Lost In Translation/Ninja Master's - Haoh Ninpou-chou

About The Game
Ninja Master's - Haoh Ninpou-chou is an arcade video game.

Criminally overlooked and combo-friendly medieval Japanese fighter with great animation. Ten selectable characters and two end bosses.

Additional Technical Information
Players : 2

Control : 8-way joystick

Buttons : 4

=> [A] Light punch, [B] Strong punch, [C] Light kick, [D] Strong kick

Trivia
Released in May 1996.

The subtitle of this game translates from Japanese as 'Supreme Ninja Arts Scroll'.

The main design, as well as some of the special moves of the character 'Karasu' seem to be quite inspired by the main character of the 1994 movie hit 'The Crow' which was in turn, based on the graphical novel of the same name by James O. Barr (Even the name 'Karasu' stands as the Japanese word for "crow"!). :)

The character 'Nobunaga' is based on the real Japanese warrior 'Nobunaga Oda' who, during Japan's medieval period, overthrew the Ashikaga shogunate and ended a long period of internal strife by uniting half of Japan's provinces under his rule. In doing so he paved the way for the reunification of the country under the Tokugawa shogunate in the following century. His merciless use of power as well as his skill as a military strategist made him one of the most powerful & feared leaders in Japan. The image of him in the game as a warrior who wields the demons power may have been some sort of a criticism to his eager embrace of Western culture, religion & technology.

The character 'Goemon' is based on Ishikawa Goemon, the most famous thief in Japan on the Edo era (about 400 years ago) known to steal large sums of money from bad people and give the money to the poor. In other words, he was Japan's very own version of Robin Hood!

The character 'Sasuke' seems inspired on Sarutobi Sasuke, a famous legendary ninja with a strong sense of justice created in Tachikawa literature at the end of the Meiji period. Another source of inspiration may have been 'Ninja Kamui' an old anime series whose main character Kamui was an incredibly skilled ninja who wanted to abandon his ways as a killer thus becoming a 'nukenin' (runaway ninja) and marked for death by his own clan that vows to pursue and eliminate him.

Play As Ranmaru And Nobunaga (Player 1)
Highlight Kamui and press Left, Down, Left, Up, Left, Down, Left, Up, Right, Down, Right, Up and hit C+D.

Play As Ranmaru And Nobunaga (Player 2)
Highlight Sasuke and press Right, Down, Right, Up, Right, Down, Right, Up, Left, Down, Left, Up and hit C+D.

Time Attack Mode
At the character select screen, highlight Kamui and press Down, Left, Up, Left, Down, Left, Up, Left, Down, Right(x4), Up, C+D. Now choose your character.


 * Successfully complete the game with a single credit within 8:30:00 minutes and the game shows you how to execute your character's 'finisher' move!

Staff

 * Producer & Planner:
 * Hiroyuki Toda


 * Chief Planner:
 * Kazuhiro Shibata


 * Planners:
 * Visitor Y. Oni
 * M-Honda


 * System Programmers:
 * Eiji Fukatsu
 * Makio Chiba


 * Sound Programmer:
 * Makio Chiba


 * Desgin Tool Programmer:
 * Ryu Hiroyuki


 * Total Adviser:
 * K. Sakanishi


 * Chief Programmer -main- Program:
 * Teruaki Shirasawa


 * Chief Sprite Designer:
 * K. Hakamata


 * Sprite Designers:
 * Gensan
 * Hideyuki Yamada
 * Yokoo
 * Muneki Shiraishi
 * H. Ozono
 * Tohru Okamura
 * West-Maison
 * Takahiro Arahata
 * Mitsugu.T
 * Shigechi
 * Ruc
 * Hirotaka Orita
 * Syoichi Satoh
 * H. Hasegawa-CRM
 * Kei Kuramochi
 * Hitoshi Aoki
 * Ben
 * Yukari Shinozaki


 * Scroll Designers:
 * Shinji Moriyama (as 'Sinji Moriyama')
 * Masako Sato
 * Kaori Kumagai
 * Kazunori Uchiumi


 * Demo Designers:
 * M. Mitsuya
 * Sinku


 * Sound:
 * Hiroaki Kujirai
 * Y. Watanabe
 * Hiroaki Shimizu
 * Takeshi Muramatu


 * Sound Effects:
 * Kujirai Type-02

Character Voices

 * Sasuke:
 * Kabao Kikkawa


 * Tenho:
 * Shinobu Sekimoto


 * Kamui, Raiga & Unzen:
 * Masahiko Yano


 * Natsume & Narration:
 * Mayumi Minoda


 * Kasumi:
 * Masami Katou


 * Goemon:
 * T. Mukaiyama


 * Houoh:
 * Yoshikatsu Fujio


 * Karasu:
 * Kouichi Koba


 * Ranmaru:
 * Yasue Ishii


 * Nobunaga:
 * Masao Harada


 * Market Research:
 * Yukio Gotou


 * Public Information:
 * Taguchi-1
 * Satsuki Ito
 * Sugi Yamaki Yotaka
 * Kayo Yamagata


 * Quality Control:
 * Showgatsu Nagata
 * Masao Tachikawa
 * Kiyotaka
 * Takagi
 * Uma


 * Executive Producer:
 * Kazuo Arai


 * BGM:
 * Back Of My Mind
 * H. Kujirai

Ports

 * Consoles :
 * SNK Neo-Geo CD (1996)