You know what, going back and playing one of those games you thought would be awesome but never got to play… yeah bad idea. You wind up like me after just playing Bushido Blade 2. -.-;
The game, if you never heard of it, was (obviously) second in a line of 3D fighters by Squaresoft. Yeah, pre squenix (That’s a rant for another day) it was for the psx and well I remember thinking dude this game would be so awesome. But I didn’t own a psx at the time and when I got around to buying one it was only about a year or so before the ps2 came out. I did get some of the need to have games mind you. FF7, FF Tactics Capcom vs SNK pro …and that pretty much sums it up. :p
Anyway the premise of Bushido Blade games is to be as realistic as possible. Whichmeans if you put a sword through a guys face he dies; Fight over. Now the second one did away with leg damage apparently. I’ve heard that in the first if you took a slash or two to the legs you hobbled around and fought from a crouched position. Anyway through the course of Story mode you fight numerous random ninja’s from a Rival School. Allow me to pause for a giggle fit at that joke. … … okay. You eventually get to what I thought was the most annoying part on my first play through. I suppose you need to keep in mind how I do things. I don’t read manuals, so even if I had one I wouldn’t have looked at it. I get in game and push buttons and we go from there. I may later flip through the manual but it’s not the first thing I do. Partially because my way is more fun and the rest because I think manuals stink, in a literal sense. Whatever they print that stuff with man…
Anyway (again) You fight a chick with a machien gun. You have a sword of some form, possibly a yari or a naginata (those two are dependant on what school your selected character is allied to) She shot me, and shot me and shot me and eventually I had to resort to training mode and moving and pushing buttons until I found out holding R1 makes you run. After hacking and slashing my way back to her, much faster I might add. Well she was no threat… You do more random running and stabbing and slashing and general causing of bodily harm resulting in mortal injuries before coming to a guy I can only presume is the final boss. (I have no idea what time frame this is supposed to take place in as you’ve got people with swords running around killing eachother and still machine gun girl and some disco dude…)
And this is where I got mad. You hit him and… he disappears and appears somewhere else. And you can do that over and over and over and he doesn’t even take damage. In order to hurt him you have to hit him and then after he teleports to some random location you have to hit him again before he recovers or he just teleports again. Not too bad as far as final bosses go except he can still kill you with one hit. You have no block button and about the only way to defend yourself is to kill the other dude first or rig it up so your weapons collide… or run like a rabbit.
My major malfunction? What the hell is the point in a game touting realistic swordplay isf you have people in the storyline who don’t follow the rules of realistic swordtofaceology? I can comprehend the desire to make the final boss a toughie. I don’t think that should mean violating the base concept of your game though.
That said I’d love a Bushido Blade 3 for the ps2 or 3. As long as they give it a rating above teen. I want a bloody messy de-limbifying game out of this. Like Soul Calibur meets Blade of Darkness. If the guys arm comes off you can pick it up in your off hand and club him with it.
This will be more first use of the ‘more’ button… Teh rest of my complaining which will be a totally different topic will be below.
Posted by uthek 
