The Samurai Spirits philosophy (basically a FAQ)

I'm posting this hoping to enlighten anyone who maybe having difficulty with any of the Samurai Spirits games. I don't consider myself a master of the Samurai Spirits games, but I'm pretty good I think Maybe this will open your minds to a new way of thinking and they can enjoy these works of art.

Intro
The Samurai Spirits apporach to fighting games is one vastly different than what you may have experienced in the past. The game is a fencing match, believe it or not, and not slugfest. Its about learning all the intricates the of your character, defending yourself properly, reading your opponents actions carefully, and striking when the time is right.

Learning your normals
Do not go into this game looking for heavy hitting multi-hit combos and pulling off spectacular, over the top, special moves. First off, learn how all your character's normal moves work. Ask yourself these questions about your character:
1)What is the distance of all my normal attacks?
2)What is the approximate speed of all my normal attacks?
3)Which attack is good for poking and keeping my opponent at bay?
4)Which normal attack helps me get air dominace?
5)Which normal attack is a good cross-up for me?
6)Which normal attack is my best anti-air move?
7)Which normal attack is best for countering?

Once you've successfully answered those questions, most of the hard work to understanding Samurai Spirits is done. The list I provided is quite long and will take some time to fully complete. If you want to become a Samurai Spirits master, you must work to complete the list and fully understand all your characters normals. In Samurai Spirits you can go through round after round victorious without using a single special move. That is the one of the many beauties of Samurai Spirits, its more of chess match then just overwhelming your opponent with a flurry of special moves. If you encounter a player you tries to launch special move after special, which is impossible if you defend correctly, they'll be wide open to attack.
side note:
You got kicks, USE THEM!!!
I've seen multiple new and amature players just blantly ignore the kick moves of their characters. Generally your kicks are quicker than your slash moves and great for poking when in close. Your weak kicks are very fast and have little to no lag time when they are blocked. Some characters I find their kick moves to be less than useful, but there are ways to utlize them. Use your kicks, they are there for a reason.

Blocking and Defending yourself
This is HUGE, HUGE, HUGE! The first step to protecting yourself is BLOCKING! Sounds so simple, you just hold back, or backdown, and viola you block. This is actually much harder than it sounds when you are new to the world of Samurai Spirits. First you must understand how blocking works; standing blocks block all high (jumping included), low block blocks all low attacks, and in Samurai Spirits III ONLY there is air blocking which I'm not a fan of (but I'm still a fan of SS3 buttrock ). Now that you understand that much I'm going to give a piece of information that is KEY to sucessfully blocking your opponenets attacks. Are you ready? WATCH YOUR OPPONENTS CHARACTER AND NOT YOUR OWN! Sounds so simple, and it is, but seems to be rarely practiced by the lower players. I'm guilty of it; just watching my character thinking "oh wow, look at my cool hair and man I got an awesome sword, I'm so badass!" Then WHAM, your character gets fucked up and the round is over. The only way you're going to be a sucessful blocker is watch your opponent closely and see what moves are coming at you. Its simple, so do it.

Another important aspect to proctecting yourself is learning the art of countering and anti-air. Usually to counter you are going to use one of your quicker normals (ie weak slash/kick). Countering is all about understanding your opponents moves and animation. Now to truly master (and I still haven't yet) you have to spend much time learning all the characters animations and know all their timing. You don't go that deep, but spend some quality time in this department it will make a world of difference. The anti-air aspect is just like countering, you have to spend time to learn your opponents animations. Its all about timing and generally you want to have normal attack as your anti-air attack cause if your trying to input special move to anti-air, miscue, and WHAM your opponent got the jump-in and probably land another move, and good chunck of your life is gone. Once again, spend some quality time in this department and it will make a world of difference.

Throwing
Often overlooked, even be me until recently, throwing is instrumental to becoming a good Samurai Spirits player. When you are new throwing is a counter to any block happy bitches you run into, mainly the CPU towards the final matches. Throws are simple as forward + A/AB/C/CD when next to the opponent. Throwing in Samurai Spirits II can be a great counter against high ground attacks. When the opponent takes a swipe at you roll by 2X foward-down and then your in prime throwing position. It is much easier said then done, it takes good timing, but master this and you have a very helpful new weapon in your arsenal.
side note 1: Air and Command Throws:
Namely Galford and Hanzo have very useful command throws. Use the same methods of getting inside as mentioned above and input the command throw. Air throws are limited to I believe Galford, Hanzo, and Nakoruru and those are execute by down + B/AB/C/CD while you and the enemy collide in midair.
side note 2: Throwing in Samurai Spirits III/IV
The only throws per se available in Samurai Spirits III/IV are the command throws. The other "throws" are executed by forward + C which it turns grabs your opponet, tosses to the opposite side of you, leaving them stunned and allowing you to do what you wish to them

Dashing, Hopping, Dodging, Juking, and all that cool stuff
Overlooked alot by newer player. Dashing/evading properly can really make difference. Dashing is great for closing the gaps and applying pressure. I personally love to apply pressure to my opponent so I'm always keeping things close between me and my opponent. Now, I love to dashing, but I know when to hop backwards to you. If your feeling pressure or not liking how things are going down in close, back out. There is no shame in running away and coming back to fight another day I also cannot forget the BC hop availabe in Samurai Spirits II that allows to do a little hop and dodge low attacks/projectiles.
SAMURAI SPIRITS III/IV EXCLUSIVE(makes you want to go buy them right now, huh )
In Samurai Spirits III/IV you can sidestep by pressing AB and do ninfty spin around putting yourself behind your opponent when s/he is in close. Its good for getting out projectile traps and is great when your feeling pressured inside. Also exclusive to Samurai Spirits III/IV is the hop crush, forward + BC executes the hop crush that must be high blocked, so use it on a turtling bitch

Your Specials
This should be the last thing on your mind when learning your character. Specials are nice and pretty, but most specials leave you WIDE OPEN for attack if you miss or are blocked. Some characters have good poking specials, but they are few and far between. Every character pretty much has unique specials and thats what gives them their flare and fighting style. Learn them, store them away, and when you see your opponent is open, unleash the special move fury. There is once expection to the specials and that is projectiles. If your character has a solid projectile use it to pressure/trap your opponent. Projectiles are annonying and can be useful for getting your opponent out of position to you can land that killer blow.

Conclusion
So there is my philosophy on the Samurai Spirits games. If you can follow these words of wisedom I've provide I am pretty sure you'll see an improvement in your Samurai Spirits play. Now go play and have fun

side note: Any feed back is welcome

EDIT: Throwing section added, grammar errors fixed, fixed some smilies that didn't make in the change over from UBB to vB

That's a pretty good summary of the SSII style of play, but I've got to make a comment about your throwing tactics.

Throwing is a key aspect to SSII and is something not to be overlooked or just used on a blocking opponent.

There is a ton of situations where throws are an appropriate form of action, especially in close quarter-type situations, where as you can always roll under an attack to throw, hop back then dash into a throw, throw to get yourself out of a corner trap, mini dash-into-throw, and the most useful time to throw is if you find yourself weaponless and need to gain some time and distance from relentless attacks that are bound to ensue after a Power Special connects (weapon catch is more suitable, but throws work wonders as well).

And that isn't even getting into Air Throws and Galford/Hanzo with their dashing Strike Heads throw; which is a personal favorite trick of mine.

<small>[ August 23, 2003, 01:52 PM: Message edited by: Average Joe ]</small>

Average Joe:
That's a pretty good summary of the SSII style of play, but I've got to make a comment about your throwing tactics.

Throwing is a key aspect to SSII and is something not to be overlooked or just used on a blocking opponent.

There is a ton of situations where throws are an appropriate form of action, especially in close quarter-type situations, where as you can always roll under an attack to throw, hop back then dash into a throw, throw to get yourself out of a corner trap, mini dash-into-throw, and the most useful time to throw is if you find yourself weaponless and need to gain some time and distance from relentless attacks that are bound to ensue after a Power Special connects (weapon catch is more suitable, but throws work wonders as well).

And that isn't even getting into Air Throws and Galford/Hanzo with their dashing Strike Heads throw; which is a personal favorite trick of mine.

Click to expand...

I'll definitely start working on my throwing game. Thanks for the tips

With hanzo/galford, if your opponent jumps at you & performs an early attack, then just block it then use your pile driver throws, basic throws work too, but having a special cammand throw is even better, especially hanzos.

Also if they jump at you, just back dash then hold forward just so you run into them when they touch the floor then pile drive them, because they are just touching the floor from there jump, they can't do any other moves as they are stuck after they land (like a jump recovery).

Hanzo/galford can also cancel there kick attacks with there pile driver moves to gain no recovery time after there kick moves. The cpu can cancel blade attacks too, i wish i new how to do that.

the_colonel:
With hanzo/galford, if your opponent jumps at you & performs an early attack, then just block it then use your pile driver throws, basic throws work too, but having a special cammand throw is even better, especially hanzos.

Also if they jump at you, just back dash then hold forward just so you run into them when they touch the floor then pile drive them, because they are just touching the floor from there jump, they can't do any other moves as they are stuck after they land (like a jump recovery).

Hanzo/galford can also cancel there kick attacks with there pile driver moves to gain no recovery time after there kick moves. The cpu can cancel blade attacks too, i wish i new how to do that.

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Very Interesting, thanks for the tips.

Still working on my throwing game, its so weak. I gotta get grips on rolling better.

Thanks for posting this, it took alot of thought on your part. I am a really bad Samurai Spirits player, I try to go at it like it is Last Blade and that is not the right way to play. Next time I put the good ol' Samurai Spirits II cart into my AES I will take what you said into account. I would enjoy the game so much more if I was decent at it. I need to train harder...

<small>[ September 04, 2003, 11:43 PM: Message edited by: mikace01 ]</small>

Alright, I just played for about a hour or so using the tips you gave me. This FAQ has helped me out alot, I am doing alot better, and winning alot more matches. Before I read this I was going for all the special moves all the time and not focusing on basic slashes/grabs/kicks. Now that I have gone back to the basics I am doing great.

Note: I found that Genjuro's a+b is very effective when jumping in at the enemy, you have to input the command just as you are about to hit the ground though or you will end up missing your opponent and opening yourself up for a beating.

Also, doing Genjuro's QCB+B projectile attack is very usefull if used correctly. When you do this projectile attack from far away 75% of the time your opponent will jump over it rather then blocking, this makes for a great time to either jump up and do a quick slash, or do a anti-air.

I am having problems beating Hanzo. Mainly this is because when he does the move where he turns into smoke I never know if he is going to come out of the ground and attack me or fall from the sky and attack me. Any tips for defending against this attack?

<small>[ September 05, 2003, 01:27 AM: Message edited by: mikace01 ]</small>

mikace01:
Alright, I just played for about a hour or so using the tips you gave me. This FAQ has helped me out alot, I am doing alot better, and winning alot more matches. Before I read this I was going for all the special moves all the time and not focusing on basic slashes/grabs/kicks. Now that I have gone back to the basics I am doing great.

Note: I found that Genjuro's a+b is very effective when jumping in at the enemy, you have to input the command just as you are about to hit the ground though or you will end up missing your opponent and opening yourself up for a beating.

Also, doing Genjuro's QCB+B projectile attack is very usefull if used correctly. When you do this projectile attack from far away 75% of the time your opponent will jump over it rather then blocking, this makes for a great time to either jump up and do a quick slash, or do a anti-air.

I am having problems beating Hanzo. Mainly this is because when he does the move where he turns into smoke I never know if he is going to come out of the ground and attack me or fall from the sky and attack me. Any tips for defending against this attack?

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Glad to hear the FAQ has helped. Sound like your a Genjuro player, nice choice. Very cool looking, love the "revenge" attitude, and a solid fighter to boot!

Hanzo is a tricky bastard. He's fast and has the most powerful throw move in the game. For reading his "vanish" moves this is how it breaks down. When you strike Hanzo and he vanishes, he will come from the ground, so just low block or hit BC to do a little hop. If you don't strike Hanzo and he vanishes he will strike from above. Either high block, dash under it, or hop back. Hope that helps.

I managed to fight through everyone in the game except for the last boss. The move where she summons hands to come and pull you under the ground gets me every time, I think it is unblockable. I would jump over it but it comes so fast that it catches me off guard every time. Any tips for this fight?

Also, what is a good anti-air for Genjuro besides his SLOW, SLOW, DPM+B? I tried back+ab but that didn't give me a anti air attack unfortunately.

<small>[ September 05, 2003, 04:40 PM: Message edited by: mikace01 ]</small>

What Samurai Shodown do you recommend to get into the series?

mikace01:
I managed to fight through everyone in the game except for the last boss. The move where she summons hands to come and pull you under the ground gets me every time, I think it is unblockable. I would jump over it but it comes so fast that it catches me off guard every time. Any tips for this fight?

Also, what is a good anti-air for Genjuro besides his SLOW, SLOW, DPM+B? I tried back+ab but that didn't give me a anti air attack unfortunately.

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Miziku is just a bitch and I do not have any sound advice for whupping her ass. Try the BC hop, maybe that will work.

Genjuro, anti-air, hmmm, Try ducking CD kick? It is a rising low kick, sort of like Ukyo's (which definitely is a solid anti-air move). The DPM+slash is really the only other one I can think of and if you *happen* to miss the DP motion your fucked. Time to do some research

Shinji:
What Samurai Shodown do you recommend to get into the series?

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Either Samurai Showdown I or II. They are both definitely old school fighters and unlike III/IV (which are still great, don't get me wrong) I/II don't have nearly as many specials due to the slash/bust version of every character, which can be overwhelming. Plus I/II are a easier on the wallet. ALL the Samurai Spirits games are awesome, if you can get all of them. I'm 3/4 of the way there, just missing IV on home cart wink

<small>[ September 06, 2003, 07:03 PM: Message edited by: Big Shady ]</small>

I just started using Gen-An as well as Genjuro. I like the range on alot of Gen-An's moves. His DPM+B is also very usefull in alot of situations. I won six straight matches against my friend last night using Gen-An, I do pretty well with him. I just wish Gen-An looked badass like Ukyo and Genjuro. Ah well, the ugly guys are always great fighters...

Edit: Thanks alot for all the tips that you have given me in this thread. Taking all that you have said into account, I finally managed to beat the game with the standard 4 credits using Genjuro. The ending was hilarious, when he says to the frog that follows him around "I'll kill you" I started laughing. To see some badass samurai talk to a frog like that cracked me up. Yeah I know I am a dork, lol.

<small>[ September 06, 2003, 08:06 PM: Message edited by: mikace01 ]</small>

I've just wrote out a gameplay tactic that works, but i copy it & my pc crashed on me.

To cut it short, if an enemy does a multi hitting attack on you, you can block then hit them out of it if your timing is right.
If they do a rapid hitting move, the damage is weak, there for you recover after the blocked hits faster than a strong slash. You can interupt inbetween blocking there multi hit attacks.

e.g, if genan does his roll attack, sometimes his hits are not consistant depending on the distance he does it from you i think, block the first or second hits then you can see where this move is not hitting you but it will soon, thats when you can make your opening counter attack.

the_colonel:
I've just wrote out a gameplay tactic that works, but i copy it & my pc crashed on me.

To cut it short, if an enemy does a multi hitting attack on you, you can block then hit them out of it if your timing is right.
If they do a rapid hitting move, the damage is weak, there for you recover after the blocked hits faster than a strong slash. You can interupt inbetween blocking there multi hit attacks.

e.g, if genan does his roll attack, sometimes his hits are not consistant depending on the distance he does it from you i think, block the first or second hits then you can see where this move is not hitting you but it will soon, thats when you can make your opening counter attack.

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Yeah, I counter during multi hit attacks all the time. I have never tried countering when Gen-An does his DPM+B though, I never thought that there would be enough time. I will have to try that soon, thanks.

<small>[ September 07, 2003, 12:37 PM: Message edited by: mikace01 ]</small>

just what I needed in my conquest for the end of the game in lesser credits!!

Thanx!

Well I've been working on my throwing game hardcore in Samurai Spirits II and boy is it more helpful then I though Definitely give my faq a little update.

Big Shady said:

:
"oh wow, look at my cool hair and man I got an awesome sword, I'm so badass!" Then WHAM, your character gets fucked up and the round is over.

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Thanks for the tips, cool faq

FAQ has been updated with a throwing section and certain grammar fixes. Enjoy!

With coming of SS0/V and the home cart in December (hopefully an X-mas for ours truly ) I'm giving this thread bump to the top and hopefully help any of you trying to get into the SS groove

Big Shady said:

With coming of SS0/V and the home cart in December (hopefully an X-mas for ours truly ) I'm giving this thread bump to the top and hopefully help any of you trying to get into the SS groove

Click to expand...

It's a nice little FAQ and a nice attempt to pull people out of this slump.

But I think we just have to face the facts...people don't actually play their games.

Maybe they do, but they sure don't discuss the Neo ones too often.

Average Joe said:

It's a nice little FAQ and a nice attempt to pull people out of this slump.

But I think we just have to face the facts...people don't actually play their games.

Maybe they do, but they sure don't discuss the Neo ones too often.

Click to expand...

Yeah, your probably right. Well at least the few players out there can enjoy this FAQ.

I'm a player, definately.

There are a lot of people out there who don't get that SS is not a beat-em up. It's not a Street Fighter with swords... it is in fact a fencing game like you said.

Gar, bumped back to the top cause some peeps need it