Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Playthrough with Kazuya. After Kaiser Knuckle was released, Taito realized they’d made a practically unwinnable game. The story is that they quickly put a new version into development, called Kaiser Knuckle EX, which allegedly did nothing but lower the difficulty. This version made it to location test stage, but was never released. It was instead put back into development, and further altered into this game: Dan-Ku-Ga.
Dan-Ku-Ga was put on location test, but it ended up never being released either. A prototype version was dumped and has been available to play on emulators for some time now, but the Egret II Mini saw the first time the game was officially released. From what I can tell it’s almost the same as the dumped prototype, other than having character select portraits for Gonzales and Azteca (in the prototype, these two only have black squares on the character select).
Dan-Ku-Ga fixes one issue I had with the original game: the button layout. The standard attacks have been simplified so you now have three different levels of strength for punches and kicks, instead of five. Many special moves have had their inputs changed as well to make them easier to do, but unfortunately there are still many dumb inputs in this game, especially for the desperation moves.
So you might think that it has a fairer single player mode compared to Kaiser Knuckle. WRONG! It’s still horrible, I’d say it may be about 20% easier than last time but that’s about it. It’s still way too hard, the CPU still cheats with the blatant input reading, the General is weaker but still god tier etc. The CPU still has this habit of blocking everything your throw at it.
When you start the game, you’ll be taken to a select screen with three options: normal, professional and training. I’d consider this game’s “normal” setting still more difficult than stuff like Fighter’s History Dynamite, Fatal Fury Special and the American Super SFII Turbo. However, even if you beat this mode, you don’t get the credits sequence, which sucks:
youtube.com/watch?v=_9oCjmf8fn
So this is why I’m playing on the “professional” setting to get the credits. I had to pick Kazuya because he’s voiced by Kazuki Yao. Which basically means I’m playing as Earnest Evans if he was a fighting game character. The game is even named after one of Kazuya's special moves, for some reason. Kazuya actually has a desperation move that isn’t too hard to pull off (it’s basically double half circle forward plus the medium and hard punch buttons). That, and he was the only character I could beat the game with. I did try some others but could not get very far with anyone else. And even then, the amount of bs the CPU does makes this a very tough game to get a 1CC done for.
Unlike last time you can’t pick your first opponent. You generally get the same group of opponents but in a different order, eg, the first few opponents will consist of Barts, Marco and Wulong. The last few you get will always be Kazuya, Boggy and Azteca etc. So here’s a guide on what to do:
Barts: Keep trying to sweep him. If he’s far away, do heavy punch projectiles until he gets closer.
Marco: Jump in heavy punch, crouching medium punch, QCB+P. Keep doing that combo. He does tend to use that annoying wave his arms move but just keep trying. Spam desperation if it comes to that.
Wulong: Keep throwing out heavy punch projectiles at long range, he tends to get hit by these. He may try and counter with his power waves, but your projectiles will usually go over them.
Lihua: She’s annoying because she counters a lot with her sword. Throw out projectiles and if she jumps towards you, hit her with a heavy punch or kick.
Gonzales: You now fight him on stage 5, although sometimes I’ve had him appear on stage 6. Spam QCB+P for the majority of the fight. Cry internally when he somehow grabs you out of it and does 60% damage with one throw (8:49). He doesn’t tend to do this too often but he can do it.
Liza: I lost so many runs to her. I still can’t figure out a good strategy against her either other than trying to do dan ku gas repeatedly. If she does her wall dive, block it and sweep her as she lands.
McCoy: Keep doing QCB+P, if he’s far away, start spamming projectiles until he neutral jumps or gets closer. Then start doing QCB+P again.
Azteca: When this guy appears is a bit random. I got him on stage 8 here, but I’ve had him appear as early as stage 7 and as late as stage 11. He’s super annoying in this game as usual. Try doing QCB+P a lot and move him to the corner. Once there, if you get him with the QCB+P, do a back dash and then throw out a light punch projectile. As soon as you do this, do another QCB+P. Sometimes Azteca will block the projectile but then get hit by the dragon punch, which is what you want. But then other times he command grabs you out of it ARRGHHHHH (14:44) or spams crouching light kicks to stop you I HATE THIS GUY
**CONTINUED IN PINNED COMMENT**
Playthrough with Kazuya. After Kaiser Knuckle was released, Taito realized they’d made a practically unwinnable game. The story is that they quickly put a new version into development, called Kaiser Knuckle EX, which allegedly did nothing but lower the difficulty. This version made it to location test stage, but was never released. It was instead put back into development, and further altered into this game: Dan-Ku-Ga.
Dan-Ku-Ga was put on location test, but it ended up never being released either. A prototype version was dumped and has been available to play on emulators for some time now, but the Egret II Mini saw the first time the game was officially released. From what I can tell it’s almost the same as the dumped prototype, other than having character select portraits for Gonzales and Azteca (in the prototype, these two only have black squares on the character select).
Dan-Ku-Ga fixes one issue I had with the original game: the button layout. The standard attacks have been simplified so you now have three different levels of strength for punches and kicks, instead of five. Many special moves have had their inputs changed as well to make them easier to do, but unfortunately there are still many dumb inputs in this game, especially for the desperation moves.
So you might think that it has a fairer single player mode compared to Kaiser Knuckle. WRONG! It’s still horrible, I’d say it may be about 20% easier than last time but that’s about it. It’s still way too hard, the CPU still cheats with the blatant input reading, the General is weaker but still god tier etc. The CPU still has this habit of blocking everything your throw at it.
When you start the game, you’ll be taken to a select screen with three options: normal, professional and training. I’d consider this game’s “normal” setting still more difficult than stuff like Fighter’s History Dynamite, Fatal Fury Special and the American Super SFII Turbo. However, even if you beat this mode, you don’t get the credits sequence, which sucks:
youtube.com/watch?v=_9oCjmf8fn
So this is why I’m playing on the “professional” setting to get the credits. I had to pick Kazuya because he’s voiced by Kazuki Yao. Which basically means I’m playing as Earnest Evans if he was a fighting game character. The game is even named after one of Kazuya's special moves, for some reason. Kazuya actually has a desperation move that isn’t too hard to pull off (it’s basically double half circle forward plus the medium and hard punch buttons). That, and he was the only character I could beat the game with. I did try some others but could not get very far with anyone else. And even then, the amount of bs the CPU does makes this a very tough game to get a 1CC done for.
Unlike last time you can’t pick your first opponent. You generally get the same group of opponents but in a different order, eg, the first few opponents will consist of Barts, Marco and Wulong. The last few you get will always be Kazuya, Boggy and Azteca etc. So here’s a guide on what to do:
Barts: Keep trying to sweep him. If he’s far away, do heavy punch projectiles until he gets closer.
Marco: Jump in heavy punch, crouching medium punch, QCB+P. Keep doing that combo. He does tend to use that annoying wave his arms move but just keep trying. Spam desperation if it comes to that.
Wulong: Keep throwing out heavy punch projectiles at long range, he tends to get hit by these. He may try and counter with his power waves, but your projectiles will usually go over them.
Lihua: She’s annoying because she counters a lot with her sword. Throw out projectiles and if she jumps towards you, hit her with a heavy punch or kick.
Gonzales: You now fight him on stage 5, although sometimes I’ve had him appear on stage 6. Spam QCB+P for the majority of the fight. Cry internally when he somehow grabs you out of it and does 60% damage with one throw (8:49). He doesn’t tend to do this too often but he can do it.
Liza: I lost so many runs to her. I still can’t figure out a good strategy against her either other than trying to do dan ku gas repeatedly. If she does her wall dive, block it and sweep her as she lands.
McCoy: Keep doing QCB+P, if he’s far away, start spamming projectiles until he neutral jumps or gets closer. Then start doing QCB+P again.
Azteca: When this guy appears is a bit random. I got him on stage 8 here, but I’ve had him appear as early as stage 7 and as late as stage 11. He’s super annoying in this game as usual. Try doing QCB+P a lot and move him to the corner. Once there, if you get him with the QCB+P, do a back dash and then throw out a light punch projectile. As soon as you do this, do another QCB+P. Sometimes Azteca will block the projectile but then get hit by the dragon punch, which is what you want. But then other times he command grabs you out of it ARRGHHHHH (14:44) or spams crouching light kicks to stop you I HATE THIS GUY
**CONTINUED IN PINNED COMMENT**
