My first impressions on 'Tales of the Ninja'

Well, I finally got a PSP! And to celebrate this fact I purchased Homura as the first game for it.
The first thing you'll notice is that Shinobido was definately created for a joypad with 4 triggers and a right analogue stick, the latter which I miss very much in this game.
The physics are iffy and enemies react quite different than they did in Imashime, to keep it short the enemy ai is quite awful compared to Imashime, it almost felt like playing Tenchu 1, 2, WoH, or FS again
Even though I have only played up to mission 13, the level designs are empty and little, I hope it gets better.

Of course I transferred my custom missions to the PSP and the thought of having portable versions of your missions is quite neat, no doubt about that. Sadly the crippled physics engine of this version ruins exactly my best missions, hence missions which depend on the physics. I highly doubt that my mission "Pandora's Box" can be completed in Homura. My surprise bomb domino trap in "Prison Break" does not work at all

But this is not too important. The main reason I bought the game was to analyze the encryption algorithm which changes the mission files. But there is probably a psp tool for that somewhere, I have to look around.

Anyway, the psp versions of my missions will be uploaded in the next few days, if anyone cares

Good to see you again! A bit of missions have been added since then.

I admit after playing about 50% of the entire Homura game, the missions are pretty bland, but it's ok. It was a fortunate to be able to transfer missions to the psp otherwise this game wouldn't be as appealing. What would be excellent, if we could get the levels with extended detail, like the levels in Single player where the lords have you kill all the barbarians (Jungle/Forest level), especially that detailed "Goh's Garden" as well- not sure how that can be accomplished.

I was disappointed when I tried transferring the "Pandora's Box", "Broken Physics" levels too.

Ironically, "Broken Physics" rendered fine. Which is bad because the entire level was based on freezing the enemies in place so you can quickly kill them tactfully.

Funny uppercutting the Swordsmen, they get serious hangtime in the air, usually I have to act quickly to keep them afloat on Imashime, but here I can just go on until they are dead.

The psp version just renders the minimum, the explosive barrels do not fall down, pretty much anything that used to be interactive with physics in Imashime, rain isn't there, and neither are sliding door physics (you could cut them in half or jump at them to have them fall). The graphics are reduced by a lot, no facial expressions when enemies are attacked. This explains, above anything else, why the levels load up to 50-75% faster than the PS2 version, if your level doesn't rely too much on physics, the psp can be an excellent prototyping tool for tedious missions. So that even if you die constantly, the waiting period in-between is tolerable.

I guess now we have to compensate for the levels that do not transfer properly for the psp.

I'll check out the new missions this weekend. I have been fumblin around with custom firmwares because I want the games to boot from the memory stick... curse HDLoader for the ps2, it really spoilt me with the convenience of not changing your disks.

The thing that really disappoints me the most is the lack of a mission editor. It would have been epic if you could edit missions anywhere you like and not only in front of your tv.

I have a 2004 with datacode 8C. Thanks for posting those links, but I have already been on those sites and cfw is up and running! Probably one of the few people to have a custom firmware on the first day of ownership, hehe. Also thanks for the link of PSPIdent, I will run it out of curiosity - could be useful in the future to know which motherboard my psp has.
That CFW enabler is really save to use as it flashes no files on the psp. I might have to turn it on every time but I can live with that as it's only a matter of two minutes.

Already played a bit of Homura from the memory stick and it works fine. After playing, I checked the battery status and it was still 100%, now that's nice.

Good to hear, now we can send the psp saves etc..

For those of you who want to upgrade your 2000 to have CFW without the pandora battery.



http://pspslimhacks.com/easy-chickhen-custom-firmware-installer-without-pandora/


This would be useful for further m33 updates, but as of yet it is still at m33-6.

Strange cycle at first, turn off umd cache option, load the gif until the screen distorts color and reboots, then CFW m33-6+ can be intalled without the battery.


Again, to check your psp motherboards, use this utility.
http://www.4shared.com/file/111107573/2f4b51f3/PSPident.html


Assuming you have a psp 3000, just go here:

http://pspslimhacks.com/custom-firmware-enabler-310/ 3 files needed

I have no pandora and I used ChickHEN, hence enabling cfw on my psp out of the box. I first have to check which motherboard I have if I want to have a custom firmware permanently. Are you allowed to download from the psn store if you have cfw? Because I heard that MS disables live for modded 360s, and wanted to know if it's the same case with sony.

If you make an account from your psp it will allow you to access the psn network, (I only use it for PSone classics).

The worst it will do is tell you to update the firmware if you tried downloading a demo according to this topic.
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=120817

PSP version faker:
==================================================
This should fake the firmware and allow you to download content without nagging about updating.)

Just enable the plugin in the recovery.
http://pspslimhacks.com/usb-version-fake-for-ps3/

With the plugin off I was able to download a Guitar hero demo, would probably get the OFW prompt when they release the next update.
I do not think we currently need this plugin until later, as we used 5.03 with chickhen and updated to m33-6.

To prevent nags of "Update firmware" before downloading content in the future, just use the plugin then I suppose.
===============================================================
Setup for usb faker:
Basically open the usbversion.txt and change the number to the current psp update value (latest atm is 5.50).
seplugins folder goes in root etc..
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/04/20/psp-firmware-v550-update/ <-- as of April 20th.
===============================================================


DVD:
Probably one of the most diabolical problems are the DVD region faker and region free, none of these features work when enabled in the m33-6 recovery menu, I take it they will come up with a fix in the next m33 update.

Based on PSPslimhacks, they mentioned psp 3000 has region free.

test with my psp! typing with that thang is quite cumbersome! Anyway, i'll visit the
psn store now...

Hey,Post Some of those psp mission plz?

I spent the past couple days trying to find a .CBS/.PSV to VMP(psp save file) converter for everyone to use.

Unfortunately, there is absolutely no other way, except by porting the missions to psp from ps2 and distributing them.

Therefore I will always upload the newer completed missions to psp after completing them in ps2 format.