While rather basic and repetitive in level design, the game's combat mechanics are well developed. The hero wields three different weapons for combating multiple enemies at once and can equip three different spells, which makes for some hectic boss fights on the end of each chapter.
This game features the following tropes:
- Assist Character: One spell summons a ninja helper for a while, but you can't use any other spells until he leaves.
- Boss Rush: The final stage involves fighting all previous bosses before facing the final one. Between each one is a Boss Corridor that lets the player level grind for the final fight.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: As a samurai, the hero carries a sword, a naginata and a bow with him.
- Character Level: Killing enemies is worth experience points for level ups.
- Charged Attack: Depends on the weapon. For the basic ones, the sword's is a lunge, the spear's is a Spin Attack and the bow will fire several times in a row.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Attack spells are red, healing ones are green and stat-boosting ones are blue. The unique ninja helper spell is black.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Against the final boss, the hero must use a glowing spiked blue sword that fires energy discs. All other weapons will be disabled.
- Collision Damage: Ghost enemies damage on contact, but also die from that.
- Cut and Paste Environments: Level design is the game's weakest suit, as many stages are very obviously reused either in part or wholesake over and over despite each one taking place in a different region of Japan.
- Dash Attack: Use it to push enemies out of the way.
- Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Until towards the end, clearing levels is simply a matter of rushing to the exit while completely avoiding enemies. On the end of each one, though, you must fight a group of 4 enemies; and the boss fights on the castle levels are actually quite engaging.
- Floating Limbs: The characters are armless in the in-game spites, but not in promotional illustrations.
- Game-Over Man: Upon dying, the player character's body will remain on the screen while the background fades and cherry flowers rain over the field. Say hi to the "終" ("end", usually used in dark contexts) kanji.
- Guide Dang It!: The game's playable enough for foreign players, but the interface evokes the Sengoku period and it is all right-to-left text and options plus old Japanese notation for numbers.
- Heal Thyself: No reason not to equip one healing spell.
- Immune to Flinching: Large enemies like the minotaur won't flinch from attacks at first and are dangerous to deal with. With enough damage, though, they will drop to their knees and become stunlocked.
- Lag Cancel: The final hit of a combo can be cancelled into a dash.
- Last Chance Hit Point: The player character is always knocked down with 1 HP before they can be killed.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Holding the B button defends against most attacks, but avoid lasers and the like.
- Puzzle Boss: One of the last bosses is a lord possessed by a demon. Dealing enough damage to the lord causes the demon to be exposed for a while, and you can also bait it into coming out for a slash attack if you run circles around the boss.
- Randomly Drops: Enemies can drop recovery items or equipment.
- Segmented Serpent: One of the bosses is a giant centipede. It actually takes increased damage from being hit at multiple spots at once, so using the earthquake spell works wonders.
- Sequential Boss:
- The bosses completely change attack patterns as the fights go on.
- The final boss has two separate stages, and without recovery between them so avoid using spells on the first one.
- Smart Bomb: The earthquake spell repeatedly deals damage to every enemy on the screen for several seconds, and as such is incredibly useful despite the high MP cost.
- Super-Deformed: The characters' art style is pretty close to the one used in Konami's own Power Pros series, which makes the "終" game over screen cause a bit of deja vu.
- Turns Red: Inverted with the birdmen enemies, who start out flying around tossing fireballs but get crippled and resort to using a short-ranged staff when wounded enough.
