A competent RPG, but nothing more.
User Rating: 7 | The Last Story WII
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 character's 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.
