Q&A: YASUSHI ADACHI

The series creator revisits his seminal sword-based fighter

What difference do weapons add to the mechanics of a fighting game?

I think by introducing character deaths and tension in the battle, weapons brought diversity and variety to the game.

Why were so many of the characters taken from Japan’s history?

This was also because I always loved samurai and ninja from Japanese history. Haohmaru was called Musashi and Ukyo was called Kojiro during the development of the game. Despite the fact that we changed their names in the middle of the development phase, most of the team members continued to call them Musashi and Kojiro!

What character best sums up the series and why?

Haohmaru and Nakoruru are the two flagship characters. With his use of powerful and damaging attacks as well as the Ikari gauge that increases attack power, Haohmaru does a great job representing the myriad of concepts game systems in these games.

At the same time, Nakoruru is also a main character in the storyline who has to fight for her life and her destiny, and sacrifices herself in the end to preserve an important cause.

So, she also represents some of the most important Samurai Shodown themes.