Miyamoto Musashi

In Miyamoto Musashi’s landmark The Book of Five Rings, the legendary Japanese swordsman illuminates a lifetime’s worth of martial arts philosophy, expressing the warrior archetype as a carpenter who must master all the tools of his trade to build a fortified defense in a world where violence has consequences. Videogames ability to convey those consequences allow for martial arts to be constructed through complex fighting systems, and in Samurai Shodown, SNK brought combatants from a dozen styles together in armed combat, creating beautiful and dynamic duels that blend hack and slash and beat ’em up combat into a single design that requires precision and patience to unleash strikes as sharp as your blade.