Having just finished this game, the thing that still stands out the most by a LONG shot is the music. If this game had been made by Nintendo or Rareware, people today would say it has one of the great soundtracks.
Most of the rest of the game doesn’t feel very remarkable to me, but I also know nothing about the beat-em-up genre and I am really bad at them.
That being said, the progression and difficulty ramp feels very fair. The continue system is also extremely generous. You do NOT have to re-do an entire level if you die on a boss. You can repeat just the boss fight as many times as it takes.
The enemy variety is huge, the levels and set pieces are unique, there’s always something different to look at; at no point does the game feel repetitive or boring.
I did this run entirely as Kamaitachi. Did not even try out the other characters. Having a choice of 3 is pretty cool though; some time in the far future I may play this again with one of the other fighters.