The fighting genre has seen a huge push lately due to the return of a couple heavy hitters, and its community is alive more so now then it has been for years. SNK Playmore and Xseed are looking to jump back into the fray with the release of Samurai Shodown Sen – a continuation of the series which has been running for 17 years now. The player is transported into the year 1791, where a U.S. Revolutionary war veteran is attempting global domination, and stopping him is the goal of each international fighter. Countless warriors, both series favorites and new characters alike flock to the scene where a the general is planning to raise his army, but can they stop him in time? Samurai Shodown Sen aims to fill the gap left recently with the lack of weapons based combat, as you’ll slash and stab at your opponents in a battle to the death. The question is: can it hold its own against the recent stream of great fighting games? The answer is an unfortunate “No,” due to a fundamentally flawed combat system built on elementary balance issues.
Fighting games live or die based on their controls, because a fraction of a second can be the difference between hitting the opponent and taking one. Unfortunately, Samurai Shodown suffers from occasionally imprecise controls, as it’s not totally uncommon to do things like jump when trying to move, or even miss an attack input altogether. This can cause a huge problem when the battles become close, and extremely frustrating when a single misread input happens to be the difference between winning and losing. Combat in Samurai Shodown also appears to be very inconsistent in terms of damage as well, which often directly impact how the game is played. The controls brake down to horizontal/vertical slash motions, kick, grab and strong versions of each slash. Weak attacks are fairly easy to combo up for damage, but in the long run they seem completely irrelevant due to the sheer power of the stronger attacks. It takes about three of the weaker combos to deal out the same damage as one of the strong swipes, and considering weak combos have to hit just the same to do damage, it’s almost not even worth it. If the player hits one of every four strong attacks, and in return gets hit with weak combos every time an attack misses, the player would likely still win. It only takes three to four strong attacks to kill an enemy, so fights against the computer can often boil down to blocking a combo, and then countering with a strong attack. Rinse and repeat until victory is achieved.
Fights against live opponents can be a bit more exciting however, if not potentially more frustrating at times. Most people are able to react in time to block a randomly used strong hit, so weak quick shots are definitely more important to use against them. However, even weak combos don’t function as they should, because the opponent can often block the latter half of it. The game also appears to calculate damage based not only on the attack used, but the direction or previous action of the opponent as well. This sounds intriguing at first, and in reality makes sense because careful attacks and sound defense should be considered when wielding swords. However in terms of balance and even fairness it just does not work out as well as it should. The player could be dominating an opponent entirely for the majority of the match, but a single slash from the enemy could instantly even up the match by taking away half a health bar or more. The issue isn’t that these attacks are so extremely damaging even, but more so that they often occur randomly. If they could be predicted, they could be avoided or potentially countered. One moment a counter slash will take away a quarter of a health bar, but the next time the situation arises it takes away much more. This fact alone can make online matches a test of luck over skill, and that is not a good attribute for a fighting title.
Samurai Shodown Sen was actually released two years ago in Japan, but has only recently made its way to our shores. Due to this fact, the graphics are a little dated by today’s standards. Character models themselves aren’t too bad, with enough visual difference between every character to make them unique in design style. They are each detailed relatively well in different types of armor that range from classic samurai warrior gear to knight armor from the french army, which glisten fairly realistically. The real issue is within the stages featured in the game however. Most arenas are dark with very little stagnant scenery to speak of, and what is there is often cut and pasted over and over again to fill space. The only interesting stages appear outside of Japan, where day time fights in American country western towns or desert markets at least look like they’d been given some thought and attention. In these stages the battles seem significantly more interesting just due to the fact that the places look lived in and used, rather then dark blank emptiness.
In terms of sound design, the stage music of some stages seem playful and cheery, which is enjoyable even if it isn’t exactly the best fit for the action. Samurai Shodown includes a couple of instrumental songs that sound like they were taken from Banjo & Kazooie or even Zelda titles of the past, along with a bunch of other bare bone track offerings. Outside of the stage music and standard fighting noises, there is very little to speak of here though. Characters scream in pain when they’ve been defeated, and yell a small selection of grunts that people often do to make themselves sound intimidating. Swords slash opponents in an overly exaggerated way when hit, while clinking together if a block is successful. Overall the combat noises are fitting and timed well enough, but a little more variety within them would not hurt. The only announcing in the title is a generic start to each round, though it does it’s duty well enough. Each character has a Japanese voice, which is relegated to a brief (English) text-based story opening and a single end round quote only.
Unlike the titles mentioned above however, Samurai Warriors is not a game for children. Every fight is a battle to the death as per samurai tradition, which means the victor gets to see the light of another day, while the loser dies an honorable death on the battlefield. Honorable sure, but entertaining? Not very. There are a total of 4 death animations in the game, which are based upon the last attack used to finish off an opponent. Vertical slashes cut of a hand, horizontal slashes cause decapitation, body shots cause a massive blood splatter from the chest, and on a very rare occasion it is possible to chop someone clean in half. Each death animation features an exorbitant amount of blood shooting out of the severed body part like a fountain, and the same cheesy slow falling motion as the last one. The limited variety isn’t only related to deaths however, as all connecting strong attacks trigger the same animations, and this theme extends to other facets of the game as well. There is a wide variety of unique looking characters to choose from, but some characters of similar types share certain attacks with each other. In fact, every single character has the exact same basic grab attack, which is disappointing because not all characters even fit the animation properly, and some truly creative moves could have easily come from this instead. Variety is not a strong suit of this title even in game modes, with only 3 variations: Story mode, Vs mode (offline or online) and Survival.
The menu system in Samurai Shodown Sen looks pleasantly hand drawn, and is very easy to navigate. Character selection is enjoyable as each one has an artistic picture along with a name and subtitle that often hints at their personality. Entertaining as well because some are grammatically incorrect due to translation issues, while others still use old or odd English slang. This can be slightly annoying, but it also reminds you that this game is distinctly Japanese since even the game’s achievements are full of grammatical errors. Loading screens are particularly well made though, featuring great character drawings as well as a useful guide to some of the attacks that can be used. It’d be a good idea to study up on a couple of these each time they pop up, because they can on occasion be useful when nothing else seems to work.
The Rundown
Ultimately, Samurai Shodown Sen is a title lacking the polish and depth found in the other brawlers available at this time. Poor controls and odd damage calculations dampen what could have been an entertaining experience, while plain scenery and dated graphics make it a little stale for the eyes. It knows what it wants to be and at first appears to claim mild success, but the experience grows thin and tiresome after a short period of time. When there are a handful of better options already available or coming soon, it’s rather hard to recommend this brawler.
