Result : 7 - Most realistic fighting game on PSX.
 | Graphics: 7 - Quality blood splurting. |
| FMV : 6 - Functional, uninspired storylines. |
| Sound : 8 - Nice grunts and clangs. |
| Music : 6 - Unobtrusive "oriental" stuff. |
| A.I. : 5 - Strictly average. |
| Lifespan : 6 - Shortish, but you'll keep going back for more. |
| Gameplay : 8 - Realistically brutal combat. |
| Adrenaline : 8/0 - You need Zen-like calm. |
Bushido Blade is a strange game, somehow it works. No energy bars, no time limits, and no fixed zone to fight in. They sure broke the accepted norm for fighting games, and I think that's what makes this the best. I really dislike weapon-style games where you can chop someone in the head with your battle-axe, and it knocks off 10% off their life-bar. Sure you can argue that their Chi' or whatever stops it from being fatal, but it never seems quite right. You can choose from 6 combatants, and 8 weapons, each has their own storyline, or at least perception of the whole of the plot. So you sortof need to finish it with everyone, and then again perfectly to get the whole story.
To kill your opponent in Bushido Blade it just takes one hit. The skill is in making that one hit, and that's why I like it, I kept discovering one more subtle aspect of the combat system each time I played it. Unlike your Tekken's where whacking buttons, even randomly, can bring off a blindingly fast combo of attacks, BB forces you to use timing, and make your attacks flow from one move to the next. Blocking attacks also needs to be timed, and it makes you become much more aware of your weapon's range, speed. The character you pick, affects the weapons speed, how much power they put into blows, and the severity of blocking recovered. It's all very well thought out, and allows you to customise your own style of fighting. The other great feature is non-lethal hits. These will affect you differently depending on where you are hit. Legs hits slow down you movement speed, arm hits your weapon speed. Of course too much damage and you end up fighting with one arm (reducing the range of attacks you can make), or fighting from your knees.
The computer fights reasonably well, and doesn't seem to suffer from the old "telepathic link" problem that some fighting games have. You will notice that it gets confused if you run around the landscape a lot, and sometimes bumps into walls in Slash mode.
Sound and graphics are very good, especially considering its almost 4 years old. My biggest gripe is the implementation of the non-combat bits of the game. The story mode could do with an overhaul. If you want the special endings, you must get to the top of the ruins without killing the first opponent. After a few rounds of this you will get bored very quickly, since it takes 3-4 minutes every time, and you may get butchered first hit on you next opponent. Also annoying is the way it updates what you can see when you hit the end of a "zone", and it only updates when both you and your enemy are both near the same zone edge, and then freezes the game as it loads in the relevant data. Far better to have the action centred on you, and to load in whatever area is adjacent to you movement direction seamlessly. Having ninja scattered through the ruins may have also made getting to the exit hole seem more satisfying, just running from that first enemy is quite dull.
Slash mode is much more satisfying, I have only, so far, managed to kill 51 out of the 100 ninjas, which you must fight sequentially, all damage remaining with you....
BB is my Gameplay pick over any other fighting game. It seems so much more like actual combat, very similar feel to SCA combat, with the winner needing the non-physical skills of a real life pugilist. It just needs updating with a Tekken 3 make-over, and some features smoothed out.
Access Katze:
If you beat Slash mode without dying once you can access Katze (The gun toting mini-boss)
in Versus mode.
Get to the bosses:
In order to skip all of the normal characters and go straight to the sub bosses you must:
First, cripple your first opponent so that he/she CAN NOT walk. Then run to the manhole
that you would normally jump down after defeating the last normal opponent. By doing this
you should be able to skip through about 3 or 4 fights.
Secret Endings:
To get the Second Endings for Bushido Blade you have to do 3 things.
| Don't get Dishonored (you will know if you do this obviously because the game will end) |
| Before the end of the fourth fight run from your opponent through the complex and find the manhole your character jumps down during the cut scene after the fourth fight. |
| Don't get hit once!! You cannot take a single hit. It's ok to let them hit your weapon but if you take ANY damage even from a sub weapon you can't get the special ending.... |
