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Inuyasha: A Feudal Tale review

Game: Inuyasha: A Feudal Tale
Platform: PlayStation
Genre: Fighting Action
Developer: Bandai

Reader review by disco1960

February 25, 2005

If you have the urge for some casual demon fighting action, then look no further. This game offers plenty of demons, girls with sacred arrows, a lady with a giant boomerang, and a guy who sucks up things with his hand.

A Feudal Fairy Tale follows the journey of Inuyasha and friends to collect shards of the magical Shikon jewel, as well as defeat Naraku, a despicable demon who’s just been pissing off everyone today. Fans of the anime/manga are already well-acquainted with the story, and for those who’ve never heard a thing about it until now, the game helpfully recaps the background information for each character so anyone won’t have much trouble picking up all the important pieces as they play.

The gang’s all here, with Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, Miroku, and Sango. They’ve also got Kikyo, Koga, Sesshomaru, Kagura, and Naraku himself, so odds are they’ve got your favorite! Unless you’re strictly a Mistress Centipede fan.

At first you start off with only the choice of either Inuyasha or Kagome, and then gradually unlock all the characters by going through the story mode. Your character travels across the land, getting into one-on-one battles, plus the occasional two-on-one fight, along with a few bonus stage mini-games, like “Swat Naraku’s damned poison insects!” or “Go hit Jakken!” that are pretty amusing and strangely satisfying. The whole thing works out to be something like a Street Fighter II with Shikon shards.

The game includes the standard versus mode, and there’s the option of tag-team or casual two-on-one action to keep things interesting. And with five difficulty settings, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a decent challenge.

However, sometimes the action does feel a bit slow-paced, and the fighting system certainly could have been deeper; each character only has two regular attacks and three or four special moves. With the fighting as simple as it is, it still makes for a worthwhile party game, but there’s not much to keep you playing single-player after you’ve completed the story mode with each character. All the character’s trademark attacks are here, though, such as Inuyasha’s Wind Scar, or Miroku’s Wind Tunnel, and the fights take place in various locations from the series, which should be enough to keep the fans happy for a long time.

Before each battle, there’s always some dialogue between the two opposing characters to establish the reason they’re fighting, which adds a nice bit of flavor. Some of it’s pretty entertaining, like Shippo inadvertently saying that Kagome is getting fat, or Miroku insulting Inuyasha’s intelligence. Unfortunately, the dialogue is always subtitled and spoken in Japanese. It’s not going to be an issue for everyone, but the English version would have been preferable, since the people who buy this game are typically going to be more familiar with that.

It was a bit surprising at first that this was going to be a fighting game, but the license lends itself fairly well to such. There are still the glaring inaccuracies that result when the developers have to balance the gameplay (Duh! Everybody knows the Bakuryuuha only works against powerful demons!), but they don’t make the game any less cool. There are plenty of bonus materials just waiting to be unlocked, like the Inuyasha picture gallery, and access to the game’s soundtrack.

A Feudal Fairy Tale is perhaps worth renting, at least, even if you’re never heard of the series; there’s enough Inuyasha stuff here to introduce you to the series and possibly make you a fan. If you already are, you’ll likely find this game to be a treasure. It’s the only way to see Naraku destroyed, once and for all. Yay, closure!

Rating: 8.0/10

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