Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman

released on Mar 25, 1999

Rising Zan is a 3rd person action game with plenty of oddball humor and interesting situations. Zan, the main character wields the weapons of both of his trades... the Sword of a Samurai master, and the six-shooter pistol of an American cowboy. He'll need a variety of techniques to defeat the Jackal Clan and avenge his own lost battle. Zan proceeds through enemies and challenges in each level to eventually reach the boss who he then battles in some form of specialized combat or pattern. Once the boss is defeated, Zan gets the chance to unleash as much punishment on his foe in 30 seconds as he can; higher damage values will change the finishing move he uses to slay his foe.


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Nada mal para ser de los primeros hack n' slash en 3d

this is the saddest bad review i've ever given, this game fucks on nearly every level but the horrible camera, enemy design that makes it a huge problem with lots of mobility and teleports breaking lockon which is already barely functional to begin with, and questionable hitboxes make it really unpleasant to play

I went into this game expecting caveman Devil May Cry and I was not disappointed. Seems to me like the game has the same vibe and soul as DMC, even in how Zan calling himself "The Super Ultra Sexy Hero" reminded me of stuff like "Smokin' Sexy Style".

The controls and combat are pretty primitive and janky but honestly it still works surprisingly well. I also have to applaud the devs for actually including a lock-on mode, which helps mitigate a lot of the bad camera in the game, most of the time.

I imagine back in the day the game was seen as more of a 3D beat-em'-up of sorts but nowadays it's easier to compare it to character action games.

Sadly the game's main story is pretty short, beatable in about just a couple hours depending on how well you do, and there's not much else to do besides beat the game again in a higher difficulty. Not surprising that a PS1 game of this nature lacks in extra content but I still would have appreciated maybe a longer story mode.

would this game be better on the ps2 with camera controls, a real lock on, and a dodge button? yeah. yeah it would. but if those missing hurts your enjoyment of the game it's a skill issue this game OWNS HARD. if you love character action games, camp, and can handle a little retro jankiness, you NEED to play this.

JOHNNY NO MORE!!

rising zan can only be described as the precursor to the character action game we know today. before devil may cry, there was another gun-slingin, sword-swingin red-coat-wearin, badass, and his name was zan. its honestly hard to believe this game even released on the ps1 before the turn of the millenium, just 2 years prior to devil may cry, because much of what devil may cry gets praised for innovating started with this game... although devil may cry DID do it better. no denying that.

its not quite as complex as devil may cry though (im done with the comparisons, its not fair to zan considering it came prior). rising zan is very arcadey, especially in its presentation. it just as that arcade vibe you know? the controls got a bit of jank to it, with this game not using analog controls, the 3d movement... isnt great. not only that but when you make an attack, you really commit to it, it takes like a second or 2 before youre able to move again when you attack due to waiting for the animation to finish. blocking can cancel it, and so can "dodging" (though its more of a shimmy left or right) that coupled with the pisspoor camera means fighting enemies can be a real pain at times... and well, thats all the game is. fighting rooms after rooms of enemies until a boss, and sometimes you get these quick time events where you need to mash every button on the controller really fast.
despite the problems, rising zan is still a fun game to play, and i recommend it to any character action game fans even if just to see where the roots really started

this mf is faster on foot than with his horse