Just last night, Seattle’s very own Josh “Messatsu Orochi” Taton and I had a discussion with me about the world famous samurai, Miyamoto Musashi.  Josh went on to explain that Musashi was most famous for his unrivaled swordsmanship in numerous duels with other Japanese swordsmen.  In his life, he went on to write “The Book of Five Rings” each titled respectively towards elements entitled: “Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Nothing.”  The book goes on to talk about military strategy much like “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu.  So why does any of this belong here at SeattleVersus?  As Josh fired off quote after quote from Musashi, I could clearly see relevance from a fighting game perspective…the theory of combat directly correlated to a competitive fighting game player’s mentality.  The Book of Five Rings applied so much more than just martial arts.  Apparently business leaders have gone on to find that Musashi’s discussion of conflict seemed incredibly relevant to their own trials as entrepreneurs.

Musashi talks about the importance of positioning, adaptation, discipline and a variety of aspects concerning combat, all things that we as fighting game players strive to master.  In this column, check out how Josh and I break down quote after quote from Musashi’s “The Book of Five Rings.”  I introduce to you, “Seeing with the Mind’s Eye.”

“There are several things involved in taking the lead. You must make the best of the situation, see through the enemy’s spirit so that you grasp his strategy and defeat him. “

Mickey: The words “see through the enemy’s spirit…” seemed to be key to truly understanding what Musashi is saying here.  I personally feel that understanding the “why” compared to the “what” is much more valuable…I feel as if this is what Musashi is trying to say.  We can go into analytics and technicalities in Street Fighter for hours, however understanding the “why is he doing this” can help you understand your opponent’s true goal.  Instead of thinking about every technicality, learn to value understanding your opponent’s play style in order to “grasp his strategy and defeat him.”

At the same time to “see through the enemy’s spirit” can mean so much more than just play style or habits and tendencies.  For instance, I can feel when my opponent is “frozen” or scared of attacking me.  I feed off of that fear and play more aggressive at times because I can see my opponent clamming up.  If I’ve anti air’ed you twice before, are you going to jump again?  If I’ve random dragon punch’ed you 3 times, you’re most likely going to be weary of a random uppercut right?  The point is that there are ways to “test” your opponent to see his reactions in certain situations.  These subtle tests can help you understand exactly what you’re up against in order to “grasp his strategy and defeat him.”  With that, they can also help condition your opponent to be fearful of your abilities.

Josh: Going into a match, you see the character your opponent picks.  You have your own character, and you understand the general strategy that the opponent can use against you.  Now with that knowledge, you can still anticipate certain actions from your opponent.  “You must make the best of the situation…” capitalize on mistakes, find defensive holes and apply pressure.  In doing this you end up seeing your opponent’s “spirit” or true skill based off of their reactions.  Regarding the lead, they are now forced to act or lose the round.

“Always chase the enemy into bad footholds, obstacles at the side, and so on, using the virtues of the place to establish predominant positions from which to fight. You must research and train diligently in this.”

Mickey: When I first read this quote, I instantly thought about corner lockdown in Street Fighter.  Character’s with projectiles like Ryu or Sagat, or even characters that advance forward while attacking like Bison or Balrog…these characters can lock you down in the corner to no end, making it tiring (and dangerous) to try and figure a way out.  However I took a step back and looked at the quote again, specifically the part saying “using the virtues of place to establish predominant positions from which to fight.” Though this quote has much more to do with sword mastery than it does Street Fighter, I look as this quote as a teaching tool to value putting your opponent in an uncomfortable position.  By zoning out an opponent who normally plays up close, or by rushing down an opponent who normally likes to space and zone… Against a Dhalsim, rush him down.  Against a Zangief, zone him out.  The key here is to, “establish predominant positions from which to fight” by playing to your opponent’s weakness.

Josh: It’s all about putting the opponent out of his comfort zone by spacing pokes the right distance, kind of like Sagat doing c.lk strings to get that perfect range for tiger knee’s.  You get the opponent to the wall, get good damage off of the position, and your opponent starts to panic.  While trying to figure a way out, it’s too late… it’s exactly what you had planned, an attempt to escape only to get blasted back into the corner.  It’s the ability to position yourself so that you have control of where your opponent MUST go.  You have to be able to stop that course of action.  If the opponent acts recklessly, and if you happen to respond the correct way, you pretty much have the battle won.

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Hope you all enjoyed our break down of our impressions on the quotes.  The quotes we used for this article are from “The Book of Fire” so we’ll delve into a different book for next time.  To end things off, I’m going to leave one final quote from Musashi:  “If you attain and adhere to the wisdom of my strategy, you need never doubt that you will win.”