It’s very different hardware from everything else.
Giuseppe: One thing that surprised some is that the Switch version is going to run at 60 FPS. We see a lot of usage of those characters. In terms of popularity, all three are popular, but probably Yashamaru and Darli are very very close at the top. Yet she has some very strong gimmicks so you can’t make other parts of her arsenal too strong. Wu-Ruixiang is a bit hard to use, and she’s a bit of a tricky character, so some people call her weak for that reason. Yasuyuki Oda: All three were well received from different parts of the community. Giuseppe: How was the reception for the new characters in the base game? Who is the most popular? Giuseppe: So it’s going to be all returning characters? Is it going to include only returning characters or there may be new characters? Yasuyuki Oda: Everybody dies in Samurai Shodown (laughs). Giuseppe: So Samurai Shodown is too serious for something like that? That’s something that makes more sense for games that have that comedic touch. Is that an idea you may be considering expanding further maybe in Samurai Shodown? Giuseppe: Speaking about the addition of gender-bent Terry in SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, I think that was well-received by the fans, and you did something similar in the mobile game. Yasuyuki Oda: The possibility exists, but I can’t say anything about it. I wonder, are other developers ever going to give back? Can we expect guest characters in Samurai Shodown? Giuseppe: It’s intriguing that SNK characters are appearing basically in every fighting game out there. Like with The King of Fighters XIV, we try to pick characters that we know fans are talking about and that make them happy. The rest is really just popularity at the end of the day. We looked at the characters and noticed that there weren’t that many female characters in Samurai Shodown in general and we switched them around to bring Shiki into the main roster and Wan-Fu into the season pass. Yasuyuki Oda: One interesting story is that Wan-Fu was initially in the original roster, while Shiki was going to be among the DLC characters. How did you decide which characters to include in the first and second season passes? Giuseppe: Let’s go back to Samurai Shodown. On whether we’d do the one-hit kill, there are still a lot of discussions about that, but I like the idea of maybe bringing two modes, perhaps with an easy mode with a life gauge.īut there is still a lot of discussion going on internally about that. We want to bring it back.” The fans want it. Yasuyuki Oda: Nothing is decided at the moment, nothing has actually been started, but we’re definitely in the phase where we started talking about “let’s bring it back. How is that discussion go? Are you still discussing it? Are you actually working on a new Metal Slug now? You told me you were undecided about whether modern gamers would accept the one-hit-death mechanic. When I interviewed you last year, we talked about Metal Slug and the possibility to bring it back. We’re probably going to see how season 2 is received and go from there. Yasuyuki Oda: It’s a bit early to talk about season 3. Giuseppe: Now that you have a second season pass coming, are you prepared to go beyond that if the game continues to perform strongly? It seems to be the thing that people want nowadays. It was mostly just an idea from the marketing guys.
Yasuyuki Oda: It was actually only America and Europe that got the free season pass, while Japanese users did not. How much of a discussion was that internally?
Giuseppe: Personally, I think another element that set it apart is that you gave away the season pass for free to early adopters. We were a little worried because it’s different from everything else that’s out there, but in the end, it helped set ourselves apart since it’s not a combo game like most other fighting titles.
Yasuyuki Oda: It’s the first time the series came back in a while. Giuseppe: Could you comment on the reception for Samurai Showdown seen from your side? We also got a bonus comment about the return of a franchise beloved by many, Metal Slug. To learn more about the reception of the game and SNK’s plans for it, Twinfinite interviewed Producer Yasuyuki Oda.
Samurai Shodown has launched successfully on PS4 and Xbox one, while fans are still waiting for the Switch, PC, and Stadia releases.