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