Review of "The Last Sword II": The Pointing of the Hand and the Direction of the Sword

In entertainment works with immortal and chivalrous themes, the sword is considered a standard skill for knights: no need to reach out and hold the sword, just control your mind to slay enemies under the horse; Walking without relying on legs, standing on a sword can fly to the desired place, making one feel at ease. However, in most games, the expression of the sword is not very eye-catching, at most it is a common skill: most of the time, the sword attacks enemies according to the preset trajectory of the program, and there are few games that allow players to freely operate flying swords.

The game "Last Sword II" released by Aurora Project is a turn based action game that focuses on sword defense. With its unique system design, it has become a dazzling work among many recent mobile games.

The story background of "The Last Sword II" is set in the late Tang Dynasty. The Demon Control Tower, which was used to suppress demons, collapsed due to the earthquake of the earth's veins and was once again sealed by an unknown swordsman. Afterwards, a mysterious swordsman in white sets out on a journey, ascending the ancient ladder and descending to the underworld ghost capital. He will follow the once again turbulent Demon Control Tower, and his purpose will gradually be revealed.

In fact, the narrative part of "The Last Sword II" does not account for much of the entire game content. Apart from the opening and ending plot animations, the middle plot is only explained through a few dialogues, and many background settings and clues rely on literature collected during exploration to supplement. However, this does not affect the player's understanding of the main plot. I think it better shapes this virtual world.

The atmosphere is another "weapon" that presents the world of "The Last Sword II" beyond the story.

Corresponding to the traditional narrative techniques of China, the game is also divided into four major chapters: "Xu Po Urgent End". Each chapter is divided into multiple areas, and its scene characteristics are extremely distinctive - the "Xu" of the Sword Tomb has four major areas, starting from the bottom of the Sword Tomb, passing through the foot of the Sword Tomb Mountain, Sword Tomb Peak, and Sword Tomb Dome, and the distant scenery is gradually stretched out. Under the moonlight, there is a hidden killing intent in the ink and wash forest. The dazzling dome stretches for thousands of miles, and two towering statues at the end of the sky face each other from afar. The swordsman in white sits silently in front of the campfire, without the need for additional words to describe this freehand atmosphere.

What impressed me even more was the broken Huangquan Ferry.

Beside the unfathomable underworld, ferrymans shuttle with swordsmen, while the eerie ghost lights on the other side vaguely illuminate the way forward. Occasionally, the background sounds the sobs of a resentful woman, as well as the uncontrollable howling of the wind. The sudden drumbeats from time to time make people nervous and wary of the impending wandering soul. The sudden emergence of ox headed horse faces from the ruins, with their chilling strength, made me instinctively choose to hide under the eaves to avoid being caught by their gaze.

The story and atmosphere are in place, and now it's the turn of the Swordsmen to appear.

When I first saw this game, I thought it would be a unique side scrolling parkour game, after all, it is a type favored by many small-scale independent game teams today, and there are also successful examples on the market. However, I didn't expect that the battles in "The Last Sword II" would be even more hardcore than I thought.

The gameplay of "The Last Sword II" looks relatively simple and clear. With one finger touching the screen, players can control the flying sword. Dragging the finger on the screen can control the direction of the flying sword's movement. Dragging the sword near the enemy can take aim. When releasing the finger, the flying sword will draw a trajectory in the air and then stab the enemy.

By simply pointing and swiping, one can kill all the enemies. While the gameplay design may not be new, the carefree movement of this sword can easily evoke a feeling of being a hero.

After getting started, I found that the game does not contain parkour elements, but adopts a half turn system. The white bar above the screen represents the action time of a turn. At the beginning of each turn, a certain number of flying swords will be refreshed on the field or behind the player, which are the weapons that players can rely on. Enemies enter a charged state or directly attack, for example, throwing a poor person will raise a missile in the first round before the attack, while the epee tree spirit will release a sword pillar under the player's feet, and will directly launch a high damage attack at the beginning of the next round.

In the initial round of each game, in addition to obtaining necessary flying swords, players also need to use the movement of their fingers to control the direction of the flying swords. The discussion of enemy attacks is basically based on a fixed order of cyclic use, while the player's flying sword is free. Although the character's position is fixed, they can drag the flying sword at will during turn time and launch attacks strategically.

For example, in combat, the Wardrum Demon, which can both cast a protective shield and unleash full screen attacks, is the target that needs to be taken care of with a flying sword; The magic axe wielder holding a shield requires the player to drag the flying sword to attack around the back; The Bronze Jade Dog, which can charge towards the player for an attack within one turn, must be killed as soon as possible - the enemy configuration in each battle tests the player's judgment of the current situation and the flexibility of the operation.

Almost all the flying props thrown by the enemy can be broken with flying swords, which reminds me of the scene in martial arts movies where swordsmen use only their swords to move in and out of the enemy's arrow rain, unscathed. In "The Last Sword II", we can even block and own the flying swords fired by enemy swordsmen and bosses. The game allows players to control up to seven flying swords at the same time, which is enough to create a sword rain that makes enemies shiver.

It has to be mentioned that compared to the turn based battles with miscellaneous soldiers, I think the boss design of "The Last Sword II" is more stunning. There are about 10 bosses, each with different art styles and combat styles, indicating that the production team has put a lot of effort into this aspect.

The early boss usually has two attacking parts, while the mid to late boss has three or even more parts. The combat methods of each part vary significantly, and players need to make judgments based on the situation. For example, the book "Judge" will release a shield and charge in the previous round, and release an undefended laser in the next round; The judge's pen can write four characters in sequence on the screen within one turn, and if all four characters are written, it will cause significant damage to the player; The Judge's Sword is when a firelight appears at a random position on the screen in the previous round, and multiple fireballs are sprayed in the next round.

Based on my own experience, when dealing with judges, I need to first use a flying sword to quickly break through the book's shield and interrupt the book's charging stage. Then, I quickly shoot down the judge's pen that is writing in the air, making it unable to write all four words. I also need to sequentially shoot down the fireballs it shoots and prevent him from using the judge's pen again. These operations alone are not easy, but the challenge of this game is not just that.

When the player breaks through any part of the boss, it will lead the boss into a more violent new stage. If the judge's book is eliminated first, the judge's pen will write faster and require more attacks to shoot down the flying pen; The judge's sword releases more fireballs and the attack speed will also increase.

So, the boss battle in "The Last Sword II" requires players to learn and explore on their own, determine which parts of the game they are better able to deal with the rampaging attacks, and thus have strategies to break them down one by one; Of course, you can also choose to consume the health of multiple parts at the same time, ensuring that you can instantly defeat multiple parts and prevent the enemy from becoming berserk. The solution is not unique.

In addition to using touch screen sword attacks for combat, Final Sword II also features some dual subject free movement gameplay.

In most of the games I have played, players can only manipulate one object or the movement trajectory of two interdependent objects. For example, in main perspective shooting games, we can simultaneously manipulate character movement and camera perspective, but the operating objects are essentially the same character. In action games, the perspective is more likely to follow the character and change.

It can be imagined that if two unrelated objects are controlled simultaneously, players need to ensure sufficient focus and be able to judge two different situations simultaneously. Taking "Wonderful World" as an example, one of the representatives in the NDS dual screen game, the NDS touch screen controls the movement and battles of the main character on the screen, and the cross key controls the battles of the auxiliary characters on the screen. The operation of the auxiliary characters is only a fixed attack routine similar to playing a table, without directional control, which is enough for some players to feel flustered.

And in "The Last Sword II," players need to control both the character's position and the flying sword that floats outside the character, making some battles in the game more challenging.

After the game progresses to obtaining a heavy sword, players can fly on the heavy sword in a fixed level. While flying, they can also use the flying sword to attack. At this time, several battles are completely free - while dragging the character with both fingers to avoid attacks, they also need to use a single finger to guide the flying sword output, which can sometimes feel dizzy.

When encountering some enemies in the mid level, their charged attacks will directly attack the platform where the player is located. Therefore, during their charged turn, they need to use flying swords to hit the light points of another platform, so that the character can jump up and avoid the attack in the next turn. At this point, the test is not only the player's instantaneous judgment of the enemy's position and attack sequence, but also their grasp of the character's own positioning.

Boss "Heavy" is an enemy that tests the player's ability to control both the character and the flying sword simultaneously. In battle, players can move on two platforms, high and low, and heavy sword attacks can hit both platforms separately. During the enemy's charging phase, players can determine which platform to attack in the next round by observing the position of their sword, and use flying swords to move. But sometimes heavy attacks will be randomly cast twice in a round, attacking two platforms in sequence. As it is a random trigger, players need to stay focused and observe their sword swinging movements to make predictions

The heavy shoulders have two parts that can interfere with the player. While attacking with a sword, they will also release randomly placed energy accumulating lasers and require flying swords to strike light points to move. Although there will not be a situation where both shoulders release lasers at the same time, the laser will be released in sequence, coupled with random giant sword combos, forcing players to always stay focused and to take advantage of every opportunity to attack the boss - if one word is used to describe the battle in Last Sword II, it will definitely be "difficult".

It must be said here that simple sword dragging gameplay has certain limitations. Although dragging the flying sword with my fingers is enjoyable, for someone like me with a larger thumb, there is always an awkward situation where there are too many areas obstructed when pressing on the phone screen. I also tried to switch to playing on a tablet, but in this way, I had to abandon my thumb and use my index finger to drag my sword. I also felt a bit overwhelmed and powerless.

Last Sword II is a game that does not compromise on combat intensity, with four levels of difficulty: Sword Master, Swordsman, Sword Sect, and Sword God. It only affects the attack and defense values of both the enemy and the player, and the enemy's attack intensity is the same. I spend most of my time playing in Sword Sect difficulty. In the early stages, when there were only five flying swords, the pressure was very high. The full screen of missiles and enemies entering the energy storage made it difficult for me to defend. It wasn't until I could use different types of swords to attack in the middle and later stages that I could barely continue to overcome the difficulty. As for a mobile game, such a difficult design cannot help but admire the determination of the production team.

In addition, each chapter of "The Last Sword II" is divided into zones using bonfires. The campfire is a save point that can restore full health and save. The campfire contains several battles, and if there is only half of the health left after battle A, it can only start with that half when it comes to battle B. Even if you are defeated and choose to start from battle B again, you can only start with this half of your health. This is a desperate situation when there is no healing treasure in the early stages. Exiting and choosing to return to the previous bonfire full of health to challenge again is often the correct solution.

Perhaps some people may think that the pursuit of difficulty in "The Last Sword II" is not necessary for a mobile game, but I actually believe that this design can allow players to have a more thorough understanding of the combat system, learn and grow in each battle, and thus more clearly feel the pleasure of using powerful flying swords and magic weapons to resist attacks and kill enemies in the middle and later stages.

It took me about six or seven hours to complete "The Last Sword II" for the first time, and there are still several areas that have not been fully explored. I have not obtained all the literature, and my character abilities have not been fully upgraded. This kind of internal capacity is very rich for a pure single player buyout game priced at 6 yuan.

That's right, "The Last Sword II" is only sold for 6 yuan.

I thought there wouldn't be too much game content at this price point, and I could fully understand it by playing for at least two to three hours at most. However, it took me over an hour to complete the preface. I was indeed pleasantly surprised when I discovered that there were three levels that could be even longer.

As a small scale work developed by a team of five over two years, the price of "The Last Sword II" does raise doubts about whether they have any profit expectations. For just one bottle of beverage, you can experience a hardcore game with such a unique style and gameplay. I think it's still very cost-effective.