[b]What I wanted was a spiritual successor to to the Power Stone games[/b], or at least some thing that got pretty close to them - [b]what I got was an interesting, but largely forgettable clone with a kinda cheap enemy AI that counters everything and gameplay that doesn't nearly feel as impactful and satisfying as the games from over 20 years ago.[/b]
I've always wondered why for years this game was never spoken about much after it released and now I see why. Perhaps I'm expecting too much for an inexperienced indie developer to make something as good as the Japanese development legends of old, but despite the fair attempt at a stylish game, the combat is nowhere as near bombastic and entertaining as even the first Power Stone. The use of sounds and visual affects from that game to make it feel like you really knocked somebody on their feet or rewarded you for picking up items dwarfs the attempt here. Jumping straight into rounds in Power Stone feels entertaining as the first fights are fair, the stages offer various combat opportunities, and the power ups are fun and rewarding.
Doing the same in Last Fight, the AI in Versus mode would attack me perfectly right before I could, generate shields to block stage objects thrown at them, use some electric attack to some how stop/avoid projectiles, block most of my attacks, snuffed my evasion tactics, and grab and throw me whenever I tried to block and gave me no hope of winning. It almost felt like playing the cheap arcade AI of arcade fighting games from the 90s, and sure enough, the best way to beat them is to be relentless in cheesing their AI responses.
One, big, muscled brute style character would always wake up from a knock down with a sort of uppercut, rock lift attack. I learned I could just knock him down with a combo, get close to him when he wakes up, press Block right before they attacked, then combo again. Repeat this process ad-nauseum until you win. If you don't rely on these kind of tactics, like shooting the bazooka at the enemy, waiting for them to get up and shooting them again, you'll almost always get out-fought by the AI that can always attack first or evade into an attack at the perfect time, and is obsessed with grabbing EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. FROM. THE. STAGE. EVERY. TIME.
The difficulty from the Story mode starts off more reasonable, but the whole mode can be finished in 20-30 minutes, and with it being a 1 vs 1 focused fighting game with little content, I felt practically no reason to keep playing. Power Stone had a similar issue, but the key difference is that the gameplay felt so fun, I'd be willing to play the same arcade mode again, just to see if i could play it better or faster, or more importantly try out other characters. It does seem like every character plays a bit differently, but for some reason, I wasn't really motivated to play them all (other than to maybe get my Steam Trading card drops). Unlike Power Stone, your "Power Up" mode you get from picking up the 3 treasures isn't based on your character, but is based on the Stage. They don't always feel exciting and even though I was getting pummeled by the AI in my early play of this, I was able to decently evade their attacks most of the time, making the supers feel useless, despite the stages not having the ability to bounce off walls or spin around poles like in Power Stone.
[b]I could see this game being "fun with friends" but that applies to practically any game.[/b] You probably would get more mileage out of this by playing people of different skill levels and tactics versus an always competent or always incompetent AI, but that's maybe for a few minutes or hours at best. [b]I'd always be down to play a few games of Power Stone 1/2 with friends (or even strangers) at a party like the YoVideoGames Twitch streamers, but Last Fight is a kinda game I'd play once or twice and never touch again.[/b]
