Yu Yu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics (GBA)

[Alkiera]

I recently picked this game up out of the clearance bin at Circuit City, I was there picking up a new powersupply for my computer.  But I've played thru the first couple areas, and the game is definately worth the $8 I paid for it. 

It is a tactical combat game in the same veins as, well, all the other games with 'tactics' in their name.  It uses an 'initiative' system a la Final Fantasy Tactics, where different attacks and abilities push you further down the initiative chart when you use them.  Characters have levels, and when they gain a new level they get points to spend on 'skills', of which there are 4.  Offense, Spirit, Movement, and Power.  They at least bothered to not call them Str, Int, Dex, and Con....  tho really, that's what they are, effectively.  At certain stat levels, different for each character, new attacks are unlocked.  Each skill also has several calculated stats which increase as you increase the skill.  Each character is a unique snowflake, there are no classes or multiclassing.  There is a main map with 8 or so points of interest on it, with connecting lines.  You start at one of these, each one represents a more detailed map with a connect-the-dots style path overlayed.  You start at the begining of the story, and work your way from dot to dot, fighting a battle of some kind at each one.  Once cleared, it seems you can go back and repeat the map as often as you'd like.  Not all maps are 'kill all enemies', so far I've had one with 'generators' on it that had to be destroyed to keep them from summoning more bad things, and one where the goal was to have a character on a specific spot on the map before a timer(based on the initiative counter) counted down.

Most of the characters seem to have been pulled directly from the anime, in fact the manual seems to assume you bought the game because you liked the show, or other Yu Yu Hakusho games.  I bought it because it it said 'Tactics' in the title.  The story had something to do with Yusake and his friends being forced into 'The Dark Tournament' by some guy they thought they had beat up earlier(a previous, non-tactics game, I think).  Getting into random tournaments where they end up fighting demons and ghosts and stuff seems to be the point of the show, or something.  A friend who is an anime fiend offered to lend me the series to watch.

I've only gotten to level 7 or so, so far, with the 5 characters you get early on.  The game is pretty fun, for having spent all of $8 on.  Anyone else played this?

Alkiera