Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja

"An extremely addictive dungeon crawler!"

Has your DS library starts dwindling with "been-there-done-that" titles? Look no further than Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja! I'd heard about this game originally by seeing artwork. The cute pink-haired ninja with a blade alone caused me to find information on the game. When I read several reviews, most were negative. The fact is, the people who reviewed this game unfavorably were only angry because the game kicked their behinds multiple times! Just because you're not good at it doesn't mean it's a bad game... here's my review.

First and foremost, as I believe it's best to start with what people can see: the visuals. While admittedly, the graphics could have been much more, they get the job done. The special effects are nice and flashy. When dialouge occurs, you can see nice artwork of the characters.

I'll give graphics a 6/10.

Second, The sound. The music is forgettable, but the voices are nice. The effects are alright. Just average stuff, really, but nothing remarkable.

Let's go with 7/10.

Now, on to where this game shines: gameplay. If you've ever played Azure Dreams, the gameplay is similar. You have to travel through a dungeon and get to the final level where the boss resides. On each level, there are various enemies which you must defeat for experience and money. Also among the levels are various items, such as weapons, thrown weapons, traps, and talismans. You may also trigger a trap, among which has only one has positive effect. Now, the enemies are really tough when they're around your level or higher. If you're fighting more than two at a time, you're likely toast unless you can use a talisman to get you out of trouble. This game is unforgiving. If it sees an opening, it will take it. It will likely take from 2-5 tries to get through a dungeon. When you are defeated, you lose everything but your experience. All of these may seem like they are unfair, but it's quite fair if you think about it. You don't die, no game over. You just have to reaquire all of your gear and augmented weapons.

I give this aspect a definite 10/10

The story is OK, but nothing out of the ordinary. You play as Izuna, a ninja with an A+ in cute, where you must save your comrades from the curses of various angered gods. You do this by going through their dungeons and beating their face in. The dialouge is pretty clever to be a more or less a direct translation of the Japanese version. A lot of development occurs in Izuna, and a little in Shino, but not much for anyone else.

A 7/10 is fair for the story.

So there you have it. This is a very satisfying game once you get the hang of it. You may be put off by it's difficulty at first, but keep trying and you'll love it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/12/07

Game Release: Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja (US, 02/20/07)