Bushido Blade - Blog Posts

I can give you this design sketch of Katze, but you've probably already seen it.

curse of favourite character being from an obscure game with no fanart from years ago that no one plays

Mikado Mirror

There are so many death animations in Bushido Blade 1 and a few in the sequel. For some reason (probably demons), I recorded Mikado ending herself for more than six minutes straight.

Just screaming and dying for six minutes.

Just Give Up

In both games, the player can surrender. In the first game, it could only be done if your leg was broken. In the second, you can just... give up.

POV: The enemy would rather die than fight a child (that's you).

POV: She is adamant about this fact!

POV: Your friend wishes to die with honor, but you have terrible aim.

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.

Locking Swords

Blade clashes in Bushido Blade 2 are more interesting visually than the first game. The character who is winning actually pushes the loser around in a far more obvious way.

POV: You've locked blades with the leader of the enemy clan on a castle roof.

POV: You've locked blades with a shrine maiden on competition grounds.

POV: You're just gals being pals when she just lets you win.

The motion of actually flinging the loser is something I'm sad the sequel lost, but the clarity of who is winning is more important.

This Adorable Lady

Look at that face.

Two of the eight weapons' art features Mikado. Oddly not the naginata, but instead the heaviest weapons.

Once again, I got these pictures from FightersGeneration, but I don't know where they got them.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

Victory Poses in Bushido Blade

In the original game, victory poses are tied to the character's weapon. Here's Mikado striking each pose in each of the Vs stages.

Rapier on Yahiro Road

Katana in the windy Yagura Point

Broadsword in the Cherry Blossom Grove

Naginata in the Underground Grotto

Longsword at Executioner's Cove

Nodachi in the Meikyokan Dojo

Saber near Dozaemon Moat

Sledgehammer in the Bamboo Thicket

Rapier on Yahiro Road

Katana in the windy Yagura Point

Broadsword in the Cherry Blossom Grove

Naginata in the Underground Grotto

Longsword at Executioner's Cove

Nodachi in the Meikyokan Dojo

Saber near Dozaemon Moat

Sledgehammer in the Bamboo Thicket

Mikado of Narukagami

I would like to draw your attention to one of my favorite characters. She is one of the protagonists of Bushido Blade and I have several posts I'm going to make about her.

A shrine maiden at the Tatara Shrine, member (turned acting head) of the Narukami shinto school, and (former) assassin of Kage. Her design is rather straight-forward, sure.

In 1997, the dojo master, Hanzaki, went mad (got possessed) and had to be put down. The other major players went their separate ways, but Mikado stayed to continue the organization's true purpose: protecting the last descendant of the Kagami family.

In 1998, the rival school Shainto saw the weakened Narukagami and launched their attack. Mikado, however, had foreseen this and had called most of the old team back, plus a few new friends. The Shainto had overplayed their hand and Mikado saw the chance to bring the 800 year feud to its end, once and for all.

As a big fan of Bushido Blade (1 and 2), how is it that I only found out about the secret Versus mode inside of the Story mode today?