For some context, my first actual play through was through a secret character, Poppy, and I didn't realize just how much of an oddity the story campaign of this game is. As this game effectively has no story on it's English version, but did get a translation for the Xbox Live version. So while I did not expect their to be a story for the secret character, I unknowingly omit what would effectively been a rather harsh criticism from this game, having no story at all. It does actively effective my view point of how Samurai Shodown V looks compared to the previous games in the series, and while I can still say it's better, that's all I can really give it.
Samurai Shodown V continues the trend of having better movement, controls, and characters from game to game. There is no doubt in my mind that Shodown V plays better than the previous games in the series, but as I look at previous playthroughs I noticed that it also has a lack of something the other games were building up, flair. The game looks good on the surface, but as you pay more attention to the backgrounds there is a definite lack of polish that was felt in the previous games. As well as the story being omitted in the English version; the credits are next to nothing in terms of style or substance. It's just a straight cut to all the names scrolling, and maybe putting your name in the hi score menu. The character selection screen is rather basic, and the most you get out of character interactions is a win quote. For the most part, there just isn't much there for the fifth sequel aside from the usual fundamentals you find in a fighting game.
Perhaps due to the new movement, the novelty of playing as a secret character, and simply the massive amount of new characters and stages got the best of me when I first played this game. There was a lot of new, but not a lot of substance or flair to what was added. The new characters were rather unbalanced, the final boss was too hard even with the regular characters, and most of the new stuff added didn't really feel all that impressive. Samurai Shodown V, by all means, is a fighting game that should work on a fundamental level. But as you play this game more and more, the wind of your sails grows weaker, and anything new becomes dull fast. Then when you sit there with what you have is basically just a fighting game that works and plays slightly better than previous games in the series, but compared to other fighting games doesn't have a charm to showcase. Samurai Shodown V is simply lacking.
Samurai Shodown V continues the trend of having better movement, controls, and characters from game to game. There is no doubt in my mind that Shodown V plays better than the previous games in the series, but as I look at previous playthroughs I noticed that it also has a lack of something the other games were building up, flair. The game looks good on the surface, but as you pay more attention to the backgrounds there is a definite lack of polish that was felt in the previous games. As well as the story being omitted in the English version; the credits are next to nothing in terms of style or substance. It's just a straight cut to all the names scrolling, and maybe putting your name in the hi score menu. The character selection screen is rather basic, and the most you get out of character interactions is a win quote. For the most part, there just isn't much there for the fifth sequel aside from the usual fundamentals you find in a fighting game.
Perhaps due to the new movement, the novelty of playing as a secret character, and simply the massive amount of new characters and stages got the best of me when I first played this game. There was a lot of new, but not a lot of substance or flair to what was added. The new characters were rather unbalanced, the final boss was too hard even with the regular characters, and most of the new stuff added didn't really feel all that impressive. Samurai Shodown V, by all means, is a fighting game that should work on a fundamental level. But as you play this game more and more, the wind of your sails grows weaker, and anything new becomes dull fast. Then when you sit there with what you have is basically just a fighting game that works and plays slightly better than previous games in the series, but compared to other fighting games doesn't have a charm to showcase. Samurai Shodown V is simply lacking.