Overlooked DS gem, Zelda with added Ninjas!! (Shounen kininden Tsumuji)

[importaku]

I seriously can't believe i passed this by thanks to it been from EA & reading online that it was just a Zelda phantom hourglass clone, how wrong i was. Got my copy from Play-Asia (click the link at the bottom of the page).



Graphically it's lovely the enviroments & the textures are wonderfully done all the people you meet have tons of character, so far i have gotten upto the second main town. The key to playing is stealth, or more importantly eaves dropping you can sneak into houses under the floorboards or in the ceiling to listen on the inhabitants & what they are saying, what they say are clues you need to get past certain puzzles or learn new information. For example the first town theres the frog ninja's headquaters theres 3 ninjas guarding the door & they wont let you pass till you answer their questions. The answers are found by been a nosey git & listening in on what people are saying but to get them to talk you have to hide & wait, sometimes you have to hop into a urn. If sneaking in a house you have to move quietly or they will hear you, once you get the 4 pieces of info your allowed into the headquaters which is basically a dungeon. The puzzles so far are all related to using the giant shuriken you find early on, using the stylus you can manipulate things far away. In later dungeons the puzzles are pretty good, a nice variety & there seems to be quite a bit to do outside the dungeons too.

Anyone else come across this game?

[Zaki]

Is there an English version?

[hush]

it looks a lot of fun

[importaku]

Is there an English version?

With it been from EA i though it would have been released in english but it seems that they didn't localize it for the rest of the world sadly, it was developed by their Japanese branch. Lol i had no idea that EA even had a japanese branch.

Shame really as it is suprising high quality.

[importaku]

Found a video of the frog dungeon to show what i mean about the sneaking bits.

[hush]

think i may order it too

[importaku]

I had to wait a week for them to get me a copy in, i was hoping that they didn't have to do the usual thing of refunding my paypal & saying they couldn't get it from their suppliers like they have done with quite a few older titles i ordered in the past. Luckily they got me a copy of this which i was glad, you'll have to wait about a week but least their copies are brand new unlike ebay where they are charging loads for used copies.

[Arctic Feather]

Picked up a copy of this today, great fun so far! I got a bit tired of Phantom Hourglass, but hopefully this will be a good alternative.

[Arctic Feather]

Been playing this a fair bit over a last few days, but have now got stuck

In the dungeon カガミのいせき (Kagami no Iseki) in the basement, how do I... [HIDE]light the minecart?
I can get up to the torch to get some fire, but can't seem to find a way to hit the minecart so it catches fire.[/HIDE]

[importaku]

Haven't got that far yet im only on the second dungeon. Theres a walkthrough on youtube if you search so hopefully theres a video of the bit your stuck on if that helps.

[Arctic Feather]

Thanks for that. Turns out it was just being quite fussy about how I aimed.

That youtube walkthough might be useful later on.

[importaku]

Been playing a lot more of this recently now upto getting the demon feet & working out where to go next, the dungeons & puzzles so far have been a lot of fun & the locations are rather lovely to look at too, i swear i have come across what looked like a traditional Japanese brothel lol. I liked how you had to go back to the castle with the demon tongue to get further in.

It certainly has a Japanese feel through the entire game & a hell of a lot more fun than both of the DS Zelda games so far.

[Arctic Feather]

I've been playing it a fair bit too and am a little ahead of you. Although I'm currently stuck on a bit I can't work out. I'll figure it out eventually...

It is great fun, the only thing I don't like is the combat. Your basic stone weapon is pretty useless and it's really fiddly to use the other weapons when you're being attacked. I miss the simplicity of Link's sword. Luckily there is much less combat compared to a Zelda title.

[importaku]

I'm currently in the snow village now looking for the last of the 3 items needed to make a key to get out of the village. Yeah i have to agree the combat can be fiddly switching weapons quickly especially when theres several ninjas in a room, kind of enjoying the puzzles & how you have to sneak up & listen in on the various people to get clues on how to find the secrets. The mirror ruins were a great one puzzlewise as you had to work as a team with your rival to get through it.

It's still puzzling how this isn't released in the west as it's one of the most fun ds games i have played in a while it just reeks of quality.

[Arctic Feather]

Finally completed this. Was great fun and now I'm wanting to play some more Zelda-esque games.

I've started to play through Link To The Past on the SNES (I've only completed the GBA version...), but are there any other decent Zelda clones I should be checking out? Preferably on DS, GBA or SNES.