Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage
Encyclopedia
Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage, known as in Japan, is the seventh game in SNK
's Samurai Shodown
series of fighting games.
It is a time of sustained peace, and the age of the sword was drawing to a close.
But an increasing number could not adapt to the flow of history and became trouble before long.
So the shogunate created a "colony of prisoners" on a small island in sea nearby Edo as a place to rehabilitate the outlaws.
But, there were those who exploited this prison island and tried to create a "new world exclusively for the chosen ones" after destroying the shogunate.
The group they formed was called the "League of the Three Blades of Domination" and each member had their own mighty strength.
Using their might, they subjugated the outlaws and begin their plans to overthrow the shogunate.
And in no time the "town of outlaws" came to be called "Ritenkyo"-the seat of opposition.
Under these figures Ritenkyo unexpectedly changed from a "place of rehabilitation for returning to society" to a "lawless zone in which only the strong survive."
The inhabitants engaged in vendettas, skirmishes, and death battles to survive from day to day.
And the "Three Blades of Domination" steadily consolidated their power to its utmost, absorbing strength from the hate surrounding them.
On a still, pitch-black night of the new moon.
Flicker-Flicker-Flicker-Flicker.
The glow of a candle grows and a single shadow emerges from the darkness.
It is an elderly gentleman with a beard and tranquil visage.
"Have they arrived?"
"Yes, Lord Oboro. The red-eyed boy and girl have come."
Only a voice comes from the darkness.
Without making a noise, the old man rises and speaks:
"At last, the time has come.... Time to make their acquaintance."
The man's closed eyelids pop open.
His red eyes glow with the light of the candle.
Whooooosh!
A burst of wind slices the calm, and darkness once again dominates the world.
A few years later, three people look down at the world below from a tall tower.
One is a tall man armed with a sword; the other, a bewitching, alabaster-skinned woman.
The two share a pair of red eyes.
And standing behind them awaits a fine-looking elderly man who appears somewhat out of place.
The sunlight reflects off their red eyes, making them glow eerily.
The woman mutters, "A few people we have some things to settle with appear to have entered Ritenkyo.
Word has it that they are major obstacles to the realization of our intentions."
The man speaks as he continues to survey the world below. "All we need to do is wait here. The rats will come even if we do nothing."
The Three Blades of Domination are about to bring an end to the era of peace in this world.
And the warriors who battle for their own reasons converge on "Ritenkyo" as our story begins.
games in the series, Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage takes place 20 years later, with a dramatically revamped cast, and was released solely for the Sony
PlayStation. Though other SS games have followed it, it is chronologically the last game in the series, and is the only game in the series proper to not get an arcade release.
The first and most audacious change is the revamped character roster, which removed every playable character from previous games, with the exception of Haohmaru, who was now a middle-aged man, sporting a beard and missing his trademark mop of black hair. Hanzo Hattori also appeared, though it was not actually the same man, but rather the original Hanzo's son, Shinzo, who had assumed his name. Nicotine Caffeine, Nakoruru and Rimururu also played a role in the story, but were not in a playable form. Every other character was a new design.
The game was also very plot-intensive, with more than two dozen characters, each one having a reasonably significant role to play in the story.
Though the game was still in 3D, SNK sought to further diminish the role of the third dimension, making all gameplay on a straight line, with no movement along the Z-axis, beyond a basic dodge. Two buttons controlled weak and strong slashes, a third controlled kick attacks, and the fourth was used for dodges.
The game introduced a new lifebar system, which was subdivided into three sections. The first "round" of the fight lasted until one person was drained of all three sections, upon which one section of the bar would disappear, and the remaining two would refill. Once those two were drained, the second section would be dropped, with the last one refilled. This was punctuated by a pause in the action, during which the other player would go through a taunt animation. The match was finally over when one player had been drained of this last section of life.
Aside from the lifebar system, gameplay was relatively straightforward.
. This generated considerable confusion, and led many to the assumption that it was a port
of the second Hyper Neo Geo 64
game. It was also released in relatively limited numbers outside of Japan
, as the gaming market was gearing up for the release of the PlayStation 2
. This meant that few people had actually seen either game, and so the title was the only thing they had to go on. Even a cursory comparison between the two reveals that they are two very different entities. To help eliminate confusion, Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage is now frequently referred to in English-speaking circles as Warriors Rage 2, or SSWR2 for short.
SNK Playmore
SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
's Samurai Shodown
Samurai Shodown
Samurai Shodown, known as in Japan, is a competitive fighting game produced by SNK for their Neo Geo arcade and home platform. In contrast to other fighting games at the time which were set in modern times and focused primarily on hand-to-hand combat, Samurai Shodown is set in feudal-era Japan ...
series of fighting games.
Story
The official story, as given by SNK, is as follows:It is a time of sustained peace, and the age of the sword was drawing to a close.
But an increasing number could not adapt to the flow of history and became trouble before long.
So the shogunate created a "colony of prisoners" on a small island in sea nearby Edo as a place to rehabilitate the outlaws.
But, there were those who exploited this prison island and tried to create a "new world exclusively for the chosen ones" after destroying the shogunate.
The group they formed was called the "League of the Three Blades of Domination" and each member had their own mighty strength.
Using their might, they subjugated the outlaws and begin their plans to overthrow the shogunate.
And in no time the "town of outlaws" came to be called "Ritenkyo"-the seat of opposition.
Under these figures Ritenkyo unexpectedly changed from a "place of rehabilitation for returning to society" to a "lawless zone in which only the strong survive."
The inhabitants engaged in vendettas, skirmishes, and death battles to survive from day to day.
And the "Three Blades of Domination" steadily consolidated their power to its utmost, absorbing strength from the hate surrounding them.
On a still, pitch-black night of the new moon.
Flicker-Flicker-Flicker-Flicker.
The glow of a candle grows and a single shadow emerges from the darkness.
It is an elderly gentleman with a beard and tranquil visage.
"Have they arrived?"
"Yes, Lord Oboro. The red-eyed boy and girl have come."
Only a voice comes from the darkness.
Without making a noise, the old man rises and speaks:
"At last, the time has come.... Time to make their acquaintance."
The man's closed eyelids pop open.
His red eyes glow with the light of the candle.
Whooooosh!
A burst of wind slices the calm, and darkness once again dominates the world.
A few years later, three people look down at the world below from a tall tower.
One is a tall man armed with a sword; the other, a bewitching, alabaster-skinned woman.
The two share a pair of red eyes.
And standing behind them awaits a fine-looking elderly man who appears somewhat out of place.
The sunlight reflects off their red eyes, making them glow eerily.
The woman mutters, "A few people we have some things to settle with appear to have entered Ritenkyo.
Word has it that they are major obstacles to the realization of our intentions."
The man speaks as he continues to survey the world below. "All we need to do is wait here. The rats will come even if we do nothing."
The Three Blades of Domination are about to bring an end to the era of peace in this world.
And the warriors who battle for their own reasons converge on "Ritenkyo" as our story begins.
Overview
Continuing onward from the storyline set forth in the two Hyper Neo Geo 64Hyper Neo Geo 64
The Hyper Neo Geo 64 was an arcade system created by SNK, and released in September 1997, being the first and only "Neo Geo" branded arcade system of the Neo Geo family....
games in the series, Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage takes place 20 years later, with a dramatically revamped cast, and was released solely for the Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
PlayStation. Though other SS games have followed it, it is chronologically the last game in the series, and is the only game in the series proper to not get an arcade release.
The first and most audacious change is the revamped character roster, which removed every playable character from previous games, with the exception of Haohmaru, who was now a middle-aged man, sporting a beard and missing his trademark mop of black hair. Hanzo Hattori also appeared, though it was not actually the same man, but rather the original Hanzo's son, Shinzo, who had assumed his name. Nicotine Caffeine, Nakoruru and Rimururu also played a role in the story, but were not in a playable form. Every other character was a new design.
The game was also very plot-intensive, with more than two dozen characters, each one having a reasonably significant role to play in the story.
Though the game was still in 3D, SNK sought to further diminish the role of the third dimension, making all gameplay on a straight line, with no movement along the Z-axis, beyond a basic dodge. Two buttons controlled weak and strong slashes, a third controlled kick attacks, and the fourth was used for dodges.
The game introduced a new lifebar system, which was subdivided into three sections. The first "round" of the fight lasted until one person was drained of all three sections, upon which one section of the bar would disappear, and the remaining two would refill. Once those two were drained, the second section would be dropped, with the last one refilled. This was punctuated by a pause in the action, during which the other player would go through a taunt animation. The match was finally over when one player had been drained of this last section of life.
Aside from the lifebar system, gameplay was relatively straightforward.
Title Confusion
For reasons unknown, SNK gave this game an extremely similar English title to that of its predecessor, Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors RageSamurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage
Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage, known as in Japan, is a 3D fighting game produced by SNK for its Hyper Neogeo 64 system. It is the followup to the original Samurai Shodown 64 on the same platform, and like its predecessor, it received relatively no distribution outside of Japan.-Story:The...
. This generated considerable confusion, and led many to the assumption that it was a port
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
of the second Hyper Neo Geo 64
Hyper Neo Geo 64
The Hyper Neo Geo 64 was an arcade system created by SNK, and released in September 1997, being the first and only "Neo Geo" branded arcade system of the Neo Geo family....
game. It was also released in relatively limited numbers outside of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, as the gaming market was gearing up for the release of the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
. This meant that few people had actually seen either game, and so the title was the only thing they had to go on. Even a cursory comparison between the two reveals that they are two very different entities. To help eliminate confusion, Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage is now frequently referred to in English-speaking circles as Warriors Rage 2, or SSWR2 for short.
Critical and Fan Reception
For a variety of reasons, the game was poorly reviewed by virtually everyone, and is usually cited as the lowest point in the series' history. The most common complaints are:- The new lifebar system interrupts the flow of fights.
- Gameplay has too much of a "stuttering" feel to it.
- Lack of classic, favorite characters.
Returning characters
- Haohmaru
- Hanzo Hattori
- Nakoruru (as a non-playable Koro-pok-guruKoro-pok-guru, also written Koro-pok-kuru, korobokkuru, or koropokkur, are a race of small people in Ainu folklore. The name is traditionally analysed as a tripartite compound of kor or koro , pok , and kur or kuru and interpreted to mean "people below the leaves of the butterbur plant" in the Ainu...
) - Rimururu (non-playable)
External links
- a mirror of Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage homepage by SNKSNK PlaymoreSNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
- Japanese / English