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lastblad: MAME ROM Information.

History:

The Last Blade (c) 1997 SNK.

Japanese weapons-based fighter featuring beautiful artwork and sound. Twelve selectable characters and two end bosses.

- TECHNICAL -

SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware

Game ID : 234

Main CPU : 68000

Sound CPU : Z80

Sound Chips : YM2610

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]

2 players - 4 buttons per player.

=> [Joystick] 8-way, [A] Weak Slash, [B] Strong Slash, [C] Kick, [D] Repel

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1997.

This game is known in Japan as "Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi" (translates from Japanese as 'Bakumatsu Romance - Swordsman In The Moonlight') and in Korea as "The Last Soldier".

Parts of Gekka no Kenshi was based off of the manga 'Rurouni Kenshin'.

The Bakumatsu period of Japan (1860-1899) represents the opening of Japanese ports to foreigners. The Last Blade is set during this time period and you can see Europeans in some backgrounds, as well as some European dress influences on some characters.

This game has a lot to do with Japanese religion. In what little understanding of Japanese culture, there are four gods in Japanese mythology : Seiryuu (blue dragon), Suzaku (red phoenix), Byakko (white tiger) and Genbu. Each god is associated with a direction : Byakko with west, Seiryuu with east, Genbu with north and Suzaku in the south. The four gods also seem to be portrayed in an identical manner : Suzaku is often seen as a renegade of sorts, Genbu is often wise, Byakko seems to be strong and Seiryuu seems to be the role of the protagonist. To this end, the four characters that are avatars to these gods in Gekka no Kenshi (Kaede, Okina, Shigen and Kagami) seem to fit the gods themselves to a tee (Kaede to Seiryuu, Okina to Genbu, Shigen to Byakko and Kagami to Suzaku). However, there may be one (unintentional) reference to the entire fighting game itself. These four characters may very well represent the four popular styles of characters found in nearly fighting game :

Kaede is a Shotokan-style character. This type of character, of course, is the earliest type of fighting game character (as early fighting games always had the protagonist be proficient in some form of karate). However, ever since the release of "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior", a Shoto-character refers to a character with similar moves to that of Ryu and Ken from that game, or more specifically, a character with a projectile and a built upper. Kaede fits this property well : his Ittou Hayate is a projectile (much like Ryu's Hadou Ken) and his Ittou Kuuga is a built upper (like Ken's Shoryuu Ken). Of course, Kaede may also be a nod to that of SNK's first fighting game protagonist (Terry Bogard) as well : his Kasshin Fukuryuu super is in the style of Terry's Power Geyser. To this day, many fighting game characters are known as Shoto characters - their simplicity can't be beat.

Shigen is a large character. Large characters come generally in two flavors : the power character and the grappler (Shigen himself is a mix of both). Power characters generally don't move much but deal lots of damage per hit. Grapplers are those whose special moves are mainly throws. These characters tend to last longer because of their size, but have a weakness that they have either short range or are slow (or, in the case of some characters, overly complicated moves).

Okina may be described as a turtler. This may seem like an inside joke (Okina, in his profile, refers to his family as a bunch of turtles), but it sometimes make sense.

Jokes aside, turtlers are not exactly a type of character, but a type of player. That is, a turtler is a player who tend to block attacks a lot.

Charge characters (i.e. those whose repertoire of moves are mainly charge moves) generally fall into this category, as it is often that they need to remain in a blocking position in order to get their charges and counterattack.

Over the years, there have been many incentives to stray away from this style (as well as derivatives thereof, such as ticking), such as guard breaks, overheads, low attacks, shorter charges and unblockable moves.

Granted, the turtler is not as big as a factor as it used to be (the most popular character in "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" was Guile because of his turtling and ticking abilities), but Okina's reference to turtles remains.

Kagami, of course, continues SNK's tradition of making cheap-ass characters for final bosses.

Akari and Juzoh are the comedic relief characters in the Gekka series : Juzoh is seen in Akari's stage if Akari is fighting (and obviously, if Akari is not fighting Juzoh). Likewise, Akari can be seen in Juzoh's stage if Juzoh is fighting (and if Juzoh isn't fighting against Akari).

Soundtrack releases :

Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi / SNK Shinsekai Gakkyoku Zatsugidan - Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCB-00287 - December 17, 1997

- UPDATES -

On the AES version, Musashi and Kagami are playable characters by imputing a code. On the MVS version only Musashi can be unlocked (see Tips & tricks section for more information).

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play As Musashi : at the character selection screen, press C(x6), B(x3) and C(x4). You must input the correct button sequence in LESS THAN FOUR SECONDS!

* Time Attack Mode : insert a coin, hold A+B+C+D and press Start.

* Alternate Costume Colors : press Start when selecting a fighter at the character selection screen.

- SERIES -

1. The Last Blade [Model NGM-234] (1997)

2. The Last Blade 2 [Model NGM-243] (1998)

- STAFF -

Executive Producer : Hiroshi Matsumoto

Producer : Akira G.

Director : Kim-Ken, Wakama2, Swery 65%

* Front Designers :

Kaede : Tony Oki, Sumicho, Y. Kashiba, Okame Kiyoshi

Amano : Rolly (R)

Moriya : Heitarou

Musashi : Ponta

Yuki : (c)Futatsu

Akari : Pinkey

Okina : Horipu-, Gowada", Ichikawa

Shigen : Terarin.

Juzoh : S. Reiko

Shikyoh : Shige

Washizuka : H. Taniguchi

Zantetsu : S. Sasada

Kagami : Ishii303#

Lee : Yuko

* Back Designers :

Juroh Stage, Washizuka Stage : Take Pyon

Lee Stage, Kagami Stage : Muramama

Yuki Stage, Shikyo Stage : Daisuke

Moriya Stage, Zantetsu Stage : Eiko

Kaede Stage, Akari Stage : Wadamo

Amano Stage, Shigen Stage : Hidena J

Okina Stage, Musashi Stage : Simiji

Sound : Yassun, Tate Norio, Brother Hige, Zoe, Okan

Tool Staff : K. Miyazaki, M. Hashimoto, O. Daimon, T. Kanehiro, K. Hamamoto

Adjusters : Kiyoshi Asai, Game King, M-Panic!

Programmers : Yuritaro, Hiropon-MK2, Naoyan

* Demo Section :

Direction : Swery 100%

Graphics : Wadamo

Programming : Naoyan

* Voice Actors :

Musashi Akatsuki : Franky Nakamura

Hyo Amano : Akio Ohtsuka

Genbu no Okina : Shigefumi Nakai

Akari Ichijou : Mayuko Omimura

Kaede : Kouji Suizu

Shinnosuke Kagami : Makoto Awane

Juzoh Kanzaki : Tyson Ohya

Lee Rekka : Jun Hashimoto

Moriya Minakata : Jun Hashimoto

Shigen Naoe : Enma Ito

Shikyoh : Monster Maetsuka

Keiichiro Washizuka : Katsuyuki Konishi

Yuki : Hazuki Nishikawa

Zantetsu : Ohtomo Ryuzaburo

Special Thanks : 56, Shochan, Asami Don, Oh!Butch, Anne, Haruo. K, Sanpo. A, H. Shinmei, Marhie, Sike-Tune

- PORTS -

* Consoles :

SNK Neo-Geo [JP] (January 29, 1998; "Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi [Model NGH-234]")

SNK Neo-Geo [US] (January 29, 1998; "The Last Blade [Model NGH-234]")

SNK Neo-Geo CD [JP] (March 26, 1998; "Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi [Model NGCD-234]")

SNK Neo-Geo CD [US] (March 26, 1998; "Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi [Model NGCD-2341]")

Sony PlayStation [JP] (February 25, 1999; "Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi [Model SLPM-86118]")

Sony PlayStation 2 [JP] (January 12, 2006; "Gekka no Kenshi 1-2 [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.2] [Model SLPS-25503]")

Sony PlayStation 2 [JP] (June 21, 2007; "Gekka no Kenshi 1-2 [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25792]")

Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (March 13, 2012)

* Computers :

PC (2000)

- SOURCES -

Game's rom.

Machine's picture.

MAME Info:

0.34b7 [Santeri Saarimaa]

Neo-Geo (Artwork available)

WIP:

- 0.143u5: Changed description to 'The Last Blade / Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi (NGM-2340)' and clone to 'The Last Blade / Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi (NGH-2340)'.

- 0.136u4: Changed description to 'The Last Blade / Bakumatsu Roman'.

- 0.129u4: Renamed (lastbldh) to (lastbladh).

- 0.125u5: Johnboy renamed clone lastsold p1 to correct chip label 134-p1k.

- 0.112u3: Renamed (lastblad) to (lastbldh) and (lastblda) to (lastblad).

- 0.104u8: Changed description of clone 'The Last Solider (Korean release of The Last Blade)' to 'The Last Soldier (Korean release of The Last Blade)'.

- 0.104u5: Razoola and Haze added clone The Last Solider (Korean release of The Last Blade).

- 10th October 2005: Guru - The Last Soldier (Korean version of The Last Blade - MVS cart) arrived. Thanks to our new Korean contact.

- 0.79u2: Added new gfx3 roms ($2000000/1).

- 0.69: Changed parent and clone descriptions to 'Last Blade / Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi, The'.

- 0.68: Razoola added clone The Last Blade / Bakumatsu Roman - Gekkano Kenshi (set 2). Changed parent description to 'The Last Blade / Bakumatsu Roman - Gekkano Kenshi (set 1)'.

- 0.67: Changed description to 'The Last Blade / Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi'.

- 30th September 2005: Dumping Project - Our Korean contact has bought The Last Soldier (Korea) at a Korean shop.

- 0.35b13: Changed description to 'The Last Blade / Bakumatsu Roman - Gekkano Kenshi'.

- 0.35b12: Changed description to 'The Last Blade / Gekkano Kenshi - Bakumatsu Roman'.

- 0.34RC2: Added new 128k cpu2 rom.

- 0.34b7: Added Last Blade / Gekka No Kenshi (SNK 1997).

LEVELS: 10

Other Emulators:

* Calice

* FB Alpha

* Kawaks

* Nebula

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Romset: 62720 kb / 14 files / 24.5 zip

MAME XML Output:

<description>The Last Blade / Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi (NGM-2340)</description>

</input>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</game>

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