In a set of fighting games that weren’t trying anything to really stand out from each other, getting more repetitive with each one I tried out, the original Samurai Shodown managed to be a breath of fresh air for me, and I ended up really enjoying it. Sure, it was more or less just another SNK fighting game at its core, but with the inclusion of weapons, more emphasis on story, and several other factors that made fights more enjoyable, it was definitely one of my favorite fighting games that I have played from the company so far. Not to mention, it was very well-received by audiences and was commercially successful, so SNK decided to make the series yet another staple fighting franchise of theirs… right alongside their million other staple fighting franchises, and they would make sure of that with the release of the next game in the series, Samurai Shodown II.

Typically, whenever I go into one of these fighting games, I am not one to get all too excited to see what they are all about, since a lot of the ones that I have checked out so far don’t really do that much to expand upon the gameplay, and it just feels like another installment for the sake of it (cough, Fatal Fury 2, cough, Art of Fighting 2, cough). However, since I really loved my time with the original Samurai Shodown, I was more then ready to jump into the next game, and now that I have, I am happy to say that this game is even better than the original, as it manages to deliver the same fast-based, weapon-using goodness from before, along with several new enhancements that definitely improve the experience. It isn’t too much of a leap in quality, with not too many substantial changes, but hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, y’know what I mean?

The story is, as to be expected, pretty basic, where one year after the original game, an evil spirit by the name of Mizuki seeks to spread chaos and destruction across the land, so it is up to the warriors of the previous game, accompanied by a few new ones, to take the fight to Mizuki and save the world once again, which is a premise most would definitely expect from this game, but hey, any excuse to slice dudes up with a sword is good enough for me. The graphics are almost identical to that of every other SNK fighter released at this time, to the point where if you put them all together, you could hardly tell them apart, but it still looks great, and the animations for all the characters and moves are really great, the music is really enjoyable, having plenty of great tracks that fit the theme and setting of the game, and are pretty great to battle opponents to, and the gameplay/control is a major departure from the original title, being extremely experimental when compared to most of the other fighting games from the company so far, but it would pave the way for the series forward from here on out…………… nah, just kidding, it’s the same shit they have done a million times before.

The game is a 2D fighting game, where you take control of one of 15 warriors, most being from the original game and some being new, take on plenty of different opponents in a wide variety of locations, throw out plenty of different attacks using whatever weapon you currently have equipped, while also mixing in plenty of different combos and special moves to get a major advantage over your opponents, grab whatever items are thrown into the ring while also making sure to avoid any bombs that are also thrown into the ring, and bask in glorious victory when you take out every single enemy set before you… or, you know, feel absolute shame when you give up and move onto something else instead. Those who have played the original game, or any other SNK fighting game for that matter, should know exactly what they are getting into with this title, which can be a great thing or a bad thing depending on who you ask. For me, it is definitely a great thing, as it manages to take the gameplay from the original and make it just that extra bit more fun and addicting.

Not much has changed about the main structure of gameplay when compared to the original game. You are still just primarily going through plenty of CPU opponents, take them all down one by one, and face off against friends if they are up for it. What has changed, however, would be when it comes to the techniques that you can pull off in the field, such as being able to dash forward and backwards, smaller jumps, and ducking. All of these don’t sound like too much of a major addition to the formula, but it does make fights that much more involved, and it allows for plenty of versatility against how you can deal with an opponent while trying to get plenty of hits in. In addition, there is also the new parry system that was implemented, where if you are able to successfully input the command whenever an opponent tries to hit you, they will be stunned momentarily so that you can get a clear shot in. Once again, this isn’t too much of a big change, but if you can properly take advantage of this move and apply it to any situation, you can make short work of an opponent in no time.

With all that being said though, if none of that really sounds like your cup of tea, then this is essentially just yet another fighting game from SNK, which they RARELY ever do, obviously. It can be extremely fun if you were a big fan of the first game and the series as a whole, like I am starting to become, but it isn’t gonna change things up too much to where you absolutely need to jump on it immediately after playing the original game. Even then though, I still would consider this to be a big improvement over the original game, not just because of all that stuff I just mentioned before, but the difficulty also feels much more manageable here, and the gameplay is still just as fast and reactionary as ever, making for a lot of great fights that can happen throughout your time playing it.

Overall, despite there not being too many changes present in the main gameplay, this game manages to feel like not only a natural evolution for the series after what we had in the first game, but also yet another really fun time as a whole, with great new mechanics to learn and take advantage of, plenty of new characters to try out and get accustomed to, and plenty of fun fights to take on. I would definitely recommend it for those who loved the original game, as well as those who love fighting games in general, because I’m sure you could get plenty of fun out of it for an afternoon or so, especially with some friends to join you. But anyway, at this point, this is usually when I would leave some kind of joke to end the review off, but Imma be real with y’all, it is like 1AM when I am typing this, and I just really want to get to bed. See you all tomorrow when I review another random game from the past nobody remembers… falls asleep on keyboard

Game #552

Samurai Shodown II really does have some great upgrades compared to the first game; more detailed backgrounds, extra characters, and even a new super attack to help even the playing ground. The main problem with this game though is just how under cooked it's fighting system is. Just ideas or concepts that are just not fully fleshed out yet remain interesting.

The single player campaign still remains an oddity as not only is the story a mess, but the pacing still feels off too. There just isn't much explanation or dialogue to it, and while I understand that part of that is because of the time of release; Shodown II also boosts some rather interesting cutscenes shared with the majority of the cast that just feels confusing. It's almost like they snuck these scenes in there to say "Look what we did" without any proper acknowledge of what they were actually doing with the story. Adding some extra dialogue or even a proper opening cutscene would have been more than enough to make an interesting campaign, but the game just doesn't bother with it. On top of that, the game still has you go through way too many fights for a single arcade run. Not only are these runs brutally hard on lower difficulties, but too exhausting to think to go through it again. The final boss, Mizuki, is also a complete terror in her own right that could very easily kill any run that gets to her too. While I understand fighting game bosses are always going to be some of the hardest, cheapest bosses to fight, Mizuki really does push the limits of making a player play a perfect game that just makes her not fun.

As mentioned before, the combat did get improved a bit with some new additions to the system, but they really just aren't good enough. It's really neat to have a super move that breaks your opponent's weapon, but the fact that it's available for a limited time makes it so unreliable to use in actual combat. Additionally, some of the stages have some extra props or breakables in them that seem fun at first, but can get aggravating when these said features start benefiting your opponent and not you, making for some rather weird one sided shenanigans or spacing issues. Sadly, fighting in this game still feels slow and unbalanced. Some characters really just feel like they have a better kit or movement options while others feel rather locked on to only one approachable way to their opponents.

It really feels like it almost got the formula right, but Samurai Shodown II just feels like a lackluster sequel to a lackluster game. Almost all the parts are there to make a fairly interesting fighting game series. Interesting character design, great sprite work, wonderful backgrounds, but it just falls short on the fundamentals to really bring the game home. I don't think this is as bad as Samurai Shodown, but it's not really much better either.

Samurai Shodown II | MaraSNK%

Wow. Melhoraram, e não foi pouco. Mecanicamente é bem mais rápido, visualmente é ligeiramente mais polido, é Samsho né, jorra carisma. Mas sei lá, não vou muito com a cara de Samsho não é dos meus favoritos.

6/10