LogFAQs > #949963558

#48. Samurai Shodown (PS4, 2019)

Samurai Shodown feels like a fighting that was made specifically for me. Everything I want is here. Characters are unique and interesting, but also, fights play out so well.

SamSho is not a game of big combos. You just use a couple moves that hit hard, and they HIT HARD. Super moves can do like 50-80% damage. Some characters' heavy attacks can do like 25-35%. It sounds like rounds should just move lightning fast, but that's not the case. If a heavy attack misses, or even gets blocked, the recovery time feels like days. You can then get hit back with a big attack. Sometimes, using 40 of the light attacks will be more effective than using 4 of the heavy attacks. Everyone also has a weapon that they are doing the attacks with. You can also try to knock away your opponent's weapon, making it much easier to try the big stuff on them. Sometimes, fights turn into a giant game of chicken where both players are trying to not make the first major move, and it gets very tense as time winds down.

The real interesting mechanic is the rage meter. As you take damage, the meter builds. When it fills completely, you have access to a second super move. You can also use a rage explosion, which stops the timer temporarily, makes you stronger, and gives you access to a third super attack. The rage explosion is great for late game comebacks. Also, activating it during an opponent's attack or combo will get you out for free, giving you a second chance at life or letting you escape one of those 50% damage supers. It's super interesting because you can only use it one time per game, so if you use it in the first round, it's gone in the other rounds. The game is already intense with calculated attacks, but then trying to decide which round you want to try to salvage or go all in on, when the opponent can make the same call, just adds to the interesting possiblities.

There are two major points that really keep this game from being up around say, my top ten games. The first is that the netcode is pretty bad, an issue that pops up a lot in fighting games for some reason. Sometimes it gets choppy when I try to play someone who lives only 100 miles away. Also, not a ton of people play this, so it was hard to get matches in real life, and hard to get good matches online (and even when I do, they often run like poop). Because it wasn't quite as popular as other fighting games, I haven't had a chance to enter a tournament for SamSho yet. I was signed up to compete in one last April, but uh, you know, stuff happened. Edit right after writing this last night, but before posting it today, I found a free online tournament that happened last night just to get people together to play. I only went 1-2, but each match was a lot of fun and very intense. Every little tiny exchange can be so important.

Just to show how wild it can get, here's some footage from Evo. Starting 9:38 in the below video is the final round of this set, might be the single most intense round of a fighting game I've ever seen. This whole set was interesting, but that final round is so dramatic.

https://youtu.be/uDKhDDx2E2M?t=578



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