What was so special about the Last Story?

The story which is suppose to be the high point wasn't very impressive; it did have a couple high points and the conclusion was good, but for the most part you're strung along a rather quick sequence of events. The combat was rather boring and easy. There was no need to use the summon signs to summon more enemies to battle because you just breeze through everything, heck you didn't really even need to level up armor really (final boss was a little bit of a challenge due to the 3 forms, but I was underleveled at 56), but the combat was also fairly cumbersome. The frequent cutscenes also hinder the gameplay. Sometimes you'll be watching a cutscene then regain control to walk 5 feet to watch another cutscene... I think the majority of the 17 hours was mostly cutscenes. My girlfriend came into my room once and was watching for awhile and asked when I was going to actually play the game. Framerate was also horrible, and I am not one to usually complain about something like that. Chapters also play out rather quickly some chapters are just a cutscene or two and then you're onto the next chapter which is odd because the game only has 45 chapters.

I'm not really sure how it got a 9.0 here. I'd give it a 7.5 because it does have some interesting moments and a great conclusion, but it's muddled by quite a bit of flaws. I feel that the Operation Rainfall recognition may have skewed the opinions about this game. It got so much recognition and hype that people needed to justify their protests.

I actually made it to the end of the game tonight, but didn't beat it due to the final forms having 3 forms and I had homework to deal with.

A 7 or a 7.5 sounds about right for the game. The comabt was interesting and could be fun, but it was flawed with awkward controls and framerate. The story and characters were alright; mostly standard stuff but I found it enjoyable nonetheless. I would say between the two Operation rainfall games that Xenoblade was better, although I found both games enjoyable in different ways.

My feelings of the game are tough to explain...

I enjoyed playing the game, but I'll be honest in saying that it wasn't what I'd call an ideal RPG experience. I felt like it did enough well to make it very worthwhile on one hand, while still feeling somewhat lacking on the other. I had planned on doing a review of the game, but I think I actually need to replay it again just to get a better grasp on what it is I'm supposed to say about it. Ultimately, I can't really answer your question, since I'm not really sure how to identify my OWN experience of the game. :lol:

It ain't special, who said it was special?..it was too easy. Xenoblade Chronicles was much better...only thing that Last Story had over Xenoblade Chronicles was better looking characters imo. :P

It ain't special, who said it was special?..it was too easy. Xenoblade Chronicles was much better...only thing that Last Story had over Xenoblade Chronicles was better looking characters imo. :P

superbuuman

Pacing, decent sized parties, encounter design, side mission design, some moral greyness, politics, the fact that it isnt a goshdarn single player mmo. It has its flaws but it was far better than Xenoblade.

The only problems I had with the story was that the romance between Zael and Calista fet shallow at times and I think Zael and Dagran's past could have been expanded more than it was. Other than that, I loved it. It did a good job of merging cinematics with gameplay (except actualy leaving room for gameplay) and the battle system and character progression was quite fun. Also the way sidequests are given (you need to explore to find them) made it addicting and fun to travel around the city and explore every possible area you could. I would play the game for hours on end because of this.

Also the story deals with interesting themes, especially the whole "becoming an adult" theme. It's one of the RPGs that tackles "grey area" quite well.

I only made it half way though the game.  The camera followed too close to your character and it made enemies hard to see.  While boss battles in games typically are memorizing patterns, the boss fights in The Last Story were very simple and took way too long to finish.  The story line was a by the numbers JRPG.  The game also had framerate problems.  You would think the main characters would be able to pull off several different combos, but this was not the case.  The same problems that plagued Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey are present within The Last Story.  I do not see why Sakaguchi is still highly regarded as a developer.  All his games under Mistwalker feel like they are over a decade old and do not run that well.  Namco and Atlus seem to be RPG kings this generation. 

[QUOTE="superbuuman"]

It ain't special, who said it was special?..it was too easy. Xenoblade Chronicles was much better...only thing that Last Story had over Xenoblade Chronicles was better looking characters imo. :P

Minishdriveby

I went from thinking it was a decent game to thinking it was a bad game by the end. Everything about the core of the game is good, but it needed way more polish and refinement for it to even come close to its potential.

The best way I can describe most of the problems with it is that it's just a janky game. Pretty much every aspect feels about half done. The battle system can be really fun... but only when it's easy. I always felt like I was either destroying the enemies, which was really satisfying, or getting destroyed by them, which caused some of the worst frustration I've felt from a game in years. There was never really a good, intense battle that felt difficult but winnable.

And some of the boss battles are horrible.

it did have a couple high points and the conclusion was good

Minishdriveby

How many modern games have this that you know of?...

Its a damn good game, much better than Xenoblade in my opinion. Sepewrath

I don't quite understand this opinion. Last Story was awesome but Xenoblade is like God tier of gaming.

[QUOTE="Sepewrath"]Its a damn good game, much better than Xenoblade in my opinion. turtlethetaffer

I don't quite understand this opinion. Last Story was awesome but Xenoblade is like God tier of gaming.

[QUOTE="Sepewrath"]Its a damn good game, much better than Xenoblade in my opinion. turtlethetaffer

I don't quite understand this opinion. Last Story was awesome but Xenoblade is like God tier of gaming.

not because i don't like MMORPGs, but because i do, a lot, and if i want to play a game that plays like an MMORPG, i'll play a damn MMORPG.

[QUOTE="Sepewrath"]Its a damn good game, much better than Xenoblade in my opinion. turtlethetaffer

I don't quite understand this opinion. Last Story was awesome but Xenoblade is like God tier of gaming.

[QUOTE="turtlethetaffer"]

[QUOTE="Sepewrath"]Its a damn good game, much better than Xenoblade in my opinion. JordanElek

I don't quite understand this opinion. Last Story was awesome but Xenoblade is like God tier of gaming.

Its a damn good game, much better than Xenoblade in my opinion. Sepewrath

I liked the game, but it definitely doesn't deserve the critical praise it gets. It got to a point where I would just roll my eyes as another 2 minute cutscene started after 3 minutes of walking down a path. The story took an interesting twist towards the end, and while the characters were fairly neat, the dialogue wasn't exactly good.

The most enjoyable time I had with this game was Chapter 40 and the Chapter on the island with Mirania. 

there is no strategy required outside of the final bossMinishdriveby

I've heard the same complaint leveled at Xenoblade, by the way. "All you do is stand next to enemies until they're dead." Yeah.... You can get by a lot of battles in Xenoblade by doing that, but it's WAY more fun to actually utilize the whole of the battle system, even when it isn't required. The same is true of Last Story, though I agree that most of the more difficult battles don't require it, while Xenoblade's more difficult battles are basically impossible without it.

I wouldn't consider either The last Story or Xenoblade amazing games. Both are good, but neither were "god tier" games. I enjoyed both games for different reasons.

I liked the world in Xenoblade alot, and the battle system was actually pretty damn good, Xenoblade's biggest problem was it's leveling system. If enemies were  5 levels above you than they pretty much will obliterate you easily, outside of maybe some very obscureset-up that I don't know about. On the flipside, if they are a few under you you will obliterate them with ease. Very few battles ever felt like legitimately challenging fights. Last Story also had this issue where very few fights felt like a fun challenge, and the game handed you levels as iof they were green mushrooms in a modern Mario game.

I also liked The Last Story's battle system as well, it's just that some awkward controls and framerate issues could interfere with it. I would say that The Last Story had the more "fun" battle system, just solely based on it being more action-y.

Xenoblade I felt went overboard with the content, in that many of the side-quests were practically identical and doing them became a chore. Atleast you could take on many quests at once and get your rewards without actually having to meet the quest-giver (sometimes), while other times you could easily teleport to the person. ON the other hand, The Last Story could have used some more optional chapters I feel; it would have been neat if there were more optional chpaters to expose more detail on Lazulis Island or life in the city/castle. That's where Xenoblade did better than The Last Story, is with its world and exploration.

While I said I liked Xenoblade more in my last post, I do kinda feel if I really feel that way in the end though. I did find battling in the Last Story more engaging, and I also enjoyed its story and characters more in The Last Story's than in Xenoblade's. The only things I really felt I genuinly appreciated more in Xenoblade were more on the presentation sie of things, like the art-style, scale of the world, music, etc. When I really think about it I would probably say I  found The Last Story to be better.

/rambling

I find it a little funny how often Xenoblades and The Last Story are compared just because of the shared localization campaign. The two are radically different, but whenever someone mentions only one the other has to be mentioned it seems.

[QUOTE="turtlethetaffer"]

[QUOTE="Sepewrath"]Its a damn good game, much better than Xenoblade in my opinion. JordanElek

I don't quite understand this opinion. Last Story was awesome but Xenoblade is like God tier of gaming.

@Minish

And the complaints that can be leveled against XB, is that once you played one side mission, you played them all. Yeah you had to grind, but grinding is not a sign of a well designed game, in fact it often indicates pacing being off, where you are forced to experience content, that's not necessarily enjoyable, just to move forward. As far as a lack of strategy necessary in TLS, you simply had more options available to you, than XB. A slow pace, does not indicate strategy being implied, its like what people said about Dragon Age Origins. Just because its slow doesn't mean its strategic and XB's strategy begins and ends with with hitting a few moves from specific angles for high damage.

[QUOTE="JordanElek"]

[QUOTE="turtlethetaffer"]

I don't quite understand this opinion. Last Story was awesome but Xenoblade is like God tier of gaming.

Sepewrath

@Minish

And the complaints that can be leveled against XB, is that once you played one side mission, you played them all. Yeah you had to grind, but grinding is not a sign of a well designed game, in fact it often indicates pacing being off, where you are forced to experience content, that's not necessarily enjoyable, just to move forward. As far as a lack of strategy necessary in TLS, you simply had more options available to you, than XB. A slow pace, does not indicate strategy being implied, its like what people said about Dragon Age Origins. Just because its slow doesn't mean its strategic and XB's strategy begins and ends with with hitting a few moves from specific angles for high damage.

I liked the story, the characters, and the combat system. The combat system itself was different enough from other RPGs to make it refreshing, and sure it was easy, but it never felt tedious like most Turn-based RPGs feel like to me. The fact that it was on the wii and support co-op online and such may also make this game a bit special considering the wii never really did that. But really I just like it more than the majority of RPGs out there, I dont quite know what to tell ya. Besides since when has critic hype been a good indicater of a game? especially considering that The Last Story was a special case due to it being one of the last good games on the wii and was only brought here thanks to Operation moonfall, lot of pressure to make the game have a good review, dont you think?

I liked the story, the characters, and the combat system. The combat system itself was different enough from other RPGs to make it refreshing, and sure it was easy, but it never felt tedious like most Turn-based RPGs feel like to me. The fact that it was on the wii and support co-op online and such may also make this game a bit special considering the wii never really did that. But really I just like it more than the majority of RPGs out there, I dont quite know what to tell ya. Besides since when has critic hype been a good indicater of a game? especially considering that The Last Story was a special case due to it being one of the last good games on the wii and was only brought here thanks to Operation moonfall,lot of pressure to make the game have a good review, dont you think?

LOSTLEAD8R

[QUOTE="LOSTLEAD8R"]

I liked the story, the characters, and the combat system. The combat system itself was different enough from other RPGs to make it refreshing, and sure it was easy, but it never felt tedious like most Turn-based RPGs feel like to me. The fact that it was on the wii and support co-op online and such may also make this game a bit special considering the wii never really did that. But really I just like it more than the majority of RPGs out there, I dont quite know what to tell ya. Besides since when has critic hype been a good indicater of a game? especially considering that The Last Story was a special case due to it being one of the last good games on the wii and was only brought here thanks to Operation moonfall,lot of pressure to make the game have a good review, dont you think?

Minishdriveby

[QUOTE="Sepewrath"]Its a damn good game, much better than Xenoblade in my opinion. turtlethetaffer

I don't quite understand this opinion. Last Story was awesome but Xenoblade is like God tier of gaming.

I was always thinking of picking this game up. Can you play it with the classic controller? Or is it only remote and nunchuck?wiicube64

[QUOTE="turtlethetaffer"]

[QUOTE="Sepewrath"]Its a damn good game, much better than Xenoblade in my opinion. enrique_marrodz

I don't quite understand this opinion. Last Story was awesome but Xenoblade is like God tier of gaming.

Glad there's someone who agrees with me

I felt the game didn't really meet the hype as well.  But it was still a decent game.  I got close to the end, but got bored with it, as it seemed overly easy and the story was not remarkable.  I enjoyed Xenoblade more, and I'm glad an 'X' or 'Xeno' game is coming to the Wii U.

I felt the game didn't really meet the hype as well. But it was still a decent game. I got close to the end, but got bored with it, as it seemed overly easy and the story was not remarkable. I enjoyed Xenoblade more, and I'm glad an 'X' or 'Xeno' game is coming to the Wii U.

Tri-Enforcer

You complain about the game being too easy, then stop when you near the end? Honestly, one of the flaws of the game but still kind cool nonetheless is that the last boss was tough as balls. Reason I say it's a flaw is that up to that point the game wasn't too tough but then BAM final boss and you suddenly need to throw everything you've got at it.

I felt the game didn't really meet the hype as well. But it was still a decent game. I got close to the end, but got bored with it, as it seemed overly easy and the story was not remarkable. I enjoyed Xenoblade more, and I'm glad an 'X' or 'Xeno' game is coming to the Wii U.

Tri-Enforcer

The last boss was where the game actually got kinda tough. Still beat it on my first try but it took forever. One of the flaws IMO since up to that point the game wasn't that tough but then BAM final boss coming your way.

[QUOTE="Tri-Enforcer"]

I felt the game didn't really meet the hype as well. But it was still a decent game. I got close to the end, but got bored with it, as it seemed overly easy and the story was not remarkable. I enjoyed Xenoblade more, and I'm glad an 'X' or 'Xeno' game is coming to the Wii U.

turtlethetaffer

The last boss was where the game actually got kinda tough. Still beat it on my first try but it took forever. One of the flaws IMO since up to that point the game wasn't that tough but then BAM final boss coming your way.

I got too bored with it before I linger any further, mainly because the adventure seemed to go by too fast and the story telling wasn't all that.  It's not a bad game, it's just an ok game.  I got the game when it FINALLY came out in NA, but then the fall/holiday games season happened and then the Wii U and it's games happened---it just got lost in the shuffle.

[QUOTE="Tri-Enforcer"]

I felt the game didn't really meet the hype as well. But it was still a decent game. I got close to the end, but got bored with it, as it seemed overly easy and the story was not remarkable. I enjoyed Xenoblade more, and I'm glad an 'X' or 'Xeno' game is coming to the Wii U.

turtlethetaffer

The last boss was where the game actually got kinda tough. Still beat it on my first try but it took forever. One of the flaws IMO since up to that point the game wasn't that tough but then BAM final boss coming your way.

The same could be said for Xenoblade. 

Well, to be fair, the game turned a complete 180 and got hard before the final boss (thinking of a certain wench inside a heart at the end). ALhough in my experience there were a small handful of bosses or fights that I found kinda hard before TLS's final boss as well, but many times for the wrong reasons. 

"OH HEY, LEt'S ADD A SPELL THAT COVERS AN ENTIRE BATTLEFIELD AND QUICKLY DRAINS THE MAIN PARTY'S HEALTH!"

[QUOTE="turtlethetaffer"]

[QUOTE="Tri-Enforcer"]

I felt the game didn't really meet the hype as well. But it was still a decent game. I got close to the end, but got bored with it, as it seemed overly easy and the story was not remarkable. I enjoyed Xenoblade more, and I'm glad an 'X' or 'Xeno' game is coming to the Wii U.

DJ-Lafleur

The last boss was where the game actually got kinda tough. Still beat it on my first try but it took forever. One of the flaws IMO since up to that point the game wasn't that tough but then BAM final boss coming your way.

The same could be said for Xenoblade. 

Well, to be fair, the game turned a complete 180 and got hard before the final boss (thinking of a certain wench inside a heart at the end). ALhough in my experience there were a small handful of bosses or fights that I found kinda hard before TLS's final boss as well, but many times for the wrong reasons. 

"OH HEY, LEt'S ADD A SPELL THAT COVERS AN ENTIRE BATTLEFIELD AND QUICKLY DRAINS THE MAIN PARTY'S HEALTH!"

[QUOTE="turtlethetaffer"]

[QUOTE="Tri-Enforcer"]

I felt the game didn't really meet the hype as well. But it was still a decent game. I got close to the end, but got bored with it, as it seemed overly easy and the story was not remarkable. I enjoyed Xenoblade more, and I'm glad an 'X' or 'Xeno' game is coming to the Wii U.

DJ-Lafleur

The last boss was where the game actually got kinda tough. Still beat it on my first try but it took forever. One of the flaws IMO since up to that point the game wasn't that tough but then BAM final boss coming your way.

The same could be said for Xenoblade.

Well, to be fair, the game turned a complete 180 and got hard before the final boss (thinking of a certain wench inside a heart at the end). ALhough in my experience there were a small handful of bosses or fights that I found kinda hard before TLS's final boss as well, but many times for the wrong reasons.

"OH HEY, LEt'S ADD A SPELL THAT COVERS AN ENTIRE BATTLEFIELD AND QUICKLY DRAINS THE MAIN PARTY'S HEALTH!"

To me Xeobade's final boss wasn't tough so much as it was tricky. TLS's last boss was tough but Xenoblade just required the right strategy and you were pretty much set. TLS you needed to be constantly moving, always on your toes and adjusting to the situation.

You're probably right though. I still love both games.