The first in SNK's popular and long-running samurai fighting series, Samurai Shodown is a pretty impressive game. It's pretty, it plays well, it has a bunch of unique mechanics, and it goes right from the start with a fairly elaborate story. And, of course, it's absolutely dripping with Japanese feeling, to the point where even UI elements were rendered in Japanese, which is comparatively rare in games and gives the entire thing a very distinct feeling. (These were translated for the English version, as you might expect.)
As you might expect, a lot of characters use archaic language in Samurai Shodown...which did not come across in the English version. In fact, the editor's hand is all over this one to an impressive degree. What's odd is that after this the editor apparently left Samurai Shodown alone. The second game would have an infamously sketchy translation, and it wouldn't get much better from then on. Why? No idea, but it's obvious from this one that the editor's usual style does not go with the Samurai Shodown style at all.
I'll do my best to preserve the samurai flavor of the game in my translations, but I am not a professional, quality not guaranteed, etc etc. Get ready for some rants about the you/thou distinction.
And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Myriad of Leaves blog had already done a few lines in a useful and well-done post that handles the archaic language much better than I will probably be able to do. Check it out, enjoy someone that actually knows what the hell they're talking about.
Given the nature of the game, the stage 3, 6, and 12 story sequences are on Amakusa's page. I won't point them out for each individual character.
Status
All Neo Geo: Done
SNES Haohmaru, Amakusa story: done
SNES, manual: not done