Hello, Demons, It's Your Boy.

Official Sketches

Her original design was more priestly, but was toned down for looking too much like a sentai villain. The outfit on the right is an early draft of her story mode outfit. The note on the right talks about how scary she looks with her hair down, but I don't see it.

She's only depicted playing the flute in the intro of the second game, but I'm glad that concept was there from this early on.

Just a close-up of her pretty face, yeah?

While I'm certain these are all official, I have taken them from FightersGeneration.com. They have some weird ideas about when this game takes place, though. It's in Nineties Japan, not ancient Japan. The Parking Garage stage with the audible car peel out should be a clear indicator.

WLC 5.C: Doom Service

As the sheriff and the naked gex stare down, Gank slips into the floor and rises outside. She knocks loudly on the door. "Ma'am, are you okay?" she yells, "You're using an excessive amount of water." The words flow with an odd twang, an errant emphasis, splashing their river.

Tanglepork and Jevoi keep eyes locked. The sheriff then motions with her eyes for Jevoi to answer and fades from sight, her gun still trained on the gex.

D: She could do that?

J: Gnomes are tricky, like short, chaotic elves.

L: They sure are.

J: Mind out of the gutter, Mum.

Jevoi slips back to the shower and quickly turns it off, then loudly rushes to the door. She opens it just a crack and leans to look through. "Sorry," she says to the tentacled cabin boy that she's surprised to see, "I didn't mean to offend, but it's been so long for me. It's so nice and warm."

"Not a problem, Ma'am," says the disguised Gank, "But we do have a sauna and a pool, if that is to your liking."

"I might- might look into that," says Jevoi, "Good-bye."

"By the way," says Gank the cabin boy, preventing the door from closing, "Captain found a bag last night. Might it be yours?"

Jevoi groans slightly in confusion and looks back at the mess Tanglepork made.

"Black leather, likely bigger on the inside?" asks cabin-Gank, "Would you have been on the deck last night?"

"That might be mine..." answers Jevoi slowly, "I'll-"

"It's been placed in the storage vault," interrupts cabin-Gank, "Feel free to retrieve it when it would suit you. Just ask the clerk on staff to assist you." The cabin boy bows and and exits stage left, fading into the floor to return to Jevoi.

"Well, isn't that nice of them, " says the invisible gnome, "You stay here; I'll get that for you."

L: Good thinking, Gank.

G: Thank ya, thank ya. I try my best to keep my house alive.

Gank watches the less-invisible-then-she-thinks gnome leave. When the door closes, she thinks, 'No trick, she actually bought it.'

Jevoi returns to the shower to get dressed. Still under her piled clothes is the bag. And still in the bag are bottles. And still in those bottles is dust. "I need to get this to Loom," she says to no one really, "Then the sheriff is her problem."

6.8: The Woods, Man

L: What Ioana said was suspicious; so after she and Tanglepork fell asleep, I took a look 'round.

While setting off magic detection like a radar, Ling creeps through the house. She scrutinizes every trinket and trophy that crosses her sight. The house is too small to hide anything, but, alas, her search finds naught.

Stepping outside, the cold night air greets her bare head. It is an annoying reminder that she left it in the bedroom, too risky to fetch now.

Ling circles the cabin, checking the walls. However, the building is quite normal. While a part of Ling is relieved, another is frustrated. This dead end was a waste of the children's precious time.

Suddenly, the woods grew quiet. The wind stops, the bugs fall still. A presence, Ling feels; someone lurks amongst the trees.

"Yo," Ling calls out to the unknown. She quickly walks in its direction. "Wait, mate."

The presence does not wait.

When Ling reaches where she felt it, there is only a piece of parchment stuck to a tree. It says: Beware the Witches.

"What witches, mate?" asks Ling, "Gonna need a better b****y clue than that."

D: What are witches? J: It depends on the time. It was originally a political term used to oppress: an accusation of subservience to evil power. L: Then some claimed it as a rebellious term and some drongos thought 'evil power' sounded cool. A: And then evil powers thought more mortal servants sounded cool. J: Then other powers decided to do it too. L: So now it means a mortal who gets magic from some boss. J: Or feminist alchemists. A: Morality of any party involved: undefined. D: ...So, bad? L: Yes, this time bad.

Again, Ling could feel something deeper in the woods. She opens a door in space to its location.

The entity, a well-dressed, elvenoid over twice Ling's height with lanky limbs to match, stands hunched over affixing another paper to a tree. Its head twists around bearing Ling's own face.

"G'ev'ning," says Ling, "Nice to meet ya."

Game Manual

Here are some some details and pictures from the games' official manuals.

Mikado and her Shainto counterpart Kaun face off.

The manual pairs her with Jo as speed-type. The stats the ladies have are similar with the four swords, but the polearms are a different story. The Shainto spear is Jo's worst weapon, but the Narukagami naginata is Mikado's best. Mikado and Kaun have the maximum speed and power with the big pointy sticks!

Mikado's stats with each weapon, if you're curious are:

Weapon-----Power----Speed

Naginata----22/22----15/15 Same as Kaun with Yari (Jo is 15 and 12)

Broadsword-15/22-----12/15 Same as Jo

Katana-------12/22-----14/15 Slower than Jo

Nodachi-----15/22-----13/15 Much weaker than Jo (18)

Longsword--10/22----14/15 Slower than Jo (Tied for the weakest Char/Weapon combo in the game.)

Notes: The lowest normal power is 10 and speed is 12. NPCs and the secret duo are above the limit. Mikado is weaker and slower than Kaun with all swords except being as fast with the katana.

In the original game, Mikado and Black Lotus (aka Kokuren, aka James, aka Highwayman) are the medium characters. Sadly, I haven't found the character stats in BB1 yet.

Also, that codename: Gate of the God's Descent. That's even cooler than my nickname for her: the Empress.

Mikado and Tatsumi face off, back when she was balance and he was speed.

These scans came from Archive.org, so that's why the text is scrunched like that.

WLC 2.B: Trip Trap Trope

The party enters a massive sandy chamber, they stand atop a slope above the black desert. The fossilized remains of a massive spike-shelled creature lies atop a fortress, thirty stories tall, sculpted from the caverns themselves to fit the creature's silhouette.

"Hiding, shhe iss not," says Kalyani, "It lookss familiar, thhough."

"You'd think someone calling herself 'The Shadow Queen' would live somewhere more... subtle," says Maraja, "Any ideas, wizard?"

A magical pulse emits from Ling's location; as it moves forward, an invisible runic wall shimmers briefly ahead of the group. "I know that symbol," says Ling, "That's a 'false ward' alarm... ward."

L: I know it's a dumb name.

At Kalyani's insistence, Ling continues, "This ward does exactly one thing: alert its creator to any change. Unwelcome intruder? Alarm. Attempt to disable? Alarm. Warp past it? Alarm. Actually disable it? Ya guessed it: alarm. But," Ling raises her finger, "That's ALL it can do."

D: I don't get it. Why's it special? L: How do I put this? On top of alerting their creator, most wards try to do something to whoever trips them. J: Mindjack, teleport, incinerate. L: They're intended to go unnoticed until it's too late. J: They're meant to catch dumb thieves and animals. D: So, why use this one? J: Paranoia.

"Asssuming it'ss a perfect ssphere, whichh iss likely," says Kalyani, "Thhey will know we're coming, no matter what."

"Maraja," says Ling, stretching, "You stay here and, when you see your chance, get in that building. Save your mate."

"I'm not leaving you out here," says Maraja, "You have no idea who or what will come out of there."

"Hang back, dear," says Kalyani, "Make that call after they come forth."

Maraja nods her watery head and steps back into the tunnel; Ling and Kalyani race down the slope. Ling feels the hot sand between her toes and Kalyani carves a trail with her tail.

"A late realizzation," says Kalyani, "But iss thhat a tarrassque?"

"Trying not to think about that," says Ling.

"Do you thhink it died reccently?"

"Trying not to think about that."

"HALT!" calls out a raspy woman, when the duo are about a hundred meters from the tower.

"CEASE!" call out a gravelly man, immediately after.

Standing in a second floor, a pair of heavily armored bipeds. They're too far away for Ling to identify who or what they are.

"HOW'S YA GOING?" yells Ling, "WE'RE AS LOST AS A EUNUCH'S BALLS!"

"WHAT?" yells the woman wearing her shield on her right, "WE'RE NOT HOLDING ANY BALLS."

"WAIT," yells the man wearing his shield on his left. He then speaks to the woman beside him.

D: What did he say? L: I don't know; I wasn't going to cast spells where they could see me.

The two jump down, slowing down before landing. They then pose together. Ling can now clearly see the mace and scimitar the man and woman respectfully carry.

Bushido Dance

In the second game, the characters have a set of special kata performances they can do for certain achievements. The dance in question changes based on weapon.

Beating 20 opponents in Vs CPU mode, winning in Group Battle Mode, or beating Story mode without dying will show you something like this.

Obviously these aren't the locations they're supposed to do this in. This second location is the secret "Samurai Mansion" stage in the POV Link Battle Mode.

This is one of the training rooms.

An Overview of Bushido Blade 1 & 2

I really love Bushido Blade 2, the somewhat realistic sword-fighting sequel for the PS1. Though I understand why someone may love the first game more.

Both games operate on the idea that if I stab you in the face, then you die and I win the fight right there. In the first game the area on the body for a fatal hit is much smaller, so fights could take longer. You could also break both the left arm and a leg to greatly weaken a character. Leg-breaking was removed in the sequel for being too devastating; you were reduced to only a few desperate attacks in that state.

In BB1, buttons were high, mid, and low attacks and a deflect/parry. You changed stances with the same buttons that controlled jumping snd crouching. There was also run and surrender (for when your legs were broken) buttons.

In BB2, buttons were vertical/stab and horizontal attacks, and stance change. Jumping and crouching are easier to do, as are the moves from those positions (like throwing things). Running is the same and surrender is now a pointless gimmick cutscene you can trigger for fun. Parrying is now done by hitting an attack right before the attack hits. Opposing attacks are an advantageous parry, same attack are disad. You can quit a fight from the pause menu instead of having to die; you can choose to go to either sub-menu (character select) or top-menu (main menu). Yes, those are the names they use.

BB1 has far fewer characters (6 plus Katze), but more weapons (8 plus Katze's gun) and bigger movelists, making each character feel special.

BB2 has a huge number of characters (20 plus 2 gunners), but the weapon pool (4 swords plus 2 faction exclusive polearms plus 2 guns) and special moves are less diverse. It does have dual-wielding, iaijutsu, deadly grabs, and falling to your death. The final bosses also cheat requiring breaking the first games honor rules: one wears armor (you have to stab him in the back) and the other can teleport for no dang reason (you have to hit him while he's getting back up from it).

BB1 modes are story, normal versus, 1st person link versus, training (freely fight the CPU), and chambara/slash. BB2 adds an additional training mode (commandable CPU), vs CPU, and team battle to that list.

Chambara/Slash is a vs 100 survival time trial against progressively harder mooks. This unlocks Katze the revolver user in both games and Tsubame (who traded her NPC ninja sword for an M16) and the bonus mirror match duo in 2.

Vs CPU is actually a gauntlet against every character you've unlocked (minus your chosen and one of those two bonus characters).

Team Battle has both players select one of the two factions and select 3-5 characters and weapons each. No character or weapon can be repeated for each team. CPU cannot play this mode.

Link Battle requires two copies of the game, PS1s, and TVs along with the PS1 link cable. All that just so both players could play in 1st person mode. Both games have a special maze stage exclusive to this mode.

Story mode is the only changed mode. In BB1, you fight 4 of the other characters (but are actually supposed to lead the first across the huge map, break their legs at the exit, and escape in a tunnel), the fight the last playable character and a series of NPCs. All without breaking the code of honor or getting hit.

BB2 is much simpler. There are eight stages consisting of 3-5 ninja and then boss on all (except the first). The gun characters and the final boss have no ninja. The Shainto also have a ninth stage, but it's just a choice of killing the descendant or just leaving. You have additional characters that you switch to for a stage, and, if they don't die, you unlock them.

The six normal characters in the first game and the starting six characters of the second have alternative costumes in it. You normally cannot use them elsewhere.

I'll probably post more about these games later because I have a lot I could talk about. I will definitely post pictures too. Special pictures; the kind you won't see anywhere else.

Victory Pose Double Feature

In Bushido Blade 2, victory poses are locked to characters, but I've found a way to make everyone be able to strike all those poses.

This video is of Mikado first and her Shainto counterpart Kaun second doing every victory pose except their own in their Versus mode outfits.

This video is the same arrangement, but with Story mode outfits.

FROGS

Chihiro is troublesome little boy. He likes to throw frogs at people.

POV: The enemy leader is afraid of your pet frog.

Mikado, Red Shadow (also known as Hotarubi), Jo, and Hongou all react to this frog in this over-dramatic way. This behavior is tied to their movelist, so any character can be made to react this way.

POV: A grown woman, who is also a samurai assassin (and might be able to hear the dead), is afraid of your pet frog.

POV: You found the only ninja that doesn't like frogs.

POV: That one girl in class thinks she's so cool.

POV: You found the guy that's bullying your brother.

POV: That girl came back! She's friends with the bully!

In their defense, it's a big frog. It also continues to move around the stage and can jump off ledges. It is a pain to pick back up in first person mode.

Further, nothing is stopping any character from picking the frog up and throwing back into Chihiro's face.

Bushido Blade 1 Story Mode

The Story mode of the original game is somewhat oddly designed.

First, you either defeat four opponents, or lure your starting opponent across a huge map to an escape hole. You can either break their leg so they can't follow you, or fight them in the cave when they chase you in.

Either way, you will then fight the fifth through nine opponents in confined stages for the ending. All while not violating the rules of honor.

However, if you didn't fight the second through fourth opponents and never got hit by anything. You can fight the secret tenth enemy.

This video showcases Mikado's story mode cutscenes. First, the scenes for killing her friends in a few different locations (there's around thirty locations these can play at), then the unavoidable fights. Followed by the scenes of her friends killing her in their stories. Then we repeat both set of friend clips again in different locations while everyone is covered in mud. The unavoidable fighters cannot be covered in mud.

Hanzaki (the ninth guy) only has his defeat scene play if you're going to fight the secret boss. Canonically, he's also the only one who died. (Maybe Kindachi, one of the secret bosses, does, but personally I think he's a ghost.)