Erhu and shakuhachi over stealth gameplay is a combination that shouldn't work this well. Hideki Sakamoto and Keisuke Ito scored Shinobido: Way of the Ninja with real traditional instruments, and the result sounds like feudal Japan breathing down your neck.
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Moondog opens with this haunting string arrangement that sets the entire mood, and its Immortal Flower variant takes the same melody somewhere darker. Lone Moonlight strips everything back to solo instrumentation that just hangs in the air while you're crouched on a rooftop.
Tabla and conga percussion underneath tracks like Glorious Death give the action scenes this organic pulse. If you ever wished Tenchu had a more refined ear for its score, this is exactly that.