Inuyasha (PlayStation 2)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.3 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Bethany Massimilla
• Reviewed on: 11/10/2004
• Released on: 11/02/2004
• Originally published on GameSpot: Inuyasha (PlayStation 2) Review

Inuyasha is a Japanese animated series that's enjoyed a high level of popularity in North America, a popularity fueled and facilitated by the show's long run in Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block. Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask is a turn-based role-playing game set in the world of the animated series that showcases the cast of the show, two all-new characters, and a fresh set of adventures. While that description might sound appealing to fans of the show, the game itself employs a number of horrible, tired RPG conventions and a budget presentation, making it difficult to recommend to even the most fervent of fans.

You can play the game as a teenage boy or a teenage girl, though the choice is for the most part cosmetic, with only a few differences between the two paths. Much like the heroine Kagome Higurashi in the television series, your character's family runs a shrine in Tokyo, and you happen to come across a strange symbol in an old storehouse that ends up transporting you to feudal Japan. Soon after, you run into an angry pack of villagers who believe you're a demon. While fleeing them, you run into a real demon who's intent on making you his lunch. Just when it appears that you're destined for ingestion, a strange power envelops you and evaporates your would-be attacker. The half human, half dog-demon Inuyasha witnesses this, becomes interested in your abilities, and so brings you to meet Kagome. After that, you'll end up traveling with the full cast of the anime, trying to find your way back home while battling against a variety of demons, including the series' ultimate villain, the nasty Naraku.

All told, the narrative in the game isn't all that bad. It unfolds like a standard Inuyasha story arc, with the respective characters doing their own stereotypical things--Kagome chews out Inuyasha a lot, Inuyasha clunks the adorable fox-demon Shippo on the head a lot, the monk Miroku flirts with anything vaguely female, Myoga the flea vanishes at the barest suggestion of danger, and so on. The English-language voice actors for the cartoon also voice their characters in the game, and conversations are accompanied by a variety of anime-style portraits with fitting expressions and animations. However, there's a whole gameplay structure that's meant to complement and drive this narrative, and it's in the gameplay department that Inuyasha suffers.

Like most RPGs, the game has a couple of modes. The adventure mode allows you to explore towns, traverse a variety of terrain, and plumb the depths of mysterious dungeons. The turn-based battle mode is where you'll do all your fighting against the game's many, many demons. Console-style role-playing games have the tricky task of balancing encounters, be they random or otherwise, so that you level up your party at a decent rate without being constantly thrown into combat. The Cursed Mask has no concept of this kind of balance. You're jolted into battle ridiculously often, sometimes every few steps, while attempting to cross game environments littered with deceptive paths and dead ends. There are sometimes purple clouds onscreen that denote areas of heavy demon energy, where you're particularly likely to get into a fight, but you can also trigger battles simply by running around a bit. If you hold down a button on the controller, you can make your character walk instead of run. Walking is supposed to make battle less likely, but even when this works, you're trading the annoyance of having to constantly fight for the annoyance of having to plod slowly toward wherever you're trying to go.

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