Introduction

_{Thanks to Makku for the banner art!}

Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask is a video game built on a lie. There is no secret, there is no curse, and I guess there's a mask.

The truth is that Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask is a PS2 role-playing game released in 2004 and tying in with the anime/manga series of the like named. Y'know, the one from Adult Swim. In it, you play as a young man or woman from the present who finds themselves trapped in the feudal era of Japan and joins up with the main cast of the anime to find their way back to their own time.

My feelings about this game...well...I pretty much loved the shit out of it when I was a wee teen, had a short period where I started to become more aware of the game's shortcomings and turned away from it, then I started to appreciate it once more for what it was. See, this is not what you'd call a "good" game. The battle system is absolutely barebones and the game is piss-easy, the graphics are unimpressive for the most part, both the writing AND localization leave quite a bit to be desired, and the overall production values are pretty low.

However, it is also not what you would call a "bad" game. The story, while not, y'know, good, is pretty mid-2000s Fanfiction.net in only the best of ways. The gameplay may be simple, but the game itself is generally well put together on a technical level, and it's not unpleasant to play. The difficulty is pretty nonexistent, but that almost serves to make the experience of playing the game better to go through, because without having to worry too much about the systems, one can just let the narrative wash over them. It's led to this being one of my most replayed games, in fact. At one time, it was a yearly ritual to play through each summer.

It's a comfy game, and I've honestly been waiting a decade to do this LP.

So, this LP is going to be a casual playthrough of the game, I'm not going to go for 100% (mainly because that realistically requires at least 11 discreet playthroughs) but I'm going to do as much as I can in a single run and not sweat the small stuff. There's not much outside the main plot anyway.

As for spoilers, since the story of this game is completely independent from the main series, talk about that all you want. Just don't talk about anything in this game, please.

Also feel free to provide fanart, as I have the wild dream of curating the largest collection of Cursed Mask fanart on the net.

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