Inuyasha: Feudal Combat Hands-On Impressions

Inuyasha: Feudal Combat assembles the popular and diverse cast of the anime for a somewhat unique fighting game that lets you pit pairs of characters against one other. We netted some time with the complete PlayStation 2 version at a Bandai press event, and it's looking like a nice little fighter with some interesting twists all its own.

This game puts you once more into the world of feudal Japan, where demons run rampant and all covet the power of a magical artifact known as the Shikon Jewel. You'll see plenty of familiar faces from the anime, from Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, Miroku, and Sango, to villains like Sesshoumaru, Kagura, and Kikyo, and more--12 characters are playable in all. You can choose to fight in any of the game's modes with a single character, but the game is primarily built around a partner system that lets you field two characters at once. There's a mission-based mode, a story mode, and a battle mode that lets you fight either the computer, a friend, or with a friend against the computer, using that same partner system.

You can choose whichever characters you like to pair up--any natural disagreements they may have don't figure into the pairings. So, for example, you could easily pit Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru against Kagura and Shippo without issue, and they'll gladly battle each other. There's a symbol near the health meters of the combatants that shows an elemental symbol for whatever element that pair happens to be using. The elements include earth, fire, wind, and water, and you can choose to manually toggle these elements or let the computer switch them for you. Each element has a different effect on how your pair works together in battle, much like an AI setting for your second character. For example, setting the element to earth causes your partner character to stay close to you and guard continuously, protecting both characters against enemy assault. Setting the element to fire boosts the power of your pair's combos and specials. Paying attention to which element is active at any given time is a key to success when fighting.

You'll directly control one character, while your partner is controlled either by a friend or by the computer. You can jump, execute light and heavy strikes, and use stored spirit power to attempt to pull off special maneuvers. Each character has distinct special attacks that usually correspond with powers you might have already seen them use in the anime, like Inuyasha's backlash wave or Miroku's wind tunnel. As you fight, the affinity of the two characters you have paired will either increase if you're doing well or decrease if you're fighting poorly. If the affinity increases enough between the two characters the more you work with them, they'll learn additional special attacks that they can pull off together, increasing their combined power.

The fights sprawl across 3D battlefields that are both large and attractive, from bucolic, grassy mountainsides, to ancient temples with dragon spirits swirling around within their boundaries, to the rocky, eerie land that is the tomb of Inuyasha's father, and several more. The characters are modeled very well after the manga and anime designs that spawned them, and all the animations are smooth and look well done, too. Fans of the series will be quickly at home in the myriad game environments.

We'll have a full review of Inuyasha: Feudal combat soon. In the meantime, limber up your thumbs and practice your best victory poses, and keep watching this gamespace for the latest updates from the contentious lands of ancient Japan.