Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja

UPC: 730865400072

Platform: Nintendo DS

Publisher: Atlus U.S.A., Inc.

Developer: NinjaStudio Limited

Category: Role-Playing

Style(s): Third-Person 2D RPG

Synopsis: In Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja gamers become a young female ninja who must save the Grandboss, her village, and her family. Taking the role of Izuna, players travel through a variety of environments with friends including Shino-Sis and Mitsumoto as they clear out labyrinths full of monsters to earn upgrades and more effective attributes. Gamers can use talismans collected in the field to customize and upgrade armor and weapons over time. Along the way, players may visit the storeroom, the equipment shop, the general store, the inn, the talismann shop, and the blacksmith to buy and sell items. ~ Gracie Leach, All Game Guide

Package Contents: Health and Safety Precautions Booklet

Controls: Joystick/Gamepad

Explains basics; players can learn story, setting, and controls simply by playing the game.

Nice looking anime artwork, but the dungeons all look the same.

Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja certainly has a misleading name. While it's true that the main character (the eponymous Izuna) isn't working for whomever it is ninjas work for, she's certainly kept busy in Atlus' latest anime RPG -- mainly crawling through dungeons in order to find a cure for her "Grandboss." Unfortunately, the search for the cure quickly becomes tedious and repetitive as one dungeon blends into the next, differentiated only by stronger enemies and traps. The game starts out promising enough, with Izuna and her ninja family attempting to settle down in Kamiari Village. Their peace proves short-lived, as Izuna's Grandboss angers the six gods of the village by stealing an important artifact, resulting in a curse being placed on him and the rest of the village. Thus Izuna, the only person in the village who avoids the curse, has to complete a pilgrimage of sorts to each of the six gods to obtain the orbs needed to cure her beloved Grandboss. The only problem? In order to reach each god, Izuna must wade through caverns filled with enemies, traps, and (sometimes) helpful items. Of course, the god at the end of each dungeon won't simply hand their orb over, either, battling our heroine to test her worth. Between trips, Izuna can have her items repaired, purchase supplies, or modify her equipment at the village. Actually, the village and its attendant dungeons comprise the whole of Izuna's environment, lending the entire game a slightly cramped feel. Other issues detract from the fun as well. Though each dungeon is randomly generated, they all look the same, lending a sense that you're traveling the same ground over and over. Combat within the game is an exercise in pressing a single button, and really comes down to who runs out of hit points first, which is usually your enemy. Though it's possible to customize your equipment using a selection of talismans, it doesn't seem to make much difference when battling your foes. Because of these drawbacks, the game becomes a continuous task in slogging through a dungeon, beating up one of the gods, visiting the various shops and people in the village to see if anything changed, and then repeating the process all over again with a different dungeon. Despite its fun anime graphics and intermittent humor, Izuna soon becomes too much like a job and less like fun, ironic given the game's title.

Pretty much non-existent, despite the fact that each dungeon is randomly generated.

Good voice samples punctuate an otherwise forgettable musical score.

Fun to play for the first hour or so, but the gameplay quickly grows tedious.

the game requires Joystick/Gamepad.