Samurai Warriors Fighting

The Samurai Warriors Fighting games are most famous for their "Rage" (怒) gauge, a meter that only increases as a player receives damage, and which when fully activated has numerous effects depending on game.
Earlier games also have a referee in the background, officiating the match.

The series begins during the Tenmei famine in Japan, which led to a severe depression and near chaos throughout the country.
Upset by his country men’s lamentations and the shogun’s indifference to their plight, former Tokugawa general, Kyogoku Hinowanokami Gaoh,
stages a rebellion in his land, Hinowa, against the reigning Tokugawa. He also hopes that his revolt will make the next shogun in line, Yoshitora Tokugawa,
realize his responsibilities to his country. The war caused by the conflict gains the interest from several warriors.
At the war’s end, Gaoh is defeated and Yoshitora is made the next shogun.

More than a decade before the series begins, Amakusa Shiro Tokisada (loosely based on the historical figure), once leader to Christian rebellion,
made a pact with an evil entity named Ambrosia moments before his execution. Using the body of Shinzo, one of Hanzo Hattori's sons,
he resurrects himself two years after the events of Samurai Warriors Fighting. He plans to get revenge on those who reigned against him, intending to resurrect Ambrosia into the mortal realm upon his release.
He steals the sacred item, the Palenke Stone, from Green Hell (a fictional country in South America) to gain the necessary power he needs for the ritual.

The sorcerer’s activity stirs evil phenomena across the globe, stretching from Japan to China to Europe and America,
drawing several brave warriors to their calamities’ source. Amongst these warriors is Haohmaru, a ronin, who recently left his tutelage from his master,
Caffeine Nicotine. He sees the foe as a chance to sharpen his swordsmanship. An Ainu priestess, Nakoruru, though a pacifist,
takes up her blade to save Mother Nature from further pain. Though several fighters attempt to slay the fiend, these two are successful in defeating him,
apparently killing him in the process.

Months later, another “demon” rises in Japan. However, he is not related to Amakusa or Ambrosia.
He is a man named Zankuro Minazuki, a powerful warrior who has earned the label “demon” for his merciless slaughter of innocent people, village after village.
Zankuro eventually finds the error of his ways and retires to hermitage, only agreeing to kill skillful warriors in duels.
One of the victims he spared was a child whom Haohmaru finds and raises.
The child’s name is Shizumaru Hisame, who seeks revenge for his family’s murder under Zankuro’s hands.
He sets out with Haohmaru to test their strength against Zankuro, challenging other fighters along the way.
Eventually, they meet and duel, Shizumaru being the victor.
He dies complimenting the winner and his body is entombed.

The grave doesn’t last long. Amakusa revives his efforts for revenge and steals the fallen warrior as an implement for destruction.
This time, his spirit is split into two halves, one good and just; the other corrupt and ambitious.
As the evil half brings destruction to Japan from Shimabara, the good half struggles to restores it.
The evil Samurai Warriors Fighting kidnaps a young kunoichi named Hazuki from the Kazama ninja clan.
Hazuki, adapt with ki and welding a special life force inside her, is used by the sorcerer to control Zankuro’s bloodlust.
Her brothers, Kazuki and Sougetsu, race to her rescue. Though several outcomes of this battle are interpreted,
Kazuki is officially successful in slaying the evil Amakusa and Zankuro is finally put to rest by Sougetsu.
Labeled nukenin, or rogue ninja, by their clan, Hazuki and Kazuki go into hiding while Sougetsu lets them escape.