Part 1: Anime Kururugi Goes to Another World

Attract Mode

This opening movie isn't really anything special. I think it might just be the first opening of the actual anime with a couple game-specific things included. Even has the same generic music that's on the Netflix version of the show due to issues licensing Change the World.



And with that, welcome to Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask! Only about two of the words in this title will be present in the game and one of them is Inuyasha. Upon pressing Start, we're given the opions of New Game, Continue, and Bonus. The first two are obvious, but we won't worry ourselves with Bonus for a while. Right now, New Game is what we need.



We're given the choice between a male protagonist and a female protagonist. The game touts these two characters as being designed by Rumiko Takahashi herself, but since there's no real information about the development of this game, I can't really tell you to what extent she was involved. There are actually differences between the guy and the girl, as their stats are slightly different, they learn techniques in a different order, and there's a subplot that can involve different characters based on who you pick. However, the last difference is really the only one you need to worry about.



Because this game knows exactly who it's aiming for, the female protagonist is highlighted by default, which we will pick. You might notice that she's got a set surname of Kururugi. This was actually a way for the original Japanese version to easily have characters address the protagonist in voice acting. This doesn't work quite as well in English. The male protagonist's default name is Michiru.



In fact, outside of the beginning of the game, your protagonist is hardly ever addressed by name in the English version. Which is why we're naming her after my first love. Once we press X, the adventure begins!


Anime Kururugi's Bizarre Adventure

If you didn't watch the video, we got home late from school, went to the shed in the back of the house to help with a festival, and fell through some rotted wood.





We fell down a hole into a forest that's nowhere near our house. Makes sense to me.

Where's my house? I have to get ready for the festival.



♫ "Cutscene 1"
_{This game never got an official OST release, so all I have to go on is unofficial recordings directly from the game. Please understand.}

Anime walks around a bit as ominous music begins to play.

Father... Please answer me. Mom! Dad! Why won't you answer me? Where is everyone? Everyone...



And now we're given control of Anime for like a second, heading to the next screen on the left.



...Huh. This is definitely not our house.

No one's here. How could that be?

That's right, my cell! I'll call the house with my cell phone.

Yes! Okay! Good idea. Let's just call Mom and ask her to drive us home.





...

I can't get through!

Damn, no signal. Within 1% reliability my ass. Let's try again just to be sure.

I can't get through! I'm outside, but there's no signal. That's weird.



We're given control once again, so I have to do something reeeeal quick.



The config menu is solely changing button configurations. The default is on the top, and you can see why the fuck I'm changing it. Who uses Square for cancel?! Not a good first impression. I'm using the American-style layout in the middle.



Moving along, finally we meet some other people! Maybe we can ask them that's going on.

Oh, there's some people there. Maybe if I talk to them, they could tell me where I am...Good. Then I can go home.

That's what I said, stop LPing the game for me.

Huh? Kimonos? Why are they wearing kimonos?

Well, I mean, we live at a shrine and there was a festival going on. Doesn't seem too outta place.



Rude.

What?!



RUDE!

♫"Normal Battle"

The three mysterious people step forward, kicking in the battle music. This isn't good.



With the models in this game, sometimes you have to use your imagination.

Careful! It's a demon!

What?! I can't hear you over the music!

What? A demon? What are you talking...

Demon, where have you taken my daughter?

Seriously, these guys are barely audible over the bad audio mixing.

Wait. I just...

What are you saying now?

Alright, let's catch it, Get it! [sic]

Catch it and get my daughter back!

These guys are weird. What's going on?

Don't let it get away. Catch it!

Yes, don't let it get away!

WELL STOP TALKING AND DO IT ALREADY!



I need to run away!



Cheese it!



Whew, lost 'em.

But, what's happening? I don't understand what's going on.



Mom, Dad! I'm scared.

A sounc comes from the trees!

Huh?

♫"Cutscene 2"



Aaaa! It's a demon!

What? Where?



Oh, there.

I thought I smelled something tasty. It's a human! I was just getting hungry. How convenient!

I mean, if I had any signal, I could get us some Five Guys on Doordash, but I don't so it's not THAT convenient.

What?! Whar are you? Don't come near me!

You literally just said he was a demon, girl.



Well, we're certainly not trying.

♫"Normal Battle"





A for effort.

I'm gonna eat you!



Yeah, he actually just kinda says ROAR.

Ha ha ha ha!

He's gonna eat me.

There are a lot of points in this game where I'm not sure if it's badly written or just badly localized, and I think both are true at different points.



At least the voice actor's having fun.











...What happened to me?

What the heck was that?

Am I dead?

???: Hey, are you awake yet?

Who's that?

The voice sounds familiar...

I'm alive!



Oh hey it's the fella what's name is on the box.

Hey, wait a minute.



So in dialogue, most major characters outside of Anime will have these sprites on them. They're pretty nice.

But you have dog ears and fangs.

Does Inuyasha have fangs? He's got some pretty sharp canines, but does that qualify as a fang?

I'm scared. Don't come near me!



Never mind, you were great! What kind of technique was that?

I think mostly crying and begging? It's more effective than you'd think.

You beat that demon by shining that light on him.

Technique? Demon?

I know this is a weird new situation, but Anime's not exactly the quickest girl.



I thought I was dead, but I'm alive. Why?



You came from "the present," didn't you?

Do you know where I came from? Please, tell me how I can get back. Huh, the present?

Yeah.

What do you mean?

The present....you know,



That doesn't help!

Wait. Please, help me understand.

What a hassle! Come on, follow me. If you ask Kagome, she can probably explain things.

Who's Kagome?



The voice acting says "Kaede's Village" but the ingame text will say "Kaede village" multiple times.

I'm a little scared, but I guess I should go. There might be someone that knows me there.





It's kinda hard to see, but there's a purple cloud on the left side of the screen.

Hey, wait! There's a strange smell. I think that demon's buddies are around.

What?

The smell of demons is coming from that purple light.

What should I do?

What are you talking about? Let's go after 'em!! It should be easy if you use the red light again. Hey, here they come!



Despite the dialogue seeming to segue directly into a battle, we're given control and have to walk into it. You can see that Inuyasha is following behind us. When we get more party members, we can decide who follows us by rearranging the party order.

Now, the clouds. These purple clouds will appear frequently and your random encounter rate rises as you pass through them. You can use the walk button to slowly go through and counteract the rate up, but it's a crapshoot. In fact, it is entirely possible to get through this screen and to the next segment of the game without fighting any battles, despite what the story suggests.





We're not that lucky this time. And I will actually save me the time and trouble of covering this battle or explaining the system at this moment. At this point in the game, literally nothing in the battle system is available to us besides pressing attack, so there's really no use in going into detail now.



All I'll say is that the enemy designs in this game are less than inspired.



After every battle, the character that landed the killing blow gives a one-liner. Inuyasha of course did it because Anime has basically no power for the beginning part of the game.





This fight is enough to level Inuyasha up and give him an actual techinique. I'll go over that with the rest of the battle system. Also there's no actual currency in the game, just "money."



Hey, why didn't you use that last move again?

I didn't know how to.



Literally everyone I've met so far has been rude.

But I don't know what to do.



A small man!

She was so afraid to die, she did it unconsciously.

Who is that?

It's just Myoga.

You're not good at explaining things, Inuyasha.

What a small person. Is he a demon too?

Yes. I am Inuyasha's personal bodyguard. My name is Myoga.



Also when you are quite small.

Never mind that. I can still sense demons around us. This girl's power has not yet awakened. We need to be careful.

You're right. I can still smell the demons too.

What should I do?

You have to fight hard and make sure you don't slow Inuyasha down. We're getting close to Kaede's Village. Well, Inuyasha, I'm going ahead. Be careful.

Hey, Myoga! Wait! Damn, he's run off again. The demons around here are pathetic. Let's get going.

Okay.







With this, we are given back control and after three uneventful screens and one healing item, we're out of this starting area.



And this is the map screen. The little crescent moons represent each location, with most major locations separated by a road to that location. Right now, the only place we can go is also the place with the plot marker on it.



You can press Triangle to save on the map, which I choose to do because this is where we're gonna end for now.

Next time, we get to the bottom of this nonsense.

Chapter 1 Highlight Reel