air kill on the enemy. The level design is also as good as it's always been, the levels are nice and wide open and while linear can be approached in a number of different ways thanks to the grappling hook and items you can obtain. The levels all make great use of vertical spaces and your grappling hook will actively be used. You will be killing enemies from corners then jumping over pits then waiting for them to move as you wait hanging across the ledge, the final two levels make great use out of this. The look button also comes in handy when it observing your surrondings on where to go. The maps are also much bigger now and all though you progress through them in a linear fashion the individual sqaures and boxes that comparise of each map has enough stair ways of vertical spaces to the point where it doesn't feel like you are going through a straight line. The situational depth and enviroment vairety is also impressive here too. You will be going through a multi house estate, then a mission where you can't kill anyone and then the level has enemies later, then a limestone cavern with death pits, then a Ronin village, then a level with zombies where your health slowly drains, and this is only some of the level variety and situations in Tenchu Wrath of Heaven, even though you will be stealth killing and waiting for the kill a lot, the game throws enough at the player to keep everything varied and interesting. The music is also fantastic and now there is actual background music going through the levels adding atmosphere to your ninja killing sprees unlike Tenchu 2. 

Now, I'll start describing the bad, and I feel like these hold this game from being a great game to a good game. First, it's the camera, the big issue is that right stick movement is there but it's very slow and cumbersome, and it's not as reliable as using the look button, and even then the look button isn't as effective as just simpily being able to turn the right stick. This feels like a weird carry over from the PS1 Tenchus where the PS1 games it made sense to actively use the look button since the draw distance was limited, and not only this but so much of the stealth consists of you taking cover behind walls and peaking around corners and proper right stick movement would've been beneficial here, not only that but a lot of avoidable alerts might be triggered because right stick movement just feels too slow and the look button isn't good enough substitute. Next issue is the boss fights and the addition of unlockable moves after getting around 10 stealth kills. The bosses are just as awful as they were in previous games and now they are even more aggressive with grabs that can't be broken out of either. They feel out of place since these are bosses more akin to an action game than a stealth game and it just feels out of place to restart a level from the beggining with no checkpoints because you died to a boss fight that didn't even belong in a game like this. The unlockable moves also feel pointless since they are mostly combat related and combat is still as awful as ever before, but now with the chance of getting staggered to oblivion before you can even break out of it and start attacking as awful as they were in previous games, at least you could win simpily by blocking and then waiting for an opening and then striking but in this game now there is more factors to consider like when to attack, when to block and when to avoid unbreakable grabs. The stealth unlockables are also pointless since it's the same Tenchu design and they don't make very use of them in the actual level design, you can ignore them and get through the game just fine. The story is also really terrible and while I don't mind this on it's own, my big issue is that the multiple interconnected campaigns of Tenchu 2 are gone so now even though the campaigns with Rikimaru and Ayame have their own serialized stories unlike Tenchu Stealth Assassins, they are both isolated from each other and are both very badly written, which is a shame because Tenchu 2's strength was it's story and interconncted campaign. Also, the story is just terrible, so much poorly explained supernatural plot points, and heavy amounts of retconning, and while I get it considering how Stealth Assassins ended, I still don't think it excuses the poor writing overall. The villains while being kind of memorable in terms of personality and looks get killed off before you get to know them, which is something Tenchu 2 avoided with it's multiple camapaigns since Tatsamaru's fleshed out the Burning Dawn. 

Overall, Tenchu Wrath of Heaven is the best Tenchu game ever made but at the same time, it falls short of being a truly great game, still worth checking out but every game after this, I am not even sure I want to play.