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How Sega’s Kenseiden Built a Dark, Non-Linear Masterpiece in 1988

Ave-O

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Sega released Kenseiden on the Master System in 1988. Featuring a 16-province branching map of feudal Japan, unlockable sword techniques, and a grim folklore aesthetic, Hayato’s quest was wildly ahead of its time. In this retrospective, we break down why Kenseiden isn't just a nostalgic footnote—it’s one of the most innovative and brutally underrated 8-bit platformers ever made.

https://master-linkuei.itch.io/hayato...

0:00 Intro
1:20 Kenseiden's box art
1:48 The Story of Kenseiden
2:27 The Manual
3:50 This game is HARD
5:58 But not impossible
8:10 The music
9:10 Master System's 2 diffferent sound chips
11:35 Graphics
13:15 Choose your path
13:33 Stages 1-7
19:25 Stage 8-16
23:16 My preferred route
24:53 The Unoffical Sequel
25:40 Closing thoughts

14 Comments

@Ave-OGaming Creator 5 days ago Pinned

Kenseiden's unofficial sucessor, Hayato's Journey: https://master-linkuei.itch.io/hayatos-journey

@andrewGods_lamb 1 hour ago

Zillion and cyborg hunters, alian syndrome, spell caster, kensaidon just an amazingly overlooked awesomeness 👌

@jchem 5 days ago

Kenseiden
Zillion
Zillion 2
These are my favorite master system games🔥

@KebobLimonMunchers 3 days ago

I was in a conversation where someone said Dark Souls was the first Samurai game in the history. I knew the dude was off the mark, but I just could not find any examples. Sega had a lot of interesting games that flew under the radar. I never knew about this game. It seems hard as balls.

@Valdray 2 days ago

This is such good video Ave. Extremely thorough and informative, partially historical as well in regards to the technology.
You did a great job bringing to the forefront an energy that draws a desire to try out this title.
Awesome job too articulating and explaining all of the cool details of this game brother. Love it man, I pray you keep up the good work.
The details regarding the sound system were super cool, you show a real knowledge in the field.
This was an awesome watch. God bless, my man.

@UnknownPoet-Richter 5 days ago

I did in fact played it and finished it back when I was 6 six years old.

@TheFightersNational 7 days ago

You are a man of amazing taste in master system games 👍. Thank you for the video

@booyakanz 5 days ago

Nice video bro! I used to have this game & many more back in the day. But revisiting this one's going to give me nightmares! Haha!

@brightshade999X 5 days ago

This is definitely one of the better made games for Master System in my opinion.Great coverage on it here too

@barryschalkwijk9388 4 days ago (edited)

9:06...is that..is that the 7 nation army's riff?

@megavolt67 6 days ago

Looks like an 8-bit Nioh long before Nioh. Nice vid. Also, I figure Alex Kidd might be there because Sega wanted him to be their mascot before Sonic arrived.

@peacefulscrimp5183 3 days ago

Great video 👍
Your 30 year mystery getting resolved got you a new subscriber 😜
"#Believe all women"
The new Zealand story is a masterpiece for the master system.
💥💲💵💚💵💲💥

@staggabob 5 days ago

In the UK we had the same sh1tty box art on Sega games. I never had a Master System (until years later when I bought one 2nd hand for £2 but I've no idea what happened to that) but at the time I remember thinking all the games must be cheap crap because of that ugly box art. I was buying games for my C64 at the time and didn't know anything about the MS- none of my friends had one either.

Looking back it's easy to see the MS was usually closer to 16bit quality at the time but I couldn't have afforded the £20+ games

@Hank_the_Tank78 6 days ago

Wow, so here is one game where fm isnt preferable. Kenseiden is on my top 5 with PS, Ys, and wonderboy 2 & 3. Its criminally underrated. I was incrediby exited when i heard Kenseiden had a spiritual sequel for megadrive on Itch, but unfortunately its bad.