Grass drifts in the wind. Two figures stand still. No wasted movement. A sudden flash of silver. A streak of crimson. One figure fall. One stands. You are either watching an old Samurai film, or you are playing a video game like One Strike. Or you have gotten yourself in an incredibly dangerous situation. But let’s hope it’s one of the other two.
I’ve been playing two similar games – One Strike and Sclash. I’ll probably talk about Sclash another time because I have more experience with One Strike. I played One Strike a while ago on the Switch, and I recently bought it again on PS4. These two games are fighting games, except they have done away with health bars. Single hits kill.
Like most fighting games, you can move left and right. There is a dash button, but certain characters only have a back dash, and certain characters have dashes with inbuilt attacks. There is a block button, but it can only be held for a set amount of time. There is a button for attacking, but no combos. Different characters have different weapons and attacks. As an example, one character has a double slash with a katana, and one character has a leaping attack with a spear. There are different archetypes too – some characters want to rush down; some have attacks with wide arcs, and some can zone. In a game with single hit kills. That’s neat. That’s fun. Particularly the Ninja who can turn invisible and throw shuriken’s. Although, cutting him down while he is invisible is one of the most satisfying things to do in a fighting game. There is also no jumping, so there is no anti-airing here.
Because this is a game with single hit kills, there is no Okizeme here. Oki is normally a massive part of fighting games. For both parties. The person who scored a knock down can decide whether to meaty, bait out a reversal or if they play a set up character, what traps to lay down. The person who has been knocked down has to decide whether to risk the reversal, play defensively or somehow beat the meaty. None of that here. A character is only knocked down when they are dead. There is just spacing and footsies. A premium placed on spacing and footsies.
Footies and spacing is suddenly different when one hit equals death. In the vast majority of fighting games, you can afford a few spacing mistakes. Damage will be taken (sometimes a lot) but your character will be able to get back up and fight on. In a game like One Strike, that one mistake can be fatal. It leads to a lot of considered movement, a lot of well-timed blocking, and the risky game of baiting an opponents attack for a whiff punish. That last one is particularly fun. Both parties knowing full well that either persons mistake means the other will die. It’s suddenly a little more high stakes than regular footies and whiff punishing.
What it does mean though you don’t have the longer strategy of a regular fighting game. Everything is dedicated to getting the killing blow. There’s no Oki to plan for, no aerial game to engage in, no throw game to navigate – just the platonic ideal of footsies. That is until the Ninja with the Shuriken’s snipes you from half a screen away. Or the character with the Kusarigama hits you from ¾ of the screen away. Then it’s a trickier endeavour. Also, if I have learned anything about fighting games, it is the games that have the “purest” versions of footsies will also have the most degenerate ways of getting past it and breaking it. That’s beautiful in its own way.
However, what is lacking in long term strategy is made up for by the tension of the limited interactions. When one mistake leads to death, even the simple act of stepping forwards and backwards can have huge ramifications – like whether or not your head remains on your shoulders.
There are probably some people reading this, or looking at the video’s and thinking, wait a minute, isn’t this 2D Bushido Blade? Well, yeah. There have been and are a whole bunch of games that aim to replicate and are similar to Bushido Blade. Almost all of them are samurai themed, like Bushido Blade. Like I alluded to in the introduction (admittedly cheesy, but I don’t get to have that much fun with an introduction that often), samurai sword fights lend themselves very well to the single hit fighting game. There are numerous examples in artwork (both period and later), film (Chanbara has a whole lot of this) and other video games.
The developers for One Strike are working on another title, aptly called Two Strikes. In that it takes two blows to kill as opposed to one. It’s in early access right now, but it looks good. More games like this will be good. The one hit fighting game has its own joys. Lots of tension too. But a lot of joy. Being the last warrior standing after a tense stare off, it’s a wonderful feeling.
Notes and Asides
I tried to write this post more from the point of view of how playing a fighting game with single hit deaths feels, rather than a straight up description of the game. But I feel like a should give a brief description as there are some fun modes. Straight up though, there is only local multiplayer and fighting the AI. Admittedly, that’s a bit of a bummer. There is no real story mode. But there is an arcade mode, an only life mode, a team mode and a tournament mode. Each can be played on easy, medium or hard.
Arcade mode has the player pick a character and fight every other character, with each match consisting of 5 rounds. First to win the 5 goes on. Only Life is the same thing, but it’s first to one. Which sounds scary, but it is easier than arcade mode. You die quicker and have to restart, but there’s a lot less matches to win. Team mode is super cool It’s Bushido Blade meet’s King of Fighters. You pick 3 characters (point, middle and anchor) and fight 10 other teams (if it’s the AI). It’s fun trying to figure out your best character and where to place them, and which character can bail you out (if need be). Tournament mode is pretty simple. There’s a premade bracket, and after 3 first to ones, a winner is decided. There is also an accolades screen that shows you which characters have completed which modes. It’s nice to see what’s been accomplished. And who with.
Easy difficulty is well, easy. The AI won’t do too much, so it’s a neat way to get grounded with the game. Because even simple AI can score a single hit kill, so there is still an element of risk. Medium difficulty will see the AI make more use of back dashing and feints. It’s enough of a step up in difficulty. More challenge but not insurmountable. Hard difficulty sees’ the AI use every tool it has. Back dashing, faints, blocking, trying to bait out attacks – now is the time to put your skills to the test.
Lastly, damn does the music go hard. This game has a way more banging soundtrack than I ever would have expected. Honestly, some of the best chip tune I’ve heard.
Video Games And Things I Write About Them 