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Hatashiai is a project that hopes to replicate the art of Japanese sword fighting within a videogame. The game’s developers say that they intend for Hatashiai to be the most “serious sword fighting game ever produced” with a focus on realistic sword combat.
This effectively means that all moves in the game will be inspired by actual sword fighting techniques used in Japan, and that there’s no “block” button as such. In order to block your opponent’s moves, you’ll need to counter with an appropriate move of your own to parry their blow. There’s no HP bar in the game either—if you get hit, your character gets disabled or killed, similar to Bushido Blade.
At the same time, there’s also a need to create a balance between realism and fun, and the development team say they’re working on that, too. All of this is a work-in-progress, naturally. Hatashiai is still in pre-alpha and there’s a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of polishing up hitboxes, animations, and so on.
Hatashiai is being developed using Unreal Engine 4, and a version 1.0 release is planned for this Fall. A price for the game has not yet been decided, although a demo will be made available for players to try out so they can decide whether or not to spend their money. Until then, you can follow the game on Steam Greenlight.
