Yuga the Destroyer

Yuga the Destroyer (壊帝ユガ, Kaitei Yuga), often referred to as the "mysterious puppeteer", is the apparently genderless main antagonist for the Samurai Shodown 64 iterations of the series. Due to balancing issues, it is left unplayable in most of the games it appears in.

Story
Its existence is veiled in mystery. It is a powerful sorcerer who originates from the Demon World. It wishes to become a god of destruction and rule the world by merging the Demon World and Human World. Knowing it would require many followers, it concocts an elaborate plan. Twenty years before Amakusa's revival, it enters the human realm and steals various babies from their mothers' wombs. Using its powers, it bestows fantastical powers upon them and waits for them to mature their superhuman strength and paranormal abilities. When they reach adulthood, it appears before all of them, brainwashing them by performing a magical puppet show and effectively creates a powerful and obedient army of warriors. Along with these braindead individuals, Yuga obtains Shiki.

Yuga, seeking Shiki's male counterpart, chooses Haohmaru to fulfill the requirements for a perfect resurrection. However, Yuga's physical form is destroyed by Haohmaru and Nakoruru. A year later, it subsequently resurrects itself and Gandara, and continues its plans, making a clone of Asura in the process. It sends this doppelgänger to retrieve the freed Shiki, but he develops feelings for her instead. Taking this into account, the two Asuras both engage Yuga, destroying its body for good along with Gandara. In a desperate attempt to remain in the mortal realm, it possesses Shiki and Asura's child, Mikoto. It lives as the "Devil" side of Mikoto's power as a "dark presence". It almost succeeds in gaining complete control of Mikoto's body but Yuda, the product of the two Asuras' merge, destroys its spirit before the deed is done.

Personality
Evil and ambitious, Yuga will stop at nothing to fulfill its desires. True to its other known alias, it enjoys toying and controlling other people's destinies.

Male Body Forms

 * All versions
 * Distant Slashes - Yuga swipes his hand and slash appears directly on opponent and hits him
 * Instant - Yuga fakes one of attacks but instead fades in and teleports behind opponent
 * Samurai Shodown 64 version
 * Dharma Wheel Grab - Yuga gathers energy to create large energy wheel which will travel forward
 * Flame - Yuga generates wave of demon world flame that travels the ground
 * Energy Blast - Yuga rears back extends both palms forward and discharges the short range energy wave that blows opponent away
 * Portal - Yuga opens portal underneath the opponent who gets sucked and then falls from the sky head down, hitting ground
 * Telekinetic Grab - Yuga teleports opponent in his hands with help of electricity, crushes opponent with telekinesis and drops him to ground.
 * Healing - Yuga can heal itself if it can get to glowing energy circles at edges of arena
 * Time Stop - Yuga stops the time as screen goes grey, allowing for free hit
 * Samurai Shodown Warriors Rage version
 * Energy Shield - Yuga blocks attacks with purple energy shield which shatters in pieces after opponent's attack ends
 * Vajra - Yuga flips back into the air and comes back holding large energy sphere in arms.
 * Aruga - Yuga extends both palms forward and discharges the sonic beam
 * Sanskrit Chant - Yuga emits fire pillars around itself
 * Hell - Yuga discharges energy sphere around, which makes opponent's body to levitate, while Yuga extracts their soul and clenches it in the fist.

Female Body Forms

 * All versions
 * Arm-Weapon Slashes - Yuga can transform arms into weapons and stretch them to attack
 * Yin-Yang Shield - Yuga blocks attacks with yin-yang energy shield that dissipates after attack
 * Damage - Lightning bolt drops from the sky. It slows opponent down when Yuga is in 3rd form.
 * Burning Shell - Yuga extends spear made from arm and impales opponent
 * 2nd form
 * Flash of Light - Yuga discharges beam from fingertip
 * Flame - Yuga generates wave of demon world flame that travels the ground
 * Confusion - Yuga's body emits electric pulse
 * Nail Claws - Yuga thrusts with the spear formed from the left arm, then continiously stabs opponent with spear formed from right arm
 * Fear - Yuga in the air surrounded by unblockable lightning bolts, and transforms into 3rd form
 * 3rd form (winged)
 * Pine Forest - Yuga floats and swings with swordblade formed from arm
 * Horror - Yuga floats and makes cross cut with swordblade formed from arm
 * Ocean Stream - Yuga emits big beam of electricity from arms
 * Great Flame - Yuga erupts high pillar of demon world flame around itself
 * Burning Steel - Yuga floats, and shoots 5 energy needles from energy bow.
 * Blood Well - Yuga floats to the edge of screen and discharges huge unblockable energy blast that covers almost all area.

Miscellaneous

 * Mind Control - Yuga can brainwash certain individuals to do its bidding.
 * Possession - Yuga can inhibit different bodies, controlling them remotely and morph into them at its will.

Fighting Style
Yuga relies entirely on its magic to fight. Signature attacks of male Yuga forms are Distant Slashes (hand swipes) that will produce actual slashes on the opponent on any distance, and telekinetic grabs, while female Yuga forms use Arm-Weapon slashes (arms can transform in various weapons and extended at long range), and Arm-Weapon impalement grabs. Also Yuga always levitates without touching ground.

In first game Yuga has two forms. 1st form is male body/sitting form, it has only two moves and shorter range of normal attacks. 2nd form is male body/standing form, unlocked when 1st form is defeated. It is strong but somewhat predictable fighter, good at any range. 2nd form posesses many more moves, and special abilities such as heal by draining energy from spheres on edges of arena and stopping time at beginning of final round.

In the second game, Yuga has three forms, with it's fighting style considerably changed based on the particular form. 1st form is male body/standing form, which posesses several long-range and anti-air moves, but is overall predictable. 2nd form is female body/standing form (unlocked when 1st form is defeated ). It turns into an offensive long-ranged fighter that uses various keep-away tactics like sending fire waves, energy beams and lightnings to corner opponents. 3rd form is female body/winged form, (optional, unlocked only if 2nd form will use desperation move). 3rd form is faster and its moveset is upgraded with more powerful variations of 2nd form moves (for example lighting bolts now slow down movement of opponent) as well as with several new ones (like energy bow attack). In 3rd form Yuga posesses its signature desperation move, the Blood Well. It makes Yuga levitate high and appear at the background, while blasting area with huge unblockable energy blast that can only be avoided in the corner of screen. On a side note between 3rd and 4th stages of game player is presented to sequence showing whole town destroyed by Blood Well.

Music

 * Yin & Yang - Samurai Shodown 64
 * Puppetmaster - Samurai Shodown 64-2

Voice Actors

 * Daiki Nakamura, Kaori Minami - Samurai Shodown 64 (duo toned)
 * Satomi Nakatani - Samurai Shodown 64-2

Game Appearances

 * Samurai Shodown 64
 * Samurai Shodown 64-2
 * Samurai Shodown! 2
 * Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage - through Mikoto

Anime Appearances

 * Samurai Spirits 2: Asura-Zanmaden (OVA)