Fifty Days of UFO 50: Day 8

It's probably a good thing that Bushido Ball doesn't have online multiplayer with rollback netcode yet. I never had to get through a salty, overly competitive Windjammers phase of life, but I could absolutely see something like that happening and halting even more progress on this project than it already has.

Even though the two face button design restriction massively limits complexity, this athletics fighting game sports a really enviable level of depth that's been a lot of fun to dig into. I'm currently trying to break myself of the habit of slashing after almost every lunge, given it cuts your traversal range really short; in many cases using your body to stop the ball is the only way to deny a really good shot.

[A reminder; you're not primarily here to talk about your dreams of one day being good at the games you admire.]

"It's the annual bushido ball tournament, Choose from 6 fighters and compete to win!"

Without really meaning to, I've applied my Dad's old shmup training regimen to this game. He never used to continue, believing that perfecting the easier early stages was paramount to ensuring each quarter could carry you as far as possible in the future. Going character by character, I keep starting a new game as the same one, selecting "End" and starting over at every loss until managing to one-shot the tournament, at which point then I'm allowed to try a more technical fighter.
They've helpfully organized the characters by roughly how tricky/niche their mechanics are, reading from left-to-right, top-to-bottom:

  • KOTARO (Speed: 2, Control: 2, Power: 3) Shuriken
    • The cocky samurai "shoto" that embodies the game's core mechanics
    • He was the easiest for me to get the "cherry cartridge" victory with; hard-headed fundamentals and makes it difficult to mind game yourself out of a lead.
  • AYUMI (Speed: 3, Control: 2, Power: 2) Caltrops
    • The swift kunoichi that refuses to wilt in her brother Kotaro's shadow
    • Probably the most fun character, both to play as AND against, because striking and flipping the caltrops back and forth is one of the few specials that changes the strategic "shape" of the court.
  • TOMOE (Speed: 2, Control: 3, Power: 2) Kusarigama
    • The serious Ronin rival foil
    • By far the hardest character for me to get anywhere with; I struggle to use her ability to grapple the ball proactively, and my own charge move's phantom ball duplicates are just as likely to throw me off as the opponent.
  • RAIZO (Speed: 2, Control: 1, Power: 3) Wind Slash
    • The haughty noble samurai master
    • The character I'm currently working on; this isn't going to take too long if I can just learn to get in there and use this big disruptive AoE special to bully opponents out
  • CHIYOME (Speed: 3, Control: 2, Power: 1) Kunai
    • The mysterious ninja trickster
    • I'm sort of dreading learning her next; a teleport dash that I won't fully understand until I'm on the piloting side, an invisible ball trick charge attack that I'm likely to juke myself with, it's going to be like Tomoe all over again, isn't it?
  • YAMADA (Speed: 1, Control: 3, Power: 2) Bomb
    • The armored demolitionist of the shogun
    • I'm apprehensive but excited to learn, given when the AI rolls them as the most difficult 5th opponent, they feel like an inevitable strategic wall! No doubt I'll struggle to live up to that potential, but the coverage on that spear seems crazy.
When it comes to fighting games, I'm perpetually on the outside looking in... and loving what I'm seeing despite never feeling comfortable stepping into the ring with an actual opponent. It's a particular failing on my part that makes me really appreciate when the AI-controlled opponents in a game like this behave with a smooth gradient of skill levels you can feel.

I have no doubt that if I was at the fictional Bushido Blade launch tournament at the Twisted Antler, I wouldn't make it out of the losers bracket. What's that, you ask?

There's a pub that's probably near the UFO Soft office called the Twisted Antler. I know this because they had a big tournament at "a local bar" to celebrate the launch of Bushido Ball, and the name of the establishment was revealed in the credits, alongside the detail that someone named Venk Holland won the tournament, and that they did so as an Ayumi main.

This sort of reinforces my theory that there really is a big "mind map" or lore bible of the people, places, and things that make up the larger fictional UFO 50 universe, and while I probably won't join any discords or edit any Google docs about the efforts to re-constitute it from all the pieces scattered across the game, other people absolutely will, and it never ceases to amaze and impress me.

[When it comes time for you to create something similar, will you have the strength not to share it?]

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