"Bushido Blade"

Is it the best fighting game ever or what? Kengo series doesn't even come close.

I still wish they'd update the original Bushido Blade series with a Bushido Blade 3. Next gen stuff, with current day setting (like BB1 and BB2), and milenia old sword play =D

Had a quick bash of this recently, seemed like a really good fighting system. I didn't have a chance to really get into it. I think I'd just stopped playing Way Of The Samurai though, so at the time I really couldn't see the point in *just* fighting.

Kengo games were quite good, I thought, some nice duelling stuff in there but a little less realistic than could be desired. More story than BB thankfully IIRC

CyberClaw wrote:
Is it the best fighting game ever or what? Kengo series doesn't even come close.

I still wish they'd update the original Bushido Blade series with a Bushido Blade 3. Next gen stuff, with current day setting (like BB1 and BB2), and milenia old sword play =D

Yeah I love this game and still have a nice mint copy lurking somewhere... it's a bit chunky and awkward by todays standards but still an excellent game. Kengo was a real dissapointment and a shit game.

Yeah a Bushido Blade 3 would be a great idea but based in the past without some of the fruity characters it had.

I completly disagree. Although the animation frames are nothing compared to nowadays animations, the fighting system, in both BB1 and BB2 holds very well to this day. I've chalenged many friends and foes alike for battles to death, and other than a anoying bug, we feel bushido blade still takes us to that place where samurai live by the sword.

If they made BB3, I'd really hope for it to be in a modern setting. One of the cool things about bushido blade, was about being in a modern age, where samurai still survived and lived by their code. They had some samurai who still used the old dress code, while others used more modern body armor, or even long trenchcoats...

Bushido Blade introduced some stupid characters (the zorro guy for example), and the groove big afro guy, but they did have 30 characters to pick from...

I remember picking the guy in yellow, choosing the simple katana and then running at each other doing the down-ward slash. No one really learned to fight correctly in my group bar me, who picked the guy with the long coat and went into the sheathed sword stance all the time and just quick draw killed them when they got close.

My memory is foggy, there was usually alot of alocohol doing the rounds when we had group playings.

absolutezero wrote:
I remember picking the guy in yellow, choosing the simple katana and then running at each other doing the down-ward slash. No one really learned to fight correctly in my group bar me, who picked the guy with the long coat and went into the sheathed sword stance all the time and just quick draw killed them when they got close.

My memory is foggy, there was usually alot of alocohol doing the rounds when we had group playings.

You are most likely mixing both Bushido Blades.
The guy with a long coat was on Bushido Blade 1. But he didn't have a "sheathed sword stance" in BB1. No one had special stances in BB1. In BB1 there was 3 general stances everyone could access (high medium or low).
In BB2, there were 3 stances a character could access out of 5 or 6 per weapon. I dunno if the sheathed stance was accessible by the same character, but the long coat character didn't have the long coat in BB2 (he wore a kimono in BB2).

But that game is amazing when 2 people who fairly dominate the game face each other. I've had fights last well over 5 minutes. Intensive fights, which would sometimes end in sepuku (pressing select would make you give up)... We played by the Bushido (back killing for example, would count as a victory, but would usually result in everyone ganging up on the dishonorable bastard on real life).

I recall one heated BB1 fight that lasted well over 10 minutes. We went all over the place, the mud pitt, and back to the bamboo field. Near the end, I had the legs injured (in kneeled position), as well as the off weapon hand (holding the sword with only one hand), and I was using a katana. My foe only had the off hand damaged, and was using a nodachi (which is a curved japanese 2 meter long sword - similar to the one Sephiroth uses), which had a very long reach compared to the katana. He made a swift strike to my head, I threw my character to the ground while he continued the 4 attack combo, rolled to the left, and cutted him upwards while getting up to my knees again.

I squealed. I squealed like a pig. I squealed I tell you. "I won I won" I squealed (actually, it was in portuguese so it was more like "ganheeeeeiiii, ganheeeeiiii", ence the squealing), while jumping up and down on my bed...

To this day, my gaming friends celebrate their "smashing victories" every now and then, by squealing and jumping up and down... But it was a sweet fight...

While the first was ace for all that matters, the second was a bit "meh". Why they were so quickly forgotten remains the biggest PSX mystery - it was by far the most innovative console fighter of the 32-bit era, by dropping out power bars and including some nice details to boot (such as patches and bandages from previous injuries)

On the other hand, I remember only beating the game once. Just once. The "none are more contemptible etc" thing was a bit too random, to say the very least.

Edited by wolfen at 14:49:33 01-04-2006

Absolutely loved this game and still have it in the cupboard, sadly gathering dust but still sitting proud :)

Would a new sequel work?

I sold my Bushido Blade. I guess I'm going to have to go look on eBay now! dammit!

I had fond memories of this one, and after reading the article about it in Games TM, I bought a copy off the Amazon marketplace.

Still great. Slow, fiddly, in dire need of a remake, but it is great.

When any strike could kill you, the tension increases dramatically, so why in the name of hairy hell has no-one been working on making more ultra-realistic swordfighting games?

Absolutely loved this - wasn't so hot on the second game, but the first one is one of my favourite 2player games ever. I think it's pretty much the only fighting game where I've sat up all night with someone and played hundreds of rounds without ever getting bored - the potential for variety and new tactics was almost endless.

I, too, crave a really nicely made next-gen sequel...

BB fans who haven't played Way Of The Samurai really should pick it up. Fantastic game, which really rewards multiple playthroughs. Quite a deep combat system, too.
:)

I dunno, I found the combat in WotS a bit repetetive after a while, fights took too long, and even though you were often surrounded, only 1 guy would attack you at a time.
Still, almost a classic.

One for the PSP emulation methinks? I really, REALLY wanted to try this back in the day, but never got round to getting it.

Bushido Blade was a brilliant game, but none of my mates would play it with me because it was harder and slower than Tekken :(

/slices bamboo

Hmmmm, I never did track down this game again. I might have a look on eBay in a bit.

Try the amazon marketplace if you have no joy on eBay. I ordered and had my copy on the next day.

Neat.

man, i loved this game!

Universal Hamster wrote:
I dunno, I found the combat in WotS a bit repetetive after a while..

Even with all the different weapons? The ninja sword was great fun :)

Yeah, even with. I think if they had made the fights a bit quicker and riskier it would have kept things fresh.