Rurouni Kenshin : Meiji Kenkaku Romantan Saisen

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan Saisen is a 2D sword-fighting game for PlayStation Portable, developed by Natsume and released in Japan by Bandai Namco Games on March 10, 2011. Made for the television anime's fifteenth anniversary, it returned the series to video games after a five-year gap and presented its action as one-on-one duels rather than an adventure or role-playing campaign.

The game is set in Meiji 11, when former Bakumatsu assassin Himura Kenshin has arrived in Tokyo as a wandering swordsman. Once feared as Hitokiri Battosai, Kenshin now carries a reverse-blade sword and seeks to protect people instead of killing them. Its character scenarios follow confrontations from the source material, beginning around Kenshin's allies and early opponents and extending into the Kyoto conflict.

Kenshin is joined by familiar fighters including Sagara Sanosuke, Myojin Yahiko, Saito Hajime, Shinomori Aoshi, Makimachi Misao, Hiko Seijuro, and Udo Jinei. Shishio Makoto and members of his Juppongatana group form much of the Kyoto-era opposition: Anji, Usui, Sojiro, Kamatari, Henya, Iwanbo, Cho, and the giant Fuji are among the combatants. The selection also reaches the revenge storyline with Inui Banjin, Otowa Hyoko, and Yukishiro Enishi.

Battles use a side-view fighting-game format built around strikes, guarding, jumps, and character-specific sword styles. Players can launch an opponent and use a search jump to pursue them in the air, while a weapon deflection can knock an armed opponent's weapon away. The presentation emphasizes a Japanese-modern visual theme, with slash trails and combo effects rendered like splashed ink.

Each fighter has a cinematic secret technique, or Ougi, that becomes available after filling the sword-spirit gauge and activating it with the L button. Kenshin can unleash Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki, while other examples include Sanosuke's Sanju no Kiwami, Saito's Gatotsu Zeroshiki, Aoshi's Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren, and Yahiko's imitation Ryu Tsui Sen. These moves turn a successful opening into a dramatic, character-specific finishing sequence.

A second momentum system, Shinsoku no Koku, is triggered with the R button. Pressing R again moves the user behind the opponent at high speed; when the approach closes in, the defending character is slowed down, creating an opening for a chained attack. It can be used up to three times in a duel, so choosing when to spend those opportunities is part of the contest's tactical rhythm.

Meiji Kenkaku Romantan is the story mode, with separate character routes and unlocks for completing them. Ken Geki no Sho offers selectable CPU battles, while Renma no Sho is a consecutive-opponent survival challenge and Mugen Shurado is a special endurance mode against waves of enemies. Progress also expands the playable lineup and stages, and achievements in the survival modes unlock gallery material in Tsuiso no Ma, including voices, images, music, and movies; the swordsmith Aoshi menu lets players acquire and improve weapons for the relevant single-player battles.