Hagane - The Final Conflict ROM

The Fuma and Koma ninja clans who live mainly in darkness have mastered the secret arts of ninjutsu and black magic. Although they look like normal humans, they have strength and spiritual power beyond normal. Each clan consists of several factions. The Fuma clan is split into factions based on the Chinese zodiac. The Koma clan is split into factions by color; consisting of the white, the gold and the red dragon.

In the case of the Fuma clan, members of a given faction know nothing more about any other factions except that they exist and their bloodlines are cut off from the outside world and are destined to decline. The Fuma clan possesses extreme strength and spiritual power. Their duty is to protect the Holy Grail, which is said to possess power that can destroy the world. From long ago, the evil Koma clan had plotted to destroy the world using the destructive power of the Holy Grail.

Hagane features side-scrolling action and platforming gameplay and blends elements of traditional Japanese ninja and samurai with a futuristic setting. The player controls Hagane, a ninja cyborg, and can switch between four different weapons: a sword, chain, shuriken, and grenades. Additionally, there are also limited magic attacks available which clear the screen of enemies. Hagane can execute a wide variety of moves including somersaults, flying jump kicks, wall-jumping, sliding, and charge attacks.

After three hits the player will die, although the game provides health power-ups that will increase the player’s health meter beyond three hits. After dying, these health bonuses are lost. All the stages feature platforming with the exception of one stage in which the player rides on a hovercraft through a Mode 7 sequence. The stages are notably short with very few checkpoints across the game. Running out of lives will place the player at the start of the chapter should they choose to continue. There is no save feature, and the player can only continue up to seven times in the Japanese version before their game is over.