The quick witted Samurai Musashi is summoned once again to fight evil!
Story - Your summoned by the Princess just before she is captured by Gandrake and his minions and taken away. You appear in a forrest and immediately begin your training on how to attack enemies, jump and also Duplicate enemy attacks and use them for yourself. Although the attack combo is really one combo you use throughout the game, to me it was all that I needed. It was simple to execute and easy to learn. You have your Katana to start and after your training your given a Great Oar as a second, stronger although slower, attack weapon. You must battles through several levels to save the 28 captured Mystics and get the 5 sacred swords.
Gameplay - As mentioned before, you can duplicate some enemy attacks and use them as a special attack of your own. Duplicating isnt that hard, but you have to use the focus feature to lock on your enemies. Once your focus gage is filled, let the enemy hit you and a small "!" will appear. If you press the button fast enough you will learn that attack and be able to use it. There are several attacks that you can learn and also some defensive ones. When you go to your menu you can select which one you want to currently use and it will cost a certain amount of MP. You dont have to dupicate all the attacks to finish the game, but alot of them do come in handy as the game progresses. There are also 5 Sacred Artifacts that enable you to do special activities you normally couldnt do such as Double jump, Geeko Gloves & Water Shoes.
As you save each Mystic, some of them will open up shop so to speak on the Antheon, which is a giant flying white whale where these people live on its back. You can purchase items and accessories to help you in your journey. There is also 2 small sidequests that are available as you play, but they mainly serve as opportunities to gain more experience points. Speaking of XP, you can only go up to Level 30 but its not neccessary to finish the game. I beat this game on Level 23 and was strong enough. It helps to have alot of recover items and the Ice Box which you need to have invented for you so your ice cream (MP recovery items) dont melt.
I must admit, some of the Boss fights were very well designed. A lot of the smaller enemies are repeated, just in different colors and difficulty, throughout the game. Ninjaroids come in Grey, White, Yellow, Green & Red just as an example. The Boss enemies are very unique as each one takes alot of skill to defeat, not just mindless hacking and slashing. For example, the Molten, a fire based enemy, swims in the lava and when he comes out will attack by swinging his arms or throwing fireballs. But when he slams his hands on the ground you can use the Water Sword to fire a Hydro blast and supercool his arms to the ground. The you able to run up his arm and Hydro Blast his face. But even though it sound easy, he will try to blow you off his arm and the time he is stuck is limited. These battles offer something challenging & different to the game.
There are 5 special swords you can obtain and unlock their powers. Water, Fire, Wind, Earth & Void. Each has their own uses at certain times and with certain bosses. The world itself isnt that large but you can revisit each land in order to gain more experience of get items you missed. There are several times where you have to revisit the same areas to complete the storyline because new areas open up after you obtain certain items.
Graphics - The whole game is in cartoon/amime style which actually fits this games style very well. The characters might not look so amazingly detailed but the world and levels lood pretty good. The camera angle is actually good where its not in fixed angles and doesnt get in your way as you can move it yourself. The cut-scenes arent that long or deep but they get the point accross.
Overall - I dont really see much replay value in ths game but it was defintely fun to play the first time around. One thing I was surprised at was how easy the final bosses were. Gandrake, the final 2 fights, wasnt too easy, but his Minions talk a big game but were dispatched very easily and I was only on Level 23. There is an arena where you can re-fight the bosses with some limitations to make it more interesting or just fight ridiculous amounts of enemies in a massive melee fight. The reward items arent to die for, but the fights themselves were fun. You can also collect Imagicards but there is no clear reason why you would do it. No reward or special items for them. I would say this game is definatly worth your time if your an RPG fan or if your looking for a nice hack-n-slash game with some spice.