Bakumatsu Rouman: The Last Blade: Kaede

Kaede! He's very cool. My favourite character of the game. (Well, until Setsuna came along.. ^_~) Character-wise, he seems quite a sweet guy, humble for the most part, and very determined. When he wins a round, he wipes his brow and sighs with relief. He, Yuki and Moriya are the main characters in the game and all have an intertwining storyline.

Kaede's moves are pretty nice, and easy. He has a ground level projectile, a quick uppercut, and a nice move that's a triple hard slash if you can pull it off three times in a row. His special is nice and hits for multiple bolts of lightning, but you have to be pretty close to make it hit decently. And his super special has better reach and looks cooler.

Kaede also has an extra little surprise all his own; when he's powered up, you can, instead of doing his special, awaken him. With a bolt of lightning he turns into the blonde guy in the picture. Not only does he have an entirely different attitude to Kaede -- quite full of himself -- and an entirely different voice, he's also quite a lot faster with his moves, and his projectile and his specials are more powerful. There's a drawback, though.. your health metre slowly drains away you're down to only a millimetre of health left. Thus, if you're close to dead, awakening may not necessarily help you out.

In the second game, Kaede is permanently in his awakened form, blonde and as arrogant as ever. Thus, he moves quite fast, and again has the lightning projectile, the quick uppercut, and the triple slash move only needs to be executed once to pull it off. (Easy, easy.) Oh, and he can toss lightning from the air now, too. He's still a lot of fun, and I still love him. He even turns back into normal Kaede at the end of a round, even if it's only to speak. And there is a code to play normal Kaede if you want to... and sometimes it's fun to.

Last Blade 1 Story: Kaede was adopted at a young age by a swordsman, who also adopted Yuki and Moriya. Kaede displayed strange powers and grew to be an adept swordsman, often surprising himself. One day, when he was 12, he and Yuki returned from an errand to find their master dead and Moriya standing over him. Kaede's world fell apart, and in anger he attacked Moriya. However Moriya took the blow and left without saying a word. Kaede went to study with Genbu no Okina (see his page for more information) and now, five years later, he seeks Moriya to find out the truth of what happened that day.

Last Blade 2 Story: Kaede has been learning how to control the awakened power inside him, the strength of the blue dragon Seiryuu. Feeling stronger now, he traveled with Yuki to see Okina, seeking more information. There, they learned of the Sealing Rite, and the need of a Sealing Maiden. Then, Kaede hears of a Messenger From Afar, one intent on destroying the Maiden. Kaede, determined to see the ceremony carried out, sets off to find and protect her.

Useless but fun facts: Kaede's birthdate is September 14th, 1846, making him 17 years old at the time of the first game. The kanji for his name means maple, which is the leaf that adorns the back of his vest as well.