That being said, playing defense can also turn against you as non-damaging throws have been implemented that break a fighter’s stance and leave them open to a punishing blow if caught. Of course, should they manage to perform a blade catch, then both fighters will be left with only their fists and kicks until their weapon is retrieved. Punishing a missed strike can increase the damage of a blow by a significant (and shown) percentage and while it is possible to perform precise blocks to nullify damage, player’s can even attempt to parry a blow and send their opponent’s weapon flying to the ground, leaving them open to be punished. While special moves are available to every fighter and technically fairly easy to pull off for many of them, battles are more about properly positioning yourself, timing an attack, and retaliating at the proper moment. In many cases there have been rounds decided with only three strikes being exchanged between the combatants since some attacks deal such high levels of damage.
With such a powerful move at the player’s disposal it quickly will become evident to those unfamiliar with the franchise that Samurai Shodown is a far more strategic fighter than a brawler. The interesting thing about Lightning Blade is that it can deal a staggeringly large amount of damage to your opponent to the point that it can shave off up to eighty percent of their health off with a single strike but should a Lightning Blade miss not only is it not usable for the rest of the fight but your Rage Gauge will also remain gone throughout the fight. It is worth noting that the Rage gauge also allows players access to a Lightning Blade attack that can only be used once per match during a Rage Explosion. To go along with this players will build up a Rage gauge when they receive damage and this gauge can be used to either trigger a Rage Explosion that will significantly increase the damage your character does or perform a powerful Weapon Flipping technique that not only does a massive amount of damage to your opponent but also disarms them. Fighting is fairly simple as players have access to light, medium, and heavy slash attacks that use the fighter’s weapon as well as a kick attack. In many ways Samurai Shodown plays in a way that newcomers will find rather easy to at least grasp the basics of but also incredibly complex due to the fact that matches tend to play out incredibly different from other games in the genre. As such, while it may be serviceable, the relatively archaic approach to a story a bit lacking. This classic arcade style sequence does offer a decent enough narrative for most of the cast, especially since the new face of Darli Dagger and other characters get the same treatment as longtime cast members, but with only sixteen characters at launch it does leave some fan favorites such as Cham Cham and Mina left out of the roster entirely. Rather than trying to tie these stories together each character will end up facing off against a final boss that is the same as others, though some of the in-between fights do give the characters a chance to interact with one another, ever so slightly. Players will have the option of playing as any of the members of the roster who initially have their own set of goals that they journey after, leaving a pile of bodies in their wake.
While this release does feature a story mode it is instead similar to the standard arcade experience.
The question is, has this time at rest let Samurai Shodown come back with a fine finish or has it only gathered rust? Storyīeing a series that originally debuted back in the early ‘90s it may initially seem like Samurai Shodown would be a hard game for newcomers to try and enter but as mentioned before, rather than being a sequel this entry instead can serve as a new starting point for the series as it is technically set between a prequel, Samurai Shodown V, and the original release of Samurai Shodown in 1993. Now after letting it rest for over a decade many were surprised to see that the series would be returning with a revival that is aimed at both reintroducing the game to newcomers and bringing in longtime fans with weapon based technical combat that is unlike many other fighters out there. Once seen as a fairly popular fighting series, Samurai Shodown struggled with its last few releases to the point that SNK had left the series sit for some time. Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here $89.95 AUD – Available Here Overview
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch, PC