Title: The Last Blade: Beyond the Destiny
Platform: Nintendo Switch eShop
Developer: SNK/Code Mystics (Switch version)
Publisher: SNK
Release Date: October 28th, 2020 (NA)
File Size: 130MB
Review copy provided by SNK
Look at that, it’s a NEOGEO Pocket Color game! The system (maybe) collectively known as “oh the one Sonic Pocket Adventure is still only on”… Okay I’m (half) joking! Anyway… this is my first review of a game that’s from the new NEOGEO Pocket Color Selection series of games that’s a Switch-exclusive line of NGPC re-releases. Basically like the Arcade Archives (which the original NEOGEO is part of) and the sadly now ended Sega Ages line.
So how does this game and its features fare on Switch? Will it fill you with color or leave you dull and grey? Let’s find out!
The first fight in Kaede’s story vs. Yuki!
So the funny story is that the first game in this new re-release series was actually Samurai Shodown! 2, which was initially only available as a pre-order bonus with the Switch version of the fancy new Unreal Engine 4-powered Samurai Shodown game. Fairly recently, SNK announced the re-release series proper, and released other games, including Samurai Shodown! 2 proper in it. The other games include SNK Gal’s Fighters, King of Fighters R-2, and now today’s game; The Last Blade: Beyond the Destiny.
The character select screen. There are 9 initial characters with 5 hidden characters.
The Last Blade: Beyond the Destiny is your classic 2D 1-vs.-1 fighting game. Upon booting up the game, you can choose from a story mode, a survival mode, time attack mode, a 2P VS. mode, or the training mode. Training is just your standard “test out your character” mode and you can choose certain actions for your selected opponent. Also if GameFAQs is correct… this game never released in NA before now!?
Here’s the manual! You can zoom-in super close if needed.
I’ll explain the controls; you mainly attack with the A button to swing your character’s weapon. Pressing B let’s you trip/stun your opponent (gets you out a jam). Pressing Y lets you jump where you can also perform your A and B button attacks. Certain actions are also performed depending on where you hold the control stick or d-pad. But here’s what actually reading the manual will tell you; specific attacks are pulled off by holding the A button vs. a quick tap, as well as taping the directional inputs in a certain order with the A or B button. Basically like traditional fighting games. Like for real, read the manual, there’s no in-game tutorial and it’s SUPER helpful. Who knew? One snag is that the manual can’t save the page you’re on, so you’ll have to flip back to it each time you open it.
“Turtle! Ha-ha-ha! …Turtle House.”
Story mode features features your usual set series of fights one after the other until it ends. Each begins with a bit of text from the opponent and then you start kicking each other’s ass. Nothing super fancy or anything. At the end of each fight you get some points depending on the fight number and how much health you have left. These points are important as they are the game’s currency. Fun fact; if you lose the match, you don’t lose your place or your points. So don’t worry about losing, it hardly matters other than the repetition of retrying. Also, each character seems to have two stories, so you’re encouraged to play each character’s story twice to see both endings.
Here’s the gallery menu where you can buy and view scrolls.
The currency in question is to buy scrolls, which you can unlock in the gallery mode upon beating the story once and then twice for each character. These include profiles, purpose (showing a character’s motivation), and both endings. Each can cost quite a bit of points (just Kaede’s profile alone costed 1200 points, I had 1450 by the end of his story). So you’ll need to grind for a chunky amount of points if you want to buy them all. That certainly encourages replay value.
This shows you earning reward points for beating an optional survival mode challenge.
In the single-player mode, there’s also a survival mode and a time attack mode as said above. Survival has you going though battles 1-on-1 with an infinite amount of opponents. After each fight, you get a bit of your health back, which initially gives you a about half a bar, but after a few dozen fights, you only get less than a quarter bar (you start with two full bars). Each beaten fight gives you more and more points (10 for the first, 500 after the 50th, etc.). Far as I can tell, this isn’t required for any unlockables? It’s more for grinding money. Also points max out at 99990, including your max owned total. Time attack just throws a gauntlet of opponents at you one at a time in a single fight. You have 60 seconds to beat as many opponents as possible. This time points are given to you on the fly in the same amount per defeated opponent.
The multiplayer set-up is wicked cool!
Now the real meat and potatoes is the special features of the Switch release. Just like in the other aforementioned retro line-ups, the developer Code Mystics included quite a nice array of features. Such as; NEOGEO Pocket Color console boarders (and lots of choices to boot), a scanline filter (there’s just one though), a full color digital manual (like direct-feed, not a scan, and again; READ IT), remappable buttons, plus a handy rewind feature! However the latter is fairly limited at I’d say… 5 seconds max? This isn’t so bad since matches have split-second decisions so quick corrections are possible and super helpful. There is also a single save state, where it will keep your spot if you exit the game and boot it up again which is awesome!
Another look at the multiplayer.
It’s a bit hard to go over the visuals and audio for a legit 8-bit retro game. I mean it looks and sounds fine. It’s literally what you’d expect for the platform. But at least it’s not bad, so that’s something! The features though really impressed me and the pixel preservation looked very crisp and clean. BTW, you can choose to have no boarders, AND also you can freely zoom-in all the way to max size (seen above) and it looks perfect to me! Oh and you can even reset the game to become the Japanese version with your save data retained. BTW, there are two unlockable mini-games advertised. Apparently you unlock them by playing the game for 2 and 4 hours respectively (sans in Training Mode). I must’ve played at least 2 hours (especially the survival mode) and have not unlocked either. They’re supposed to be scrolls for purchase in the “Special” section of the gallery, but so far nothing!
Japanese mode is included!
Overall this is a very impressive line of releases in terms of features alone. And I didn’t even go over the best part; the way it does multiplayer! In docked mode, the screen splits into two actual full screens from each player’s perspective. AND… in portable mode it flips the screens to face each side (pictured above) and you use the single Joy-Cons horizontally to play! There are no boarders and the zoom-in option is a bit more limited (you can still go full zoom (also shown). This is absolutely incredible. All these features alone make this line an absolute treat and I hope SNK keeps this up! Plus they said 3rd-party games are possible! Now how about adding Sonic Pocket Adventure to the line-up… please? It was the first “Dimps” Sonic game after all!
You’ll Love:
+ The outstanding special features, especially the multiplayer solution.
+ Sprites are crisp and clean.
+ Rewind is very appreciated, if a bit limited at seemingly only 5 seconds.
+ The game itself is fun and simple and has stuff you can unlock via accumulated points from battles.
+ Has screenshot and video capture support.
You’ll Hate:
– Aside from the aforementioned limited rewind feature, the lack of having multiple save states could be an issue for some, but at least it has the one to keep your place in the game.
– The oddity of the unlocking of the mini-games which were pretty specifically advertised. I would’ve expected them to have been unlocked by default or something. Plus despite my play time with the game that should’ve easily met the minimum requirement for the first one, nothing happened. Really bizarre.
Score: 9/10