Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi ~ The Last Blade (Japan)
Neo Geo CD
🇬🇧🇪🇸🇯🇵🇵🇹
Reviewed in 1997
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✪ Reviewed on June 5, 2025
79
Weapon based fighter of crazy elegance, with end of Bakumatsu mood and a flawless Speed and Power system. Melancholic tone, gorgeous sprites. A pillar of the SNK catalogue across all platforms.
Your verdict
Category
Fighting2 players12+
Description
In Bakumatsu era Japan, warriors clash with bladed weapons to control the Gate of Hell in this atmospheric fighting game. Published by SNK, released in Japan in October 1997. Bladed weapon combat with Speed or Power styles, attack deflection, ten characters, unique historical atmosphere. Japanese edition.
Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi ~ The Last Blade review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
Blades drawn beneath the moon, backgrounds painted like woodblock prints and samurai animated with rare grace: everything evokes the twilight of an era. The ink and the autumnal hues feed a magnificent melancholy. This hand-drawn beauty remains a jewel of SNK's 2D fighting.
Melancholy and refined, the music evokes the twilight of the Bakumatsu era with a moving elegance, between traditional instruments and dramatic flights. Each theme breathes the nostalgia of a fading age, elevated by the CD audio. This singular sonic beauty makes it one of SNK's most spellbinding fighting games.
SNK Japanese October 1997 edition of the Neo Geo CD port of The Last Blade, never released on AES cartridge outside Japan and entirely exclusive to the CD format in Western territories. The CD port adds extended intro cinematics absent from the MVS arcade board but suffers from the long loading times characteristic of the format. Desirability rests on the port quality, on the rarity of complete Bakumatsu CD fighters and on preservation of the original kanji-katakana manual.
Better with friends
A weapon-based fighter of rare elegance, where the parry and perfectly timed deflect raise each duel to an art. The competition rewards patience and reading your opponent over haste, in exchanges of exemplary clarity. Deep yet welcoming, it suits versus evenings where rivalry sharpens round after round among lovers of subtlety.
A cult cover
Beneath a full moon and suspended petals, the artwork summons the full craft of the Japanese woodblock print: autumnal tones, delicate ink and swordsmen frozen mid-stance. This twilight elegance conveys the melancholy of a Japan at the end of an era, lending the box a rare nobility. A painterly refinement that has lost none of its grace.
Is Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi ~ The Last Blade still worth playing in 2026?
An elegant weapon-based fighter, The Last Blade extends the Samurai Shodown aesthetic into the Bakumatsu dusk with remarkable refinement. A Speed and Power system, careful parries and a melancholic roster carry sumptuous sprites and a CD soundtrack that truly blooms on Neo Geo CD. Loading times remain the historical drawback of the disc release, but the gameplay depth and art direction place the game among SNK's foundational works. For lovers of authored 2D fighters, still a genuinely essential detour today.
