best medieval fighting game ever been playing with kids call me unc since 2018 ive love every moment but...
If you've played For Honor for any amount of time, you've probably developed a rivalry with at least one hero. Some people hate Orochi because of the constant dodges, some despise Hitokiri because of the pressure, and others can't stand Afeera or Shaolin. For me, though, there is only one character that consistently ruins my mood every time I see them on the loading screen: Shugoki.
Every time I queue into a match and see Shugoki on the enemy team, I already know what kind of experience I'm about to have. It's not excitement. It's not anticipation. It's the feeling of preparing for the longest, most frustrating fight imaginable. While every hero has strengths and weaknesses, Shugoki feels like he was designed to make every interaction as annoying as possible.
The first thing that makes Shugoki so frustrating is his sheer durability. He doesn't just survive mistakes—he practically shrugs them off. You can spend half the fight carefully working your way through his health bar only for him to land a few heavy attacks or capitalize on one mistake and suddenly all your progress feels meaningless. It often feels like you're putting in twice as much effort just to stay even.
Then there are the charged heavies. Shugoki can delay them long enough that you're constantly second-guessing yourself. Do you parry now? Do you wait? Is he going to feint? Is he actually committing? That hesitation is exactly what he wants. Fighting him often feels less like reacting to skill and more like guessing correctly over and over again. One wrong read, and suddenly you're eating a massive chunk of damage because his oversized club apparently hits with the force of a freight train.
His hyper armor only adds to the frustration. Normally, aggression is rewarded in For Honor. You make a good read, interrupt your opponent, and keep the pressure going. Against Shugoki, however, he frequently just ignores your attacks entirely. Instead of being punished for throwing out a risky heavy, he simply powers through your offense and trades with damage that almost always favors him. Watching your perfectly timed attack bounce off while he continues swinging without a care in the world is enough to make anyone question their life choices.
The headbutt deserves its own paragraph because of how irritating it can be. It isn't necessarily the strongest move in the game, but it's one of those attacks that constantly interrupts the flow of combat. Just when you think it's your turn to attack, Shugoki plants his forehead into your face, resets the situation, and reminds you that having momentum is merely a suggestion. Over the course of a long duel, those interruptions add up and make every fight feel like an uphill battle.
Visually, Shugoki is exactly what you'd expect: a massive mountain of muscle carrying an enormous kanabo. The problem is that his appearance perfectly matches how he feels to fight. Everything about him screams, "Your attacks don't matter." He's slow enough to look fair, but somehow fast enough to catch you whenever you relax. Every swing feels deceptively delayed until the exact moment it crashes into your health bar.
One of the most frustrating things is that many Shugoki players don't even have to be particularly creative. They'll repeat the same handful of mix-ups, rely on hyper armor, throw in the occasional headbutt, and patiently wait for you to get impatient. Eventually, you make one mistake, they capitalize on it, and suddenly you're the one wondering how a fight you were winning slipped away.
In Dominion, the frustration reaches another level. Shugoki excels at holding objectives and creating chaos in team fights. Trying to duel him while another enemy is nearby often feels impossible because his wide swings can clip multiple players, his presence alone forces spacing mistakes, and his huge health pool means he sticks around far longer than you'd like. By the time you finally defeat him, the rest of the enemy team has already arrived.
Another reason Shugoki gets under my skin is psychological. Every other hero at least gives me the feeling that I lost because I was outplayed. Against Shugoki, it often feels like I lost because I guessed wrong once or because his kit naturally encourages trades that heavily favor him. Whether that's objectively true or not almost doesn't matter—the perception alone is enough to make every defeat feel more aggravating than it otherwise would.
To be fair, Shugoki isn't unbeatable. Skilled players can counter him by making solid reads, spacing correctly, punishing predictable attacks, and staying patient. At the highest levels of play, experienced players know how to exploit his weaknesses. But knowing that doesn't magically make him enjoyable to fight. A hero can be balanced and still be incredibly frustrating, and Shugoki perfectly fits that description.
The worst part is that every time I tell myself I'll stay calm, the exact opposite happens. I promise myself I'll play patiently, avoid unnecessary trades, and punish every mistake. Five minutes later I'm staring at the defeat screen wondering why I let a giant man with a wooden club turn my relaxing gaming session into an exercise in anger management.
At the end of the day, I don't hate Shugoki because he's impossible to beat. I hate him because every match against him feels exhausting. He slows the pace of combat, forces constant guessing games, punishes mistakes with huge damage, shrugs off pressure through hyper armor, and somehow manages to make every victory feel like a marathon instead of a duel. Whether I'm playing Duels, Brawls, or Dominion, seeing Shugoki on the opposing team is enough to make me sigh before the match has even begun.
So if you ever see me in For Honor and wonder why I immediately groan when the enemy locks in Shugoki, now you know. It's not personal. It's years of frustration, missed parries, poorly timed dodges, hyper-armored heavies, headbutts, and enough giant kanabo swings to last a lifetime. Maybe one day I'll stop hating Shugoki.
Today is not that day.
