- Release Date: 1997
- Genre: Fighting
- Style: 2D Fighting
- Similar Games: Samurai Shodown II (Arcade), Samurai Shodown IV: Amakusa's Revenge (Arcade), The Last Blade 2 (Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System), Samurai Shodown (Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System), Samurai Shodown III (Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System)
Game Description
Since the beginning of time, the world has been divided into two: the world of the living, and the world of the dead. Between these two worlds stands the Gate of Hell. Four guardians watch over the Gate of Hell. Represented by a blue dragon, a white tiger, a red phoenix, and a green turtle, they have always stood guard at the portal between the two worlds. Until now...Last Blade is a weapons based 2D fighting game from SNK. In the matches, each fighter has a health bar well as a super meter. The health bar consists of two bars, one superimposed on the other. Both bars must be depleted for a character to be defeated. If the match timer ends before either fighter is defeated the one with more health remaining is considered the victor. Fighters have an array of standard and special techniques available, as well as desperation and super desperation moves.
Players can choose from twelve fighters as well as two modes to fight in. Power mode allows fighters to do more damage per attack as well as do slight damage on blocked attacks. Power mode fighters also have access to unblockable attacks and can use super desperation moves when their super meters are full and their health bars are low. Speed mode, on the other hand, allows fighters to chain moves together and cancel them into specials. Speed mode fighters cannot use super desperation moves, but can perform combo specials when their super meters are full. Combo specials are a chain of very fast attacks executed together that can do at least as much damage as a super desperation move.
Last Blade fighters also have access to a repel move. When this move is performed the character leans back and returns. During the leaning backward animation if a strike connects with the character that attack is repelled, leaving the attacker open for a counterattack.
~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Roots & Influences
SNK's Samurai Shodown is the definitive 2D weapons fighter in the genre. Last Blade shows influences from the Samurai Shodown series in its weapon attacks and two character modes.~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Overall
Last Blade's stages are really beautiful. Not in the sense of technical excellence, as they range from having only one layer of parallax scrolling to none at all, but in an artistic sense. Some stages, like Okina's swamp, are almost works of art. Small details like fighters kicking up leaves as they run through them, or layers of snow breaking away when fighters are thrown on them, add to the stages' overall aesthetic value.The character art is equally well done. Characters have a lot of detail to them and have enough frames of animation packed in to make all their actions smooth. Fast and large motions usually suffer from lack of animation frames in fighters, but that's not the case in this game. Moriya's throw move is a prime example; it happens so fast and so smoothly you'll want to pull it off a few more times just to see how beautiful the movement looks.
The game's musical appeal is mixed. On one hand it does have a series of very well written songs. But on the other hand there are very few of them, and most of the time you'll be hearing stage background noise. Some of the background noise is actually very well put together, and if you put the game on pause you can pick out individual elements like Akari's cheering squad. But it's still background noise.
A lot of thought has gone into Last Blade's character designs to make them original and enjoyable to play. One of the central story characters is a Ryu clone for fighter fans who prefer that sort of thing, but the other one has no projectile attack at all and a heavily modified dragon punch uppercut attack. For a fighting game with projectile attacks, it's pretty rare for the main character to be lacking one. Some of the techniques are very original and interesting. Okina, for example, has a technique that involves throwing a small turtle forward, with the first fighter touching the turtle getting a health up. Because of the way the turtle is thrown, Okina has an advantage in getting to it first, but it's not a guaranteed health up for him. The unique characters and techniques bring the game a lot of appeal for fighting fans looking for novelty.
Having novelty is nice, but it doesn't matter if the game plays terribly. Fortunately for Last Blade that's not the case at all. The controls are exceptionally tight, so you won't have to fight them to pull off special techniques. The character balance in this game is amongst the best in the 2D fighter genre, with none of the fighters being able to really dominate matches. There is so cheapness potential to speed mode, but it's not terrible. But more than that, Last Blade is one of those great games that manages to become more than the sum of its component parts. In its case it's simply a lot of fun to play.
The 2D fighter genre is absolutely flooded with games. With most of them being copycat me-too efforts, it's really difficult to find a game that's refreshingly innovative. Last Blade is refreshing and innovative, but most gamers won't care about that too much. In the end, what really matters is entertainment value, and the game has that in spades.
~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Enjoyment
Balanced characters and tight controls contribute to a really enjoyable fighting experience~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Graphics
Really gorgeous stages and well animated characters~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Sound
There simply wasn't enough music, but what's there is top notch~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Replay Value
Speed characters play very differently from power characters, making for a lot of replay possibilities~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Documentation
Standard documentation~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
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