You’ve created your ninja in the very first menu and his/her partner. The purpose of this partner is yet unknown. You’ve completed your training and grasped the difficult to learn, but fairly slick controls. It’s time to go on your first real stealth assassination mission.
You notice for the first time that you're not going to be playing as Rikimaru or Ayame. You're saddened at this revelation, but you are a ninja! You must carry on, be strong! You must complete the next 50 missions your sensei Rikimaru has offered to you. You jump in to the first mission where, for the umpteenth time in the series, you will kill the evil merhant Echigoya. Begin yawning now.
While the appeal of the Tenchu series has always been its stealth based combat and eventual stealth kills, it's always being railed on for being an overall bad game. While this is technically not a falsity, what Tenchu games lack in revolutionary gameplay, they make up for in fun missions, campy gore, and a ton of killing.
The variety isn't always there, however, and Tenchu Z is the worst offender. You'll find yourself in the same environments over and over again hunting down and killing very similar targets. You'll know the name of the levels in no time - Gambling Den, Temple, Ninja Village - that's not good. When you can memorize the layout of the levels and know their names before the next mission begins, it's a sign of lacking. You'll know every nook, cranny, crevice and shadowy hiding spot in every place in a matter of half-an-hour, and the missions stay the same - kill this dirty dude, find this useless item, sneak across this area... As mentioned before: Yawn.
Tenchu Z not only sports X-Box-One era visuals but enemy AI that's less intelligent than Rupert, that special boy down the street. I'm not going to lie - Every enemy guard in Japan is brain-dead-retarded. The screenshot you see here shows the main character stealth killing an enemy in a room full of guards. In Tenchu Z you can now consecutively stealth kill all of these men in an incredible looking combo, but if you screw it up... that's okay. They won't even notice you're there. On the odd chance one of them turns around after you swat them in the back of the head, they'll become alert, but you can simply avoid the guard, who fails to alert anyone near himself of your intrusion, by running around the corner. By the time this idiot with the attention span of infant aphid gets to the corner, he's already forgot why he went there, and he'll return to his post, totally unaware of the one to five of his homies who've just been disemboweled on his nice clean floor.
When you get through enough enemies to reach your target, chances are you'll be waiting by his door so you can stab through the rice paper wall and stab him through it. This new feature, while awesome, is over-used, and applies to damn near every assassination mission you take. Other new features like the stealth kill from ledges, around corners and from ceilings aren't used enough, sadly, as getting the drop on an unsuspecting sap is really a treat.
I might be ragging on Tenchu Z a bunch, but I've really got a soft spot for this series. It's brutally flawed in almost every way - bland visuals, repetitious environments, single-button combat and a camera that's so bad you'll want to gouge your eyes out - but somehow this games campy killfest theme is so charming that while you're in the same 4 or 5 environments 20 times each, you can't find a reason to stop playing.
The more stealth kills you get while remaining undetected boosts your final "NINJA RATING", 1 being the lowest, 5 being the highest. The higher the rating, the more cash you pull in after a mission. This cash can be used for skills and items you'll never use, or new clothing (which according to this game, is one of the 3 "secrets of the ninja". Shhh!). New clothing comes in the form of tops, bottoms, leggings, arm bands, neck scarves, armor, masks, new hair-do's, different hats and accessories.
The possibilities for your ninja are nearly limitless, and you'll spend a ton of time in the change room just mixing it up between missions. It's got a ton of replay value in this regard, as I often found myself backtracking for NINJA 5 Ratings for more money and more clothing unlocks. Once you've successfully chosen an outfit to your liking, you can take your ninja online, where you and 3 friends can sneak it up in a series of missions together.
The highlight of the game is definitely online, where you'll be pulling off a ton of team kills, which look just dandy. It's too bad you can't do this offline with your second created character, since their purpose is really unknown throughout the game except to pop in a cutscene here and there to progress the disastrous story. Lip movements are nowhere to be found, so you'll often be staring at a shoulder, or the back of someone's head as they blather on about drug trafficing and whatnot. Who cares? You really just want to kill more dudes.
Why do you want to kill more dudes? I don't know. This game, to be blunt, is garbage. It's a technical disaster and does nothing to advance the series, save for customization. Yet somehow it keeps pulling you back in for just one more mission... Just a couple more stealth kills... You'll have the 100 Stealth Kill achievement in no time, believe me.
If you're patient enough to deal with a horrid camera, lame combat, and bland visuals, Tenchu Z might be worth a rental for you. It's surprisingly charming, and it's one of those awesome-lame-games that you can't help but play. If you're not willing to deal with it, avoid it. This game is not good, but who am I to complain? I get to ram a katana down stupid guards' heads for money in a ton of missions.
