Samurai Shodown V

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Samurai Shodown V
Developer(s)	Yuki Enterprise
Publisher(s)	SNK Playmore
Designer(s)	Yuki Enterprise
Release date(s)	December 11, 2003
Genre(s)	Versus fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)	Arcade, Neo Geo, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Input	8-way Joystick, 4 Buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	Neo Geo (708 Mbit cartridge)
Arcade display	Raster, 304 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors

Samurai Shodown V (サムライスピリッツ零, samurai suppiritsu zero^?) is the eighth game in SNK's Samurai Shodown series of fighting games. An upgraded version of the game titled Samurai Shodown V Special was later released, improving character-balance and adding all the bosses from prior Neo-Geo Samurai Shodowns as playable characters. Samurai Shodown V Special was the last game produced by SNK for the Neo Geo platform, and was to be the system's final game (since, a fan-group has developed and is commercially releasing the game Last Hope, both for the Neo-Geo and the Sega Dreamcast.)

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Characters 3 Critical and Fan Reception 4 Story

[edit] Gameplay

Following the revitalization of SNK after its collapse in 2000, the company decided that it would be worthwhile to create another game in the largely-defunct Samurai Shodown series. As part of their reorganization, development duties were given over to the relatively-unknown Yuki Enterprise, which had mainly only created simulation and board games for the Simple 2000 series of PlayStation 2 games in Japan, and had no experience in developing fighting games. This announcement caused considerable unease among series fans.

In spite of this, SNK managed to raise excitement by announcing that Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of Rurouni Kenshin, was hired to design the new characters, and they were gradually revealed by way of silhouettes on the official website, and slowly showing the official artwork. Word finally got out that the game was to be a true prequel to the rest of the series, taking place two years before Samurai Shodown. This created its own issues with the series timeline.

The gameplay was sped up slightly from Samurai Shodown IV, and the button layout was changed again.

• A - Weak Slash
• B - Medium Slash
• A+B - Heavy Slash
• C - Kick
• D - Movement options: By holding a direction and pressing D, a character could perform various dodge maneuvers (mostly inspired from Samurai Shodown II), such as a hop to avoid low attacks, ducking to avoid high ones, rolling forward and backward, etc.

The Slash/Bust system of the last few games was done away with, and each character now only had one version, though in several cases, the Bust mode was replaced by a new character of very similar setup.

The Japanese version of the game also has a great deal of dialogue in single-player mode, but all of those scenes are simply excised when the game's language is set to English. Unsurprisingly, this upset most English-speaking fans. The domestic Xbox version restores these scenes and translates them into English. The game was also released on the PlayStation 2, but that version was only made available in Japan and Europe due to SCEA not approving the game, it was evaluated three times and still did not get approved.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Critical and Fan Reception

SS5 was a modest success, though not a smash hit. Though fans were glad to see a new installment, the gameplay failed to excite players as much as had been hoped. Common complaints usually revolved around the poor animation on the new characters, and the removal of the Slash/Bust system. Those who were familiar with Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage also noted that the new, alternate characters tended to be heavily watered-down versions of Bust characters in that game (Enja and Suija in particular). It is currently most commonly seen as a competent, if unexceptional, fighting game.

[edit] Story

The official story, as given by SNK, is as follows:

Blacker than pitch, a deep darkness of boundless nothingness. It begins within this vortex. A sinister presence quickens within its womb. Its pulsing beat becomes an invisible, intangible wave drifting in the darkness, and at the end of its roaming it reaches Japan....

The year is 1786. A time known to subsequent generations as the great famine of Tenmei. Its vestiges still remain and the starving regions show no sign of relief. In every region, insurrection and destruction break out, spurring increasing ruin. The people tormented by unprecedented misfortune scrape by, knowing not when it will all end. Today? Tomorrow?

The Shogunate's response to this crisis was nowhere near effective. Before his country, buried in heaps of corpses and slowly dying away, a noted general turns toward the heavens and roars:

"Oh, listen to my country's lamentations...You! You Tokugawa trolls, enemies of my land-your folly ends here! The time for action has come! I, as a patriot, will reduce all you Tokugawa traitors to ash!"

This general assuming this fated role is named Kyogoku Hinowanokami Gaoh.

"Oh, brave warriors! Follow your patriotic souls, you true soldiers of courage! From the North's Ezo to the South's Ryūkyū, come to me! Reveal your true mettle!"

Was it the result of Gaoh's aspirations, or mere coincidence-? Entrusting their souls to their sword, devoting their lives to the way of the warrior, 24 warriors simultaneously clash in the turmoil of battle.

What will they finally master in the end? The code of the samurai? Or the way of Ashura?

v • d • e Samurai Shodown video games
Samurai Shodown • II • III • IV • RPG • 64 • Warriors Rage • Warriors Rage (PSX) • V • VI Characters