SNK revealed the first two DLC characters of Samurai Shodown's third season, including a fan favorite and a representative from The Last Blade.
SNK has finally pulled the lid back on Samurai Shodown's newest additions coming at the start of Season 3. Samurai Shodown acts as a reboot of SNK's 2D sword-fighting franchise, releasing in 2019 13 years after the last entry. Following from its launch, SNK started releasing new characters to bolster the game's roster through seasonal DLC updates. Season 2 reached its climax with the releases of Iroha and the Warden as a crossover from Ubisoft's For Honor, and Season 3 of Samurai Shodown looks to start in much the same way.
Samurai Shodown's third season of content was revealed at the Fighting Game Publishers' Roundtable Discussion as SNK's major announcement during the proceedings. Two months later, SNK also revealed that Season 3 of Samurai Shodown would see an addition from SNK's own The Last Blade franchise, bringing the series back into the spotlight with this new crossover.
As part of a presentation that saw the official reveal of The King of Fighters 15, SNK went on to announce the first two characters of Samurai Shodown's third season of content. Samurai Shodown Director Hayato Konya referred to the first reveal as a "fan favorite" character from the franchise's history, picking them to also add a more unique fighting style to the game's roster. The second reveal was the confirmation of The Last Blade 2's crossover character, and fans of SNK titles saw that the newcomer was no stranger to crossover appearances.
The first of the reveals was Cham Cham, the green-haired catgirl who brings a boomerang to the battlefield. As the younger sister of Tam Tam, she took his place during the events of Samurai Shodown 2 before appearing in Samurai Shodown 4 and 6 alongside him. Her addition as DLC reunites the brother-sister duo once again, with Tam Tam's power complimenting Cham Cham's speed. By failing to protect their village's sacred treasure, Tam Tam is cursed into the form of a monkey known as Paku Paku, lending Cham Cham an assist in combat during her journeys.
Following up on the reveal of Cham Cham's return was the confirmation of the character chosen from The Last Blade 2, Hibiki Takane. Fans of fighting games may be familiar with Hibiki from her appearance in Capcom vs. SNK 2 as the lone representative of The Last Blade 2, owing to her popularity among SNK's characters. Hibiki brings with her a particular style of Iaido swordsmanship known as Musō Shinden-ryū, which shares similar techniques to Samurai Shodown mainstay Ukyo Tachibana. Hibiki brings her own twist to the sword-drawing techniques while also fitting right in with the combatants of Samurai Shodown.
Cham Cham is set to come in mid-March of 2021 while Hibiki was not given a release date of her own. Cham Cham's release will also accompany a set of character balance fixes as well as a brand-new guard crush mechanic to the title, indicating that Season 3 of Samurai Shodown looks to shake things up going forward. Fans also have two more characters to look forward to beyond those revealed at the presentation. The biggest change that Season 3 could bring is an update to the game's netcode, but no word has been given on if that will be addressed. For now, players can take solace in the continued support through DLC, rebalancing, and gameplay mechanic updates through 2021.
