playthrough. During navigation, the player can traverse rooftops and walls, run or crouch into a sneaking position, hang from ledges, and hug nearby walls to remain undetected. Sneaking up on an enemy undetected allows for an instant kill, with close-range kills triggering cinematic death animations. If the selected character dies, the level must be restarted all items aside from the grappling hook are lost. To monitor surroundings, each protagonist has the Ki meter, indicating the distance and alert status of nearby enemies. A question mark indicates no alert, a single exclamation mark shows enemies are alerted but do not clearly see the character, an exclamation and question mark indicates a high alert state caused by sounds or a body discovery, while double exclamation mark is a full alert state where enemies will attack. A number beside the Ki display shows an enemy's distance. Each mission is ranked from the lowest "Thug" to the highest "Grand Master". Score is impacted by the number of undetected or detected kills, whether the character was spotted, and whether non-combatants were killed. Grand Master rank for each level unlocks a new special ability that can be equipped for replays. Synopsis Tenchu is set in Japan's turbulent Sengoku period, and follows missions undertaken by the stoic ninja Rikimaru and spirited kunoichi Ayame of the Azuma ninja clan for their employer the benevolent Lord Gohda and his daughter Princess Kiku, who treats Ayame as an older sister. During several missions, the ninja are first accosted, then fought by the dark ninja Onikage, who is behind several of the disturbances with the goal of bringing his demonic master Lord Mei-Oh into the world. Onikage ultimately stages an attack on a town castle as a distraction so Kiku can be kidnapped and used as leverage against Lord Gohda. Onikage is defeated, but revives and attacks a final time as the ninja go to confront Lord Mei-Oh and rescue Kiku. Lord Mei-Oh is defeated in his cavern lair, which starts to collapse around them. Rikimaru sacrifices himself to allow Ayame and Kiku to escape. Development The project was created by Takuma Endo, who had long wanted to produce video game titles and founded Acquire in 1994 with a group of friends. The PlayStation console was released that same year, and while Endo was eager to develop for it and approached Sony as an individual, he was turned down as Sony