Anime has hit mainstream in the United States and the majority of the credit belongs to Cartoon Network and its two most popular programming blocks: Toonami and Adult Swim. Toonami focuses on more pre-teen to teenager TV shows such as the Dragon Ball series and various Gundam shows. Adult Swim gained popularity quickly because it shows more “adult”-oriented shows that contained more violence, which can be attributed to its later time slot. One show that has become insanely popular lately is Inuyasha, so you know what that means - it was only a matter of time before a game came along. How is it and does it stay faithful to the show? Read on to find out more.

Inuyasha: Feudal Combat takes all of the characters from the TV show and allows players to fight with them through various different game modes. The first mode is story which takes one character (and sometimes a partner) along on a quest as they try to defeat their major enemy. The story is very segmented and feels very incomplete. If you have never seen the TV show you will have no idea what is going on half of the time. Mission mode tries to expand the game somewhat by putting characters in certain fighting conditions and see if they can beat their enemies. This mode helps give the game a little more replay value, but it doesn’t last for long. Battle mode is where you can fight against the computer or another human.

The fighting for this game is severely lacking in the fun department. All players have to do is press a couple of buttons and it will send the other characters flying across the screen. I have played games similar to this in the past, but this game really doesn’t have any depth at all in its fighting engine. It is really hard to put up a good offense or defense against anyone because it seems like anything can break it. There are also “combos” in the game, yet it isn’t worth the time it takes to perform them because it seems like a quick press of the circle button or any other button does the same amount of damage.

Speaking of the circle button, this will allow players to do their finishing moves. When you hear finishing move you would think that you would only be able to perform this move once or twice in the game; nope, you can perform these moves as long as you have enough spirit energy piled up. That would not be so bad if the animation for these moves wasn’t so long and boring. After you see the finishing move once or twice you don’t want to see it again; yet if you continue to play the game for an extended amount of time you will see them so many times you will be sick of it because there is no way to skip or speed them up.

What I did like about the fighting in this game is when you are fighting with a partner some more options become available to you. Partners add a little more variety in the game as you can combine attacks with them, and they help out while attacking your enemies. Since your partner is controlled by the game’s AI, you can set it for different formations which change their actions during the course of the battle. The first is “wind” which causes them to mimic the actions of the gamer; this is good if you want to chain your attacks. “Forest” formation allows you to divide up the enemies, because your partner will take on your enemy’s partner, so this is a divide-and-conquer mode. “Fire” makes your partner concentrate their attacks on a single character. “Mountain” is where your partner will become your shield and take damage for you.

The graphics for Inuyasha: Feudal Combat aren’t half bad. I really liked the cel-shading look of all of the characters that you can fight as because it looks very similar to the anime show. This will make fans of the series leap for joy. The bad thing about this is that the backgrounds aren’t as detailed and always seem to be intrusive to the players during a battle. It seems like I was getting caught on something all the time while my enemy was sending a barrage of arrows my way.

I really liked that the developers were able to get the same voice actors from the TV show for this game. It makes the game feel more like the TV show, which many of the fans will enjoy. What I do not like is that there is very little dialog that they actually say. What I mean by this is that in the course of a fight you will hear the characters saying the same phrases multiple times. You will be reaching for that mute button quickly because it will grate on your nerves. The music and sound effects from the game mimic the show really well and it is a good thing because this draws the gamers close to the game.

Inuyasha: Feudal Combat is rated Teen for mild language, suggestive themes, and violence. It will take up to 92 KB on your memory card for game saves.

Gameplay: 4.2
If you enjoy playing games where all you do is randomly hit buttons and something big happens then this is the game for you.

Graphics: 7.9
I really like the cel-shading look because it made the game look really similar to the anime show.

Sound: 7.5
Everything for the anime show is in here, the same voice actors, music style, and sound effects. It is too bad that the repetition of the dialog really drags this category down.

Difficulty: Easy
Press a couple of buttons and defeat your enemies. How easy can you get?

Concept: 4.1
Nothing new added in this game.

Multiplayer: 4.2
You will have friends for a few minutes, then you will want to find a fighting game with some sort of depth.

Overall: 5.1
Inuyasha: Feudal Combat could have been a really good fighting game because it has so much potential. They have the same voice actors, the graphics are pretty good, but the most important thing the developers slacked on was the fighting engine itself. This game will get boring quickly because there is no depth. The only people who will be entertained for more than a couple of hours are younger gamers, because of the ease of the game, and die-hard fans of the TV show.