Samurai Shodown

[cityside75]

Okay, I've loved the Samurai Shodown series since I first saw SS1 in the arcades in the early nineties. For years I've played it on the consoles and emulated it. I have all of the SS games in my MAME cab and I play them regularly. Finally, I actually bought a Neo recently with SS 1 & 2.

But here's the thing, in all my years playing SS1 and much moreso SS2, I still rarely make it past the second computer opponent and have to dump in quarters to make any progress in the game.

I really don't have the patience for FAQ's and memorizing detailed movelists, but the early Samurai Shodown games don't have a lot of special moves anyway do they?. I'm just wondering if anyone can advise me in a general way of a strategy to play the game, especially SS2? How far can you make it on one credit at the default difficulty? I'd love to get good at SS2, as it's definitely one of my all-time favorite games!

[Kitsune Sniper]

Glad to know I'm not alone.

I love the SS series, but I absofuckinlutely LOATHE 1 & 2's gameplay. The computer cheats like a bastard and the AI seems to shoot up whenever I'm actually doing good. SS3 and 4 seem a bit fairer (never played V or V Special).

It just feels horribly unbalanced.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, SS2 is really, really hard. SS4 is my favorite in the series, by far... great games, but I definitely think that they got it the most right with the fourth one. The third one had some great gameplay improvements over the second, but the lifebars were way too short. SS4 fixed that problem, and added more stuff too. :)

I know SS2 is really, really popular and is a lot of peoples' favorite game in the series, but as someone who didn't start playing them when they were new but instead just this decade, I can't agree.

V is alright, but they changed some things for the worse, I thought. I'm interested in trying SS Tenka, I'm almost certainly going to get the SS Anthology whenever it finally comes out. :)

[cityside75]

Yeah, SS2 is really, really hard. SS4 is my favorite in the series, by far... great games, but I definitely think that they got it the most right with the fourth one. The third one had some great gameplay improvements over the second, but the lifebars were way too short. SS4 fixed that problem, and added more stuff too. :)

I know SS2 is really, really popular and is a lot of peoples' favorite game in the series, but as someone who didn't start playing them when they were new but instead just this decade, I can't agree.

V is alright, but they changed some things for the worse, I thought. I'm interested in trying SS Tenka, I'm almost certainly going to get the SS Anthology whenever it finally comes out. :)

I'm basically the exact opposite of you, I loved the first two back in the day, but I just didn't keep up with the series as the years wore on. I've played 3,4,and V but only rarely. Maybe I should give 4 another try.

So nobody yet is REALLY good at 1 or 2?

[The_Chosen_One]

I don't know if you could consider me really good at Samsho 2 but I can beat it with 1 credit. I think a lot of the problem is that people rarely realize how much depth there is in that game. Priorities are a large part of it and realizing which moves the particular character your playing have higher priority than others is important. A lot of people don't know about the rolls or dropping down motions either. In general it is a slow paced fighting game, and that's uncommon in itself among fighting games, and throws a lot of people off. In a lot of fighting games the only real difference between a strong and weak attack is that strong attacks are slower, but in Samsho I've always felt the distance is the big difference. Knowing when one will hit and the other won't can be a huge help at getting better at the game.

Don't know if that will help you much but I hope so, I am one of those people who thinks 2 is the best in the series.

[boogiecat]

SS 1 and 2's gameplay wasn't great but those two were the popular ones..

SS4,SSZ Special and don't laugh on me on this one the SSS5 Special Warriors Rage on the PS One are my faves..

[cityside75]

I don't know if you could consider me really good at Samsho 2 but I can beat it with 1 credit. I think a lot of the problem is that people rarely realize how much depth there is in that game. Priorities are a large part of it and realizing which moves the particular character your playing have higher priority than others is important. A lot of people don't know about the rolls or dropping down motions either. In general it is a slow paced fighting game, and that's uncommon in itself among fighting games, and throws a lot of people off. In a lot of fighting games the only real difference between a strong and weak attack is that strong attacks are slower, but in Samsho I've always felt the distance is the big difference. Knowing when one will hit and the other won't can be a huge help at getting better at the game.

Don't know if that will help you much but I hope so, I am one of those people who thinks 2 is the best in the series.

Thanks for the tips, they are helpful.

1 credit, huh? Who do you use most frequently? Part of my problem may be that the only fighter I regularly use is Haomaru. I've been looking at some Youtube videos and one guy was tearing the game up with Ukyo. I never know if those videos are legit though.

[ubersaurus]

Considering what a monster Ukyo is in 2, I'm not surprised.

I've gone up to the final boss of 2 on one credit with Charlotte and Kyoshiro, it isn't easy. You gotta pick up the computer's pattern, mostly, and play to punish.

[Ze_ro]

I've always been terrible at SS2 as well... I'm lucky if I can get to the 3rd or 4th opponent. I've always felt that SS4 was the best in the series, though I haven't given 5 much play time, and haven't played 6 at all.

--Zero

[24bit]

use genan or cham cham. their strong attacks have pretty long range and do lots of damage (genan in particular.)