SNK's Samurai Shodown revival was released in June 2019 for consoles, with its PC and next-gen releases earlier this year. Recently, a new trailer revealed the next DLC character who will be added to the roster. The previous DLC character added to Samurai Shodown was Shiro Tokisada Amakusa, a recurring boss and antagonist of the series. This latest addition includes one character from Arc System Works' Guilty Gear series, Baiken the wandering samurai.
Baiken is one of the fan favorites from Guilty Gear, appearing in every game to date in some capacity. She is a wandering Japanese samurai, where she swears revenge against the series' main antagonist, That Man. She has many battle scars, as seen with her eyepatch along with an entire arm missing, although she has weapons hidden up her sleeve. Currently she's absent from the playable roster in the latest entry and is a hotly requested DLC character for Guilty Gear Strive. While she is missed by some fans, her appearance in Samurai Shodown is not only a huge surprise, but also one of the most fitting characters from the Guilty Gear universe to be added to Samurai Shodown.
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As shown off in the trailer, Baiken's translation from Guilty Gear's 3D anime cel-shaded look to Samurai Shodown is not only accurate, but also incredibly stylized to fit within the game. Her playstyle as shown off in the trailer is also accurate to the mechanics from Guilty Gear, including her defense-oriented moveset. This involves a player observing and understanding how their opponent is attacking, and punishing them for it. A lot of Baiken's moves from the series are retained, with several different ways for her to counter or parry an attack.
Some of the moves shown off include Baiken's classic tatami mat flip to create openings and trip up her opponent, along with various counters that could be used to create holes in an opponent's offensive assault. Some of her secret arsenal of weapons were also shown off, including cannons and a chain flail, which can create some impressive mix-ups. All of these show that SNK wish to give its guest characters proper treatment and representation of the series they come from.
With Baiken's addition, this makes her the fourth character of Samurai Shodown's Season 3 Pass. She is scheduled to be released on August 19, so fans won't have to wait long to try her out. While Baiken might be missing from the roster of Guilty Gear for the time being, her fans can still enjoy her guest appearance in this game, and see how her gameplay is translated between these two franchises.
Samurai Shodown is available to play on PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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