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Sega Europe has announced the European release date of the forthcoming PlayStation Portable exclusive, Tenchu: Time of the Assassins. The stealth action game will be available from June 23 and will feature full 3D environments.

Veterans of the PlayStation 2 franchise will notice enhanced stealth actions and new kill moves as well as the classic Tenchu characters Rikimaru, Ayame, Rin, and Tesshu.

Each of them will have a unique story in the single-player campaign, and there are 50 further stand-alone missions to play through as well. Gamers will also be able to connect wirelessly to play missions cooperatively or head-to-head.

According to Matt Woodley, creative director of Sega, the game's ambition is to "offer all the strategy of a stealth game but none of the frustration". With this in mind, every enemy in the game can be killed using stealth tactics, including the bosses.

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OK after playing this for a few hours I can say without doubt that if you are a fan of Tenchu you will LOVE this game.

The graphics are as good as PS2 and the controls (while strange at first) are almost perfect. The fact that we will all be able to design our own levels and share them with each other is awesome. This means that this will be the ultimate Tenchu! We will never run out of levels!

I hope we can upload highest rankings into a online leader board too, that would be great.

But of course the game has a few problems. For a start as everyone knows by now, the draw distance is bad, VERY bad. Like Tenchu 1 and 2 bad. Does it spoil the game? No. Does it make it frustrating at times? yes very much so. Especially when I can't see the other side of a large room! It makes finding guards difficult even when you are almost right on top of them, causing very annoyingly cheap occurrences of getting spotted.

It seems very strange after playing games like Tony Hawks, Ridge Racer, Spider-man 2 & Hot Shots golf, all of which have great draw distances, that the draw distance would be so poor. Especially when it is so crucial to gameplay. Just because we put up with it in the first two games when we didn't know better is no reason for it being acceptable now. I know all the Tenchu fans will buy the game anyway, but the could lose a lot of casual gamer sales based on the poor reviews it might receive if this issue isn't addressed before western release.

Also the camera is set up to rotate around you when you do a stealth kill, so sometimes while adjusting for surroundings it will go through walls or through you and make it impossible to see the kill. There are a few other small problems, like not being able to rotate while crouched (can only sidestep). but nothing that would come close to spoiling the game for Tenchu fans.

Overall I would give this game - 8.5 / 10

But I remember playing the first Japanese Tenchu and the English release having a lot of small bugs fixed. We can pray to the video game gods that they improve the draw distance and some of the other bugs before it gets a US release. Hell they should use 333mhz if it would increase the draw distance by 30%!, I'll take that over battery power! I can always recharge (and I have a spare). With fixed draw distance this would be one of my all time favourite games!

quote CURTCONNORS

or should that be Chiro?

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From shadowpantha at gamefaqs and http://www.tenchu.de

--------
Rikimaru
--------

Basic Attacks
-------------

Slash - Square

2 Slashes - Square (x2)

3 Slashes - Square (x3)

360 Slash - 360 on Left Analog, Square

Upper Slash - Hold R, Square

Flip Slash - Hold L, pull back on Left Analog + Square

Thrust Attack - Tap up on Left Analog (x2), Square or hold L, up + X, Square

Jump Attack - X, Square

Grab - Hold O close to opponent

Stab Fallen Opponent - Hold L, Square


Special Moves
-------------

Shoulder Thrust - Square (x2), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Ninjitsu Block - Square the exact moment the enermy attacks

Ninja Vision - Hold L + R and use the up and down arrows on the d-pad to
zoom in or out

Grappling Hook Catch - 360 on Left Analog, Square, Triangle

Cling To Ceiling - Throw grappling hook to smooth surface of ceiling, while
doing this hold R

Ninjutsu Bind - Press O near unaware opponent


Combos
------

2 Slashes - Square (x2)

3 Slashes - Square (x3)

Heel Kick Combo - Square (x3), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Leg Sweep - Square then pull back on Left Analog + Square

Shoulder Thrust - Square (x2), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Thrust Attack Combo - Square (x2), hold L, up + x, Square

3 Slash Grappling Combo - Square (x3), 360 on Left Analog, Square, Triangle
(Repeat to juggle opponent)

360 Slash Combo - Square (x3), 360 on Left Analog, Square, Triangle (Repeat
to juggle opponent)

360 Slash Shoulder Thrust Combo - Square (x3), 360 on Left Analog, Square,
Triangle, Square (x2), pull back on Left Analog + Square



-----
Ayame
-----

Basic Attacks
-------------

Slash - Square

2 Slashes - Square (x2)

3 Slashes - Square (x3)

4 Slashes - Square (x4)

5 Slashes - Square (x5)

Upper Slash - Hold R, Square

Flip Slash - Hold L, pull back on Left Analog + Square

360 Kick - 360 on Left Analog, Square

Thrust Attack - Tap up on Left Analog (x2), Square or hold L, up + X, Square

Jump Attack - X, Square

Grab - Hold O close to opponent

Stab Fallen Opponent - Hold L, Square


Special Moves
-------------

Cresent Kick - Sqaure (x4), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Ninjitsu Block - Square the exact moment the enermy attacks

Ninja Vision - Hold L + R and use the up and down arrows on the d-pad to
zoom in or out

Grappling Hook - 360 on Left Analog, Square, Triangle

Cling To Ceiling - Throw grappling hook to smooth surface of ceiling, while
doing this hold R

Cheetah Run - Hold R, X + O

Wrath - Hold Square for 2 sec, release, press Square on successful attack
to attack near by opponent

Ninja Sense - Hold R, O

Ninjutsu Bind - Press O near unaware opponent


Combos
------

2 Slashes - Square (x2)

3 Slashes - Square (x3)

4 Slashes - Square (x4)

5 Slashes - Square (x5)

Backflip Foward Thurst Combo - Square (x2), pull back on Left Analog + Square
(x2)

Heel Kick Combo - Square (x3), pull back on Left Analog + Square (x2)

Cresent Kick Combo - Square (x4), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Thrust Attack Combo - Square (x3), hold L, up + x, Square

5 Slash Grappling Combo - Square (x5), 360 on Left Analog, Square, Triangle
(Repeat to juggle opponent)

360 Kick Combo - Square (x4), 360 on Left Analog, Square




---
Rin
---

Basic Attacks
-------------

Elbow - Square

Palm - Square (x2)

Overhead Heal - Square (x3)

360 Slash - 360 on Left Analog, Square

Upper Kick - Hold R, Square

Foot Stomp - Hold L, pull back on Left Analog + Square

Jump Attack - X, Square

Thrust Attack - Tap up on Left Analog (x2), Square or hold L, up + X, Square

Grab - Hold O close to opponent

Elbow Drop Fallen Opponent - Hold L, Square


Special Moves
-------------

Decoy Sound - Hold R, O

Crimson - While grabbing opponent, quickly rotate the Left Analog, while
tapping O

Crimson Final - When Crimson is executed, during the arm break, press
Up then Down on Left Analog, O

Ninja Vision - Hold L + R and use the up and down arrows on the d-pad to
zoom in or out

Ninjutsu Bind - Press O near unaware opponent

Cling To Ceiling - Throw grappling hook to smooth surface of ceiling, while
doing this hold R



Combos
------

2 Hit - Square (x2)

3 Hit - Square (x2)

Sweeping Slash Combo - Square (x3), pull back on Left Analog + Square

Pile Driver - Square (x2), pull back on Left Analog + Square (x2)

Thrust Attack Combo - Square (x2), hold L, up + X, Square



------
Tesshu
------

Basic Attacks
-------------

Punch - Square

2 Punches - Square

Upper Pummul - Hold R then press Square

Kick - Hold L, pull back on Left Analog + Square

Thrust Attack - Tap up on Left Analog (x2), Square or hold L, up + X, Square

Jump Attack - X, Square

Grab - Hold O close to opponent


Special Moves
-------------

Power Punch - Square (x3), on 3rd time hold Square, let go when you want to

Upper Straight - 360 on Left Analog, Square

Power Block - Square the exact moment the enermy attacks

Decoy Sound - Hold R, O

Cling To Ceiling - Throw grappling hook to smooth surface of ceiling, while
doing this hold R

Ninja Vision - Hold L + R and use the up and down arrows on the d-pad to
zoom in or out

Ninjutsu Bind - Press O near unaware opponent



Combos
------

2 Punches - Square

3 Hit Combo - Square (x3)

Thrust Attack Combo - Square (x2), hold L, up + X, Square