Kei Sagami, a normal sixteen year old girl, visits dad at the Kanazawa Science Lab and subsequently tangles herself in an experiment gone awry. A monster kidnaps Kei's father and kills his lab cohorts. A sentient sword known as Maken (demon sword), under development at the lab, bonds with Kei and the two go on a globe spanning adventure. Maken Shao rehashes the Dreamcast adventure which originally shipped in late '99 but updates it with desirable enhancements. The paths to victory are the same but Atlus ramps this version with an improved gaming perspective and an updated brain-jacking technique which holds different personas in a reservoir to be summoned and used at will. The Dreamcast version viewed the game world from a first-person outlook, which made for awkward selective targeting and slashing when faced with a legion of foes. Jumping wasn't executed well either since your feet were never in view and your location in space occasionally became a guessing game. Maken Shao removes these niggles and places a versatile camera behind Kei and brain-jacked hosts for a more Tomb Raider-esque view of the action. Jumping over enemies, targeting close foes, and slashing in wide arcs is now more intuitive and makes for an improved game. The first limited edition of Maken Shao ships with a special holographic sticker and the blood-red cover shown to the right. The regular edition cover goes with a sand colored cover theme instead.