Kamiwaza: Way Of The Thief review – stealing a march on Tenchu
The makers of Tenchu remaster a previously Japanese only spin-off that casts you, not as a ninja or samurai, but a Robin Hood style thief.
It was fascinating speaking to Tenchu director Takuma Endo earlier in the year, about his work on what was the first proper 3D stealth game, and the evolution of the genre since. Although we tried to cover multiple topics in our interview, he was primarily there to promote Kamiwaza: Way Of The Thief, a PlayStation 2 game from 2006 that despite being an unofficial spin-off of Tenchu was never released outside of Japan.
According to Endo there was never any plan for a Western release at the time and yet it’s remembered with such fondness by developer Acquire that they wanted to see it remastered and made more accessible for gamers all around the world. That’s a noble goal, and this is a surprisingly good remaster, but the fact remains that that the original is a 16-year-old, low budget stealth game and that’s not necessarily the most accessible prospect for a modern audience.
By the time of the early 2000s, stealth games were already falling out of fashion and so while Kamiwaza does have many similarities with Tenchu it’s less focused purely on stealth, moving away from the ninjas of Tenchu, and Acquire’s Way Of The Samurai series, to give the limelight to a different archetype of Japanese, and indeed world, culture: the thief with a heart of gold.
Kamiwaza means divine work a nod to Tenchu’s name, which translates as divine retribution. Kamiwaza casts you as a neophyte thief named Ebizo, who in the opening level is introduced to the art of robbery by his brother. The pair think that they, and the rest of their gang of thieves, are out on an ordinary burglarious mission, at a posh mansion
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