BerryTogarts NeoGeo Fighters History Quest
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BerryTogart
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BerryTogart
Bolt Thrower.,
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The quest is not over but still in a kind of slow crawl - work still taking its toll and also the new HexTCG set was released. In addition I didn't really manage to get "into" KOF97 get (I don't get the "flow" of the game very good yet), which results in a current slow situation.
xsq
Thou Shalt Not, Question Rot.,
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BerryTogart
Bolt Thrower.,
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Well I recently did pick up the fight again after some extensive Super Ghouls and Ghosts sessions and chose Kizuna Encounter for its faster play time (to reach the boss) instead of continuing with KoF 97.
The character selection is a bit meager as the Boss is (like in Savage Reign) a version of a regular character (King Lion) which is imho a bit lame.
The SNK "difficulty tuning" did hit me hard again as I was able to reach the first? last? no clue - boss (who would have guessed - a version of King Lion) while sipping a coffee and perhaps I could have done some knitting in between pressing the buttons. (no continue used, about... 8 minutes or something?) - then SNK decided that my fight is over as the boss relentlessly starts pounding away 10 to 11 hit combos, countering, etc. (I really dislike the SNK difficulty courve of fighting games with a few exceptions)
As for the game itself: The sprites are big, nicely drawn, interesting stages with not much going on in the background but the scenery is nice. Did pick up this game for about $40 on eBay (bubz gave me a link there) and I have to say so far it's defenitely worth that amount. (I didn't finish the game yet but I'm DEFENITELY sure I wouldn't pay the AES price
)
The character selection is a bit meager as the Boss is (like in Savage Reign) a version of a regular character (King Lion) which is imho a bit lame.
The SNK "difficulty tuning" did hit me hard again as I was able to reach the first? last? no clue - boss (who would have guessed - a version of King Lion) while sipping a coffee and perhaps I could have done some knitting in between pressing the buttons. (no continue used, about... 8 minutes or something?) - then SNK decided that my fight is over as the boss relentlessly starts pounding away 10 to 11 hit combos, countering, etc. (I really dislike the SNK difficulty courve of fighting games with a few exceptions)
As for the game itself: The sprites are big, nicely drawn, interesting stages with not much going on in the background but the scenery is nice. Did pick up this game for about $40 on eBay (bubz gave me a link there) and I have to say so far it's defenitely worth that amount. (I didn't finish the game yet but I'm DEFENITELY sure I wouldn't pay the AES price
)oliverclaude
General Morden's Aide
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Well, it's conceptual, that SNK bosses demand different (special) strategies, than the average fights did before. There's always an Achilles' heel, in this case, similar to Zankuro, you'll have to master the use of the Turnaround Twist (FFW A+B) at high frequencies. Note, that you don't have to stand next to your enemy to use it -- that's the biggest advantage.
BerryTogart
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Found some way to cheese down the golden Lion Version only to face a "raven fighter" that seems to be some mix of the ice and fire guys. Not very impressed with the innovation in this game so far, as usual... reaching the bosses (Lion and Raven guy) doesn't pose much of a challenge, then the cabinet starts munching credits 'til I'm fed up, after eating a lot of the usual 75 % damage supers or combos that SNK bosses tend to have.
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What innovations are you speaking of? The combo engine has a bit of a learning curve. Learn some stuff with a few characters before you write off the game over the boss's AI.
Last edited:
BerryTogart
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Character innovation (as the sentence before the one you quoted stated) - repeating the "Lion" => "golden Lion" approach combined with a Gozu/Mezu fusion => not very innovative. (especially with chars like Nicola gone)
BerryTogart
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I really like Rosa, gameplay and also style wise (playing her a lot), I considered Nicola a cool character though and apart from MegCount limitation (which I don't think was the case) I don't see a reason why there wouldn't be a more diverse/interesting roster for a sequel.
lolifoxgirl
Rot., Rot., Rot.
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When I played this on fightcade, I got my ass kicked with rosa against some of the larger characters. Does she have some tactics to get around the behemoths?
BerryTogart
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Kizuna Encounter
=============
Had this lying around for some time after Bubz did link me to a seller from which I bought this - as all my carts MVS heavy cab use quality and nothing nice to look at - but at a price of about $40 who can complain - and you'll defenitely want to dish our $40 for this game. (Spoiler: I can also tell you that it's not worth $10K if you are an AES owner - but you might already have known that)
Starting the game up we get a short but nice intro (not FF3 style but neat) and the character selection screen, realising this game lost "Carol" and "Nicola", while introducing "Rosa" and "Kim" - actually setting the total character roster to the same amount we had in Savage Reign (10).
I do like Rosa (who decided to bring a Katana to her fights), but I wasn't very thrilled about Kim Sue, who seems to be some staff wielding form of Kim Kaphwan (Fatal Fury). Personally I did hope for some more options with the successor of Savage Reign, but you have to work with what's there.
As I had quite some success with Gordon in the first iteration of the series, I chose Rosa and Gordon.
What is immedately recogizable is the new combo counter and at some basic chaining is rather easy to perform. Gone is the option to move between planes or to throw your weapon - and while Savage Reign was one of the few games where I didn't mind that too much, I was also not very sad to see the "plane hopping" leave the series. Each team has a designated "Tag zone" (like in wrestling matches) and in difference to e.g. the MvC series you can only tag out while in this special zone, which actually brings a new tactical element to the game as you can try to "zone out" your opponent from his/her tag zone. (which works well against the CPU actually)
The standard difficulty level is not too hard for the "lower bracket" fights, and easily 1CC able until you meet the first boss who is.... yet again a version of King Lion. (must be some child trauma the devs were settling there with putting Lion Kings all around the friggin place). The usual SNK boss horror starts slowly after "The real King Lion" introduced himself with the usual exaggeration and sometimes weird english that SNK fighting game players know very well - as he starts to relentlessly dismantle you and eats up your credits.
After some unsuccessful runs and posts on the forum (see above) I switched to Rosa and Lion as I couldn't seem to perform well with Gordon (had problems chaining combos with his grab) and after some time I managed to get at least some solid 5 to 7 hit combos with Rosa and 6-10 hit combos with Lion (the fist flurry defenitely helps there).
That alone didn't help much though, as I was unable to counter and punish the "real" King Lions attacks very well - until I started to abuse the tactic suggested by oliverclaude in this thread. After getting the hang of dashing around your opponent from the correct distance it just gets a cheesefest... the "real" King Lion falls and we are introduced to the "real" boss. (which makes myself wonder how many "real" versions of anything there are - seriously, this is the worst recycling since MK3 with all the colored ninjas around - but at least that game had a very big roster from the get go)
The "real real" boss is a "real real" combination of Gozu and Mezu cloaked in ravens feathers - and while he frantically moves forward and back, he's also totally prone to the "dasharound" tactic and I did beat him on the first try in the winning run. (I met him once before when I didn't have that tactic and he slaughtered me - truth be told)
After getting informed that beating the "real real boss really didn't mean anything because everyone miraculously revives" I got to see the credits and hear some nice music.
So does that mean I didn't enjoy the game? No - it's just not as enjoyable as it could have been for single player. The designers did a very good job on the character sizes, flow of the game (it's easy to get into, also for newbs) and the tagging idea is nice and has a fresh approach with the zone. The stages are nothing exceptional themselves and there's very little going on in the background - but each of the stages has an intro where the camera actually shows some of the surroundings before going into the stage.J
This game is a lot of fun when played with a pal - the characters that are available are partly very well done (still loving Gordon and the Joker rollerblading and throwing a ton of different stuff at you) and there's even a 4 player version out there (with "out there" I mean "da rarez!" - to the best of my knowledge there's no difference however but only means that you don't have to "hot swap" the controller if you play 2 vs 2)
What I did not like:
*) Character recycling (you might have noticed that by now)
*) Small character roster - they could have at least made that 12 characters
*) Boss challenge design (very hard if not cheesing, totally easy if cheesing)
What I did like:
*) Tag zones
*) The easily approachable combo system
*) Big sprites
All in all - ranking this is pretty hard so first of all let me say: I can defenitely recommend this game. Speaking of it in the context of a "series" however is pretty hard, because the gameplay has been changed up very much since Savage Reign and you can hardly compare the flow of the game of Kizuna Encounter to its predecessor. Kizuna is better looking, easier to get into, all the good stuff - but the only really exclusive point is the tagging system with zones. Everything else you get might be pretty cool (and plays well) but is nothing you didn't see in other fighters already - and while planeshifting is ever present in the Fatal Fury series - Savage Reign added a unique touch to it with the weapon and item throwing.
Putting everything together I'd still say Savage Reign is the more "interesting" game - while Kizuna is the "better" one - at the prices for those two on MVS however I'd just recommend to pick them both up.
1.) Art of Fighting 3
2.) Samurai Shodown 2
3.) Kizuna Encounter
4.) Fatal Fury Special
5.) Waku Waku 7
6.) King of Fighters 96
7.) World Heroes 2 Jet
over 8999) Galaxy Fight
Samurai Shodown
----------------
2.) Samurai Shodown 4
3.) Samurai Shodown 3
4.) Samurai Shodown 1
Fatal Fury
-----------
2.) Fatal Fury 2
3.) Fatal Fury 1
Art of Fighting
----------------
2.) Art of Fighting 2
3.) Art of Fighting
King of Fighters
-----------------
2.) King of Fighters 94
3.) King of Fighters 95
World Heroes
-------------
2.) World Heroes 2
3.) World Heroes
Kizuna Encounter
-----------------
2.) Savage Reign
=============
Had this lying around for some time after Bubz did link me to a seller from which I bought this - as all my carts MVS heavy cab use quality and nothing nice to look at - but at a price of about $40 who can complain - and you'll defenitely want to dish our $40 for this game. (Spoiler: I can also tell you that it's not worth $10K if you are an AES owner - but you might already have known that)
Starting the game up we get a short but nice intro (not FF3 style but neat) and the character selection screen, realising this game lost "Carol" and "Nicola", while introducing "Rosa" and "Kim" - actually setting the total character roster to the same amount we had in Savage Reign (10).
I do like Rosa (who decided to bring a Katana to her fights), but I wasn't very thrilled about Kim Sue, who seems to be some staff wielding form of Kim Kaphwan (Fatal Fury). Personally I did hope for some more options with the successor of Savage Reign, but you have to work with what's there.
As I had quite some success with Gordon in the first iteration of the series, I chose Rosa and Gordon.
What is immedately recogizable is the new combo counter and at some basic chaining is rather easy to perform. Gone is the option to move between planes or to throw your weapon - and while Savage Reign was one of the few games where I didn't mind that too much, I was also not very sad to see the "plane hopping" leave the series. Each team has a designated "Tag zone" (like in wrestling matches) and in difference to e.g. the MvC series you can only tag out while in this special zone, which actually brings a new tactical element to the game as you can try to "zone out" your opponent from his/her tag zone. (which works well against the CPU actually)
The standard difficulty level is not too hard for the "lower bracket" fights, and easily 1CC able until you meet the first boss who is.... yet again a version of King Lion. (must be some child trauma the devs were settling there with putting Lion Kings all around the friggin place). The usual SNK boss horror starts slowly after "The real King Lion" introduced himself with the usual exaggeration and sometimes weird english that SNK fighting game players know very well - as he starts to relentlessly dismantle you and eats up your credits.
After some unsuccessful runs and posts on the forum (see above) I switched to Rosa and Lion as I couldn't seem to perform well with Gordon (had problems chaining combos with his grab) and after some time I managed to get at least some solid 5 to 7 hit combos with Rosa and 6-10 hit combos with Lion (the fist flurry defenitely helps there).
That alone didn't help much though, as I was unable to counter and punish the "real" King Lions attacks very well - until I started to abuse the tactic suggested by oliverclaude in this thread. After getting the hang of dashing around your opponent from the correct distance it just gets a cheesefest... the "real" King Lion falls and we are introduced to the "real" boss. (which makes myself wonder how many "real" versions of anything there are - seriously, this is the worst recycling since MK3 with all the colored ninjas around - but at least that game had a very big roster from the get go)
The "real real" boss is a "real real" combination of Gozu and Mezu cloaked in ravens feathers - and while he frantically moves forward and back, he's also totally prone to the "dasharound" tactic and I did beat him on the first try in the winning run. (I met him once before when I didn't have that tactic and he slaughtered me - truth be told)
After getting informed that beating the "real real boss really didn't mean anything because everyone miraculously revives" I got to see the credits and hear some nice music.
So does that mean I didn't enjoy the game? No - it's just not as enjoyable as it could have been for single player. The designers did a very good job on the character sizes, flow of the game (it's easy to get into, also for newbs) and the tagging idea is nice and has a fresh approach with the zone. The stages are nothing exceptional themselves and there's very little going on in the background - but each of the stages has an intro where the camera actually shows some of the surroundings before going into the stage.J
This game is a lot of fun when played with a pal - the characters that are available are partly very well done (still loving Gordon and the Joker rollerblading and throwing a ton of different stuff at you) and there's even a 4 player version out there (with "out there" I mean "da rarez!" - to the best of my knowledge there's no difference however but only means that you don't have to "hot swap" the controller if you play 2 vs 2)
What I did not like:
*) Character recycling (you might have noticed that by now)
*) Small character roster - they could have at least made that 12 characters
*) Boss challenge design (very hard if not cheesing, totally easy if cheesing)
What I did like:
*) Tag zones
*) The easily approachable combo system
*) Big sprites
All in all - ranking this is pretty hard so first of all let me say: I can defenitely recommend this game. Speaking of it in the context of a "series" however is pretty hard, because the gameplay has been changed up very much since Savage Reign and you can hardly compare the flow of the game of Kizuna Encounter to its predecessor. Kizuna is better looking, easier to get into, all the good stuff - but the only really exclusive point is the tagging system with zones. Everything else you get might be pretty cool (and plays well) but is nothing you didn't see in other fighters already - and while planeshifting is ever present in the Fatal Fury series - Savage Reign added a unique touch to it with the weapon and item throwing.
Putting everything together I'd still say Savage Reign is the more "interesting" game - while Kizuna is the "better" one - at the prices for those two on MVS however I'd just recommend to pick them both up.
1.) Art of Fighting 3
2.) Samurai Shodown 2
3.) Kizuna Encounter
4.) Fatal Fury Special
5.) Waku Waku 7
6.) King of Fighters 96
7.) World Heroes 2 Jet
over 8999) Galaxy Fight
Samurai Shodown
----------------
2.) Samurai Shodown 4
3.) Samurai Shodown 3
4.) Samurai Shodown 1
Fatal Fury
-----------
2.) Fatal Fury 2
3.) Fatal Fury 1
Art of Fighting
----------------
2.) Art of Fighting 2
3.) Art of Fighting
King of Fighters
-----------------
2.) King of Fighters 94
3.) King of Fighters 95
World Heroes
-------------
2.) World Heroes 2
3.) World Heroes
Kizuna Encounter
-----------------
2.) Savage Reign
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- 7,576
You know there was a JPN homecart release of the game that didn't cost "$10K".
Anyways, I'm surprised you found the combo engine easily approachable. It's a tad rigid despite it's chainy nature.
Anyways, I'm surprised you found the combo engine easily approachable. It's a tad rigid despite it's chainy nature.
BerryTogart
Bolt Thrower.,
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- Mar 21, 2014
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- 1,404
To me it felt much easier to chain combos than in e.g. KoF96, it seemed smoother to experiment and gradually extend combos by experimenting. That could of course be because I'm just bad at "classic comboing".
BerryTogart
Bolt Thrower.,
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- Mar 21, 2014
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Kabuki Klash
========
Wikipedia claims "Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash is a 2D fighting game, similar in play style to Samurai Shodown or The Last Blade, but with the addition of various power-ups and very over-the-top anime-style special moves.", but personally I don't think that this game should ever be mentioned along with Samurai Shodown or Last Blade ever. That doesn't mean it's horrible, just that you'll not find anything of the great atmosphere, gameplay or music that you learned to love from these two.
Most probably this is just one of the games you either love or hate, I for myself didn't enjoy the game very much. You got the classic button setup of Samurai Shodown (LP, MP, LK, MK, simultaneous press = HP, HK) plus an "extra attack" that triggers via B+C. There's also a magic bar for performing supers, throwing your weapon, air blocks and a ton of power ups/downs that get thrown into the stage at an insane frequency. Sounds good? Well if your goal is beating the game you can immediately forget all that because none of these things does matter in any way (at least on "normal" difficulty).
Here's what you do:
*) Pick Gokuraku
*) Use B+C to perform a homerun baseball motion to beat the shit out of anyone who comes close to you (either low or high) - but Berry you say - that has a ton of buildup frames! Yes it has - and it totally does not matter because when you stand at max range of the move (which is about 50 % of the screen) the CPU WILL fall for it (not even move sometimes). Sometimes the cpu will stay in close quarters then you just wait for them to slip on a banana or LP them into one until it is CLUBBER TIME! again
*) The bosses have SNK damage (the first of four is a weird ape that sends a ton of animals out to get you!) so you need to start alternating your moves a bit at the Ape guy (give him the MP club right at the start of the match to cancel the 75% damage to your health move), after that one you have to use a super secret and very difficult special technique to beat the last 3 bosses. You now use A+B instead of B+C because the "hard weapon attack" covers a whopping 90 % of the screen. (sometimes you have to add some blocking in between punishing the opponents attacks)
That's it - you've beaten Kabuki Klash - congratulations.
What I did not like
----------------------
*) The anime style this game features just isn't for me it seems, I don't like the appearance a lot
*) There's so much stuff thrown at the combat area it's just overloaded
*) Why would I use special moves when I can just club the opponent to death
*) The characters - but I guess this is because of the chibby style (so if you are a fan that might be ok for you)
*) Gameplay - having played Samurai Shodown which seems "slow" but somehow "simulates" a swordfight (with heavy attacks being hard to get through but when you do they really count) it seems to me this game took the same approach and then "added a ton of special moves, actions and whatnot" on top of that and it doesn't really fit together.
What I did like
-----------------
*) The stages are nicely drawn
*) The ape opponent literally had me sitting in front of the screen mouthing "what the fuck" - he's totally strange but that completely overdone weirdness was at least fun and interesting
This game might be something for fans of a specific anime style, but not being a fan of that it just has nothing to offer that makes me want to play this more often - neither single nor two player.
1.) Art of Fighting 3
2.) Samurai Shodown 2
3.) Kizuna Encounter
4.) Fatal Fury Special
5.) Waku Waku 7
6.) King of Fighters 96
7.) World Heroes 2 Jet
8.) Kabuki Klash
over 8999) Galaxy Fight
========
Wikipedia claims "Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash is a 2D fighting game, similar in play style to Samurai Shodown or The Last Blade, but with the addition of various power-ups and very over-the-top anime-style special moves.", but personally I don't think that this game should ever be mentioned along with Samurai Shodown or Last Blade ever. That doesn't mean it's horrible, just that you'll not find anything of the great atmosphere, gameplay or music that you learned to love from these two.
Most probably this is just one of the games you either love or hate, I for myself didn't enjoy the game very much. You got the classic button setup of Samurai Shodown (LP, MP, LK, MK, simultaneous press = HP, HK) plus an "extra attack" that triggers via B+C. There's also a magic bar for performing supers, throwing your weapon, air blocks and a ton of power ups/downs that get thrown into the stage at an insane frequency. Sounds good? Well if your goal is beating the game you can immediately forget all that because none of these things does matter in any way (at least on "normal" difficulty).
Here's what you do:
*) Pick Gokuraku
*) Use B+C to perform a homerun baseball motion to beat the shit out of anyone who comes close to you (either low or high) - but Berry you say - that has a ton of buildup frames! Yes it has - and it totally does not matter because when you stand at max range of the move (which is about 50 % of the screen) the CPU WILL fall for it (not even move sometimes). Sometimes the cpu will stay in close quarters then you just wait for them to slip on a banana or LP them into one until it is CLUBBER TIME! again
*) The bosses have SNK damage (the first of four is a weird ape that sends a ton of animals out to get you!) so you need to start alternating your moves a bit at the Ape guy (give him the MP club right at the start of the match to cancel the 75% damage to your health move), after that one you have to use a super secret and very difficult special technique to beat the last 3 bosses. You now use A+B instead of B+C because the "hard weapon attack" covers a whopping 90 % of the screen. (sometimes you have to add some blocking in between punishing the opponents attacks)
That's it - you've beaten Kabuki Klash - congratulations.
What I did not like
----------------------
*) The anime style this game features just isn't for me it seems, I don't like the appearance a lot
*) There's so much stuff thrown at the combat area it's just overloaded
*) Why would I use special moves when I can just club the opponent to death
*) The characters - but I guess this is because of the chibby style (so if you are a fan that might be ok for you)
*) Gameplay - having played Samurai Shodown which seems "slow" but somehow "simulates" a swordfight (with heavy attacks being hard to get through but when you do they really count) it seems to me this game took the same approach and then "added a ton of special moves, actions and whatnot" on top of that and it doesn't really fit together.
What I did like
-----------------
*) The stages are nicely drawn
*) The ape opponent literally had me sitting in front of the screen mouthing "what the fuck" - he's totally strange but that completely overdone weirdness was at least fun and interesting
This game might be something for fans of a specific anime style, but not being a fan of that it just has nothing to offer that makes me want to play this more often - neither single nor two player.
1.) Art of Fighting 3
2.) Samurai Shodown 2
3.) Kizuna Encounter
4.) Fatal Fury Special
5.) Waku Waku 7
6.) King of Fighters 96
7.) World Heroes 2 Jet
8.) Kabuki Klash
over 8999) Galaxy Fight
BerryTogart
Bolt Thrower.,
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2014
- Posts
- 1,404
"Accidentally" finished Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 yesterday. I like the graphics and the gameplay so I threw it in for some single player action, managed to go to Krauser on the 1st credit and afterwards threw in another to get his health to 1/4 (never saw that option in other games before) - had a blast "finishing" this with Franco, one of the few games where I can also get used to the style of the "Boxer" character (tried Balrog a few times but couldn't get the hang of the charging, the BC of franco makes this much easier).
I'm really looking forward to complete this "properly" in the future.
I'm really looking forward to complete this "properly" in the future.
BerryTogart
Bolt Thrower.,
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2014
- Posts
- 1,404
The King of Fighters 97
===============
Well - that took me long enough, let's take a look at the 97 iteration of King of Fighters.
After a nice introduction showing off many of the characters with a rock theme we are presented with a total of 9 teams and 2 solo characters (one of them being Iori).
It's a bit of a shame, that the game does not introduce the players to the storyline - so we can't learn who the other solo character (Shingo Yabuki) is, until an internet search is performed.
I guess the people of '97 had to buy magazines to get a clue what he was about - though I DID buy magazines at that time and wouldn't remember any infos about him.
However - we will not meet him again in this review. (In the SNK Wiki he is described as "comic foil" to Kyo and "everyday guy" which did also make him not at least interesting to pick for me)
I played this one for the longest time of all KoFs so far I guess, simply because:
1.) I didn't find the time to have an excessively long session
2.) The game just seems to go on for ages with rounds after rounds
Still - this allowed me to explore many different characters and though I'm still not convinced I found my "personal dream team" I did settle with Terry, Leona and Kim in the end.
Terry) I do like Terry anyways - also a nice bread and butter combo was suggested in this thread
Leona) Nice charge character, though I can't use her to her full (or even half) potential, it is a nice diversion from the usual Ryu style characters I play, also stuffing a dynamite stick in the opponent is just badass
Kim) I managed to beat the game when I tried him out for the first time, have to say I used him most of the time for chip attacks starting with his charged slide attack
The overall style screams "TV broadcast" all over the place this time, with inserts, cameramen in the back and an attempt to create "realistic" stages with pixel art - which in my opinion unfortunately fails horribly.
The worst stage is the "disco" one, which has "pixel rendered" people all over the place - the most hillarious addition is a girl with a book in hand who seems to try to open it and smash her face into the letters written in it over and over.
There are also others I like better (the idea of Monaco and fighting on a racing track is quite nice), but all in all I miss the love for detail other iterations of the series provided.
The gameplay offers a choice between 2 modes (advanced and extra) and personally I'm not a big fan of extra. I like my super meter to charge itself and not have to do the hard work by pressing buttons. (perhaps better players find that advantegeous, I have a hard time positioning myself anyways with out "charge cooldowns")
Advanced though works pretty smooth, ABC burns your charges to get a temporary damage boosts and better supers - works very well and I didn't have any issues with the controls.
Starter combos are also very beginner friendly, as the tend to begin with a jump in and a standing hard punch or kick - which usually results in an easy 3 hit combo. (which can be followed by specials, etc.)
Usually I managed to get some of those combos off as well as practicing the execution of some extended chains on the first three stages, after that the CPU becomes more aware and I was required to start combos in "mid-fight" which I hardly ever was able to pull off.
The single player mode is tedious regarding the number of matches, as there are so many fights to do and even after you win the tournament you are required to go on more fights (who would have thought).
Nevertheless after practicing over the course of the last months I was able to clear the whole game on 2 credits on standard difficulty.
What amazed me the most of all was how quick the boss fight was over (mind you - still on standard AES difficulty 3 - but other games still brutalize you on that level).
I managed to beat "Orochi" (or some ghost of it) on the first try just by relentless offense and continuous Leona 3 hit combos paired with jabbing.
(chances are great the guy will beat the hell out of me on a 2nd try, but I was too reluctant to play through the whole game again after finishing it today)
All in all: A nice iteration of KoF, but I would have liked it better with a less intensive "Orochi" story (Orochi! More Orochi! Everone is Ooooooooaaarochi!) and a little more love for detail regarding the backgrounds and consistent feel of the game.
I really appreciated the times when there was a KoF tournament that just existed for the cause of some guy wanting to show you that he's the greatest and beating the shit out of everyone.
What I did not like:
*) perceived long single player mode
*) lack of love for backgrounds and "realistic" humans in the background
*) The story is rather poor, cutscenes are nice between fights with the TV inserts, but the conclusion screens are not very impressive (mostly normal character models in a normal stance)
*) The "Geese howard boss team" became the "Outlaw Team" - well I like the chars well enough individually (Blue Mary, Billy Kane and Ryuji Yamazaki), but that those form up a team seems to be a bit weird
What I did like:
*) Advanced Mode
*) Gameplay and easily performable "entry combos"
*) During the gameplay it seemed to me that the power gauges did not carry over during rounds, when going into my "playthrough" round however I realised, that power gauges DID carry over.
It seemed weird to me at that time, but I considered I did misremember the behavior of the game. After doing a quick research I found the statement:
"The characters' relationships to each other also has a bigger effect on the game, as when a member of your team is defeated, your power gauge will be carried over to the next character, dropped back to zero, or even get a bonus depending on how much your teammates like each other. Fortunately, you don't have to follow the past three games' storylines to know who gets along with who, as on the character select screen you can bring up an icon over each characters' portrait to show their preference for the character you currently have selected." on http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kof/kof3.htm
I didn't test this to a big extent yet, but the idea is pretty cool (would be even better if the game gave you at least any idea who likes whom except their teammates)
All in all a nice addition to the series and a good game, though my favorite of the ones I played is still 96 at this time.
1.) Art of Fighting 3
2.) Samurai Shodown 2
3.) Kizuna Encounter
4.) Fatal Fury Special
5.) Waku Waku 7
6.) King of Fighters 96
7.) World Heroes 2 Jet
8.) Kabuki Klash
over 8999) Galaxy Fight
Samurai Shodown
----------------
2.) Samurai Shodown 4
3.) Samurai Shodown 3
4.) Samurai Shodown 1
Fatal Fury
-----------
2.) Fatal Fury 2
3.) Fatal Fury 1
Art of Fighting
----------------
2.) Art of Fighting 2
3.) Art of Fighting
King of Fighters
-----------------
2.) King of Fighters 97
3.) King of Fighters 94
4.) King of Fighters 95
World Heroes
-------------
2.) World Heroes 2
3.) World Heroes
Kizuna Encounter
-----------------
2.) Savage Reign
===============
Well - that took me long enough, let's take a look at the 97 iteration of King of Fighters.
After a nice introduction showing off many of the characters with a rock theme we are presented with a total of 9 teams and 2 solo characters (one of them being Iori).
It's a bit of a shame, that the game does not introduce the players to the storyline - so we can't learn who the other solo character (Shingo Yabuki) is, until an internet search is performed.
I guess the people of '97 had to buy magazines to get a clue what he was about - though I DID buy magazines at that time and wouldn't remember any infos about him.
However - we will not meet him again in this review. (In the SNK Wiki he is described as "comic foil" to Kyo and "everyday guy" which did also make him not at least interesting to pick for me)
I played this one for the longest time of all KoFs so far I guess, simply because:
1.) I didn't find the time to have an excessively long session
2.) The game just seems to go on for ages with rounds after rounds
Still - this allowed me to explore many different characters and though I'm still not convinced I found my "personal dream team" I did settle with Terry, Leona and Kim in the end.
Terry) I do like Terry anyways - also a nice bread and butter combo was suggested in this thread
Leona) Nice charge character, though I can't use her to her full (or even half) potential, it is a nice diversion from the usual Ryu style characters I play, also stuffing a dynamite stick in the opponent is just badass
Kim) I managed to beat the game when I tried him out for the first time, have to say I used him most of the time for chip attacks starting with his charged slide attack
The overall style screams "TV broadcast" all over the place this time, with inserts, cameramen in the back and an attempt to create "realistic" stages with pixel art - which in my opinion unfortunately fails horribly.
The worst stage is the "disco" one, which has "pixel rendered" people all over the place - the most hillarious addition is a girl with a book in hand who seems to try to open it and smash her face into the letters written in it over and over.
There are also others I like better (the idea of Monaco and fighting on a racing track is quite nice), but all in all I miss the love for detail other iterations of the series provided.
The gameplay offers a choice between 2 modes (advanced and extra) and personally I'm not a big fan of extra. I like my super meter to charge itself and not have to do the hard work by pressing buttons. (perhaps better players find that advantegeous, I have a hard time positioning myself anyways with out "charge cooldowns")
Advanced though works pretty smooth, ABC burns your charges to get a temporary damage boosts and better supers - works very well and I didn't have any issues with the controls.
Starter combos are also very beginner friendly, as the tend to begin with a jump in and a standing hard punch or kick - which usually results in an easy 3 hit combo. (which can be followed by specials, etc.)
Usually I managed to get some of those combos off as well as practicing the execution of some extended chains on the first three stages, after that the CPU becomes more aware and I was required to start combos in "mid-fight" which I hardly ever was able to pull off.
The single player mode is tedious regarding the number of matches, as there are so many fights to do and even after you win the tournament you are required to go on more fights (who would have thought).
Nevertheless after practicing over the course of the last months I was able to clear the whole game on 2 credits on standard difficulty.
What amazed me the most of all was how quick the boss fight was over (mind you - still on standard AES difficulty 3 - but other games still brutalize you on that level).
I managed to beat "Orochi" (or some ghost of it) on the first try just by relentless offense and continuous Leona 3 hit combos paired with jabbing.
(chances are great the guy will beat the hell out of me on a 2nd try, but I was too reluctant to play through the whole game again after finishing it today)
All in all: A nice iteration of KoF, but I would have liked it better with a less intensive "Orochi" story (Orochi! More Orochi! Everone is Ooooooooaaarochi!) and a little more love for detail regarding the backgrounds and consistent feel of the game.
I really appreciated the times when there was a KoF tournament that just existed for the cause of some guy wanting to show you that he's the greatest and beating the shit out of everyone.
What I did not like:
*) perceived long single player mode
*) lack of love for backgrounds and "realistic" humans in the background
*) The story is rather poor, cutscenes are nice between fights with the TV inserts, but the conclusion screens are not very impressive (mostly normal character models in a normal stance)
*) The "Geese howard boss team" became the "Outlaw Team" - well I like the chars well enough individually (Blue Mary, Billy Kane and Ryuji Yamazaki), but that those form up a team seems to be a bit weird
What I did like:
*) Advanced Mode
*) Gameplay and easily performable "entry combos"
*) During the gameplay it seemed to me that the power gauges did not carry over during rounds, when going into my "playthrough" round however I realised, that power gauges DID carry over.
It seemed weird to me at that time, but I considered I did misremember the behavior of the game. After doing a quick research I found the statement:
"The characters' relationships to each other also has a bigger effect on the game, as when a member of your team is defeated, your power gauge will be carried over to the next character, dropped back to zero, or even get a bonus depending on how much your teammates like each other. Fortunately, you don't have to follow the past three games' storylines to know who gets along with who, as on the character select screen you can bring up an icon over each characters' portrait to show their preference for the character you currently have selected." on http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kof/kof3.htm
I didn't test this to a big extent yet, but the idea is pretty cool (would be even better if the game gave you at least any idea who likes whom except their teammates)
All in all a nice addition to the series and a good game, though my favorite of the ones I played is still 96 at this time.
1.) Art of Fighting 3
2.) Samurai Shodown 2
3.) Kizuna Encounter
4.) Fatal Fury Special
5.) Waku Waku 7
6.) King of Fighters 96
7.) World Heroes 2 Jet
8.) Kabuki Klash
over 8999) Galaxy Fight
Samurai Shodown
----------------
2.) Samurai Shodown 4
3.) Samurai Shodown 3
4.) Samurai Shodown 1
Fatal Fury
-----------
2.) Fatal Fury 2
3.) Fatal Fury 1
Art of Fighting
----------------
2.) Art of Fighting 2
3.) Art of Fighting
King of Fighters
-----------------
2.) King of Fighters 97
3.) King of Fighters 94
4.) King of Fighters 95
World Heroes
-------------
2.) World Heroes 2
3.) World Heroes
Kizuna Encounter
-----------------
2.) Savage Reign
Spoiler:
BerryTogart
Bolt Thrower.,
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2014
- Posts
- 1,404
BerryTogart
Bolt Thrower.,
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2014
- Posts
- 1,404
The King of Fighters 98
===============
It's time for the the myth, the legend, the famous Slugfest! After having had to pause the fighting game quest for some time (while managing to squeeze some rounds in occasionally) it was time to revisit one of the most beloved iterations of this famous fighting game franchise.
The roster is big - as everyone in the series who died was allowed to come back to kick some more butt. (and rightly so)
Moreover I was able to celebrate the return of the sports team! (the idea of some sports guys joining a fighting game tournament - only one being a boxer - is still something that amuses me).
For my personal team build I went with a variation of what worked well for me in '97. Terry, Leona and Clark to get some grappling. (I still am not settled on whom to choose as 3rd char in general. While I grew accustomed to Terry and Leona over the time I can't seem to find a 3rd character that I like to fall back on in any game).
Available as introduced in former iterations are the Advanced and Extra modes to choose from - personally I still like building my meter with specials and go advanced most of the time.
First fight (usually a warmup) and - oh joy - they dropped the efforts to make the stages look "realistic" again and went back to doing classic backgrounds with animations and references.
This works very well - and as always you find familiar faces among the crowd. (Hello Duck King!)
Playing through this title is a blast - from the first entry fight (where you still have time to admire the stages), up to Omega Rual, where you can have the villain fight his own Cyborg self if you picked him as teammember.
(But whatever - fighters smacking themselves in the face is a staple since early SFII iterations)
Playing this you can easily see why it is a classic and crowd favorite.
Great and responsive controls, a big roster, accessible gameplay while offering a lot of techniques to more advanced players, impressive backgrounds, good music, a weird mid game boss (Shingo Yabuki - who expresses his fandom of Kyo by hitting him in the face! Aren't those the fans we all dream of?).
Obviously it would be hard to form a story with all this ressurection goodness, so SNK decided to drop that (at least as far as I could learn from playing the game) which was a good decision in my opinion.
They still added cut-scenes (Cyborg-Blood-Omega-Evil-Altered-Self-Proclaimed-God-Rugal in his chambers) and some very nice b/w art for the end screens.
Still not enough for your taste?
Every character has 4 colors selectable by (A,B,C,D) and from what I could read you can pick alternate versions of characters (making them versions of the KoF '94 or RB2 Era) by holding start as you select them in other versions of KOF 98. (I was not able to do this on MVS, so I guess this is in the UM version of steam or similar)
What I did not like:
*) Honestly I find it very hard to find things I dislike about this game. Omega Rugal is still hard in good old SNK style, on the other hand they throw you a bone by the "advantages roulette" (like letting him have 1/3 energy) on using a continue
*) The game could be improved by having a power rating for VS games where you can make your pals that are not that much into the game stronger - imho the KoF series is something you need to play for some time to get into, but that is a very minor complaint
*) The "advantage given" system (you give certain oppontents an extra meter when you loose) is something I couldn't personally get to like. I know you can look it up but I didn't bother building my team and choosing the order on who might fight whom in which round - but I guess for ppl who played the game so long they know it inside out it's good for some tactics)
What I did like:
*) Roster size and selection
*) Backgrounds (and chameos)
*) Special Move sets and ease of execution
*) No more orochi stories!
*) The sports team
*) Average difficulty on the base setting
*) Game length (much better than in KoF 97, quicker to complete)
Conclusion: If you are a fighting game fan there is absolutely no excuse not to own this game apart from hating SNK, hating the KoF franchise in general or being a Capcom purist that would never in his life touch an SNK game.
You can get the original for MVS on ebay for about $50 to $60, I guess even cheaper on this forum.
All in all my favorite KoF so far and all things considered... even the new king of the hill.
1.) King of Fighters 98
2.) Art of Fighting 3
3.) Samurai Shodown 2
4.) Kizuna Encounter
5.) Fatal Fury Special
6.) Waku Waku 7
7.) World Heroes 2 Jet
8.) Kabuki Klash
over 8999) Galaxy Fight
Samurai Shodown
----------------
2.) Samurai Shodown 4
3.) Samurai Shodown 3
4.) Samurai Shodown 1
Fatal Fury
-----------
2.) Fatal Fury 2
3.) Fatal Fury 3
4.) Fatal Fury 1
Art of Fighting
----------------
2.) Art of Fighting 2
3.) Art of Fighting
King of Fighters
-----------------
2.) King of Fighters 96
3.) King of Fighters 97
4.) King of Fighters 94
5.) King of Fighters 95
World Heroes
-------------
2.) World Heroes 2
3.) World Heroes
Kizuna Encounter
-----------------
2.) Savage Reign
===============
It's time for the the myth, the legend, the famous Slugfest! After having had to pause the fighting game quest for some time (while managing to squeeze some rounds in occasionally) it was time to revisit one of the most beloved iterations of this famous fighting game franchise.
The roster is big - as everyone in the series who died was allowed to come back to kick some more butt. (and rightly so)
Moreover I was able to celebrate the return of the sports team! (the idea of some sports guys joining a fighting game tournament - only one being a boxer - is still something that amuses me).
For my personal team build I went with a variation of what worked well for me in '97. Terry, Leona and Clark to get some grappling. (I still am not settled on whom to choose as 3rd char in general. While I grew accustomed to Terry and Leona over the time I can't seem to find a 3rd character that I like to fall back on in any game).
Available as introduced in former iterations are the Advanced and Extra modes to choose from - personally I still like building my meter with specials and go advanced most of the time.
First fight (usually a warmup) and - oh joy - they dropped the efforts to make the stages look "realistic" again and went back to doing classic backgrounds with animations and references.
This works very well - and as always you find familiar faces among the crowd. (Hello Duck King!)
Playing through this title is a blast - from the first entry fight (where you still have time to admire the stages), up to Omega Rual, where you can have the villain fight his own Cyborg self if you picked him as teammember.
(But whatever - fighters smacking themselves in the face is a staple since early SFII iterations)
Playing this you can easily see why it is a classic and crowd favorite.
Great and responsive controls, a big roster, accessible gameplay while offering a lot of techniques to more advanced players, impressive backgrounds, good music, a weird mid game boss (Shingo Yabuki - who expresses his fandom of Kyo by hitting him in the face! Aren't those the fans we all dream of?).
Obviously it would be hard to form a story with all this ressurection goodness, so SNK decided to drop that (at least as far as I could learn from playing the game) which was a good decision in my opinion.
They still added cut-scenes (Cyborg-Blood-Omega-Evil-Altered-Self-Proclaimed-God-Rugal in his chambers) and some very nice b/w art for the end screens.
Still not enough for your taste?
Every character has 4 colors selectable by (A,B,C,D) and from what I could read you can pick alternate versions of characters (making them versions of the KoF '94 or RB2 Era) by holding start as you select them in other versions of KOF 98. (I was not able to do this on MVS, so I guess this is in the UM version of steam or similar)
What I did not like:
*) Honestly I find it very hard to find things I dislike about this game. Omega Rugal is still hard in good old SNK style, on the other hand they throw you a bone by the "advantages roulette" (like letting him have 1/3 energy) on using a continue
*) The game could be improved by having a power rating for VS games where you can make your pals that are not that much into the game stronger - imho the KoF series is something you need to play for some time to get into, but that is a very minor complaint
*) The "advantage given" system (you give certain oppontents an extra meter when you loose) is something I couldn't personally get to like. I know you can look it up but I didn't bother building my team and choosing the order on who might fight whom in which round - but I guess for ppl who played the game so long they know it inside out it's good for some tactics)
What I did like:
*) Roster size and selection
*) Backgrounds (and chameos)
*) Special Move sets and ease of execution
*) No more orochi stories!
*) The sports team
*) Average difficulty on the base setting
*) Game length (much better than in KoF 97, quicker to complete)
Conclusion: If you are a fighting game fan there is absolutely no excuse not to own this game apart from hating SNK, hating the KoF franchise in general or being a Capcom purist that would never in his life touch an SNK game.
You can get the original for MVS on ebay for about $50 to $60, I guess even cheaper on this forum.
All in all my favorite KoF so far and all things considered... even the new king of the hill.
1.) King of Fighters 98
2.) Art of Fighting 3
3.) Samurai Shodown 2
4.) Kizuna Encounter
5.) Fatal Fury Special
6.) Waku Waku 7
7.) World Heroes 2 Jet
8.) Kabuki Klash
over 8999) Galaxy Fight
Samurai Shodown
----------------
2.) Samurai Shodown 4
3.) Samurai Shodown 3
4.) Samurai Shodown 1
Fatal Fury
-----------
2.) Fatal Fury 2
3.) Fatal Fury 3
4.) Fatal Fury 1
Art of Fighting
----------------
2.) Art of Fighting 2
3.) Art of Fighting
King of Fighters
-----------------
2.) King of Fighters 96
3.) King of Fighters 97
4.) King of Fighters 94
5.) King of Fighters 95
World Heroes
-------------
2.) World Heroes 2
3.) World Heroes
Kizuna Encounter
-----------------
2.) Savage Reign
Last edited:
BerryTogart
Bolt Thrower.,
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2014
- Posts
- 1,404
Evaluating which game should be next I did put some time into KoF 99. It's an interesting change and they defenitely tries to pull out something new there with the Striker mechanic and some new characters. The backgrounds are gorgeous and I didn't find it too hard to reach the boss, but was smashed by what I guess he calls the "Tornado Kick" spam. (did have some success with super jumps but got hit too often)
Still looking for a "3rd char" (in addition to Terry and Leona). I was intrigued by "Whip" and I like her concept but man I'm so bad with her... and what's up with those gazillion clone versions of Kyo - was that a player favorite?
Still looking for a "3rd char" (in addition to Terry and Leona). I was intrigued by "Whip" and I like her concept but man I'm so bad with her... and what's up with those gazillion clone versions of Kyo - was that a player favorite?
BerryTogart
Bolt Thrower.,
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2014
- Posts
- 1,404
The Last Blade
===============
Last year I had a flight stop in London and picked up the retrogamer magazine in a shop at the airport to pass the time.
Browsing through the pages I found a top 10 list of Neo-Geo games describing the Last Blade as following:
"They say a fight isn't pretty - but the creators of the Last Blade obviously didn't know that".
This is the first recognizable and in my opinion the most defining property of this game - it's an art composition.
Playing the Last Blade is like an interactive animated movie - starting from the intro. While one most probably can't grasp the whole story just from these first screens, it paves the way to a beautiful fighting journey.
12 characters are available and while one is tempted to assign them stereotypes like "young hero swordswinger" (Kaede) this wouldn't do the characters justice.
Even protagonists sporting a strong identification criteria like "Ninja" are reinvisioned. What you get is not your classic martial artist in black underwear, but an aging warrior who puts on his straw hat to prove the skill of his art a last time.
Speaking of straw hats - this game features my all time most favorite character of fighting games ever: "Genbu no Okina" - the old man of the black tortoise.
"Turtle power" is reinvisioned in this game, as this old guy with a fishing pole has them all and they fly all over the place.
Small turtles, large turles, anti-air turtles, backwards-trap turtles - you name it. Who's better suited as guardian over Hells Gate? No one.
The game offers 2 fighting styles "Power" and "Speed", sporting different possibilities like stronger attacks and canceling into supers (Power) or better comboability (Speed).
Also there's a dedicated "Deflect" Button (D) that - if well timed - can stop an opponents attack and immedately launch a counter.
Personally I'm a fan of such additions to standard blocking. While games like SSII, SFIII and Garou feature similar approaches, they use the joystick for triggering that.
Having a dedicated button means you loose one action (like a "very strong slash" or possible "hard kick") - but on the other hand allows you to deflect while preparing charge attacks.
This seems to work well enough and I utilised that on my playthrough with Keiichiro Washizuka.
I performed the first playthrough of the game with Kaede, just because I usually want to see the story turn out with the main protagonist and the high possibility that he/she features a "classic Ryu" moveset.
Later I experimented with Genbu of course, but didn't manage a whole playthrough with the standard 4 creds.
Choosing Keiichiro Washizuka with the Power stance for the second playthrough, I did experiment with his charge moves and combining them with other attacks.
I did talk with Whisp some time ago about chargers and he gave me some insight on how you charge the next move while the first one is performed.
It seems to me that this game is very nice for broadening ones character selection horizon, as the "charge time" to perform those moves is short in Last Blade and allows for easier combinations.
Each fight is preceded with an opening scene and the backgrounds are beautiful. Leaves blowing in the wind, magma flowing in the background, the interior of a ship, a hidden cave with busts of ancestors.
I consider this the best "fighting game art" I ever played. The Samurai Shodown Series comes to mind too of course, but to me it seems while Samurai Shodown is a gem on its own and better on giving the player the feeling of a swordfight - the Last Blade wins in the presentation department, going the extra mile on all ambience parts.
Conclusion:
As a non-expert/tournament level player I highly appreciate story, characters and presentation - so while other games in the list might have a fighting game engine that is more appreciated by other people the overall composition of this game makes it my new number 1.
1.) The Last Blade
2.) King of Fighters 98
3.) Art of Fighting 3
4.) Samurai Shodown 2
5.) Kizuna Encounter
6.) Fatal Fury Special
7.) Waku Waku 7
8.) World Heroes 2 Jet
9.) Kabuki Klash
over 8999) Galaxy Fight
Samurai Shodown
----------------
2.) Samurai Shodown 4
3.) Samurai Shodown 3
4.) Samurai Shodown 1
Fatal Fury
-----------
2.) Fatal Fury 2
3.) Fatal Fury 3
4.) Fatal Fury 1
Art of Fighting
----------------
2.) Art of Fighting 2
3.) Art of Fighting
King of Fighters
-----------------
2.) King of Fighters 96
3.) King of Fighters 97
4.) King of Fighters 94
5.) King of Fighters 95
World Heroes
-------------
2.) World Heroes 2
3.) World Heroes
Kizuna Encounter
-----------------
2.) Savage Reign
===============
Last year I had a flight stop in London and picked up the retrogamer magazine in a shop at the airport to pass the time.
Browsing through the pages I found a top 10 list of Neo-Geo games describing the Last Blade as following:
"They say a fight isn't pretty - but the creators of the Last Blade obviously didn't know that".
This is the first recognizable and in my opinion the most defining property of this game - it's an art composition.
Playing the Last Blade is like an interactive animated movie - starting from the intro. While one most probably can't grasp the whole story just from these first screens, it paves the way to a beautiful fighting journey.
12 characters are available and while one is tempted to assign them stereotypes like "young hero swordswinger" (Kaede) this wouldn't do the characters justice.
Even protagonists sporting a strong identification criteria like "Ninja" are reinvisioned. What you get is not your classic martial artist in black underwear, but an aging warrior who puts on his straw hat to prove the skill of his art a last time.
Speaking of straw hats - this game features my all time most favorite character of fighting games ever: "Genbu no Okina" - the old man of the black tortoise.
"Turtle power" is reinvisioned in this game, as this old guy with a fishing pole has them all and they fly all over the place.
Small turtles, large turles, anti-air turtles, backwards-trap turtles - you name it. Who's better suited as guardian over Hells Gate? No one.
The game offers 2 fighting styles "Power" and "Speed", sporting different possibilities like stronger attacks and canceling into supers (Power) or better comboability (Speed).
Also there's a dedicated "Deflect" Button (D) that - if well timed - can stop an opponents attack and immedately launch a counter.
Personally I'm a fan of such additions to standard blocking. While games like SSII, SFIII and Garou feature similar approaches, they use the joystick for triggering that.
Having a dedicated button means you loose one action (like a "very strong slash" or possible "hard kick") - but on the other hand allows you to deflect while preparing charge attacks.
This seems to work well enough and I utilised that on my playthrough with Keiichiro Washizuka.
I performed the first playthrough of the game with Kaede, just because I usually want to see the story turn out with the main protagonist and the high possibility that he/she features a "classic Ryu" moveset.
Later I experimented with Genbu of course, but didn't manage a whole playthrough with the standard 4 creds.
Choosing Keiichiro Washizuka with the Power stance for the second playthrough, I did experiment with his charge moves and combining them with other attacks.
I did talk with Whisp some time ago about chargers and he gave me some insight on how you charge the next move while the first one is performed.
It seems to me that this game is very nice for broadening ones character selection horizon, as the "charge time" to perform those moves is short in Last Blade and allows for easier combinations.
Each fight is preceded with an opening scene and the backgrounds are beautiful. Leaves blowing in the wind, magma flowing in the background, the interior of a ship, a hidden cave with busts of ancestors.
I consider this the best "fighting game art" I ever played. The Samurai Shodown Series comes to mind too of course, but to me it seems while Samurai Shodown is a gem on its own and better on giving the player the feeling of a swordfight - the Last Blade wins in the presentation department, going the extra mile on all ambience parts.
Conclusion:
As a non-expert/tournament level player I highly appreciate story, characters and presentation - so while other games in the list might have a fighting game engine that is more appreciated by other people the overall composition of this game makes it my new number 1.
1.) The Last Blade
2.) King of Fighters 98
3.) Art of Fighting 3
4.) Samurai Shodown 2
5.) Kizuna Encounter
6.) Fatal Fury Special
7.) Waku Waku 7
8.) World Heroes 2 Jet
9.) Kabuki Klash
over 8999) Galaxy Fight
Samurai Shodown
----------------
2.) Samurai Shodown 4
3.) Samurai Shodown 3
4.) Samurai Shodown 1
Fatal Fury
-----------
2.) Fatal Fury 2
3.) Fatal Fury 3
4.) Fatal Fury 1
Art of Fighting
----------------
2.) Art of Fighting 2
3.) Art of Fighting
King of Fighters
-----------------
2.) King of Fighters 96
3.) King of Fighters 97
4.) King of Fighters 94
5.) King of Fighters 95
World Heroes
-------------
2.) World Heroes 2
3.) World Heroes
Kizuna Encounter
-----------------
2.) Savage Reign