Bushido Blade
Developer - Squaresoft
Publisher - Sony
Players - 1-2
Extras - Memory card
The bit on the box
"Protect your life - defend your
honour.You are an ex-assassin fleeing from the dojo that trained you, your
ex-comrades in pursuit. Can you escape to safety whilst following the Bushido
code of honour? Patience and bravery lead to success - fear will damn you
to failure! The most unique 3D fighting game ever, Bushido Blade has no
power bars or time limits, just gripping action as you face your opponent
in one-on-one combat or battle up to 100 different enemies in succession!"
Graphics
Bushido Blade uses polygon graphics to their best
effect, they are not as detailed as Soul Blade and not as well animated
as Tekken 2. However, where Bushido Blade differs from these
other rival titles is the vast arena that you can battle in. Instead of
having multiple areas that are character specific the action takes place
in one large ruined castle. Players can run to anywhere in the castle,
which is split into various sections that are both well drawn and also
influencial in how the battles take place, and are won or lost. Nice touches
to the combatants include different stances and bloody bandages that appear
after fights if he or she was wounded in a particular area of the body.
One bad point is the silly way each fighter runs (like they really need
to get to the bathroom in a hurry!)
Sound
There is nothing amazingly innovative about the sound
effects in the game. There are the usual clinks and clangs of weapons,
and slashes and groans when one of them make it through the defences of
a fighter. Also Squaresoft have taken a page out of Soul Blade's
book and left the voice overs in Japanese, while providing English subtitles
for those of us who do not undertsand the lingo. One gripe I have with
this though is the inconsistency of the language with the fighters of different
nations, for example the Irishman and Russian Ninja also speak only Japanese
(!!??). Also as with some beat em ups nowadays the story for each character
told by these voice-overs can be a little vague and confusing.
Gameplay
It took me a while to get used to the controls for Bushido
Blade. Just coming off playing Soul Blade I charged headlong
into battle only to be cut down dead in seconds. There are no power bars
and one good hit with a lethal weapon can finish a fight in a split second.
There are also a few dirty tactics to be used (such as throwing dirt/snow/water
into your opponents face, and attacking them while they are down), but
using these will prevent progressing further into the game as they break
the code of Bushido. Well bugger that in my opinion. Using dirty tactics
are as fun as hell as to penalise the player for using them detracts from
the gameplay and the enjoyment. This does not spoil the game entirely though,
and there are a few options, story, 2 player, 2 player link in first person
mode, practice, etc. There is also a slash mode where you take on 100 ninjas
and geishas one after the other, with a bonus character to be won if you
pull it off.
I feel a verdict coming on
I personally like Tekken 2 and Soul Blade
more than this title, because of their more arcadey feel. This does not
prevent Bushido Blade from being a ground breaking game bringing
a new style of fighting to gamers. Some will enjoy it more than the usual
beat em up fare, but others will not like the new way of weapon fighting.
I would have liked it if the programmers had made it so you could wander
about the castle and meet enemies along the way, rather than just setting
up each fight on the spot one by one as each is defeated. However, I still
recommend this title highly as it is the only one of it's kind and Squaresoft
have put a great deal of work into it to make it as entertaining as possible,
while adding a certain amount of gritty realism into the formula.
Review by D.R.T.Barrett
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