Baiken = Haohmaru+Genjuro+Jubei+Ukyo?

[old.school]

Hey everybody,

I used to play Samurai Shodown 1 & 2 back in the day. I picked up GG recently and after trying out Baiken she reminds me of Haohmaru, Genjuro, Jubei and Ukyo from the SS series. Were some of the developers in GG also involved in SS?

Baikens P1 and P2 colors and hair remind me of Haohmaru. A lot of her mannerisms, habits and the way she talks also reminds me of Haohmaru. Her Tatami-resh ability reminds me of one of Genjuro's abilities while the vocal for it reminds me of one of the vocals for one of Ukyo's abilities. I dont know if its just an anime genre thing which is why there are similarities there. Or if some devs were involved in both games or maybe they just drew some inspiration from other games (which i think is cool).

[Bootleg Megaboss]

GG1 (1998) was heavily influenced by SNK games and Baiken made her first appearance in it. Thus it's no surprise she'd give you SNK vibes.

Since GGX (2000) the franchise has gotten more and more unique, but some SNK influences still remain, such as Axl Low clearly being inspired by Billy Kane in both gameplay and appearance.

[Penguinator]

Potemkin stole his flick from Sieger (the animation and function of the move are completely same), so the desgin influences are definitely there. Baiken doesn't really resemble Haohmaru (other than having the sake bottle flail victory pose), but her new 2H is definitely inspired by Ukyo and you could say TK Tatami and TK Youzansen resemble TK Tsubame Gaeshi. Another new influence from Samurai Shodown is the classic 623K ninja command grab (aka Izuna Drop in popular culture) from Hanzo and Galford which was first given to Bang in BB and now to Answer in Rev2.
Jubei's "counters" are more like traditional atemi (ie. you "catch" the opponent's attack and enter a throw-like guaranteed punish animation, originally taken from Geese) which Axl actually has, while current Baiken is more like Lee Rekka from Last Blade; he has a parry move with a guard point that cancels into different follow-ups depending on the button (old Baiken and her guard cancels were more in the style of Vampire series where guard canceling is a core mechanic). Lee also has various kick special moves that are really similar to Jam's kick specials, but her high mobility and how the kicks are tied to card charges makes her feel really different.

The fact that all these references and homages are bits and pieces from here and there insterted into all sorts of characters (instead of copying everything from one character into a single character) makes the products feel fresh and original. Blitz is really similar to Last Blade's Deflect when tapped and SFIV's Focus when hold, but it doesn't feel like a cheap ripoff of either because of how well it's crafted into a mechanic that complements GG's actual neutral and okizeme tactics.

tl;dr: ASW is really good at making fighting games, there are even more references and homages than people realize.

Also, there's a common rumor that says Ishiwatari worked at SNK on Last Blade, but that's false. On Bururaji and various interviews he has always said he joined ASW in order to make his idea of a game to become reality and has never said anything of him being related to SNK and/or Last Blade. Googling his name, ASW, and Gekka no Kenshi in Japanese doesn't produce any results either.

[Vento Aureo]

Afaik Baiken was also influenced by Kenshin Himura from the manga Rurouni Kenshin

[Vassago Rain]

She was originally a very unfair bonus boss you could only unlock by beating the game with Ky or Sol, without losing any rounds. Kenshin with tits is a good way to explain her.

Also she used to embody the best aspects of both Ky and Sol, rather than the defensive character she grew into.

[Crow's Eye]

Baiken = Kenshin, I think.