Three men and a cowboy plot to assassinate tyrannical criminals in the old days of Japan. They go around at night, kill people, and sometimes have to fight something really weird like a magic monster. There are hand drawn art pieces that accompany the story between levels, but for the most part, you can ignore them. Plot really isn’t that important in a game like Hissatasu. It’s more about the action than anything.

Hissatsu’s sprites are all in live action, but it’s background are all hand drawn sprites. The effect ends up being very surreal, like you’ve got live action people walking around in a cartoon world. It doesn’t help that all of the special effects use sprites, which only compounds the weirdness. The music is good, but very quiet. I guess it makes sense, as you’re walking around at night and killing people, sometimes without them even knowing. Sometimes the tracks get intense, but it’s usually because something really cool is about to happen, like a boss fight or some kind of supernatural enemy is appearing.