A licky boom boom down.
A certain, magical wizard jailed me for whatever reason.
On a different note to bring this back on topic (whatever topic that may be,) I was watching some tournament videos from this year for Samurai Shodown Sen so I can actually determine “why” it is a “bad” game.
Spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnTkeI4L9ME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2UVWNSCAu8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-lSEUoeC3k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5PZLq8ULlQ
Watching more of it, I can’t really say it’s a bad game. It just seems to be a very bland game that doesn’t offer more than what other 3D fighting games had before it. Is that a criterion for being a bad game? It’s up to you. I think if Sen got a rehaul, it could be more interesting.
Frame disadvantage on block seemed like standard fare for 3D fighting games. The box stepping/movement and footsies look fine. The issue with me is that the juggles are really boring and look the same for most characters. Ukyo and J’s juggle after launcher were effectively doing the Greek Sister’s 5AA from Soul Calibur until you have to do an ender. Takechiyo was similar except he used vertical attacks instead of horizontal. Other than that, the models looked wack and didn’t look as good or expressive as their portrait art.
I could see why SNKP wanted to go this route since the original design idea for Samsho sounded like they wanted to make a 3D fighter before the concept of a 3D fighting game was made and ended up coming up with Samsho instead. The idea that an attack (sword attack) on block is going to be negative is pretty similar to using most attacks in 3D fighting games, save for a few specific attacks intended to be +frames on block like 5Ps in VF. Then the emphasis on footsies and movement is a very keen idea for 3D fighting games and what Samsho accomplished early on. Then SNK did mess around with 3D Samsho with the N64 games before they made Sen. Looking at the button config now for Samsho Sen, it seemed to borrow a lot from the Soul Calibur model the most.
Spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Par0jk-64A
So for me, what I’d like to see be done to the series if the next Samsho is a 3D fighting game is to keep the expressiveness of their drawn/portrait style by making their models similar to Xrd’s to emulate the drawn, brushstroke art direction within the gameplay. Then, modify the way characters do combos/juggles to include signature attacks to add more diversity and combo trees per character rather than just having 5AA looking stuff. Then perhaps make a defined sidestep system like VF’s instead of just dodge/track like the other fighting games and perhaps make special moves be half circular or full circular other than just having the A button for horizontal attacks. Or perhaps add more moves or attacks that affect the play field in general kind of like how Josuke’s barriers affect the 3D play field in Jojo’s ASB. Maybe Rimururu can set up ice fields to block certain lanes of movement or set up a slippery floor to affect movement acceleration/deceleration all to compensate for her short sword range and how that plays into footsies.
So pretty much I want to see more character uniqueness based in juggle conversions and in neutral game, more landscape/field affects in play, and better aesthetic appeal. The foundation was there, but nothing that special or unique to Sen that was elaborated upon.
Sounds like SNKP may want to step back into a 2D Samsho game with 3D models. In that case, I’d still emphasize using Xrd’s technique of cel shading and frame rate throttling to capture the hand drawn style to emphasize’s its own aesthetic style. Then make a return to SS2 style game play, but compensate for the toned down subsystems with more character attacks to add more variance. For me, SS (especially SS2) is a very footsie-esque game that is “more SFII than SFII,” and later titles like Tenka aren’t appealing for me because it seems to be more combo heavy, jumps are faster and not as punished/anti-air’d, and more oki-based (especially in the corner.) Characters like Basara, Ninja Brothers, Mizuki, and Iroha look really strong because of this. Yunfei looks pretty strong too considering how fast his overheads are and can convert cr.B into a knockdown. Footsies still exist, but the emphasis upon it is lessened and characters seem to be jumping around more freely without as much ramification.
Who knows, we’ll see.
