Genpei Tōma Den

Genpei Tōma Den[lower-alpha 1] is a side-scrolling beat 'em up produced by Namco that was released as a coin-operated video game in 1986 in Japan. It runs on Namco System 86 hardware. Over a decade later, the game was released in America and Europe in the video game compilation Namco Museum Vol. 4 under the title of The Genji and the Heike Clans.

Genpei Tōma Den
Promotional sales flyer
Developer(s)Namco
Publisher(s)Namco
SeriesGenpei Tōma Den
Platform(s)Arcade, Family Computer, PC Engine, Sharp X68000
Release
  • JP: October 1986
Genre(s)Beat 'em up
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer
CabinetUpright
Arcade systemNamco System 86
CPUMotorola 6809 

Gameplay

The player makes his way along the Japanese countryside fighting enemies as they appear. The game offers three types of action: Small Mode (standard), Big Mode (standard, but with large characters and usually boss fights) and Plain Mode (viewed from an overhead perspective). Most stages have torii, which are used to transport the player to a different stage. On most stages featured in Side Mode and Plain Mode, there are multiple torii that can be entered which will lead to different routes on the map. In Big Mode, however, there is only one torii at the end of this type of stage.

The leading character is a historical Japanese samurai, Taira no Kagekiyo (also known as Akushichibyōe Kagekiyo) who fell in the Battle of Dan-no-ura at the end of the Genpei War. In Genpei Tōma Den, he was resurrected and fights Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Saito Musashibo Benkei over the Imperial Regalia of Japan, as well as to defeat his enemy Minamoto no Yoritomo.

The game also features the Sanzu River, a place believed in Japanese Buddhism to separate "the current life" and "the afterlife", resembling the concept of the Underworld or Hell (The river is often compared to the river Styx in Greek mythology). Therefore, some mythological characters like Emma-o (閻魔大王; literally "Enma Dai-o"), god of the Underworld, and the Sun Goddess Amaterasu appear in the game.

Release

The game's first port was released in 1988 for the Japanese Sharp X68000 home computer. The game was also ported to the PC Engine and released on March 16, 1990. The PC Engine version was also released for the Wii Virtual Console.

Genpei Tōma Den was also featured on the Namco Museum Vol. 4 compilation game for the PlayStation, released in 1996 in Japan and 1997 in North America and Europe. For the U.S. and European releases, the game was re-titled as The Genji and the Heike Clans. This would be the first time the original Genpei Tōma Den would make an appearance outside Japan.[1]

Legacy

On October 21, 1988, Namco released an interactive board game based on Genpei Tōma Den, which also used a Famicom cartridge for play. This package was titled Genpei Tōma Den: Computer Boardgame.

Genpei Tōma Den: Kan no Ni, a sequel to Genpei Tōma Den, was released on April 7, 1992 exclusively for the PC Engine. Surprisingly enough, this game also had an American release titled Samurai-Ghost for the TurboGrafx-16. This was the only Genpei Tōma Den game released outside Japan before Namco Museum Vol. 4.

Other appearances in media

Kagekiyo has made a few appearances in other video games developed by Namco. He became a featured playable character in the Wonderswan Color game Namco Super Wars. He also appeared as a playable character in the Japan-only role-playing game Namco × Capcom, where he teamed up with Heishirō Mitsurugi from the Soul series and Tarosuke from Yokai Dochuki. In addition, Yoshitsune, Benkei, Yoshinaka and Yoritomo also appeared as bosses. In Tales of Eternia (known as Tales of Destiny II in the U.S.), he appeared in the Aifread's Tomb dungeon, along with Rick Taylor from the Splatterhouse series, to prevent the player from advancing through certain doorways. In Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon, there is a Kagekiyo costume to be worn. Kagekiyo's armor also appears in the character creation mode of Soulcalibur III, in which it is possible to create a character in his likeness. In Tekken 6, it is possible to customize the character Yoshimitsu in order to make him similar to Kagekiyo. It has recently been announced that the series would be resurrected as a webcomic and part of Namco Bandai's ShiftyLook series, titled Scar. The new webcomic featured cyborg samurais instead of demons. A remixed version of the game music was included in Ridge Racer V.

Notes
  1. Japanese: 源平討魔伝 Hepburn: Genpei Tōma Den, "The Genji and Heike Tale of the Demon's Demise" or "The Genpei Tale of the Demon Slayer"

References
  1. Gerstmann, Jeff (2 May 2000). "Namco Museum Volume 4 Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 29 July 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
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