Sanzu River (三途の川 Sanzu no kawa?) is a battle background found in the game Samurai Shodown III: Blades of Blood developed by SNK Corporation in 1995. The player will always fight in this stage when face Ukyo Tachibana in arcade mode, or if a new challenger chooses Ukyo in versus mode.
Description[]
The battle takes place on a wooden boat that moves from left to right, just in the middle of a dark swamp during the night; the water looks greenish. While the boat advances some things are visible moving from right to left. These are: dry branches or green undergrowth protruding from the water, mossed pieces of wood or stone carved, a Tōrō (灯籠 literally light basket, light tower) with engraved kanjis, a dry tree with branches that have some green leaves, broken trunks, and a floating dead body of a soldier with sword and arrows stuck in his back. When the match finish a flock of black herons begins to fly, and then some of they feathers begin to fall slowly. Far behind of the swamp a forest and the silhouette of mountains are visible.
If the match reaches the climatic moment now the water is more blue and clean, the background of the changes completely and now looks in a dark blue tone showing diagonal aces of light. Fireflies are now fluttering above the swamp.
Music[]
The soundtrack for this stage is a minimal ambient piece called "River" (川 Kawa?).
