Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja
- March 05, 2007 12:10 PM PST
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Taking visual cues from Atlus' anime-styled hits Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright, Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja follows the misadventures of a troop of jobless ninja made obsolete by peace and prosperity within the land.
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The band then anger the gods by stealing a temple shrine, and, to lift the curse Izuna must seek out and defeat the six village gods in forests, lakes, mines and caves.
Life is Like a Box of Chocolates...
PROTIP: Always deposit cash in the storehouse before entering a dungeon; you don't know if you'll make it out alive.
The game's most stand-out feature is the dungeon randomizer which constructs and populates each dungeon with enemies, items and traps. It keeps the game fresh and provides the player with an infinite amount of content to explore, but a few levels in you start to notice that each dungeon is just a carbon copy of the last one. The subtle touches of a clever, lovingly crafted dungeon common to any Zelda title, like hidden passages and multi-tiered design, are conspicuously absent.
The battle system works well overall, although a bit simply. Combat involves dungeon-crawling as enemies prowl the area moving one square for each action Izuna takes; her actions are limited to attack, item use, and movement. Battles can feel like a turn-based game of Pac-man where your main objective is to fend off monsters while gobbling up as many items as possible before defeating the dungeon's boss.
Save Me!
Game play is extremely challenging due to an incredibly unforgiving save system. The game doesn't allow multiple saves or campaigns and, other than the inn, there are no save points within the game. Dying in a dungeon strips Izuna of all her money, items and equipment, and the only way to prevent this is to deposit spoils in the storehouse before setting out again. The catch, of course, is you can't exit a dungeon without a talisman, and only another special talisman enables an item to be sent to the storehouse upon Izuna's death. Naturally, these helpful items aren't available in the shop and rarely drop off of enemies. Essentially, one slip up completely bankrupts Izuna and corners you, the player, in a perpetual corpse-run.
Back in My Day...
For better or worse, games have been getting a little too easy so it's nice to point young whipper-snaps to a game that puts the fear of god back into the RPG and can't be sabotaged by a strategy-guide. While the quirky game play and novelty of random content may not keep younger gamers coming back for dungeon runs, Izuna will certainly entice old-school RPG fans simply as a challenge to their gamer's ego.
PROTIP: Always keep repair talismans handy for when your weapons and armor crack
