Shoma Sawamura

Shoma Sawamura (沢村 将馬 Sawamura Shōma) is a fighting game character from the Rival Schools 3D fighting games.

Personality
Shoma is a quick-tempered and impulsive person who hates losing. Because of this, he often loses track of what has to be done. His membership into the school's baseball team was due to the fact that he causes wild fights during games. He's also highly conscious of his height, which happens to be the subject of ridicule by Natsu, who also happens to be a childhood friend of his, aside from Nagare. This concern of his is almost always the reason why they argue, and Shoma never seems to win against her in such verbal wars for such an issue. But through all of that, Shoma has a strong sense of justice.

Appearance
Shoma has short black hair with spike fringes in the center of his head. He wears a white baseball cap and has a bandage in the center of his nose.

His primary outfit is a white short sleeve baseball shirt under a long sleeve black shirt, baseball pants, black socks and baseball shoes.

Rival Schools: United By Fate
In Rival Schools: United By Fate, Shoma searches for the people responsible for injuring his older brother and fellow baseball player, Shuichi, and joins Natsu and Roberto when he finds they are doing similar investigations. Though his fate varies on the characters selected in the game, Nagare's ending in Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2 reveals that Shoma is captured and brainwashed by Justice High School before being freed by Nagare. In his individual ending shows that he, Natsu and Roberto visits Shuichi in the infirmary who notices his brother's strange feeling towards Natsu. He refers Natsu as Shoma's "girlfriend", causing the latter to blush in embarrassment as he and Roberto leaves the infirmary.

Project Justice
In Project Justice, Shoma ends up befriending Momo after she is the apparent victim of an attack by "Batsu". However, Momo's insistence that he help her separates him from his friends Natsu and Roberto. After helping her in a number of scuffles, Shoma is betrayed by Momo and finds out she used him to help cause confusion among the various schools. He eventually reunites and reconciles with his friends. After Hyo's defeat and his death, Shoma wanted to talk with Natsu privately only to be hugged by Momo (who has developed a real crush on him), much to Natsu's chagrin who angrily wants to expel her from Gorin for her actions. Both Roberto and Nagare are talking about the love triangle between the three.

Gameplay
As baseball is his specialty sport, most of Shoma's attacks involve pitching baseballs and using his oversized baseball bat, which can also deflect projectile attacks back to his opponents. A handful of his moves, however, have slow startup and/or recovery delay which the opponent can exploit time and again. Knowing how and when to use certain moves will prove to be a challenge even for adept players.

His Team-up assist is one of the four most damaging Team-Up techniques in the game, tied with Gan's, Wild Daigo's and Momo's in terms of damage rating.

Special Attacks

 * Super Fast Ball (Japanese: 超剛速球 Kyuugou Sokkyuu) - Shoma does a baseball pitch with infinite range. From afar, this can easily be avoided by sidestepping, and has poor recovery delay. This is also usable in the air for keeping approaching opponents at bay. Shoma, however, is vulnerable to counterattack while landing after doing the aerial version.


 * Batting Rotation (Japanese: 大回転打法 Daikaiten Dappou) - Shoma spins while swinging his baseball bat, dealing two hits of damage. Startup is fast, but not the recovery delay.


 * Fishing Smash (Japanese: 一本釣り打法 Ippon Zuri Dappou) - This is Shoma's special throw maneuver. He thrusts his baseball bat at waist-level, and if it connects, he raises the bat together with the latter, then throws the opponent in the opposite direction and to some 'invisible' obstacle in the air, which some speculate to be the 'camera'. It has a long range for such attack, but has very bad recovery delay, giving the opponent ample time to do a Tardy Counter.


 * Niagara Drop (ナイアガラドロップ) - Shoma jumps forward a little, then stomps perpendicularly downwards. If he lands directly above the opponent, this becomes very difficult to block. Because of its fixed range, getting it to hit requires practice; otherwise, it will entirely miss, giving the opponent an opportunity to counterattack.


 * Splendid Lead (Japanese: 豪快リード Goukai Lead) - While constantly sidestepping, Shoma taunts the opponent with his arms outstretched to either side. From this position, Shoma can then follow with either Splendid Sliding or Splendid Kick, depending on the kick button that will be pressed immediately from this position.


 * Splendid Sliding (Japanese: 豪快スライディング Goukai Sliding) - From the Splendid Lead position, Shoma does a sliding kick that must be blocked low, and can also be used as an anti-air move.


 * Splendid Kick (Japanese: 豪快キック Goukai Kick) - From the Splendid Lead position, Shoma does a flying kick aimed at about shoulder- to head-level, depending on the opponent's height.

Burning Vigor Attacks

 * Dividing Magical Ball (Japanese: 分身魔球 Bunshin Makyuu) - Powered version of the Fast Ball, and also has infinite range. It has better recovery delay than the Fast Ball, and is usable in the air as well.


 * Homerun Hitter (Japanese: ホームラン打法 Homerun Dappou) - Shoma swings his baseball bat for a homerun, setting the opponent aflame. It will deal little damage if done too close or too far from the opponent. Done at the critical distance (approximately one step away from the opponent), it will knock the opponent towards a random obstacle in the field, scoring a bonus hit.


 * Super Killer Sliding (Japanese: 超殺人スライディング Chou Satsujin Sliding) - Shoma leaps towards the opponent for a dive that must be blocked low. It is of note, however, that a simple punch or kick can entirely foil this attack if timed with the jump sequence before Shoma does the dive that deals the killer slide.

Team-Up Technique

 * Grand Slam (グランドスラム) - The active character tosses the opponent into the air before delivering a volleyball spike that sends the latter to an awaiting Shoma, who then swings his baseball bat aimed at the gut, sending the opponent halfway across the field.

Party-Up Technique

 * Shoma does the Hot-Blooded Giant Wheel.

Comics
Shoma appears, along with Hinata and Natsu, in UDON's Street Fighter Legends: Sakura comic.

Trivia

 * In the English-language version United by Fate, Shoma's name was romanized as Syoma, which is also a correct way of romanizing his name as per the Japanese fifty-sound system. This was changed in Project Justice, wherein the romanization of his name reflects the Hepburn way of romanizing Japanese names.


 * The following details on Shoma's life is as described.
 * Shoma lives with his brother, Shuichi, his parents, and his paternal grandfather. Prior to the events of United by Fate, his brother was sent to Baseball Sparta (Yakyuu Sparta in Japanese), a fictional rigid baseball training camp, by their father. Shuichi also appears as one of the instructors in School Life Mode in Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2.
 * He excels in physical education, but fares poorly in music and English.


 * His birthday coincides with one of Japan's national holidays, the National Sports Day.


 * He is voiced by Yūji Ueda.


 * In Dead Rising 3, Chuck Greene cosplays as Shoma in downloadable content.