Genpei Tōma Den

4 under the title of The Genji and the Heike Clans for the PlayStation.

• Title — Genpei Tōma Den • Developer — Namco • Publisher — Namco • Director — Norio Nakagata • Designer — Nobuhiko Abe • Composer — Norio Nakagata • Platforms — Arcade, PC Engine, X68000 • Released — ArcadeOctober 1986 X68000 PC EngineMarch 16, 1990 • Genre — Hack and slash • Series — Genpei Tōma Den • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer

• Illustration — A screenshot taken from the second "Big Mode" level. The player (left) is fighting the game's second boss, the samurai Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Genpei Tōma Den is a side-scrolling hack and slash platform game. The player controls Taira no Kagekiyo, a samurai who was killed in the Battle of Dan-no-ura during the Genpei War. In this alternate fictional interpretation of history, Kagekiyo was resurrected to defeat his enemy Minamoto no Yoritomo and the heads of his clan, Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Saito Musashibo Benkei, who have now thrown Japan into turmoil and turned it into a dangerous realm sprawling with demons under their tyrannical excess. The player travels through the Japanese countryside fighting enemies as they appear. The game offers three types of action: Small Mode (standard), Big Mode (standard, but with large characters and usually boss fights) and Plain Mode (viewed from an overhead perspective). Most stages have torii, which are used to transport the player to a different stage. On most stages featured in Side Mode and Plain Mode, there are multiple torii that can be entered which will lead to different routes on the map. In Big Mode, however, there is only one torii at the end of this type of stage. The game also features the Sanzu River, a place believed in Japanese Buddhism to separate "the current life" and "the afterlife", resembling the concept of the Underworld or Hell (the river is often compared to the river Styx in Greek mythology). Therefore, some mythological characters like Emma-o (閻魔大王; literally "Enma Dai-o"), god of the Underworld, appear in the game.

The game's first port was released in 1988 for the Japanese X68000 home computer. The game was ported to the PC Engine and released on March 16, 1990. The PC Engine version was also released for the Wii's Virtual Console. Genpei Tōma Den was also featured on the Namco Museum Vol. 4 compilation game for the PlayStation, released in 1996 in Japan and 1997 in North America and Europe. For the U.S. and European releases, the game was re-titled as The Genji and the Heike Clans. This would be the first time the original Genpei Tōma Den would make an appearance outside Japan. Hamster Corporation released the game as part of the Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in October 2021

Kagekiyo has made a few appearances in other video games developed by Namco. He became a featured playable character in the WonderSwan Color game Namco Super Wars. He also appeared as a playable character in the Japan-only role-playing game Namco × Capcom, where he teamed up with Heishirō Mitsurugi from the Soul series and Tarosuke from Yokai Dochuki. In addition, Yoshitsune, Benkei, Yoshinaka and Yoritomo also appeared as bosses. In Tales of Eternia (known as Tales of Destiny II in the U.S.), he appeared in the Aifread's Tomb dungeon, along with Rick Taylor from the Splatterhouse series, to prevent the player from advancing through certain doorways. In Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon, there is a Kagekiyo costume to be worn. Kagekiyo's armor also appears in the character creation mode of Soulcalibur III, where it is possible to create a character in his likeness. In Tekken 6, it is possible to customize the character Yoshimitsu in order to make him similar to Kagekiyo. The series was resurrected as a webcomic, as part of Namco Bandai's ShiftyLook series, titled Scar. The new webcomic featured cyborg samurais instead of demons. A remixed version of the game music was included in Ridge Racer V. A theme based on Genpei Tōma Den, featuring several of the game's characters is featured in Pac-Man 99, as special DLC.

In October 1988, Namco released a version of Genpei Tōma Den for the Family Computer titled Genpei Tōma Den Computer Board Game. Packaged with a physical cloth game board, cards, and metallic player figures molded after Kagekiyo, it takes the form of a virtual board game where players compete against each other to conqueror all of Japan. Whereas Genpei Tōma Den was a side-scrolling action game, Computer Board Game is instead a role-playing game, where players engage in battles with enemies and purchase items and equipment from stores. The idea for the game came from Namco designer Yuichiro Shinozaki wanting to further expand on the lore and world of the original game. A true sequel named Genpei Tōma Den: Kan no Ni was released in 1992 for the PC Engine. Developed by Namco and Now Production, it was published in North America by NEC Corporation as Samurai-Ghost. The game is set after the events of the original, where Kagekiyo is resurrected from the dead to prevent Yoritomo from reviving himself in the heaven world of Makai Nippon. Kan no Ni omits the Small and Plain mode sections, a move that was largely criticized by players and reviewers. It was re-released through the Wii's Virtual Console in 2007.