ISSEN

一閃 — one flash

Two samurai. Every exchange, both of you choose at once. Then the blades move.

Three guards. Chūdan (the thrust) beats Jōdan (the overhead cut) beats Gedan (the rising cut) beats Chūdan. Whoever's guard beats the other's has the line: their cut wins a cut-for-cut, their parry becomes a killing riposte. Stepping in always shifts you into the guard that beats theirs.

Posture is your menu. Set: three moves. Poised, holding the initiative: four — the decisive Ippon unlocks. Open, off balance: two, and you cannot attack. A bad pick either gets you cut or costs you moves. A good pick, even one that draws no blood, buys them back.

One cut ends it. Or two — two Jōdan cuts at once is ai-uchi, and both fall.

After every exchange the whole duel so far plays back as a film: cameras, slow motion, the ink moment. The longer you both survive, the better the movie.

What's in it

• Six opponents you can learn to read, from the rash Rōnin to the Ghost, who plays the solved game
• Six fighters with three dyes each, five grounds: a bamboo grove at dawn, a snow shrine, a burning village, a sakura river, the tidal rocks at sunset
• Two swords, one screen: pass-and-play against a friend
• Every move shows you what happens against each of theirs. The rest is reading a person
• Streak leaderboard (opponents are worth their weight) and achievements on the arcade

Everything is procedural: the samurai, their cloth, the katana, the environments, the sound. One file, no assets.

Made with Claude Code — Fable 5.1 directing, Opus building the grounds, the sound and the opponents.