Samurai Shodown (2019)

Japanese

サムライスピリッツ
Samurai Supirittsu

Developer(s)

SNK Game Division Studio 1

Publisher(s)

SNK Corporation, Athlon Games, Deep Silver (Europe)

Platform(s)

PlayStation 4
Xbox One, Series X and S
Nintendo Switch
Microsoft Windows
Arcade
Google Stadia

Release

June 25, 2019 (PS4, XB1)
Summer 2019 (Arcade, Japan only)
November 19, 2019 (Stadia)

December 12, 2019 (NS, Japan only)
February 25, 2020 (NS, America)
June 11, 2020 (PC, Epic Games Store)
March 16, 2021 (Series X & S)
June 14, 2021 (PC, Steam)

Genre

Fighting

Modes

1P Story
2-player Versus (offline/online)
Survival
Dojo
Practice

Display

Up to 4K UHD 3840 × 2160 (Series X only)

Graphics

Unreal Engine 4

Rating

ESRB: M for Mature (17+). Blood and gore, partial nudity, violence.

Current Version

2.42 (September 3, 2021)

EMBRACE DEATH AND NO ONE CAN STOP YOU - Game's tagline.

Samurai Shodown (Japanese: Samurai Spirits) is the title for a fighting game developed and published by SNK Corporation for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Google Stadia. It was revealed at Sony’s conference during Tokyo Game Show 2018, and was released worldwide in June 25, 2019 (PS4 and XB1), marking the first time a Samurai Shodown game is launched simultaneous in all regions. Samurai Shodown is the 8th main 2D title in the Samurai Shodown series and the first brand-new title launch in 11 years since Samurai Shodown Sen in 2008.

Overview[]

The first trailer of this new game reveladed the return to the side-scrolling movement and 2D camera perspective, adding tridimensional graphics for character models and stages, as seen before in The King of Fighters XIV (SNK, 2016) and Street Fighter IV (Capcom, 2008). Now common within fighting games, the camera will have movement freedom to take cinematic close-ups during certain moments, like Finishers or Super Special moves. The game features paint-brushed art style influenced by Japanese hand-draw and manga; this art direction (driven by artist Yumi Saji) was chosen thanks to the unique texture, color scheme, very distinct and pleasing art that Japanese style offers, and also to differentiate Samurai Shodown from other titles with a more realistic approach. The traditional, slow-paced, tactical gameplay pays tribute to the series' first titles. "It has a lot of big damaging hits, and feels like a game where you just laugh at how damaging and crazy it is sometimes. We put a lot of focus on pulling the best aspects of the series and putting them together in this new entry in the game series", said game director Nobuyuki Kuroki. True to its roots, the game will have japanese-only voices for characters, narrator and announcer, while text and subtitles will be multi-language (english, spanish, korean, chinese, etc). For the first time in the series, a Samurai Shodown game is accompanied by a main musical theme.

Gameplay[]

Players will engage in 1-on-1, weapon-based combats, using attacks with varying degrees of power. As usual, characters will have their own set of unique special movements, and will be able to perform his signature, powerful super special moves to deal massive damage. As seen in the debut trailer, the classic blood-eruption finishers at the end of the match returns. The tactical Evasion moves will be present to dodge and perform counter-attacks. Locking Swords system also makes a return to this new game, while other defensive techniques like Just Defense and Sword Stun are back as well. Rage Gauge will provide extra power to the player's character when its full, and like early titles in the series some Special Moves will be enhanced to deal extra hits during MAX Rage mode. Weapon-Flipping Technique Super Special moves can be performed when Rage Gauge is at MAX or if Rage Explosion is active; capable to disarm opponents if the movement hits successfully. Similar to Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage each character has a second, Hidden Super Special move even stronger that Weapon-Flipping Technique but only it can be done once per match (this Super Special don't disarm opponents). If the player uses Rage Explosion he is able to do another once-per-match Super Special move called Fatal Flash (a.k.a. Lightning Strike) showing a new cinematic take where background turns red and characters are grey-scaled; whether the player executes this movement successfully or not, Rage Gauge will be canceled for the remaning match.

New to the series is the Dojo Mode that involves "Ghost" character creation. SNK is including a "deep learning AI" technology that studies and learn player's behaviours and tactics only during offline modes (Story, Versus, Survival, etc). With this data the game creates a Ghost character that mimic human skills. This Ghost may be downloaded by other players to have an asynchronous versus experience. In addiction to this, Samurai Shodown will include an "Ironman Challenge" feature with 100 one-round matches with AI-controlled Ghosts.

Plot[]

Samsho19 teaser prologue — Prologue background depicting a battle between Tokugawa and Gaoh armies.

Chronologically this game is set 1 year after the events of Samurai Shodown V (1786) and some months before the original Samurai Shodown game (1788).

Intro[]

The way of the Samurai is to know death.

The way of Shura is to know victory.

I am the ultimate fighter, and all who stand in my way shall...

FALL!

Prologue[]

It is the 1787, the 7th year of the Tenmei era. Tanuma Okitsugu, counsel to the Shogun, loses his grip on power amidst the turmoil within Hinowa. Meanwhile, the newly appointed Matsudaira Sadanobu is chosen to usher in a new age of reform with the Kansei era. However, the land remains beset by fire, ruin, and famine, all while a sinister cloud darkens the air with a foreboding sense of dread.

Characters[]

Samsho19 screenteaser04 — Artwork featuring the main roster

The starting roster features a total of 16 characters, with 13 returning from previous iterations, three newcomers, and a new final boss. Additional characters were added as download content (DLC) with a paid "season" modality (some characters were offered for free). So far there are 2 seasons completed, and a new third season announced.

New to the series[]

Returning[]

Boss[]

Shizuka Gozen (non-playable)

NPCs[]

Kuroko

DLC Characters[]

Season 1[]

Season 2[]

Mina Majikina
Sogetsu Kazama
Iroha
Warden (from For Honor)
Gongsun Li (from Honor of Kings) (Free)

Season 3[]

Cham Cham
Hibiki Tanake (from The Last Blade)
Shiro Tokisada Amakusa
Baiken (from Guilty Gear)

Stages[]

Name	Character
Galleon Senjō (Pacific Ocean) / ガレオン船上 (太平洋)	Galford
Gairyu Isle -Daytime- (Izu) / 骸流島・未の刻 (伊豆)	Haohmaru
Gairyu Isle -Night- (Izu) / 骸流島・丑の刻 (伊豆)	Ukyo
Shibaigoya (Edo) / 芝居小屋 (江戸)	Kyoshiro
Kamui Kotan (Ezo) / カムイコタン (蝦夷)	Nakoruru
Kamui Kotan・Fuyu no Owari (Ezo) / カムイコタン・冬の終わり (蝦夷)	Rimururu
Mikatagahara (Totoumi) / 三方ヶ原 (遠江)	Genjuro
Kumanokodō (Kishu) / 熊野古道 (紀州)	Hanzo
Uduki (Tosa) / 卯月 (土佐)	Jubei
Green Hell (Maya) / グリーンヘル (瑪雅)	Tam Tam
Hall of Minerva (France) / ミネルヴァの間 (仏蘭西)	Charlotte
Nikko (Shimotsuke) / 日光 (下野)	Shizumaru
Sumidagawa (Edo) / 隅田川 (江戸)	Kazuki
Rakuchūsan Monzen (Kyoto) / 洛中山門前 (京都)	Yashamaru
Shizuka Sen-nen Sakura (Everlasting) / しずか千年桜 (常世)	Shizuka
Dojo (Hida) / 道場 (飛騨)	Training Mode

Characters without proper stage (Darli Dagger, Earthquake, Shiki, Wu-Ruixiang, Yoshitora, Basara, Wan-Fu, Mina, Sogetsu, Iroha, Warden, Gongsun Li, Cham Cham, Hibiki, Amakusa and Baiken) can appear randomly during Story Mode in the follow stages: Gairyu Isle (day and night), Mikatagahara, Kamui Kotan (autumn and winter), Kumanokodō, Uduki, Green Hell, Rakuchūsan Monzen, Nikko and Sumidagawa.

Development[]

As part of the announcements and releases during SNK Corporation’s 40th anniversary, the company started a countdown for the reveal of a new game in September 3, 2018. Such countdown finished with the debut trailer in September 10 during Tokyo Game Show 2018. Using art style influenced by Japanese hand-draw, the game is powered by Epic's Unreal Engine 4. In February 26, 2019, SNK release a second teaser trailer with gameplay footage showing screen elements like Life Gauge, Timer, Victory Icons, and Rage Gauge, while the graphics were more polished. The next day the Evolution Championship Series committee published the main roster of fighting games for the 2019 edition, adding Samurai Shodown as tournament title. "The world has a big focus on esports right now, and we also feel that Samurai Shodown is one of the more unique titles in the SNK library", commented Kuroki as one of the reasons to develop this new entry in the series.

SNK was present during the PAX East 2019 activities, releasing a new gameplay trailer which confirmed the return of Yoshitora, Shiki, Ukyo, Genjuro, and more. The first playable build was available for the attendees (Story and Versus modes). SNK members gave interviews to the media and offered a sneak peek panel called “Samurai Shodown – Resurrecting a Legend”. During this panel character designer Joshua Weatherford cited legacy (the same tense and exhilarating battles that the series is known for), evolution (high graphic detail thanks to the Unreal Engine 4), and revolution (Deep Learning AI for the Dojo Mode) as the keywords that best define this “soft reboot”. Weatherford mentioned that new Samurai Shodown is deliberately a non-combo-based fighting game that motivates predicting the opponent, keeping a strong focus on the traditional gameplay of the series where the player is “one strike away from death but also one strike away of victory”. The panel presented the first look at a new character: the sailor Darli Dagger, which according to character designer Weatherford, has “something special” when she is unarmed. Another reveal was a new compilation in collaboration with Digital Eclipse called Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection for late spring 2020 release.

One week later SNK hosted a live streaming revealing the launch date, explaining gameplay mechanics, showing two new characters called Yashamaru Kurama (new protagonist) and Wu-Ruixiang alongside a new trailer with the full starter roster in action. Also, an arcade version was confirmed for Taito's NESiCAxLive2 digital distribution system.

SNK released a Japan-exclusive demo for PS4 (PS Plus account required) and XBO consoles from May 31 to June 20, including Haohmaru, Yashamaru, and Nakoruru as playable characters. This build included Versus (CPU and offline local), Tutorial and Training modes.

During the Stadia Connect online presentation of June 6, 2019, Google confirm that Samurai Shodown will be part of the service's catalogue, becoming the first cloud gaming title in SNK history playable through video streaming. Two days later during the E3 2019 announcements SNK revealed Rimururu as the first DLC character.

During June 2019 in an interview for Korean website GameFocus, Nobuyuki Kuroki turned down an exclusive deal for the PC edition of Samurai Shodown because he felt the game "would sell more than a million copies" instead of just a "pre-order of hundreds of thousands of copies" in exchange of a exclusive-deal for a PC download platform.^[1] However, in March 2020 SNK community manager KAISERWAVE revealed the PC launch exclusively for Epic Games Store during spring 2020, followed by a trailer of upcoming games released by Epic Games.^[2]

Since some time other fighting games like Dead or Alive 6 (Koei Tecmo Games, 2019), Tekken 7 (Bandai Namco Studios, 2017) or Mortal Kombat (Warner Bros. IE, 2011) are including playable characters from other gaming franchises through DLC. For the first time SNK started this kind of alliances with other companies, and the first step was the addiction of Warden: a Vanguard-class Knight hero from the video game For Honor (Ubisoft, 2017). Was announced during the New Game+ Expo on June 23, 2020 (and avaiable for download the next day) as part of the Season 2 DLC characters. The next month was revealed Gongsun Li, a female character from the mobile MOBA game Honor of Kings (internationally adapted as Arena of Valor), and offered for free as final character of the Season 2 since August 5, 2020. During the Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable Yasuyuki Oda and Nobuyuki Kuroki from SNK announced the development of Season 3.

After 1 day of delay in January 7, 2021, SNK published the first trailer of The King of Fighters XV, including a sneak peek for the first 2 characters of the Season 3, one of them previously confirmed as guest character from The Last Blade series. The first returning character is the feral girl Cham Cham, first introduced back in 1994's Samurai Shodown II, and then The Last Blade 2 logo appeared, paving the way to feature Hibiki Takane. Game director Hayato Konya commented that some of the reasons of Hibiki selection was because the character has already appeared in some cross-overs (Capcom vs. SNK 2 being the most important and popular), with a very good and "cool" skill set suitable for the Samurai Shodown series while adapting his gameplay speed. On the other hand, Cham Cham was selected thanks to the high demand from fans, highlighting her play style as quite different from the rest of the characters in the series. In addiction to the Season 3 characters reveal, Konya announced the implementation of a new mechanic called Guard Crush, and a re-balancing of the entire character roster, as well fixing a number of bugs. These changes were included with the 2.10 update.

During the Japan Fighting Game Publisher Roundtable #2 held on February 20 and 21, 2021, SNK released the promotional trailer for Cham Cham, the first character of the Season 3, as well the announcement of a new collaboration, this time with Guilty Gear, a series of weapon-based fighting games made famous by Arc System Works, aiming to be part of this season. In May 16 Amakusa was confirmed as 3rd DLC character of the season and will be released on June 14, 2021.

Release[]

The game was scheduled for release on June 25, 2019, first in PlayStation 4 and Xbox One home consoles. In addition to the standard base game, there are two special editions for Japan: the Limited Edition and Deluxe Pack. Only available in the SNK ONLINE SHOP the Limited Edition comes with several physical items, including the PS4/XB1 game case, special art book, exclusive Haohmaru and Genjuro framed illustration by artist Yumi Saji, Nakoruru and Haohmaru retro-3D skins DLC, all of these items inside a nostalgic Neo Geo MVS-style case. Deluxe Pack only includes the Season Pass voucher, which promises to add new characters during October, December, and February 2020. Players who pre-ordened Standar or Deluxe Pack before July 16 were awared by the special retro 3D skin for Haohmaru that resembles his Samurai Shodown 64 look, while another retro 3D skin for Nakoruru only was available for the Deluxe Pack pre-orders.

In Europe and America the PS4/XBO versions include the Season Pass for free only if customers pre-ordered or bought Samurai Shodown before June 30.

SNK Europe partned with french company Pix'n Love to release a limited Collector's Edition for PS4/XBO PAL versions. This edition includes the game, a 104-pages book of "Ukiyo-e" visuals illustrating the Story mode (Yumi Saji works), 8 double-sided lithographs of the 16 characters of the game, all of this covered by a box with Pantone colors.

For japanese Nintendo Switch users SNK offered as special preorder bonus a digital copy of Samurai Shodown! 2, a portable entry of the series first released in Neo Geo Pocket during 1999. This same offer was also available for the american release of Samurai Shodown.

Although PS4 and XBO version are backwards compatible with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, SNK will release the fist next-gen version of Samurai Shodown during March 16 2021, at the moment exclusively for both Series consoles, including 120FPS gameplay and free update for users that already have the game from Xbox One through Smart Delivery service.

Reception[]

Critial response[]

Samurai Shodown received mostly positive reviews. Review aggregator website Metacritic provided an average score of 81/100 based on 34 reviews, otherwise Game Rankings provided a score of 80.71% based on 17 reviews, all of this is indicating a “favorable” critical reception for the game. Reviewers praised graphics, artistic direction, and classic deep weapon-fighting action, while game modes, character number, online, load times, and Story Mode were the most criticized points.

Ian Walker of Kotaku called Samurai Shodown “slow and deliberate in the best way possible”, feeling that the game’s defensive techniques is where really shines. About the experience: “can be exhausting, even frustrating at times but it’s a truly one-of-a-kind”. Ian notes that the tutorial “leaves a lot to be desired; it teaches the basics, sure, but lacks a real demonstration as to when and where Samurai Shodown’s complicated techniques are best utilized.”

Mitchell Saltzman from IGN put Samurai Shodown in “a good balance between approachability and deeper mechanics that helps separate those who just mash special and heavy attacks from those who take the time to learn”, concluding his analysis commenting that Samurai Shodown succeeds as “a fundamentals-driven 2D fighting game”, with a score of 8.2. He claimed that rewards and punishments for battle reads and big mistakes are on another level, adding “there's an extraordinarily tense style of fighting that is unlike just about anything else in the genre”. Mitchell praise the character roster for its wildly differences, each one brimming with personality and ton of interesting small details, but noticing the Story/Arcade Mode as below today’s standards and outdated, also criticizes the long and boring loading screens. Regarding the Dojo Mode Mitchell qualifies it as “not very impressive” because every ghost he played against “essentially just jumped up and down, never approached, and utilized special moves seemingly at random”.

About the battle pacing Suriel Vazquez from Game Informer called it “interesting”, writing “it’s often best to wait for your opponent to commit to an unsafe bet and punish them rather than start on offense yourself. But you eventually have to take risks to win”. Describing Online mode “works well for the most part, but has a few weak spots” as 10-player lobbies, no option to invite friends into a lobby, and the online connection as “decent overall, but unreliable”. Suriel also did not like the Dojo Mode because “doesn’t really work”. Like other analysts he felt the one player modes as “serviceable, but uninspired” because “they feel dated compared to just about every other fighting game series’ attempt to keep lone players invested”, advising that Samurai Shodown is better enjoyable with other human players. Game concept, painterly art style graphics, classic Japanese sound, and playability were praised.

Eurogamer’s Martin Robinson gave the game a very positive score 4/5 and praising SNK for his return to form into the fighting games. He showed appreciation for the art direction, details, graphics that feels much more coherent and stylish than SNK’s previous effort The King of Fighters XIV, and the combat system where he says “it's the fighting where really shines, delivering a spin on the series that's approachable, deep and full of flair”. Martin thinks Dojo Mode “seem to be capable of putting up a decent approximation of an online fight”. His negative points where the effective but standard Tutorial, skinny Online, and overall scarcity of features, while thinks that roster number “is not as generous with its feature set as it is with its style but they're a distinct bunch complete with some delicious flavors”.

From Destructoid Peter Glagowski describes the experience as “very classic arcade”, and notices the not much number of fighters, limited and not very diverse content, and is critical about the launch price of $60 against the overall game content, but he recognizes the game as an “impressive effort with a few noticeable problems holding it back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash”. Peter highlights Samurai Shodown as a mental game where gamers play with each other’s minds instead of characters: “That back and forth where two minds meld and get into the zone, putting their worries aside and building their friendship over a shared experience. That's exactly what the arcade scene was and Samurai Shodown captures that well. Above all, Samurai Shodown proves that SNK still has its fighting spirit.”

Sales[]

During the 2019 investors meeting in South Korea SNK reported that Samurai Shodown was already become profitable for the company through strong pre-orders.^[3] Within the first week of its release in Japan, physical shipments and digital sales of Samurai Shodown have topped 40,606 units for the PS4 version: 30,179 retail copies and 10,427 digital downloads. To celebrate this SNK will release a free Samurai Shodown theme for the PS4 console during mid-July.^[4] Famitsu placed Samurai Shodown at 4th place of the Japanese software sales chart for the week of June 24, 2019 to June 30, 2019 with 16,662 units sold.^[5] After the launch day SNK reported that physical copies were sold-out or short of stock at some japanese stores, and new shipmets are on the way. Samurai Shodown doubled the numbers that The King of Fighters XIV pulled back in 2016 during its first week in Japan (20,655). Other fighting games as Soulcalibur VI and Dead or Alive 6 did 24,049 and 26,442 copies respectively,^[6] while was closer to the Street Fighter V first japanese week sales during 2016 (41,990).^[7]