Last Blade 1&2 PS2 Initial Impressions

Volume 2 of the Neo-Geo online collection, The Last Blade 1&2, is now available in Japan. Both games are straight ports; nothing has been added, and it appears that SNK Playmore has decided to go the emulation route with these titles, as booting each game up brings up exactly what you'd get on the Neo-Geo, "Max 330 Mega/Giga Power" boot screen and all.

The game's menu menu screen lets you adjust options relating to both LB titles, such as original or arranged soundtracks, BGM level, BGM test, screen type, focus (just normal and soft), key config (all in English), and memory card options.

From the main menu, you can select Last Blade, Last Blade 2, or Network Play. Loading up either game takes around 12 seconds, but after that, the load times are virtually gone. Once in a game, you can select the same options from the original Neo-Geo versions, including full English. Both games are also uncensored with full red blood and gore.

As for the ports, it has been a while since I've played the originals, but since this does appear to be emulation, nothing seems to be missing or changed. Unfortunately, both games seem to be play SLOWER than the original versions; it doesn't seem to be affecting the game play, but something just feels off. Visually, both titles look great, although the sound effects and voice samples seem to have taken a bit of a hit; the quality sounds a bit muffled.

It's also unfortunate that SNK Playmore didn't throw in the bonus content from the Playstation 1 Last Blade port, but it's also great having both original Neo-Geo versions fully playable with the arranged soundtracks and no load times. With full English options available, the game is very import-friendly.

However, the game speed is definitely going to put off some people. I really need someone else to check and see if it's just me, but again something just seems OFF. The game just doesn't seem to play as smoothly as it should be.

emulated?

how lazy, and it STILL took them forever to release it?

playmoretastic - most depressing software company ever

kernow said:

emulated?

how lazy, and it STILL took them forever to release it?

playmoretastic - most depressing software company ever

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Yeah, and being emulated might explain why it's running slower than it should be. :/ I think I need to edit my original post ASAP.

It probably took SNK so long to release the game because of the network stuff, though, not the game content.

Anyway, here's hoping they don't screw up SS Tenka.

slower than the originals.. hmm

great

Fuck the ports,

The originals aren`t "break the bank" titles, homecart nor mvs.

I think it's only the graphics what's being emulated on all these old NG games for PS2.

Thanks for the impressions.

This is what Playmore should do.

Strike up a deal with Microsoft to have all Neo Geo games available to buy via download via XBOX Live arcade and make them all playable online.

if you have a neo then the port is pointless... i mean if its online then thats cool, but the PS2 is not known for making games online like the XB.

wonder why it would be slow if its emulated...the PS2 should be able to handle what a 5 year old PC can do.

Konig said:

if you have a neo then the port is pointless... i mean if its online then thats cool, but the PS2 is not known for making games online like the XB.

wonder why it would be slow if its emulated...the PS2 should be able to handle what a 5 year old PC can do.

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maybe, a 333Mhz CPU with 32MB RAM isnt much for emulation though is it

kernow said:

maybe, a 333Mhz CPU with 32MB RAM isnt much for emulation though is it

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Aren't those the PSP specs?

Loopz said:

Aren't those the PSP specs?

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yes, isnt the ps2 the same ?

I think the ps2 might have even less ram actually, not sure, too lazy to check

CPU: 128 bit "Emotion Engine" clocked at 294 MHz (later versions 299 MHz), 10.5 million transistors

System Memory: 32 MB Direct Rambus or RDRAM (note that some computers use this type of RAM)

my word, learn something every day, no wonder its struggling I guess

kernow said:

maybe, a 333Mhz CPU with 32MB RAM isnt much for emulation though is it

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yeah but there is no actual OS running to use up half your resources and CPU load. Not to mention an overly cosmetic "GUI" (interface) that eats up your available RAM... I would think its comparable to "doubling" the efficiency of what we consider to be 294mhz and 32 mb ... since its purely video dedicated power and all

kernow said:

CPU: 128 bit "Emotion Engine" clocked at 294 MHz (later versions 299 MHz), 10.5 million transistors

System Memory: 32 MB Direct Rambus or RDRAM (note that some computers use this type of RAM)

my word, learn something every day, no wonder its struggling I guess

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I seem to remember VRAM being a major problem for it, hence the Dreamcast titles initially (and some would say still) looking a lot better. Supposedly that was the big bottleneck that initially made a lot of 1st gen releases look really shitty.

Water under the bridge. Still, if this LB1&2 compilation does actually run slower, it's a major letdown, seeing how long Delaymore took to release it. Makes me scratch my head though, since Garou didn't suffer from this at all, was Garou programmed from the ground up and this one not?

Anyway you cut it, these games being less-than arcade perfect is a real sham, given what we know the PS2 is capable as far as 2D. If Guilty Gear and Third Strike can be ported perfectly, there's just no excuse in the world for these games not getting the same kind of love.

I heard that the reason it only has 4MB vram is because its just a frame buffer, and the main RDRAM can be used for texture ram as its so fast.

people who were developing on it first had no idea I guess and just used up the 4MB VRAM instead of 'streaming' stuff over it. (the playstation 2 Vector units are odd, and powerful)

you can tell with games done correctly, GT3/4 etc, and games not ..

hehe

I just bought my first PS2 game - DMC1 - is it any good? I only bought it because it was an RE3 or RE4 beta

kernow said:

I heard that the reason it only has 4MB vram is because its just a frame buffer, and the main RDRAM can be used for texture ram as its so fast.

people who were developing on it first had no idea I guess and just used up the 4MB VRAM instead of 'streaming' stuff over it. (the playstation 2 Vector units are odd, and powerful)

you can tell with games done correctly, GT3/4 etc, and games not ..

hehe

I just bought my first PS2 game - DMC1 - is it any good? I only bought it because it was an RE3 or RE4 beta

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DMC1 is very fun and challenging. The game makes you work for shit.
I suck at it, but I also suck at just about every 3D action game.
The sad thing is, DMC is a much better realized 3D Castlevania game than anything Konami and IGA have churned out under the CV banner.

Slower? Man that sounds sucky...

I'll have the game in the next couple of days, and I'm usually really anal about stuff like that (especially as I've had the MVS cart of both games), so I doubt I'll play it much at all if it's not perfect... which it SHOULD be.

Kaz

How does it compare to the DC port?

Konig said:

wonder why it would be slow if its emulated...the PS2 should be able to handle what a 5 year old PC can do.

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I'm pretty sure the poster meant "input-laggy" more than "slow", which is a more common emulation effect.

Loopz said:

If Guilty Gear and Third Strike can be ported perfectly, there's just no excuse in the world for these games not getting the same kind of love.

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3rd Stirke is far from visually "perfect".

This just seems so odd. Given that Garou seemed to be ported just fine. On the other hand, I'm really pleased to hear that Full English is available, and of course I've always wanted to play an Arcade perfect (well, at least without load times and full framed characters) version of the game with the AST.

Do they still have the art galleries from the NeoCD version? How about the spoken dialog in Last Blade 2 (added in the NeoCD and Dreamcast versions)?

EDIT: I swear if Yo-Yo-Boy does one stupid "OMG it sucks LOLz"...

im downloading it right now. i hope its not 2 slow

ban plz

OK I tried a friends, and so glad I didn't order it yet.... I sure as hell won't be placing an order for it now. What Lyte Edge said is pretty much true - to me though it doesn't so much seem slow, more that the frame rate is slightly lower than it should be... can't really explain it, it just looks like ass if you ask me. Bear in mind that I'm usually just fine with ports, but this one just doesn't seem right at all, and it definitely looks emulated as opposed to being ported properly. Also, the sound is horrible - it does have the AST, but the sound effects and voices sound horrendous imho, like they have been downsampled really bad. Not impressed personally, and as I say this isn't one I'll be ordering.

God I need to get an MVS system up and running again... in fact (although I shouldn't say this), I think I'd rather play the emulated version trhough the Xbox than this port.

Kaz

Kazuya_UK said:

OK I tried a friends, and so glad I didn't order it yet.... I sure as hell won't be placing an order for it now. What Lyte Edge said is pretty much true - to me though it doesn't so much seem slow, more that the frame rate is slightly lower than it should be... can't really explain it, it just looks like ass if you ask me. Bear in mind that I'm usually just fine with ports, but this one just doesn't seem right at all, and it definitely looks emulated as opposed to being ported properly. Also, the sound is horrible - it does have the AST, but the sound effects and voices sound horrendous imho, like they have been downsampled really bad. Not impressed personally, and as I say this isn't one I'll be ordering.

God I need to get an MVS system up and running again... in fact (although I shouldn't say this), I think I'd rather play the emulated version trhough the Xbox than this port.

Kaz

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I need to get a cab

Kazuya_UK said:

OK I tried a friends, and so glad I didn't order it yet.... I sure as hell won't be placing an order for it now. What Lyte Edge said is pretty much true - to me though it doesn't so much seem slow, more that the frame rate is slightly lower than it should be... can't really explain it, it just looks like ass if you ask me. Bear in mind that I'm usually just fine with ports, but this one just doesn't seem right at all, and it definitely looks emulated as opposed to being ported properly. Also, the sound is horrible - it does have the AST, but the sound effects and voices sound horrendous imho, like they have been downsampled really bad. Not impressed personally, and as I say this isn't one I'll be ordering.

God I need to get an MVS system up and running again... in fact (although I shouldn't say this), I think I'd rather play the emulated version trhough the Xbox than this port.

Kaz

Click to expand...

Man, that's awful. I can't believe after delaying it for so long, this is the shit they pass off to the fans. Talk about driving people to go and get an XBox modded to enjoy the real thing. There's absolutely NO excuse for this. The system is EASILY capable of recreating that game. Garou was an excellent port. The recent KoFs were equally solid. This is just mind-boggling.

Between this and the horrid load times for NGBC, is there anyone behind the wheel at Delaymore with, y'know, a background in PROGRAMMING? There's just no reason for this, besides knowing that they're dealing with a starving fanbase who'll jump for any 2D fighting crumbs thrown their way.