Red Steel 2 - Plot

Plot

The game begins as an unnamed Hero, the last member of the Kusagari Clan, is being dragged across the desert, tied to the back of a motorcycle. He manages to break free, but Payne, the leader of the Jackals - a vast gang of thugs, murderers and thieves - steals the Hero's katana. While running from the Jackals, the Hero rescues his old swordsmaster Jian who was to soon be executed by the Jackals. After the rescue, Jian allows the Hero to borrow his sword until the Hero can recover his own from Payne.

The Hero meets up with Tamiko, a member of his clan's research division, as well as Caldera's sheriff and Tamiko's father, Judd. They provide information for the Hero to help him track down Payne, while sabotaging the Jackals' operations in the Upper City, as well as meeting a fight club-operating businessman named Songan. The Hero eventually locates and defeats Payne in the Jackals' hideout, Rojo House, recovering his katana during the battle. He interrogates Payne and, before killing him by throwing him off a ledge, learns that his entire clan had been annihilated by a man named Shinjiro.

The Hero travels to the Lower City, encountering another rival clan called the Katakara. He finds Shinjiro in the Kusagari Temple and the two swordsmen fight. After a fierce battle, the Hero breaks Shinjiro's katana and pushes him to the edge of the Temple's roof. However, before the Hero can strike his foe down, a mysterious ninja saves Shinjiro. Jian then tells the Hero that the katanas of the Kusagari, called Sora Katanas, have great unpredictable power and that the method to make these is known only to them, and Shinjiro, who trained with the Kusagari as a child, plans to make more of them.

Following a tip from Judd, the Hero discovers Shinjiro trying to escape the city on a train and manages to board it before it leaves. After the Hero fights his way through the train, which is full of ninjas and Katakara, he finds Shinjiro atop the front car; however, the "escape attempt" is revealed to be a trap, as Shinjiro detaches the rest of the train (with the Hero on it) from his own car. Surrounded by explosives, Shinjiro then throws a grenade to destroy it. The Hero survives, but is forced to walk through the desert for three days before finding a deserted town. While exploring the town, however, the Hero discovers Songan, who explains that the ghost town is a Jackal ammo dump. The Hero drives off the Jackals and survives an attack by a Katakara force, led by the lieutenant Calhoun.

After reestablishing communications with Tamiko, Judd, and Jian, the Hero learns that the trio have tracked Shinjiro to the isolated mining community of Rattlesnake Canyon. The Hero then takes Songan's advice and uses an old locomotive in the town's deserted train depot to travel there. While exploring the Canyon, the Hero is attacked by the leader of the Katakara, Okaji, but manages to defeat him, only for him to return from the dead, ready for the Hero to fight at a later time. Following Tamiko's plan, the Hero then uses explosives stolen from the mining quarry to destroy the gate protecting Shinjiro's hideout, the Tiger's Nest. However, Songan then betrays the hero and his allies, Tamiko, Judd, and Jian, are captured. Shinjiro demands the Hero's katana in exchange for his friends. As the Hero is about to give it to him, the two engage in a gun duel, where Tamiko is shot. The Hero pursues and confronts Shinjiro who now has created a new katana. After a fierce battle, Shinjiro is defeated. As he is weakened, Shinjiro tells the hero that other clans will fight him for that katana. The Hero then thrusts his katana through Shinjiro's chest and breaks it in half, killing Shinjiro in the process. The game ends as the hero throws the other half of the katana off a cliff and looks out into the distance with Shinjiro's dead body behind him.