The Last Story Review
- Thread starter Marshall Honorof
- Start date
Between this and Xenoblade Chronicles, this was a good year to own a Wii.
One thing the review doesn't mention is that when you scope the area with your crossbow, you can spot environmental challenges, such as archers sniping you from a ledge, and make a snap decision - take them out yourself, or order the party mages to do so. In an early level they actually blow up the ledge the archers are standing on, which makes for a great 'holy crap!' moment.
One thing the review doesn't mention is that when you scope the area with your crossbow, you can spot environmental challenges, such as archers sniping you from a ledge, and make a snap decision - take them out yourself, or order the party mages to do so. In an early level they actually blow up the ledge the archers are standing on, which makes for a great 'holy crap!' moment.
Geez you finally getting it now?
Honestly that game is just a case of Quality over Quantity. I admit I did like the persentation but everything else was subpar. Well ok the weapons and armour system were pretty cool but the rest I didn't enjoyed as much. Sure you can praise how renown the composer is but I found the soundtrack to be bland but yet again I am spoiled by the awesome variation from the Xenoblade Chronicl soundtrack.
Honestly that game is just a case of Quality over Quantity. I admit I did like the persentation but everything else was subpar. Well ok the weapons and armour system were pretty cool but the rest I didn't enjoyed as much. Sure you can praise how renown the composer is but I found the soundtrack to be bland but yet again I am spoiled by the awesome variation from the Xenoblade Chronicl soundtrack.
Just got this game a few days ago, so far I'm really loving it. I agree with the review though, I love the characters a lot and the combat is really fun. I haven't gotten very far yet, but I'm looking forward to playing it more.
That's Zangurak, the leader of the enemy warriors.ciancon said:
OT: Good to see this game gets a good review score, I truly loved this game and I finished it about a month ago to discover that new game + offered some new challenges and more upgrades. I have yet to complete a second playthrough because I had to finish Pandora's Tower, but I'll have to get one done once Christmas comes around.
If your PC is good enough play it on Dolphin, this game along with Xenoblade are absolutely stunning in 1080p with some decent PPAA and both are well worth the price and the wait you lot across the pond had to endure for them.Gizmo1990 said:
I gotta say, I did not expect that high of a rating for this game. Guess I should look into then. I needed an excuse to dust off my Wii.
Hm... should I just link to my own review of the game or post a legitimate response... I'll do both [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.381453-Porecomesis-Reviews-The-Last-Story]. 
To call the pacing "excellent" wouldn't be so much stretching it as much as it would be an utter joke. The problem with the game being a JRPG that's like Final Fantasy is that the expectation is that the game will take you across the world to save it from a massive threat. This expectation is why I was thoroughly confused as to why I was fighting the final boss in his basement only 20 hours in and I'd only been to two islands. With this expectation, the first ten hours feel abnormally sluggish and the plot points revealed feel incredibly minor.
Sorry, not agreeing with "strong characters". That's not saying the game didn't have the potential but, rather, it didn't utilise it. There's no real reason for Zael and Calista to be in love; it just seems to be there for the sake of being there. As I said in my review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.381453-Porecomesis-Reviews-The-Last-Story], it would've been better to forsake the romantic subplot entirely and just focus on the mercenaries, who could've been strong characters had the story decided to focus on them. Out of all of them, Yurick (the "petulant mage") and Dagran are the only ones who are thoroughly explored. There's also a romantic subplot with Syrenne and Lowell which also feels shoved in and awkward and Mirania is a mysterious character who isn't as elaborated on as she should be.
As for the combat, it COULD have been strategic but my methods ultimately came down to "use Accelerate and Ancient Barrier then win". There isn't a single enemy in this game that brute force cannot overcome on its own and there's no reason to use strategy.
And what puzzles? You either use a specific attack or hide behind cover and wait for the enemy to come closer so that you can use Slash. There isn't much to it.
The thing about The Last Story is that, while it's by no means bad, it had REALLY tough competition with Xenoblade Chronicles and Pandora's Tower, the former of which really raises the bar on JRPGs and the latter is one of my Top 5 games of all time. Any other time, I probably would have liked it more. Sadly, this is not the case.
Now, there's nothing wrong with being cliché as long as you can do it well. Innovation is ultimately undermined by execution, after all. Sadly, The Last Story does not do it well.
To call the pacing "excellent" wouldn't be so much stretching it as much as it would be an utter joke. The problem with the game being a JRPG that's like Final Fantasy is that the expectation is that the game will take you across the world to save it from a massive threat. This expectation is why I was thoroughly confused as to why I was fighting the final boss in his basement only 20 hours in and I'd only been to two islands. With this expectation, the first ten hours feel abnormally sluggish and the plot points revealed feel incredibly minor.
Sorry, not agreeing with "strong characters". That's not saying the game didn't have the potential but, rather, it didn't utilise it. There's no real reason for Zael and Calista to be in love; it just seems to be there for the sake of being there. As I said in my review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.381453-Porecomesis-Reviews-The-Last-Story], it would've been better to forsake the romantic subplot entirely and just focus on the mercenaries, who could've been strong characters had the story decided to focus on them. Out of all of them, Yurick (the "petulant mage") and Dagran are the only ones who are thoroughly explored. There's also a romantic subplot with Syrenne and Lowell which also feels shoved in and awkward and Mirania is a mysterious character who isn't as elaborated on as she should be.
As for the combat, it COULD have been strategic but my methods ultimately came down to "use Accelerate and Ancient Barrier then win". There isn't a single enemy in this game that brute force cannot overcome on its own and there's no reason to use strategy.
And what puzzles? You either use a specific attack or hide behind cover and wait for the enemy to come closer so that you can use Slash. There isn't much to it.
The thing about The Last Story is that, while it's by no means bad, it had REALLY tough competition with Xenoblade Chronicles and Pandora's Tower, the former of which really raises the bar on JRPGs and the latter is one of my Top 5 games of all time. Any other time, I probably would have liked it more. Sadly, this is not the case.
Personally I'll say to hell with the 'real' next gen consoles. If the JRPG's are good then I'm perfectly happy playing them at PS2 level or less, and the genre was certainly put on life support for the PS3 and 360. That said this got me thinking, I wonder how overall sales vs development cost compares for the Xenoblade and now the Last Story compared to JRPG's released for the PS3 and 360?Ghostwise said:
For example Mistwalker, the company behind The Last Story, started developing for the Xbox 360 exclusively with Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. I would guess this was a strategy from Microsoft to help crack the Japanese market, but the games never sold well and MS kicked Mistwalker to the curb. Kind of obvious in hindsight that making JRPG's for a console that doesn't sell in Japan wouldn't be very good for the developer. Like I said I don't know the numbers but sales for the Wii seem to be much much better. So while they wouldn't look as pretty perhaps we could have been getting much better games of these sorts if they went with the Wii from the start?
Anyways I picked the game up today, after finally finishing Xenoblade recently can't wait to get started on this one.
