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Samurai Shodown II Breakdown (1994) The best 2D sword game ever made

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
Lets be serious here, Samurai stopped being a competitive game the seconds they changed the mechanic from SSII to SSIII and beyond.

Samurai 2 was the perfect 2D sword fighting game, and it was my first introduction to what Footsies and zoning was, many people may have not played this game back then, so allow me to give you a breakdown on what was one of the most competitive fighters considered Triple A games in Angola along side with Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and King of Fighters.


Samurai 2 had every returning char from the first series, and as its precedent, the game was based around what the title stands for, SWORDS!

You read right, the most dominant aspect of the game were your swords, every character had a light, medium and strong sword moves, light, medium and strong Kick moves, and special moves were all affected by strength on how you did them.

The slash mechanic:

Light slash were fast but short range aside from very few, safe on block very fast recovery on whiff, but very small damage.
Although light swords (A) were considered safe on whiff, you timed your slash in anticipation of them recovering from a fast slash you could still catch them on recovery.

medium slash, were most of the time thrust by some, but as any slash, they were safe long reaching in some cases longer than strong slash, and did 3 times the damage a light slash would do, they took more time to come out, but still safe on block.

Strong Slash were scary, they took longer on startup, but in many cases once its out it goes fast in animation, it used to cover a much bigger range and as any other basic slash it was safe on block, however very unsafe if whiffs, they did 4 times the damage a medium slash would do, and with the power meter at max 1 slash could double the damage output immediately and put character right into the stun depending of the character as well.

No basic slash did chip damage either so you swing around your swords as primary tools.

Rage meter: Samurai 2 had a power meter, which would fill as the character took damage making the character turn red as it fills, when filled, a special command would appear on the power meter indicating that the character power move was ready to be used, it was a comeback factor mechanic, with some perks.

When filled it would trigger an animation of the character manifesting his rage (japanese words) which had invincibility frames, any hit done by the character would double in damage, and of course the access to the power move, which could be used until the meter depletes itself after a while, or if the power move connects breaking the opponent's sword.

You could also save rage triggering invincibility frames by canceling the animation with running, giving you only an invincible throw attempt against your opponent.

Aditional basic mechanics
You could prone avoiding mid traveling projectiles or swords by pressing Down, hold Down really fast
You could roll with invincibility frames either forward or backwards, by bressing df twice or db twice.
you could hop over low attacks and projectiles by pressing BC (2+3) either backwards or fowards.

Special moves
Special moves did chip in the game, they were projectiles which were slower in startup mostly in general aside from some zoning characters, DPs and teleports as well.
The game also had some character with super secret OP moves.

Sword deflect (just guard mechanic)
You could deflect swords by timing your guard 1f exactly at the time of impact with the opponent's sword, looks stupid right? It wasn't that easy to do, specially on a game where a strong slash deals nearly 50% damage would you risk your life trying to deflect a very fast slash? lol.

Sword break/ Sword Disarm
You can break your opponent's sword by landing a power on them, the sword breaks into small pieces and they become swordless for a while, the refree a few seconds later will throw another sword at some random place on screen where the opponent can pick it up.

You can disarm your opponent's sword during slash trades, when two slashes trade in hit, the game goes into a sword clash and both character starts to measure their strength and a mini-game is triggered, who ever presses more buttons in less time keeps his sword, sometimes when the number is the same, both character can keep their sword or both are disarmed.

Swordless mechanic
When you're swordless you lose all your sword based moves (you don't say "doge") in some cases you can't even use projectiles, but you gain a aikido move which can grab swords, this is way too OP tho, so ppl let the opponent pick the swords if disarmed.

Those made the game pretty great, although there were zoning characters, grapplers, the game was all about footsies which was pretty fun to those who never tried i would advice to try it out, here is some of my favorite chars from this SS2 game.

Haohmaru
A perfectly balanced Samurai character, he is practially Ryu in SF he is also the main protagonist, he has a short range light, a mid range mid slash, and one of the best strong slashes in the game either standing or airbone, a projectile which can't be used for zoning constantly, very strong DP, a special move that is safe and does chip and can be abused, can deflect projectiles and has a 80% damage secret move, however Haomaru has some flaws, his AA is very weak against some characters and he relies strongly on fundamentals, being this balanced he loses to the most broken chars in the game easily on the tier list he is very high tier. Power move covers his entire body while doing a strong slash, can be used for chip or AA

Galford
A ninja who is aided by a female dog (poppy), galford has horrible sword normals, being his best one his strong jump slash or his medium slash on the ground, but in compensation, he has projectiles with fast recovery, very fast running and a SPD which can come out while he is running, galford also has air throws, can escape stun with substituiton technique, however it sucks, and his secret move makes him full invincible, however you can see him because the dog follows him around.

Galford can use poppy as projectiles in two ways: with punch buttons poppy goes out for a tackle once you press the button, the distance is defined by the strength of it, and the kick version, the dog would only go running to bite you after galford is done giving the order coming out a few frames later, the D version was an anti-air, since the dog would disappear and track with a stomp hitting people trying to jump him over. Power move sucks, its pretty slow

Galford also can throw electric Kunais and can teleport to confuse his opponents, his kawarimi always comes from above which is easily seable due the wood he leaves on screen.

Hanzo Hattori
A perfect version of galford and a more serious one, Hanzo is Galford on crack, athough he doesn't share the same projectiles, Hanzo can fire shurikens while in air, and bouncing bombs while on ground which are harder to avoid due its speed, he also has SPDs which does more damage than galford's, the same horrible normals, but doesn't have a dog to give off his position, so when he goes invisible, its on, his kawarimi move will always come from the ground, he also can come from the air without the wood. His power move is one of the scariest in the game due being very dificult to see, besides Hanzo doesn't manifest himself while using, it just appears on screen and anti-airs

Genjuro Kibagami
Practically the counterpart of Haohmaru, but more vicious and violent, Genjuro also plays very different from Haomaru, being their only similarity that Genjuro also has a DP but its much garbo, he has Rekkas which can cross-up if blocked incorrectly, decent sword normals, although his stronger slash is much slower, it covers more range and does far more damage than any strong slash, genjuro with rage can be compared paul with rage in Tekken, a slash and a dream. Genjuro can zone, he has very fast recovery and fast traveling projectiles. Power move is a safe DP.

Jubei Yiagyu
The mid tier of the game and far easy to use, he has almost everything, a command reflect to prevent people to constantly use swords on him, as result he doesn't have a dp, he has very good sword normals ground or air, but his strong slash has very short range although it hits twice due the animation he doesn't do traditional damage as most of them, a projectile that hits low and force people to jump on him, has a sort of lightining slashes just as chun lightning legs, his dp motion is a tackle that his grounded, and his power move is an anti-air geyser projectile so he can't be jumped when his power is active.

Ukyo Tachibana
It wouldn't be a fighting game without the broken guy, Ukyo uses a chokutó (straight sword) and he is a strong footsie character, his medium slash hits very fast as a light sword, and whiff recovery is super good, and occupies a good space, very hard to hit him out of anything due this single move Ukyo is broken making a very dificult to space and hit character he can mash his mid with practically no repercussions, his strong slash isn't good unless he is crouching, because his strong slash hits low and is lighting fast, luckly its not safe. Ukyo also has a fast traveling sword move which puts him close for a throw, since throws in SSII can't be teched he can throw you almost anytime he does it when you block it, the throw button its also the mid slash button.

And Ukyo can zone, he has one of the best projectiles of the game, because it travels in arc, and its adjustable with the height performance and button strengths making different arcs and just not one to 3 patterns, his power move can crossup if you aren't expecting. all other his normals are bad except for the mid standing, crouch strong slash and Neutral jump strong slash which AAs practially anything. Needles to say, Top tier S+

Gen-An Shiranui
Among the broken chars of the game this is one of the most brokens, i can't even tell in between him and Ukyo who is worse, Gen-An has a very slow projectile, slow traveling but very big hitbox, has DP that are all unsafe since it travels weirdly as jubei's tackle, has a spear like scorpion which grants a free hit based on button strength, but what really broke the char are 2 things his normals and his crouch stance.
His light slash has a the same range as a medium so its safe and hard to hit him out, his neutral jump medium anti-airs when he frustrates you by poking you out with light slashes, and his crouching light kick its a slide that is just as the same as Johnny Cage's F3 on MK9 lol.

While in crouch stance Gen-An hides his hitbox, so he can't be grabbed out of it or opened, since there is no overheads in the game, greatests Ukyo players met their demise to this ugly mofo.

There are more characters, like charlotte who is also broke sealing the top 3 broke chars, nicotine, nakoruru who is on KOF 14 sieger, earthquake, cham cham and Kyoshiro to name a few.

When the sequel came out they switched everything that made Samurai a competitive game and it was never the same again, this mechanic was pretty good and needed some tweaking sadly SNK overlooked and completely changed the game, the SSIII system is the one that they maintained for the future game onward, but it sucked.

However, the sequel brought some interesting characters in to the series, sadly they have never experienced the SSII system, characters like, Kazuki, Sogetsu, Shizumaru, Rasetsumaru, Zankuro, Yoshitora, Rimururo, Suija, Enja and Yumeji Kurokochi would fit right into the SSII system which was more about cutting making it a true samurai game.
 
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Tanno

The Fantasy is the Reality of the Mind
Used to play this game A LOT back in the arcades. My fav is Galford. I still remember the input for the ultra attack for Galford.

F,B,DB,D,DF,F2

I don't remember which button is for the attack to finalize the input.

Used to make good combos that had this ultra attack as ender. I remember that Galford summoned Poppy to skydrop upon the character and saw Poppy shifting to Galford to do double attack on the opponent. xD
 

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
Used to play this game A LOT back in the arcades. My fav is Galford. I still remember the input for the ultra attack for Galford.

F,B,DB,D,DF,F2

I don't remember which button is for the attack to finalize the input.

Used to make good combos that had this ultra attack as ender. I remember that Galford summoned Poppy to skydrop upon the character and saw Poppy shifting to Galford to do double attack on the opponent. xD
HCB,F+D that was the command.
The sky drop was the QCB+D so poppy would come from above.
You could mix plasma blade with poppy to cover up, it was pretty damn good.
 

Tanno

The Fantasy is the Reality of the Mind
HCB,F+D that was the command.
The sky drop was the QCB+D so poppy would come from above.
You could mix plasma blade with poppy to cover up, it was pretty damn good.
Oh yeah. This one!

The character I HATE the most was this green goblin-like dude, because of his spin attacks that looked like Kano's. He always spinned all around the stage.
 

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
nice game , any news about a Samurai Shodown game ? can u imagine SS in EVO :? :cool:
If a SS game is in works it should have the entire SS6 cast, and the gameplay mechanics need to be reverted to SSII, it will be the greatest game ever.

2 of my favorite characters on the sequels are Kazuki, and Sogetsu, those two were pretty damn godlike, there is also the sister Hazuki, which is usually labelled as a very powerful character which is why she is used often to open hell gates and so on, but never a playable character.

Now on SS Warrior's Rage there is Seshiro and Tohma Kuki, Seishiro story is amazing, the samurai who have never lost one fight, he is practically invincible in the story line. him being redesigned in 2D would be pretty damn godlike.
 
SNK hinted at Samurai showdown being there next project but that was before kof 14 it will probably depend on the sales and with that netcode IDK
 

Osagri

Fear the blade of Osh-Tekk
Have only played the third on psx. Was fun game then. I want them to remake primal rage too. Epic old fg's
 

Hara-Killer

Reverse Salt
Samurai Shodown next game with Rasetsumaro and Basara with Kof 14 desing , but with SS2 gameplay mechanics .... i believe that some day SS will come back


Seishiro, will look to that one seems Epic like musashi myamoto
 

Tanno

The Fantasy is the Reality of the Mind
What you described about Seishiro reminds me of the legendary nito ryuu (Dual sword) samurai, Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi never lost his 64 battles, including the one with Sasaki Kojiro, his last battle before his disappearance.

Musashi is the reason I'm like this. A real warrior.
 

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
What you described about Seishiro reminds me of the legendary nito ryuu (Dual sword) samurai, Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi never lost his 64 battles, including the one with Sasaki Kojiro, his last battle before his disappearance.

Musashi is the reason I'm like this. A real warrior.
Myamoto Musashi in SS is portrayed by Haomaru, Seishiro is something else.


I mean, Seishiro is a guy that was born a natural genius, on his profile its described that he has mastered the kuki style and surpassed his own father Tetsuki still as a child, his brother were never on his level, he has a sort of sixth sense, being so experienced in fighting he knows what type of attack you will use a the slight change of angle on your body.
So father was very pleased for him, but Tohma wanted to be the family leader, so he killed their father and took the Koh'roh sword with him, Seishiro snatched the other sword and joined the goverment just to catch Tohma who has joined a rebel forces, during his entire journey in the island he won every single fight including against his own brother without breaking a sweat, due also his "mae" technique which triggers a sort of after image and he moves so fast before his own shadow moves so people are always trying to block his shadow instead of blocking the real one, lol hax.

He is in some sort like Jin Kazama in tekken, Naoki Oikawa played his role pretty well and it made sure to difference himself as much as he could from his other stoic character which is Sogetsu Kazama also from the same series but on a different era.


If SNK has another samurai in works it needs to be 2D, it needs to have the SSII mechanics but tweaked and the roster:
From the original game
Haohmaru
Genjuru
Galford
Hanzo
Wan-Fu
Nicotine
Tam Tam
Cham Cham
Kuroko
Amakuza Shiro Tokizada
Nakoruru
Gen-An
Ukyo
Charlotte
Kyoshiro
Jubei
Rahoujin Mizuki (SSII boss)
Sieger

From warriors rage
Seishiro Kuki
Tohma Kuki
Haito Kanakura
Yuuda (Yuda and Asura's fused entity)
Mitsuki (Asura + Shiki's daughter)
Yoshino Rinka

N64 Series
Shiki
Asura

Post Samurai 2
Kazuki
Sogetsu
Yoshitora
Rimururu
Basara
Shizumaru
Ratesumaru
Enja
Suija
Yumeji Kurokoji
Gaoh
Gaira

Some orignal characters who were only cameo on previous samurais
Tetsuki Kuki (The kuki brother's father, they say on the data book he is very OP)
Hazuki Kazama (Although she keeps getting kidnaped, the sword her both brothers carries has Enja and Suija sealed on them, the sealed them in battle so she is no joke, besides she is a Kunoichi with miko powers)
Kazama Ninja leader (Later it becomes sogetsu but the previous before him was pretty strong)
Hattori Hanzo's father (he was in SS1, the son takes the role in the sequels carrying the same name)

The 3rd version by acquire was ass, not sure if there are memorable characters worth bring it back, who knows, this would be the heavens.
 

Tanno

The Fantasy is the Reality of the Mind
Fuck, I forgot Nicotine. That dude with his poison stuff there. I hated him, too, because he spat poison clouds almost anywhere in the stage.
 

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
Fuck, I forgot Nicotine. That dude with his poison stuff there. I hated him, too, because he spat poison clouds almost anywhere in the stage.
he also had an infinite with his staff, and one of the best zoning in the game with the birds and the flame tiger.
 

Tanno

The Fantasy is the Reality of the Mind
Played it a lot on Arcades between 1999-2002. Along with The Last Blade 2 i think.
One day we should play together in arcade mode. xD

@Eddy Wang , forgot to add that what you described is Musashi's story. His father was also a Kuki master and taught him this before he becomes a samurai with proper swords. This is where his story as Miyamoto started back then.
 

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
One day we should play together in arcade mode. xD

@Eddy Wang , forgot to add that what you described is Musashi's story. His father was also a Kuki master and taught him this before he becomes a samurai with proper swords. This is where his story as Miyamoto started back then.
Makes sense, SNK since Haohmaru was old in warrior's rage they gave Seishiro the Myamoto's role and the Kuki name.
 

Tanno

The Fantasy is the Reality of the Mind
Makes sense, SNK since Haohmaru was old in warrior's rage they gave Seishiro the Myamoto's role and the Kuki name.
If you read Musashi's book "The Book of the 5 Rings", you'll understand all those references there. I got this book, and this is what inspired me since then as a nitoka (someone who practices Nito Ryuu in Kendo). Since his disappearance there were a lot of rumors about his health, his family, etc. There's also this rumor that he opened his own dojo, but never had a student in. Nowadays there are a lot of off-springs of his real style.
 

Tanno

The Fantasy is the Reality of the Mind
he also had an infinite with his staff, and one of the best zoning in the game with the birds and the flame tiger.
Yeah, I remember him. I had a hard time with him zoning on me.

If they make it like MKX, it would be an amazing fighting game.
 

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
If you read Musashi's book "The Book of the 5 Rings", you'll understand all those references there. I got this book, and this is what inspired me since then as a nitoka (someone who practices Nito Ryuu in Kendo). Since his disappearance there were a lot of rumors about his health, his family, etc. There's also this rumor that he opened his own dojo, but never had a student in. Nowadays there are a lot of off-springs of his real style.
Someone who shares sword passion with me, i never though this day would ever come ever since my ninja friend Nova.

Which model its your favorite sword?
I've been foundly of Fumma Kodachis ever since as one of my favorite swords, maybe one of the reasons i enjoyed Skarlet in MK9 a lot, she is also a Nitoka.

Other one i also enjoy mostly are Chokutós which are used in Iaijutsu, one of the hardest sword style to master in samurai shodown is represented traditionaly by Ukyo and later on Yumeji Kurokochi also does it.
 

Tanno

The Fantasy is the Reality of the Mind
Someone who shares sword passion with me, i never though this day would ever come ever since my ninja friend Nova.

Which model its your favorite sword?
I've been foundly of Fumma Kodachis ever since as one of my favorite swords, maybe one of the reasons i enjoyed Skarlet in MK9 a lot, she is also a Nitoka.

Other one i also enjoy mostly are Chokutós which are used in Iaijutsu, one of the hardest sword style to master in samurai shodown is represented traditionaly by Ukyo and later on Yumeji Kurokochi also does it.
I'm 2nd Dan in Kendo, but a beginner in nito style. The 3rd Dan is the Sensei level. :)

My fav swords would be the Miyamoto Musashi and the Muramasa swords. However, they're fucking expensive, and to acquire them you need athletic or weaponry diploma (similar to what the cops and the high level senseis do have).

I would love to practice Iaido, but damn my luck, my sensei (teacher, in Japanese) knows only Kendo. There's another sensei, who knows all of them (Kendo, Iaido, Naginata, and Jodo), but he has his dojo that's too far from my home.

Tanya also practices Naginata, while Kenshi practices Kendo. :p

Iaido is the Iaijutsu itself, just like Kendo is Kenjutsu itself, but they're mostly global sports.
 
I hated this game but could appreciate the artwork of it. Last Blade 2 was by far the best sword game in the 2D era I think, by far. I can't wait for you to do a write-up for that.