Ok, I finally finished Inuyasha: the Secret of the Cursed Mask for the Playstation 2. With this game you are either going to love it or you're going to hate it. If you are a die-hard Inuyasha fan you'll probably enjoy it. I liked the combination of 2-d backgrounds and scenarios with the 3-d characters. There is also total English voice-overs with the original cast from the show with subtitles. Also it's fun to "interact" with the Inuyasha gang with your especially-made-by-Rumiko-Takahashi character. All of your favorite (maybe I should add "main") characters from the show make an appearance here from Kouga to Kohaku to Sesshomaru to Rin. If you purchase this game purely for the RPG (Role Playing Game) perspective you are probably going to hate the game. The thing that made me scream and nearly chuck the controller across the room are the random battles. There are too many factors/rules that apply to the battles yet in the end seem to make little difference. Example: you'll see throughout the mazes there are purple clouds that are supposed to signify a greater chance to doing battle. Well. I run in and out of these clouds and do more battles outside of them than in. Another factor is Luck. every once in a while Myouga will pop up after you win a battle and say your fortunes have changed. These fortunes can vary from chaos to mediocre to paradise. If you get chaos (which I frequently got) be prepared to spend a good hour or so fighting your way through a maze or mansion or wherever you are, as in you are going to take root to your seat. A downer for Inuyasha fans is that whoever wrote the little scripts for the characters seemed to never have watched the show in his/her life or has a very poor imagination. I don't know, maybe it's me but I really don't see Inuyasha saying "I guess I'll go for a leisurely walk", the scripts can get very corny sounding. Now the overall story itself is decent. Basicly your character (you can either pick a girl or boy at the beginning) is drawn into the feudal era. Here of course you meet up with the Inuyasha gang, unlock your hidden powers, and go after Naraku and the mysterious Utsugi to find a way to go back home. So the story itself is fun to run through. In the end, me being a big Inuyasha fan and RPG fan enjoyed this game despite it's faults. Perhaps if future Inuyasha RPG games come out the faults can be rectified to make it even better. I give it a 6 out of 10. For me the graphics are a big plus, but the big minus are the random battles.
Boma at 9:09 PM
