"Perfect Choujin's Ultimate Leader" Strong the Budo review: Supremely Strong

One of the things that I really like about Muscle Shot is how in some cases the abilities and special moves that the developers gave to the units match the respective character’s personality really well. 

To show a quick example of what I meant let’s take a look to two units that were recently added into the game: Benkiman and Bockman

 

Benkiman’s abilities are Ice Rope Recovery/Spikes Removal/Status Ailment Recovery/Fire Attribute Resistance, while his Friendship attack can also heal their teammates out of any status ailment they have.

From the get go we can see that this unit was clearly designed as a support/defense-oriented one, being able to quickly recover a decent amount of HP with his Special-level Rope Recovery ability, removing spikes so his teammates won’t be damaged by them, while also healing any status ailment they have during his turn or through his Frienship Attack.

And to hammer the point, he has an Attribute resistance ability, which stacks up with his natural resistance to Fire units, so the amount of damage that he would receive from those units would only reach 3 digits most of the time.

The overall supportive role this unit has matches well with Benkiman’s role as a supportive character in the series, especially in the recent arc, while his focus on healing Status Ailments could be a reference at how much of a clean freak he could be.

Meanwhile, Bockman’s abilities are Ice Rope Boost/Volcanic Boost/Spikes Inmunity and Sand Tower Inmunity. 

On this case we have an unit that focuses on dealing high amounts of damage via his Boosting abilities (he is actually one of the few units that has a Rope Boost and a Hazard Boost ability), while his Sand Tower immunity allows him to wreak havoc in the ring without worrying to be stopped by those pesky sand castles, and he just ignores spikes instead of removing them, showing how focused he is on defeating his enemies.

This offensive oriented ability suits Bockman considering his abrasive and aggressive behavior, with his Friendship Attack alluding at how much he apparently loved using his sword, and his slightly lower than usual HP amount he has is probably a tongue-in-cheek reference at to how easily Kinnikuman Soldier knocked him out.

This and many other examples shows that DeNA is doing a good job at using the ever expanding list of abilities this game has to offer in other to create ability sets that suits the character in question, increasing the game’s immersion, and making you feel that you are in control of the real deal.

And the unit that we are going to talk today is one of the game’s greatest examples of how much a suitable skillset and special attacks can make the Choujin in question feel that he came straight from the manga into your cellphone: "Perfect Choujin's Ultimate Leader" Strong the Budo

This version of Strong the Budo is the Bond Awakening version of the first ever version of this Choujin that the game got, which has a really simple, but useful Current Rope Recovery/Counter Resist ability set.

In contrast this new and improved Neo Budo boasts 4 abilities: Barbed Wire Resist/Volcanic Recovery/Akuma Choujin Killer and Zero Area Inmunity.

 

Strong the Budo is one few units in the game that could be considered a hybrid unit, having both supportive and offensive abilities, while also being of the even more rare cases of having 3 different kinds of abilities: Normal Resistance, Recovery and Attack Boost. 

I feel this is a pretty cool way to reference how omniscient The Man Strong the Budo is, being a Choujin that probably is as old as time itself, having extensive knowledge of practically everything Choujin-related (he trained the entire Origin, for starters), which can be translated into him being a really versatile fighter, not only possessing an incredible amount of brute strength, but also being deceptively fast and agile, while having an extensive knowledge of techniques and moves.

Although from just looking at him, what would give most people the feeling that he certainly is Strong the Budo is his, appropriately enough, Strong-level Akuma Choujin Killer Ability, with the amounts of damage he can dish out being, simply speaking, terrifying.

About the Zero Area inmunity...I feel that its just there for flavor. Sure, it can be useful in The Man Fight, which has Zero Areas (and Volcanoes), but sadly there are better units for that Fight, even if they lack that inmunity. 

Funnily enough, if his base form was was given that ability, it would have turned him into a popular unit...

But I guess DeNA really wanted to make Zero Areas annoying again.

*cough*

Still a nice touch though.

Before I continue the analysis, I feel that I need to address the elephant in the room that is the other Diamond Budo, the first one in fact.

This version of him, released in Muscle Festival, has a pretty similar, thematically speaking, ability set to the Budo that we have been talking about: Ice Rope Recovery, Immunity to Dimensional Holes, Thunder and Zero Area, while also having Akuma Choujin Killer to boot.

Resist ability, support ability and offensive ability. Feels familiar, I am right? 

At first glance most people would think that the MF Budo is better, considering how he has two resist abilities instead of just one, and while more resistances are always appreciated, we have to consider how useful he actually is over Neo Budo.

And he really...isnt that used. In spite of his versatile ability set, he is overshadowed by other Ice Rope units with more defined roles, like Satan Cross removing Spikes, Alexandria Meat healing the party and so, although he finally got some relevance since he was added in the game 8 months ago with the release of the 20 Million Power Stecasse King Fight, in which he puts almost all of his abilities to good use. 

Then again, I shouldnt be surprised that he wasnt supposed to be a relevant unit, with his main draw being that he Bond Awakens into the powerful The Man.

Neo Budo, on the other hand, besides the fact that it can be a last pitch option for The Man Fight like I previously said, its a really good unit for another 16 Million Power Fight, the Akuma Shogun one, that has Barbed Wire ropes and Volcanoes, and gives the Golden Mask bond awakening material, which is notable considering how tough that Fight it can be.

He is also really good in the Buffaloman Fight, that also has the same ropes and hazards than the Akuma Shogun one, although I explain why he is such a popular choice in a bit.

As we can see, despite not being as versatile as MF Budo at first glance, Neo Budo is a more useful unit, being on the top of the list of the most used units for two tough Fights, while MF Budo just recently starts discovering what relevance feels like.

But who is the best Budo in terms of presentation? Who is the one that is the best adaptation of Budo from the manga?

On this case Neo Budo also wins the competition, on this case by a landslide.

I have to say, the first time I saw this move, I was amazed. 

For starters, is a really neat reference to the preparations for Budo’s fight against Akuma Shogun, with him casually making a crater with a kendo stick of all things.

And yes, it’s an Area of Effect-type of attack…a static one…the kind that surrounds the user,which arent really popular to say the least.

But on this case, you can’t simply ignore its range. It covers almost 40% of the ring! Suffice to say it has the biggest range of an AoE attack in the game.

And while at the end of the day it still is a static AoE type of attack, and there will be moments where probably won’t damage anyone (especially considering that the amount of damage decreases with the distance from the center), it still has a pretty big range, so is a problem can be solved with a bit of planning and positioning.

But what definitely gets me is seeing how my enemies drop like flies after taking this attack. It simple, but is the little things that make the experience all the more enjoyable.

And then there is the Finisher...

 

Even if we dont consider the fact that it was clearly designed for the Final Round of Buffaloman’s Fight...

Really subtle DeNA. Then again, this is actually one of my least favourite Final Rounds, so yay.

It’s still a single targeting finisher, which commonly deals  70k or less damage, normally dealing 82k of damage without any modifiers, that also decreases the Attack of the enemies to boot. And if we apply the modifiers…

As you can see, against Light Attribute units, the finisher deals 106626 points of damage, pretty notable for a finisher of its kind. And if it is used on an Akuma Choujin, he will deal an astounding 205.050 points of damage. Once again, quite impressive.

And then there is the presentation of the finisher itself. Its Budo smacking around his target at all four corners before finishing with a big impact accompanied by a diamond splash. To say that it looks painful is an understatement. I wouldn’t expect anything less from someone who names himself Strong the Budo.

In resume, Neo Budo not only is the most used version of the two, but also the best one in terms of how well his abilities and special attacks represent the character,  solidifying him as The Strong the Budo unit in Muscle shot, having a versatile ability set, his special moves are really impactful and powerful,ended up being a pretty useful unit overall.

For all of this reasons he is one of my favorite units in the game, being on the top of the list of Choujin that I would like to have in my deck. 

Behind Summer Fiona of course.