Bushido Blade (1997)

Bushido Blade is a trouble of a title, with a remarkable 3D fighting system wrapped up in some severely questionable and frustratingly designed modes.

A society of assassins (Kage) lies within a 500 year old dojo. After a battle leads to an upheaval of leadership, a cursed sword corrupts the new leader and a Kage member escapes the dojo with its secrets. The player is that escaped assassin who must kill their comrades in one-on-one battles. Apart from that a somewhat intriguing story is told that varies with each selected character.

The gameplay is one-on-one 3D battles. Each fighter may be dispatched in one hit, or may also be wounded/block, etc. It's not quite sure how accurate these hits are at all, but the game displays a robust system that damages the player in certain spots for either cosmetic changes or impaired movement.

The player can choose up to eight weapons with various speed, power, and blocking ability - though it is not quite sure which ones are particularly useful. There's a complex set of movesets, with various attacks, thrusts, jumps, blocks, stances, crawling, subweapons, etc. This sounds like a lot to juggle and at times it's for show when some moves will easily dispatch opponents.

The real kicker, however, are the single player modes. During the Story mode the player must follow an aggressively obtuse Bushido code, in which they must not use certain tactics (striking a foe's back, throwing dust, attacking while they bow) which on the surface makes sense but there is an insane amount of times where the player may act simply and straightforwardly and still get booted early from the game because they somehow dishonored the Bushido code. It's poorly communicated and super finnicky. There are also very specific requirements for certain endings that require some out-there methods and not getting hit, which in this game is supremely frustrating.

There are also other single player modes such as the long-run Slash mode (also frustrating since you need to not die for almost 100 battles) and VS mode, which is the fairest in a sense that you'll be fighting a similar player and are not restricted in tactics. This is at least where the game shines the most and makes it feel like the other modes are simply too restrictive on what the player can have fun with.

Bushido Blade is remarkably unique, which makes it a shame that it's so obtuse and frustrating to figure out past that core fighting system.

Rating: 9/10

I mean, you have to account for certain limitations of the time in order to reach a 9. It feels a bit clunky, and the graphics are bad. It's not so much the character models because those are fine, but the environments are certainly uninspired, even by PS1 standards. I wish I would have played this when it came out because I wouldn't have necessarily known better, I wouldn't have been as aware of the problems older games faced in the PS1 era, which I think was the awkward transitional period from 2D to 3D. I'm just saying I'm a little more bothered now then I was back then.

However, I rate this a 9 because it does some really neat things and is one of those games I feel needs a remake. Firstly, the combat is outstanding. Unlike normal fighting games, you can basically kill each other in one hit, making this an incredibly complex game that certainly takes some getting used to. I got fucked up for a while and was left very confused, until all of a sudden I was playing the story mode and the guy lunged in and I perfectly timed a high strike and it came down hard, killing him in one hit, the blood splattering. It was very satisfying. Then it clicked: be patient, don't waste movement. Then I noticed certain things like one guy throwing shit in my face, and I realized there was even more to it. Having to stand still to do certain things still feels a little weird, but it's fine.

The gameplay is the focus, obviously, but the story mode does do some cool stuff where if you're seen as dishonourable the story cuts off. The story mode isn't really good, and there's not a lot of replay value here, but I'm in love with the mechanics.