Sega will add yet another addition to their long running series Tenchu: Time of the Assassins for PSP due to release in November of 2006. The game has received a lot of hype for new game play features, characters, and the new PSP/USB connection.
Time of the Assassins will take lead after its previous versions such as Tenchu: Shinobi Taizen , Fatal Shadows and a list of other sister games. Each character will be placed with certain weapons, skills, and enemies in order to complete the game. The story line is the same drop as Fatal Shadows and takes place with each character attacking their own individual tasks. Rikimaru, Ayame, Tesshu, Rin and Onikage have journeyed through the past Tenchu series and many more will follow once you continue to play the game and unlock other characters. Each character has a different mission that they must complete in order to finish their task. Stealth killing for Time of the Assassins is still heavily motivated throughout the game, along with the advantage of killing bosses in the darkness of the night. Another feature that is available with Time of the Assassins is the PSP/USB connection which can allow you and another player to wirelessly connect your PSP so that you can two can dual with each other or against.
The most advanced feature that has been added is the "scenario creator", which gives the player the ability to create their own levels to play through. You can choose what music you would like played while you slash and dash, and you can choose objects and contents such as stairs, foliage, and environmental settings to your liking. You will be able to design your new scenario on a grid such as FPS games use or "The Sims". The graphics are at most mediocre with changing colors when characters make different moves. The enemies, so far, haven't had a lot of time spent on them during the creation process. Most enemies look as if I were playing on a PSone with jagged edges and color distortion. Lastly, the music has a nice tune to it, but the same four tunes are repeated constantly for each level and this gets kind of boring and bland and takes away from the enthusiasm of advancing to each level.
All in all, the game gets a thumbs up from me being that is based in Samurai fighting style and that taking out the enemy with a sword is better than a gun any day. Fans of the Tenchu series will be very pleased with the drop of the storyline and characters, but new fans to this series (such as myself) may shy away from the warriors and monks, because of graphics and the "scenario creator".