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The Great has become the Best.....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 19
Date: July 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

In Tenchu 2 you use many Ninja style weapons some that were in the original game, others that are new like flaming arrows. You use stealth to sneak up on your enemy and kill him/her without them knowing what hit them! The game is really bloody for some this might be great for others it might not be all that good. Tenchu 2 comes with a new feature the mission editor, in the mission editor you can create your own levels and place enemies within the levels! It's a great feature that makes an already great game even better. All together the game has 29 levels, 3 playable characters (the two Ninja characters that were in the original game and a new Ninja character),22 weapons, a mission editor, and many hours of fun. For those of you who like games that are based on stealth this is a game you can't pass up!

A prequel to one of PlayStation's best adventure games.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: August 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Tenchu 2:Birth of the Stealh Assassins is a kind of game which leaves you craving for more long after you have fineshed it. It is a game with a lot of depth and playability.

First off, this game is a prequel to the original Tenchu. It's story is about Rikimaru and Ayame - the two ninjas 'adopted' by the Lord Godha. There is also has a third ninja named Tatsumaru who fights alongside with the two of them. This explains the story of what happened to Tatsumaru, how all 3 ninjas protected their Lord from traitors and also how Rikimaru got his famous eye-scar.

It has around 25 levels (making it 15 more than the first game), with different levels for each of the 3 characters. However, if you're not happy with the levels in the game, you can create your own level. That's right, you can place walls, buildings, trees, bushes and other countless objects to perform your assassination in. You can even place guards and design what their pattern of walking will be. You can also make the mission peramiter, like assassination of a person, an escort to keep someone alive, elimate all guards, etc.

The game has improved gameplay-wise also. You can now swim in the water and even use a bamboo reed to breathe through it to remain unnoticed. You also have lots of new ninja gadjets to use, like a blowgun, invisibility and different kinds of shurikens. Yes, the game is still very bloody and realistic. But the game is not trying to be some kind of head-blowing, mindless slashing. You must still remain unseen by the guards and be very careful when you commit your 'cold blooded honor'. Overall, this is a definite buy for your PlayStation. I liked it very much and I suggest you give it a try.

Think of it as Rikimaru's Revenge

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: July 23, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I would've given this game a 4 star rating, but you can create your own missions! If you like stealth games like Metal Gear Solid, then this is for you. You can be two Ninjas....Rikimaru(boy) and Ayame (girl). Your goal is to keep away from the guards....and kill them without anyone noticing. You can use 22 Ninja Items, some magical (Vanishing Tree makes you disappear to another place in a flash of leaves), some not(Grappling Hook anyone?). Rikimaru is armed with a deadly Katana and Ayame two daggers. You can do front flips,and back flips, and you can creep along walls. You can crouch so the enemy doesn't see you, and you can breath underwater with the help of a bamboo pole. One of the best features of this game is the 1-hit Stealth kill. If you can manage to run up behind an enemy without them noticing, you can kill them silently. Overall a great game, but a little bloody.

IT ROCKS! IT RULES!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: August 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I couldn't believe Tehchu 2 did come out a week early. So, I rushed to the store to get this baby. Well, if you like the first one, you don't want to miss this one. If you don't own the first one, buy that one first (it's cheaper) :).Tenchu 2 is pretty much the same as the first one. But now, you can drag your fallen enemies into the dark or search their bodies for goodies. And there are more stealth-kill moves. The whole area map is not given before-hand, so you will get lost for some time. And there is a story with cool FMV's! Other than that, it is still the good old Tenchu. So, get it and hide-and-kill. And "I WILL SEE YOU IN HELL!" (Onikage, Tenchu 1998)

Originality: 4 <=> Graphics: 4 <=> Sound: 5 <=> Game Play: 5 <=> Replay Value: 5 <=> (Out of 5)

Disappointing sequel to one of the best PSX games ever.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: September 02, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Tenchu2 itself isn't an utterly terrible game--I know I've put in a good 10 hours or more on it, but what's frustrating is how there is so much promise and so much failure both in the same package. The feel of the game is that Activision rushed this one out the door, and throughout the game you'll find bugs, glitches and all sorts of annoying problems that would lead one to believe that the game wasn't even beta tested. Here's my list of gripes:

-The controls are worse than Tenchu 1: Of course, Tenchu 1 is clunky but they are even worse here. A lot of would-be perfect kills will get ruined because what should have landed you right on top of your enemy has you rolling out in front of them or some other stupid stunt.

-Ridiculous AI: Tenchu 1 did not have the best AI but it was far superior to this. I've walked in front of guards and had them not see me. On the other hand, some guards are capable of seeing me through the back of their head. Also, guards quickly forget your presence and seem completely uninterested in pursuing you once you are out of sight. Yup, you can be one foot away from them but under water, and neither can they see through the water nor are they patient enough to wait even a minute to see if you'll resurface (nor wonder why a bamboo air-pipe is suddenly sticking out of the water.) This is really a let down given that there were reports that the AI would be vastly improved, guards noting blood running along a stream or looking for fallen bodies (blood doesn't run down stream in the game anyway.) Other guards can see you without even being present. This is a neat trick when your KI meter is in the teens or lower and you can't see anyone but they can see you.

-Graphic interface or whatever you want to call it: Graphics are just plain sloppy--my ninja is often teleported up four feet instead of actually having to climb or jump over fences anymore . In the same manner, when dragging bodies I've been able to leave them hanging in mid air, as though supported by an invisible floor of glass.

-Graphics in general: Sometimes the backgrounds go through objects (IE you can see the sun and clouds THROUGH a wall of mountains. Also, sometimes you can see guards out of your perriphrial vision but not straight ahead.

-Inconsistancy with stealth kills: Again, not only can guards see you out of the back of their head, but some -cannot- be stealth killed. PERIOD. This wasn't evident until playing Tatsumaru's 'labor shortage' level where certain guards could not be knocked unconscious even with 20 tries or so. Incidentally, this level seems nearly unbeatable and I think gives even more evidence that this was a rushed job. With 20 tries on this level, I could not beat it, and I can't say I really want to anymore.

-Difficulty level: A good friend of mine nearly sold this within the first week until we dug up the cheat code. The game is nearly unplayable without the armor, but it is almost impossible to get a grand master, so you can't get the armor. This would be different if I could start looting guards for blow darts on level 1, but even then, those are useless against bosses, and between the combination of worsened controls, bad camera angles and 'two hits and your dead' boss damage, Activision has managed to take all the fun out of Tenchu and turned it into a tedious and frustrating derision of the first game.

-Voice assignment: This is thefunniest glitch. Sometimes the voices of the guards are the wrong gender, and probably the glitch that had me laughing the hardest was when the shark started talking. C'mon folks! The shark should not talk. Please test your game before releasing it.

-Mission editor is a joke: Ok, this isn't really a glitch, but really, I can't even make roofs in this thing. The saving grace would have been being able to make an island full of cats or something, but all you get are boring people (maybe you can make a bunch of godha's samurai and evil samurai line up like some insane football game?)

My overall take on this game is that while Activision certainly added a lot of new things to make Tenchu the 5/5 it should have been, they lost it where it really counted--the outstanding game play that made Tenchu 1. Sure, Tenchu 2 has a lot of improvements, but none of this makes up for the lack of AI, a soundtrack, good controls, and an environment that reacts in a realistic way instead of one that has so many bugs in it I never know how it will react.

I sincerely hope Tenchu 3 will be the game this should have been. There are a lot of great ideas here, but they just seem so poorly executed that it makes one long for the game this should have been. It's still somewhat enjoyable (especially with the cheat codes), and its glitchyness is sometimes amusing, but all and all it isn't worth the $40 price tag--maybe you should look around your local vendors...my used copy will be showing up soon :)

still holds up in 2003

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: April 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I played Tenchu 1 for the first time about 3 months ago.
That got me hooked and I recently bought Tenchu 3. More great stuff.

I didn't buy Tenchu 2 at first since I heard it was inferior to Tenchu 1; and Tenchu 2 appears to be only available used.

Nevertheless, in reality Tenchu 2 is quite a bit better than Tenchu 1. Some extras that make Tenchu 2 sweet:

- Build your own game levels - if you use the free psx emulator you can download and play levels that other people make.

- Graphics are better in tenchu 2 than tenchu 1. Graphics are significantly better if you play it on the psx emulator since it takes advantage of the full resolution of your modern PC (I can play it at 1280x1024 on my laptop!!!).

- Comes with a real tutorial - unlike Tenchu 1 and 3. The tutorial is weaved into the game where you first practice as an apprentice Ninja on a number of obstacles, before being tested by your master.

- Ability to swim and breath under water thru a pipe is cool.

- Ability to drag dead bodies to avoid having them be discovered is cool.

These last 3 elements make the ninja sim more complete than the other 2 games.

Definitely worth getting- new or used. Don't worry if you can't get the documentation on the used versions- the controls are well documented on the web.

Not As Good As The Others But Still Good.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This may sound a bit silly but the fact that the first boss said "What? Who're you!" just like the boss on the first game absolutely delighted me. You pick up a new character in this game, which is pretty cool, but unfortunately this game can't begin to keep up with the first Tenchu. The only thing Tenchu 2 really has that's better than Tenchu is a less confusing map and bigger stages. Oh and you it's also easier to get different stealth kills. In the first Tenchu you basically saw the same stealth kill over and over again even though you could initiate more, Tenchu 2 it's easier to perform different ones. The bigger stages aren't always a good thing though, it's easy to get lost and confused in this game. The all important and essential grappling hook is harder to use in this game and will leave the gamer frustrated many times. The game features less blood but the same dialogue still giving it the "old king fu movie minus the kung fu" feel. The creators also didn't bother to improve camera angles. Aside from the actual game you get to create your own stage, get to set the conditions for victory, set traps and place enemies. This game is a Tenchu fan only game, I do not thing other gamers will enjoy this title.

LET US REVISIT OUR HEROES

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: December 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

With the death of Rikimaru at the end of Tenchu/Stealth Assassins, the only way to revisit our heroes is as a prequel. Find out the backstory of Ayame and Rikimaru as they (along with Tatsumaru) fill in the gaps before the first game. With more bells and whistles, this is a great follow-up (and addition) to this series. Be sure to check out Noriyuki Asakura's 12 track soundtrack CD (to the first game) and Brady Games excellent strategy guide. I only hope that Tenchu Shinobi-Hyaksen is released domestically very soon.

Bad Controls/Bad Visuals mar good game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: September 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The original Tenchu game was fantastically fun and I had high expectations for the sequel. While basically a good game, the sequel is badly marred by a couple of flaws.

First, there a great deal of "break through" in the 3D graphics. Buildings don't fade in and out of the fog, they disappear and re appear suddenly(unrealistic and distracting) despite an absolute clear backdrop. In addition, seams between supposedly solid objects open and close as your view shifts.

Secondly, the controls scheme is not as responsive as the first game. This makes sneaking up on opponents frustrating and fighting bad guys outright fatal.

Unfortunately, these two flaws make a potentially great game only good.

dosen't live up to standerds of tenchu 1

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I played and played tenchu 1 and loved it as soon as i herd about tenchu 2 i went insane. I orderd my copy and as soon as it arived i popped open my play station and put it in and started to play i was happy with what i saw the first few levels. It was better than tenchu 1 in alot of ways like how the two ninjas stories didnt screw with the othes. Why did i only give it 3 stars. the control , the camra angels and the feeling that the game was rushed for some odd reason the people who

made the game were too lazy to play the blasted thing and work out the bugs before they relesed the game.

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