Bushido Blade 2 Speedrun World Record Shainto Story Hard

I could tell you a great story about how I had to beat the record twice, since the first came out a shining potato with more skipped frames than not. And I managed to beat it by exactly one second on that one. Too bad, I think that would have been an exciting outcome. I always kinda thought Chihiro would be good if you got the hang of her hitboxes and I was right. Then again, it would take more hours on Chihiro alone than it takes to 100% the game.


Bushido Blade 2 is alright. Much more playable than the first one. I don't mean better, I mean it actually comes with game modes you can play, not just a set story where you fight the same five dudes with the same five weapons in the same order until you get bored. This comes with a pretty good Arcade mode, Slash Mode makes a return, and Story Mode is fleshed out and un-Bushidofied... Although you get to slap the guy who wrote that stupid arbitrary ruleset. It's Shainto's final boss, in fact.


You could really feel Square's meddling on this one. Bushido Blade 1 was a much more solid product in general, but Lightweight managed to still make a great game. If Bushido Blade 1 was as replayable as this one, it would have been much more than a cult classic. There's a noticeable graphics downgrade to fit in a ton of new characters, the maps are much smaller, although they now load in one go, there's English voice acting and it's Resident Evil 1 level of legendary.


As for the gameplay differences, BB2 streamlines BB1's system and makes it much easier to get into, but at the cost of depth. No more parry button, now your attacks all have a parry window at the start. This makes trying to fight straight inevitably descend into buttonmashing pretty quickly. There's only high and low attacks now as opposed to head, chest and legs. Normal movement is much faster. Running remains mostly unchanged, although some characters lose the running overhead for a dash attack that stops. The game has grab moves now, and they're all a cool instakill animation, but they're so easy to break it hardly ever becomes a factor.


The story carries on two years after the end of the last game. Tatsumi was the one to escape, and he killed the dojo master. A rival clan with a bone to pick with Narukagami are trying to get their cursed sword, and kill the last heir of the Kagami blood with it. Whether this would release the spirit trapped inside it or not, nobody really knows. You can play as characters from either side. Shainto characters have to fight master Kannagisai at the end, and get to choose whether they spare the heir or not. Narukagami characters fight Hiragi Daina, the Shainto leader. Both of them have maxed out stats and a gimmick to help them. Neither are super hard, but there are a ton of ways to cheese Daina, while Kannagisai is just gonna teleport 10-13 times before you can even hit him. Everyone has fully voiced cutscenes done with the in game engine and a specific ending. Pretty advanced for a 1998 title.