Inuyasha: Jûso no kamen

Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask is one of the worst RPGs on PlayStation 2 since Unlimited Saga. First of all, the game is about that you assume the role of the Kururugi boy or girl and he or she falls into a hole and into Feudal Japan. In Feudal Japan, he or she meets Inuyasha and his friends and go on a journey for the Kururugi boy or girl to go back to his or her world. First, game's background are pre-rendered and are pretty outdated technology for graphics. Second the battle system is slow, and I mean VERY slow. Every time you confirm the battle command, you have to wait at least 1 second per selection. Plus, you cannot skip dual special attack cut-scenes. They are well drawn and animated, but if you are trying to finish the game quickly, I'm afraid you are out of luck. Finally, the last thing bad about this game is that there aren't lots of cut-scenes with animated characters like Inuyasha and his friends. You only get to see one of them when you defeat Naraku. Depending on who you make strong friendship with one of Inuyasha's friends, you'll get the ending, but they are boring, VERY boring. The only thing that is not bad about this game is the English voice acting which are voiced by the original voice actors of the Inuyasha TV series. If you want better anime based video game, try Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex or Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel. You'll have more fun with those games than this Inuyasha game I consider garbage.

This game is for children & moderately hard core fans. Positives are the animated waiting & opening sequences are excellent. The music is outstanding. The voices are the English cast & the storyline is an excellent little side track to directly involve the player in the Feudal Era. Items which bear mentioning but are not specifically gripes are that the gameplay is almost identical to Final Fantasy for gameboy back in '95! It grows tedious, then wearisome, this selection of attack (what kind? Physical, special, co-op?) defence, use of item, flee. OK, so that's really a gripe, & the strongest one at that. While I'm griping, I'd like to point out the severely limited comment pool recorded. In post battle victory taunting, the character who struck the last fatal blow to an enemy says something, ranging from surprised to be alive (player character) to encouraging & supportive (Kagome) to braggart-ish (Inuyasha). I'd rather have them be silent than listen to the same dreck over & over again. While I'm on the subject of sound, the final gripe is that there's no control of the volume of in-game music. The music & sound effects tend to drown out the characters, so either the music is tolerably loud & you can't hear the character or you can understand what you need to hear & get your hearing assaulted by the music. Finally, be prepared for a very cartoon-ish interpretation of the characters. Like a cross between SD Gundam & the Care Bears. Still, even a cutesy Inuyasha gets your blood up by performing all the classic attacks; "Iron reaver SOUL STEALER!" & "WIND scar!"

I must not be a very good player though. I've got 5 hours into it & I'm still at the spider/Akebi village task. Still, I'm enjoying it a lot. I've even given Fallout, B.I.A., & DBZ 3 a rest to play this exclusively.