Starting out the trailer gives one of the most specific Bajiquan references I've seen in a fighting game with a "GentiBu" or "BanBu" rooster/shuffle step. This tracks with the Baji lineage of Leo in previous games, which have had moves/move names of a Mengcun origin.
Followed by a LuòBùZá stepping downward smash. Looks a little like their Jin Ji Du Li stance, but it isn’t. More on that later. All looking really good and detailed so far. This is why I like Leo, great, well researched, authentic Bajiq...
I'll not go too far into it, but some of Leo's MOST REPEATED strikes in this trailer are spinning kicks, soccer kicks, flying kicks and hooking punches, bizarre choices for both the character and the trailer, especially with a character that's historically had great Bajiquan
A classic ChengZhang palm. "GongLi", is a term for how a martial artist can tell how much another martial artist has practiced by looking at them. A giveaway of how experienced Akira is can be seen in how comfortable he is in low stances. It looks like Leo is catching up!
A DingZhou piercing elbow, complete with a dropped rear arm - a detail that's often missed. Some of these ambiguous arm movements are said to come from fighting in Qing dynasty era clothing and, in particular, to control the long haircuts and shirts.
From here, we start to see a bunch of slicing palms from Piguazhang. As mentioned in the last thread, Baji and Pigua have a lot of history, so it's common to find bits of crossover, especially in Cangzhou-based lineages of either. This again shows good research into a lineage.
At this point there's also a low PuBu "drop stance". This is often a defensive/evasive stance, but Leo correctly uses it the Bajiquan way, which is to advance with it, often following up with
Next up some DengTui heel kicks. These are a much more welcome sight than the previous kicks. It's rare that a kick is high in Baji, but when they are, they tend to be heel kicks, side kicks and "ErQiJiao" twin kicks
Interestingly this kick ends in the "Golden Rooster" single leg stance JinJiDuLi, something Leo has had since T6. One cool detail here is the tucked leg while falling out of the stance. The leg is tucked like this to prevent trips and ankle-picks, an old trick from Shuai Jiao
One cool/sassy detail here is that Leo blasts the opponent with a MabuChongChuei punch, and then folds the arm up into the iconic LiangYiDing posture. This isn't just a flex - the moves are carried out this way in the XiaoJia forms...Leo has chosen this moment to practice
One tiny gripe here: Bajiquan looks cool without special effects - its kinda how it ended up in fighting games to begin with. A bit of flare here and there is cool too, but watching this frame-by-frame sooooo much of Leo's detail gets lost in the particles, smoke and ki.
Another thing here that's not very Baji and not very Leo is the occasional lack of structure. Leaning past the knee with some elbow strikes, going way off balance with some body checks - it's all stuff that all of Bajis principles go against. At least its just occasional here
On the other hand, even with silly things like this intro scene, the structure IS there as Leo pushes off the back foot to send "the coffee queen" flying backwards. So it's just a bit hit-and-miss on that aspect.
And then, interestingly, TWO versions of the TieShanKao (aka Testuzanko). Probably one of the most misunderstood/overembellished Bajiquan strikes, its always nice to see a game reference the pre-videogame, pre-manga forms of this...and many of them don't
Then some more niche Baji techniques, like trips and, for such a split second its barely noticeable, a ZuoPanBu step when switching stance
Then a XianKua "present the hip" for another split second. This is another quite niche technique for generating power by "wringing the body"
Unfortunately I think Leo's grappling hook techniques are not from Bajiquan, but from the Kliesen family spelunking interests...
Final verdict? I had high hopes for Leo! Perhaps fell a little short on forgetting the basics and bringing in some stunt/tricking moves and effects that spoiled the show. Still one of the best in the business for Bajiquan in fighting games though. Great to see Leo back!
And in addition to the Bajiquan Kao 靠 （tetsuzanko) there is a Piguazhang Kao that's used as a double palm. The application isn't the one that's often taught, but again this is a detail showing a Pigua technique that is taught in Mengcun Bajiquan schools, so it's nice to see.
& just a couple more referenced Baji postures. That drawn back rear fist in the second one has a bit of a Shaolin flare to it. Usually arms would be positioned in line with each other, like the "3 harmonies" stuff I've mentioned before, but this discrepancy does show up sometimes
Thanks for reading! If this article was too short, here are more posts from wireman looking at the (mostly bajiquan) parallels between the manga, Kenji and Yu Suzuki's work on Shenmue, Virtua Fighter etc: tap in to our design dna videos on aam lead by wireman