Samurai Shodown V Perfect

***Samurai Shodown V Perfect***, named ***Samurai Spirits Zero Special Full Version*** in Japan, is a weapon-based fighting videogame originally developed by Yuki Enterprise, intended to be an update of *Samurai Shodown V Special* (the second overall for *Samurai Shodown V* ), but then SNK Playmore picked up the game and refused to release it to the market.

15 years later, due to the development and launch of the *Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection* this strange and lost edition of *Samurai Shodown V Special* was rescued and finally released to the market as a finished game and the very last Neo Geo Multi Video System game ever to be released.

## Overview

In essence, this revision contains all of the content and characters found in *Samurai Shodown V Special* like final bosses and Overkill moves, and taking advantage of the occasion to make adjustments to some characters' moves and fix minor bugs. The game intro during attraction mode now uses Mizuki's Osorezan stage as background because director Kouji Takaya liked it very much, and to give the message to the players that this was a new version of the same game.

A new feature is the addiction of a story mode, mainly driven by the NPC Kuroko with some intermissions during Arcade Mode, in this way now all the characters have a final sequence when the player beats the game completely.
Unfortunately the Overkill moves were simplyfied removing animations and sprites, this with the purpose of freeing up ROM space for the new narrative elements.

## Story

The text and narration of *Samurai Shodown V Special* are the same in this game only if the player switch to the japanese region. When the chosen region is US the intro is changed: instead only the characters appear successively.
This is the official english background provided by SNK:

A few months have passed since the great uprising that started with Gaoh Kyougoku Hinowanokami's rebellion. The world has been peaceful for a while, when suddenly Kuroko receives an imperial order from the Shogunate.

A tournament shall be held to determine, once and for all, who deserves the title of the strongest warrior.

This contest will be resolved on the grounds of Sunpu Castle, under the watchful gaze of the imperial court.

On this particular occasoin, we will allow attendees to keep possession of their weapons, be it either swords, or anything else. No questions shall be asked about any of the contestants' origins or motives, even if they are people such as foreigners or evildoers.

We hereby extend this invitation to expert warriors that are most confident on their skill, from all across the far reaches of the world.
Kuroko reads the letter handed to him directly from the next Shogun.

"Oh, great!

Oh dear, the cherry blossoms of death shall dance once again.

My blood shouldn't be pumping so hard at my age."

A serious martial arts tournament, fully sanctioned by the Empire, in this time of peace.

And in the resting ground of Lord Tosho Daigongen, no less. There must be a good reason for the hosts to try to soak the gardens of Sunpu Castle in blood.

Kuroko cannot contain his enthusiasm as he swiftly departs on his journey, clasping the letter.

The way of the warrior, of chivalry, of hetesy and evil...

Many are the ways of this world. However, we must take our fated path,

and master our own way, even when drenched in blood.

And now, the ways of 28 warriors are about to clash in the Far East.

## Development

Shortly after the original release of *Samurai Shodown V Special* in 2004 for the japanese market, game developers Yuki Enterprise requested the creation of a new version of this title, only with 3 people at charge this (included original SamSho V director Kouji Takaya), while the rest of Yuki worked at full scale on *Samurai Shodown VI* for the Atomiswave arcade board. To tie-in with *Samurai Shodown VI* storyline (a world-scale tournament), the team of the new Special version also included a plot about a tournament organized by the goverment.

    The project was completed and taken to a location test. SNK Playmore was never informed about the development of this new version of *Samurai Shodown V Special*, and they knew the very same day the game was available on such location test. Only a couple of hours passed until people from the company arrived, seizing the game. Even director Takaya was unable to see players testing the game. During the very short time the game was available for testing a person took some pictures, where the *Samurai Spirits Zero Special* logo of the title screen was red, and the game intro with Osorezan stage as background. Such pictures were uploaded into internet, thus initiating the urban legend of the *"Samurai Shodown V Special Red Logo"* version. SNK Playmore prohibited its release and never made any official mention about the project.

In 2019 Digital Eclipse where tasked by SNK Corporation to develop a new collection of *Samurai Shodown* games, including only the titles released for NeoGeo MVS, and they hired Necrosoft Games to gather all the information and documents to create a complete museum of the series. Brandon Sheffield from Necrosoft, along with Adam Laatz interviewed with Takaya about things related to this collection, and both asked Takaya *"do you remember this version?"* He sayed yes, and told the full story about such canceled game. Adam and Brandon asked for the game code but Takaya said that there is no code (usually companies prohibit employees to keep or store material from any development), but concluded saying *"I'll look"*. Some time later an ex-member of the old Takaya team was able to find this game's ROM storaged on an old hard drive, and Takaya himself confirmed the game's finished status.

Instead of seeing it as something negative SNK showed excitement about the rebirth of this cancelled game and its inclusion to the *NeoGeo Collection*. Brandon Sheffield credits Adam Laatz from SNK for all the communications with the company executives and permissions granted to allow this version of *Samurai Shodown V* (dubbed *Perfect* for west markets and *Special Kanzenhan* for Japan). As the game content was already finished, Digital Eclipse added the online matches and did some graphic tweaks like an update for the title screen, and a 48-hour deadline was imposed for an english traslation, but Sheffield was able to finish the job. Also Sheffield dedicate the launch of *Samurai Shodown V Perfect* to Touru Sakurai, the original writter of the plot who passed away.

Title screenSelect screenGameplay screenshotJapanese logoMain art by Eisuke OguraNew portrait sketches by Eisuke Ogura