Kensei: Sacred Fist [PS1] - play as Kaiya Tsubaki

This is a playthrough using Kaiya Tsubaki in the PS1 game Kensei: Sacred Fist. Read on below for more information...

Kaiya is the 2nd boss on Stage 10 of Normal Mode. He appears after you beat Zhou Leimeng, in which you will then face Kaiya for the further round(s) within the same stage. He is one of the last 4 special hidden/boss characters you can unlock and select in this game.

===== HOW TO UNLOCK KAIYA =====

1) First, get the regular batch of 9 hidden characters unlocked by beating Normal Mode with each of the starting 9 base characters.

2) Now beat Normal Mode with one of the 9 hidden characters. Once you've done that, Kaiya will be available on the top-left of the grid on the character select screen.

===== ABOUT KAIYA =====

He is the bodyguard of Zhou Leimeng, and is also the father of Saya and the son of Genya. Kaiya's fighting style is Kenpo.

Gameplay-wise, this guy has loads of strikes and varied combo strings as well as being able to go into different stances/positions to perform a few unique moves. He also has specialist movements and jumps to fake out and confuse the opponent. His fighting style is portrayed really well in the game, particularly his combo strings which look really smooth.

===== ADDITIONAL INFORMATION =====

---- The game is known as Bugi in Japan.

---- During gameplay against CPU opponents in Normal Mode, "FREE PLAY" blinks above the CPU character's lifebar. This is rather interesting because there isn't an Arcade version of the game.

===== ABOUT KENSEI SACRED FIST =====

This is a decent fighting game. There is a large repertoire of moves for each character, and the game depicts the various martial art styles very well. The game has a total roster of 23 characters, with 9 base characters being initially available when you begin the game, so there is a lot of unlocking to do.

The unlockable characters share a moveset with one of the regular base characters, usually with some differences such as a few unique moves to themselves; some moves removed; slight changes to their strike ranges; and slight changes to their combo lengths.

A cool feature of the gameplay is that Guarding consists of the characters avoiding/dodging the opponent strikes rather than blocking.

The Japanese version of the game is called Bugi, where apart from the Japanese dialogue in the Command Lists and the Options screen, the game seems to be identical to it's Western counterpart. The game's graphics are good for the PS1's standards, and runs at a lovely 60fps.