A 'real' fighting sim.
Written: Jun 28 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice graphics, solid gameplay, cool weaponry.
Cons: Even more weapons would be nice, as would being able to play with more than two players, but that's a Playstation restriction, not a game restriction.
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| mythor's Full Review: Bushido Blade for PlayStation 1 |
The creators of Bushido Blade took a big risk in designing the game mechanics as they did, but thankfully some truly brilliant people were obviously behind this game, and the end effect is eminently playable, and will keep most gamers playing for quite some time.
The risk the developers took was in steering away from the typical fighting game mold, where players have a 'health' meter, which needs to be whittled down by unrealistically braining your opponent with various pointy objects. Instead they opted for a gameplay system that is much more 'realistic'. If someone whacks you in the head with a great big sword, you stay whacked in this game. No getting back up to make a miraculous recovery, you're out of there! Obviously this could've made the game extremely hard, but it's been very well implemented, with a good blocking system, so that novice players won't keep getting killed mere seconds into the game, but also programmed with enough challenge in it to keep even advanced players on their toes.
One of my favored tactics, and one which caused much annoyance to my friends when playing against them, was to stand still, sword raised above my characters head, just waiting for the other player to come within range. As soon as they were within reach the sword would come flashing downwards. If the other player had not previously seen this tactic, it would usually result in an instant win for me. If the other player was aware of what I was doing, it was often a case of who moved quicker. It wasn't a good strategy against the computer controlled opponents though, as they were much more adept at blocking blows, even though they shouldn't really have been able to 'foresee' the move.
The singleplayer game was very challenging, with the computer controlled opponents wielding a wide variety of weapons, your tactics need to be refined for each and every battle. The aforementioned "wait and strike" tactic would see you easily dispatched against an enemy with a two metre long broadsword for instance, as they could lunge in from out of your range and run you through before you ever started your downswing. Challenging to say the least, but fun nonetheless!
Overall, Bushido Blade is a well designed game, with solid gameplay throughout, as well as a very fun two player game. Given that it's a slightly old game now, you can probably pick a copy up quite cheap, and if you've not already played it, I'd advise you to go and order it right now!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mythor
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Member: Matthew Sharpe
Location: Sydney, Australia
Reviews written: 77
Trusted by: 47 members
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