A Great Series Makes A Great Game

When Bandai released this game I remembered that no stores around my area did not have it. I ended up with a copy by purchasing it from I think Amazon. Anyway I must say even though this game was released after the Playstation 1 craze, I must say this released was very refreshing.

Story 5/10
The main story of Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale is seemingly the same story as shown on the television series. The basis is to fight battles in order gain shards of the Shikon Jewel, which is a sacred round jewel that can empower anyone to a godlike status. The obsession surrounding the jewel spurs many fights between our heroes whom are Inuyasha, Sango, Kagome, Shippo, and Miroku, against various enemies. But to go along with the main story, their are also some quirky sideline material that causes problems within the heroes. like a battle between Shippo and Kagome ensued after Shippo yelled at Kagome for not bringing snacks. Other dumb stuff like this really killed the original story.

Graphics 8/10
Inuyasha is really a spectacle to behold as it is a graphic masterpiece. The fighting stages are very impressive and detailed, some places you fight in include waterfalls and wolves dens. The color scheme for most of the levels was also fantastic. Like the waterfall stage had about seven different blues and purples mixed into the one waterfall, simply a great assortment and mixture of vibrant hues in each level.

The character models are also impressively detailed. The animations are also rendered well in the game. Also most of the moves are very fluent and are all just like their television show counterpart. Also before and after each battle thee is a still framed cut scene involving combatants. this picture really dictates the emotion of the characters.

The other graphics such as character selection, menu selection, cutscenes, and loading screens are superb. Just like the battle areas, they are all vibrant and colorful. There is even a photo gallery you can unlock so you can view stills from the show.

Sound 7/10
The sound in this game was decent. Each character in the game is in their original Japanese voice. I prefer the Japanese voices since the voice actors for the Japanese version sounds better than the American voice actors. Also you can change what each of the characters say before and after battle, which is very cool.

Also there is feature in which you can listen to tracks of music and character dialogue. And this was a great feature, except that the songs are not from the anime, but there good songs nonetheless. The only problem I really have is when Inuyasha fights Naraku, which is equivalent to Godzilla vs King Kong, the song is an up beating song, which kills the battle emotionally.

Gameplay 8/10
This game has a bunch of modes which are Feudal Fairy Tale, Versus Fairy Tale, Dream Fairy Tale, Myoga's Training, Shippo's Seven Changes, and Backpack. The backpack has some extras like the dialogue and tracks you can listen to and there are also some mini games here. Shippos Seven Changes is essentially the options mode. Myogas Training is the sparring area. Dream Fairy Tale is a two on two battle. Versus is just one on one. In both modes you can battle against computer or human players. Feudal Fairytale is the story mode, you can lay through the stories of Inuyasha, Shippo, Sango, Miroku, and Sesshomaru(Inuyasha Brother).

The story mode is rather short. Your default story is Inuyasha and after you beat that you unlock a new one until you unlock all of them. The story mode is pretty weak since each story is only five battles long. You can essentially beat all of the story modes within two hours.

The controls are very basic for a fighter game. The control layout is the control pad to direct your fighter, a weak attack, a strong attack, a counter guard, and a special move button. This game controls are very easy to learn. This is very different than most fighting games since you would have to mash buttons like crazy to do specials, but not this game. Also you can d multiple combos by pushing just one or two combos. Everyone who plays this game will master the controls after a couple of battles. Overall the controls are very simplistic.

The main part of the gameplay is to find shards of the Shikon jewel. By gaining shards you unlock things such as characters, levels, and mini games. You find jewel shards during your story battles. To obtain them you have to do a special move on an opponent whom has one. You can also obtain them by beating mini games.

You start out with only two characters on the selection screen, Inuyasha and Kagome. If you unlock everyone you get a grand total of 13 characters. You can unlock a total of three mini games, all whom in which are very entertaining. In one you fight poisonous beats, in one you smash rocks and in the other one you have to extinguish a fire. And if you unlock all the fighting areas you will have 13.

Replay Value 9/10
This game has a deep replay value. You have to complete all the stories which wont really take a while. But then you have to unlock a bunch of stuff. And there is also some picture book in which you have to collect all of the images. And after you find everything you can play as all 13 characters since each character has their own distinguishable move set, unlike other fighting games which have two or three characters with the same moves. And then after that you can battle it out against computer or your friends in the versus mode. You will be playing this game for a very long time.

Overall this was a great game that really delivered. The only things I did not like was the short story mode and how the story line was messed around with a bit. This game is easily one of the better fighting games for the Playstation.