Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins | |
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Developer(s) | Acquire |
Publisher(s) | |
Director(s) | Takuma Endo |
Producer(s) | Yutaka Hoshina Masami Yamamoto |
Designer(s) | Nobuhito Kuramochi Yoshiaki Arimura |
Programmer(s) | Daisuke Hisamatsu |
Artist(s) | Koshi Nakanishi |
Writer(s) | Mikasa Hiragi |
Composer(s) | Noriyuki Asakura |
Series | Tenchu |
Platform(s) | PlayStation |
Release date(s) | |
Genre(s) | Stealth |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Aggregate score | |
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Aggregator | Score |
Metacritic | 77/100 |
Review scores | |
Publication | Score |
AllGame | |
Edge | 6/10 |
GameFan | 72% |
GamePro | |
Game Revolution | B− |
GameSpot | 8.3/10 |
IGN | 9.1/10 |
Maxim | 6/10 |
Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins is a stealth game developed by Acquire and published by Activision worldwide and Sony Music Entertainment in Japan for the PlayStation in 2000. The game is intended as a prequel to the game Tenchu: Stealth Assassins and depicts the series' heroes Rikimaru and Ayame as teens, being taught by their elderly master named Shiunsai as well as another Azuma ninja named Tatsumaru.
The game consists of controlling a character in a 3D environment through a third-person viewpoint. The player can use a variety of ninja tools and equipment and stealth to dispatch enemies and complete the game's missions. Missions are set in different locales at varying times of day, ranging from rural farmland, bamboo forests, mountainous regions, beaches, ships, villages and caverns. After the player completes a mission, they are given a rank depending on their accomplishments during that mission such as number of enemies killed, number of times spotted etc. High ranks are then used to unlock special gadgets that can be used in-game.
One of the game's most acclaimed features was the Mission Editor. This gave the player the opportunity to create their own missions, including level layout, deciding which characters to place in it and mission objectives to complete. It spawned a tournament in North America to find the best created mission. Due to this acclaim, the Mission Editor was later brought back and revamped for the PSP installment, Tenchu: Time of the Assassins.
The Azuma Ninja have served the House of Gohda for countless generations. Now three young ninja, Rikimaru, Ayame, and Tatsumaru, must protect Lord Gohda Matsunoshin against a coup d'état attempt and a mysterious ninja group calling themselves the Burning Dawn consisting of their leader, Lady Kagami, Suzaku "The Red Sparrow", Genbu "The Green Turtle", Seiryu "The Blue Dragon", and Byakko "The White Tiger", the four Lords of the Burning Dawn. To make matters worse, the recently made leader of the Azuma Ninja Tatsumaru, goes missing during a battle with Lady Kagami. It is later revealed that Tatsumaru has lost his memory and as a result of this, has now took on the mantle of Seiryu "The Blue Dragon" and allied himself with the Burning Dawn.