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1'''Battle 2 - ENGAGE!'''
2----
3* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Gaira's whole purpose in the fifth game: Run around like an idiot, then gets his hair shaven. He's bald in the sixth game, but that's a dream match.
4* BaseBreakingCharacter:
5** Iroha, being a NinjaMaid whose true form is a crane, [[MsFanservice is decidedly sexy]] and [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks the fourth wall by referring the player as her 'Master']]. This is a double-edged sword for her due to the fact that one camp thinks she has potential to be interesting if she can get introduced outside of ''Samurai Shodown VI/Tenkaichi'' (the title itself being a DreamMatchGame), and indeed, out of the new additions in ''Tenkaichi'', she has one of the more realistic weapons that could be implemented in canon (butterfly swords), while the other camp thinks that she's unnecessary {{Otaku}} bait who's hopelessly stuck with her only role at [[PanderingToTheBase 'pleasing the players']] without any chance of CharacterDevelopment because they think [[PanderingToTheBase that]] was [[GoneHorriblyRight exactly her core character.]] Bringing up whether she should appear in games outside of ''Samurai Shodown VI/Tenkaichi'' is bound to lead to more than a few arguments. Came to a head when Nobuyuki Kuroki, director of the 2019 installment, announced in a Dengeki interview that his team deliberately excluded her in the base roster due to her fanservicey nature contrasting with the tone they wanted to set for the game (at least until Season Pass 2, where Iroha would be part of the DLC).
6** The character addition choices in the ''V'' and ''VI'' era. While there are some gold gems such as Tokugawa Yoshitora and Mina Majikina (and both of them ended up making the cut for the 2019 game), others are either oft-forgotten or became [[BaseBreakingCharacter Base-Breaking Characters]] on their own (See Iroha above) due to design choices and [[FlatCharacter personalities that do not endear people much.]]
7*** Starting with ''V''. Many characters were created out of nowhere just to separate the Slash and Bust versions of the existing character and they are DoomedByCanon not warranting to be saved due to unpopularity (Such as Rasetsumaru (based on Bust Haohmaru), Enja (based on Bust Kazuki), Suija (based on Bust Sogetsu). Rera (based on Bust Nakoruru) is so far the only exception since she's also the materialization of the '[[PaletteSwap Purple Nakoruru with malicious grin]]' spanning throughout the franchise). Liu Yunfei is by far one of the most forgotten new additions in ''V'' despite his more interesting storyline with Gaoh (despite it being more self-contained), Kusaregedo was extremely unpleasant and didn't attract a similar charm of 'ugly characters' like Earthquake and Gen-An (despite him being a deliberate attempt to combine both in ugliness). And the bosses... well, aside of Gaoh anyway (who warrants a cameo in the ''2019'' due to his importance in Yoshitora's storyline); Yumeji only had 'being based on Mori Ranmaru' gender ambiguity, but aside from that they only took a few moves from Bust Ukyo and then call it a day by giving them [[MovesetClone an ability to morph to other characters to steal their moves]] and Sankuro jumps straight into TheScrappy status (read below). There are only a handful of people who liked these new additions and they're not very vocal.
8*** Continuing in ''VI'', the dream match status means that the character doesn't even need to be involved with the story, just be as outlandish as possible, which could be a double-edged sword, either they think it's unique or downright unnecessary. Iroha (already explained above), Andrew and Ocha-maro had an interesting concept (a pastiche of one of the American Presidents and a Karakuri doll respectively) but the Dream Match status hampers them or their outlandish statuses prevents them from developing anywhere. Sugorokumaru also suffers the same problem and might have the least interesting concept while ''still'' being outlandish enough to take seriously. Only time will tell if Iroha can break the trend based on her appearance in the ''2019'' game and see if the ''VI'' additions can be implemented well in the canon story and expand beyond it.
9* BrokenBase:
10** ''Samurai Shodown V Special'''s DarkerAndEdgier nature by showing some very gory and graphic fatalities like ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' and ''VideoGame/EternalChampions''. An incredibly cool idea that is stylish and it fits with the series' most serious nature well? Or is it a rather repulsive idea that never suited the series, to begin with? And those who feel the latter are especially repulsed by the fact that the cute child characters (Shizumaru and Rimururu) in the game can cause and be on the receiving end of these fatalities.
11** Charlotte's redesign in the 2019 remake has split the base. On one side, there are those that hate the redesign, feeling that making Charlotte HotterAndSexier removes what made her unique and accusing the developers of "waifu-izing" her for the sake of [[MsFanservice being bait for horny gamers.]] On the other side, those who like the redesign feel that her more feminine appearance doesn't detract at all from her overall badass nature, point out that considering this is an SNK-originated franchise, her redesign is incredibly tame compared to the more fanservicey characters they have, and also that her old design, which had her legs armored, would be counterproductive for a fencer like her.
12* CrackPairing: Galford-Nakoruru has enough hints and [[ShipTease teases]], and it's canon that [[UnrequitedLove he's in love with her]]...but their Bust forms? Or Bust Galford X Rera? Sometimes, yeah.
13* [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Crowning Moment Of Awesome]]: Character example: Seishirou's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Tohma after their fated showdown.
14* EnsembleDarkhorse:
15** Ukyo Tachibana, a badass swordsman afflicted with tuberculosis, was intended for death early on in the series, when that didn't stick, they make him irrelevant to the plot thanks to Genjuro. However, due to popularity among fans, he was not killed off and has appeared throughout the series, despite the minimum roles. Most of the latter ''Samurai Shodown'' game stories are always set in a timeline where they can always include Ukyo. Hilariously, when they chose characters to guest into ''VideoGame/HonorOfKings'', Ukyo gets selected over Haohmaru to be his own hero.[[note]]Because the game already had the guy Haohmaru is based on, UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi, so Haohmaru gets to be a skin for Musashi, and ended up adopting his DualWielding style, something he never did in the original game.[[/note]] It shows how beloved Ukyo is.
16** Nakoruru, a nature-protecting priestess, whose popularity grew to the levels of a national idol in Japan and other Asian countries. Out of ''Samurai Shodown'' fanart found on the net, around 70-80% is dedicated to Nakoruru; and in Japan, big companies compete over releasing Nakoruru dolls. She may be the main heroine of ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown'', but in terms of the entire Creator/{{SNK}} universe (whose biggest draws are mostly ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'', and overall, [[VideoGame/FatalFury Mai Shiranui]] overshadows her in exposure) and Japan overall? Yeah. To the point that she even gets integrated into ''KOF'' canon by appearing in ''XIV''. Beforehand, she even appeared in the ''VideoGame/SNKVsCapcom'' series. It is also mentioned by the developers of ''Samurai Shodown (2019)'' that Nakoruru also has the same benefit that Ukyo had: It was set between ''V'' and ''I'' so they can include a living Nakoruru.
17** Gen-An Shiranui, what with him being the original freak character of the series and a IneffectualSympatheticVillain, as well as being the first choice by troll players to piss off their opponents. Another draw for him is the fact that he shares the same surname as [[VideoGame/FatalFury Mai]] [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters Shiranui]], while WordOfGod said they're unrelated despite so, that still fueled the fires of their 'ambiguous relationship' and making Gen-An more known (and the contrast of [[{{Gonk}} their]] [[MsFanservice looks]] is very stark). He is currently the most requested character to appear in the 2019 ''Samurai Shodown'' game as DLC by a large margin, in addition, that by the end of 2019 and Season Pass 1, he's the only character from the original game roster absent from the game.
18** Cham Cham is also quite popular for someone who only appears in three games (''II'', ''IV'' (as a Platform/PlayStation-exclusive character) and ''VI''). She even has her own pachinko game! She does come back for ''2019'' as DownloadableContent (Season 3).
19** Iroha is another case; despite her single appearance in the series and [[BaseBreakingCharacter quite controversial character]], she was popular enough to be included in many dating sims and mobile phone games, and be given her very own spin-off game. It was only a matter of time, but now Iroha has finally been confirmed as DLC for Season 2 of ''2019'', marking her official debut into the canon storyline.
20** Mina was originally intended to be a OneSceneWonder, canonically meant to only appear in one game (and the same game had her supposed [[spoiler:''DrivenToSuicide'']]) and just making an obligatory appearance in the non-canon DreamMatchGame, but her tremendous [[TheWoobie Woobie]] qualities and adorable look secured her popularity that she even appeared in ''[[Anime/QueensBlade Queen's Gate: Spiral Chaos]]'' alongside the aforementioned Cham-Cham and Iroha (including Nakoruru would have been a complete overkill). It also helps that she's one of the first attempts at putting a literal archer that doesn't mostly clobber her enemies close range in a fighting game gives her points of uniqueness. She ends up being SavedByTheFans, whereas she will be first in line of the 2nd wave of the 2019 game DLC, [[spoiler:which led to SNK {{retcon}}ning her suicide in order to include her from within said game]].
21** Shiki from ''Samurai Shodown 64'' has proven to be popular enough that she is one of the only characters from that spinoff to be featured in SNK crossovers such as ''VideoGame/SNKVsCapcomSVCChaos'' and ''VideoGame/NeoGeoBattleColiseum''. For decades people have wanted her to appear in the mainline games. The fandom finally got their wish in 2019 when she was announced as part of the roster for the reboot, marking the very first-time people can play her in a traditional ''Samurai Shodown'' game.
22* FanNickname
23** In Mexico, Kyoshiro was usually called "the clown" (due to the face paint) and Amakusa "the witch".
24** When Darli Dagger was revealed, many started calling her "Rule 63 [[WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay Woolie]]".
25** The 2019 reboot as a whole is referred to by fans as "Samurai Shodown VII", despite not officially having a number in the title.
26** Ruixiang has started to become known as "Chinese [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Velma]]" due to her design and [[BlindWithoutEm her glasses falling off]] when she loses her weapon. Another is the first part of her name "Wu", because people got tired of trying to pronounce "Ruixiang".
27** Hanzo's bouncing fireball attack, the Bakuenryu, is commonly referred to as "the slinky" due to the shape and motion of the attack.
28* FanonDiscontinuity:
29** Few who had a chance to play ''Warriors Rage'' ([=PS1=]) likes to pretend it doesn't exist. Not that people hated the idea of a new generation of cast, but because the game itself is considered the worst installment in the series, ranking even below other divisive 3D games.
30** ''Edge of Destiny'' is also widely disliked by the player base for its attempt to imitate the 3D gameplay of the ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'', its DarkerAndEdgier aesthetics, and throwing out half of the cast for newcomers.
31* FashionVictimVillain: Amakusa, especially in the first game.
32* FriendlyFandoms: With the ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'' due to their similarities. Bot are big HistoricalFantasy weapons-based fighting game series that are [[StuckInTheirShadow overshadowed]] (usually) by their hand-to-hand counterparts and have suffered a FranchiseKiller before coming back in a reboot revival. Many fans see a crossover in their minds, which led to Haohmaru being [[https://twitter.com/EVO/status/1158141474371801088 announced]] a GuestFighter in VideoGame/SoulcaliburVI.
33* GameBreaker: Wan-Fu's {{BFS}} in the first game. At Point-blank range, his Power Slash dealt three hits that took off about half a full life meter ''and'' usually left you dizzy to boot. His [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks Thunder Bomb]] could also be a OneHitKill if his Rage gauge was maxed out (a far from uncommon occurrence, see below).
34* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The game was easily SNK's most popular franchise in the United States at one point. It was quite frequently featured in American Gaming magazines such as EGM and GamePro and was a staple of gaming culture in the late 4th generation and early 5th generation.
35* GoodBadTranslation:
36** The original US title of the game was actually supposed to be ''Shogun Shodown''. The name was changed before release, but the intentional misspelling was kept.
37** The classic from the fourth game in that series: "VICTOLY!"
38* HarsherInHindsight:
39** The 2019 game was marketed with the tagline of "Embrace death, and no one can stop you." and had the misfortune of being released on June 25, the day that beloved Youtuber and streamer WebVideo/{{Etika}} was found to have committed suicide by jumping off from the Manhattan Bridge. Needless to say, there was no way the marketing team could have prepared for this tragic coincidence.
40** The 2019 release itself had the misfortune of falling into this. While it reviewed well and enjoyed a brief competitive scene, its first year of release ultimately got bookended with the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. The Pandemic effectively brought all in-person competitive tournaments to a halt for over a year, and due to the poor Delay-Based Netcode, the game got lambasted for it's poor online play when the players were forced to turn online for competitive tournaments. Essentially if game either didn't have Rollback Netcode or already have an established player base, it effectively killed any chances of a community developing around it. Due to this, Samurai Shodown was largely abandoned and didn't get to benefit from a NewbieBoom that so many of its contemporaries like ''[[VideoGame/GuiltyGear Guilty Gear -Strive-]]'' and ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXV'' did. However, unlike their last franchise-killing game, the 2019 game more or less [[GoOutWithASmile fizzled out with a smile]], with many of the old fans enjoying the short time they had before unlike with ''Sen''. Not to mention, even after SNK moved on, they still updated it with some quality-of-life improvements such as the rollback netcode.
41* HilariousInHindsight:
42** Hanzo's finishing move is a ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' -style X-ray move. Even better, ''[=MK9=]'' was the installment that revealed that Scorpion's real name is Hanzo.
43** One of the reasons that ''Samurai Shodown Sen'' ends up being a FranchiseKiller was that "It looked like a watered-down ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Calibur]]''-wannabe game." Fast forward to mid-late 2019, Haohmaru ends up being a GuestFighter in [[VideoGame/SoulCaliburVI an actual Soul Calibur game.]]
44*** Adding to the hilarity of this was that both ''Samurai Shodown'' and ''Soul Calibur'' series once suffered massive FranchiseKiller games (''Sen'' and ''V'' respectively ), and just managed to come back from the brink with their newest titles. So, it added more 'meaning' to Haohmaru's guest-starring there.
45* HoYay: Yaci and Namino. Also, Genjuro is [[DepravedBisexual bisexual]] and simply doesn't care - in ''Days of Memories: Oedo Love Scroll'', the protagonist can get a bad ending where he ends up sharing a bed with Genjuro...
46* IKnewIt: When SNK announced that it was getting a crossover character from ''Guilty Gear'', pretty much '''''everyone''''' knew it was going to be Baiken, owing to her samurai motif and how easily she could fit within the setting. Come months later, and it was indeed confirmed to be Baiken.
47* IronWoobie: Nakoruru, ''specially'' in ''VisualNovel/NakoruruAnoHitoKaraNoOkurimono''.
48* JerkassWoobie: Genjuro, Yaci, and probably Haito.
49* MemeticMutation:
50** [[{{Engrish}} VICTOLY!]] [[note]] The round win message display from ''IV''.[[/note]]
51** [[{{Engrish}} DOUBLE FATARITY]] [[note]] The Double KO message display.[[/note]]
52** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmFDtMw2Ee0 Ow.]] [[note]] A clip of Basara dying in one hit to an attack from Haohmaru which became popular after the announcement of the reboot. This happens because Basara has very low health. Meanwhile, the hit Haohmaru deals to him has been buffed by basically every possible way to increase its damage. both Haohmaru's Rage and Kenki meters are at full, in addition to that, he also scores a counter-hit further increasing the damage.[[/note]]
53** YEAH! [[note]] Haohmaru's 66A has him spouting this line. Given how easy it is to spam, combined with his punching animation and how useful the move is, and you'll be hearing this a LOT. [[/note]]
54** Before ''II'' was released, the new characters were teased via silhouettes. Gamest magazine jokingly filled these with odd drawings — Sieger's was [[http://bohyou.vis.ne.jp/neogeo/samurai/uo.htm a seated man holding an enormous fish]]. The Japanese fandom seemed to love it since it's remembered even today.
55* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Charlotte, a French fencer that tends to spout GratuitousFrench, ended up garnering a following in, well, France.
56* {{Moe}}:
57** Nakoruru and her sister Rimururu. Nakoruru is actually considered one of Japan's most prominent {{Moe}} characters...
58** Also Cham Cham, Minto, Rinka and Suzuhime.
59** Male example: Shizumaru. God, is that kid {{moe}}, [[TroubledButCute though very depressing.]]
60** Wu Ruixiang, big time! She is a very beautiful woman who is endearingly clumsy, shy and polite, apologizing to her opponents for any pain she may have caused.
61* {{Narm}}: Some of the dialogue, due to SNK's, um... ''tactful'' grasp of the English language.
62--> '''Genjuro:''' ''(pre-fight in SSIV)'' You're boring. Die!
63* NarmCharm: The ending cutscene of the 2019 game consists of Shizuka, now no longer possessed, gushing about how there are so many wonderful things in the world and how she's so happy to be going to the afterlife now -- which is a little saccharine, but quite charming too.
64* NeverLiveItDown:
65** The fourth game, an outstanding fighter in its own right, is rarely remembered as anything else than "the one that goes [[JapaneseRanguage VICTOLY!]]"
66** The second game has probably one of the worst English translations in a video game ever, but the one moment fans will only ever remember of it is Cham Cham saying "Shit!"
67* RonTheDeathEater: Although Rera ''is'' deep down a good girl (though just kinda [[WellIntentionedExtremist extreme]]), people never forget that she used to be an 'Evil Nakoruru', so some fics often portray her as an outright evil bitch.
68* SavedByTheFans: The 2nd wave DLC of the 2019 game features Mina Majikina as the first character after she topped the poll for most wanted character to return by fans. The game takes place after ''V'' where she debuted and [[spoiler:was implied to have [[DrivenToSuicide killed herself after killing Chample]]]]. To get around that, her 2019 ending reveals that [[spoiler:Mina was unable to go through with killing Chample, choosing instead to seal the evil controlling him within her]].
69* TheScrappy:
70** Chample. One of the drawbacks to playing Mina in her previous appearances was Chample, who would stay on the frontlines doing nothing but make the annoying sound. There was even a command solely designed to put it to sleep. By the time Mina was released for ''[=SamSho=] 2019'', players were glad that Chample was off-screen and not intruding on the battlefield again.
71** Sankuro Yorozu is amongst one of the most disliked characters in the series. His design is considered uninspiring, he's basically a PaletteSwap of Genjuro Kibagami, except with a hammer, and his moveset was just calling in his AssistCharacter (which will interrupt your jump, sweep low or hold your character in place), eating to recover his health, or pull a gun for a cheap shot as his desperation move, making him a [[ThatOneBoss That One Mid-Boss]]. His story is also very minimal, he's just a lowly thug trying to make big bucks in the middle of the war, is a DirtyCoward, and has very disturbing quotes against female characters. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Also his face is made to be really ugly and uninspiring, even with an]] afro (and considering that other deliberately ugly characters like Earthquake or Gen-An still manage to remain popular, that's saying something). He's only seen in the fifth game and the dream match, and overall, not a single fan misses him. It says something when ''[[ImAHumanitarian Kusaregedo]]'' [[EveryoneHasStandards wants nothing to do with him]].
72* {{Sequelitis}}: The first ''Samurai Shodown'' was a huge success, even in the United States (where it won ''Magazine/ElectronicGamingMonthly'''s Game of the Year award in 1994), and ''Samurai Shodown II'' performed just as well as the first one. However, ''Samurai Shodown III'' made too many changes to the game mechanics that [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks alienated fans of the first two games]] while reducing the character roster to only 12, replacing half of the roster in the process.
73* SoBadItsGood: There are characters with uber annoying looks/laugh (Gen-An, Minto, Tashon Mao, Kusaregedo, Mina's Chample, etc), that have certain popularity and are selected by players quite often - with (often successful) aim to get on opponent's nerves.
74* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: From the ''2019'' game: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A3x118PZC4 French Lady]], compared to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BSwW9T4W2w Wood Carving Partita]] from ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight''.
75* ThatOneBoss: Sankuro. Another reason to call him TheScrappy.
76* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Ukyo Tachibana was originally written as a rival to Haohmaru but he was going to die due to having tuberculosis. However, Ukyo got so popular SNK didn't kill him off but tried to replace him with Genjuro as Haohmaru's rival but Ukyo stuck around in the series anyway (Justified since ''III'' and ''IV'' serve as interquels to ''II''). Nowadays it is interpreted that Ukyo is Haohmaru's friendly rival while Genjuro is Haohmaru's "not-so" friendly rival.
77* ToyShip: Shizumaru and Rimururu, first appeared in the same game, appeared in a slew of artworks together, and the rest was done by millions of Asian fan artists. Part of their appeal is also that they are polar oposites in attitude, with Rimururu being a CheerfulChild while Shizumaru is a rare male ShrinkingViolet.
78* UnexpectedCharacter:
79** Wan-Fu, of all characters, returning as a DLC character in the 2019 installment. Arguably Kazuki without Sogetsu as well, although the latter is set to join him in the second Season Pass.
80** The Warden from ''VideoGame/ForHonor'' finished the second season of DLC as the first GuestFighter in the series history. Needless to say, fans were confused at the idea that the mascot of an arena fighter developed by a Western studio was given this distinct honor, especially considering the expectation most had about a ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'' representative taking that role given their closer thematics and Haohmaru's own stint in ''VideoGame/SoulcaliburVI''.
81** The addition of Gongsun-Li from ''VideoGame/HonorOfKings'' (the origin game of ''VideoGame/ArenaOfValor'') took everyone by surprise. No one expected to see another GuestFighter, let alone one hailing from a [[MultiplayerOnlineBattleArena MOBA]], and even so, it's not even her ''Arena of Valor'' self (Eland'orr), it's straight from the [[NoExportForYou never-released-internationally]] original incarnation ''Honor of Kings''.
82** After [[VideoGame/TheLastBlade Hibiki Takane]] was announced for the Season 3 DLC, many people figured that we weren't gonna get a second GuestFighter for it, especially when Haohmaru made an appearance as a guest in ''VideoGame/SoulcaliburVI'' and led people to believe a ''Soulcalibur'' representative like Mitsurugi would show up to reciprocate. Then in the second Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable, SNK made the surprise announcement that there would be another collaboration character for Season 3. What's more, said character is from ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' of all series! While pretty much everyone figured that Baiken would be the character in question, ''Guilty Gear'' is [[SchizoTech an entirely different genre]] in terms of setting from ''[[JidaiGeki Samurai Shodown]]''.
83* ViewerGenderConfusion: Amakusa Shiro Tokisada. The soft face, big hair, and long nails don't make it easier; The anime of the game went as far as to make him an actual female. Shizumaru also falls into this trope. And Yumeji - intentionally. S/he has a gender-neutral manner of speaking, was exiled from the dojo (although initially was to inherit it) due to an ambiguous bodily ailment or weakness (possible interpretation: ''[[StayInTheKitchen being a woman]]''); also [[Creator/MitsukiSaiga Yumeji's voice actress]] has a long history of voicing similarly non-gender-specific characters.
84* TheWoobie: Shizumaru, Jushiro, and Mina are shining examples of this trope. ''Specially'' Mina, [[spoiler: who ends up ''[[DrivenToSuicide attempting suicide]]''.]]
85
86!!''The Motion Picture''
87* CompleteMonster: The evil god [[BigBad Ambrosia]] engineers a bloody war in the Warring States period of Japan to ensure his seal is released. [[TheCorrupter Corrupting]] the betrayed Holy Warrior, Amakusa Shiro, Ambrosia possesses and uses her to kill the remaining Holy Warriors to make sure none can stand against him. Controlling the Shogunate from the shadows for the next century, Ambrosia kills any Shogun who dares to question him, using them to steal young men to be brainwashed into becoming his soldiers and crushing any sign of rebellion against his reign.
88----
89'''CONCLUSION'''\
90[-'''Well done, Troper!'''-]

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