YMMV / The Last Blade

• Cult Classic: The game has a short-lived lifespan, majorly because it wrapped up its storyline nicely and also for the fact that in terms of weapon-based fighting, it's overshadowed by Samurai Shodown (and gameplay-wise, from The King of Fighters). It still remained as a beloved underground series by a lot of SNK fans and many are happily surprised when characters from there make appearances in crossovers. (Hibiki's appearance in Capcom vs SNK 2 majorly and recently her guest Appearance in Samurai Shodown)
• Game-Breaker: The Last Blade 2 is full of this.
  • Multiple characters are able to pull of various infinites as well as touch of death combos that will drain an opponents entire lifebar.
  • Speed Mode Moriya, if the teleport glitch mentioned below is utilized and mastered, becomes the most broken character in the game (just as broken as Zantetsu if not more so). An already fast and strong character with powerful combo potential becomes an absolute menace who can completely skip neutral for free and recover instantly, leading to not only infinite combos, but insane vortex scenarios as well. Even without the teleport glitch, Speed-Moriya is still very powerful.
  • The most overpowered normal character in the game, with infinites and Moriya's teleport glitch banned, is Power Mode Zantetsu. His moveset has amazing coverage with options for many different situations and he can completely dominate the neutral game with attacks that cover wide swaths of the screen and an aerial projectile that is difficult for many members of the cast to deal with. Power Mode also grants him access to greater damage output and a powerful projectile DM that he can spam on his 2nd lifebar at low health.
• Good Bad Bugs: The Last Blade 2 has a few:
  • Pressing the A and C buttons at the same time immediately after inputting the A or B version of Moriya's teleport causes it to have only one frame of endlag. Something similar happens with the C version if you use it while the opponent is in a counter-hittable state, but it's much less consistent.
  • As Zantetsu, pressing A and C simultaneously in the air will cancel whatever you're doing into his jumping A. Exploiting this bug is generally frowned upon, since it allows Zantetsu to perform an infinite in the corner if you mash both buttons quickly enough.
  • Original Kaede can utilize air chains in any mode by performing a jump attack, then inputting quarter-circle forward + A or B, as long as the button used for the jump attack and the button after the quarter-circle input aren't the same.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Akari Ichijou has the most appearances outside her debut game.
  • Hibiki Takane, for being a quiet girl that developes into a hardened warrior. In terms of the whole Hell Gate conflict (the main conflict of the game), her contribution basically amounts to nothing. This made her the series representative when it comes to Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium and Samurai Shodown (2019) DLC characters.
• Moment of Awesome: If you're of the Evil Is Cool mindset, Setsuna has a big one. While everyone else's endings in The Last Blade 2 have them freeing Kouryu's spirit in some way, Setsuna forgoes that kind of a heartwarming conclusion and just kills him. He fist holds up Kouryu's battered body by his throat, calls him a pansy, then kills him in a way that can't be pretty since this is followed by the same shot as before, except Kouryu is no longer being held up by Setsuna, and Setsuna's raised hand is now covered in blood. Setsuna then laughs, wipes Kouryu's blood on his face, and looks badass; roll credits.
• Narm: Of course, SNK's famously dodgy translations in their early games lead to this. One of the prime examples is in Kaede's ending in 2; yes, Yuki's death may be genuinely sad, but it's hard to take it seriously when Kaede refers to her as "the vanishing virgin" without any irony whatsoever.
• Retroactive Recognition: These games are some of the earliest writing credits for Hidetaka Suehiro, perhaps better known as Swery65.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The games are gorgeously animated.

---