Loyal NintendoGal.com readers may remember my review of the previous Path of the Ninja game; in summary, the title had some fun core mechanics, but general presentation issues that kept it from getting a higher score. Playing the sequel at E3, it was hard to tell if the formula had been improved on any, partly because my time with it was quite short, and partly because everything was in Japanese; after playing the full retail title, however, I get the sneaking suspicion that somebody at Tomy actually read my review, as several areas of the game have been improved upon. While the core game remains pretty much the same, the rest of the game has received upgrades in various ways, delivering a better product overall.

You may recall that I was not fond of PoN’s story. A portion of the story had been clipped from the anime and shoehorned into the game, but the game’s primary storytelling medium (sprites) were far from adequate when dealing with certain scenes; combined with some odd omissions, the whole thing ended up falling flat. This time around, the developers have crafted an original story, which is definitely the way to go when you’re creating the medium as well. Your story is rather typical RPG fare: an evil spirit has been released, and in order to seal it you must go and collect several mystical objects from around the world before the bad guys do. While it’s nothing that will blow you away, it stops itself from taking any serious missteps, which puts it above the story of the original game. It will most certainly appease its target audience.

The part of the game that really matters - the battles - is almost exactly the same as before. PoN2 keeps the grid/formation system from the original game, which allows you to arrange your characters in ways that will give you certain bonuses in battle, such as increased defense (my personal preference). Little things here and there have been changed, however. For example, you can now see, mid-battle, what formation your characters are in, and the bonus they subsequently get for it. As another example, you now have a fourth party member who sort of acts as a backup, in case anyone in your party gets knocked out. Another one that’s barely noticed until you realize it: the chakra power-up moves no longer include button-pushing exercises, which means you can play through the entire game with the touch screen if you want to. Ironically, you ARE forced to use the touch screen mid-battle; for what it’s worth, the touch controls work fine while battling, but trying to move your character around the overworld with the stylus is still an exercise in frustration. So you can’t really go for one control scheme only, which means a lot of time spent using the buttons while holding the stylus in your hand; this is a pretty minor gripe, though. The battle system still works, though you won’t get into any of the intricate stuff except in boss fights.