Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Playthrough with Charlotte. Samurai Shodown II was released in 1994, and was another big hit for SNK. Almost all of the playable characters from the first game return, with all new sprites. Tam Tam is the only character from the first game to be cut from the sequel, but four all new characters were added: Genjuro, Cham Cham, Sieger and Nicotine.
Samurai Shodown II is an all-time classic Neo Geo game, with beautiful graphics, an atmospheric soundtrack, an amazingly balanced cast of... oh what's that, you want my actual opinion and not just the general consensus? Well, I hate this game. I Hate This Game. I HATE THIS GAME.
I
HATE
THIS
GAME
IIIIIIIIII HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE THIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS GAAAAAAAAAAAAAME.
It was released in 1994 so that's an immediate red flag right there. This was the year everyone was trying to outdo themselves making the hardest fighting game possible for no reason, and this was definitely SNK's best effort in that regard. The CPU tends to block everything, gets ridiculous damage and health boosts, always gets to throw you in situations you should be throwing them, and input reads like crazy making for a thoroughly miserable one credit clear run and single player experience. I'm sure this is great for 2 player matches, but if you're on your own it's horrible.
Charlotte has a major advantage against the CPU: her jumping heavy slash attack. The hitbox for this move is weird and the CPU doesn’t tend to block it much, so most of the game is spent jumping forwards and doing the heavy slash, then doing a standing strong slash upon landing. Charlotte has got special moves but none of them are that useful unless your opponent has little health left so you can chip them out.
Gameplay is similar to the previous game, with the POW gauge retained. New features include forward and backwards rolls, and the ability to lie down to duck under incoming projectiles. This game also has parries, allowing players to repel incoming attacks with precise timing. Weapon breaking moves were also added, which will completely destroy your opponent's weapon if they connect. If your weapon gets destroyed, you must hold out for a short period of time before a new one is thrown onto the stage.
The AES release of the first game caused controversy with Neo Geo owners outside of Japan due to it being censored -the color of blood was changed from red to white, and you couldn't cut your opponent in half. For the sequel, things didn't look good at first (the default blood color is green), but thankfully SNK decided to appease their fans by adding a blood code. Using the code restores the red blood, and you'll be dismembering your opponents in no time. All you need to do is change the mode to Japan in the options menu, then exit. Then go back in and change the mode back to USA. Then exit the options menu again and start the game.
If you manage to get to the end, you have the pleasure of facing one of the worst bosses in fighting game history: Mizuki. This is the usual SNK boss syndrome garbage taken to the absolute limit, even Rugal would just start crying at the prospect of facing this boss. The main problems with her are that she has too many moves, and her moves are too fast. She's got a teleport, a move that reverses your controls, a quick slash which can take off around 30% of your life, an animal companion which can turn you into a pig or charge right at you, a grab you have to block low... why does she need so many moves? And her worst move is her weapon break attack, it comes out way too fast and does too much damage. Some of her moves have this problem where if you hit her, her moves still come out and hit you. I got really lucky at the end of round 2, if that strike hadn’t of finished Mizuki off, that black orb would have hit Charlotte and broken her weapon, along with doing a ton of damage.
The best move to use is the crouching heavy slash, but it's a luck-based battle. As seen in round 1, things can go wrong very quickly when fighting her. Her rage gauge also fills up really quickly, and to top it off, her weapon can't be broken. Another negative thing about this game is that Mizuki doesn't suffer enough in the ending, I think it would have been better if she'd been set on fire, and then had several nukes dropped on her. So yeah, she's horrible... and yet, at the same time... wow, what a babe!
Another unusual thing about this game is the length of the credits sequence, which is over 5 minutes long. Usually they don’t come anywhere near close to that amount of time. But then I guess 95% of people who’ve played this game never saw this credits sequence due to the difficulty.
I guess the few things I like about this game are bits of the music, and the English translation, which is hilariously terrible. The moment you start reading the intro text you know something's up. Apparently SNK didn't have enough time to fix up the English script, and so just released it as it was.
Playthrough with Charlotte. Samurai Shodown II was released in 1994, and was another big hit for SNK. Almost all of the playable characters from the first game return, with all new sprites. Tam Tam is the only character from the first game to be cut from the sequel, but four all new characters were added: Genjuro, Cham Cham, Sieger and Nicotine.
Samurai Shodown II is an all-time classic Neo Geo game, with beautiful graphics, an atmospheric soundtrack, an amazingly balanced cast of... oh what's that, you want my actual opinion and not just the general consensus? Well, I hate this game. I Hate This Game. I HATE THIS GAME.
I
HATE
THIS
GAME
IIIIIIIIII HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE THIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS GAAAAAAAAAAAAAME.
It was released in 1994 so that's an immediate red flag right there. This was the year everyone was trying to outdo themselves making the hardest fighting game possible for no reason, and this was definitely SNK's best effort in that regard. The CPU tends to block everything, gets ridiculous damage and health boosts, always gets to throw you in situations you should be throwing them, and input reads like crazy making for a thoroughly miserable one credit clear run and single player experience. I'm sure this is great for 2 player matches, but if you're on your own it's horrible.
Charlotte has a major advantage against the CPU: her jumping heavy slash attack. The hitbox for this move is weird and the CPU doesn’t tend to block it much, so most of the game is spent jumping forwards and doing the heavy slash, then doing a standing strong slash upon landing. Charlotte has got special moves but none of them are that useful unless your opponent has little health left so you can chip them out.
Gameplay is similar to the previous game, with the POW gauge retained. New features include forward and backwards rolls, and the ability to lie down to duck under incoming projectiles. This game also has parries, allowing players to repel incoming attacks with precise timing. Weapon breaking moves were also added, which will completely destroy your opponent's weapon if they connect. If your weapon gets destroyed, you must hold out for a short period of time before a new one is thrown onto the stage.
The AES release of the first game caused controversy with Neo Geo owners outside of Japan due to it being censored -the color of blood was changed from red to white, and you couldn't cut your opponent in half. For the sequel, things didn't look good at first (the default blood color is green), but thankfully SNK decided to appease their fans by adding a blood code. Using the code restores the red blood, and you'll be dismembering your opponents in no time. All you need to do is change the mode to Japan in the options menu, then exit. Then go back in and change the mode back to USA. Then exit the options menu again and start the game.
If you manage to get to the end, you have the pleasure of facing one of the worst bosses in fighting game history: Mizuki. This is the usual SNK boss syndrome garbage taken to the absolute limit, even Rugal would just start crying at the prospect of facing this boss. The main problems with her are that she has too many moves, and her moves are too fast. She's got a teleport, a move that reverses your controls, a quick slash which can take off around 30% of your life, an animal companion which can turn you into a pig or charge right at you, a grab you have to block low... why does she need so many moves? And her worst move is her weapon break attack, it comes out way too fast and does too much damage. Some of her moves have this problem where if you hit her, her moves still come out and hit you. I got really lucky at the end of round 2, if that strike hadn’t of finished Mizuki off, that black orb would have hit Charlotte and broken her weapon, along with doing a ton of damage.
The best move to use is the crouching heavy slash, but it's a luck-based battle. As seen in round 1, things can go wrong very quickly when fighting her. Her rage gauge also fills up really quickly, and to top it off, her weapon can't be broken. Another negative thing about this game is that Mizuki doesn't suffer enough in the ending, I think it would have been better if she'd been set on fire, and then had several nukes dropped on her. So yeah, she's horrible... and yet, at the same time... wow, what a babe!
Another unusual thing about this game is the length of the credits sequence, which is over 5 minutes long. Usually they don’t come anywhere near close to that amount of time. But then I guess 95% of people who’ve played this game never saw this credits sequence due to the difficulty.
I guess the few things I like about this game are bits of the music, and the English translation, which is hilariously terrible. The moment you start reading the intro text you know something's up. Apparently SNK didn't have enough time to fix up the English script, and so just released it as it was.
