Microsoft dates trio

By Robert Purchese Published 10 May, 2007

Sylpheed, Rain, Tenchu Z.

Microsoft has finally rubber-stamped Project Sylpheed, Vampire Rain, and Tenchu Z for release in Europe on 29th June.

Project Sylpheed is a space-shooter that gives a big nod to several classic side-scrolling arcade shooters. Game Arts created the title in Japan and Square Enix published it. As you might expect (if you're weird and prescient), it has a fair chunk of RPG elements, including an immersive storyline and the ability to customise and upgrade your ship. There's also over 50 minutes of cut-scenes to help tell protagonist Katana's story.

Vampire Rain on the other hand is a squad-based tactical shooter that charges you with ridding the streets of super-powered vampires. The only obvious weakness these creatures have is water, so you'll have to pop your Necrovision goggles on to discern if a person is a vampire, and pray for rain.

It's far from developer Artoon's normal outing, but looked pretty promising when we saw it at the Tokyo Game Show last year. Head over to our first impressions of Vampire Rain for more information.

Last but not least is Tenchu Z from K2 and From Software. It's set in feudal Japan and is based around Ninja mythology. You'll have to use a mixture of stealth and guile to overcome your enemies, as well as the obvious sword play - factoring in aspects like noise, visibility and even smell.

So, once again it was Europe at the bottom of the pile for these Japanese games, but it's encouraging to see them actually appear. Look out for more information as we get closer to launch.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 5 years ago

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  • JediMasterMalik #1 5 years ago

    Two look shite, and sylpheed I need to see more of.

  • crazyhorse174 #2 5 years ago

    50 Minutes of cutscenes!?!

    I hope their skippable!

  • RexRunti #3 5 years ago

    Something tells me everyones going to hate Techu Z, with poor gameplay, story, graphics and reveiws.

    Something tells me I'll buy it anyway.

  • ReNo #4 5 years ago

    I'm tempted by Tenchu as well, but agree that for the most part it looks like crap. I've no idea how my brain works sometimes :)

  • bengray66 #5 5 years ago

    I used to love the Tenchu games, but there are so many steatlh games out there which do it so much better.

    But, is anything cooler than a ninja?

    Also, Vampire Rains looks ok, nice to see a classic format with a new twist.

  • menage #6 5 years ago

    Sylpheed looks nice. The rest can stay where they came from.

  • GamesConnoisseur #7 5 years ago

    Sylpheed I think is the best best of the three, but good that Europe do get Japan's games however different it is to our usual fare.

    You do not have to buy em, but we would moan if they do not get released here!

  • urizen #8 5 years ago

    @ ReNo:

    It's called Tenchutis, a chronic condition a few suffer from which renders them unable to resist buying increasingly weak iterations of a franchise that hasn't really been much cop since the utterly fantastic original (which was itself somewhat flawed).

    This poorly bunch *know* it's not gonna be great, know that it fails to innovate or evolve in anything but tiny incremental steps, but they are drawn back by siren's call of sweet, sweet ninja kills.

    Personally, I can't stop loving Tenchu games, though I really should know better.
    Edited by 1 at 10/05/07 @ 15:18

  • kissthestick #9 5 years ago

    interested in the generic yet appealing sylpheed :)

  • morriss #10 5 years ago

    Any import reviews of these games?

  • ccfb #11 5 years ago

    Tenchu has online co-op apparently. Will it elevate it?

  • absolutezero #12 5 years ago

    360 Tenchu looks very nice, as does Vampire Rain.

  • geepersd #13 5 years ago

    any relation to Silpheed? - was a fine game on the Mega CD

  • neilka #14 5 years ago

    "Europe at the bottom of the pile for these Japanese games"

    As far as I can tell none of these three have been released (or even have firm release dates) in the US yet?

  • menage #15 5 years ago

    "Any relation to Silpheed? - was a fine game on the Mega CD"

    Only by name in my opinion. It's a space shooter.

    I bought Silpheed at the time and thought it was kinda crap.

  • Machetazo #16 5 years ago

    Sylpheed, I agree NEEDS more EG space.
    VR...I'm quite offput by what I've seen of it. It comes across as a less than happy marriage to me. Probably an experiment or homage on the part of the developer. Tenchu, I don't like. I didn't like the Xbox game much, which I bought (though it wasn't truly awful) so I'll be skipping that one, as well.

  • AhrimaaN #17 5 years ago

    Why oh why are the graphics for tenchu so utterly crap. If they were better I'd buy it with regard to tenchuitis. as it stands its a definite wait and see. coop could rock tho. The others dont interest me.

    I always thought it was slipheed when I was younger haha

  • SomaticSense #18 5 years ago

    So wait. Is Sylpheed an XBLA game, or full release? Doesn't make it clear in the article...

    edit: Just read Geepersd comment, I was thinking of the wrong Sylpheed. Thought it was the Mega CD one for a moment (or was it Mega 32x, god knows. Too many Mega Drive add-ons methinks...).
    Edited by 2 at 11/05/07 @ 08:19

  • scummyhawker #19 5 years ago

    As far as I know it is related to the megadrive game, same dev team/members of dev team, name is slightly different as the previous publisher retained the rights.

    Full retail release, garnered favourable reviews on import.

    Been waiting for this...