Fans NEED to read this before buying!!! Everyone else should just leave it altogether.
Rather then explaining Tenchu basics I'm going to focus on the difference between Tenchu: Time Of The Assasins (Or T:TOTA from here so I don't get RSI) and the previous games and say if your new to the game, just don't buy it. And even fans should stop and think before buying.
Firstly, whats great about T:TOTA. T:TOTA is typical Tenchu, and From Software did a great job of squeezing a huge game (I'd say even bigger then Return From Darkness) on to a UMD, which judging by the PSP's current line-up of chopped up PS2 ports, seems to be a challenge for other developers. Instead of the usual Tenchu choice of 2 ninja's there's 4, including Rin and Tesshu. And still theres the usual hidden ninja to play through once the other 4 have been completed. When thats over, you can create your own missions with a pretty powerful mission editor and even share it online or download others. Content wise, its the best Tenchu game yet.
Levels are fairly linear, sometimes with the choice of about 2 or 3 ways to reach the end, and T:TOTA's level design isn't quite the scale of RFD. They can be fairly short, but for a portable you don't want lenghy levels that last longer then your bus ride.
But here's whats wrong with the game, and it's a pretty big flaw. Or is it draw? Because the draw distance is about 4 meters... in front of the characters face. The rest is a dark black void, which will remind people of the days when lazy developers just used fog to hid pop-up and poor draw distance. The first 2 games fell foul to this, using pretty heavy fog, but even that wasn't as bad as TOTA. Concidering the PSP has more power then the PS1, and I've used that power to cruise round Liberty City pretty much the same as if I was playing GTA3 on the PS2, why oh why am I struggling to see enemies that are 4 feet from my face? It really is that bad, if you forget to check the Chi meter (Which tells you how close to someone you are), enemies can litterally appear from no where. Even 'Ninja Vision' which lets you zoom into the distance which was really helpful in RFD, doesn't help this situation and I wonder why they even put it in at all because when you use it, your just zooming in to a thick black wall. I've tried not to let it get to me, but it really is disapointing that From Software couldn't pull more from the PSP's power.
The content, sound and gameplay is pretty impressive for the PSP. But since you need to be able to actually see what your stalking, it will turn off even the die-hard Tenchu fan. I'd say rent it first and try it out to see if you can get on with the weak draw distance or at least wait till the price drops. Because (And as a it hurts me to say this) it isn't worth the £34.99 price tag.
'Time Of The Assassins'? More like 'Assassins In The Mist'