WLC 5.4: Making Light Of The Situation

Execution

In the first game, surrender leaves you open to attack and ends the fight after a set time, but in the sequel, it's a cutscene.

Here's that bloodstained versus Mikado accepting her fate.

And so, the bandaged story Mikado cannot outlive herself.

This location, by the way, is a story scene exclusive: outside the Tatara Shrine. (Not the Tatara Shrine Path stage.) You normally cannot fight here.

WLC 4.2: Princess Suite

The empress steps forth from a magical gate into a circular room decorated simplistically in black and gold. The wizard entering behind her recognizes the design instantly. This chamber is glorified teleportation room... and yet her daughter brought her here through a gate.

"The rest of palace is protected from external spatially effects," says Jevoi, "No teleporting into the throne room, or such nonsense."

Jevoi leads Dalini, whose eyes are wide and wandering, and Ling, whose eyes are narrow and plotting, through the door. The guards in dark armor on the other side salute their empress as she leads her family down the hall.

"Was it really a good idea to bring me here?" asks Ling, scanning the structure of the palace: the trims, the scones, the door, anything and everything. "What an oppressive atmosphere," she mutters.

"We can settle our issues later, Mum," says Jevoi, marching confidently, "Dalini comes first."

"Wait, was it?" asks Dalini, hopping after, "Where are we going?"

"Hold on," says Jevoi, sweetly, before her voice turns serious as she singles out an elven maid in the hallway, "You, inform the queen of my return and of our daughter's arrival." As the maid, takes off. Jevoi yells, "And the head chef. Inform him as well!" She continues marching. "Mum, don't stare at the servants' legs."

"Was not," mutters Ling, "Why the cute little dresses?"

Jevoi leads the duo to a door and leans down to Dalini. "Now, I had to make several assumptions," she says, "So if there's anything you want changed, we can be replace it." She stands up and opens the door, "Because this is your room, and it should be what you want it to be."

The room was bigger than the entirety of Ling's old home/lab. Fluffy white and soft pink with a few pastels of other colors stand in sharp contrast to the dark, foreboding palace halls. The walls are painted with a cloud motif. A simply massive bed sits opposite the door. A pile of stuffed toys and dolls lie in the left corner by the bed and a bedside table in the right. On the table is a black and gold bell. A mostly bare bookshelf stands in center of the left wall. There are a pair of doors on the right wall; one open: a closet. In the center of the room, under a fancy light, is a small table and chairs, with a mock tea set upon it.

Dalini stares, overwhelmed, unable to speak.

Jevoi takes her hand and gently walks her into the room. She flashes a smug look over her shoulder at Ling.

"This is-s-s my roooom?" asks Dalini.

"That's right," says her mother, leading her to the closet that has several dresses hung inside, "All of this belongs to you. So pick one out and let's get you clean."

Dalini picks out the pink dress in the center, her expression still mixed between disbelief and ecstasy, "I LOVE IT SO MUCH!"

Jevoi stops her daughter from removing her current clothes. "Wait, you need to take a bath first." She gestures with her head to the other door.

Dalini runs over to it and throws it open. It leads to an immaculate bathroom.

"Now, can you take a bath by yourself?" asks Jevoi leading her to the tub, "Do you know how these work?" She points to the knobs by the faucet. When her daughter shakes her head, Jevoi shows her what each part does.

"What's the bowl-chair for?" asks Dalini, as the tub fills with water.

Jevoi takes a few seconds to ruminate the implications of that question and scowls at Ling standing at the doorway. "How have you become worse at this, Mum?"

Look at this happy little thing.

wizard lizard

Mikado Story (Injured)

In both games, getting hit in Story mode will give the player character battle damage in future scenes. These are the four limbs and either the head (BB1) or torso (BB2).

Here's those Mikado scenes from the first game, but this time both Mikado and the other playable characters are fully damage. I only recently discovered you could even apply the damage effects to NPCs. It's an exploit anyone can do: using the secret P2 option in Story mode (R1+R2+L1+L2+Start+Select almost anytime on P2's controller while in Story mode), any NPC in P1's story that is defeated while controlled by P2 will be fully damaged when they reappear. No gameshark codes or other data manipulation required at all.

YELLING

Isohachi is an angry old man and his lungs are a weapon.

POV: Some little girl is in the way of the repose of your ancestors.

Isohachi's yell has limited "ammo" shall we call it. It's actually in the code separately from sub-weapons, actual gun ammo, and the gun reloads. Unlike Chihiro's frog, Isohachi's yell startles everyone.

POV: This dam woman is in your dam way.

Mikado Endings

I mentioned earlier that the original Bushido Blade has a secret tenth fight. Beating that gives the second (actually canon) ending.

Here are the two endings for Mikado. Her Japanese VA in both games was Michiyo Yanagisawa.

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.

WLC 1.3: Say, "The Princess?"

The wizard's daughter loosened her posture as she stared into the dark backroom. "Please, come out here," she says, her eyes aglow.

At the sound of shuffling behind the wizard, the old gecko sighs, "Fine, do it."

A smaller gecko in a ragged brown dress scurries quickly next to, and hides behind, the wizard. "Nana Ling," she whispers, "Who is that?"

"Don't act like ya weren't listening," says the wizard Ling, her focus still on her own daughter.

Said daughter takes a few steps forward, around the fire, and leans down. "I'm Jevoi, your mother," she says, smiling for the first time in months. "What's your name?"

The little gecko leans out from behind Ling and looks at her nana. Upon seeing a faint nod, she says, "Dalini. My name's Dalini."

"Dalini," Jevoi repeats, "What a beautiful name: Princess Dalini." Dalini tilts her head in confusion. In response, Jevoi stands tall again. "That's right," she says, "I am the Dead Sun Empress, ruler of the Inner Dark." She pauses, looking over her little doppelganger. "And that makes you-"

Ling scoffs. "Still trying to rename Inner Glow?"

"It hasn't glowed in eight years, Mum," says Jevoi, her eyes darting to the wizard's bone-infused hat rim which masks her.

"And whose fault is that, Jevoi?" asks Ling, leaning back so that Jevoi could see her face again, the face they share.

WLC 2.D: The Shadow Queen

A few hours after having entered the tower, Ling realizes that her split party never established an exit strategy, nor a means of communication. For a wizard, this is an embarrassing oversight.

Getting her things together, Ling attempts to sneak through the dark halls, but is quickly grabbed by a shadow and dragged into a new location.

Ling now stands in a decently decorated throne room. Crystal sconces and chandelier shine faint light. A lovely carpet stretches from the large door behind her to the cushioned throne ahead. Barely visible to Ling, sits the Shadow Queen; an usually pale busty elf-like being in a black slit dress with opera gloves. Her long curly hair is intricately woven.

"G'day," says Ling, "Mind giving a light?"

"Why are you in my house?" ask the Shadow Queen as the darkness in the room thickens, "Explain yourself."

"Ya got it," says Ling, leaning her body slightly, "I'm a scholar and I came to propose a business venture to ya."

"And you came alone?"

"...No," says Ling, "Had a friend, a priestess of Vanessa."

"Just one?" The Shadow Queen rocks back and forth, "Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying."

Claws take form amongst the darkness and lunge at Ling. She skitters away. She rolls and hops about away from the constant barrage. Ling pulls rock from her bag and charms it to shine brightly. The shadows recede and the Shadow Queen growls.

J: We know her name's Melandria; stop calling her the Shadow Queen.

"You think that parlor trick will save you," she yells as the shadow limbs long steel polearms and bows and arrows. The solid weapons are unimpeded by Ling's light and force her to continue dodging.

As she dodges, Ling gets a better look at the elf-esque being. Her ears are small and round. If her hair wasn't black, Ling would assume she was albino.

"Who does your hair?" asks Ling, skittering up the wall desperately avoiding arrows... or at least, looking desperate. "Is it dyed?"

L: Obviously, I cast a wind shield as soon as I had seen the bows.

"What? Yes, but- No one, I d-" Melandria stops herself, "Stop talking to me, you, weird lizard."

"Gecko, actually," says Ling jumping into Melandria's face, "So what are you?"

The woman on the throne pauses, as do her weapons. The gecko's eyes are fixated on something just under her eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Got to be blunt, mate," Ling shakes her head, "You look sick."

"It's a skin condition," says Melandria, "I'm al-"

"Albino, I figured," says Ling, "But that's not it. Ya're malnourished, starving even." She grabs Melandria's hand. "What have ya been eating?"

Melandria pulls her hand away and conjures a piece of bread. "I have plenty of food. I'm strong enough to feed myself."

Ling pulls a potato out from her pouch. "Eat this."

Melandria balks at the tuber.

"I'm a doctor," says Ling before Melandria can speak, "If ya've only been eating mana manna, ya're going to rot away inside out."

Melandria warms the potato and rips it open. With a conjured fork, she begins eating.

"First saw this back at wiz school during the Great War," says Ling, "Spellies eating their own mana's no healthier than eating their own skin. And that's true even for one's that know healthy eating." Ling watches Melandria shovel food into her mouth. "Which most don't."

"Name's Melandria and I'm human," she says in between bites of food, "Since you asked."

"From the surface, eh?" Ling smiles. "My mum's from there."

Violence in the Tatara Shrine

This stage is the Tatara Shrine, where the Last Descendant of the Kagami Family, Kagami Izuna, is kept, hidden away from the Shainto who seek to kill her. (Izuna is not to be confused with the young priestess Suzuka, who gives the players their weapons in the first game. Common misconception on the English net.)

While this is the final boss stage for the Shainto, it is also the stage you'd fight Mikado in the Vs CPU gauntlet mode. You normally cannot select the stage, but I'm a dirty little hacker.

Normal jumping while your opponent is down automatically does an attack in BB2.

Multiple attacks can connect at once. Getting hit in the legs is far less dangerous in the second game, since it only slows you down instead of breaking your leg (which makes combat nigh impossible).

Notice how her legs are shaking in her victory pose, that's because she got hit.