Poor Developer Choices : Tenchu 3

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 4:36 am

This just happened a few minutes ago, and I was dumbfounded and stopped playing...and this was just the tutorial :

Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven trains you well enough, in a lesson by lesson format, but on lesson 5, I had to do direct combat with an opponent...LESSON 5, not to be confused with say MISSION 5, but a lesson/tutorial/training segment. I just spent about 20 mins doing the first 4 lessons to note. In this combat lesson, I was up against an opponent who was able to strike without delay, almost ALWAYS in the middle of a combo attack from me and being a training opponent was fairly difficult for a newcomer...

THEN he pulls out a flint lock pistol!

Two shots and I'm dead..."Your sword is no match for my pistol"

Keep in mind it was a flint lock pistol, and he shot twice...without reloading.

ANYWAY, the point of all this is the retry...no I couldn't merely retry from the last lesson, since I went through the previous 4 just fine, but they actually restarted me from Lesson 1! How in the WORLD does this make any sense from a design standpoint!? Why was it necessary to punish me, IN A TUTORIAL meant to train me to play the 'real' part of the game!?

Oversight? Intentional?

After this happened, it made the little things I disliked but was willing to tolerate, amplified and actually made me like the game much less. There seemed to be only 2 sounds for walking, slow walking noise (loud) and fast walking noise (REALLY fucking loud and splish splashy water ). The animation was stiff and terrible. The late 80's Street Fighter character select screen is just tacky...a very corny japanese fighter feel to it.

If you played the previous games, they had that ninja-stealth element solid. Coming off of Thief and MGS at the time, it fit that new genre...now its just awkward feeling, stiff, cheap...too bad.

Cheers

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 4:59 am

Well if you ask my, Tenchu died when the first one was over. Sequels in that series are simply adding a new character and a few even more poorly made "stealth" kills that are oft times delivered from directly in front of them in broad daylight.

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 5:06 am

Well there seemed to be some enthusiasm surrounding this one, given the high marks, that it was going to be more like the original, with enhancements to the 'stealth' feature set.

I'll be giving it another chance probably in a day when I get 'game-antsy', but its just too bad that I have that bad taste right off the bat.

Either way you're right, the first really was the inspired of the series.

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 5:21 am

Yeah. I loved the first one. It was just so... different when it came out. But the new games have completely failed to add in anything to the game but slightly better graphics and shorter skirts.

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 9:55 am

Well I haven't played the new X-BOX Version, so I can't really remark as we didn't have a lesson tutorial thingy, whatever. My Suggestion though is to just let him strike until he pulls out his flintlock (This guy is a sub-boss in the PS2 version, inspired by "Yojimbo" even) at which point do your flip so you go over and behind him at which point, just slash him in the back.

Edit: Also for the reason why he can shoot twice without reloading, if you look close on the flint lock, it has more then one barrel (or did in the PS2 version). Also, its abit of a fantasy game so they take afew liberties I guess?

As for the series, I think it's doing well. The developers, unlike a certain other developing house I can think of, actually listen to their fans and such. As for the stealth kills being delivered directly infront of someone in daylight, well thats pretty simple, you're killing them before they have a chance to react. Its like if you're just walking and I come up, blind side you, and sucker punch you. You aren't expecting it, and thus have no way to really react.

The irony in your statement of "Shorter skirts" is that thats actually normal Japanese dress (For the time, also I'm proposing you're talking about Part 2 since in Part 3 Ayame wears.....pants). The graphics weren't just "Slightly" improved between the PS1 to PS2 jump by the simple fact that instead of having log-like arms the characters actually look pretty human (X-box probably takes it up a notch even better).

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:01 am

Well I'm not concerned about fighting him( I beat him all the same the 2nd time now though I don't recall the double barrel; and of course taking fantasy liberties is fine I was just being nitpicky in my frustration ), but the choice to force me to go through the previous 4 lessons...its a waste of my time...you mean they couldn't simply restart the fight immediately upon dying? Hardly...its just terrible design.

Senseless frustration to the player ESPECIALLY at the frick'in onset of the game is NOT a good thing. There is absolutely 100% zero reason to force me to start completely over...IN a tutorial.

Oh well.

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:02 am

It worked in Mario?

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:17 am

Erm, its a tutorial, broken up into individual lessons...not one cohesive run through...why start me over from lesson one after I've completed them? Better yet, like other games, why not just have the lessons selectable so I can pick what I want to LEARN...not the whole thing in one fell swoop while I'm LEARN'IN.

Its silly Walt. If this was the first LEVEL of the game, like Mario, fine...but in a TUTORIAL for crying out loud? Methinks not.

Oh well again.

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:29 am

I guess their way of thinking is "Well, if he fails at lesson 4, he obviousily didn't learn the previous lessons well enough! HAHA! Lets make him restart!" Or something.

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:33 am

Hehe, yea I didn't learn well enough how to move my character, pick up items and grapple to a roof.

I'll continue to play it but meh, with UT2k4, Breakdown, Twin Snakes and Harvest Moon tomorrow, and Pandora Tomorrow and Farcry next week, it'll get shoved to the back of the line

Cheers

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 2:08 pm

Breakdown, Twin Snakes and Harvest Moon

What are these? Is it a new Harvest Moon?

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 9:11 pm

Breakdown = SciFi FPS with first person hand to hand

Twin Snakes = Remake of the original Metal Gear Solid on PSone for Gamecube

Harvest Moon = Farming Resource game like Sims or Animal Crossing, for the girlfriend.

Tenchu = Crizap!

Cheers

Bleusilences · Post by **Bleusilences** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:17 pm

He actually have a TRIPLE barrel flincklock(spelling), and yes they existed . Even more you could fire the 3 shot at once and there was a model with 8 barrells.

And for the boss is quite easy because you can hear him attack. When He shout the pistol attack stop blocking and do 2 or 3 jump side step, (focus to him with the R button, left/rigth + A).

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:18 pm

I <B>thought</B> it was tripled barreled, but I wasn't so sure so I went with double. I actually like using him in Versus mode since he's shitty in Melee for the most part, but is fun to use.

Bleusilences · Post by **Bleusilences** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:26 pm

Can you use is gun in versus?

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:29 pm

Yea, its one of those special move dealies, I forgot the exact button combination, but he has like 3 moves involved the gun. The normal shot, another type of shot, and one for Melee where he knocks you up with his sword and shoots you three times. Check out Gamefaqs, they have all the moves and such.