I finally got Shin Sangoku Musou for the PSP today, and am a lot more impressed with the game than I expected to be. Screenshots don't do this game justice; since there's a lot more of the enemies "magically appearing" when you get near them and a shorter draw distance, the screenshots I've seen posted make it look as if there's only a few characters on screen at once.
This is NOT true and you can still find yourself in plenty of situations where you are surrounded by many enemies and enemy generals. I have yet to see as many as you could from charging into an enemy camp in the console games, but it's hardly disappointing. The stages also have the same level of detail as the console games; you'll find fences, walls, tents, huts, trees, and even hills/sloping areas in the various maps.
The game play is virtually the same as the console DW, but without finding new items/weapons. You just level up as you go and gain more combos, but your level resets once you have completed the campaign for that character. Getting elements equipped to your weapon has to do with which bodyguards you are using.
One new feature in the game is way you use your bodyguards. No longer generic warriors; you can now have up to four subgenerals as your bodyguards, as well as earn the use of playable characters as bodyguards. Each subgeneral has his/her seperate stats and unique abilites, such as healing, which can be very important since there doesn't appear to be health power-ups on stages in this version of the game. You can earn new subgenerals by winning battles.
The break up of each stage into separate maps doesn't disturb the flow of the game in any way, since there's virtually no load time once the entire stage as initially loaded up. You simply go into an area on the map, take out enemies/force them to retreat, then go to the map screen and choose the next area to continue the action.
Visually, Shin Sangoku Musou is clearly not on the same level as the PS2 games, but it does come close. The models are still impressive, but not quite as detailed. The small screen does a good job of hiding the lack of detail, however, and the frame rate stays pretty consistent throughout most of the game. I did play on one map, which was FILLED with enemies and several generals inside a courtyard environment with smoke blowing through the stage, and at times the game would slow to a CRAWL. I believe this may be due to the smoke effect (which does look impressive), and Koei should consider removing it from the U.S. version if it is indeed the reason. Despite the massive drop in frame rate, I still had no problem finishing that particular map segment.
Music and character design are straight out of Dynasty Warriors 3(?)(It's been a while). In story mode, there are no movies, but the game does have an intro movie (and I'm told an ending movie), and preview move section in the options for recent Koei PS2 games. Why this was included and the space not used for more in-game movies is beyond me.
Movie quality is decent, but not up to par with the impressive Ridge Racers opening FMV.Overall, I'd give the game an 8/10 so far. It does a great job of retaining the DW series' game play on a portable. The only thing that could bring it down is the lack of extras; I know the game has fewer stages than the console versions, but hopefully there's enough to make it last. The game has all 42 characters from DW3, and you only start with 15, so unlocking all the characters will definitely extend the length of the game.
That's one of the things that keeps me going in the console DW.