THE LAST BLADE

Oh, boy. Samurai Shodown fans are gonna hate me for this, but here goes... The Last Blade takes the weapons based fighting seen in Samurai Shodown and bumps it up a notch. A good variety of characters with their own special attacks, combos, and even a bit of personality. The Feudal Era Japan setting is unique among fighting games, only seen again in Bushido Blade for the PSOne. The music lends to the setting. The stages are almost works of art, rivaling some of those seen in Garou or RBFF2. The controls are responsive. Linux and Mac users are serviced here with modest hardware requirements. The Last Blade manages to edge out Samurai Shodown V despite SSV's larger character roster. For two controller versus mode: 2P press COIN then START!

My favorite Neo Geo Fighting game, My favorite Opus of the two. The STAGES ! They are more vivid, you feel the life in it, there is lot of sweet animations, you see life in the back ground. THE VIBES ! If you are into movies like Jet Li's Once upon a time in China, you got a character, if you like yôkais, you got a character, if you like ... well you get my point. In this particular opus, you got more anciant Asia feels, its more gorgeous. What a pleasure to play this with an arcade stick and even online ! Better than Garou ? almost !

Yep, you read the title of this review right, Last Blade IS better than Samurai Shodown! Last Blade is a 2D fighting game with a medieval Japanese theme and aesthetic. The controls are tight and fluid. The characters are varied in moves, specials, personalities, and appearance. The backgrounds and music fit the medieval Japanese theme nicely. Kinda like a 2D Bushido Blade (PS1). For two controllers in VS mode, have 2P press COIN (usually the R bumper) then START. Played on Linux Mint with two Logitech F310 controllers very smooth.

This is mostly a warning to Linux users. The Linux version is absolute garbage, just like Garou's Linux version. It plays at about 150% speed, has even fewer options than the Windows version, there's zero gamepad support, the keyboard controls aren't remappable and the ones indicated don't actually work, the sounds aren't in sync with the graphics, there are no modes other than the basic arcade mode. I remember the Windows version working fine, but even that version doesn't work all that well on Linux. I got some audio lag and some crazy stuttering in the menus. Garou and Last Blade 2 I got working fine, but I'd recommend Linux users stay away from this one.

The Last Blade is fantastic BUT this is typical DotEmu quality aka there is no quality. Only buy this if you want to run the game in the best way possible for Neogeo, Final Burn Neo.