Nelson Schneider's Game Review of The Last Story

Hopefully Not the Last
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/06/12

“The Last Story” (“TLS”) is the creation of Hironobu Sakaguchi – widely known for his previous work on a little RPG series known as ‘Final Fantasy’ – and his Mistwalker Studio. After splitting away from Square Enix in 2004, Mistwalker has produced a miniscule number of games, with only the Xbox 360 exclusive “Lost Odyssey” getting any sort of acclaim from gamers and critics. With the Wii entering its death spiral, it seems like an odd time to release any games with potential to be good. Of course, “TLS” has been waiting in the wings for months, with a Japanese release in January 2011 and a European release in February 2012, while Nintendo of America – traditionally the publisher for Mistwalker games on Nintendo platforms – expressed zero interest in releasing the game, despite gamers creating an uproar with Operation Rainfall.

However, Operation Rainfall proved to be something of a success, having coerced Nintendo into releasing “Xenoblade Chronicles” in North America. Nintendo, however, could not be moved twice, so a third party, Xseed, stepped in to take up Operation Rainfall’s cause where Nintendo would not. After numerous delays that kept pushing the release of “TLS” back month-by-month, the game finally saw the light of day in North America in August 2012. But after an entire generation of miserable RPGs, I was dubious about what to expect from this game. Would “TLS” finally be the RPG that fans of the genre have been awaiting since 2006? Or would it be yet another disappointment?

Presentation
“TLS” looks and sounds much more ambitious than its chosen platform allows. The Wii has always been a weak platform for graphically intense games thanks to its inability to output anything higher than 480p. While 2D games generally upscale to bigger screens fairly well, even at such low resolution, “TLS” doesn’t use any 2D, but instead features a polygon engine that would feel much more at home on an HD console or gaming PC. The game’s environments are quite large, and the civilized areas are filled with wandering townfolk. As a result, “TLS” is positively overflowing with jaggies. Every scene outside of extreme character close-ups has jagged, crawly edges on everything, making the game look quite rough. Add in the occasional muddy texture and low-poly-count model and the game engine looks positively primitive by today’s standards. While the main characters are well animated and have vivid facial expressions (especially during the jaggy-free pre-rendered cutscenes), townspeople frequently look butterfaced and vacant, not to mention the variety of cats that inhabit the game’s main city whose frozen postures and lack of ambient animation make them look like taxidermied cat corpses (as a cat person, I found this upsetting). The game even suffers from frequent bouts of slowdown due to the graphics engine trying to display too much stuff at once.

But harping on the graphics engine isn’t really productive, nor does it have a lot to do with the design aspect of “TLS.” While the graphics aren’t going to blow anyone away, the designs are overall quite impressive. The character designs are interesting, creative, and (most of all) not terribly goofy (as so many recent RPGs have tended to be). Each of the main characters has a distinctive look, which can be modified by changing the armor they wear – as each type of armor also has a distinctive look – and by removing/changing the colors of pieces of their worn armor (which has no effect on its protective value). The only negative aspect of the character designs is that there are so few different enemy models. Throughout the game, most of the enemies fall into two non-human races, humanoid skeletons, and a handful of big boss monsters. The environmental designs are also quite good, with a wide variety of different features, ranging from caves (the majority of the game) to a forest to a shipwreck to a haunted mansion.

The sound in “TLS” is spectacular. The game’s soundtrack was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, another ‘Final Fantasy’ veteran, and is quite pleasant to listen to. While Uematsu will never top his compositions from the 16-bit era, “TLS” proves he’s still a musical force in the gaming industry.

What really stands out about the game’s audio is the voiceacting. “TLS” was localized and dubbed into English in the United Kingdom, much like “Xenoblade Chronicles.” Since there was so little interest by American companies in releasing the game here, the British voiceacting and text were left intact (which is the main reason I’m baffled by the constant delays to the North American release). I’m not familiar with any of the voiceactor names in the game’s credits, so I don’t know if they’re big names in England, but they did an incredible job dubbing “TLS.” Every character’s voice feels perfectly matched to their character’s appearance, so much so that it would feel weird to hear any other voices associated with them.

Story
“TLS” takes place in a world that has been wracked for decades by civil war. While the war initially involved a conflict between humans and a non-human race called the Gurak, the humans successfully pushed the Gurak to flee across the sea to another continent. The humans then fell to fighting among each other, only to be stopped by a man named Arganan, whose access to an incredible power source, known only as “The Outsider,” allowed him to build a massive magical cannon and a moving fortress.

After settling the civil war, Arganan moved his fortress to a spot between the human continent and the Gurak continent called Lazulis Island. From there, the Arganan bloodline served as both a deterrent against renewed Gurak attacks and as the strong right hand of the human Empire, keeping civil war in check.

Yet the end of the war was only the beginning of the world’s problems. The very land itself began to decay (shades of the original “Final Fantasy?), leading to drought and famine.

The game begins by introducing the protagonist, Zael, and his band of friends. This group is actually a mercenary company working on Lazulis Island, directed by Zael’s best friend and fellow war orphan, Dagran. Together with an anti-social one-eyed sorcerer named Yurick, a drunken tomboy named Syrenne, a ladies’ man named Lowell, and a jungle-girl foodie named Mirania, Zael and Dagran negotiate contracts for military work, ranging from cleaning out nests of reptilian humanoids known as reptids, to providing extra security at noble social functions.

During some downtime after a job, during which Zael had a mysterious encounter with a voice claiming to belong to The Outsider, Zael serendipitously encounters a woman named Lisa and helps her hide from the Lazulis Castle guards. After some corny love-at-first-sight antics, the two go their separate ways, only to run into each other again at the engagement party for Count Arganan’s niece – with Zael working security and Lisa turning out to be said niece. The festivities are interrupted by an abrupt Gurak attack, with large groups of the enemy dropping into Lazulis castle from the backs of giant flying beasts. After a confrontation with Angurak, the King of the Gurak (who looks suspiciously like Ganondorf from ‘The Legend of Zelda’), Zael, Dagran, and Lisa find themselves at sea aboard a Gurak ship.

Not only does Zael have to deal with suddenly renewed hostilities from the Gurak, but with Lisa’s family of nobles-behaving-ignobly, and a mysterious power from The Outsider that has come to inhabit a mark upon his right hand. Conflict comes from all sides, with Zael firmly stuck in the middle, leading to a story with just enough depth and enough characters to stay interesting, while not getting bogged-down by the weight of its own mythology. The story uses foreshadowing effectively, leading to story twists that make sense, but can be predictable to those who are paying close attention (or have a lot of experience with this type of fiction).

The narrative in “TLS” is very linear, including a pretty big ‘point of no return’ moment toward the end, though there are only a handful of optional side-quests. These side-quests are extremely well thought-out, tying closely to the core narrative and involving important non-player characters. They are also much more interesting than the typical fetch-quests of other popular RPGs (*coughxenobladecough*), though there are a few of those too (but thankfully completely optional and infinitely repeatable). Perhaps the most surprising and delightful feature of “TLS’s” narrative is the fully-interactive ending sequence which even includes a few side-quests of its own.

Character development in “TLS” is probably the weakest part of the story. We are given scant details about Zael’s background, and only a tiny bit of information about when Zael and Dagran first met as kids. While Yurick and Mirania each have side-quests that deal with their backstories, Syrenne and Lowell are left as mysteries, though they do seem to experience plenty of personal development within the framework of the team and each other. In the end, what character development there is in “TLS” is quite good, but it left me wondering where a good half of Zael’s team came from and their motivations for living the mercenary life.

In the end, “TLS” seems short by modern RPG standards, clocking in at 35 hours to complete EVERYTHING in a single playthrough (New Game+ provides infinite replay and plenty of optional grinding for those who want it). However, looking back at the greatest RPGs in history reveals that most of them were 40 hours or less. “TLS” isn’t ‘too short,’ it’s actually the perfect length. It’s concise, it’s streamlined, and it just gets everything done. If there’s anything wrong with “TLS’s” story and setting, it’s that the game world is too small, thanks to 99% of the game taking place on a single island.

Gameplay
Whenever I see ‘action-RPG’ used to describe a game, I become very suspicious and don’t really know what to expect. Will it be a mislabeled action/adventure game? Will it be a hack ‘n slash? Will it be something along the lines of “Star Ocean” or the ‘Tales of’ series? Fortunately, with “TLS,” the answer to all three of those questions is “no.” “TLS” has an utterly unique battle system that I would almost describe as ‘tactical’ in nature. Indeed, if I had to describe “TLS’s” battle system by comparing it to another RPG, the game I would choose is “Valkyria Chronicles”… except more actiony and less tactical.

In “TLS,” the player almost always controls Zael, with no choice in which character to control. The other active party members, ranging from 1 up to a full complement of 6, are controlled by AI. Usually I hate AI controlled allies, but the AI in “TLS” is incredibly good, and early in the game knows more about what’s going on than the player does. There are no random encounters in the game. Instead, each battle takes the form of a set piece, and gives the player an opportunity to survey the area before initiating the battle. Once battle has started, everything plays out in real time, with heavy focus on the use of cover. Each character also has five ‘lives,’ allowing them to revive four times after having their health reduced to 0 before becoming incapacitated for the rest of the battle. All character health and lives are restored after each battle, rendering expendable healing items moot (hence their lack of inclusion in the game). This gameplay mechanic also helps mitigate AI missteps, as they almost never act stupid enough to get killed five times, even against the toughest bosses.

“TLS” has two different battle options for Zael: automatic and manual. In automatic mode, Zael engages the nearest enemy and attacks at a set rate, while the player is free to move him around, hide behind cover, or fire his crossbow. In manual mode, Zael’s normal attacks are assigned to a button and the player is free to mash that button to unload a rapid series of slashes on the enemy of their choice, while still hiding behind cover or aiming the crossbow at will (and the crossbow is almost exclusively for sniping enemy spellcasters with Wizard Slayer bolts). Personally, I went with manual, as the only penalty for using manual over automatic is a small decrease in damage dealt, which can be compensated easily by the sheer number of attacks Zael can dish-out in manual mode, both to keep pressure on enemy spellcasters and to trigger status effects on his weapons (weapons that have a percentage chance per hit of causing instant death are invaluable in this game, as they make non-boss enemies fall before Zael like blades of mown grass). Manual mode also makes it much easier to maneuver through crowded battlefields, as Zael won’t intermittently stop to swipe at a random enemy.

Each character has three special abilities they can use in battle. Two of these abilities are available early on, while the final one unlocks for each character at about level 50 (if I recall). Spellcasters’ abilities allow them to deal damage or heal, while at the same time placing a magic circle on the floor at the center of the spell’s effect. These magic circles have lingering magical capabilities (running through a healing circle causes a character to regenerate health for a while), but they can also be ‘diffused’ by Zael (using one of his own special abilities) to unleash a more significant effect on the enemy (such as breaking their guard, making them fall down, or silencing them) or provide a large one-time healing effect. There is no MP system in this game, so characters are free to use their basic abilities as much as they want. To use their third ability, however, each character must wait until their Skill Gauge is full, which happens automatically over time.

Zael has yet another gauge that fills over time, called the Command Gauge. After this gauge is filled, by pressing a button, the player can freeze time and allow Zael to issue simple commands to any or all of his allies; either to retreat or to use one of their three skills. While I would have preferred it if it didn’t require a gauge to fill before I could give commands to the AI, it actually fills at a reasonable speed and prevents excessive magic spamming. In a way, it’s like waiting for the ATB gauges to fill in old ‘Final Fantasy’ games.

The central mechanic in the battle system that keeps the AI from being overrun, however, is Zael’s Mark of the Outsider. This mark gives him the ability to attract all enemy hostility toward himself at the push of a button, allowing allies time to cast spells or move to more advantageous positions without interruption. Hiding while the mark is active confuses enemies, causing them to stand still with question marks over their heads, allowing Zael to leap out of hiding and deal big damage with a wide, sweeping slash.

Since battles are all set pieces in the game, there is almost no grinding involved. The only grinding available in the game takes place at red magic circles. By standing in one of these and activating the Mark of the Outsider, Zael can summon a specific group of enemies. The same group can be summoned over and over, with little variation (occasionally a ‘strong’ enemy appears in the group). Killing these summoned foes offers large amounts of experience for the characters until they reach a certain level, at which point the experience reward drops off to almost nothing, providing an easy way to get everyone in the party up to the same level and to the level for which the following set piece battles are balanced.

Outside of battle, the rest of the game is just as streamlined and clean. Each character can equip two pieces of armor and a weapon (Zael can also equip a crossbow, of course, and Syrenne can equip an off-hand weapon for dual-wielding). These pieces of gear can be found in the game’s treasure chests (which almost always contain a random piece of loot of an approximate value), dropped by enemies, or purchased in shops. Each piece of equipment can also be upgraded using a beautiful upgrade system that adds plusses to the gear, up to +9 (this changes to +99 in New Game+, so grinding fans can have fun with that, while the rest of us move on to something else). Instead of forcing the player to collect tons of monster parts and other random detritus, the upgrade system frequently allows upgrades just by spending gold pieces. Some of the better weapons do require extra components for upgrades, as does all armor. However, these components are not very diverse, with most upgrades requiring one piece of either Gnome Copper, Gnome Silver, or Gnome Gold. Other components exist, but one of them is story specific (one per playthrough) and others drop commonly from enemies in the game’s dungeons and arena (which can be played over and over once completed, with extra golden chests added but all experience points removed). I managed to upgrade my entire huge arsenal of weapons (which became huge because so many weapons have different, useful effects) and armor while never feeling like I was grinding. If I was designing a weapon upgrade system for an RPG, THIS is exactly what it would look like.

There is only one city to explore in “TLS,” with the rest of the game world consisting of various dungeons. While Lazulis City is pretty big in and of itself, and has plenty of nooks and crannies to explore, the rest of the game world feels kind of disjointed. Since there is no world map, when changing scenes or switching locations, the game frequently just dumps Zael and his party into a new place after some white-text-on-black-screen narrative. As a result, some of the game’s locations can only be revisited by using the game’s take on a fast-travel system and selecting them as a destination, since there is literally nothing connecting them to any other area.

Overall
Just when I had abandoned hope that a good, non-tactical RPG would appear this generation, “The Last Story” swooped in and saved the day. While it suffers graphically from being a Wii exclusive, it also provides a post-mortem boost to that console’s library. Likeable characters, an interesting story, a pseudo-tactical battle system, and streamlined weapon upgrade system combine to make this game an absolute joy to play for its entire duration. While many RPGs nowadays seem obsessed with padding their durations with superfluous grinding and boring sidequests, “The Last Story” dishes out perfect portions of all its main aspects and left me wanting more. Less jaggies, more character backstories, and more control over AI allies would have made this game absolutely perfect. As it is, it’s still the best traditional RPG of the generation, and something that fans of the genre definitely shouldn’t miss.

Presentation: 4.5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4.5/5