Game:

Bleach: Shattered Blade (2006)

Duration: 10:11

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9

Hey, wow. This game! It's been almost an entire year since last I visited it... and... it's also been almost that same year since I received the request that this is brought to you by!

It's actually been so long that Overhazard didn't even remember asking for it when I remembered that I hadn't actually filled it after so ridiculously long. But I remembered... sorta. I remembered to check back in time under lots of digital paperwork containing other things that I had similarly forgotten. It was a "While you're doing Bleach requests" with a reason of "punching man vs. kicking girl." A simple, but powerful theme... made all the more powerful by the fact that this really is an interesting matchup.

The moral of the story, however, is that you should probably bug me more often if you ask me to do something and I actually agree to do it.

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Match #1: Yasutora "Chad" Sado (P1) vs. Yoruichi Shihoin (COM)
Training Ground

Chad is... well, slow. But his hits are extremely powerful! They also seem to have way more range in their effective area than the space they actually occupy. Even more importantly, they have huge amounts of priority behind them and will cancel out a bunch of hits from less beefy attacks... of which there are countless that lack the same oomph that his Brazo Derecha de Gigante packs. And that's supposed to be his weaker, "defensive" arm, too... not that Brazilian Izquierda del Diablo even existed yet.

Wait... I don't speak Spanish at all... and I know Tite Kubo is pretty much the least reliable linguist you can find... but shouldn't that be "Derecho" and "Izquierdo"? As in the adjective should agree in number and gender? (IGNORE ME!)

Even besides that monstrous priority, almost all of Chad's attacks have built-in armor that prevents him from being knocked out of performing the attack even if he does get hit instead of just negating the incoming blow entirely. Of course, he still takes damage if the attacks don't cancel each other out, so as with any armor state in this game (and any other, really) be careful not to let your advantage become a liability.

That little smidge of rain cloud on our silver lining aside, his deliberate strikes are so amazingly handy that I pretty much forget that he can attack rapidly with weak blows like anybody else. His specials and criticals are so strong that I flat out didn't need to go cinematic. Incidentally, his "bankai" state cinematic special attack trigger is one of the few unarmored attacks at Chad's disposal.

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Match #2: Yoruichi Shihoin (P1) vs. Yasutora "Chad" Sado (COM)
Seireitei Street

Yoruichi is no slouch on the offense department either, it's just that her attacks are more numerous and intended to be chained together even more than with most other characters... if only I was much good at that in the first place. Not that it's all that vital to the process anyway, since your only real options are, at best, typically along the lines of "weak, critical, special"... and that critical link is specifically ONE, usually the up critical... except for cases like Yoruichi, in whose case it's one of the horizontals, which must be interrupted between its two strikes. And her horizontal critical attacks are among the rare few not to be functionally identical, and as I've said before, the one big complaint I have about this game is that they probably could've stood to iron out the bumps in the precision with which the motions are recognized.

Still, Yoruichi has a ton of really useful moves and is one of the game's quickest characters. Heck, if the computer was just a little more of a jerk with the teleporting paralyzing attack, it'd probably work wonders for its ability to put the rest of her repertoire.

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Match #3: Yasutora "Chad" Sado (COM) vs. Yoruichi Shihoin (COM)
Sereitei Street (Evening)

So, both specialize in unarmed combat, but in ways that couldn't be any more different... and not just because of limb preference. The pressing question, of course, is it quality or quantity that matters more? Is it speed that's important or does slow and steady win the race? Wait...that's actually two questions.

Personally, and after having walked a couple rounds in both shoes, I'm going to have to say the smart money would probably be on Chad... except the smart money isn't playing right now, so all bets are probably off.

If Chad is smart about his swings and careful about the fact that Yoruichi has that devastating combination of a teleport, enemy debilitation, and a multi-strike projectile... although that last one apparently doesn't bother Chad much if he's using one of the right moves. In fact, the paralyzing effects of her teleport attack can apparently be ignored if it hits through an armored attack, as you can see here.

So yeah, I believe a smart Chad player has enough in the way of lucrative tools at his disposal that he could probably beat Yoruichi and a surprising range of other chatacters, too.

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