Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A playthrough of Namco's 1992 action-platformer for the TurboGrafx-16, Samurai Ghost.
This video shows two playthroughs of the game, each showing a different route. For the second game, at 37:26, I punched in a code to start from the third stage. (The split paths begin appearing in stage three. The first two stages are always the same.)
Namco had a ton of international hits throughout the 80s, but there were several that didn't make it out of Japan until much later. Their 1986 arcade game Genpei Toumaden (源平討魔伝) was among them, and it wasn't until its inclusion in Namco Museum Vol. 4 for the PlayStation (under the name "The Genji and the Heike Clans") in 1997 that westerners got to experience one of the company's most celebrated games. However, its direct sequel, the PC Engine-exclusive Genpei Toumaden: Kan no Ni (源平討魔伝 巻ノ弐), officially made its way to North America in mid-1992, a few months behind its Japanese debut.
Set during the Kamakura period, Samurai Ghost puts you in the blood-soaked shoes of Kagekiyo, a twelfth-century samurai who was killed in the Genpei War. He was resurrected to take out Yoritomo, the warlord responsible for wiping out his people, and though Kagekiyo defeated him once, Yoritomo's forces are now staging a comeback. Swearing vengeance, Kagekiyo takes up his sword one last time to fight his way back from Hell.
In other words, as the back of the box puts it, "Defeat Yoritomo's ambition!"
Samurai Ghost is, in my opinion, one of the best hardcore action games on the TurboGrafx-16. There's a ton of nuance embedded in its unconventional control scheme. You can hold your sword in different positions, and each has its own advantages and drawbacks. You can run around with it raised over your head, poised to dramatically slash in a wide arc at a moment's notice, but that'll leave your body wide open. You can keep it at your side and sacrifice speed for sake of adaptability. Or, you can hold it out in front of you, ready to parry an incoming strike into a fierce counterattack. And that's just the setup! When you encounter the enemy, winning takes figuring out how to string your moves together without missing a beat. There's a lot to wrap your head around, and the game is unapologetically brutal, but it feels fantastic when everything comes together.
Not that you need to pick up a controller to know that this isn't your garden variety action game. Samurai Ghost is patterned after Genpei Toumaden's "big mode," which featured huge character sprites with independently articulated limbs. (Think Earnest Evans, but less dumb looking.) As awkward as it first appears in motion, the animation serves the gameplay well. The visual design of the stages and the music are also excellent, and there's an impressive amount of digitized speech, though it's all in Japanese (and much of it is unintelligible, even to native speakers).
Samurai Ghost is moody, bizarre, and *extremely* Japanese. If that piques your interest, be caution! Once it sinks its hooks in, you'll have a hard time tearing yourself away.
Kudos to the developer, Now Production. They don't get a lot of recognition, but they made awesome games.
_____________
No cheats (aside from the stage select code mentioned above) were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
A playthrough of Namco's 1992 action-platformer for the TurboGrafx-16, Samurai Ghost.
This video shows two playthroughs of the game, each showing a different route. For the second game, at 37:26, I punched in a code to start from the third stage. (The split paths begin appearing in stage three. The first two stages are always the same.)
Namco had a ton of international hits throughout the 80s, but there were several that didn't make it out of Japan until much later. Their 1986 arcade game Genpei Toumaden (源平討魔伝) was among them, and it wasn't until its inclusion in Namco Museum Vol. 4 for the PlayStation (under the name "The Genji and the Heike Clans") in 1997 that westerners got to experience one of the company's most celebrated games. However, its direct sequel, the PC Engine-exclusive Genpei Toumaden: Kan no Ni (源平討魔伝 巻ノ弐), officially made its way to North America in mid-1992, a few months behind its Japanese debut.
Set during the Kamakura period, Samurai Ghost puts you in the blood-soaked shoes of Kagekiyo, a twelfth-century samurai who was killed in the Genpei War. He was resurrected to take out Yoritomo, the warlord responsible for wiping out his people, and though Kagekiyo defeated him once, Yoritomo's forces are now staging a comeback. Swearing vengeance, Kagekiyo takes up his sword one last time to fight his way back from Hell.
In other words, as the back of the box puts it, "Defeat Yoritomo's ambition!"
Samurai Ghost is, in my opinion, one of the best hardcore action games on the TurboGrafx-16. There's a ton of nuance embedded in its unconventional control scheme. You can hold your sword in different positions, and each has its own advantages and drawbacks. You can run around with it raised over your head, poised to dramatically slash in a wide arc at a moment's notice, but that'll leave your body wide open. You can keep it at your side and sacrifice speed for sake of adaptability. Or, you can hold it out in front of you, ready to parry an incoming strike into a fierce counterattack. And that's just the setup! When you encounter the enemy, winning takes figuring out how to string your moves together without missing a beat. There's a lot to wrap your head around, and the game is unapologetically brutal, but it feels fantastic when everything comes together.
Not that you need to pick up a controller to know that this isn't your garden variety action game. Samurai Ghost is patterned after Genpei Toumaden's "big mode," which featured huge character sprites with independently articulated limbs. (Think Earnest Evans, but less dumb looking.) As awkward as it first appears in motion, the animation serves the gameplay well. The visual design of the stages and the music are also excellent, and there's an impressive amount of digitized speech, though it's all in Japanese (and much of it is unintelligible, even to native speakers).
Samurai Ghost is moody, bizarre, and *extremely* Japanese. If that piques your interest, be caution! Once it sinks its hooks in, you'll have a hard time tearing yourself away.
Kudos to the developer, Now Production. They don't get a lot of recognition, but they made awesome games.
_____________
No cheats (aside from the stage select code mentioned above) were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
![The Nameless Game/ナナシノゲ-ム (DS) Playthrough [ENG] - NintendoComplete](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/c5zDaHtwarY/mqdefault.jpg "The Nameless Game/ナナシノゲ-ム (DS) Playthrough [ENG] - NintendoComplete
The Nameless Game/ナナシノゲ-ム (DS) Playthrough [ENG] - NintendoComplete")
![The Nameless Game: Eye (DS) Playthrough [English]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cjbVB6ruBxw/mqdefault.jpg "The Nameless Game: Eye (DS) Playthrough [English]
A playthrough of Square Enixs 2009 survival horror game for the Nintendo DS, The Nameless Game: Eye (ナナシノゲエム目, _Nanashi no Geemu Me_ ).
This game was a Japan-only release, so I used a fan-made translation patch in this recording. You can find the patch at https://www.romhacking.net/translations/2456/
This video is split into several parts. There are two full playthroughs, each showing a different route with unique locations. All three endings are shown, and I played through the cursed platformer in its entirety (unlocked by collecting all of the cartridges in the cursed RPG).
Playthrough 1 0:06
Playthrough 2 3:06:03
Alternate Ending 5:26:28
Ooyamas cursed platformer 5:30:30
Nanashi no Game Me is the direct sequel to Squeenixs innovative 2008 handheld horror show known in English as The Nameless Game (https://youtu.be/1mGcjBfY6bc). Like the first game, Me is a horror-themed adventure played from the perspective of a Japanese university student who finds himself mixed up in the twisted machinations of a cursed game that has been linked to a grisly series of inexplicable deaths in the real world.
The game is split between two primary modes. When youre doing anything in what your character perceives to be the real world - things like exploring an abandoned building, combing an area for clues, or running for your life from a disgusting phantasm - you hold the DS on its side, and your view is split between the two screens, each representing one of your eyes. You can freely look around the 3D environments with a simple drag of the stylus, and you move by holding the stylus on the screen.
Within these areas, youll regularly come across obstacles that cant be surmounted by ordinary means. In these instances, when you log in to the cursed game on your in-game handheld (a TS), youll see an 8-bit Dragon Quest-style representation of your surroundings, and things that you do in this parallel world directly impact whats going on around you in the real world. Sometimes theres a puzzle to solve, a Silent Hill-like hellscape to weave your way through, or a spirit to appease - anything is possible - and the solutions often make clever use of these cross-over interactions. In particularly gruesome moments, youll might even find yourself being dropped into a gory 2D platformer filled with blood, spikes, saws, and smashy things.
The game plays a lot like its precursor, but it makes far better use of its mechanics to tell the story, and it feels more coherent as a result. The branching paths and collectibles give it more replay value, the production values are even better this time around, and it channels the same vibes without feeling like a rehash.
If you love horror games, this is an easy recommendation. If you enjoyed the first Nanashi no Game, then this sequel is a must-play. Whatever the case, you cant go wrong with a game thats this well put together.
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
![Final Fantasy IX (PS1) Playthrough [1 of 4]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cvuh6Td1isY/mqdefault.jpg "Final Fantasy IX (PS1) Playthrough [1 of 4]
A playthrough of Square Electronic Arts 2000 role-playing game for the Sony PlayStation, Final Fantasy IX.
In the playthrough, I do all of the optional stuff, including the ATE scenes, the sidequests, and the superbosses. This video is the first part of a four-part playthrough, showing from the beginning up through Gargan Roo.
Links to the other parts:
Part 2 https://youtu.be/q9y69k-OFdE
Part 3 https://youtu.be/WymYZEYqrF0
Part 4 https://youtu.be/OCalB_UhggE
To avoid any major plot spoilers, Im only going to provide timestamps for the disc changes and the points where the party enters a new major location.
4:42:30 Lindblum
8:35:29 Burmecia
9:54:07 Disc 2 begins
10:18:38 Treno
Final Fantasy IX was the last mainline Final Fantasy game to be released on the original PlayStation, and it was the final Final Fantasy to be worked on by the series creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, who is credited as the games scenario writer and co-producer.
It is fitting, then, that Final Fantasy IX serves as a fond farewell to the series as we once knew it. Gone are the bleak, industrial dystopias of Final Fantasy VI-VIII: this is a sentimental, nostalgia-fueled adventure that hearkens back to the days of swords and sorcery, pseudo-European pastoral landscapes, and an earnest sense of whimsy that had been long since been left by the wayside.
Its a celebration of the past, but its not stuck there. FFIX continues to refine and innovate on several of the series gameplay staples - the ATB and character customization systems have been completely revamped - and though its not perfectly balanced, it was a much needed, highly appreciated course correction following FF VIIIs bold missteps.
And it doesnt stop there. The writing nails the essence of Final Fantasy at its very best, and the cast of characters is better developed than ever before. The production values are the highest in the series to this point, the graphics strain the PlayStation to its limits, and the soundtrack is top shelf Uematsu.
FFIX does have a couple sticking points - its too easy, the battles are slow, and the optional Chocobo Hot & Cold sidequest is excruciatingly long and grindy and dull - but those arent the things that come to mind whenever I think back on my experiences with the game. Instead, Im left smiling at memories of a journey full of heartfelt moments. And of Vivi.
Thank you, Hironobu Sakaguchi, for such a special game.
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
