The Last Story

The Last Story apparently bases its name on the Final Fantasy series, with Last being a synonym for Final, and Story being a synonym for Fantasy. Game-play wise, it doesn't really play out like Final Fantasy, since it features real time battles.

The default control scheme has you running into enemies to slash, and pressing buttons to block, use abilities and hide behind cover, so it's not a tiresome waggle-fest like you may have assumed.

Battles are quite varied and well scripted, and some emphasis is placed on strategy, although the tactical plan is always pointed out to you ('must hit boss with bombs then attack', 'must wait until boss finishes spin attack', 'take out commander', 'draw guard', 'focus on healer' etc). Given that the battles are easy, telling you what to do for the harder battles is pretty much hand-holding through the entire game.

The character you control is Zael, a mercenary swordsman, who also is equipped with a cross-bow for long ranged attacks. Zael dreams of becoming a Knight, and ends up being hired to join in the war on the Gurak who are led by Ganon from the Legend of Zelda series (actually, he is Zangurak but he looks remarkably similar). In the story, Zael gains the power of The Outsider, which allows him to draw enemies away from allies, revive enemies, and dispel magic circles.

There are no items you use in battle, so in each battle you have 5 set lifes and if you lose all these, you go back to the checkpoint which occur frequently. Equipment that is left behind by enemies is randomly chosen, and weapons/armour can be upgraded with a bit of cash and a certain item.

Graphically it is decent looking stuff and slightly looks like Skyward Sword with the pastel drawn style, albeit with the dull colour palette as if it was based on Twilight Princess.

The characters are likeable and are voiced with strong British accents which sounds quite strange for a RPG, but is a welcome change. The dialogue is well written and sometimes very humorous with banter that is exchanged between them, especially involving Syrenne. The story is decent enough, but isn't complex enough to justify the 20 hours of gameplay, so the game really drags, and characters go missing for large parts of the game.

A staple part of RPG's is the open world and adventuring, but the game is extremely linear and you are mainly confined to 1 city. You will be mainly located around the tavern or the castle with brief stints on a ship, or underground.

The battles are pre-set, with only a few locations where you can grind using the summoning circles, but you still don't get the excitement of gaining a level, since levels seem be be awarded every one or two battles. It really is hard to believe so many gaming critics didn't pick up on its many weaknesses and therefore awarded it high scores. In reality, Last Story is a competent RPG, but the extremely linear and hand-holding approach means it is only an average game.

It's flawed, to be sure. The story will hardly blow your mind, and the characters don't get enough development. And it really, really struggles to run smoothly on the Wii most of the time.

Still, the game somehow comes out fairly solid, with the main highlight being the unique combat system. It's a action-RPG at its core, in that you only directly control Zael, the protagonist, while your party members (up to 6) are controlled by the AI. However, there is a strategical element to it: Zael can temporarily interrupt the flow of combat in order to give commands to his party members, who can use magic and target specific enemies or destructible objects. Often, the goal of the melee attackers is to concentrate on protecting their mages, whose spells take time to cast and can be interrupted. Most battles are dynamic and can be approached from several angles, and you will sometimes be given an overhead view of the upcoming mob to let you plan ahead. Furthermore, Zael can draw the enemy's attention to himself so as to divert attacks aimed at other party members (basically just a temporary aggro), and he obtains other unique abilities as the game progresses. It feels quite balanced, and the developers' original spin on JRPG staples is definitely appreciated,

The story itself is riddled with cliches, but I won't go into too much detail on that front. It involves Zael's team of mercenaries, who are hired to protect Lady Calista at her wedding, when the event is suddenly interrupted by a race of evil beings led by the big bad, Zangurak. There's revenge, romance, and a myriad of unrefined tropes. I suppose the plot is still serviceable, but one should have expected more from game director Hironobu Sakaguchi, who everybody knows worked on the Final Fantasy series.

There is a simplistic but somewhat addictive weapon and armour upgrade system, so looking for treasure and purchasing materials is definitely recommended. The game progresses in a linear fashion, and while there is nothing inherent wrong with that, you'll be seeing lots corridors and narrow spaces, even within the hub town of Lazulis, where you are able to accept fairly unremarkable side quests that are also difficult to keep track of. I would've liked to see a greater variety of environments, not just fortress after castle after fortress, and the game's linearity could still have been maintained.

Despite the homogeneity of the levels/dungeons (not their design, just their appearance), the game actually benefits from a less vibrant art style, in that the game generally looks good. Sadly the performance is limited by the hardware, as I said. It won't make the game unplayable, but keep in mind that the more frantic a battle gets, the more you might want to pay attention.

I've often heard that the game is too easy. While it seems a little too generous to grant five lives to each character (as in, instant resuscitation when a party member's HP falls to 0), I honestly found some battles relatively challenging as there happened to be a specific strategy you needed to use against certain mobs and bosses, In other words, there is a slight learning curve, considering the various abilities the players has at their disposal. The complaint remains entirely valid, though, as the amount of lives kind of undermines the strategical element because you could rush into a fight without a plan and still come out on top.

The Last Story was initially released only in PAL regions half a year after Xenoblade, the game it is often compared for obvious reasons (and is arguably better in almost every regard). Nonetheless, if the combat in Xenoblade wasn't your cup of tea, you will undoubtedly have a slightly better time with The Last Story, even if the whole package isn't nearly as memorable.

On the list of “interesting but flawed games that desperately need a sequel to improve”, this one’s near the top. There’s a lot to really like about this game – for one it’s got a fairly unique blend of styles running for it. (I think – my gaming experience isn’t enormous, admittedly.) Think a cross between Zelda, RTS, a traditional RPG, with a little stealth and Fire Emblem thrown in. It makes for a surprisingly cohesive mix, one that insists you make use of cover and diversions and planning in the heat of battle. (There’s an aggro mechanic involving you taking the heat while your other members do things – the thing is, though, there’s certain skills that only you as Zael are able to do, meaning you have to manage when you can and can’t let the enemies' attention be on you.) I appreciate how linear and short the game is, because lord knows we have enough “open world” stuff out there – to have a JRPG dictate the pace for you and insist there’s not that much of a reason to hang back is kind of refreshing. This is all while, of course, there’s still enough standard RPG fare to make sure its central hub isn’t entirely wasted.

And some of the boss battles are great! Each one tends to go a bit further than simply “hit it with this magic” or “wait until it uses this attack”, because they’ll have multi-hit attacks that can douse out crucial members of your party, or they’ll be aggressive and not let you get to the area of the battlefield you need to. One awesome boss battle has you fighting doppelganger version of your team, and in the chaos you have to make sure you’re not attacking your own people. Another is invincible until you bring it down with silencing magic, and you have to keep the barrage steady because when it’s in the air it has insanely powerful attacks. (It still does on the ground, but they’re slightly easier to avoid – hard enough that it can make it difficult to micromanage, still.) Another requires you to use your aggro power as a sort of counter to make an enemy slow down enough to be hit – that, or use slow and cumbersome bombs that leave you open while a barrage of lesser enemies also attack.

Yet, despite all of that, there’s a feeling of lost potential here. Like many Wii games, it could stand to have a few extra buttons on the controller. A lot of how the battles end up going rest in the way your AI teammates react – you may need to wait for an ally to cast a spell that they can’t get off for whatever reason, or you may want them in a certain spot, but have no way of saying that. And eventually the characters plateau in the abilities they learn, meaning that battles get a little repetitive and involve a rotation of a handful of options that aren’t necessarily exciting. The biggest thing that kills it, though, is that the game usually isn’t hard outside of a couple of boss battles. In every battle you can get killed five times before it’s a game over – and, you know, it’s easy enough to get knocked out when you’re surrounded by fifteen enemies. But even so, five lives is a bit much, and it means you can be pretty sloppy in your fighting and still come out victorious, negating a lot of the need for quick and smart strategy and planning. Basically, I’d like to be given more agency – I’d like to need more agency, because otherwise I’m basically going on autopilot. This is undoubtedly a fun and unique game, but to actually be a great game there’s definitely some major adjustments that need to be made.