The Last Story - Nintendo Wii

When Good Ideas Go Wrong

Joe Juba — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:59:00 GMT

In my years of enjoying role-playing games, I’ve saved multiple princesses-in-disguise, toppled countless evil empires, and learned the value of teamwork and friendship several times over. After playing The Last Story, I can add another mark under each of those columns, along with several other well-worn RPG conventions. The Last Story makes no attempt to evade or disguise these genre clichés, relying instead on its action-heavy combat to fill the entertainment gap. If the battle system was executed well, that strategy might have worked.

The Last Story’s problems encroach from multiple fronts, but the first one players encounter is the narrative. A mercenary named Zael is the main character. His village was burned down when he was young, and now he dreams of becoming a knight. Zael and his ragtag band of swords-for-hire get wrapped up in a war between two nations – but Zael alone can bring about peace and save the planet. Does that sound familiar? Yes, it does.

Because the predictable tale holds virtually no surprises or fresh angles, I couldn’t get invested in the boilerplate world or plot. Zael lacks strong convictions and falls flat as a hero, while each of his companions are defined by a single personality hook (e.g. the ladies’ man, the drunkard, etc.). Actually, let me take that back; one character has two personality hooks. The villains are equally shallow – evil suitor, evil count, evil king – resulting in a general lack of drama throughout the 20-hour adventure. For instance, the final stretch throws a twist at players that the game treats like a big reveal, despite the fact that it is telegraphed hours in advance.

A familiar story isn’t necessarily a kiss of death, assuming that a game can innovate in other areas. The Last Story tries to pull this off, and I give it due credit for attempting to jettison the conventions of RPG combat. Zael and his friends fight in fast-paced battles with plenty of strategic potential, but with no cumbersome menus or interface to slow down the action. Players only control one character (usually Zael), leaving the rest to AI. Pressing the analog stick toward opponents initiates an attack automatically, so button mashing isn’t necessary. Magic consists of laying enchanted circles down on the ground, which have various effects on those standing inside them, and different effects when diffused. All of these ideas sound great in theory, but something went wrong during the transition from conception to implementation.

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Combat wasn’t adequately play-tested for fun or functionality. It’s enjoyable for the first few hours, but gets dull quickly since your characters develop so few abilities. I used the same handful of skills and strategies for the whole second half of the game, which kills any sense of progression or growing power. Zael can eventually issue commands to party members, but you don’t have enough control over their positions to execute a strategic coup. Plus, you can only issue commands when a meter is full, making it hard to count on in a pinch. Not that I was in a pinch often; most battles are extremely easy, so delving into tactics seems pointless since victory is assured regardless. That goes out the window late in the game, where a few boss fights are made difficult by the sloppy, imprecise controls.

The lack of polish throughout the experience makes The Last Story hard to appreciate, even when other things are going well. Slowdown and a choppy framerate plague the battle system, and are most prevalent when they are most inconvenient. Taking cover against a wall or behind a pillar suddenly inexplicably makes enemies lose track of Zael, even if they are only feet away and looking right at him. Heaven help you if you want to do a side quest, because you won’t find any in-game guidance. You talk to random townspeople, hope one of them gives you a quest, and then keep track of where they are and what they want manually. Even the epilogue chapters are buried under obscure conditions, meaning that some players may think they’ve beaten the game before the credits roll and the new game plus option opens up.

The Last Story is the latest project from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, and industry luminary Nobuo Uematsu composed the soundtrack. Previous collaborations involving these two legends have resulted in titles like Final Fantasy IV, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon. I had high hopes for this Wii-exclusive RPG. Given its pedigree, I never imagined that it would fail to meet the low bar set by dozens of middling entries in the genre.

Multiplayer in an RPG?

In a rare move for a traditional role-playing game, The Last Story has both cooperative and competitive multiplayer options. The co-op mode pits players against super bosses, and requires teamwork and coordination. The competitive mode involves standard deathmatch and team deathmatch. Both modes set character levels equal, so you don’t need to finish the game before participating. I had fun with these matches and enjoyed seeing the The Last Story’s mechanics applied in a different context, but the addition of multiplayer isn’t enough to make the game worth buying.

Sakaguchi’s Third-Person Cover RPG Comes To America

Kyle Hilliard — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 02:49:00 GMT

Hironobu Sakaguchi is a well known name among RPG fans, serving important roles on classics like Final Fantasy 1-6, Chrono Trigger, and most recently Lost Odyssey. His next entry into the world of video games is The Last Story.

It’s a strange amalgamation of classic RPG tropes, with influence from western games like Gears of War and Assassin’s Creed. Combat is real time mixing together magic, melee, and third-person shooting with a bow and arrow. Sakaguchi wanted to remove the turn-based element of RPGs, but still retain the tactics and thoughtful combat.

My demo began with Zael, The Last Story’s protagonist, entering a cavern with a few enemies scattered about. There was a woman with Zeal who was talking to him, which is atypical for a Japanese RPG. Usually conversations and character development is relegated exclusively to cut scenes, but this woman was talking about the specific fight, and even making references to elements of Zael’s character. Having these sort of conversations outside of cutscenes lends a much better sense of genuine character interaction. I felt like Zael and this woman knew one another, rather than just two soldiers who speak when the storyline requires interaction.

When the battle began, Zael took cover behind a convenient rock, which was odd considering none of the enemies had long range weapons, and Zael was carrying a sword. The idea behind taking cover isn’t necessarily to avoid gunfire, but rather to dislocate yourself from the fight to work out tactics. You are able to direct your partners, like telling your magic user what to cast by pausing the game and going into Command Mode, and you have to make sure to protect them while they work up their magic. You can do this by just intervening with attackers going after magic users, or activating Gathering Mode, which will cause enemies to shift their focus to you no matter what they’re doing.

In another battle I was shown, Zael snuck up to a battle without alerting anyone. He took cover behind another convenient rock and commanded his magic user to destroy the gigantic stalactites above the enemies so that they would come crashing down. Once the command was set, everyone waited patiently in cover while the magic user prepared his attack. A little counter appeared on the corner of the screen, and once it hit zero and everything came crashing down, Zael pulled out his bow and arrow and began firing on a few extra enemies who were out of the danger zone of the falling rocks.

Everything about the character’s clothing and armor is customizable. You can change the color of everything, and even set your armor to be invisible so you can retain its attributes and still get to check out your characters shirtless upper torso.

After the demo concluded, the representative at Xseed told me about the humor throughout the game. There is a gigantic city and you can knock over baskets of fruit to cause random pedestrians to slip and fall as if they are walking on marbles. You can also equip the prank banana to your crossbow and fire it the feet of random passerbys causing them to trip and fall.

The game is shorter than the average Japanese RPG coming in at around 25 hours. The developers wanted to try to condense their game as much as they could to avoid extraneous, unnecessary fluff. The game also takes absolutely no advantage of the Wii’s motion functionality in any way. You can also use a classic controller, and camera control will be relegated to the second control stick. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to play the game with a GameCube controller.

Keep an eye out for The Last Story to finally come the United States this summer.

European Launch Trailer Shows Off The Drama, Action Of The Last Story

Phil Kollar — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:30:00 GMT

We only just found out this week that Mistwalker RPG The Last Story will be coming to North America later this year, but it's already out in Europe as of today. Nintendo -- the game's Japanese and European publisher -- has released an English launch trailer that also gives us a good idea of what to expect from the U.S. release.

The video below begins with a message from the game's director, Hironobu Sakaguchi, who you may know as the creator of the Final Fantasy series. After that, we get a game trailer with a glimpse of the characters and the melodramatic situations they find themselves in as well as quick shots of what looks to be a deep but fast-paced battle system. Here's hoping that North American publisher XSeed keeps that slick British voice acting.

Check out the trailer for yourself below and stay tuned for more information on The Last Story as its U.S. release approaches.

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