Samurai Shodown series

The most recurrent logo of the Samurai Shodown series

Samurai Shodown (サムライスピリッツ Samurai Supiritsu, lit. "Samurai Spirits"), usually abbreviated as SamSho, is a series of fighting video games created by SNK Corporation (known as SNK PLAYMORE during 2003-2016), which in turn spawned a number of related media. Overall, the Samurai Shodown games are well known by its mid-paced, weapon-based gameplay where each movement must be well measured, and its Japanese feudal setting.

Overview

Background

Following the release of the highly successful Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Capcom, 1991), more companies ventured to launch 1vs1 fighting games to arcade or home consoles like to capitalize the trending with different degrees of success. SNK Corporation was among such companies, adding new features on each game to appeal gamers. With company veterans and Capcom’s former employees the first 3 titles under this genre were Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2, and Art of Fighting for the Neo Geo Multi Video System.

First ideas

Early concept sketches.

Meanwhile, SNK producer Yasushi Adachi was in early stages of the development of a 2D side-scrolling beat ‘em up (working title "Ninja Wars") where the player had to face numerous creatures, mixing ideas from Golden Axe and King of Monsters. The protagonist of this cancelled project was an anti-hero with green skin and “scissor-hands”; this character managed to make the jump into the first Samurai Shodown, now better known as Genan Shiranui. The second stage of this development was known within SNK as "The Samurai", adding a 2-player mode and more characters that later would be the inspiration for Wan-Fu, Galford, Haohmaru, and Hanzo. Gameplay ideas like Locking Swords and Sword Stun were sketched during this time. The goal of the Adachi team was reproduce the coolness of the ninja and samurai films with all kind of crazy attacks, damage level, and the exciting of the steel-weapon clashing. Then Adachi switch the development direction towards a fighting game with typical warrior classes from the Japanese folklore as ninjas and ronin-like swordsmen, this decision was made keeping in mind good sales around the world.

Fight system

The idea of a fighting game “weapon vs weapon” was also a contribution of Adachi because he and his team wanted to capture the horror of dealing with deadly weapons like a sword or katana. He reflected this in-game with the bombastic amount of damage when a player suffers the attack of a Strong Slash. Although this decision was critiqued internally by SNK, Adachi continue working with this concept in mind, in the end this helped to produce tension and drama on gamers while facing each other, where each risk or error could determine a match. This intentional unbalance of power and damage has been adjusted and improved over the years with each release in the series.

Another innovation was the use of a secondary gauge besides Life Gauge; this is the Rage Gauge. The idea born when members of the “Samurai Gumi” dev team was all playing Street Fighter II: The World Warrior for research purposes. Background designer Tomoki Fukui beat Yasushi Adachi and made fun of him. This caused fury and frustration on Adachi, which served as inspiration for the Rage Gage. This bar grows every time a player suffers damage; when it’s full the POW word intensifies and the player can inflict more damage to the opponent. This helps gamers to make a comeback if they're losing.

With each new release, new battle and system features have been added such as Character Technique, Rage Explosion, Meditation, Concentration One, Fatal Flash, No Contest, Overkill, and many more.

Setting

Creative direction and choose of the Japanese feudal setting was responsibility of Adachi. Thanks to the idea of global audience appeal the development team was able to add foreign characters from different nationalities like France, United States, China, or South America; thanks to this Tomoi Fukui create very varied, colorful and unique backgrounds for a fighting game at the time.

One of the “Samurai Gumi” targets was create a game mixing fantasy elements with real-life events, people and locations, keeping some sense of reality: Haohmaru and Ukyo are based on the famed swordsmen Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro, respectively; Jubei Yagyu, Hanzo Hattori, and Amakusa took obvious inspiration from historical figures of the same name. Characters with Western nationality like Galford, Charlotte, Andrew, or Neinhalt Sieger represent the point when Japanese people began to interact with foreigners from America or Europe. Some characters also took inspiration from other fictional works like films (Samurai Reincarnation (1981)), manga (Basilisk, Rurouni Kenshin), and anime (Ninja Scroll).

Tomoki Fukui states that this target had priority over an “official timeline”, creating confusion among the fans because Samurai Shodown III: Blades of Blood and Samurai Shodown IV: Amakusa's Revenge occur between the original Samurai Shodown and Samurai Shodown II; and Samurai Shodown V occurs before the original Samurai Shodown again. But starting with Blades of Blood, the Samurai Gumi team was able to adjust the timeline in a way that events make sense.

Music and sound

The responsible of the background music and sound effects of early Samurai Shodown game was Yasuo Yamate, better known as TATE NORIO. Without having previous experience composing traditional Japanese music but in concordance with Adachi’s general concept, TATE NORIO was able to deliver great quality tracks with instrument sounds of shamisen, koto, or taiko thanks to the capabilities of the PCM audio format found in the Neo Geo hardware. This kind of music composition in fighting games was unique at the time, improving the feeling and depth of the duels with themes ranged from rhythmic, calm, ambiental, enka, or rocker songs. While other early 90s games had cartoonish sound effects, Samurai Shodown games features a wide range of effects when characters are taking damage or during weapon clashes (recording and mixing sounds of objects commonly found in home or office); even the stage backgrounds had its unique S.E. set played during most of the match. For the first time in its gaming history, SNK hired voice actors for bring life to all character’s roster.

Thanks to the popularity of the Samurai Shodown games, music publishers like Pony Canyon and Scitron have released Original Soundtrack albums for most of the series, including CD dramas and Arranged Soundtracks featuring TATE NORIO and the SNK Sound Team performing with real-life instruments. These albums never did western releases, but actually some of the Original Soundtracks are available on Spotify.

Art and design

Each of the characters in the Samurai Shodown series features high level of detail, like its face, hairstyle, shoes/sandals, costume, etc., reflecting the era of the setting, character’s personality and occupation/job in their lives. The same applies to the stage’s backgrounds; the first three games have stages based on a specific character that make synergy (Kyoshiro: kabuki scenario; Nakoruru: Hokkaido’s nature; Hattori: desolate places; etc.). On later games the stages become more detailed thanks to the developers’ experience and new hardware. Samurai Shodown VI even took more freedom, portraying stages outside Japan about world festivities, but in Samurai Shodown Sen the battle stages saw a return to the Japanese roots.

Regarding printed and promotional art, nobody of the Samurai Gumi team was involved in this task; instead, a design marketing team inside SNK was responsible to assign artists to draw characters, having as its only reference the character’s sprites. The first (and most remembered) main artist was Jin Mera, pencil name Eiji Shiroi, whose style relies on dynamic brush strokes and characters posed with a subtle flow of motion. The second artist was Toshiaki Mori, better known by fans as Shinkiro. He was responsible of the iconic key art for the first Samurai Shodown game, used as cover for the MVS, AVS, and most of the home console ports. For Samurai Shodown 64 was the turn of Senri Kita, and for the first time in the series a graphic artist also draw the printed art; other of his works in the series are Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage, Samurai Shodown V, and Samurai Shodown Sen. Takkun was the main in-game character artist in Samurai Shodown V, reprising this role in Samurai Shodown VI, also responsible of the printed art. Samurai Shodown V Special saw the special collaboration with late artist Satoshi Itoh for in-game portraits and promotional art.

Installments

Standalone Titles

Main series games are in bold.

English title	Japanese title	First Release	Year/Period	Japanese Era	Canonical Storyline
Samurai Shodown	サムライスピリッツ Samurai Spirits	July 7, 1993	1788 (early spring through early summer)	Tenmei Era (8th Year)	Yes
Samurai Shodown II	真サムライスピリッツ 覇王丸地獄変 Shin Samurai Spirits: Haohmaru Jigokuhen	October 28, 1994	1789 (spring through summer)	Tenmei Era (9th Year)	Yes
Samurai Shodown III: Blades of Blood	サムライスピリッツ 斬紅郎無双剣 Samurai Spirits: Zankuro Musoken	November 15, 1995	1788 (summer through early autumn)	Tenmei Era (8th Year)	Yes
Samurai Shodown IV: Amakusa's Revenge	サムライスピリッツ 天草降臨 Samurai Spirits: Amakusa Korin	October 2, 1996	1788 (autumn through early winter)	Tenmei Era (8th Year)	Yes
Samurai Shodown RPG	真説サムライスピリッツ 武士道列伝 Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits: Bushido Retsuden	June 27, 1997	?	?	Yes
Samurai Shodown 64	侍魂 ~SAMURAI SPIRITS~ Samurai Tamashii ~Samurai Spirits~	December 19, 1997	1789 (autumn) through 1790 (summer)	Tenmei Era (9th Year) and Kansei Era (1st Year)	Yes
Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage	SAMURAI SPIRITS 2 アスラ斬魔伝 Samurai Spirits 2: Asura Zanmaden	October 16, 1998	1790 (late autumn through winter)	Kansei Era (1st Year)	Yes
Samurai Shodown!	サムライスピリッツ! Samurai Spirits!	December 25, 1998	1788 (autumn through early winter)	Tenmei Era (8th Year)	Yes
Samurai Shodown! 2	サムライスピリッツ! 2 Samurai Spirits! 2	April 30, 1999	1790 (late autumn through winter)	Kansei Era (1st Year)	Yes
Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage	剣客異聞録 甦りし蒼紅の刃 サムライスピリッツ新章 Kenkaku Ibunroku – Yomigaerishi Soko no Yaiba – Samurai Spirits Shinsho	December 22, 1999	1811	Bunka Era (7th Year)	Yes
Nakoruru: The Gift She Gave Me	ナコルル～あのひとからのおくりもの～ Nakoruru ~Ano Hito kara no Okurimono~	July 6, 2001	?	?	Yes
Samurai Shodown V	サムライスピリッツ零 Samurai Spirits Zero	October 10, 2003	1786 (January through late summer)	Tenmei Era (6th Year)	Yes
Samurai Shodown V Special	サムライスピリッツ零SPECIAL Samurai Spirits Zero SPECIAL	April 22, 2004	1789 (mid-autumn)	Tenmei Era (9th Year)	No
Samurai Shodown VI	サムライスピリッツ 天下一剣客伝 Samurai Spirits: Tenkaichi Kenkakuden	September 14, 2005	1799 (new century start)	Kansei Era (10th Year)	No
Samurai Shodown Sen	サムライスピリッツ閃 Samurai Spirits Sen	April 17, 2008	1791	Kansei Era (2nd Year)	Yes
Samurai Shodown (2019)	サムライスピリッツ Samurai Spirits	June 25, 2019	1787	Tenmei Era (7th Year)	Yes
Samurai Shodown V Perfect	サムライスピリッツ零SPECIAL完全版 Samurai Spirits Zero SPECIAL Kanzenhan	June 11, 2020	1789 (mid-autumn)	Tenmei Era (9th Year)	No

Compilations

English title	Japanese title	First Release
Samurai Spirits: Kenkaku Shinan Pack	サムライスピリッツ剣客指南パック Samurai Spirits: Kenkaku Shinan Pack	March 26, 1998
Samurai Spirits Best Collection	サムライスピリッツ ベストコレクション Samurai Spirits Best Collection	August 6, 1998
Samurai Shodown Anthology	サムライスピリッツ 六番勝負 Samurai Spirits: Rokuban Shobu	July 24, 2008
Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection	サムライスピリッツ ネオジオコレクション Samurai Spirits NeoGeo Collection	June 11, 2020

List of Mechanics

Main categories: Game System and Moves

Introduced in Samurai Shodown

• Rage Gauge
• Rage Mode
• Locking Swords
• Fatality

Introduced in Samurai Shodown II

• Super Special Moves:
  • Weapon-Breaking Technique
  • Hidden Super Special
• Just Defense / Sword Stun

Introduced in Samurai Shodown III

• Technique Selection
• Level Selection
• Weapon-Flipping Technique
• Torso Attack
• Evasion
• Back Attack
• Defense Breaker
• Rage Build

Introduced in Samurai Shodown IV

• Rage Explosion
• Combo Slash
• Link Slashes
• Weapon-Toss Provocation
• Honorable Death
• Fatal Flash
• No Contest

Introduced in Samurai Shodown V

• Sword Gauge
• Concentration One

Introduced in Samurai Shodown V Special

• Overkill

Introduced in Samurai Shodown VI

• Spirit System
• Mikiri Slide

Legacy

Many of the Samurai Shodown games’ elements exceed in the gaming industry, serving as staples for upcoming weapon-based and traditional fighting games, these are: dynamic camera zoom, power gauge, stamina gauge, 3D movement with joystick (Samurai Shodown 64), parries, the ability to run, possibility to choose one of two alignments/move sets per character, and maneuvers to dodge enemy attacks (ducks and rolls).

Trivia

• The title of the series is misseplt; it should be "Samurai Showdown". This misspelling was intentional as, according to Yasushi Adachi, this was because SNK’s U.S. distributor thought that "Spirits" (from the Japanese title of the series, "Samurai Spirits") did not properly explain to consumers what the game was about, and suggested that it be replaced with "Showdown" instead. The 1980 miniseries, Shōgun, was still popular at the time, so they suggested that the word should be spelt as "Shodown" as a reference to it.