RPG is one of my favorite genres of video games for many reasons, among my favorite games we have Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Trigger, among other titles. All these games were part of my childhood even though at one time I didn't like this kind of games very much, luckily my mentality has changed because if not, I would have missed these wonderful video games. As I said before, fighting games have never been my favorite genre of videogames, however, there is a title: Samurai Shodown (of which I will soon make a review), which I really like, but mainly because of its graphic style, but to my surprise the Samurai Shodown saga has a spin-off videogame of the RPG genre and since I liked so much the character design of this saga, I decided to play this curious RPG.
That's why today's Retro Review is about Samurai Shodown RPG.
Samurai Shodown RPG was an exclusive game for Japan, so (as far as I know) it doesn't have an official translation into another language, but you can still find an English version on the Internet (made by a group of fans of the saga). This game was quite forgotten and the reasons were several, but two of them and maybe the most important, was the exclusivity for Japan, because Samurai Shodown RPG was not commercialized outside Japan and also, this game was released the same year that the great Final Fantasy VII was released, so logically, Samurai Shodown RPG was overshadowed by one of the biggest videogames of the RPG genre and one of the biggest and best videogames in general.
In Samurai Shodown RPG we are told two stories, we can play two stories totally independent from each other, these two stories correspond respectively to part of the stories narrated in Samurai Shodown 1 and 2 (of which I will soon review). In this title we will be able to choose our main character from a list of 6 available characters, having this title a quite new feature compared to other games of the same genre, where we are always assigned a single main character and throughout the adventure new characters join our team.
One of the stories of this curious RPG, is the typical story of this type of videogames, the evil against the good (although both stories are based on this aspect: "the good against the evil"), however, in this first story we face one of the main enemies of the Shodown Samurai saga, which is named: Amakusa, this villain has made an appearance as the final boss in different games throughout the saga, while in the second story, we have a villain, who made his first appearance in Samurai Shodown 2 and she has the purpose of bringing to life the god of darkness.
Without a doubt SNK knows how to create excellent videogames in terms of graphics, and having the legendary Metal Slug as proof of their wonderful visual work, among many other videogames, is proof that in terms of retro games this company was one of the best in this field.
Samurai Shodown RPG visually is a remarkable title, full of a lot of details on screen. SNK's specialty was 2D videogames and in this one you can easily notice how good they were for using this kind of graphics, although I must say that this Samurai Shodown compared to other SNK games maybe is a little bit inferior graphically, it is still a title with a much higher graphic level than other videogames from other companies.
In this title we will find practically the same sprites of their main saga, although perhaps with a smaller size, but still the characters have really good sprites, detailed and with a visually striking color palette. Samurai Shodown RPG is not a title that has bright colors, like other RPGs, but maybe that's because this title is a bit more serious about the plot and they wanted to show that by giving it a slightly darker color scheme.
Due to its feudal era setting, we will find very well recreated scenarios with the main characteristics of that time, from villages, cities or temples, we will also see the typical forests and dungeons recreated with quite a lot of effort. The number of scenarios is varied, and although we will also find the typical scenarios that do not have much design work, most of these present a graphic level representative of the SNK brand.
As every good RPG one of its best features is its soundtrack and of course this videogame is not going to be the exception, because in Samurai Shodown RPG we are going to find a set of tunes worthy of a high quality RPG, those tunes that help to create a better atmosphere and that together with the environment make a great union and help to immerse in this fantastic and Japanese world. In this game we will also find melodies that we can listen to in the main saga, but adapted to this RPG genre. In addition its sound effects are outstanding and the characters have their respective voices.
Samurai Shodown RPG is a quite conventional RPG, so we are going to find the classic system of this kind of games and it is the famous and classic turn-based mode. A quite characteristic and classic aspect in the old RPG games, although in current games like Pokemon, that system is still used. I have to say that one of the reasons why some years ago I didn't like RPG, was because of this modality, because I liked action games and not having to wait in each battle to make an attack or for the enemy to make an attack, luckily my mentality changed and I knew how to appreciate the art of this kind of game system.
Unlike other RPGs where one of its strengths is magic, in this game there is no magic as such and as it has always been known in games of this genre, since here magic is replaced by the skills that our characters have, being able to have a team of 3 characters (including our main character).
Samurai Shodown RPG is a game with a considerably long duration, it's a game that will give us many hours of gameplay to complete, because it's something quite common in this kind of games and besides that, as I mentioned before, it has two totally different stories between them, but besides that it also has six alternative endings, so together with the option of being able to choose between 6 characters to complete the game, the level of re-playability of this title is much higher than other RPGs of that time. But in general it's a typical RPG like others, in terms of gameplay and things to do during the adventure, like defeating enemies, gaining experience, completing dungeons and overcoming some retro, but despite that it's still a pretty attractive game for those people who are fans of the Samurai Shodown saga.
Even though it's a title that didn't come out out of Japan, on the internet you can find a ROM translated to English, this ROM was translated by the fans and unfortunately it has its faults, so we are going to find many translation errors and even some sections that haven't been translated at all. It's a real pity that SNK didn't take the dedication to take this title out of Japan, maybe if they had done it, with their respective language in English, this game would have enjoyed more fame.