InuYasha: Feudal Combat is a bar-setter. It’s a limbo bar though, not a high jump bar that would suggest this game has any sort of quality. New lows in both “Story Mode” and “Button-mashing” have been set in this revolutionary game.Before InuYasha I had a pretty good definition of a Story Mode: a main plot, perhaps a series of purposeful detours, a little character development. InuYasha, however, is missing several of the major aspects of what one would normally think of as Story Mode. InuYasha’s three unrelated campaigns simply start you at point A and let you fight your way to point B with several completely random encounters along the way. If you are familiar with the characters from the show it might be more interesting, though I imagine there is no fan out there hardcore enough to consider the plot fascinating. For those who have never seen the show, each story offers little or no background to the journey you are embarking on.
If gameplay is to be commended for anything, it is because it is consistent with the lackluster story. Perhaps never has a game fit the term “button-masher” as InuYasha does. The random pounding of the controller is not only a strategy, it’s the strategy being that a button-masher is likely to beat someone trying to use any type of organized fighting style. Also key to winning, never let up. Most would think that a fighting game has counter measures for a player who never stops pressing buttons. Well InuYasha has no such move, so mash on.
InuYasha: Feudal Combat is a very short game, which really is ok because you’ll have more than your fill by the time you complete this game. InuYasha is actually so short that I shouldn’t let it off the hook that easily. Story Mode contains three separate campaigns, and by campaigns I mean 20-to-30-minute-barely-qualifies-as-a-campaign campaigns. Do the math, Story Mode can be dealt with in under two hours and after that there’s little to do.
Having never witnessed the show, I can’t say how the looks measure up to the show. On its own, however, InuYasha is a colorful cel-shaded affair that is undoubtedly the game’s strongest aspect. Mind-blowing the graphics are not, but the environments and characters are interesting and very easy to look at.
I had to go back and confirm that there are in fact sound effects. They are there, though barely evident. Likewise game music exists though does very little to get itself noticed. Both give way to repetitive in-game taunts and grunts, which get old very quickly. The before mentioned stories are narrated by poor voice acting which comes off as completely effortless. Perhaps this unaffecting style suits the games more comic dialogue sequences but that really isn’t much of an excuse.
Final Verdict
Don’t let the pretty cel-shaded graphics fool you. InuYasha: Feudal Combat has no real innovation or quality to speak of. If a hardcore fan of the show is out there then rent the game, and do everything it has to offer in a two hour sitting. If you’re not a fan might I suggest wearing a blindfold, earplug, and mittens, and brag to your friends that you beat an entire game nearly senseless.
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