Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask

"InuYasha Review (from InuYasha fan's perspective)"

Summary: A boy/girl from the modern time falls through a crack and travels to the Feudal Era. He joins up with InuYasha and his friends to find a way back.

Graphics (6/10): There is two parts to the graphics: one is the CG elements and the other is the anime. The on screen and interactive characters are CG while the background and stills are drawn. The scenery while traveling is very well done, and the dialogs are always accompanied by the characters' non-CG images. These are the high points. The low points of the game are not the CG characters, as they are actually average in gaming standards. The worst part of the graphics is the battle animation. The moves of the characters are very repetitive and multiple attacks have very similiar patterns. In addition, the status animations (posioned, dazed, etc) is horrible. If you are used to square's standards, prepare for major disappointments for the CG elements.

The monsters are usually very small, such as flying bats and crows. Do not expect big monsters to attack you very often. Plus, most of them are poorly designed and move akwardly.

Sound (9/10): The VA's for the series are doing the dubs for this game as well, so the quality of the dialogues are very high. I would say on par with the show. All major characters always speak, and only some NPC in towns and roads only have text boxes. The background music is similar to the stuff in the InuYasha season soundtracks so it puts you in the atmosphere for it. The only real bad part is that attacks with long names are cut short since the attack finishes before the VA is done saying the name. Otherwise, very good sounds overall.

Gameplay (6/10): Traditional turn-based Japanese RPG. It is like the older Final Fantasy style. The game is geared towards young children so the difficulty is rather easy and the flow of the battles is slow. The availabilities of techniques is on the low side but most attacks from the show are in here.

Fanboy Factors (9/10): It features the original VA's from the show, plus additional footages. For any serious IY fans, this game is very good content wise.

Conclusion: If you are not a IY fan, don't get this game. There are plenty of other anime RPGs out on the market that are considerably better than this one. Star Ocean and Tales of Symphonia come to mind. But if you are like me and finished the series by DL the episodes until 166-167 finale, then buy it. Not a great game, but good enough to be able to play through. If you are a luke-warm fan, rent it or watch the videos and screenshots. If you like what you see, buy it. If not, don't.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/04