Bakumatsu Roman [PS1] - play as Kagami (1st form)
11This is a play-through using Shinnosuke Kagami in the PS1 version of Bakumatsu Roman: Gekka no Kenshi / The Last Blade. Read on below for more information...
Kagami is the final boss in the game, and comes in 2 forms. He is an unlockable playable character.
===== About Kagami =====
He's meant to be non-human and is one of the guardians of the Hell's Gate dimension portal, representing the Suzaku deity and wields the power of fire.
If you ask me, he is one of the classiest bosses of the SNK universe... the fact that he wears Western attire offers a nice contrast to the overall Japanese feel of the game. I liked him better than Kouryu.
Gameplay-wise, he is a strong character, as you'd expect for a boss. As he uses one hand to wield his sword, he range of strikes is long. His Rising Flame special move is a superb anti-air that comes out quickly.
===== Additional Information =====
---- He can be selected in any mode in the game.
---- He cannot crouch.
---- He cannot switch into his Awakened Kagami form in-fight, unlike in the arcade version.
---- His character design is inspired/based on a villain from the anime YuYu Hakusho.
===== About PS1 Last Blade =====
This is a good port of the arcade game, there are of course some animation frame cuts here and there (which is fairly unnoticeable) but everything else seems to be intact. You really do feel as if you're playing the actual arcade version, which is always a good sign.
As usual the loading times cannot be avoided on a CD-based system, but one thing that this port does do better than the arcade version is that it takes advantage of the PS1 hardware and uses the AST soundtrack instead.