Chanbara is a sport that returns from Wii Sports Resort. The basics of this sport are straightforward. Two people stand on a platform, and they try to push their adversary out of it by striking them with a sword.
Although this sport is simple, it can be pretty competitive. Knowing how to attack, defend, and predict your enemy’s movements are some of the things that help you come up victorious.
Whether you’re an experienced player or just trying out a new sport, read on to learn more about how to win at the Switch Sports Chanbara.
How to Guard in Chanbara
The command for guarding is easy in Chanbara; you just hold your trigger button. However, it doesn’t make you strike-proof.
Players can still hit you when you are guarding if they swing their sword in the same direction yours is standing. In other words, you only guard when your sword is perpendicular to your opponent’s.
For instance, if your sword is being held horizontally, you can be hit by a horizontal attack.
Sometimes, you will find frenetic adversaries in Chanbara. Because of that, guarding is an essential skill to learn if you want to do well. There are many techniques that the player can adopt in order to increase their chances of blocking.
For instance, you can hold your trigger button with your Joy-Con standing diagonally. This increases your chances of guarding most attacks because you can quickly turn your Joy-Con to guard vertically or horizontally if you need to.
Read Your Opponent
The way you get better in Chanbara is not different than how you get better at any other Switch Fighting Game.
You learn the mechanics first, and once you master them, you learn how to read your opponent. Playing mind games, baiting, and understanding your adversaries rhythm are crucial factors in any fight.
Do everything you can to read and anticipate your opponent’s next move; force them to make moves they don’t want to make, and always stay several steps ahead of them.
The idea here is to set a rhythm and then break it. Create expectations, then do something completely different.
This is not something that can be completely taught. You must understand the concept and then practice it.
For instance, you can start a match with two quick strikes in the same direction and delay the third one so you can see how your opponent is guarding. You can also strike back as soon as you’re hit. Chances are, this is when your opponent is waiting for you to try to avoid their attacks.
Try to predict what your opponent is doing while staying unpredictable. Understand their rhythm, but set your own and switch it up.
Choose the Basic Sword
There are three different kinds of swords in Chanbara.
- Sword: This is the standard, basic sword. It is also the most reliable one. It has a decent amount of pushback on a hit, and it doesn’t depend on anything to be effective. It blocks just fine, and each strike puts your opponent closer to the edge of the platform.
- Twin Swords: You play with two swords, and therefore you need two Joy-Cons. Although this might seem cool at first, especially cause you can use either sword to guard and attack, it is unnecessarily complex. The controls feel awkward, and you might end up using a single sword until you charge your special attack — which can be parried.
- Charge Sword: This sword’s strikes are not as powerful as the basic sword’s ones. However, it charges when you successfully block. When fully charged, you can perform a special attack with extra pushback. Although the concept is interesting, it relies way too much on successfully guarding many of your adversary’s attacks, which can be quite challenging to do consistently.
Our recommendation is the basic sword. At least when you are learning, although it never stops being a good choice.
The Basic sword is reliable, pushes the adversary back just fine, and doesn’t distract you with extra mechanics. This means that you can better focus on reacting to your opponent’s moves.
Final Thoughts
Chanbara might seem a bit weird at first, but it is definitely worth trying. If you don’t take it too seriously, it’s super fun.
However, If you do take it seriously, it can be reasonably deep. It is one of those games that make people think more about what they are doing in each and every match.
Whether you are winning or losing, it is important to learn from your matches and adjust accordingly for future games.
If you are competitive and like hitting people with your sword, try to play ranked matches to test your Chanbara skills. You might have way more fun constantly adjusting to players that are as good as you.
