If you haven't played the first Bushido Blade, here's a quick rundown of the game. Instead of the traditional memorization of special moves, the life meters, and time meters, Bushido Blade memory. One shot to the head could kill you if you're not careful, yet another strike to your arm could disable you without a fatal blow. The fighting in Bushido Blade is so realistic, that you could even dub it a fighting simulation.

Square has totally redesigned the fighting system for Bushido Blade 2. Instead of having three attacks (high, middle, low) you are graced with two types of attacks, reverse and frontal. If there was one problem with the old fighting system Square had in the first Bushido Blade, it was the parry button. This neat little thing would block any attack that a player would throw at you, so basically matches could last forever, because the parry never missed, thankfully Square removed it from the game. The old fighting game motto: "the best defense is a good offense" applies even more so to Bushido Blade 2 than to any other game, as you HAVE to counter every move with an offensive move of your own. Reverse strikes block Frontals, and vice versa. It all comes down to a great guessing game, which could mean the difference between victory and death.

Graphically, BB2 has improved over its predecessor. New lighting effects are what stand out the most, as each hit is now color-coded (green block, orange non-fatal hit and a rousing spray of red for a fatal hit). Square has also included an opening CG movie for us, and as usual, it's of a high quality, not to mention a 'tad' bloody. The characters themselves seem to be pretty much the same as the first game, although it seems they've grown in polygon count.

As for sound, well, the game doesn't have any background music at all, with the exception of the CG movies and the menu screen. The characters themselves have voices during the cut-scenes (provided by the game engine), but the cut-scenes themselves aren't very well done; most of them are quick 10-second intervals to pass by the time. It would've been nice to see Square use some of that magic to produce higher quality (not to mention, longer) animated sequences.

Gameplay wise Bushido Blade 2 is rocking. The battle system is very innovative, it throws out all concepts of fighting games away and stands on its own, for that point alone it deserves kudos, but Square actually did it right with its concept. The Bushido Blade series allows full movement through each of its multi-tiered stages by pressing the L1 button. Jumping is a little trickier, requiring you to press R2 (crouch) and then R1 while crouching, but it works. Square has even managed to wrap a pretty good story around the game, with two warring families fighting against each other for dominance and revenge (hey, I never said it was original.)

Overall, Square has pulled off a sleeper hit in Bushido Blade 2. It retains all the fun and innovation of the first game, while adding new features without hindering gameplay. If you're a hardcore fighting fan, and you're looking for something out of the ordinary, pick this up and give it a whirl.

· · · Reno