You’re up against the ropes, and your opponent is bearing down on you. There is only a couple seconds left, and a single normal hit isn’t going to cut it.
What do you do? Naturally, you hit them with Samurai Shodown’s most sinister technique: the Lighting Blade.
What Is The Lighting Blade?
Comeback mechanics have become ubiquitous in fighting games as of late, and Lighting Blade is the closest thing Samurai Shodown has to one.
Easy to activate and dealing an incredible amount of damage in a single stroke, the Lighting Blade is something that players will always have to be mindful of if their opponent still has the option of pulling it out.
I’m not exaggerating here — it can easily end a round faster than you can blink.
Sounds Awesome, How Do I Use It?
Before using the Lighting Blade, you’ll first need to have activated Rage Explosion. I detailed how to go about doing so in another guide, but to recap, the input is 5A+B+C (Light Slash+Medium Slash+Heavy Slash).
Once that small hurdle is cleared, all you need to do is hit the same input and your character will lunge forward as the screen fades to black. If the move connected, then you’ll have successfully shaved off roughly 45 percent of the opponent’s life (the damage scales based on how much time Rage Explosion has remaining) in seconds.
Anything Else I Need To Know About?
Yes.
Though Lighting Blade is incredibly powerful, it’s equally risky.
Assuming you land the blow, you now have to contend with the fact that not only did your Rage Explosion end after one attack, but that you won’t get access to anything related to Rage for the remainder of the match.
And as you might expect, this is situation would be considerably worse if Lighting Blade misses. In this scenario, not only do you have to contend with everything listed above, but you’re also stuck with the realization that you put yourself at a disadvantage with nothing to even show for it.
Therefore, Lighting Blade should be used as an ever-present threat, rather than something you unleash at the start of a match. Players have to be cognizant and respect the fact that the other player has the means to end the round almost instantaneously.
If not, well, indulge them and make them pay for their foolishness.
That’s it on using the Lighting Blade in Samurai Shodown. At first, it will be mind-boggling why any fighting game developer would include a feature like this, but you’ll soon come to love it — and fear it.
