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Nicknamed "Ayakashi 2", "妖～あやかし～第二幕完全版" (also known as Mystic Illusion: Complete Second Act) is a free Taisho-era FM2K game that features five (playable) varied fighters and a variety of game mechanics, but its main draw is its high-quality audio and unusual story mode, where you can only play a character's story when the required plot has already been witnessed, meaning you must play with each character as necessary to get the whole story. This also means you should have a basic understanding of each character (which is not too difficult as most characters execute attacks the same). While not too special in and of itself, I can't think of any other FM2K games which makes this a requirement. It features some of the characters from the original Ayakashi, though the original has more characters.

While the fighting isn't particularly flashy, the game's mechanics make it a lot more fun than it would appear at a glance, though this is perhaps better illustrated in versus gameplay. The game is all about exploiting openings, using a variety of evasive moves, and executing counter attacks. Characters, in addition to having a variety of attacks, also have the ability to allocate two "Quick Skills" which can be activated with a single-button (when set in this fashion, they can't be utilized in certain combos). Characters can also power-up for the cost of their special energy as well as parry attacks that hit high and low as well as some projectiles, and a perfect parry slows time down briefly to make the opponents openings more severe. Combos can also be staged with clever parries and counterattacks that can't be done under ordinary circumstances and the game is very strategic in nature and generally combo-light, making for a very nice, fine-tuned old school approach. The only problem is that moves are incredibly simple to pull off but must be done precisely (almost no attacks utilize diagonals, so they're like MK in their execution, but less forgiving) and some level 2/3 attacks are kinda over-powered.

Graphically, the game has pretty neat character animations and clean effects, but the characters themselves look a little strange at times (quite nice overall though, and much better than the original) and there appear to be a few odd "burnt pixels") in story scenes, but nothing at all serious. The music is nice and very appropriate for this type of fighting game, either using lively oriental themes, well-orchestrated feudal tunes, or something as simple as rich ambient sound effects (not unlike games like "The Last Blade"). The characters are also voiced, which is a nice touch. However, these ammenities translate into the game's file size; while this game might not look like much, it's over 250MB of compressed files and nearly 400MB uncompressed. As such, it's not exactly light on resources and can be a long download for slow connections. It's up to you to decide if it's worth the download. Oddly enough, the game is freely available on Melonbooks. You can find it at:

http://www.melonbooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=IT0000111760
(The blue "Download" button below the screenshots)

Enjoy.