PS1 Kensei: Sacred Fist PS1 PAL

[AlmaElma123]

Download Links​

• Kensei: Sacred Fist PS1 PAL

Description​

The PAL version of this game kindly ripped from my friend FireFox!

Thank you for contributing to the site!

Enjoy!

 

[UnDubious]

The main issue with Kensei was that the 3d fighter boom was already fizzling out really outside of what would become the big names going forward. Tekken as mentioned had risen and achieved its final form of genre dominance, with VF having legacy strength in Japan. Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur were going strong but they were running on the more visually impressive hardware with a previous game in their pocket which is something Kensei couldn't match with any amount of character design arriving too late on the scene to really do anything.

Konami took a number of stabs at fighting games with shit like Lightning Legend: Daigo no Daibouken and Battle Tryst having louder characters, Kensei seems to be a deliberate attempt to make a more grounded character set because they failed to get anything else to work.

I once counted that Konami had made something like 19 VS fighters across their history. The only one that was really a hit, AFAIK, was TMNT Tournament Fighters on the SNES. Most of them were competent but unexceptional, and you barely ever heard of them. There were worse fighters with more presence and marketing push than most of theirs. I never even heard of Fighting Bujutsu or Battle Tryst at the time. I don't know why they could never crack the genre; they were one of the giants of the Japanese arcade scene, and had plenty of great games in different genres.

 

[KaL]

Unless you want people to show interest in and purchase your product, obviously. If you skip that part it never finds any meaningful audience and just becomes a footnote in Konami's corporate history, like this did.

The main issue with Kensei was that the 3d fighter boom was already fizzling out really outside of what would become the big names going forward. Tekken as mentioned had risen and achieved its final form of genre dominance, with VF having legacy strength in Japan. Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur were going strong but they were running on the more visually impressive hardware with a previous game in their pocket which is something Kensei couldn't match with any amount of character design arriving too late on the scene to really do anything.

Konami took a number of stabs at fighting games with shit like Lightning Legend: Daigo no Daibouken and Battle Tryst having louder characters, Kensei seems to be a deliberate attempt to make a more grounded character set because they failed to get anything else to work. Having said that they really should have pushed harder to find something to stand out other than "looking normal" across the entire games visual look.

 

[UnDubious]

Unless you want people to show interest in and purchase your product, obviously. If you skip that part it never finds any meaningful audience and just becomes a footnote in Konami's corporate history, like this did.

You just arbitrarily decided that it would have been a hit with flashier characters, though. You don't know that. Virtua Fighter is less flashy than Kensei and was always more popular than Tekken in Japan. Even in the West, VF4 sold well on the PS2 - the first entry to come out on a console with a wide userbase here. If a popular series goes all the way into flash and overly complicated controls, then the opposite is just what might works. Konami's 3D fighters are sort-of halfway between Virtua Fighter and Tekken in terms of controls, mechanics and overall feel. I think it's more likely that they just never found their lane in the genre.

 

[LexLogic]

I kind of liked the normalcy of the characters. I think they're cool. It felt more grounded. There was also a total knock-off of Jacky and I think also Sarah from Virtua Fighter, too.
Tekken was already the flashy 3D fighter series, no need to do the same thing.

Unless you want people to show interest in and purchase your product, obviously. If you skip that part it never finds any meaningful audience and just becomes a footnote in Konami's corporate history, like this did.

 

[UnDubious]

A solid and competently-designed game, it just suffered from a rather serious "zazz" deficiency for a fighter that came out the same year as Tekken 3.

Mean to say, no matter how sound the gameplay is (easily-cheesed A.I. notwithstanding), you aren't exactly setting out to build an enduring following when the majority of your character designs can be summed up with "regular person in street clothing", your stages mainly consist of "completely ordinary location", and your idea of a cool unlockable fighter is just "a really, really big Jimmy Buffett fan".

I kind of liked the normalcy of the characters. I think they're cool. It felt more grounded. There was also a total knock-off of Jacky and I think also Sarah from Virtua Fighter, too.
Tekken was already the flashy 3D fighter series, no need to do the same thing.

 

[LexLogic]

A solid and competently-designed game, it just suffered from a rather serious "zazz" deficiency for a fighter that came out the same year as Tekken 3.

Mean to say, no matter how sound the gameplay is (easily-cheesed A.I. notwithstanding), you aren't exactly setting out to build an enduring following when the majority of your character designs can be summed up with "regular person in street clothing", your stages mainly consist of "completely ordinary location", and your idea of a cool unlockable fighter is just "a really, really big Jimmy Buffett fan".

 

[knighTeen87]

One of the most underrated fighting games of the era. Silent Hill's legendary composer Akira Yamaoka also worked on the game's music and it has a great soundtrack with various styles.

 

[Imad1998]

OOF

 

[B-Nerd1]

The main issue with Kensei is that it doesn't feel quite responsive enough, like the delay between input and moves is just a little too long for the fighting to be really satisfying. But in every other area, I always felt like it was solid. Large cast, nice moveset, the different stances gimmicks, solid graphics and animations. Konami also made a couple 3D fighters around that time in the arcades that never got home ports, but I never got to play them so I don't know if they got the responsiveness right or not. It always seemed like they were a little half-assed when it came to VS fighters - they made more than you'd think, but never pushed them that much or had their hit series like Capcom, Sega, Namco or SNK. It's weird considering they made great beat-'em-ups.

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 12:14 AM

What?

confused it with Tenchu​

 

[Eiji-Shinjo]

The one and only japanese Game in which you can fight as German Fighter Heinz Streit in front of the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburger Gate) in Berlin, Germany (my hometown). Good Animations, nice grappling System and all in one a good fighter from a forgotten past :3

 

[OldFartMk.II]

Decent game, nothing exceptional

 

[elgabe]

You can choose Steven Seagal in this one hehe, its an interesting fighting game.

 

[UnDubious]

Konami had laid a solid foundation for a series here. It wasn't quite as good as Tekken 3, but it could have been something.

The main issue with Kensei is that it doesn't feel quite responsive enough, like the delay between input and moves is just a little too long for the fighting to be really satisfying. But in every other area, I always felt like it was solid. Large cast, nice moveset, the different stances gimmicks, solid graphics and animations. Konami also made a couple 3D fighters around that time in the arcades that never got home ports, but I never got to play them so I don't know if they got the responsiveness right or not. It always seemed like they were a little half-assed when it came to VS fighters - they made more than you'd think, but never pushed them that much or had their hit series like Capcom, Sega, Namco or SNK. It's weird considering they made great beat-'em-ups.

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 12:14 AM

L0L the stealth game has a fighting game spinoff

What?

 

[Edward]

Konami had laid a solid foundation for a series here. It wasn't quite as good as Tekken 3, but it could have been something.

 

[SmokeyGuy420]

I felt that kick in the second pic

It's better/worse than Johnny cages nut punch. Kicks are always worse on the nuts

 

[Signos]

I enjoy this game, try it out!

 

[Official Hulk Hogan]

Grabbed this from a game store back in the olden days and had a good time playing Not Tekken™ with a friend. Douglas MVP btw

 

[needlessOne]

Tekken at home vibes. Never heard of it somehow.

 

[Jayextee]

Played this back in the day maybe more than it deserved. But all these years later I remember only two things about it;

- one character has like a ten-hit combo (maybe a little less?) that's just hitting the same kick button over and over
- if memory serves, the dynamic blocking animation is really good actually; and not just holding the hands up

 

[KaL]

Not sure how different it is but I assume this version has a fix or two applied to it that the American release got (I think they patched out at least one infinite), solid game

 

[Ammore]

This is quite good. I recommend it.

 

[Ken190d]

Looks a bit like Tekken

 

[B-Nerd1]

L0L the stealth game has a fighting game spinoff

 

[TheWanderer]

I felt that kick in the second pic

 

[AlmaElma123]

Thank you, Alma!

You are welcome!