Unlike other games in the Tenchu series, Rikimaru and Ayame are not the stars of Tenchu Z. Instead, you will create a male or female ninja and assign points to their agility, strength, and health. You will then create a sidekick, whose gender is the opposite of your own character, but he or she will only appear in cut scenes and is never playable. Seasoned ninja veteran Rikimaru will be your mentor who doles out your assignments and rewards you according to your performance. These 50 missions all involve making your way from one end of the map to the other, usually to kill a villain, deliver a message, or collect some items. Although you are not tasked with a wide variety of assignments, the level design and placement of guards are fairly diverse.

Once again, the story revolves around putting a stop to the nefarious Echigoya clan, who are now trafficking a drug called Shishi with the help of their militaristic Ogawara allies. Although the story is serviceable, it isn’t terribly compelling and lacks coherence. The only thing you really need to know when playing through any given level of Tenchu Z is that there is a town full of bad guys with swords, and you have to go kill all of them. Silently. Although there is no Metal Gear style radar to help detect enemy positions, players will rely on the ki meter which indicates if there are any enemies close to you, their proximity, and weather or not they can perceive you. Sound and light meters further assist players in remaining invisible.

As mentioned earlier, the basic combat engine in Tenchu Z is basic and underwhelming, but then again it was never intended to be a sword fighting game. (In the entire game, there are only 3 mandatory face to face battles.) It’s as though From Software consciously created a gimped fighting system as a means of discouraging head on encounters. Players are further discouraged from engaging alerted enemies via a new game play element: odor. Anytime an alerted enemy is wounded or killed in melee combat, his body produces blood stains on your clothing. Nearby enemies can smell these stains, and will seek out the source of the aroma. This makes it difficult to advance through levels unseen and will likely bring down a swarm of samurai as your ki meter flashes orange. Although this problem can be remedied by taking a dip in a nearby body of water or by using a special cleansing item which removes the bloody scent, it is far better to avoid head on swordfights whenever possible, as a ninja surrounded by angry guys with katanas has little chance of survival.

Wash Up! The orange character indicates that the guard can smell your bloody clothing from an earlier fight.