The Last Story Review, 10.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating
Does this long anticipated RPG live up to expectations or is this one story all the poorer for the telling?

In many ways, The Last Story has a far harder road to travel that its fellow Wii-based Nintendo first-party RPG Xenoblade Chronicles. This is largely because the latter tends to overshadow the former and no more is this apparent then in how both games eventually ended up in North America after a lengthy delay in comparison to their original Japanese releases. While both games where part of the Operation Rainfall fan campaign, Nintendo ultimately decided to directly publish only Xenoblade in the US, leaving The Last Story for another publisher (in this case XSEED Games ) to step in and bring over if they so desired. While it is clear that Nintendo clearly thought Xenoblade had a better chance of success in the US (if only just; the company hardly treated Xenoblade’s US publication like it was any kind of particular priority) than The Last Story, this should not be taken as any kind of mark against the actual quality of The Last Story.

The brainchild of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, The Last Story serves as an attempt to return to greatness for its director after several years of missteps in the aftermath of his leaving Square Enix. While titles he had worked on in the interim (generally as the scenario writer as opposed to actual full director) such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey where not necessarily out and out awful, they were still flawed enough to be a far cry from the kind of games that Sakaguchi had worked on in the hay day of his career such as Final Fantasy I-X, Chrono Trigger, or Parasite Eve. And it is clear from the very beginning that The Last Story is both a return to basics and an attempt to move the genre forward from a man whose love of said genre clearly runs deep. And while that description might sound like something of a contradiction in theory, in practice Sakaguchi pulls it off more often than not.

It’s a Sakaguchi game. Of course there is an airship.

Many of the elements that make up The Last Story’s titular story will be immediately familiar to anyone who has played an Sakaguchi RPG before: a diverse band of warriors whose oversized weapons are only matched by their oversized personalities, a despotic ruler with larger designs that spell no good for anyone but particularly our heroes, and a world that feels one part medieval, one part fantasy, and one part steampunk. It is an epic and exciting tale, if one lacking in the kind of breathtaking originally and as a result there is an admitted air of familiarity that pervades much of the game. None of which makes the actual journey the game takes players on any less of compelling to experience. That is because all the well-worn tropes and ideas that abound in The Last Story are used with a level of nuance often not seen in similar games. For example, the island of Lazulis that severs as the game’s primary locale manages to come across as a very real place filled with believable people (down to even many of the game’s nominal villains) whose actions and decisions throughout remain both believable and understandable. These are characters that in turn make what could have been, in lesser hands, an otherwise rote plot feel more like a natural and inevitable set of occurrences in the context of the larger world. If nothing else, the writing and overall storytelling in The Last Story proves that familiarity does not necessarily have to breed contempt as long as it is accompanied by skill and genuine effort.

No more is this true than in the band of mercenaries who serve as The Last Story’s protagonists. The characters that players will control and maneuver across The Last Story’s 20 plus hour main campaign are all multifaceted individuals whose personalities, goals, and desires cause more than one clash with one another before the final credits role. They truly feel like the hardened band of mercenaries they are supposed to be but at the same time they also come across as a tightknit surrogate family. As such, they engage in all the banter, moments of support, and, yes, arguments that one would expect from such a grouping and watching them struggle against problems both internal and external makes it very easy to get caught in the lives of these fictional characters. Compared to the paper thin and rote creations seen in such recent RPGs as Rainbow Moon or Record of Agarest War 2, both games that feature leads who are little more than a group of hastily thrown together clichés and/or random character tics, the protagonists of The Last Story are as refreshing as a drink of water after a day out in the parching summer sun.

Only two of the characters in this image are female. Can you guess which ones?

Moving onto gameplay, if the developers of The Last Story played it somewhat safe on the story front, the same cannot even remotely be said about their approach to combat in the game. This is a wonderfully unique battle system that mixes any number of elements from traditional RPGs, action-RPGs, and even third-person action games and/or shooters. It is a mix that could, and probably should, have produced an unplayable mess; in the firm and sure hands of the people at Mistwalker however it instead become one of the most original takes on combat ever featured in an RPG. All combat in the game occurs in real time and also takes place in the same environments players are currently traversing. As a result, there are no random encounters in the game and enemies always visible on field. Players are essentially placed in direct control of the game’s lead hero Zael, with other party members all being AI controlled from moment to moment. Zael’s standard melee attacks are also completely automated, basically as soon you are within range of an enemy he will start attacking. However both blocks and dodges are completely manual in nature and, in much the same way as in a game like God of War or Darksiders, play a big role in most battles. So it is that players cannot just simply run up to foes and let the computer handle the rest, they have stay aware and on their toes if they want to keep Zael alive.

Furthermore, since combat is not random in nature, each battlefield is well designed with lots of walls and other cover to hide behind if things get a little too hot. These cover spots can also be used for more stealthy approaches and since the rest of the party will only initiate attacks upon being spotted, it is almost always to the player’s advantage to try and stage ambushes whenever possible. To further aid in this regards, Zael also carries around with him a powerful crossbow that he can deploy at any time. In addition to having unlimited standard arrows, there a whole ton of specialty arrows that players can purchase or find, many of which are capable of doing damage to large groups of foes or massive damage to one particular enemy. However unlike his standard attacks, Zael’s crossbow is completely manual in nature and in practice using it is very akin to a third person shooter right down to hunkering behind cover in-between shots.

Cover plays almost as big a role in The Last Story as it does in games like Gears of War.

Players can even use Zael’s crossbow to target various destructible elements in the environment, an approach that when deployed properly can lead to major dividends in battle. Nor is Zael the only one capable of such feats; while the other party members are AI controlled, players will eventually be able to pause the action in order to aim Zael’s manual attacks without any rush and access an top-down view of the current location where individual commands to other party members can be issued. While this last mechanic does become more and more important in later boss battles, for the most part the party AI in The Last Story is top notch and more than capable of taking care of itself. This lets players just enjoy standard fights via Zael various abilities without having to worry about micromanaging every little aspect of what the party is doing if they do not want bother with doing so. Still the strategic possibilities are there and it is to the game’s credit that many battles feature multiple equally viable approaches depending on a given player’s preferred play style.

If things do start to go wrong during a fight, Zael has one last major ability at his disposal that can dramatically affect the flow of a battle. Gained very early on in the story, the Gathering ability can be triggered at any time and causes all enemies to shift their focus and attention towards Zale for as long as it is active. In addition to freeing up party members to attack, Gathering also increases the speed of spell casting for the party and lets Zale revive any fallen ally up to five times by making physical contact with them. I won than more one battle by simply activating Gathering and proceeding to run, flip, dodge, and basically hide from foes while the rest of the party took the distracted enemies apart. It was intense and nerve wracking experience since if I had failed to dodge at the right moment or gotten trapped in a corner it would have mean quick death from the enraged mob of foes. Another great tactic to use with Gathering builds on the fact that most spells will leave residual “circles” after being cast that can then be activated for massive damage to any enemy standing in the circle by using one of Zael’s special abilities.