Acquire Teases Tenchu Reboot With Stealth Assassin Trademark

Acquire’s Takuma Endo talked about the prospects of rebooting the Tenchu series in a new interview with Famitsu. The company had recently renewed its trademark registration for Stealth Assassin, a term used in the English localization of the series’ first title. [Thanks, Ryokutya2089.]

In the interview, Endo also stated his interest in establishing a new brand that creates indie-scaled titles. The first such game, shared in the interview, will have chibi-sized characters fighting on a small planet. Endo also assured that Gladiux is still under development.

Here are some of the highlights from Famitsu‘s interview with Takuma Endo:

• “We just registered the Stealth Assassin trademark because it had expired.”
• “A new Tenchu game would be difficult to do right now. But we want to create it again from scratch if we have the opportunity sometime in the PS5 era. Registering the Stealth Assassin trademark also acted to lay the groundwork.”
• “I want to establish an indie-like brand that can release a new outstanding game within a short period.”
• “I want to establish the new brand and its first title within this year.”
• “[The new brand] will be distinguished from Acquire’s major brand.”
• “Gladiux is still under proper development.”

The Stealth Assassin trademark is based on Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, the English title of the series’ first game released on the PlayStation in 1998 and directed by Takuma Endo. The latest title in the series is Tenchu: Shadow Assassins, which was released worldwide for Nintendo Wii and PlayStation Portable in 2009.

Acquire is currently working on Gladiator X, the Japanese release of Gladiux. Although we haven’t heard anything about the new Gladiator game since its initial reveal in December 2019, the developer studio Starcaster Games has updated its official site with a new 2021 release window. Other than PC, Acquire also expressed an interest in bringing the game to PlayStation 5.