Post by Iyouboushi on Oct 1, 2004 3:15:24 GMT -6
Has anyone else tried the GBA Inuyasha gamed titled " Inuyasha - Naraku no Wana! Mayoi no Mori no Shoutaijou" ? It's a very interesting game, although pretty confusing at times. I will now talk about it in depth. 
My Japanese is a little rusty so I'm not 100% sure of what's going on, but I can tell you that it basically follows the story that it is in the manga/anime, although it's slightly out of whack. The game has "episodes" (missions) that you go on. Before I get into that, before the "episodes" it's mostly dialog. All dialog is very similar to the game "DBZ: Gokou Den 2." If you've never played that, it's basically portraits of the characters with dialog in a box under them. Sometimes, when they need to show more than one character, they will show small portraits as opposed to the large.
Once the talking is done it's time to get into a battle. Hooray. This is the part of the game that made me go "huh?" the first time. It starts the "episode" where you can choose which character you want (between Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango and Miroku), choose which special attacks/items you want to bring with you and then go at it. Your character will then appear on a strange board-game-like map. Other youkai/main characters will also appear in various corners of the board and you'll be given your objectives. Usually the object is simply "kill (youkai name here) before (other opponent)." Sometimes they get rather complicated though"
You will then get the option to move. To move you spin a little colored wheel, which also reminds me of a few old board games, and get to move X places where X depends on which color you land on and what # it is for that color. It changes randomly. If you get the timing down you'll be able to figure out how to land on any number you want. This is a good thing. As you're moving around the huge board there's colored squares. Red squares imply that you'll be fighting (usually weaker) youkai if you land on them. There's also several green squares where you can buy items/special attacks and towns, which I'm not entirely sure what really goes on there but you will have to spin a wheel again to beat the town's number. If you do, you spin one more round. Win a second time and you get lots of xp. So you can see why it's a good idea to master how to land on the number you want. To make it more difficult, around "episode 5" they add another bar to the mix making it a bit harder to time. Again, it just takes practice.
Like a regular RPG you can level up and assign a stat point with each level you gain. Generally speaking, and having died many times, it's best to put your first few points into DEFENSE because you always start with much lower DEF than the opponent's strength. Unless you've gotten the colored wheel spinning down to a T you don't want to attempt evasion (which will always dodge an attack, special or not). The odds of evading are usually 1 in 6 (or 12, if you've gotten to episode 5) and if you don't get it you get hit for the full amount (which can often-times one-shot you). But I digress.
The battles themselves require a bit of knowledge of Japanese to really understand what's going on. If you know what "tatakai" is then you know when you're about to attack. You will either attack first or second depending on if you ran into the opponent or if it ran into you. After you attack once you will go into defend or evade mode. As I already mentioned, to evade you have to land on the right spot (which there again requires you to know which are the incorrect spots, thus needing to know a bit of Japanese).
This is the third time Yura of the Hair has tried to beat Sesshoumaru.
After each battle you will, usually, get paid a visit by Toutousai. He will, usually, let you upgrade each one of your characters once if you've collected enough money (and generally you have, unless you went on a spending spree). After he leaves the story will resume and more dialog will happen. After the third or fourth (I believe) episode you will then get to CHOOSE which paths you take from that point forward. Each path will take you to a different storyline, usually mirroring a storyline found in the anime/manga. The last story I did involved Inuyasha facing that huge bat demon (I forget its name) and trying to protect Shiori and the village from it. Depending on which storyline it is, it may require a huge amount of time (took me over two hours, I believe, to beat that particular one).
Speaking of characters... there's quite a number of famous story-line characters. To give a short list, that I've seen (other than the main group):
Sesshoumaru
Yuna of the Hair
that Frog youkai (I forget its name, but it was an early ep)
That huge bat youkai (that Inuyasha fought to learn how to break barriers)
the mask youkai (that ended up in Kagome's time I believe)
Kagura
Kouga
Kohaku
Subaki (the dark priestess)
That worm thing that possessed Miroku's mentor's body when he went to visit the first time
I assume Naraku and Kanna will be in it since they've started to show up more often now in the dialog mode. After all, the objective is to beat Naraku. In any case, I'm sure the list will only continue to get bigger as I progress further into the game.
Kagura makes her first apperance.
The graphics are, as you can see, pretty good. It's a little wierd to see tiny 3d versions of the Inuyasha cast but you get used to it. Battles are a little disappointing though. When a character attacks or uses a special it will generally show a shot, that looks like it's from the anime, and just shake the screen with some slashes or whatever on the opponent's picture. Nothing fancy. Using a special, like Kaze no Kizu, will show a picture of the character using it (again, like it's from the anime) then go back to regular pictures and show the same thing. Kind of disappointing.
Sound is great. There's a few voice overs for the main characters and villains. The only problem with sound is that the sound clips are not always used right. It's kind of funny to be on a stage with Sesshoumaru and hearing him yell "move" at thin air. Another downside is that there's only oh-so many per character so you'll be hearing them a lot. Music is..well...bad. Well, I shouldn't say that. It DOES play a few songs from the series and THOSE are good. For example it'll play the actual episode title theme (that plays when they say the episode title in the anime) in the same fashion (with the episode name of the mission you're on). That was a nice touch. Feels much more like the anime that way. The board music and the battle music get old really fast though.
So what else is there to really say about this game that can't be said without asking me specific questions? Not a whole lot. I'd recommend it to a die-hard Inuyasha fan who wants to take the time to learn how to play it. It's indeed fun, once you know what you're doing, and will pass the time greatly. It's got its humerous moments ("Osuwari!") and a lot of characters that look pretty neat (though on such a small screen ;_; ). If you're not a die-hard Inuyasha fan, it may not be worth it.
8 outta 10 for me because I really enjoy Inuyasha and I can always put on another album while playing to get away from the annoying music.
My Japanese is a little rusty so I'm not 100% sure of what's going on, but I can tell you that it basically follows the story that it is in the manga/anime, although it's slightly out of whack. The game has "episodes" (missions) that you go on. Before I get into that, before the "episodes" it's mostly dialog. All dialog is very similar to the game "DBZ: Gokou Den 2." If you've never played that, it's basically portraits of the characters with dialog in a box under them. Sometimes, when they need to show more than one character, they will show small portraits as opposed to the large.
Once the talking is done it's time to get into a battle. Hooray. This is the part of the game that made me go "huh?" the first time. It starts the "episode" where you can choose which character you want (between Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango and Miroku), choose which special attacks/items you want to bring with you and then go at it. Your character will then appear on a strange board-game-like map. Other youkai/main characters will also appear in various corners of the board and you'll be given your objectives. Usually the object is simply "kill (youkai name here) before (other opponent)." Sometimes they get rather complicated though"
You will then get the option to move. To move you spin a little colored wheel, which also reminds me of a few old board games, and get to move X places where X depends on which color you land on and what # it is for that color. It changes randomly. If you get the timing down you'll be able to figure out how to land on any number you want. This is a good thing. As you're moving around the huge board there's colored squares. Red squares imply that you'll be fighting (usually weaker) youkai if you land on them. There's also several green squares where you can buy items/special attacks and towns, which I'm not entirely sure what really goes on there but you will have to spin a wheel again to beat the town's number. If you do, you spin one more round. Win a second time and you get lots of xp. So you can see why it's a good idea to master how to land on the number you want. To make it more difficult, around "episode 5" they add another bar to the mix making it a bit harder to time. Again, it just takes practice.
Like a regular RPG you can level up and assign a stat point with each level you gain. Generally speaking, and having died many times, it's best to put your first few points into DEFENSE because you always start with much lower DEF than the opponent's strength. Unless you've gotten the colored wheel spinning down to a T you don't want to attempt evasion (which will always dodge an attack, special or not). The odds of evading are usually 1 in 6 (or 12, if you've gotten to episode 5) and if you don't get it you get hit for the full amount (which can often-times one-shot you). But I digress.
The battles themselves require a bit of knowledge of Japanese to really understand what's going on. If you know what "tatakai" is then you know when you're about to attack.
You will either attack first or second depending on if you ran into the opponent or if it ran into you. After you attack once you will go into defend or evade mode. As I already mentioned, to evade you have to land on the right spot (which there again requires you to know which are the incorrect spots, thus needing to know a bit of Japanese). This is the third time Yura of the Hair has tried to beat Sesshoumaru.
After each battle you will, usually, get paid a visit by Toutousai. He will, usually, let you upgrade each one of your characters once if you've collected enough money (and generally you have, unless you went on a spending spree). After he leaves the story will resume and more dialog will happen. After the third or fourth (I believe) episode you will then get to CHOOSE which paths you take from that point forward. Each path will take you to a different storyline, usually mirroring a storyline found in the anime/manga. The last story I did involved Inuyasha facing that huge bat demon (I forget its name) and trying to protect Shiori and the village from it. Depending on which storyline it is, it may require a huge amount of time (took me over two hours, I believe, to beat that particular one).
Speaking of characters... there's quite a number of famous story-line characters. To give a short list, that I've seen (other than the main group):
Sesshoumaru
Yuna of the Hair
that Frog youkai (I forget its name, but it was an early ep)
That huge bat youkai (that Inuyasha fought to learn how to break barriers)
the mask youkai (that ended up in Kagome's time I believe)
Kagura
Kouga
Kohaku
Subaki (the dark priestess)
That worm thing that possessed Miroku's mentor's body when he went to visit the first time
I assume Naraku and Kanna will be in it since they've started to show up more often now in the dialog mode. After all, the objective is to beat Naraku. In any case, I'm sure the list will only continue to get bigger as I progress further into the game.
Kagura makes her first apperance.
The graphics are, as you can see, pretty good. It's a little wierd to see tiny 3d versions of the Inuyasha cast but you get used to it. Battles are a little disappointing though. When a character attacks or uses a special it will generally show a shot, that looks like it's from the anime, and just shake the screen with some slashes or whatever on the opponent's picture. Nothing fancy. Using a special, like Kaze no Kizu, will show a picture of the character using it (again, like it's from the anime) then go back to regular pictures and show the same thing. Kind of disappointing.
Sound is great. There's a few voice overs for the main characters and villains. The only problem with sound is that the sound clips are not always used right. It's kind of funny to be on a stage with Sesshoumaru and hearing him yell "move" at thin air. Another downside is that there's only oh-so many per character so you'll be hearing them a lot. Music is..well...bad. Well, I shouldn't say that. It DOES play a few songs from the series and THOSE are good. For example it'll play the actual episode title theme (that plays when they say the episode title in the anime) in the same fashion (with the episode name of the mission you're on). That was a nice touch. Feels much more like the anime that way. The board music and the battle music get old really fast though.
So what else is there to really say about this game that can't be said without asking me specific questions? Not a whole lot. I'd recommend it to a die-hard Inuyasha fan who wants to take the time to learn how to play it. It's indeed fun, once you know what you're doing, and will pass the time greatly. It's got its humerous moments ("Osuwari!") and a lot of characters that look pretty neat (though on such a small screen ;_; ). If you're not a die-hard Inuyasha fan, it may not be worth it.
8 outta 10 for me because I really enjoy Inuyasha and I can always put on another album while playing to get away from the annoying music.