Samurai Shodown/YMMV

• Alas, Poor Villain: Amakusa, Zankuro and Gaoh's deaths (complete with speeches). Especially Amakusa's death.
• Broken Base: Samurai Shodown V Special's Darker and Edgier nature by showing some very gory and graphic fatalities like Mortal Kombat and Eternal Champions. An incredibly cool idea that is stylish and it fits with the series' mostly serious nature well? Or is it a rather repulsive idea that never suited the series to begin with (and those who feel the latter are especially repulsed by the fact that the cute child characters in the game can cause and be on the receiving end of these fatalities)?
• Complete Monster: Literally Kusaregedo. He was once an average, "kind" old man (with cannibalistic tendencies) that got transformed into an unholy creature after his death. He goes on to stalk a little girl (Rimururu) after picking up on her scent in hopes of devouring her, but runs into his daughter, Hakana, instead, who pleads with him. He feeds on her in the end. His current whereabouts are unknown.
• Crack Pairing: Galford-Nakoruru has enough hints and teases... but their Bust forms? Or Bust Galford X Rera? Sometimes, yeah.
• Crazy Awesome: Basara.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Asura. Almost literally.
• Epileptic Trees: Shizumaru, I Am Your Father.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Tachibana Ukyo, a Badass swordsman afflicted with tuberculosis, was intended for death early on in the series. However, due to popularity among fans, he was not killed off and has appeared throughout the series. Most of the latter Samurai Shodown game stories are always set in a timeline where they can always include Ukyo.
  • Nakoruru, a nature-protecting priestess, whose popularity grew to the levels of national idol in Japan and other asian countries . Out of Samurai Shodown fanart found on the net, around 70-80% is dedicated to Nakoruru; and in Japan big companies compete over releasing Nakoruru dolls.
  • Cham Cham is also quite popular for someone who only appears in three games (and in one of them, she was a Playstation-exclusive character). She even has her own pachinko game!
  • Iroha seems to be another case; despite a single appearance in the series, she was popular enough to be included into many dating sims and mobile phone games, and to gain a very own spin-off game. Also, internet was flooded with Hentai images of Iroha next day after her appearance, and that flood havent stopped yet.
• Evil Is Sexy: Most of Shiki's attacks and motions are seductive-looking, which was done on purpose. Han-In to nari shi Shiki takes this even closer to Kamasutra levels, with some of her moves imitating sexual intercourse. From male characters, Hanmen no Asura and Suija/Suija.Sogetsu are the subjects of this trope.
  • Symbols and sculpted imagery at the walls of Gandara's stage depict scenes from Kamasutra. In the next game these can be seen at distant wall in Han-In to nari shi Shiki's underground cave stage.
• Fashion Victim Villain: Amakusa, especially in the first game.
• Foe Yay: Suija's "I want your body!". Of course he wants a body that is good enough for him to possess.
  • And of course Haohmaru and Genjuro as well.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Not surprisingly, the French fans love Charlotte.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Hanzo's finishing move is a Mortal Kombat 9-style X-ray move. Even better, Mortal Kombat 9 was the installment that revealed that Scorpion's real name is Hanzo.
• Ho Yay: Yaci and Namino. Also, Genjuro is a bisexual simply because he doesn't care... in Days of Memories Oedo Love Scroll, protagonist can get bad ending where he ends up sharing bed with Genjuro.
• Iron Woobie: Nakoruru, specially in her OAV and Ano kaara ni okurimono.
• Jerkass Woobie: Genjuro, Yaci and probably Haito.
• Magnificent Bastard: Suija.
• Memetic Mutation: VICTOLY!
  • Amakusa's "Then DIE, you crazy funster!"
• Moe: Nakoruru and her sister Rimururu. Nakoruru is actually considered one of Japan's most prominent Moe Moe characters...
  • Also Cham Cham, Minto, Rinka and Suzuhime.
  • Male example: Shizumaru. God, is that kid Moe
• Most Annoying Sound: Chample. Chances are, if you play as Mina, you WILL want her to put Chample to sleep before your eardrums explode.
  • Gen-An's gigantic claw makes a metal clinking sound that becomes somewhat grating after a while.
• Never Live It Down: The fourth game, an outstanding fighter in its own right, is rarely remembered as anything else than "the one that goes VICTOLY!"
  • Although it has been declared that Rera is deep down a good girl (though just kinda extreme), people never forget that she used to be an 'Evil Nakoruru', so some fics often portray her as an outright evil bitch.
  • The second game has probably one of the worst English translations in a video game ever, but the one moment fans will only ever remember of it is Cham Cham saying "Shit!".
• Non Sequitur Scene: Gaira's whole purpose in the fifth game: run around like an idiot, then gets his hair shaven. He's bald in the sixth game, but that's a dream match.
• Sequelitis: The first Samurai Shodown was a huge success, even in the United States (where it won Electronic Gaming Monthly's Game of the Year award in 1994), while Samurai Shodown II performed just as well as the first one. However, Samurai Shodown III made too many changes to the game mechanics that alienated fans of the first two games, while reducing the character roster to only 12, replacing half of the roster in the process. While SNK addressed many of the complaints fans had with the third game in Samurai Shodown IV, the franchise never truly managed to attain the same popularity it had with the first two games.
  • And it's probably safe to say that the lackluster Edge of Destiny/Sen has buried the franchise for good, or at least for quite a while.
• The Scrappy: Needless to say, Sankuro is amongst one of the most reviled characters in the series. Good luck trying to find fans of him.
• So Bad It's Good: There are characters with uber annoying looks/laugh (Genan, Minto, Tashonmao, Kusaregedo, etc), that have certain popularity and are selected by players quite often - with (often successful) aim to get on opponent's nerves.
• That One Mid-Boss: Sankuro.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Ukyo Tachibana was originally written as a rival to Haohmaru, but he was going to die due to having tuberculosis. However, Ukyo got so popular, SNK didn't kill him off, but tried to replace him with Genjuro as Haohmaru's rival, but Ukyo stuck around in the series anyways (justified since Samurai Shodown III and Samurai Shodown IV serve as interquels to Samurai Shodown II). Nowadays, it is interpreted that Ukyo is Haohmaru's friendly rival while Genjuro is Haohmaru's "not-so" friendly rival.
• Toy Ship: Shizumaru and Rimururu, appeared in same game, appeared in a slew of artworks together, and the rest was done by millions of asian fan artists.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Amakusa Shiro Tokisada. The soft face, big hair and long nails don't make it easier; the anime of the game went as far as to make him an actual female. Shizumaru also falls into this trope. And Yumeji - intentionally. S/he has a gender-neutral manner of speaking, was exiled from the dojo (although initially was to inherit it) due to an ambiguous bodily ailment or weakness (possible interpretation: being a woman); also, Yumeji's seiyuu has a long history of voicing similarly non-gender-specific characters.
• The Woobie: Shizumaru, Jushiro and Mina are shining examples of this trope. Specially Mina, who ends up commiting suicide.