Summary
- Video games draw inspiration from Kendo for combat systems, showcasing precise movements and high-impact strikes.
- For Honor implements elements of Kendo through characters like Orochi and Nobushi's fighting styles.
- Kendo-inspired games like First Cut and KendoDou? Offer entertaining gameplay while incorporating elements of the martial art.
Be it with guns, fists, or swords, gamers have always relished the chance to engage in some virtual combat with one another. While many real-world equivalents to these scenarios exist, many do not have the storied history, precision of movement, and breadth of inspiration as the Kendo martial art.
8 Most Iconic Sword Fighting Games
The gaming industry is packed with excellent sword-fighting games. These 8 titles stand above the rest as the most iconic.
While the Kendo style is typically defined by its role as a non-lethal form of combat, many video game titles have used its renowned slower pace and high-impact strikes as inspiration for their own combat systems. As such, while many vow to use more lethal equipment, the core tenants of the martial art have remained relatively solid throughout the many genres, settings, and styles it has been incorporated into.
7 For Honor
Multicultural Sword Combat Title With Accurate Portrayal Of Kendo Movements
For Honor
- Released
- February 14, 2017
- Developer(s)
- Ubisoft Montreal
- Platform(s)
- Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 4
- Genre(s)
- Action
For Honor's expansive selection of sword-wielding characters makes it a title that celebrates blades overall, rather than any specific fighting style. While Vikings and Knights are powerful adversaries, the initial roster of the 2017 game is rounded out by the introduction of the Samurai.
Despite its fantasy medieval setting, For Honor does implement some intricate Kendo elements through characters such as Orochi and Nobushi's fighting styles and stances - with Kendo master Alexander Bennett reportedly acting as a consultant. Of course, being a combative title, real swords are used and opponents are slain, in stark contrast to the training style that Kendo is primarily used for.
6 First Cut: Samurai Duel
A 2D Pixel-Art Adaptation of Samurai Media And Kendo Fighting
While attempts at realism are often commendable, the medium of video games is inherently an entertaining one. As such, First Cut: Samurai Duel's focus on the Kendo-esque aesthetic of Samurai sword fighting is commendable, especially considering that it is balanced by some genuinely intricate gameplay.
7 PvP Games With The Best Sword Combat
For gamers who love a great swordfight against other players, these games are the perfect choice.
The use of space and movement to avoid incoming attacks is tantamount to First Cut's combat. However, its clear inspiration from Samurai movies and other media keeps it from becoming too similar to a true simulator experience.
5 One Strike
A 2D Pixel-Art Fighter Incorporating Various Asian Fighting Styles
Retro Reactor's retro-inspired visuals and indie game budget do nothing to alleviate any sense of lethality in its swordfighting gameplay. As its name suggests, all characters are killed with only one strike, resulting in a cat-and-mouse playstyle with players poking and prodding at one another's defenses.
While specifically playing as Kenji, players will take the measured approaches and swift strikes of the Kendo combat style against a variety of other — many times more flamboyant — combatants.
4 Budokan: The Martial Spirit
A Thirty-Year-Old Accomplishment in 2D Kendo Fighting Realism
Budokan: The Martial Spirit may be a more than 30-year-old Electronic Arts title, but that doesn't stop it from being a truly ambitious 2D fighting game even today. Allowing players to spar in the Bo, Karate, and Nunchaku styles, this 1989 PC title also allows gamers to fight using Kendo.
While the title was received as a genuinely entertaining experience at the time, Budokan: The Martial Spirit has a genuine interest in portraying each of these styles of combat as authentically as its 2D pixel sprites can.
3 Bushido Blade
A Fifth-Generation Console Fighting Game With Lethal Combat
Bushido Blade
"ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL AND EXTRAORDINARY FIGHTING GAMES EVER."
-PSX MAGAZINE
"Bushido" is the soul of Japan - an ancient honor code deeply followed by samurai warriors for centuries.
Plunge into real world battles across vast 3D environments that you can run, slice and tear through.
Sword matches become unbelievably real where one critical blow is the mean difference between death and victory.
"Nothing less than amazing." -GameFan
• 1&2 player combat
• 6 awesome fighting modes
• 6 skilled warriors
• 8 ancient swords and weapons
• Plus unique sub-weapons
• Countless special moves
- Released
- September 30, 1997
- Platform(s)
- PS1
- Developer
- Lightweight
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
Bushido Blade's 1997 release brought with it not only another PlayStation-exclusive title from Square Enix, but one with a truly dynamic combat system. With Bushido Blade's instant-death gameplay, players are forced to meet the 3D fighter on its own terms.
10 Best Video Game Swords
Swords are a huge part in gameplay, as so many games have players defeating enemies through this type of weaponry, but which one is the best overall?
Not being a simulation-style title, some creative liberties have been taken in its portrayal of sword combat. With various weapons available — from the Katana to the Rapier — different combat styles can be employed, yet when wielding a Katana the player incorporates many of the slow-paced stylings of the Kendo form.
2 Kengo: Master Of Bushido
A Unique Fighter With A Focus On Improving The Player's Swordsmanship
Kengo: Master of Bushido may be a spiritual successor to the critically-acclaimed Bushido Blade, but this stance-swapping fighting game leans much more into non-combat elements. While combat is fluid and enjoyable, Kendo is incorporated into the player-characters' preparation for sword combat as well.
In the single-player campaign, gamers take on the role of a Kendo student who rises through the ranks among all schools in the area, to eventually become the best. With its precise combat, Kengo differentiates itself from other fighting games, as "the key to the game will be learning the actual art of Kendo"
1 KendoDou?
A 3D Kendo-Style Fighter Balancing Realism And Fun
Many other titles, when taking inspiration from Kendo, often simply adopt a slower pace and the strategic fighting of the style of combat. However, KendoDou?'s 2020 release saw the creation of a training-esque fighter that does not attempt to be — as the developer Franklin Chang states — "a realistic simulation of Kendo, but tries to create a fun playable game with some of the constraints of real Kendo".
Using physics-based 3D models — and focussing on attacking the three Kendo combat areas of the head, wrist, and body — this title is a mobile game that accomplishes an impressive amount of creative realism.