Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan Saisen is a 2D cel-shaded fighting game for the PSP based on Nobuhiro Watsuki’s popular manga and anime franchise. It’s Japanese only, and the menus are all in Japanese so you either need to have a FAQ or translation at the ready, or you need to spend a little time exploring just to find out what the menu items are.
Thankfully, like any fighting game there really is no need to find out the story. Once you get into the matches, you’ll have access to the meat and bones of the game. If you’re really interested in the story, the anime and manga are already out there. Besides, you’re probably not going to seek out this game unless you’re already familiar with the source material.
Graphics, Sound, and Presentation
As mentioned above, everything is in Japanese so even if the presentation is good, there’s not a lot of good it will do for you. Just find which ones can get you into the match and have at it. Graphics-wise, the visuals are top-notch and take full advantage of the PSP’s capabilities. The cel-shaded engine looks good on the PSP screen, as they straddle the line between sleek cel drawings and ink wash painting (sumi-e, dude.).
The attacks look impressive, and they mostly stay true to the series. However, the ougis are ridiculously underwhelming – they’re basically just simple cutscene animations of your character doing their ougi, and then it cuts back to the action with your opponent already falling or being thrown back by the attack. It’s not as smooth as you’d expect it to be.
In terms of audio, it does a good job of providing the sounds you’d expect from the anime – with the sound of metal clanging, to the trademark voices of the characters, and the thundering sound an ougi makes.
Gameplay
Gameplay is where Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan Saisen starts to get a little bit wonky. On the one hand, it’s a really damn great weapon-based fighting game. Even if you’re not a fan of the series, you’ll find the sword fighting engine enjoyable. It also has one unique twist that is rarely seen in other sword-fighting games: the ability to fight barehanded for most characters.
During gameplay, each character has one attack that upon connecting, will disarm the opponent. If you’re on the receiving end of this disarming technique, you can go after your thrown weapon or you can choose to fight barehanded. Alternatively, most characters can drop or sheathe their weapons on their own accord by pressing up (there are exceptions like Kenshin, who merely sheathes his sword). There are characters who are still effective while fighting barehanded, such as Saitou Hajime and Aoshi Shinomori, and there are also characters like Anji and Sano who are arguably better when fighting barehanded.
It may seem like I’m gushing at Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan Saisen, and honestly, I would be all over this game if it weren’t for one little addition that the devs thought was very clever, but actually ruins the game completely: a slow motion move.
You see, each fighter is given three orbs at the start of a match. To use it, you only have to press L or R (depending on how you set it) to start emitting an aura. When the enemy gets inside that aura, everything except your character slows down (this is similar to my main gripe about Bleach GC).
I believe the effect the devs were going for was to make it seem like your character is moving at inhuman speeds compared to your enemy, but honestly all it does is ruin the momentum.
Whether you’re on the receiving end or you’re the one instigating the slow motion sequence, it’s going to be hell trying to time things right just so you can land a combo. And things get worse if you miss – you have to wait for what seems like an eternity for your opponent to land so that you can go back to the smooth, fast gameplay that Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan Saisen has.
Buy or Not?
Sadly, I can’t recommend this game unless you just want to collect every single Rurouni Kenshin game or you’re very forgiving of broken gameplay. The sad part is that it’s actually a very good game except for that one tiny flaw (the slow motiong thing) that completely ruins everything. If you’re really interested in the game, find a rental copy or emulate it on PPSSPP. I don’t recommend blindly risking money on the game itself, especially since it’s Japanese only and you might have to import it.
