Soul of the Samurai

, released as Ronin Blade in Europe, is an action-adventure game developed and published by Konami in 1999 for the PlayStation.
Gameplay.
From the start the player chooses to be either a young male ronin named Kotaro or a teenage female ninja named Lin (Rin). From then on he or she travels through prerendered levels, killing enemies and fulfilling their mission.
The game's combat system is quite detailed, and might take a while to get used to. However, when mastered, it is relatively easy for Lin and Kotaro to dispatch multiple enemies quickly from different directions, while simultaneously avoiding the enemies thrusts and swipes. There is a single attack button, but combined with different directional buttons pressed in different combinations and held down for various intervals. There are different attack speeds which correlate to the weight of the equipped weapon, and this is displayed on the sword's 'check' window (also displayed is the sword's length and sharpness, and a brief description of the blade).
Characters.
Main characters:
Kotaro's Path bosses:
It is possible he is Sasaki Kojiro due to the fact that a long sword named Monohoshizao is obtained after defeating him, which was the name of the nodachi that Kojiro used in real life.
Lin's Path bosses:
After defeating Ryu Oda and saving feudal Japan from the soul bugs, both Kotaro and Lin perform their final duties to their fallen friend and brother, respectively, and in the end decide to stay with each other.
Development.
An early version of the game, developed under the working title "Shogun Assassin", featured young warriors named Hotaru and Hyaku, members of the shogunate secret police (their designs were the same as those of the final protagonists Kotaro and Lin). Earlier, the game was also known as "Japan" and Konami sources said the game would combine elements from "Bushido Blade" and "Tenchu".
Reception.
The game received "mixed" reviews according to video game review aggregator GameRankings. According to a positive review in "GamePro", "Soul of the Samurai" delivered "lively action melded to a compelling story line." On the other hand, GameSpot's review stated that "those looking for a ninja game of "Tenchu" will unfortunately have to keep on looking."