Samurai Spirits Sen (AKA "Samurai Shodown 7")

[bork]

STOLEN FROM GAF (who took it from the Madman's Cafe anyway, so FUCK U)

I'm surprised that Iroha isn't returning.  For those who don't know, Iroha was a new character in Tenkaichi Kenkakuden...a maid character (and snow crane/maiden) who won the fan vote for most popular new character in 2006 in Famitsu (or was it Arcadia Magazine?  I can't remember)  Actually looking at it, NONE of the characters introduced after SS4 are in the game.  Perhaps they are adding more later?

The game looks pretty nice in the videos.  Visually it's a big step up from the Maximum Impact series.  Game play seems to be completely brand new and more along the lines of Soul Calibur than Samurai Spirits.  I welcome this change, however, since the last game did absolutely EVERYTHING they could possibly do with the 2D SS playstyle. 

---

The artwork on the moves list is definitely Senri Kita. She also did the artworks for Nintendo's recent Fire Emblem titles as well, so I guess she moved out of Capcom.

There's no in-depth reports yet but here's some info from Japanese forums. Kind of surprizing that there were reportedly around 50 people at the test, considering Tokyo's being hit with a throughout the whole day.


Returning characters

- Haohmaru, Genjuro, Ukyo, Nakoruru, Hanzo, Galford, Kyoshiro, Wanfu,
Kazuki, Sougetsu, Charlotte.

New characters (Spelling may be incorrect)

Gallows (looks like a Viking)
Kim (ancestor of Kaphwan? must be, determening from his move names)
J (Afro Samurai)
Angelica (Short haired ethnic-looking female.)
Varta (Armored knight.)
Black Hawk (Looks like a native American, fights with two Axes)
Habei? (Old man, name is probably incorrect)
Chiyo (Youngster with a wooden sword.)
Suzuhime (looks like a Japanese princess)

Controls
A- Side slash
B- Vertical slash
C- Kick
R- Extra moves (throw, deflect attacks, etc)

A+B Feirce- Side slash
B+C Feirce- Vertical slash


Info from Prof @ MMCafe

For those who do not know about the new sam sho:

- It is in 3D
- Uses Chain Combos
- Seems to be taking a shot at soul calibur
- doesnt look like there's any projectiles in the game
- Running On Taito's X2 Arcade Board
- Better visuals than KOF MI: 2A

Videos (Taken From Location Test):



Images (Move List / Artwork):

http://www.mmcafe.com/cgi-bin/imageb...275&page=&no=0

[bork]

I checked out SamuraiSen's beta test for a short time, the game looked pretty good. There was a pretty large amount of spectators crowding around the machines, but not too many on line to actually play it. There were constantly around 10 people on line for the single player machines and about 6 on the two player machine. It's 70 percent complete in development and it runs on a Taito Type X2 arcade console.

Graphics wise, the game is pretty nice. It runs on a high-res LCD screen, very crisp. The game has way better quality than Tekken 5's graphics.

It's hard to say whether SamuraiSen has better graphics than Tekken 6 though. Well, it definitely has better backgrounds than tekken 6. Most of the objects in SamuraiSen's background are rendered in 3D, whereas Tekken 6 uses a lot of flat bitmaps for objects far away. On the other hand, Tekken 6 seems like it may have a bit more polygon count on the characters. SamuraiSen probably has less, considering how much they've used on the backgrounds. Most things- like Nakoruru's baggy pants, look very smooth and natural. But some other parts- like Kyoshiro's hair, looks like they need some extra polygons to moove smoother.

Samurai Sen's characters look very realistic overall, which fits prefectly with its new gameplay. Especially the faces of the male characters. They look very ferocious. As for the female characters.... it's probably best not to take a direct look at their faces. They're not realistic. In fact, they look as fake as antique dolls.

As the youtube videos probably showed, SamusaiSen plays nothing like the previous 2D installments. It plays very much as a standard 3D game with a lot of influence from Soul Calibur and Tekken. You're constantly engaged in close-up combat, and you can do a lot of damage by floating the opponent in the air and comboing. In other words, if you've played those two Namco games, you'll probably get accustomed to SamuraiSen very quickly.

On the other hand, it's nothing like KOF:MIA, which may be fun, but terrible in terms of physics (you're totally defying gravity if you fly all the way to the edge of the screen, and then bounce back as though you've hit rubber).

And as Iggy shortly mentioned, there's no flashy superhuman moves in SamuraiSen, like being able to shoot projectiles out of your sword.

I don't think there's any ring outs. As far as I've seen, all the stages are squared with obstacles, functioning as walls.

Funny thing, the game seems to be overly inspired by Namco's 3D fighters and there's some really striking resemblences in terms of the game's presentation. In between round 1 and round 2, there's a short intermission where the winner is in a fighting pose while the opponent wakes up... just like Tekken. When you KO an opponent and they're still standing, you can slash them around some extra times until the replay starts, just like in Soul Calibur. Or if you KO an opponent and make them fall, they'll cramp/spasm after they hit the ground (like in Tekken).

There's no super meter, but you can go into Ikari mode by pressing all four buttons simultaneously after you've been hit enough times and the Ikarai icon is flashing. The Ikari burst can usually be done about once per round (unlike the previous SS games, the icon doesn't disappear from the system once you've burst it).

The characters still have some of their special moves, though they've been toned down to look more realistic. Hanzo had his mozu otoshi throw and a teleport move where he puffs and appears in the back of the opponent. Charlotte had her Power Gradation, though she didn't jump as high as the 2D games. Genjuro had either his Sankusatu or Gokouzan, which surprizingly looked the same as the 2D games- he lifted the opponent into air and slashed them with Hanafuda effects.



A few notes on the characters.

Angelica- Looks kind of like Elena from SF3. Fights with a spear.

Jinbei- The old guy's correct name (not Yaibei). Seems to be a vassel working for Suzuhime. Fights with a three-headed spear like Gaoh from SSTenka.

Nakoruru- Looks more like a teen than a kid. 2P color is purple costume, long hair. Her hawk only appears as a part of her victory sequence.

Charlotte- Each of her shoulderpads are as big as her upper body. She wears overknee stockings and has slits on the side of her long skirt, so you can see some, as the Japanese term goes, Zettai Ryouiki.

Kim- Definitely Kaphwan's ancestor. He hates evil. He has a double-sided spear (heads on both ends), and he seems to fight rather similarly to Kirik from Soul Calibur.

Also, there were four slots on the character select screen that were locked during the beta test.


In terms of stages, I've seen Haohmaru's SS1 stage and Genjuro's SS2 stage. Each stage seems to be shared by 2 characters. Other stages included a Japanese shrine (Kyoshiro, Kim), a garden inside a Japanese castle (Jinbei, Chiyo), a middle-eastern looking town with a camel and a temple in the background (Angelica), an old-time western town (BlackHwak, Galford), and a ship docked on a town with other ships and a light tower in the distance (all rendered in 3D).


Overall, SamuraiSen looked pretty solid, and it had somewhat of an SS1 ~ SS2 atmosphere to it, albeit without flashy looking moves. One thing I noticed however, is that the game doesn't offer anything really unique. I kind of wonder about its lifespan after it hits the arcades.

[Ichirou]

No Iroha!?

WSTSPRDFOIuapdoiruawpseofriauwsefroausfpoiuasdpofiuasdopfia

FUCK THIS GAME

BIG TITTY NINJA MAIDS ARE MY PERSONAL JESUS

[bork]

Well, here's the deal: There are at least four character slots open, and SNK reps were asking people at the loke test what characters they wanted to see in the game.  So there's hope!

[Smooth Groove]

Are they still using the same old Neo-Geo hardware that was outdated 10 yrs ago? 

[Ichirou]

Iroha was my favorite new character....bouncier than Mai, and specifically designed for crossover appeal for maid fetishists...she must come back!!!!

Smooth, why don't you actually read lyte's posts before making a post?  It's in THREE DEE.

[Smooth Groove]

I'm not going to read something in detail if it's stolen from GAF.  GAF=lots of fluff and little substance. 

[Ichirou]

It wasn't stolen from GAF, it was stolen from Madman's Cafe.  Lyte even bolded the parts that said it was in 3D!

[bork]

  Jesus fucking CHRIST.  Thanks for taking point, Ichirou.

GAFfots couldn't write up stuff this well.

[Smooth Groove]

Don't blame me for Lyte Edge's ineptitude!  He started off the post with stolen from gaf. 

[bork]

Don't blame me for Lyte Edge's ineptitude!  He started off the post with stolen from gaf. 

"STOLEN FROM GAF (who took it from the Madman's Cafe anyway, so FUCK U)"

Do you always just read the first three words of every thread?

[Ichirou]

Don't blame me for Lyte Edge's ineptitude!  He started off the post with stolen from gaf. 

oh mah gawwwwd...

MOVING ON.  It's in 3D, it's a whole new direction for the SamSho series taking elements from Soul Calibur (remember that while Soul Calibur innovated 3D weapons combat, as far as I know, SamSho ORIGINATED 2D weapons combat in a fighter) and looking even better than the KoF Maximum Impact series.

I am hyped.  Can't wait to see some screens.

[bork]

Uh...did you watch those Youtube VIDEOS, Ichirou?? 

The game is developed by K2, who made the PS2 Tenchu titles.  But before that, they also made KOF '94 and KOF '95, among other games.  Whether or not any of those people are there anymore I don't know.

[Ichirou]

I'm at work and YouTube is blocked, dode.

[tiesto]

I vaguely recall Samurai Spirits 64, and how much of a disaster that was... Hope this'll be better, although it always sucks to see the 2D fighters move into 3D. I really wanted to play that Samurai Spirits RPG released a few years back, too bad it got cancelled for US release

[bork]

I vaguely recall Samurai Spirits 64, and how much of a disaster that was... Hope this'll be better, although it always sucks to see the 2D fighters move into 3D. I really wanted to play that Samurai Spirits RPG released a few years back, too bad it got cancelled for US release

There were three previous 3D SS games, and all of them were pretty much failures.  This game already looks to be 10 times better, although also completely different.

I said this in the OP: With the previous SS game, they did all they can do with the old SS game.  It makes sense moving in a completely new direction like this.

And there's plenty of 2D games out there with more coming.

[ferrarimanf355]

I hope they add Iroha in, but at least they have Nakoruru. 

[MrAngryFace]

When is this stateside

[bork]

When is this stateside

Well, it's not finished yet.  Then there's the Japanese arcade release, since this is an ARCADE GAME.  Then after a time there's the inevitable home version.  And with SNK USA's track record, I'd say what...2009?  2010?   

[Ichirou]

If Iroha isn't in this game, fans are gonna be pissed.  She's like one of the most popular video game characters right now.  When I bought my copy of Tenkaichi they actually gave me an Iroha statuette as a bonus thingie.

[bork]

If Iroha isn't in this game, fans are gonna be pissed.  She's like one of the most popular video game characters right now.

And yet she wasn't in the game.   

When I bought my copy of Tenkaichi they actually gave me an Iroha statuette as a bonus thingie.

Everybody got one.  Mine is still in the packaging.    That Iroha figure is part of a SS Girls set with Nakoruru, Rimiruru, Charlotte, Mina, and Cham Cham.

[Ichirou]

I gave mine away, lol.