You are welcome.You describe Kensei Pretty well. The graphics are nice for a PS1 game. I was impressed by them. But the controls are really bad as you say. And the characters are generic. Other fighteres oft hat time played way more fluent. The game still had some potential though as you say. A further entry on the ps2 /xbox or gamecube or example could have removed some of the flaws.
Speaking of Bloody Roar, I purchased the first ps1 game yesterday and will get the Bloody Roar 3 soon as well. I will report when I have checked them out. I think I will like them. YouTube does not tell the full Story of Course but what I have seen Looks quite good and if the controls are not a total desaster the games could be fun.
And yeah I have another semi recommendation .
Ehrgeiz for PS1 from Squaresoft. It is Fighting game were you can go to battle with the squaresoft characters. Some characters from from FF7 are also inculuded, like Cloud, Tifa Sephirot and Yuffi.
It is solid PS1 port from the more powerful model 12 arcade System. The game does not do anything wrong I was just not so much impressed by it because it came out so late in Europe. The US an Japan release in 1998 and the pal versio did not arrive until early 2000.
After seeing footage of Soul Caliber, Virtua Figher 3 and Dead or Alive 2 on the Dreamcast Ehrgeiz just looked so last gen. I still purchased the game and fun with it but was not impressed by it.
I'm actually really disappointed that Kensei wasn't better, and more so that it didn't spawn any sequels, though I'm not surprised considering it released in 1998. What I mean by that is we already had Virtua Fighter 1,2,3 DOA 1, Tekken 1, 2 and 3 by the time Kensei came about. I feel if Kensei would have been out before VF or Tekken 1 it may have been received a lot better, even with the bad controls and generic characters cause it would have been the first 3D title. But since it came late to the party it looks like Konami just lazily copied what worked for the other 3 big 3D franchises from the early-mid 90s and released it. I do feel that it would have been a significant improvement with the PS2/Xbox gen and probably very efficient by the time the PS3/360 gens were out if it had been another sequel. We will never know what amazing story or gameplay could have come through Kensei, because all the ground work is laid out in the PS1 version, its just lazy feeling and about 3-5 years too late to the party. After Virtua Fighter 2 and Tekken 3 were out, it was over for all other 90s fighters trying to come after that and compete, in my opinion. Of course there's always more room for fighting games cause it's a great genre, and even poorly made games like Street Fighter can get over with the public because it was something different in its time, though not even as decent as Kensei, but SF had better characters and did a few things to stand out from the 3D titles, albeit those things were mostly not good but it set it apart for sure.
As for Bloody Roar, unless its an availability or cost issue I'd highly recommend 4 over 3 or Primal. Not telling you what to do but 4 is by far the best overall. If you're buying one for PS1 and another from the PS2 gen to taste test the vibe of both styles(cause the 2 on PS1 feel a bit different from the later ones) I totally get that, but 3 is the weakest of the post-PS1 titles. Though again, none of the Bloody Roar games are bad at all. Their fighting mechanics are far beyond Kensei but fall short compared to VF, Tekken, DOA, SoulCalibur or MK to give you some perspective, and that's just because those 5 franchises are at the top of the heap for fighting titles. I'd say Bloody Roar is at the high side of the next layer down comparable in quality to the SNES Killer Instinct in quality, though different entirely in gameplay.
I haven't thought about Ehrgeiz in decades! Or as we called it in the PS1 days 'Our Guys', not even sure if thats how its pronounced. A friend of mine that introduced me to Tekken 3 had purchased Ehrgeiz when it came out and I couldn't get into it mainly because I'm not into Final Fantasy, though I do see the appeal to those who enjoy that franchise.
I have another recommendation, and its highly recommended if you haven't already played these two games, especially if you enjoy the PS1 retro vibe. This is coming from someone who has a hard time enjoying PS1 games and I STILL enjoy these 2 as much as I did a long time ago, just wish there were a reboot: Bushido Blade 1 & 2.