Line #34 Trivia/SamuraiShodown


1	* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: Tam Tam and Cham Cham. As mentioned under AmbiguouslyBrown on the main work page, the two siblings were originally said to be from South America but borrowed cultural aspects from across the Americas and even Africa and Australia. The ''Samurai Shodown'' (2019) game retcons them to be specifically Mayan, and also changed Cham Cham's pelt from being a tiger's to a spotted cat's. Being Mayan coincidentally solves some other issues, as wearing jaguar skins, teeth, and claws was often done by the ruling class or by great warriors and hunters. Cham Cham and Tam Tam also bear some vague resemblance to the Maya Hero Twins, with Cham Cham easily lining up with Xbalanque, who was physically cat-like, and turning their siblings into monkeys being similar to Tam Tam's fate in ''Samurai Shodown II.'' Even Cham Cham's boomerang isn't impossible to believe now, as some civilizations in the North American Southwest actually used them for hunting, and that isn't too far from Central America for her to have believably found one. Cham Cham's skin is also a bit darker now (more so in the artwork). Overall, while still fantastic {{Mayincatec}} characters, the retcons in ''Samurai Shodown'' (2019) make them less generically "tribal".
2	* ActingForTwo: Harumi Ikoma is Charlotte, Nakoruru, Rera and used to be Mizuki. And you'd probably have to be told to know.
3	* CastingGag:
4	** In the reboot, newcomer Yashamaru is voiced by Creator/KouheiAmasaki, better known as the voice of Haruo Yaguchi from ''Manga/HighScoreGirl'', a series that is very much involved with ''Samurai Shodown'' both in and out of universe.
5	** Also in the same reboot, it's not the first time we hear Creator/YuiIshikawa (Mina Majikina) voicing a girl [[VideoGame/NierAutomata with white hair and with a blindfold, though she is wearing an eyepatch instead here]].
6	** Again, also in the same reboot, however, in a different way, Warden's rival battle is against Jubei. While he doesn't voice Jubei Yagyu, Creator/MasakiTerasoma [[Franchise/BlazBlue actually voices a different Jubei instead]].
7	** This is not the first time that Amakusa's voice actor in the reboot, Shusaku Shirakawa, has voiced [[VideoGame/BloodStainedRitualOfTheNight a bishonen possessed by an evil entity who was on the receiving end of unjust treatment]].
8	* CompletelyDifferentTitle: ''Samurai Shodown II'', ''III'' and ''IV'' were given different titles for the Korean market, likely due to laws at the time regarding references to Japanese culture in games.
9	** ''II'' became ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ssaurabi Saulabi]] Spirits''
10	** ''III'' became ''Fighters Swords''
11	** ''IV'' became ''Pae Wang Jeon Seol: Legend of a Warrior''
12	* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: The global bowdlerization of ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown V Special'' for the home releases was apparently spurred in part by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasebo_slashing Sasebo Slashing]].
13	* DuelingWorks: Between the 2019 installment and ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasyVersus''. Both games return to a slower-paced style of fighting, drastically different from the fast-paced "airdasher" games that have surged in popularity since the late 2000s. Came to a head when the demo for the 2019 game and the beta for ''Granblue'' launched on the same day in May 2019.
14	* ExecutiveMeddling: SNK's community manager [[https://www.twitch.tv/kaiserwave/clip/VivaciousLachrymoseTubersKappa?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time admitted]] during one of his streams that it was him who convinced producer Oda to include Iroha in ''2019'' by showing him all the interest from fans all over the world for her return.
15	* FollowTheLeader:
16	** [[https://www.polygon.com/2017/4/10/15223966/the-making-of-samurai-shodown According to the series' original planner and director Yasushi Adachi]], ''Samurai Shodown'' was inspired by other early 90s fighting games like ''Videogame/StreetFighterII'' and ''Videogame/MortalKombat1992''. The ''Mortal Kombat'' influence should come as no surprise, since ''Samurai'' was one of the first Japanese fighting games to feature in-game blood and gorey finishing moves.
17	** ''Samurai Shodown Sen'' attempted to follow the footsteps of combo/weapon-based fighting game like the ''VideoGame/SoulSeries''. Unfortunately for SNK, that ended up being a temporary FranchiseKiller.
18	** The 2019 reboot takes a number of cues from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'', right down to the 2.5D gameplay, the heavy ink lines on the character models, and the watercolor-inspired art style. Unlike ''Sen'', this one is fortunately ''much'' better received because what they followed was the graphical presentation; the gameplay remains the same (with more bonus stuff included) as the classic series.
19	* FranchiseKiller:
20	** ''Samurai Shodown Sen'', best described as a highly stripped down [[FollowTheLeader clone]] of ''VideoGame/SoulCalibur''; stripping the series from what made it unique in the first place: The 'one hit can take away a lot of health'. And in addition to that, the fantastical and mystical special moves that made the game flashy in the first place were severely toned down for the sake of 'realism'. For those reasons, this really bombed big time. It put SNK off from touching the franchise for 8 years until they decided to try again in 2018, which worked.
21	** Overall opinion of ''Warriors Rage'' (PS) is even less favorable.
22	* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: ''Samurai Shodown V Perfect'' was an unreleased update of ''Samurai Shodown V Special'' that was only available from a single arcade location test in Japan, whose only proof of existence were off-screen photos. It was pulled off from arcades and never resurfaced, until ''Samurai Shodown [=NeoGeo=] Collection'' finally included it in 2020.
23	* MarthDebutedInSmashBros: For those who never bothered with mobile games, let alone an exclusively Chinese one, this would be their first exposure of Gongsun Li.[[note]]You won't find Gongsun Li in ''VideoGame/ArenaOfValor'' either, since she's ported into a different entity: Eland'orr. SNK is using the original version from ''VideoGame/HonorOfKings''.[[/note]]
24	* NoExportForYou: Prior to the ''Samurai Shodown Anthology'' and digital re-release on [=PlayStation=] 4, ''Samurai Shodown VI'' was only released on Japanese arcades and [=PlayStation=] 2, with the latter adding more playable characters and spirit systems available.
25	* OldShame: On Twitter, when mention of the pachinko games were brought up, an SNK official community manager replied "We don't talk about those anymore".
26	* PortOverdosed:
27	** The original ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown'' is one of the more recent games to qualify, due to SNK's near-constant stream of compilations and re-releases over the last decade.
28	** ''Samurai Shodown V Special'' might be the most egregious example, with three different ports to the [=PlayStation=] 4 - the actual release, the ACA Neo Geo release, and as a part of the upcoming ''Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection''. This is especially interesting when you remember that for years, the game was notorious for lacking an accessible home port.
29	* PortmanteauSeriesNickname: Rather uniquely, this trope is mostly applied to the localized name, as fans in the West affectionately refer to the series as "[=SamSho.=]"
30	* PromotedFanboy:
31	** Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of popular anime and manga such as ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', ''Manga/BusoRenkin'' and ''Manga/GunBlazeWest'', mentioned early in ''Rurouni Kenshin'' that he is hooked on the ''Samurai Shodown'' series and bought a Neo Geo CD just to play it. He continued to write ''Samurai Shodown''-related notes in subsequent releases of ''Rurouni Kenshin'' manga. In 2003, SNK hired him to design new characters for ''Samurai Shodown V''.
32	** Subverted by Yasuhiro Nightow, Japanese mangaka and game creator who created the anime and manga ''Manga/{{Trigun}}''. In his previous time as doujinshi artist he created a ''Samurai Shodown''-based manga book, yet later reflected that he isn't very proud of his work for that book and requested that there be no further reprints. Ironically, the book's notoriety is what caused SNK to notice his love for the series and later lead to his job for designing Youkai Kusaregedo in ''Samurai Shodown V''.
33	** Ukyo's current voice actor, Shinjiro Sakurai, not only used to play the game in arcades, but he actually used to play Ukyo himself in those games.
34	* RoleReprise:
35	** Creator/DaikiNakamura returns to voice Haohmaru in the 2019 game after playing him in the ''64'' games and ''Capcom vs. SNK 2''.
36	** Creator/MaiNakahara returns as Nakoruru in the 2019 game from voicing her in ''King of Fighters XIV''.
37	** Atsushi "Monster" Maezuka returns as Kyoshiro in the 2019 game, having voiced him since ''II''.
38	** Kong Kuwata has the record of always keeping the role of Genjuro from his debut to every of his appearances.
39	** Creator/MasakiTerasoma reprises his role of the Warden from the Japanese dub of ''VideoGame/ForHonor''.
40	** Creator/MayumiAsano reprises her role of Baiken from ''[[VideoGame/GuiltyGear Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-]]''.
41	* TranslationCorrection: Wan Fu was noted as being ''83 years old'' in the first game, though this was a translation error -- the English section of the official site has a typo stating his year of birth as 1705, while in reality the 89th year of the Chinese Qing Dynasty (which started in 1644) is 1732, which means he's actually 56 years old. This has since been corrected.
42	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
43	** As revealed in a [[http://www.polygon.com/2017/4/10/15223966/the-making-of-samurai-shodown 2017 interview]], the first ''Samurai Shodown'' was originally designed as a monster-themed BeatEmUp. Gen-an was the only thing carried over from this version of the game.
44	** A 2nd revision of ''V Special'', codenamed ''Final Edition'', was developed and actually completed by Yuki Enterprise. It featured balance changes, bug fixes, and new single-player content. SNK, however, knew absolutely nothing about this and were already planning the release of ''VI'' on Atomiswave hardware rather than Neo Geo due to declining sales. Its location test didn't last for even a single day before it was pulled by SNK themselves. As a result, it was long thought to be a myth...until the release of the Neo Geo Collection, that is. After over 15 years, this lost game will finally see the light of day, now called ''Samurai Shodown V '''Perfect''''' (''Samurai Spirits Zero Special Kanzenban'' in Japanese, lit. ''Samurai Spirits 0 Special Final Edition''), complete with a full, brand-new English translation. The whole story of how ''Perfect'' came to be and how it was finally able to be revealed in an official capacity can be read [[https://twitter.com/necrosofty/status/1265472772928462849 here]]. After its release on the Neo Geo Collection, ''Perfect'' would later see an official arcade release, 18 years after the release of ''Special''.
45	** Sugoroku was originally supposed to be a pirate character, explaining the otherwise out of place pirate stage in ''Tenka''. This was scrapped due to the fact that all of the preproduction designs [[CaptainErsatz strongly resembled]] [[VideoGame/SoulSeries Cervantes]], and the design team couldn't think of something more creative before deadlines.
46	** According to game developer Nobuyuki Koruki, Darli Dagger's design started life as a feudal Japanese firefighter character (a Hikeshi) but the team couldn’t get the concept to work. Then the concept of a burly male carpenter was pitched before they finally decided on merging this design with a that of a "powerful, strong-willed female with African roots."
47	** Additionally Nicotine was planned for the 2019 installment, and even had a model developed early on. However, Oda stepped in and declared that the roster was lacking in female characters, so Shiki was chosen instead.
48	** According to the official art-book accompanying the ''2019'' game, both Darli and Earthquake were supposed to be assigned with their own stages -- hers being a lush, tropical beach on Madagascar depicting her ship-building yard, and his a treasure-filled thieves den in a ruined house in Texas -- though these never made the cut at launch.
49	** Although Tam Tam does not appear in ''Samurai Shodown II'', he may have been planned early on according to some code within the game.

Context Trivia / SamuraiShodown