A port of The Last Blade: Beyond the Destiny
Originally released on the Neogeo pocket in 2000, "The Last Blade: Beyond The Destiny" has come to Nintendo Switch!
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It's around the time that I found out about The Last Blade that I understood the big problem with SNK and their console / handheld adventures. Not only is this a fairly niche fighter, but it houses way too many similarities to SNK's other fighter Samurai Shodown. At this point, it's really a matter of how unique it is compared to it's more popular counterparts rather than just simply being a good fighter.
At the least, I can say The Last Blade Beyond the Destiny is a good fighter. Not only do the movesets of each fighter feel as fleshed out as a console version, but they have nice crisp sound effects and animations to them as well. Each character feels distinct enough, and the cast of characters overall feel like they have some sort of personality shown despite the minimal amount of dialogue and animation that the Neo Geo Pocket has. Truly, presentation wise, The Last Blade on the Neo Geo Pocket is one of the better fighters on the handheld.
Plus, on top of simply being a decent fighter, the game has plenty of unlockable content, characters, and even a few minigames. The only real problem here is just how much the game demands you play it in order to unlock everything. Not only is it not mentioned anywhere that the story campaigns have a second part, but that in order to unlock them you have to beat the first campaign with each character. That's at least 8 different arcade runs, as well as the amount of points need to spend on certain scrolls you unlock to get the next campaign going, and this is all kept hidden from you. Roughly you get about 200 points per match, but with each unlockable being at least 1000 points; it makes for an obnoxious grind that even the likes of survival mode or score attack mode don't help with the redundancy.
Really the only thing that holds back The Last Blade Beyond the Destiny is it's considerable grind for what effectively should have been free unlocks to began with. With nearly every reward being locked behind points, it makes for the game to be more of a grindfest rather than an enjoyable experience. It doesn't matter how good you are, just that you do it enough. And really that's just kinda a small sting on what is otherwise a good game. Everything else is fine with it, and while I don't think any of the characters have lasting appeal compared to other SNK fighters; if they just worried more about impressions rather than time spent on the game, we probably have a whole other pillar of SNK fighters to deal with.
At the least, I can say The Last Blade Beyond the Destiny is a good fighter. Not only do the movesets of each fighter feel as fleshed out as a console version, but they have nice crisp sound effects and animations to them as well. Each character feels distinct enough, and the cast of characters overall feel like they have some sort of personality shown despite the minimal amount of dialogue and animation that the Neo Geo Pocket has. Truly, presentation wise, The Last Blade on the Neo Geo Pocket is one of the better fighters on the handheld.
Plus, on top of simply being a decent fighter, the game has plenty of unlockable content, characters, and even a few minigames. The only real problem here is just how much the game demands you play it in order to unlock everything. Not only is it not mentioned anywhere that the story campaigns have a second part, but that in order to unlock them you have to beat the first campaign with each character. That's at least 8 different arcade runs, as well as the amount of points need to spend on certain scrolls you unlock to get the next campaign going, and this is all kept hidden from you. Roughly you get about 200 points per match, but with each unlockable being at least 1000 points; it makes for an obnoxious grind that even the likes of survival mode or score attack mode don't help with the redundancy.
Really the only thing that holds back The Last Blade Beyond the Destiny is it's considerable grind for what effectively should have been free unlocks to began with. With nearly every reward being locked behind points, it makes for the game to be more of a grindfest rather than an enjoyable experience. It doesn't matter how good you are, just that you do it enough. And really that's just kinda a small sting on what is otherwise a good game. Everything else is fine with it, and while I don't think any of the characters have lasting appeal compared to other SNK fighters; if they just worried more about impressions rather than time spent on the game, we probably have a whole other pillar of SNK fighters to deal with.