The Mugen Fighters Guild - Samurai Shodown: Rebirth By Blood

Starting in small droves back in 2005, I'm starting to get a knack for starting my project up again. It ain't easy juggling a 30-40 hour week, but my love of the SS brand has got me here.

Samurai Shodown: Rebirth By Blood

What is Rebirth By Blood?

It's a full Samurai Shodown fangame using the Mugen engine. Taking advantage of the huge amount of flexibility offered by Elecbyte's engine, this is essentially my hurrah to the series I enjoyed most in my youth.

Why come up with this in the first place?

This started as my retaliation to the dumbed down and quite frankly, castrated presentation of the Samurai Shodown series with Samurai Spirits Tenkachi Kenkayuden, known here as Samurai Shodown 6. This game came only one year or so after Samurai Shodown 5 Special, the very last Neo Geo game, received high praise from the fighting game community for being one of the most balanced entries in the series. It was one on one blade combat at its finest, and its bloodiest, enough for SNKP to think it had the finger pointed at them for the Saesbo slashing incident, which opened the floodgates for all Japanese fighting games from there on to remove all visible blood from all future arcade fighting game releases, persisting to this day. Samurai Shodown was among the first series to get the rated PG treatment, and to me, making Samurai Shodown PG rated is something like making Mortal Kombat 1 for SNES. Unbalanced gameplay, an abysmal soundtrack as well as voices, low sound quality, unfinished graphics, weak special effects, and a severe lack of impact the series is known for contributed to me looking at Samurai Shodown 6 as the worst game of the series, right around the same level of Samurai Shodown Sen of course.

The goal of Rebirth by Blood is to combine the best parts of Samurai Shodown 2, and Samurai Shodown 5 Special all into one, with a few of the good things that came out of Samurai Shodown 6.

What is the story of Rebirth by Blood?

The story of RBB is a "what if" scenario. For those who played Samurai Shodown 2, Nicotine's ending implies that the SS2 boss Mizuki was never fully sealed back into the demon world. To me, this is what happens if Mizuki was never fully sealed into the demon world after the first confrontation.

Hundreds of years ago, a priestess named Bizuki attempted to fight Mizuki, but failed. As a result, Mizuki took over her body and became one of the most dependable servants to the dark god Ambrosia. When Mizuki was defeated, Bizuki's soul was released from her body, allowing Bizuki to become whole once more. The story takes some inspiration from the Samurai Shodown RPG.

What are its features?

- Play either one of two ways!

A Dou (動 Motion) type fighter relies on his anger to exceed his limits, and can hardly control himself when fighting. Known as BLADE mode in English, these fighters rely on their weapon and brute strength to get through tough battles, the classic Samurai Shodown rage gauge experience. Do weapon flipping techniques to disarm the opponent, enter a rage explosion for your final stand, and then attempt the zetsumei ougi to finish it once and for all!

On the other hand, a Sei (静 Stillness) type fighter hides his intention to fight, then releases it quickly, and this principle requires a state of calmness and a clarity of mind. In MIND mode, the fighter relies more on smarts and being able to store energy through meditation. This energy can then be used to power up your special moves. When in a pinch, slow down the opponent and strike them down with the fatal flash!

- Every character is made from the ground up, unique to this full game project.

Some characters are to have completely new and unique styles of play, to be revealed in due time. Lets just say fans of SS64 Asura Zanmaden will have something to look forward to.

- Ability to toggle items being thrown in during a fight

Either have no items at all, the classic SS2/3 style limited to food and bombs only, or SS6's expanded item list including unique items that appear relative to the stage you're in!

- Team mode support

Because the game is intended to be 1 on 1 matches only, simultaneous play is not supported

- 1.1 stage zoom and palette change support (Angry red skin)

- English and Japanese language versions

Help is wanted!

- I can use some assistance on a few things, namely due to my efforts to make this game as true to the original Samurai Shodown mechanics and gameplay as humanly possible. As such I'd like the help of someone who knows exact technical parameters of the various games inside and out. (I have SS3's debug savestate and also a SS5 Special collision box viewer) This game is mainly inspired by my two favorites of the series, SS2 and SS5 Special.

- Custom sprites wanted! A number of characters made for Samurai Shodown 6 lack a full set of sprites. For example, they don't have unique frames for landing on their face or getting hit in the back. There are also several fatality frames I might need help with as well. While I am able to do some decent sprite edits I need good references to work with and sometimes I don't have said references, so I would need a pixel artist that can do these frames more from scratch.

- Additional details and faq will be added in due time as I get them.

EDIT: Screenshots!

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