Ganryu is a 1999 side-scrolling Hack and Slash / Platformer action game made by Visco Corporation, under the Neo Geo system.
A heavily fictionalized re-telling of the legend of Miyamoto Musashi and his legendary duel against Sasaki Kojiro, Ganryu re-imagines Miyamoto Musashi as a samurai Magic Knight with supernatural powers, and a kunoichi appearantice named Suzume under his tutelage. Meanwhile, Sasaki Kojirō is apparently... a demon?
Months have passed since their legendary duel at Ganryu Island, but Sasaki Kojirō had made a pact with the forces of darkness to ressurect himself. Returning with a legion of undead ninja, Sasaki Kojirō decides to have his minions lay waste to Kyoto as he abducts Musashi's Love Interest, Otsu, in order to draw Miyamoto Musashi out of hiding.
Players assume the role of Musashi and, on two-player mode, as Musashi's protege Suzume who decides to help him out because Sasaki Kojirō's forces has abducted Suzume's sister as well. And they'll battle their way through assorted enemies before a final confrontation against Sasaki Kojirō.
A sequel titled Ganryu 2: Hakuma Kojiro is released in April 2022 by Indie company Storybird Studio. Sasaki Kojirō is back for revenge, and this time Miyamoto Musashi is fighting him... alone. Said sequel is available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Xbox One.
It's time for Miyamoto Musashi to draw his sword, once more, and eliminate Sasaki Kojirō once and for all...
- Advancing Wall of Doom: The sequel has areas containign spiked walls which attempts closing in on Musashi, though he could outrun these obstacles easily thanks to his Slide Attack.
- Artificial Stupidity: In levels containing environmental hazards like Bottomless Pits or lava, expect AI-controlled enemy ninja to inexplicably wander into deathtraps at random and eliminate themselves.
- Asian Lion Dogs: Shisha statues appears occasionally in the sequel, where they're booby-trapped with darts and fires at Musashi on sight.
- Big Bad: Sasaki Kojirō, who receives a Historical Villain Upgrade from Miyamoto Musashi's rival to a demon warlord with supernatural powers threatening take over Kyoto.
- Blade Spam: A special attack Musashi and Suzume can execute by rapidly tapping the slash button. In the sequel Musashi retains this ability.
- Combat Hand Fan: Oni-Otsu from the sequel is a demon hag oni boss, and dishes out some deadly attacks with both her fans. She can even use them to fire projectiles non-stop.
- Creepy Centipedes: There's an omukade boss in the sequel, and a Background Boss who attacks Musashi with ranged projectiles just as Musashi is on a speeding wagon. Musashi will need to use ranged attacks of his own to defeat the boss.
- Fog Feet: The second boss, Kikunojo, in his ghost form has fire in place of feet. And travels by floating everywhere.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: Oni-Jotaro in the sequel, whose tank escapes down a canal and you need to chase it down the whole battle. Jotaro will even try stopping you by dispensing landmines.
- Giant Spider: One of the bosses in the sequel, which the game doesn't even have a name for (it's labelled "????" on the boss screen).
- Glamour Failure; In the sequel, Oni-Otsu tries tricking Musashi by disguising himself into Musashi's Love Interest, Otsu. But Musashi sees throigh the villain's disguise and thwarts him out, just in time for a boss battle.
- Gotta Rescue Them All: Musashi and Suzume will frequently come across bopund civilains, mostly women, which they could release for extra points.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: One of the equipments used by Musashi and Suzume, where by hitting button C while mid-air allows them to extend a hook made of metal claws to grab surfaces for them to swing around.
- Hanging by the Fingers: Musashi and Suzume can dangle under bridges and balconies if they intend to avoid a fight. Note that enemies can still attack them from above using projectiles.
- Hellhound: Fierce, purple-skinned demon hounds appears as enemies in the sequel.
- Hover Bike: The sequel has a stage where Miyamoto Musahi commands one and uses it to flie in the skies above Kyoto, and using it's lasers to fire away at incoming mooks on similar bikes. Said stage even has a gigantic Cool Airship boss!
- Kite Riding: The sequel has ninja mooks on kites trying to attack Miyamoto Musashi from above.
- Lethal Lava Land: The stage inside an active volcano have lava pits everywhere and plenty of platforming elements, where missing a jump costs Musashi and Suzume a life.
- Minecart Madness: The sequel has a stage where Musashi chases down enemy ninja inside an Abandoned Mine on carts. He even nneeds to jump from one minecart to another to avoid falling off edges to his death.
- Molotov Cocktail: One of the power-ups actually allows Musashi to throw petrol bombs (depicted as wine bottles stoppered with a flaming cloth), despite the game's setting being centuries before petrol bombs existed.
- Obstructive Foreground: The stage where Musashi and Suzume scales Kojirō's fortress in the skies have clouds floating into the foreground that obscures your view.
- One-Winged Angel: In both games, Kojirō turns himself into a massive demon - both of them Wreathed in Flames - to fight Musashi.
- Orbiting Particle Shield: A power-up allows Musashi and Suzume to obtain a shield made of energy spheres which can damage enemies and absorb attacks for them, but these shields can be depleted after receiving too many hits.
- Power Floats: Two of the bosses, Kikunoji and Kojirō (second form), hovers above the ground constantly throughout their battle. Kojirō does this again during his rematch in the sequel.
- Shows Damage: Most of the bosses will visibly break apart after getting their health depleted. Yasha-hime notably has her head cracking open, Kojirō's statue will lose it's skin, and so on.
- Slide Attack: Both Musashi and Suzume can perform this move to dodge enemy attacks or knock over human-sized enemies. Which can knock them out instantly. In a speedrun it's possible to complete a stage by sliding 70% of the time from beginning to the end.
- Spider Tank: The first boss, Yasha-hime, is a steampunk version made of wood and bronze, with a porcelain doll's upper body.
- Stationary Boss:
- The first game's fifth boss. After confronting Sasaki Kojirō at the exit of a cavern, Kojirō then releases a green-skinned demon made from fusing multiple cursed souls into a single body as a boss. Said boss however is built into a wall and immobile, but the difficulty comes from trying to hit it's sole weakness, it's purple pulsating heart.
- Kojirō himself in his final phase in the sequel. His first demon form is extremely mobile, but upon defeat he turns into a demonic effigy some fifty meters tall, one who curiously doesn't move about. And Miyamoto Musashi will need to reach his weak spots on his chest and head using conveniently-placed floating platforms.
- Steampunk: While the first game have some hints of steampunk tech (like the Yasha-Hime mech), the sequel brings them all out, from mechanized platforms to factories full of machines, hover-cycles and airships.
- Stepping Stones in the Sky: The second game has a stage where Musashi falls down a pit, alongside some rocks. Where he then climbs upwards by jumping from one rock to another, and oddly enough there are occasional enemy ninja on those rocks as well.
- Sword Beam: Oni-Otsu can fire energy waves from his bladed fan. As does the first form of Kojiro with his katana whose beams are taller than Musashi. There's also a mook armed with a nagayari who fires crescent-shaped projectiles from their blades.
- Technicolor Ninjas: Practically all the human-type mooks are ninja, and they come in a wide variety of colours that denotes their abilities. Navy goomba-grade ninja, red ninja who chuck rocks, green ninja archers, . and so-on.
- Unrobotic Reveal: For some of the bosses, like Yasha-hime and the giant form of Sasaki Kojirō. Their external appearances look robotic enough, until after taking enough damage, their skin and faces cracks open revealing flesh inside.
- Warm-Up Boss: The first boss of the second game is just a regular ninja mook with extra health, and slightly faster shuriken attacks. The only unique attack he has is a sliding tackle, but even that can be jumped over.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Suzume, the 2P character, is absent in the sequel without a reason, despite canonically surviving the previous game's events.
