Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask Preview

It’s Alice through the Rabbit’s Hole, or down the Rabbit’s Hole, but this is with a twist. Instead of falling into a fantasy world of Cheshire Cats and Mad Hatters, the world in which the 9^th-grader is transported to is feudal Japan – replete with mythological beings and demons.

BanDai is gearing up for the release of Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask, the second in the Inuyasha series, and is a PlayStation 2 release targeted for a November release. GameZone.com was able to get a preview build of the game, and so took the trip through the hole in the storage shed for a look into this world.

The game is played out in two ways – the exploration phase, which is somewhat linear in that you must stay on the roads, and the combat phase. In the exploration phase, you are moving on a two-dimensional mapboard in real time. You follow the path, talk to people and obtain small quests along the way.

The combat phase is turn-based, with options about what you will do during your turn. You can attack, used technical combos, defend, use an item or run away. The hero and his or her party stand on one side of the battlefield with the enemy on the other. The enemy which starts as demon wolves, vicious bats and ghosts, get progressively nastier as you level up and move throughout the world. Each character in the battle gets a turn (if they survive long enough) as set by a wheel. Characters that are put to sleep or incapacitated in some way are bypassed by other characters.

This is very much a strategic battle format.

The game starts with players selecting their avatar – either a boy or girl of the Kururugi family. The family itself runs a shrine and it is a busy time with the Festival of Wishes taking place. (And there is no difference between the storylines for either the boy or the girl – the dialogue and story arch is the same.)

Arriving late, the teen is told to fetch some amulets from the storehouse. As the “hero” enters the dark room, he (or she) fails to see the star within a circle on the floorboards, boards that break apart under the pressure of the foot. A little movement and it’s down into the feudal world below.

Of course, the first thing to do is get home. As the child wanders the forest it becomes apparent that he is slightly under-equipped to deal with this world. A hungry demon gives chase and, on the brink of despair, surrender and terror, a strange light emerges and defeats the demon.

What was the light and how do you summon it again? That is part of the mystery.

The dog-eared, fanged warrior human named Inuyasha appears and helps the teen to Kaede’s Village, where some answers may await. Another present-day school student is there, Kagome. Apparently there is a well on the outskirts of the village, the Bone-Eater’s Well, which could be used to transport the Kururugi teen back home. Oops, that’s not working.

And that is what sets this adventure in motion – the quest to ultimately get home. In the interim, there are items to buy, levels to gain, monsters to fight, minor puzzles to solve.

While this game sports wonderfully lush Japanese-anime style graphics, and fluctuates between the two-dimensional adventuring mode and three-dimensional combat mode, it does feature way too much cutscene material at the start. With the dialogue boxes popping up that you have to manually advance, the cutscenes can take a while to play out.

The dialogue is also somewhat disjointed, especially during the argument aspects, but otherwise this title has good ambient sound effects, and the musical score provides a solid backdrop to the action and mood.

Inuyasha is a straightforward adventure title, nothing is overly complex and the controls are easy to use. This game does not really bring anything new to the genre, but appears to be a solid addition to those burgeoning ranks. This is a game that is wonderful to look at, easy to play, and pulls in some strategic elements for variety and entertainment value. Veteran gamers may find this too rudimentary an outing, but newcomers to the genre will be pulled in by the charm, look and playability of the game.