Bushido Blade 2 (1998)

Bushido Blade 2 sharpens the game's original formula and removes some frustrating bits from the first game, making a polished fighter that is absolutely worth playing on the Playstation.

Two feudal clans have descended into war between opposing schools - the Narukagami and the Shainto. The Shainto wish to recover a sacred sword and wipe out the last descendent of the enemy family. This provides a wealth of different characters with sub-character unlocks that depend on how well you play the game - whether it's returning characters or formidable (and at times strange) new characters. The frustrating code of Bushido has been removed, allowing the character to properly focus on gameplay and progress the story without being shut down.

Many weapons return from the first game, with some additions including an M16 and the sacred Yugiri sword. While a little less diverse in the weapon section, characters have more varied movesets with specific weapons and stances are more intuitive to figure out. Between regular and reverse sword strikes to use at varying opportunities to get that fatal slash in, Bushido Blade 2 does a very good job in getting the player to understand how it works quickly.

The matches are now set in a less inter-connected area, but the game is still fairly open and interactive in its arenas. Bamboo and poles can be slashed and the player can run around and climb up and down scenery. The graphics are still impressive with atmospheric sound to detail matches and every character is fully voiced, with a decent amount of localized voice work.

Bushido Blade 2 is a surprisingly good amount of polish over the original, sharpening a frustrating system into a narrower but more fun to play gem.