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Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits Bushidō Retsuden

Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits Bushidō Retsuden

Aka: Samurai Shodown RPG
Console: Sony PlayStation
TV Standard: NTSC-J
Country: Japan
Developer(s): SNK
Publisher(s): SNK
Release Date: 1997-06-27
Players: 1
Co-op: No
ESRB: Not Rated
Type: Role-Playing

Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits: Bushido Retsuden, more commonly known as Samurai Shodown RPG outside of Japan, is a role-playing game from SNK set in the world of Samurai Spirits and based on the stories of the first two titles. At the beginning of the game you are given a choice of six playable characters with diverging paths and you will encounter many more on your journey through the game's two scenarios. In the tradition of the old SNK, Samurai Spirits RPG boasts clean, hand-drawn backgrounds with generously animated sprites.

The game was originally planned exclusively for the Neo-Geo CD hardware, but the poor sales performance of the latter led SNK to also produce versions for the Playstation and Saturn resulting in a simultaneous release for all three versions on the 27th of June, 1997. There are very few differences in content between the versions outside of the version-specific bonus features unlocked after clearing the main story, but there's some disparity in the visuals department as many animation frames from the NGCD version didn't survive the transition to the Playstation and Saturn, which is at least partly compensated by the significantly shorter loading times that the latter two can boast.