Available on - DS
Score between 7 and 10 - 7(average)
You may like Monster Madness if you like - Shiren the Wanderer, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon or any other dungeon crawler/rogue like.
Game Concept - Izuna 2 puts you in the shoes of a band of unemployed Ninjas just trying to get by. When the group goes to attend a wedding you get a clue about one of the party members long lost sisters, and the hunt for her begins! Problem is that the sister seems to be surrounded by powerful people and is often in dangerous places. Thus you begin your trod into multiple dungeons trying to fight your way to the bottom for the next scene. Izuna 2 is a pretty typical Rogue in this sense, you will enter the dungeon and for every step you take, item you pick up/throw or any other action you take every enemy on the floor will take one with you. If you have played any other game of this type you will feel right at home with Izuna 2.
Pros
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The game does a fair job of making Izuna 2's story entertaining without playing the first - While many games either leave you lost on the occurrences of prior games or force you to watch a long boring cut scene explaining everything that happened in the last game, Izuna 2 actually does neither but at the same time does a decent job keeping new players up to date. The characters in your party and those you interact with make references to the past game and things that happen, but its all phrased in a way that means that 90% of the time I was able to understand what had happened in Izuna 1.
Difficulty is forgiving - No way around it, many rogue likes are just brutal! Izuna 2 stands out in the genre by allowing you to keep all your levels when you die, and with the large number of scrolls you get that allow you to either warp out of the dungeon, away from enemies or to keep items upon death.
Multiple characters to play with in battle and combo attacks between your selected 2 - Most Rogue likes that I have played have stuck the character with 1 game through out the entire game, Izuna 2 offers up about 15 characters you can play with. Many of them may equip the same stuff and play somewhat similar to each other, but there are still differences to be found and even if they were just visual avatars its a nice touch. The other nice thing about having more then 1 character is that they added combo attacks that can be performed to do heavy damage to all enemies in your general area when your combo bar is full(recharges over time).
The story breaks up the game play and can be funny at times- While I never found myself rolling around on the floor with laughter or even laughing out loud I did chuckle at a few of the jokes. It may not seem like a huge deal at first, but when your dealing with Rogue likes which can feel very repetitive at times the story and the humor do a great job at changing the pace for a moment and keeping you interested in the game.
Cons
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Not enough item, spell and trap descriptions - I found myself far too often wondering what the hell an item, spell or trap did. For instance if you step on a trap and it says "You have stepped on a shoulder ache trap, your shoulder begins to ache" the player should have no clue that this means you can no longer use items. There are large numbers of traps and spells like this that I was lost on what they did even late in the game! Meanwhile on the item end the game has a cool system where you can burn scrolls on to your weapons to increase their attributes, problem is that the game does not describe what you initial stats do in the first place(what the hell does increasing luv do for instance?)and once burned on to your weapon you cant tell what they are since their represented by Japanese Kanji(think its Kanji). Its annoying to not know what some of your stats mean thanks to a lack of in game tutorial and its just as annoying to not be sure if you are putting a second atk up scroll on your weapon or if its the first....because everything is in Kanji....which as an American I cant read!
No way to skip combo attacks - While its awesome to have combo attacks....its not so awesome to have to suffer through the animation every time you use one. I have not found any way to turn the animation off, so every time you want to use one you must sit through the animation! They may not be big 3 min summons like the FF series....but when you see them over and over and over you will get to the point where you wish you could turn them off!
Scroll names are in Japanese - The above mentioned scroll names are all in Japanese, so instead of picking up a fire scroll or a weapon repair scroll you will have to learn and remember the Japanese names.
Closing Comments - I find I often quit Rogue likes within a few hours due to monotony and difficulty, but thanks to the story and forgiving difficulty I stuck with Izuna 2 to the end. I think this is the perfect game for anyone that has never played a Rogue like or for a fan of the genre that want's something a little less brutal.
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