Review: Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja
Bongo Bill
Roguelike recently released for the Nintendo DS handheld system. You
wouldn't guess it, from looking at the box art or the description
(though "random dungeons" does appear printed on the back), but under
the graphics, the characters with honest-to-god personalities, and the
not-quite-permadeath, it's very definitely a commercial Roguelike. I
picked it up the other day, and I am wondering if anyone else around
these parts had given it a second (or even a first) look.
For a Roguelike, it's fairly simple: there's only the one character
class (Ninja), and all the verbs available to the player are based on
her inventory. Swords, claws, and bracers are the extent of equipment,
but the equipment itself may be adjusted with "talismans," a sort of a
hybrid between a scroll and a blessing. Nothing ever needs to be
identified. Aside from monster movement, nothing can happen off-
screen. Very few enemies have ranged attacks. The timescale is very
strictly turn-based: the player moves, and then everything else in the
dlevel moves. There are many amusing status effects, but they wear off
when you reach the stairs. You can go back to the safe, monster-free
"village" if you've got the right ability, and when you die, you
return there (albeit with all your equipment gone). Anything you can
carry out with you, you can store or sell with the villagers. Each
dungeon (there are several) seems to be a strictly finite affair, a
predefined number of short dlevels with a very tough boss enemy
skulking about in the bottom. It is not, in short, as complicated or
brutal as your average Roguelike. The lack of permadeath makes it
difficult to judge the difficulty of the dungeons themselves, but it
seems about the same. Spoilers are a non-issue, as you'll know
everything of consequence after your first couple of dlevels.
Nevertheless, it's the most fun I've had crawling dungeons in a good
while. A sizable part of this is attributable to its graphics and
writing. It's amazing what you can do with a budget: these are no mere
16x16 Nethack tiles. Having complete animations for every verb
performed by every character and monster (of which, granted, there are
more than a few palette swaps) in all eight directions does wonders
for the ability for the player to keep track of what's going on. With
a minimap on the top screen, we have an excuse for very high levels of
detail in the sprites. Everyone in the village and every boss gives
the player a conversation, most of which are at the very least mildly
amusing. Distinctive personalities abound, and virtually every NPC has
a problem that can only be solved in a dungeon.
You wouldn't think of the Nintendo DS as a really good system for a
Roguelike. It's got an eight-way cross-shaped directional pad, four
face buttons, and two shoulder buttons. (Izuna does not make use of
the touchscreen). Reconciling this with the sheer number of verbs
encountered in even the most basic Roguelike is not an easy task. But
the design works in its favor. By making so much of the game dependent
on the player's inventory, it becomes possible to handle most actions
through the inventory menu. A generic "use," plus whichever is
appropriate among "stick," "throw," "swallow," "drop," and "examine,"
are easily accessible. Items are automatically picked up by walking on
them. The face buttons are then freed for more appropriate verbs, such
as attacking, accessing the menu, changing facing, and talking. Then,
by using one shoulder button for shortcuts to four special ninja
abilities (shuriken, caltrops, kunai, and bombs), and the other to
constrain movement to diagonals (which can be a major pain when
precision is required), we find ourselves with a very slick interface.
The levels are designed so that there's not many surprises. There
won't be too many YASDs, and when something goes wrong, it's the
player's fault for not paying close enough attention. Relatively low-
consequence death, combined with some quite effective savescumming
prevention (it simply treats quitting without saving the same as
dying), while decreasing the challenge somewhat, is ideal for the
handheld platform it's been placed on: it's meant to be played in
bursts, where you might not be able to dedicate your full attention.
Not to mention, for all that it's simple, the game is pretty damn
long.
Izuna has taken all the best parts of more common CRPGs and stuck them
onto a Roguelike, to great effect. If you're a DS owner who wants to
see more CRPGs, or if you're a Roguelike fan looking for lighter fare
or something to put in your DS, it very comfortably fills a middle
ground into which not many PC Roguelikes have ventured. I, a
pseudonymous Usenet poster with no reputation to speak of, give it my
wholehearted recommendation.
John Harris
Dungeon ("Mysterious Dungeon") games, right down to having a diagonal
movement button. Alas, these Japanese commercial roguelikes seem to
sometimes strain against the Roguelike plan in the direction of things
like Dragon Quest, which sometimes causes the design to be
disappointingly diluted.
- John H.
Mycroft
Thanks for the nice review, Bongo Bill.
I saw Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja listed on RogueBasin, and
checking for info led me to your review, among others. I picked Izuna
up yesterday, and in my short time with it I wholeheartedly agree with
your recommendation. =)
I currently have POWDER, DSCrawl, NetHack for the DS, AGB_Rogue, and
AGB_Hack on my DS Lite, and now I have Izuna. Unfortunately, I find the
text of NetHack for the DS to be too small to be useful for me, so I've
mainly been alternating between POWDER and DSCrawl for Roguelike
sessions. For myself, I believe that Izuna will join them as a regular
option.
POWDER has just recently seen its development expanded to include a
DS version (since POWDER was originally developed for the GBA), so
DSCrawl currently makes better use of the two screens of the DS. Izuna
shares DSCrawl's strong use of the two screens, and shares POWDER's
strength of not requiring the use of the stylus if you're in
circumstances where you would prefer to just rely on the buttons for
gameplay and not use the stylus on the touch screen.
DSCrawl seems to require more "attention" from me, so I've gravitated
towards POWDER when I'm looking for a "coffee break" Roguelike
experience (not that POWDER is simple, I've yet to Ascend in POWDER).
Izuna gives the same feel of accessibility to me that POWDER does, and I
can see it as another good option when time is short ... altho you have
to find the stairs down to save in Izuna (in the dungeons they function
as the save points) while in POWDER you can save at any time. However,
the dungeon levels I've experienced in Izuna so far are not large so
I've yet to find a save point that was far away.
And, I agree that the excellent graphics with animations are an
additional strong point for Izuna, making it a nice alternative when
looking for a change of pace.
Bottom line, I concur with Bongo Bill's recommendation, and expect
that Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja will be joining POWDER and
DSCrawl in my regular DS Lite rotation of Roguelikes. =)