Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale

"Pretty nice, even if you can't read Japanese."

Inuyasha. An excellent manga turned into an excellent anime turned into an excellent fighting game. Whether you're a fan of the series or not, Sengoku Otogi Kassen is a winner.

Gameplay: 8/10
As one can expect, the game has the gameplay of a fighting game. A fun and well-built play-system, albeit rather simple. If you're expecting complex combos or impossible to do button motions, go somewhere else. Sengoku Otogi Kassen prides itself on a really simple playing style. Combos consist of repeated pressings of the same button and special moves are done with simple presses of a direction on the pad and Square. While the system is rather easy to master, it is quite fun. The tag-team mode and 2-player versus matches are where the game shines, though. While the single-player gameplay takes quite a while to grow boring, multiplayer never does. Top-notch work, Bandai.

Story: N/A
From what I watched, the plot seems to be an extremely compressed version of the actual plot to the series itself. Being that I am incapable of reading or comprehending the Japanese script, however, I can neither confirm nor deny that notion.

Graphics: 9/10
Wonderfully animated sprites on a variety of well-rendered stages, complete with a plethora of nice lighting effects make the game nothing less than pure eye candy. The portraits and such are quite well-drawn and give the game a nice ''Hey, I'm watching the anime'' feel to it. While there is occasional sprite clipping and jumping, it is both too little to really notice and too insignificant to greatly diminish the overall splendour of Inuyasha: Sengoku Otogi Kassen's exquisite visuals.

Sound: 9/10
Every bit of the music is well-suited for its selected use and the sheer amount of voice-work is awe-inspiring. A huge amount of vocalization is done in story mode and done quite nicely. The only thing hindering the perfect 10 in this area are the sound effects. While they aren't far from greatness, they really could be a bit more suiting. Some just sound oddly misplaced.

Replay: 10/10
If the time it takes unlocking the hidden characters and adding every picture to the gallery doesn't keep you hooked, the wonderful gaming experience will. Kudos.

Buy or Rent?
If, by some chance, you happen to stumble upon a copy of Inuyasha: Sengoku Otogi Kassen, you owe it to yourself to scrounge up every last cent in your pocket to purchase this little gem.

Inuyasha: Sengoky Otogi Kassen is definitely worth your time, as long as you can stand the fact that it is entirely in Japanese. Whether you're a hardcore fan of the anime or an average fan of gaming in general, it's definitely worth every penny. Or yen, since that's probably what it'd end up being bought with, anyway.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/27/03, Updated 01/27/03