Ganryu is a 1999 side-scrolling hack and slash action-platform arcade video game developed and originally published by Visco Corporation exclusively for the Neo Geo MVS. It is loosely based upon the battle of Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi on Ganryū-jima island against Sasaki Kojirō, who is also known as Sasaki Ganryū, hence the reasons for the abbreviated name of the game. In the game, players assume the role of either Musashi or Suzume on a journey to defeat a resurrected Kojirō and his legion of evil ninjas and monsters terrorizing Kyoto. A sequel, titled Ganryu 2: Hakuma Kojiro, was developed Storybird Studio and published by Just for Games and PixelHeart. It released on 22 April 2022 to generally mixed reception. Gameplay Ganryu is a side-scrolling hack and slash action-platform game similar to Shinobi and Strider where the players take control of either Miyamoto Musashi or Suzume through five stages set in Japan, where the main objective is to rescue Otsu from an evil clan of ninja servants led by a resurrected Sasaki Kojirō, the main antagonist of the game, along with one of his creations that act as a boss at the end of the stage in order to progress further through the game. Each of the two playable characters have their own advantages and disadvantages that comes into effect during gameplay, with Musashi being the strongest but least agile while Suzume is the most versatile but least strongest respectively. In addition to the regular single-player campaign, there is also an alternating two player mode, where two people can play through the game by taking turns after one of the players die. All of the levels featured in the game, although linear in nature, are large and populated with obstacles and enemies which involve the players on traversing them by jumping and running while slashing and dodging enemies that roam around the playfield. The stages also feature multiple hidden rooms and routes to explore, encouraging the player with exploring them in order to find hostages that grants various rewards for the effort, such as onigiri or takoyaki which restores health, or ryō currency to receive extra points. Items and additional sub-weapons are also scattered in treasure chests across the stage to be collected. If players sustain too much damage, their player character is killed after the health bar is completely depleted and respawns on a checkpoint location but once all lives