Samurai Shodown IV/Mechanics

General Mechanics

Technique System

Returning from Samurai Shodown III is the Slash/Bust Technique System.

Every character has two different versions, Slash and Bust versions, and they have different movesets from each other. These moveset changes can range from minor move swapping to complete reworks. Also, the Slash and Bust variants of characters have different color palettes to differentiate the two variants visually.

Unlike Samurai Shodown III, the HUD actually shows whether the characters are their Slash or Bust variants below the lifebar.

Grade System

Once You've chosen between your character's Slash and Bust variants, You then have to select your grade.

• Beginner Class is a simpler mode for beginners. Pressing CD gives you an automatic 4-hit knockdown instead of the usual Combo Slash. You cannot follow up the 4-hit knockdown with anything. Pressing ABCD will allow you to perform your WFT instantly. You also build Rage faster than you do in the other grades. You cannot perform Rage Explosion in Beginner Class.

• Medium Grade is the standard mode of play, with all mechanics intact. All information listed in this wiki assumes Medium Grade is used.

• Upper Grade is hard mode. In Upper Grade, you cannot block. Unlike in SS3, you no longer are constantly in Rage, instead gaining a slight damage increase. The upside for this isn’t potent enough to make up for the loss of blocking, so it’s overall not worth it for the amount of trade off you have to make.

Movement

Walking, running and backdashing are the same as SamSho 5SP, including the ability to cancel backdashes into aerial special moves. Unlike in SS3, it is possible to run while the opponent is backturned.

The pre-round movement from SS3 has been entirely removed.

Every character has a set of normal attacks that can be performed out of a run. If you run under your opponent, these normals will auto-correct to face your opponent, which makes them useful for punishing some jump-in attempts.

66A is universally a quick dashing slice/jab. These are largely unsafe on block, but they can deal a lot of hitstun, especially on back hit. Generally good for combos and cross-under anti-airing, as you’d expect.

66B is an attack that varies between characters, with its usefulness naturally varying as well. They’re frequently combo tools, especially on backhits.

66C is similar to 66B in that it’s a character specific dashing attack that frequently sees use in combos.

66D is universally a slide kick that knocks down on hit. Can be useful for approaching depending on the character.

Offense Mechanics

Pursuits

A new mechanic introduced in SS4, pursuits allow you to OTG an opponent after a knockdown. 3S and 8S are light and heavy pursuit respectively. Heavy pursuits are slow and often only connect after certain attacks, while light pursuits are much faster and connect easily.

Counter hits

Counter hits occur when you or the opponent is hit during the startup or active frames of a move. You gain extra damage on a counterhit, determined by how early the move was counter hit.

Defense Mechanics

Deflect/Weapon Catch

To deflect or catch an opponent’s weapon, input 216D. This is counted as a special move, and as such can be special cancelled into. The active window isn’t very large, and if you are hit during the startup or recovery, it will be considered a counter hit. Given its high risk, it is scary to use but can be a very powerful option if you have a read on your opponent.

You must be holding your weapon to perform a deflect. A successful deflect will put your opponent into a special stun, allowing you to punish. Deflect stun time depends on the strength of the deflected attack, and deflecting a heavy slash will additionally disarm your opponent. Running slashes that can be deflected count as heavy slashes, meaning deflecting one will disarm the opponent. Also be aware that deflect stun counts as hitstun, so while you can punish with an attack, you cannot punish with a grab, and this state can be exploded out of.

You must be unarmed in order to perform a weapon catch. A successful weapon catch will knock your opponent down for a long time and disarm them. Weapon catches have much shorter recovery time, making them an overall safer option.

Combos

Cancel Rules

For the most part, normal move cancel rules are the same as other SamSho games. If a move is cancelable on hit, it is also cancelable on whiff, as well as on block as long as there is no associated recoil animation.

Most normals will recoil on block, leaving you open. However, during this recoil period, it is possible to cancel into anything you can special cancel into. Not every attack with a recoil animation has an associated cancel window during it, however, and the timing can vary between attacks.

Combo Specifics

Much like other Samurai Shodown games, hitting your opponent’s back with most moves in Samurai Shodown 4 will result in increased hitstun, allowing for unique combos, to say the least. Due to backthrows leaving the opponent in a backturned state these combos are an important part of the game, being the optimal setups for many characters.

Using two heavy hits in a row during any combo will knock the opponent down, even if the attack normally wouldn’t knock down. If the opponent is backturned during this, they will still fly “backwards,” being knocked towards you. Note that an attack doesn’t necessarily have to require a C input to count as a heavy. For example, the second hit of Genjuro’s 66B counts as a heavy, and following it up on backhit with 2C will knock the opponent down.

A handful of moves on backhit in Samurai Shodown 4 cause the opponent to be knocked straight up before falling down. Followups are limited to heavy pursuits, though Basara is uniquely vulnerable the entire time, giving almost the entire cast easy infinites on him in specific. The JPN wiki refers to this as the “Basara Virus”.

Combo Counter

Keep in mind, however, that the combo counter in this game will outright lie to you -- the combo counter seems to be pretty bad at recognizing when hitstun has ended, which leads to the game telling you many strings are combos when the opponent is able to block. All combos should be tested against an opponent that is able to block after the first hit of a combo. There are rare instances where the combo counter will also tell you something doesn't combo, but in reality it does combo.

Samurai Combo Slash

Compared to SS3 whose combo game relies primarily on links and the heavily increased hitstun on backhit, SS4 combos keep that while also making use of the newly introduced S.C.S “Samurai Combo System” (also known as CD combos for short) activated by pressing 56CD. This leads into a special, character specific “CD Attack” that allows you to use several different predetermined chain combos.

• Standard combo: AAA. Does little damage, but knocks the opponent far away.

• Knockback combo: ABC. Does slightly more damage than the standard combo, and can bounce the opponent off the wall.

• Juggle combo: BBC. The actual combo itself does very low damage, but allows you to juggle with a special move, leading to decent damage.

• Shizumaru exclusive combo: CCD. Knocks down on hit at the end and leaves the opponent next to Shizumaru. Mostly a joke CD combo since it ends with Shizumaru bowing his head and apologizing, saying "Gomenasai."

• Kazama brothers exclusive combo: CBBB. A unique combo slash that only the Kazama brothers are able to do. They can also exclusively perform a CD > CC combo slash.

• Juggle combo: BBC. The actual combo itself does very low damage, but allows you to juggle with a special move, leading to decent damage.

• Rage combo: 6AABBCCABCCCCC. The infamous SS4 14-hitter combo. Does the most damage of the SCS combos, generally allows a light pursuit afterwards in the corner (maybe even a heavy pursuit if you’re privileged), and completing it will completely fill your POW meter as your character strikes a pose. This pose varies in length between characters, and some can be punished on hit by specific setups (e.g. Slash Kazuki Homura Gaeshi). The real bonus of this combo is that several hits of all characters 14-hitters (generally the 10th/12th) can be special cancelled, leading to greater damage and combo opportunities.

Do keep in mind too, that in order for you to combo the rage SCS properly, you have to hold forward for both of the first two A presses. If you press the second A, but input it as 5A instead of 6A, the game will only allow you to perform the standard CD combos. Also note that once you commit to the rage CD by pressing 6AA, you cannot do the other CD combos even if they also start with A, because those combos start with 5A, not 6A. Your only choice is to finish the rest of the rage SCS.

Rage Explosion SCS

Combo Slashes are, by comparison, essentially an upgraded version of the CD 14-hitter rage combo that is available during Rage Explosion (performed with ABC). They can be easily comboed into and out of, opening up massive combos for a vast majority of the cast. Their rules are very particular, with slight property changes between characters. Like with CD combos, opponents hit by Combo Slashes are forced into front-turned standing hitstun.

The initial Combo Slash uses up 1/4 of your Rage Bar for a six hit auto-combo that can be special cancelled on the sixth hit. The second Combo Slash in a row adds two hits, the second of which can be special cancelled. The third Combo Slash in a row adds one more hit that can be special cancelled. The fourth Combo Slash in a row will finish the combo and drain all remaining Rage Bar, ending Rage Explosion.

Combo Slashes can be cancelled into from anything with a cancel window, including specials such as rekkas (e.g. Slash Genjuro 236S), and generally leave you at enough advantage to link a normal afterwards for further combos. An interesting property is that if you spend the last of your Rage Bar on a Combo Slash, you cannot chain into further Combo Slashes, but you can still cancel it into your Rage Special or WFT.

Rage

Rage works similarly to other Samurai Shodown games -- your Rage (or POW) meter will fill as you take damage. When it is full, you briefly enter Rage state, where you deal increased damage and have access to your Weapon Flipping Technique (WFT), a super special move that inflicts good damage and disarms your opponent on hit. SS4 sets the standard for later SamSho games, with a universal WFT command, being 4632AB.

All characters and techniques have a certain Rage Special. These are powered up versions of special moves available only while in Rage, and generally add extra damage and hits, with a select few adding new unique properties or otherwise special utility over its standard version.

Different characters fill up their POW at different rates, as well as stay at full POW for varying amounts of time. This combined with balancing the utility of Rage Specials and dealing increased damage over the course of full POW versus cashing out with a WFT means characters will manage this resource differently from one another. For example, Genjuro can potentially rage multiple times in one lifebar’s worth of damage taken, while Ukyo has to take well over one lifebar’s worth of damage before raging.

One particularity about POW in this game that does not appear in other SamSho games is that if you end the round with full POW, the timer resets at the beginning of the next round. The timer additionally does not go down when you are taking damage or performing a special move or a WFT.

As mentioned in the controls section, you can also enter Rage Explosion by pressing ABC, which will consume your POW for the rest of the match, replacing it with the Rage Bar. The Rage Bar drains over time, and disappears with the use of Combo Slashes and Issen. Rage Bar does not drain when you are taking damage or knocked down, or when using Combo Slashes.

Miscellaneous

Background Changes

Similar to the background changes during Desperation in SS3, if certain conditions are met the stage background will change to an alternate form with unique visual effects and altered/muted BGM. In the first round, the background will not change at all. If one player is on match point, the final 20 seconds will have the background change, and if both players are on match point the final 40 seconds will have the background change.

Double KOs

In the event of a double KO, both players are granted a round win. If one player is at match point and the other has not won a round, the player on match point will win. If both players are at match point and experience a double KO, a unique final round occurs with a time limit of 30 seconds with a permanent background change.

Timeout Draws

Like with a double KO, if the round ends on a draw via timeout, both players are awarded a round. If a timeout draw occurs during the third round, the match continues in the special “final round” described above. If players draw by timeout or double KO in this round, neither player wins and the game goes to the arcade continue screen.