• Game Workflow

  • Start / Attract player section
    
  • Level Select/Tutorial
    
  • Menus / Main game
    
  • End Game
    

• Amakusa Encounters
  

• UI Navigation Map
  

• HUD
  

• UI Spritesheet
  

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When the game first starts a NEO GEO logo animation appears on screen followed by the SNK logo. Then some pink leaves start falling from the top of the screen. If the player does not enter a coin(or presses a button in the console version), the opening animation is shown. It consists of a background with one of the playable characters (Haohmaru) cutting two lamps and a tree and a foreground with some text on it: “ A Samurai fears no death.Struggles to triumph over evil. And lives for one purpose: To destroy all enemies ”. The game title will show at the end of it with a sword passing through the title's letters. A flashing text will appear on screen with the words “Push 1P or 2P Start button” to attract the player.

After the animation, the game changes into a short gameplay demonstration where two characters fight each other and then the top scores screen appears. While the fight is happening the same attract text “Push 1P or 2P Start button” keeps showing on the screen. If the player has not entered a coin (or pressed the start button) by then, the game will show the top 5 scores and then return to the NEO GEO logo and loop again.

When the player enters a coin, a difficulty menu shows up allowing you to select one of four options consisting on the four different level difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard and MVS (the difficulty for the arcade).

If a mode is not selected after a short time, the game will select it automatically and jump to a tutorial screen where it shows the different basic attacks with the animations. When any button is pressed the game will start.

After the tutorial, the character selection screen is shown allowing you to pick one of twelve playable characters. If the game mode is 1P the A.I. will select a random character after you select yours. If it is 2P both of the players select their characters at the same time. If a player does not select any character in a short period of time the game will select it automatically.

If the mode is 1P, the opponent will say a sentence after the character selection happens and an animation with a map will show. The animation will stop after a few frames, showing a certain location on the map and telling the player which level will be selected, based on the opponent.

The game starts after that screen. The first player to win two rounds wins the fight. If the player wins a round, a pop-up text will appear with information within the last round as hitting percentage, the remaining life and the overall score of that round. When one of the players wins a match an animation for the winning character shows and he says a sentence. In 2P mode after someone wins a match the game automatically switches to the character selection screen of the 1P mode. However, in 1P mode, after a game is lost, the game switches into a “continue” screen where the player has ten seconds to decide if he wants to continue playing. It also displays instructions to perform a special attack with the current character.

If he decides to continue, the screen will jump to the 1P character selection screen and one credit will be subtracted. If he does not have enough credits the game will go to the Game Over screen. If he decides not to continue the game will also jump to the Game Over screen.

After Game Over the game will restart. If a player wins a match the game will show the 1P character selection again and it will choose a different opponent from the one you defeated. If a player defeats the final boss an ending from that character will show and the final credits will appear.

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The final boss makes some appearances along the game while the player keeps defeating the other characters in the 1P mode. After winning the 3rd match Amakusa makes his first appearance as a shadow, without revealing his identity and says: "I awake from 100 years of sleep to kick some butt!.".

After round three there is a bonus stage and after that stage Amakusa makes his second appearance showing his identity and saying:"Tokugawa, you filth! I stab at thee.". Notice that his monolog goes according to the time in which the game is set as he says "thee" instead of "you" being the first one more archaic and not at all used nowadays.

When winning round five the boss talks to the character and tries to convince him to join him but after the character's refusal Amakusa threatens to kill the character.

After completing around six an animation shows where you can see Amakusa destroying a building and saying: "Know my vengeance You murderer of my ancestors".

When the bonus stage after stage six has been completed, Amakusa shows again with an animation similar to to the one in his first appearance and says: "You fight well. But, my ambition will be realized!".

After the twelfth fight, Amakusa reappears and referring to the character says: "You seek me? I am touched. Come, my friend... and die!".

Just right before the last fight where you face the boss, Amakusa comes into the scene and says_"Come on, come on! I promise to kill you quickly"_.

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You can see the screen flow (or navigation map) in the next image. This map is divided into different rows which define different stages in the game workflow. The screen flow in each row goes from left to right.

In the first row, you can see the Start/Attract player section, a loop to catch the potential's player attention. In the second one, there are two screenshots corresponding to the Level Select/Tutorial section where you just go through it one single time and allows you to select the level difficulty and learn about the basic controls and attacks. The third row shows the character selection and enemy selection, a stage that happens once every match. The final row shows different ways to end a match. If you have enough credits the continue screen shows and redirects you to the previous row. If you don't have any credits it is a Game Over and the game restarts. Otherwise, if you defeat the final boss a final cutscene appears (unique in every character) and the final credits show, proving you have beaten the game.

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• R1: Player number and his score.

• R2: Icon showing the rounds won by the player in that match.

• R3: Number of credits left until Game Over. The player loses a credit every time he gets defeated in a match.

• R4: Icon showing the word "KO" usually, or "END" in case that a player could win the match by winning this round. The word keeps changing colour if a player is almost dead. It alternates between the original colour and white.

• R5: Time left until the round ends in seconds.

• R6: Health bar. It decreases as the player's health. It is usually yellow but when the character's life goes below 25% it cycles between red and white almost as the word at the top (see R4).

• R7: Name of the character each player is playing at the moment(name at the left side for P1 and name at the right side for P2 or A.I.).

• R8: Power bar. It gets filled up as the player gets hit. It has different colours ranging from green to yellow then orange and finally red. Next, to it there is the word Pow, which increases its size as the pow bar gets filled. It also changes colour. When gets full the character turns red and deals and receives more damage than usual.

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Spritesheet of the User interface and HUD elements.

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