Customer Reviews

Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I gotta give a lot of props to Atlus for releasing, well, everything they do. They got a knack for releasing good games that aren't flashy or popular enough to get released through other publishers.

I've played the original and found it so-so. The gameplay was always an extreme between "you're invincible" and "you're fodder". There are a few things Izuna 2 does to help moderate the experience.

First is the addition of a partner during the dungeon crawls. If you get in a spot of bad-luck you can now tag-team out to your partner. If you keep your characters at around the same level this effectively works out to being able to tap double HP, at the cost of a limited number of swaps per turns and the non-trivial task of balancing experience, additional weapons, and keeping your reserve healthy. This seems to help recover from those times when you're on the run and step on a demon-trap that previously signified "I hope you have an escape scroll!"

In addition, if you survive enough turns, you can perform combo moves with your partner that impact a bunch of enemies at once and cost no SP. Now, if you play conservatively, you have at least some option in the cases when you do, in fact, get mobbed.

Second is closing up a loophole that lets you recover all your HP by just standing around the dungeon floor exit letting turns pass by. Now if you waste too much time like that you'll find your SP drop like a rock.

Other balance issues are the bosses: the bosses are significantly harder than I remember from Izuna 1. Also, stresses on your inventory are slightly worse now that you have to carry weapons/ammo for your cohorts (not every person can wield every weapon) so you have more weapons to maintain, upgrade, and hope they don't break.

The new weapons really add some tactical options, such as a yo-yo that hits everything in a straight line out from you and a set of boots that let you make two non-attack moves for every one move of the enemy.

Like the first, the graphics aren't top notch and the audio would be nice to have subtitled at least, although the voice acting helps convey the feeling of helplessness when a status effect afflicts you. The addition of a world map and different towns is nice and, compared to the first, it seems like it's received quite a bit more polish. You also get statistics collected regarding pretty much anything you'd ever want to know: how many times entering a town, dying in a dungeon, escaping, dying, even all-female combo attacks. The addition of a camera to go back and review some of the nice character art is a nice touch and a cool challenge to find and not waste your film (you didn't think THAT'd be easy, did you?)

This one is a lot of fun to keep on and in a dungeon and just leave your DS on standby so you can pick it up, clear a few floors, and put it away. If you liked Izuna you'll also like Izuna 2... I'd wager a little better than the original, too. If you liked the IDEA of Izuna but didn't like it's execution, you might want to rent Izuna 2 to see if it fixed what you didn't like about the first. It's not perfect, but I expect it's about as good as it's going to get without radically changing everything.

I like to be able to play for a little while then put the game down without losing anything. This is a fun RPG. Oh, I'm in my 40's. The graphics are fine, the dialogue is cheesy, it's just fun. My 10 year old finds the battles difficult and gets frustrated. Some of the levels you have to repeat in order to level up to be able to beat the monsters. If you want a casual RPG that you don't have to get real involved with, then this is the one. It is a very basic game, though. you can't move ahead until you've completed the challenge. You can go back to lower levels and build up supplies and levels.

The graphics aren't 2008 type graphics, but the game is still good in my opinion. I've never played the first one, so I can't compare. One of the bad parts is that if you die in a dungeon, you lose EVERYTHING you have on you. So, stock up your storage with stuff you don't want to lose. However, if you do die, you don't lose your EXP as with other games. Your storage holds about 60 items and your on hand inventory holds about 20 items. You also get to hear Japanese dialogue when you enter a new town, so that's another plus. Well, buy it if you like dungeons. Don't buy it if you don't want constant dying.

I ordered this game after having gotten into roguelikes on the PC (NetHack, POWDER, etc). I knew it wouldn't be as deep as those or as complicated, but I was still a bit disappointed by just how simple it is.

Dungeons consist of rooms and corridors with a random assortment of invisible traps and loot that quickly overwhelms your inventory. Unfortunately, the layout of the dungeon almost never matters, as nearly all of the monsters on each level will immediately pathfind to you. After dispatching them (which is your only option), the level will be mostly devoid of life. There aren't non-hostile mobs insofar as I've seen, either. Due to what I assume are technical limitations, you cannot return to previously visited levels, either.

Inventory management becomes a chore since you're given 20 slots and will find half as many items on each level. Most are consumable, so there is little incentive to save anything. There is no concept of cursed items or unidentified, either--you get to know just about everything each item does as soon as you pick it up.

There is no eating in this game and a single commonly-found consumable cures everything. Another commonly-found item will teleport you safely out of the dungeon if you think you might die, not that dying really matters in this game. When you die, you lose your items and progress on the current dungeon, but that's it, and dying is difficult in this game if you take any time at all to think about what you're doing.

I found the tag teaming mechanic to be a bit on the cute-but-boring side. It just makes the game too easy to be able to switch characters so often, and leveling them up independently is a drag.

The story is obnoxious and not at all memorable, but it does a pretty good job of staying out of your way.

I have yet to beat this gameit very good thoe.

Izuna 2 is an excellent sequel to a somewhat shaky (though still quite good) first game. Improvements have been made across he board, and the new character swap system makes the dungeons much more interesting and strategic. Couple this with the fact that you now have many towns and locations to explore and many characters to talk to and you've got a deep game with lots of opportunities for Izuna's lovable personality to show itself.

The game izuna 2 is an awesome game but its so hard that i dont recommend for young children. Lol, I even died on the tutorial. But the game is pretty awesome if you like rpg games that are really and are dungeon like than this is a game for you.

This game is an excellent example of a dungeon crawler done right. Even if you hated the first Inzuna there's a chance you'll like this. If you liked the first Izuna you'll love this. Much of the other traits of the game have already been stated and can be found on reviews of gaming sites. A wonderful game that pays tribute well to the genre.

I got this game as a gift and so far they love it. I've tried a few hours on it myself and found it to be a pretty interesting game. You can play different characters, which is refreshing break from playing only one character for RPG's, and also you can equip different weapons which is another plus. The characters are funny and lovable in talking scenes. The only downside to the game is if you lose in a cave then you lose all your money and stuff. Luckily, they have a storage room where you can put it all before you fight so if you do lose you at least have what you stored in town. Overall I give this a A-.

Great game and the replay value is ok for people who like to try all type of combos and ways to do this.