Edwin
September 10th, 2005, 05:36 am
I saw a demonstration of this game at a local Best Buy today, and I'm rather disappointed. First of all let me note that I'm not normally a gamer (I have other things to keep me occupied...), but I was curious to see how it compares with the new movie and the TV series. First of all, the good news: This actually looks like what we've come to expect from Rumiko Takahashi's "girl-and-her-dog-demon" saga. The colors are quite vibrant (even if a few of them are incorrect -- i.e. Kikyo's purple Hakama) and the backgrounds are detailed without being intrusive. The sound is excellent too. (The store had it playing in one of it's Dolby 5.1 demo rooms. What a BLAST!!!) A big plus is that you get the American TV/Movie cast (Richard Ian Cox, Moneca Stori, etc.) as the character voices.
The bad news (at least in my mind) is that the fights seem to have to be played in a sequence that puts the characters out-of-character. For instance, near the beginning of the game Inuyasha has to fight Kikyo -- even after it is clearly understood that he still loves her and wants to protect her from Naraku! There are also Inuyasha vs. Kagome duels, Miroku vs. Sango, etc. I realize that this allows a bit more flexibility to develop one's "fighting skills" (though I wouldn't want to go up against some actual Demon in a dark forest somewhere), but the sight of Inuyasha having to hack away at the woman he loves is kind of jarring to my sensibilities.
If you want something that looks and sounds good and will kill a few hours (and, hopefully, a certain Evil, macchiavellian Demon) then this game is probably for you. But if you're looking for something more true to the spirit of the Manga and the Anime, then you should probably stick to those.
The bad news (at least in my mind) is that the fights seem to have to be played in a sequence that puts the characters out-of-character. For instance, near the beginning of the game Inuyasha has to fight Kikyo -- even after it is clearly understood that he still loves her and wants to protect her from Naraku! There are also Inuyasha vs. Kagome duels, Miroku vs. Sango, etc. I realize that this allows a bit more flexibility to develop one's "fighting skills" (though I wouldn't want to go up against some actual Demon in a dark forest somewhere), but the sight of Inuyasha having to hack away at the woman he loves is kind of jarring to my sensibilities.
If you want something that looks and sounds good and will kill a few hours (and, hopefully, a certain Evil, macchiavellian Demon) then this game is probably for you. But if you're looking for something more true to the spirit of the Manga and the Anime, then you should probably stick to those.