BIO:

Unable to stand the chaos and famine that his people bore, Gaoh Kyougoku Hinowanokami, the hero of all heroes, sets his sights on the Shogun. Gaoh was once a loyal general to the Tokugawa clan and lord to the land of Hinowa. He is one of the previous mentors to the clan's heir, Yoshitora. However, Yoshitora and his father became indifferent to the land during the Tenmei famine and the country was thrown into more chaos as a result. Concerned about the well being of his countrymen, he decides to rebel against his lord with an army of powerful warriors until he is defeated by Yoshitora. He begs for his pupil to become shogun for the sake of the people, which Yoshitora finally accepts as his responsibility. Demon Gaoh is his alternate form. Gaoh was designed by the creator of "Rurouni Kenshin", Watsuki Nobuhiro and is based off of Oda Nobunaga.
 
  
 
                                                     
  

Page Updated:  Oct. 9th, 2025
Amakusa was an annoyingly overpowered Samurai Shodown boss for quite a few sequels, so it was nice to finally have a change with Gaoh. I didn't think Nobunaga himself would end up in Samurai Shodown... heh. In a way, Gaoh is slightly "generic" compared to other colorful personalities from the series, but as a proper traditional-looking samurai / shogun, he definitely fits in with the legendary roster. Gaoh's only real flaw as a fighting game design is that his animations are a bit stiff and slightly uninspired. Even if you compare the epic animation of SNK's own SS3 & SS4, you'll immediately see how better animated most of the characters are. It seems like SNK lost their steam (or the dev team changed) with SSV and after. Otherwise, Gaoh is a solid and fairly cool boss.
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	Effectiveness  in  series
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