History YMMV / Tenchu

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/QuintonFlynn as Wang Xiaohai, the BareFistedMonk boss from ''Birth of the Stealth Assassins''. This was shortly before landing his StarMakingRole in gaming that is [[Franchise/MetalGear Raiden]].

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Whereas other stealth games of its generation like those mentioned in FriendlyFandoms were either more action-focused or relatively simple line-of-sight play, the ''Tenchu'' series was actually quite complex and ambitious. From the grapple hook that let you travel almost everywhere vertically, to the emphasis on avoiding combat outside of boss fights thanks to an almost survival horror level of clunkiness, these games were held in high regard for their time as a ''real'' stealth series. Nowadays revisiting the first two games will highlight their ''painful'' TankControls and over-complicated button schemes that make the aforementioned boss fights an absolute nightmare, as well as black fog everywhere from a short draw distance, and the later games feel downright arcade-like and relatively simplistic in contrast to the gaming industry moving towards more "realistic" design. The series grew in scope with more characters and larger missions, but the lack of gameplay growth beyond analog movement resulted in it getting left behind with the UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames.

** ''Wrath of Heaven's'' "Cemetery" and "Amagai Castle" levels, featuring non-human enemies in the form of undead and wooden robots respectively. The undead archers of the former [[UnintentionalUncannyValley shamble along unnaturally, still sporting the arrow through their heads that killed them]], while the puppets of the latter emit a constant [[HellIsThatNoise ambience of clockwork grinding]] that you can hear anywhere in the level as long as even a single enemy is still alive. Amagai Castle's music is also incredibly [[NothingIsScarier unsettling and suspenseful]], making the level's abundance of [[JumpScare loud]] [[BottomlessPits death]] [[DescendingCeiling traps]] all the more effective.

* ContestedSequel: ''Birth of the Stealth Assassins'' and ''Wrath of Heaven'' are held as the games that define the series, which leaves ''Fatal Shadows'' and ''Z'' as dealing with a ToughActToFollow. They still hold up as better entries than ''Dark Secret'' or ''Time of the Assassins'', which themselves aren't ''terrible'' but are let down by the compromises for the hardware they were released on.

** ''Dark Secret'': Kubira is a demon [[DemonicPossession inhabiting the body of Lord Kagemasa of Hakkaku]]. Upon making a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with the ambitious Kagemasa for military strength]], Kubira [[YourSoulIsMine devours his soul]] and murders his closest allies. Seeking the rebirth of his master the Lord of the Dead, Kubira subjects Kagemasa's beloved wife Princess Shizu to nightly occult rituals which impregnates her with the Lord of the Deads soul, [[FetusTerrible whose gestation causes Shizu excruciating pain]] and would eventually kill her. After Shizu flees to the small village of Saiga, Kubira orders gangs of hired bandits and Kagemasa's loyal samurai to kidnap the villagers and steal their food supplies in an effort to get them to surrender the princess. Declaring war on Lord Gohda for his role in protecting Princess Shizu, Kubira eventually fights Gohdas loyal Azuma ninja and reveals his intention to use his masters power to [[HellOnEarth open a gateway to the underworld, allowing the demons below to rise up]] and feast on the flesh and souls of the living.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheHeavy Onikage]], [[TheDragon chief servant]] and PsychoSupporter of the demonic [[GenericDoomsdayVillain Lord Mei-Oh]], is a sinister undead ninja who went by the name Suzaku when serving the ninja revolutionary group The Burning Dawn, where he subtly manipulates the group and assists in its brutal actions. When his own lover is mortally wounded by the hero Rikimaru, Onikage ruthlessly kills her, declaring he has no love for weakness. Later assisting the rise of Mei-Oh with massacres and assisting evil cults in murders and transforming innocents into monsters, Onikage continues to return and engineers another war, with Rikimaru forced to kill over and over again. Killing and replacing the adviser to Lord Gohda, Onikage ends up burning down one of Gohda's castles, revealing himself when he takes Gohda's daughter Princess Kiku hostage and forcing Rikimaru to stab through her fatally to kill Onikage himself. Obsessed with the darker side of human nature and creating a world of chaos and carnage, Onikage repeatedly proves himself to be Tenchu's darkest villain.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheHeavy Onikage]], [[TheDragon chief servant]] and PsychoSupporter of the demonic [[GenericDoomsdayVillain Lord Mei-Oh]], is a sinister undead ninja who went by the name Suzaku when serving the ninja revolutionary group The Burning Dawn, where he subtly manipulates the group and assists in its brutal actions. When his own lover is mortally wounded by the hero Rikimaru, Onikage ruthlessly kills her, declaring he has no love for weakness. Later assisting the rise of Mei-Oh with massacres and assisting evil cults in murders and transforming innocents into monsters, Onikage continues to return and engineers another war, with Rikimaru forced to kill over and over again. Killing and replacing the adviser to Lord Gohda, Onikage ends up burning down one of Gohda's castes, revealing himself when he takes Gohda's daughter Princess Kiku hostage and forcing Rikimaru to stab through her fatally to kill Onikage himself. Obsessed with the darker side of human nature and creating a world of chaos and carnage, Onikage repeatedly proves himself to be Tenchu's darkest villain.

* SoBadItsGood: The English dub.

** The partner character in ''Z''. For whatever reason your custom protagonist is assigned a partner opposite their gender that you get to customize, though they're only ever stuck with default outfits and appearances, and from there they show up a couple times in the story [[spoiler:only to get captured and tortured to death.]] They never once participate in gameplay nor directly aid you in any meaningful way or even have much character of their own to show, which is a waste given the game's CoOpMultiplayer focus. Then again, given the ArtificialStupidity of the enemies, one can argue that an [=AI=] companion wouldn't fair very well...

* ScrappyMechanic: The first three games suffer from some real nasty CameraScrew. In the first two cases, the tank controls meant you had to use a dedicated shoulder button to look around, but it makes judging enemies below or around you rather tough, thus hugging walls is an essential mechanic for the safe angles they provide. In ''Wrath of Heaven'' the free movement and right analog stick allows for you to turn the camera manually - but not really vertically unless using that same shoulder button. The only compensation is the camera auto-leaning over ledges you're standing at. ''Fatal Shadows'' would free up the camera a bit more, and by ''Z'' it's effectively a fully modern camera system.

* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:Tatsumaru]] as the final boss in Ayame's Tenchu 2 storyline, despite being agile and fast, is surprisingly easy to beat compared to Kagami in Rikimaru's or Jubei in Tatsumaru's, possibly due to [[spoiler:his]] guilt starting to resurface. [[spoiler:He]] also has much lower health than Genbu, a boss character Ayame has to fight before the final boss.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: While there's a good argument to be made that the games themselves haven't aged all that well in the ensuing years, few will deny that the classical Japanese-inspired soundtracks for each entry are nothing short of epic and memorable, ''especially'' the intros. It helps that the main composer is none other than Noriyuki Asakura, the very same man who brought Manga/RurouniKenshin's amazing soundtracks to life.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: While there's a good argument to be made that the games themselves haven't aged all that well in the ensuing years, few will deny that the classical Japanese-inspired soundtracks for each entry are nothing short of epic and memorable, ''especially'' the intros. It helps that the main composer of Tenchu is none other than Noriyuki Asakura, the very same man who brought Manga/RurouniKenshin's amazing soundtracks to life.