The Last Blade (幕末浪漫 月華の剣士, Bakumatsu Roman: Gekka no Kenshi?) by chieaki on September 19, 2008
The Last Blade (幕末浪漫 月華の剣士, Bakumatsu Roman: Gekka no Kenshi?), is a fighting game series created by SNK for the Neo Geo system. The title in Japanese roughly means Romance of the Bakumatsu: The Swordsman of Moonlight. The first game in the series is also the first game that Daisuke Ishiwatari (of Guilty Gear fame) worked on. The Last Blade and its sequel are widely considered to be two of the most accomplished games available for the Neo Geo system,with fan opinion divided as to which is the better installment.
The game takes place during the late Tokugawa shogunate era in Japan, and incorporates various elements of Japanese mythology (with a heavy emphasis on the symbology of the Four Symbols). As such, the background music generally incorporates synthesized instruments simulating a sound appropriate to the 19th century setting, in a Western classical, pseudo-Romantic style (unusual for a fighting game).
The Last Blade series is seen as a spiritual successor to SNK's popular Samurai Shodown series, due to it being a similar 2D weapons-based fighting game. The gameplay is characterised by two selectable fighting styles, and a unique combo system along with a "deflect" system which involves pressing the D button at an opponents attack. Upon deflecting, the opponent is left open to attack.
The two styles consist of two modes: “Speed” mode and “Power” mode;
Speed mode allows players to chain several normal attacks into a special or desperation/super move, as well as execute a "Speed Combo".
Power mode on the other hand, grants the player increased damage potential exponentially and giving access to "Super Desperation Moves" which inflict an exorbitant amount of damage (the recommendations to performing them however, requires the player's life bar to flash and have a full power bar). Power mode also allows the player to perform Super Cancels; canceling a special move into a desperation/super move (but not a desperation move, with the sole exception of Awakened Kaede in the first game).
Interestingly enough, the first Last Blade game is probably the first SNK fighter to incorporate Super Cancels into it's gameplay.
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