Actually there are a lot of good games that don't get played as often as they should, for a variety of reasons, whether it be because they are on an older obscure platform, not released in your region, or just not that many copies of it floating around. The thing is that most people know that these are good games, even if they haven't had the opportunity to play them.
That is what makes this game stand apart from the others. This is a game that most people have played; it's just that no one realized how good it actually is.
Drum roll...
Bushido Blade 2
Yes, really.
Now, wait a minute and hear me out. The first game was a fun experiment, but it really wasn't that solid of a game, especially on a competitive level, nonetheless people still have fond memories of it. I know a lot of players were put off by some of the changes made in 2, in fact the engine is completely overhauled and they really don't have that much in common besides the concept.
But that's the beauty of it. They fixed most of what was wrong with the first game and made it much less random and more worthy of competitive attention.
The most apparent change is the fact that you only have two attacks (instead of three) and no block button. This might make the game feel a lot more limited at first, as well as masher friendly since you can't block, but give it time. Once you learn the game better and get a feel for it you will understand what I mean.
The change in the control scheme isn't what fixes its predecessors problems. It is only a result of deeper changes at the core of the combat. You no longer have different buttons for different targets on the body, you just have two: one for vertical attacks, and one for horizontal attacks. (like Soul Caliber) This might seem like it limits your moveset, which it does, but only slightly, much less that you probably think.
The other half of having less buttons is the way blocking works. You have to block attacks with other attacks. The timing feels roughly like 3rd Strike parry timing, but maybe just a little sooner. The extra level of depth comes in now since there are different kinds of blocks. Ideally you want to block horizontal attacks with vertical ones and vice versa. This gives you the "good" block with a large white hitspark and a lot of frame advantage over your opponent. Even if you hit the wrong button and block with the same attack you will still stop the attack but you will get more pushback and some stagger. (this hitspark is green).
However this new mechanic is also one of the games biggest downfalls. It gives it a steep learning curve and no initial incentive to put in the effort. To be able to block well you need to have a decent knowledge of all of the weapons attack strings and how to do them. The incentive to put that effort in if you are just playing with your friends isn't there since you can die in one hit. The game is initially very weighted towards offense, the defensive aspect doesn't emerge until later on. The same is true for all fighting games but to differing extents. Learning how to properly defend is imperative if you are going to play the game seriously. 2D games like Street Fighter have a much shallower learning curve because you only have to block high or low, really you only have to block low and learn to watch out for a couple of attacks that are overheads. The learning curve on a game like Tekken is much steeper because you have to worry about high, middle, and low attacks that get mixed up in the same attack strings much more often than Street Fighter. This obviously takes longer to get used to, but it also takes a much deeper knowledge of all the characters in the game and what they can do. Bushido Blade 2 definitely falls into that category, except you can die in one hit, so being able to block half of the time isn't as rewarding. You have to put in the effort to know it a little better than that, which can be tough when you know you are sinking time into a game that you probably won't ever have to chance to play against anyone else who knows what they are doing.
There is a lot more depth to the game than just the blocking system but I am not going to explain it all here. If you really want to know more about it check out the wiki over at http://shoryuken.com/wiki/index.php/Bushido_Blade_2 I still have some work to do on it but it will be good if I ever finish it.
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