The city features new areas to explore, such as Fort Staunton, new gangs, new residents and new means of transportation, including a ferry service from Portland to Staunton Island. The game returns the player to the crime ridden streets of Liberty City but features many differences from previous renditions of the city. Toni later begins to work his way back up the ladder and against various people in his way, including Cilli, his mother, other mobsters and families, hitmen and politicians. Toni, however, is disappointed to find himself back at the bottom of the Leone pecking order, working for his replacement Vincenzo Cilli. The game starts with Cipriani returning to Liberty City after fours years in hiding for killing a made man.
The game features the return of Grand Theft Auto III supporting character and Leone Family capo Toni Cipriani as the protagonist. Toni Cipriani, a supporting character from GTA III, returns as the protagonist. GTA Liberty City Stories serves as a prequel to both Grand Theft Auto Advance (set in 2000/ 2001) and Grand Theft Auto III (set in 2001). The game, set in Liberty City in 1998, was also the first game released on the PSP. The game has since been re-released as a downloadable game for the PSP Go on October 1, 2009. The game, originally a PSP exclusive, was later ported to the PlayStation 2, being released on Jin North America and Jin the UK.
The game was released on Octoin North America and Novemin the United Kingdom on the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Capcom published and distributed the game for its Japanese release. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, also known as GTA Liberty City Stories and abbreviated to GTA LCS, is the ninth video game in the Grand Theft Auto series, the fifth of the GTA III Era and was developed by Rockstar North and Rockstar Leeds.