Tenchu Z demo Live

By Robert Purchese Published 7 June, 2007

Learn the ninja secret.

Microsoft has popped a new demo for Tenchu Z on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Everyone apart from those in Asia, peculiarly, will be able to enjoy it, and it weighs in at roughly 640 MB.

It gives you a chance to try out the third-person stealth-action game in one single-player mission, using a pre-selected variety of weapons.

The full banana is out at the end of the month, 29th June, and will task you with becoming a master Ninja Assassin. It's set in feudal Japan and sounds as though it will be a sneaky but detailed affair - factoring in aspects like noise, visibility and even smell.

Live Marketplace is also hosting a demo for Vampire Rain today, although only those in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore and Lapland will be able to play it.

Head over to our Tenchu Z gamepage for more information.

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 (30) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • quantumsheep #1 5 years ago

    I remember the original Tenchu on the original PlayStation.

    Awesome game for its time.

    I've kinda lost track of the iterations since then. Has it improved or gone downhill over the years?

  • jonsaan #2 5 years ago

    Well I too really enjoyed the original. it's been steadily downhill since then for me..

  • bicky316 #3 5 years ago

    Yeah, what jonsaan said.

    Still, I'll give the demo a try.

  • gizmo #4 5 years ago

    The intro music on the original tenchu was one of the most stirring tracks I ever remember in videogaming.

    Damned if I can find it anywhere though :(

  • Lateralaus #5 5 years ago

    Pile of shite, turned it off and deleted it after 5 seconds. but thats just my opinion.

  • Steroyd #6 5 years ago

    Loved the original, Tenchu's first PS2 outing was great up to the point of undead graveyard level.

    Although from then the franchise went to the shitter faster than Sonic The Hedgehog.

  • captainrentboy #7 5 years ago

    Everyone has been saying that this is very shit, so with that in mind I can't even be bothered to wander upstairs and download it.
    Stealth games bore me silly anyway.

  • afghan_jones #8 5 years ago

    This used to be so very very good.

    the first one was a PSone classic, the second was mental with loads of crazy ideas and skills, the third one (on Ps2) was also good and had a fun little multiplayer mode. The 4th one was really rather cack, with lots of awkward double and triple kills. I think there was a 5th but I didnt bother with it.

    I really wish this one would be good but I really doubt it will be. I predict 6/10 although the bit in the trailer where you stealth kill a guy through a paper door looks awesome.

    and yes, the old theme tune was amazing. Also check the third one for the little poems that came up when you died. They were good too.
    Edited by 1 at 07/06/07 @ 17:09

  • Lov3 #9 5 years ago

    This is really fun, but clearly still in early development stages. The demo wasn't ready for release, I think. Theres something odd going on with the view snapping back every time you move, and theres are really too many buttons, some of which don't do anything. And close combat is pretty much a shambles. At the end of the demo you have to beat this guy is a close combat fight, but it's so much effort with the current combat system that I would say it wasn't worth bothering. Stealth around, shuriken a few guys, and hope this gets better.

    EDIT: the death poems are still in there, and the music is as compelling as ever :p.
    Edited by 1 at 07/06/07 @ 17:22

  • Rirekon #10 5 years ago

    5 seconds? Glad you're giving it try... o_0

  • Liggur #11 5 years ago

    Like most posters here, I think The original Stealth Assassins on the PS1 was great, the others, not so much and the PSP was terrible with a crappy draw distance.
    Edited by 1 at 07/06/07 @ 17:24

  • Darth_Flibble #12 5 years ago

    played the Japanese demo a week or 2 ago and it sounds like its the same one. It was terrible, and the end fight is crap.

  • absolutezero #13 5 years ago

    I still have the Japanese demo from when it was first released, its the only demo Ive ever hung onto. I play it quite regularly and discover new routes and ways to kill. Alot of nice details have been added over and above the older games, like peaking down over the sides of roofs to see whose below. The animation and speed has been increased aswell over the old games, you now feel like a classic ninja rather than an arthritic old man.

    The fight at the end is'nt so bad if your used to Tenchu, hes alot easier than fighting Onikage anyway.

  • Raziel #14 5 years ago

    "Well I too really enjoyed the original. it's been steadily downhill since then for me.."

    Gone downhill?

    More like thrown of the bloody mountain...

  • mrharvest #15 5 years ago

    "The fight at the end is'nt so bad if your used to Tenchu, hes alot easier than fighting Onikage anyway."

    Or you can make him fall in the water for an instant win. Apparently he's made of sugar.

    I think the demo is exactly the same as every other Tenchu before it. More of the same for those who want it. Shoddy camera, strange controls, funny animations, blind retarded enemies. Also strangely enjoyable despite all the flaws.

  • Sl1pstream #16 5 years ago

    Tried the demo on the Japanese marketplace a while ago and it's what nazi Germany would've used if they ever ran out of gas. I'd rather get killed by retired ninjas than touch this pile of dogshit again.

  • NegativeZero #17 5 years ago

    Project Sylpheed was originally announced to release on the 29th as well, but it seems to have disappeared from most release lists. :( I was far more interested in that, Tenchu has gotten worse with each offering beyond the first.

  • Fyzzu #18 5 years ago

    I've only played the first two, barring a brief stint on the third, but yes, the first was the best. I did enjoy the second game if only for the mission editor - the ability to be sadistic to my friends with that game was an absolute joy. I do recall one particularly Escher-esque level a friend of mine created; to assist with the layout, he placed training dummies if you'd gone far along the wrong way, the implication being that you were a dummy if you'd found them.

    Surprisingly, I kinda liked this demo. The controls still need a serious update, the actual swordfighting is still crap, and the boss fights are still dreadful - but despite all this, I enjoyed it. It might be because I got used to all that rubbish in the first two iterations of the series, but it's fairly pretty, it's still got lots of violence, and it's a reasonable stealth game. I was quite impressed that it doesn't seem to have any loading times whatsoever, too. The screen showing the controls didn't load, the cutscenes were immediately skippable (not like some, where you have to get 5 seconds in first), and it instantly deposited me at the start of the level.

    I daresay if you disliked the rest you won't like this, but for my part, I got a bit of a guilty pleasure out of it. Looks like it'll have you choosing which missions you want to undertake and some co-op play, too. I may actually get this when it's a bit cheaper, and typing that hurts me more than you can possibly know.

    EDIT: Arse. I type all that, look a few posts up, and it appears Mr Harvest has got it bang on, without the need for all of my text.
    Edited by 1 at 08/06/07 @ 01:48

  • afghan_jones #19 5 years ago

    I had totally forgotten about the level editor! that was fantastic! happy memories of placing far too many spike pits everywhere. great days.

  • The-Bodybuilder #20 5 years ago

    The tenchu franchise needs a resi 4 to spark it back to life.
    Stealthy ninjas still has massive potential.

  • menage #21 5 years ago

    Awful. Switched it of after 2 minutes.

  • wa_uk #22 5 years ago

    I too loved the original tenchu games on the PSOne. However, for me rather than improve or go downhill the series has stagnated and feels pretty much the same.

    I know it's only a demo, but in 2007, clunky collision detection and controls, inconsistent AI and uninspiring environments are not worth forking out £40 quid for. I had hoped From Software would modernise the series, and the one or two ideas they've nicked from Splinter Cell et al are hardly enough.

    To reiterate, it feels the same as Tenchu 2 did all those years ago. Not good enough.

  • bloodflowers #23 5 years ago

    Why are the graphics worse than the last release for the PS2/Xbox? They look blander, and with a worse frame rate. Not acceptable.

  • afghan_jones #24 5 years ago

    If they can bring back the cheesy sense of fun that these games used to have, Ill be all over it. I spent many happy times with my old flatmates singing "Ayame, Ayame, one woman army" over and over.

    Some of the bosses were also absolute classics. Especially with the terrible ninja-movie style dialogue.

    "It looks like you chose the wrong party to crash"

    "I like crashing parties. Its what I do."

    They need to go fully next gen with the series as it is somewhat stagnant now. Live Co-op multiplayer would be fantastic, both approaching target from other sides of the map, co-ordinating attacks, providing distractions for one another. maybe take it to a large san-andreas style map, where you travel around ronin-style looking for missions.









  • thinktank #25 5 years ago

    doesnt derseve the space its takes up on hdd,

    Very poor.

  • Bezzy #26 5 years ago

    I want to say "I didn't believe that Tenchu could get worse", but that implies that I think that the last tenchu was really really really bad. I don't think that.

    I think this new one is really really really bad. Finally. There's simply no defending it. It's dire. No grapple hook - what are you fucking smoking?

    "Oh, but it's only a demo and it may improve!"

    Hahahaha. Bollucks. Either someone seriously fucked up releasing this so early, or this is shovelware - a walking dead project. This series needs a proper reboot.
    Edited by 1 at 09/06/07 @ 02:22

  • numptyboymatt #27 5 years ago

    Downloaded the demo, played it for about 2 minutes and deleted it. Nevermind.

  • afghan_jones #28 5 years ago

    @Bezzy

    there is a grappling hook. click the right stick in and hold LB to fire.

    But yeah, the game is more or less the same as it ever was. and frankly thats just not acceptable in this day and age.

    There is still plenty of mileage in the ninja stealth 'genre' (if it can be called a genre) but it needs a reall triple A title with proper polish and time taken t odeliver the next gen tenchu we'd like to see.

  • monkey_man #29 5 years ago

    Oh sweet Lord this demo is awful. I have fond memories of one of the earlier games on the PS1, which is why I gave it a go. What a waste of time/bandwidth/hdd space.

    Graphics: terrible - poor textures, ropey animations
    Controls: terrible - why can't I invert the Y axis?
    Combat: terrible - you can swipe the sword, but that's about it
    Gameplay: ok, it let me kill a dog. The end fight was rubbish.

  • firm3d #30 5 years ago

    After playing the demo I played a bit of Fatal Shadows on my PS3 to see if Tenchu games could look worse than the 360 demo ... they can't.

    I wouldn't think of this statement so much as trolling but rather bitter disappointment; let's face it, if I like the lowly Fatal Shadows and can be disappointed by any subsequent instalments, said instalment must be the worst variety of faecal matter imaginable, no?

    I'd say "It's only a demo, they've yet to add the final polish.", but you can't polish a turd.

    Positive statement: I like the little shuriken rolling back and forward to indicate your visibility ... that's all I've got.
    Edited by 1 at 11/06/07 @ 12:55