Sclash

With Street Fighter 6 already old news and Mortal Kombat 1 still months away, what is a fight fan supposed to do? If there’s any justice in this world, they’ll check out Sclash from Bevel Bakery, a brand-new samurai game where a single slash of your sword can (and often will) end a fight abruptly. There are no fireballs or finishing moves here, because this stylish one-on-one fighter is more about simple, accessible combat than complicated combos and super moves. Does that make it one of the year’s best fighting games or should it fall on its own sword? That’s what we’re about to find out when I review Sclash.

Sclash is what you get when you combine the samurai action of Bushido Blade with the overly simplistic gameplay of Divekick. It’s a 2D fighting game with only three buttons and one special move – a charge attack that will break through your opponent’s defenses. But don’t let the barebones gameplay fool you, because this easy-to-learn fighting game is all about strategy, timing and one-hit kills.

There’s a story here, though it will only take an hour to complete. It tells the tale of Jinmu, a young samurai who finds himself stuck in the middle of two warring clans with equally stubborn leaders. Jinmu goes on an extremely brief journey to gain power and knowledge, forcing him to come face-to-face with the lies he’s been told and, if all goes well, put an end to the generational fighting between the clans.

While admittedly on the short side, this story mode does a great job of teaching you the basics of combat and easing you into the harder battles. It’s also an opportunity for the game to tie in a bunch of cool backgrounds and locations, many of which come with dramatic weather effects and a day/night cycle. Best of all, it’s a nice mix of epic one-on-one fights and the faster-paced brawler sections, where the samurais will come at you from both sides.

The important thing the story mode does is make you care about each of the five playable characters. That’s crucial to a game like this, where the different fighters may look different, but they all have the same moves. Everybody can slash, kick and parry, as well as charge up the attack to extend the distance (and power) of the slash. Aside from the different masks and swords you can equip, a lot of the character’s personality will come from the story mode, which includes full English voice acting (though, frustratingly, no option for Japanese).

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Using only three buttons, Sclash is an intense back-and-forth where we’re constantly looking for an opening. Both characters come with an energy gauge that will deplete every time you attack, kick or dash away, and then fill back up during the lulls in the fight. The trick is to parry and dodge, forcing your opponent to use up all of their energy, leaving them in a vulnerable position. Of course, you can also win a fight by slashing at the right time, so you’ll constantly be on the lookout for weaknesses and openings. This is not one of those games where you can rush into every battle and be the most aggressive, because patience and strategy is the key to winning most fights.

While the story is nice, the real fun is in going up against other real people. It takes a few games to get into the rhythm, but the action really ramps up when both sides are trying to anticipate the other player’s next move. There’s real tension in knowing that one wrong move will result in certain death, yet sometimes you need to take those chances to win. I found that my friends were a lot more unpredictable than the computer opponents, which made the battles a lot harder and more rewarding. I’m excited to see that this game will be getting an online multiplayer mode in a future update, because Sclash is definitely at its best when you’re going up against other real players.

One thing that I love about this game is how it handles the backgrounds. There’s a nice assortment of locations to fight in, all taken from important moments found in the story mode. What’s cool is that each of these stages can be played either during the day or at night, which can really shake up the ambience of the fight. What’s more, you can favorite the stages and play them at random, something that I wish was standard in all fighting games.

Of course, we can’t talk about those stages without mentioning how gorgeous this game is. Every background looks like it was hand painted, almost as if they come out of a picture book. I also love the look of the characters, where every frame of animation looks like it was penciled in. These designs are rough, almost as if they were drawn by some teenager who was bored during math class. You can see the rough edges and pencil lines, and yet it’s stylish and immediately recognizable. I can see some people being put-off by the way the game looks, but I love this art style.

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As a fighting game, Sclash is a lot more casual than Street Fighter 6 or even Mortal Kombat 1. That’s good if you’re looking to play with a bunch of friends who don’t necessarily want to learn complicated moves and combos, but bad if you’re hoping for a level of depth that will keep you playing for months. Look, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you’ll never see Sclash at a fighting game tournament, but rather that it wasn’t designed with that in mind. The combat, while certainly tense, is shallow when compared to the heavy-hitters at Evo.

Even when playing with friends, I found that it didn’t take long to have my fill of Sclash. I’m not sure I would want to play it every day, but I can certainly see myself coming back to it regularly with friends. If only for a few hours of tension-filled fun. That said, I wish the story mode was longer. It’s in such a big hurry to get us to the next plot point, but there were a lot of times when I just wanted to fight wave after wave of mindless bad guys. Those stages where I’m going up against countless enemies are just as much fun as the one-on-one battles, yet they get short shrift in this game. That’s a shame.

Still, I have to applaud the game for staking out a unique niche and delivering on the promise. What’s even more impressive is that Sclash is Bevel Bakery’s debut release. Between the stylish presentation and thought-out combat system, I felt like we were in good hands all the way through. If this is just the introduction to Bevel Bakery, then I can’t wait to see what they do next.