Story

• The story is your typical fantasy affair.  The hero’s home is in danger. Evil invades land so hero goes on quest to collect four items to expunge the evil.
• You play as Onimaru who learns that his home Iga is in danger.
• Upon his return home, he finds that demon creatures called Genma have invaded the land under the guidance of the Genma King, Nobunaga.
• When Onimaru finds the Iga Ninja chief Sanayu, he learns that he is a descendant of the mythical Oni Tribe.
• He then embarks on a journey across the lands to find other descendents of the Oni Tribe and to put an end to Nobunaga’s terror crusade.
• Along the way he’ll meet a variety of characters. Some of which, will offer their services in stopping the Genma onslaught and join your party.
• The story unfolds in episodes, which each consist of:
• An Intro – An in game story sequence.
• The Battle – The main part of the episode.
• An Outro – The conclusion to the episode.
• The dialogue can be a bit eccentric at times, but it does so with some humor.
• Besides being a generic story full of “convenient” run-ins. The story begins to capture you about half way in, making it a decent experience.

Gameplay

• The gameplay is turn based strategy, with up to 8 characters in your battle party.
• Eventually you gain access to about 20-25 characters to help you on your quest.
• Each side moves their entire party in turn.
• There is no predefined order to how you must move your characters in your turn.
• Characters all have basic stats for a strategy RPG.

• All characters have five equipment slots
• One for a weapon
• One for body armor
• One for head armor
• Two for items
• These are the only two items your character can use in battle. When they are gone you can not use another item even if you have extra in your inventory.
• Each character has a personal fighting style. This effects what type of weapons and armor they can equip.
• Swordsman and are good in close up battles, and equip decent defensive armor. They also have good agility
• Axmen are very powerful in close up battles and equip excellent armor. They are slow though as they lack agility.
• Gunfighters (Of which there is only one) can attack from long range. However, they must worry about others getting in their line of sight. They also have good agility and poor defense.
• Archers can attack from a distance; however they are hard to build up as they are more week than most. They do not have to worry about line of sight.
• Ninjas have excellent agility and benefit by being able to choose between a sword and a throwing stars, which gives the option of attacking from close or afar. They also do not need to worry about line of sight.
• Spearmen can attack two adjacent enemies at once by thrusting a spear through both. They are generally weaker than swordsmen but can also attack from two spaces away and from behind another ally.
• Each character can only equip certain items, so there is no way to customize all the characters to fight in your favorite style.
• Equipment is not bought, it is made.
• You don’t make any gold in the game.
• To get new equipment you have to first find a recipe when defeating Genma.
• Once you have a recipe you can combine the different types of stones that you also get from killing Genma. If you have enough of the right stones you can combine them to create the item.
• Each character also has four “Special Skills” that will become available as the character gains levels.
• Characters that are descendents of the Oni Tribe will have one extra powerful special skill.
• Skills are equivalent to magic in other RPG’s.
• Some skills are attack based, while other heal ailments or boost your party’s stats in battle.
• There is a useless world map that is used to show your progression between episodes.
• It gives the impression that you have a choice of where you can go, but in reality you do not.
• The only practical function of the world map is to save your game, which could have easily have been placed elsewhere.
• There is no feeling of exploration in the game. You never visit any towns where you get to freely move around. The only time you can move a character is in battle.
• Items are only collected through battle.
• The game lacks some typical strategy RPG elements.
• Attacking a character from the side or behind, offers no strategic advantage.
• Attacking from higher ground gives no attack or defense bonus.
• There are elevation changes that are too steep to climb, but no terrain differences that effect movement.
• There are no counterattacks, but characters can earn “Issen” during combat.
• Instead of attacking or using an item during a turn, Issen (when available) will allow you to take a defensive stance. If attacked you will then perform a devastating counter-attack which will kill your opponent.
• There is no multiplayer.
• The extremely linear gameplay mixed with the simplistic strategic elements detracts from what could have been a deeper more immersive experience. As it is, it’s a decent RPG taken at face value with a good mix of odd characters.