Reptilia Squad Gaiden

Gaiden (外伝) is a Japanese-language word meaning "side story" or "tale", used to refer to an anecdote or supplementary biography of a person. 

The use of gaiden is commonly used in popular Japanese fiction to refer to a spin-off of a previously published work that is neither officially considered a sequel nor a prequel. 

However, some gaiden are retold stories in the perspective of a different character, similar to that of a flashback.

Reptilia Squad Gaiden is a canon spin-off of Lenin's saga, and the story takes place in the district of Bangunza (former city of Rio de Janeiro).

The story takes place before the first season, and Lenin is the main protagonist of the game.

His mission is to destroy a cursed sword named Ouroboros.

Obviously, Ouroboros is named after the symbol depicting a serpent (or dragon) eating its own tail. 

The tsuba is first seen in a glimpse, as Lenin is visited by the ghosts of the caimans. 

Made of salvaged steel from a caiman abattoir (destroyed during the Lizardmageddon), Ouroboros is a tachi-equivalent katana about 3 shaku (90.9cm) in length.

Due to its origin, the ghosts of the caimans themselves task Lenin with destroying the blade.

Surprisingly or not, the game mechanics mock both "Red Steel" and "Tenchu: Shadow Assassins".

In “Reptilia Squad Gaiden”, Lenin doesn’t use firearms and explosives for obvious reasons: he doesn’t want to inflict collateral damage. 

Thus his weaponry is limited to the daishō (as well as a large array of optional melee weapons), in addition to the throwing blades (shuriken and kunai). 

This game is (mostly) focused on Weapon Break and Counter-Hit maneuvers, clearly inspired by samurai movies and tokusatsu. 

In many movies, the swords of some characters have the blades broken, snapped or literally cut by the opponent’s (and vice-versa), as seen in “Harakiri” (1962), “Kozure Okami” (1973-1976) and other classics. Similar occurrences were common in many tokusatsu series from 80’s, mostly Super Sentai and Metal Hero, not to mention some samurai-flavored Henshin Hero. 

The game mechanics are all about this.

The very first inspiration came from Kidou Keiji Jiban, in which Jiban destroys all of Chanbaranoid's melee weapons.

Jiban defeats Chanbaranoid

In the fifth episode of Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya (above), Igyonin Beni Tokage had his sword cut by Jiraiya's.

As with Kirenja's demise in Yu Yu Hakusho (above), Lenin's victims are often destroyed far beyond recognition.

Who are the victims?

Heroes of Rio de Janeiro.

The so-called Heroes of Rio de Janeiro are a fanatical, paramilitary group formed by survivors of the Lizardmageddon. 

After the city of Rio de Janeiro was destroyed during the Lizardmageddon, the resistance group was formed by surviving members of Brazilian military and other combatants, who installed themselves in hidden underground bases and outposts (scattered around the locality). 

They support the principle that any actions against the Reptilians are totally justified, including terrorist activities such as sabotage and even suicide bombings. 

They attack with a variety of military rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers (not to mention rocket launchers), as well as machetes, ninjatō, uchigatana, katana, yanmaodao, liuyedao, miaodao and, occasionally, niuweidao. 

Furthermore, they are all equipped with cybernetic exoskeletons (Combat Suits) conceived to fight the monsters ‘on equal terms’. Also and not surprisingly, their cybernetic exoskeletons are equipped with powerful explosive charges, which are intended to be used as self-destruct devices; once activated, the self-destruct device takes a few seconds to charge, and it begins a relatively short countdown (indicated on the display); such devices are built into the Combat Suits themselves, being activated Predator-style. 

Whereas the Heroes of Rio de Janeiro may not be particularly dangerous, what makes them dangerous is their modus operandi, which is all about psychological warfare and guerrilla tactics. 

Furthermore, they are stationed at various outposts (scattered around the district of Bangunza), which keep the Reptilian monsters unaware of the their true numbers and actual base of operations. 

Lenin’s blades always explode the crap out of them.

Shingunto

Kaigunto

Such blades do 12 points of damage and have 60 points of durability, being wielded most commonly by minibosses and bosses during the game.

In contrast to the common enemies, they are Lenin-proof, thus being able to minimize the damage inflicted by the albino Komodo dragon.

As their Hit Points are critically depleted, their swords end up shattered as expected to do, much like the Musashi from Captain Commando (below). 

Much like the Katana Giri and the Sora Katana, respectively from Red Steel and Red Steel 2, the cursed blade will end up shattered.