Review - The Last Story
The most coveted of Operation Rainfall, The Last Story for the Wii bears some of the most endeared names in RPG history. Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi with music by Nobuo Uematsu, everything about The Last Story is fit to please RPG gamers on the Wii, only to end up with a monumental disappointment.
The Last Story is an action-RPG set in a fantasy world of two kingdoms under war. You play as Zael, a young mercenary who dreams of becoming a knight alongside his five companions. Battles are real-time with parties up to six, though you only control the main character. And with such large parties, nearly every battle quickly becomes a dull, unfocused mess.
The beginning of each fight starts with an overhead view showing the enemy team, types, and placement. It's meant to give you an idea of strategy, but any iota of tactics you employ quickly become meaningless. It all ends up being the same: kill the healers first, then win. Your party members often do what they want, which usually entails quickly dying. You have very limited control over each one; a command can only be ordered when a skill meter reaches max, and somewhat devastating attacks can only be activated when another meter for each party member reaches full. Battles quickly become babysitting, keeping your allies revived and dispelling enemy magic circles.
Fighting isn't that fun, either. You use the control stick to run at an enemy, and then the game auto-attacks as long as you "push" into him. This can be changed to a button press (which I found to be my preference) to swing faster, but at the penalty of reduced attack damage. Zael can also press his back to a wall for cover, allowing him to pop out and fire a practically useless crossbow or use a special attack or two. This mechanic alone is easily exploited. Zael can also activate a special power that draws on the ire of every enemy, making him the sole target of all attacks. If Zael goes into cover, enemies "lose" him, and begin standing around wondering where he went. This happens even when inches away from an enemy, allowing you to go into cover and use the powerful slash attack over and over again while they stand there looking helpless. On top of this, priorities can get mixed up, as trying to roll away from danger can press you against a wall into the crux of it.
There are a few moments where you can instruct magic users to blast parts of the environment to cause rocks to fall on enemies, or to take out platforms holding up a few archers. These are more sparse than you would expect, as its one of the few things keeping combat interesting. You can find "bomb" items on the ground to toss, but they're so cumbersome to use and so ineffective, it's questioned as to why they're even included.
The camera barely keeps up with everything that's going on, especially when surrounded. In fact, there are times when the camera refuses to cooperate. It feels like you're telling to turn one way, and it's actively wrestling with you to prevent it, causing extreme frustration at critical times, such as a lengthy, multi-stage boss fight. This also happens when using the first person view to aim the crossbow or find weakpoints. Rather than point you in the direction of the camera, it points you to where Zael is facing. It can easily get you completely turned around, and since he cannot look up or down, you then slowly move your gaze to where it was, all the while monsters are beating upon you and your useless friends. The first person view is also used intermittently throughout the story and cutscenes. The game has you looking for a certain star in the sky, or finding a certain person the crowd, etc. These sections do absolutely nothing to further the story or make the player feel more involved. It's intrusive, it interrupts the flow, and is utterly pointless.
And sadly, the story does nothing to redeem itself. Every character, save for a few, can be described with a single characteristic. They're all shallow, but if they had a little work, they could have been deep, and possibly fascinating characters. The plot itself is filled with tropes, and the plot twists can be seen coming very early on. There are times when the screen goes black and a narrator exposes what is happening, which feels like a lazy shortcut, too often removing scenes that feel like they could have been entertaining or even vital. It is very well presented, using good camera angles and beautiful models, but nothing keeps you invested.
The Last Story is one of the prettier games on the Wii, although some limitations are obvious. Character models look absolutely great. They are heavily stylized and represent their concept art well, and being able to customize party members with armor and color dyes makes them look how you want to. However, they are practically incapable of showing any facial expression, and their attempts to do so end up looking downright creepy. The environments are expansive and look good from a distance, but getting close up reveals extremely muddy textures in the surprisingly small amount of locales to travel to.
The voice acting retains the British release's voice actors, possibly for the better. None of the voice actors sound familiar, which makes them feel more unique. Some characters are decidedly better than the others, which ends up being problematic when the main characters are among the weakest. The music compliments every scene, as expected from Nobuo Uematsu. Unlike his previous work, the music won't really get stuck in your head and become memorable, but that isn't to say there aren't some good pieces.
It'll take around 20 hours or so to complete the campaign. A multiplayer mode is included, for deathmatch or co-op against bosses. From what I've played of both, they're hardly substantial enough to even bother mentioning, a mere afterthought. You won't miss anything by ignoring the online.
It's not that The Last Story has good ideas that aren't done well, it's that The Last Story doesn't have any good ideas. It attempts to sling a veil of strategic combat on top of a button-mashy mess with little depth. New abilities are gained few and far between and do nothing to keep you engaged in the constant fighting. The story is drab, the characters, while beautiful, are cardboard cutouts of characters we've all seen before. Could have it been something more? Possibly, if given more time or maybe a stronger system. But what is here isn't very good, it isn't very fun, and it isn't worth creating an online campaign to bring stateside.
And thus, this is how the Wii ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Bad
(3s are problematic. Any potential it did have is lost from poor execution or design. Any entertainment found within is sporadic.)
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Jared Knabenbauer is the ScrewAttack.com Reviews Editor, Hard News host, and a host of our weekly video podcast, "SideScrollers". He has also produced several notable ScrewAttack shows, including Newsroom, Nametags and Control Issues. He specializes in RPGs, and has a great fondness for Dungeons & Dragons. A comedian at heart, he is one serious gamer. |
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g1 DISCUSSIONS
felixsander
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Lalien
This game is the most memorable RPG I've played in awhile. The art, the music, the unique gameplay, the lovable characters? I'm all about expressing yourself and having opinions? But a 3.5? Seriously?
SwedestRob
Agreed, this game disappoints. Bad camera, weak controls, weak story line, lame characters, lazy equipment system and worst of all, sloooooowdowns and low fps. Game was hyped beyond recognition. I put my hopes to Xenoblade Chronicles and Pandoras Tower.
Ruairc
Well it is what it is... FF Dimensions is the first RPG I've been excited about since.... well... FFIV The After Years haha!!! Being forced to touch my screen infuriates me but I have little choice in the matter... All I want in an RPG is freedom to explore, turn based battles, and a good story that isn't ridiculously dramatic... I will purchase Last Story but I foresee this being another that gets played halfway through and then sits on the shelf for the next decade...
the_stig
Jared might look funny and humorous, but when it comes to reviewing games he is one hardass, strict reviewer.
Aurora
Question: why is there such a lag between release date and SA's reviews? Do you guys not have enough bandwidth to process faster? Is there anyone else at the HQ that can help the turnover time?
TCJJ
I really didn't see that coming. I haven't played the game yet, and haven't even bought it (I'm still struggling through Xenoblade Chronicles, if only because it looks like ass on my HDTV, the only widescreen TV I have, and I'm using composite cables, so I need to change that so that I can stand to finish playing through the game). I'm now thinking I might not, since I usually agree with your reviews, Jared.
I love JRPGs, especially when they do things a bit differently (like some of the earlier Final Fantasy games, particularly most of the 2D ones, and also some such as XII, which in that case, the same goes for Xenoblade Chronicles, since it's so like XII), so I can see, without playing the game, just how disappointing this game may actually be. Again, I haven't had any first-hand experience with it, but a good review should help alleviate that problem, if not negate it altogether (although first-hand experience is always a plus).
I do wonder about the user score, though - how many people that voted have actually played all the way through the game? It'd be interesting to know, because potentially, the score might not reflect everyone's experience with the game and instead a bias against Jared. Or I could be wrong, and it could very well be that a great majority of people have finished the game and just completely disagree, which is, of course, completely fine, too.
seikenman
Aw man. Super bummer you didn't like it. Game's been sitting on my desk for weeks. I tend to take pleasure from different things in these types of games other than the battle system so I hope things like the environments, music, and towns are interesting.
NY_Knux
Well THAT was unexpected...
I bought it, simply because I was part of the petition, so I felt it was my duty to buy it day-1. I haven't played it yet,, but it looks damn fun.
Although, Jared does review games very well, this isn't the first time we disagree... (I actually enjoyed Quest 64, Jared)
hypercombo64
i regret buying this game... =\
E-GAG101
did you not like it? I did
hypercombo64
i just couldnt find myself getting into it.
Jayrod64
If this kind of thing happens again,I am never coming back to this site.
Perfect Inzanity
Wow, relax dude. Oppinions - deal with it.
Chaos_f-15
Somehow, having an opinion is wrong? please explain
Jayrod64
I never said but to give a great game like The Last Story such a low rating,just seems unfair.They truly did not do this game justice.
TCJJ
According to Jared, he doesn't think it's a great game, so going by his opinion, it's very fair.
Jayrod64
Well I honestly disagree.I think a pretty good game.Not the best RPG out there,but it's not horrible.I'll admit though,I think this would've been better if they waited for the Wii U or just put it on the PS3.Since it's on the Wii,the graphics suffered a bit.There's a lot you can do,and I honestly like the combat system.It's really just the learning curve that hurts it.
Nitroklop
I'm sorry that apparently Jared's not allowed to have an opinion.
Nitroklop
LOL
Yashooo
lol
darkhyrulelord
I have a feeling that perhaps FF13 did something unspeakable to Jared....then again Jared is one of those truly honest people and if he gave it a 3.5 then there must have been something in the game that hasn't gone right. Still, I might want to give it a shot.
Fezzdogg
Was not expecting that.
nintendojunky89
uhhhhhh no i loved this game like top 10 games ive ever played so Jared i completely disagree with everything you said
BenNiGeLing
So if Jared's review sounds a lot like the one I wrote back then...does that mean I actually wrote a good one? Anyways, I was a lot more forgiving towards the characters, loved them in fact -mainly due to my weakness for Syrenne's über-British accent- ,who were the only reason I even bothered playing it to the end. Well, that and that I paid money for it. What I consider the saddest part about this is, that Pandora's Tower is even worse. None of the Rainfall games were very good(Yes, I know Xenoblade is one of them). But that just goes to show that some games stay in Japan for a reason.
Johnny Bro Bear
This came out in Europe a while back. Therefore I finished it a while ago and I still think back fondly to this game. Heck I will do that for the rest of my life.
I feel this a game that respects your time. Very little filler content. Battles are chaotic and often fall out of your control in the best of ways (as if you were actually on a battle field). If you are someone too uptight about micromanaging then this is not the game for you.
The pacing feels sort of like Mass Effect 2. A 3rd person action RPG with episodic missions and a nice town/ base hub to explore between missions. Every mission can be replayed later and the game has interesting new game+ options as well as online co-op and versus matches that reward you with goodies for use in the singleplayer.
The Story can be subjective, though others may not like it, for me I was very engaged in it. It relies completely on whether or not you like the characters and want to see them succeed. Some party members get more backstory than others but overall I sympathized with most of the characters. It's not about saving the world but about protecting a single city.
The main character is a mercenary that wants to be a knight. He is a sort of "chosen one" because he has a special power (It's all very mysterious at first) and because of this power he is hired as a protector of the people. You will get to know the city well and will want to see it saved after getting attached to it. The towns people will give you more respectful comments as you get more recognition, a small nice touch I very much liked, The city is governed by a selfish noble that misuses the army, and times the main character will question his allegiance. On top of this you have a somewhat cliched yet sweet love story. For me it had enough good elements to make a great story though one twist in particular towards the end was really dumb.
That's my opinion, thank you for reading it ;)
Ghost King
I'll wait till im finished before I judge it, but so far...I'm not really that into it. The auto combat system isn't really engaging unless I pull out my crossbow, and when I first started fighting i thought "wow, that's stupid." I'm not too engaged...though I will give it a complete chance.
Also I'm not really liking the story or character design in at about the 4 hour mark that I'm at. Which pains me since Lost Odyssey did both of those superbly and that was the department Mistwalker actually developed.
Goobly
I've been noticing that Jared seems to score games about the same score as his buddy Jim Sterling. At least he doesn't make gross masturbatory jokes like Jim does.
Board_games_r_evil
hmmm this would have been one of those times where a video review would have been appreciated. a lot of people will call bullshit on ur review unless u specifically show them the faults, not to mention it seemed like you had more to say about this game.
TL:DR: some things are better translated thru a video review
ruinedmirage
If you ask me, Jared was only being generous by only pointing out a FEW of the faults.
And for everyone else who liked it, we ARE talking about the same game, right? The one with no journal to keep track of main quests/side quests? The game where if you don't talk to the right people at the right time, you might lose out on chapters of the story with no way to get them back? The game that is far too easy to get lost or turned around in, with no identifiable landmarks amidst the copy and pasted rock or building for each practically monochromatic environment? The game with a terrible map setup, UI, and even worse "mini-map"? The game where you can only recognize the difference between friend and foe by either dying your team hot pink or making all their armor invisible? The game with the ILLUSION of strategy in its combat (because really, EVERY battle is "take out mage/healer then hack and slash the closest enemy"), and if you had a more patient approach to a particular confrontation, it was quickly dispatched due to the help of your fool-proof merc team (sarcasm)? The same game where you never need to turn off your Gathering skill because it loads you with buffs, can confuse enemies, and instantly revives party members? ....Sigh.... The game with designated save points? The game that freezes you whenever you bump into something, has overly crowded or tight areas, and fetch quests so mundane, you might as well just stock up on coconuts, almonds, and bananas, because the next person you talk to is going to want a couple .... and in return, only give you an item you're likely to find on a LVL3 monster drop? This IS The Last Story, right?
Sure, I might be pointing out the bad, but these are important to gameplay! I don't want to get a notepad from my closet and a pencil and have to write down what to get, for whom, and then where they are for multiple side quests. I don't want to have access to a huge variety of skills, only to utilize one or two to guarantee success throughout the whole game. Maybe after playing through Xenoblade with its tight controls, 70 hour memorable story and twists, amazingly detailed aesthetics, and assurance that I'd be coming back again to recognizable areas later in the game (higher lvl monsters), I made my expectations for The Last Story too high. But I don't think it's wrong to expect more from Mistwalker, either.
JxL
ok now i'm confused...this is getting really good reviews on other sites and the community rating is good but Jared gives it a 3.5? Thats harsh, a 3.5 in my opinion is unplayable. Maybe FF13 scarred Jared so bad that he hates all RPG's now.
ZigTheHunter
He gave Xenoblade a 9 IIRC, so no FF13 has not scarred him, at least not his reviews XD
Remifentanil007
Well, the people who don't work in Screwattack, gave this 7/10... so much difference is not in accordance... so I guess this review makes me want to play the game
LuckyMikeyJ
Well this kind of sucks. I've read up on a few Last Story reviews with mixed results. With the way Mistwalker games have been, I think they lost their touch a while back (Blue Dragon is not the spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger, I'm sorry). I have to play myself for a final opinion. From what I read, story is one of the weakest points in the game though gameplay ranges from meh to okay.
Perhaps one of the biggest heart breaks that comes out of this is that Operation Rainfall, though a success, ended up bringing over games we knew little to nothing about until we got them. Xenoblade was a great game. Yet the Last Story the heart of the campaign was reviewed to be around below average from what I gathered. I have now idea how this will impact the JRPG... I mean Narrative RPG market in the West. Perhaps this is one of those "look before you buy" cases. Bad review or not, I'm still going to buy The Last Story... Eventually...
The question is once I play the game, will I see the Last Story as a video game or as a trophy from when minority voices matter to the game industry? Or will I not give a fuck about either or because I'll be too busy swearing almost as bad as the fucking nerd while playing it?
Only one way to find out. And that day is far off for me. Godspeed Jared.
/rant
AniketSkywalker
Jared, I am very new to screwattack and so I haven't had much time to interact with this site. With that out of the way, you are my first subscriber, not because of my recent joining of the community and not because of my agreement with your review. Quite simply, it is your honestly. I mean, I remember getting surprised when gamespot awarded Skyward Sword with a 7.5. I was incensed at that review because it was not a fair score, as ordained by the writing and criticism of the review. I was surprised when giantbomb awarded that same game a 4/5, equating an 8.0 score. I didn't completely agree, but the criticism of the review was so spot on and fairly represented that I had to respect the base opinion of the writer. I don't The Last Story will play nearly as badly or feel like a poor game from a quality team when I sit down and mold my opinion of the game. I don't think I will award the game with a 3.5/10. But I am now subscribing to your page because you review, objectively, was spot in detailed criticism and an honest, uncompromising, and holistically unbiased written review. Thank you sir, you've inspired me to write a bit of my own!
ZigTheHunter
I haven't gotten the game yet, but this review seems insanely harsh and extremely contradicting to what I have heard from other reviews and people. Reviews shouldn't just be opinion, but an analysis of its overall quality and how various people may like it. And this seems very based in solely opinion and acting as if its fact. Stuff that might bog down the experience for you personally, might be a non-issue for others. And saying the game has no good ideas seems like a blatant lie, at the very least its trying to be something unique. Regardless if it really is this unenjoyable or not, I feel it has something for me, as an aspiring game designer, to experience, to see how things can (apparently) go this wrong in something that seemed promising, or if it does have any good ideas or things that work that can be taken away from this experience.
The thing that bugs me most is that there are people who will take one review, one opinion as fact and not give it a second thought, when the community rating is so drastically higher. When so many people had such a vastly better experience then the person who reviewed it, don't you think its worth a little more consideration before dismissing, think for yourselves, or at least take in more then just one perspective.
E-GAG101
Here's how I feel about this review, Jared metioned on Sidescrollers that he was very excited for this game and came into it with high expectations, and when those expectations were not met it left a bitter taste in his mouth. Where as if you go back and look at the Final Fantasy 13-2 review where the expectations were low. Screwattack only gave it a 5.5 where as The Last Story was given a 3.5 (in the same league as Call of Juarez I might add). I personally really enjoy this game, and yes there's flaws, and yes we all have opinions, but if you think a game looks cool, then get it. Jared is just another person like me and you, and also, just another critic.
Kaepora22
Thank you. I hope many read this comment :)
TigerNightmare
Was hoping for a video review too, but oh well. I'm trying to avoid RPGs in the immediate aftermath of Xenoblade, which will tower over everything in comparison. 3.5 seems harsh, but I hope it's not that bad. I already got my pre-order weeks ago. Jared got me to buy Xenoblade, so he's earned my trust.
juanduran 1
I personally had alot of fun with the game. It had its problems but i loved the game nonetheless... and im not really an RPG fan! Still as shocking as the score is, i still respect his opinion of the game.
Zigman
While it's not perfect by any means. I enjoyed playing it. If I had fun, that's what matters to me so I'd say it's a solid 6.5. It's not an epic masterpiece like Xenoblade was, and it got hyped quite a bit because of Operation Rainfall, so it was sort of a let down. I'm glad I bought it and that's that. It's a good game, but not worth replaying anytime soon. I'd much rather be playing Xenoblade if I wanted to play a Wii RPG.
The character customization was pretty cool though. I wish more games were that in depth.
Sidescroller Def
This is just really depressing to see. I thought The Last Story was going to be great, and this is what it turns out to be? Maybe it was the appearance of the characters that attracted my attention. Intriguing how there's such a huge gap between Jared's score and the community's score. Both sides have their reasons, I'm sure. This may be one of the (if not the) last Wii games, but the Wii will stay with me for a while since I can't get the Wii U when it comes out. It's story hasn't ended yet.
wanderomega
i totally agree with the score, nothing like Xenoblade Chronicles
Hayamo
I haven't played this game, I never really intended to, but this was a bit of a shock. I haven't really heard that many negative opinions on this game from other sources and from what I have heard this is super harsh. It's your opinion and I respect your honesty, I haven't really read through the comments but just glancing at them it seems some people don't respect your opinion. People gotta realize that every JRPG fan isn't gonna like all the high profile JRPGs, to throw myself under the bus I don't really like Chrono Trigger and my brother doesn't really like FF6. People got opinions.
EDIT: From what I remember this was actually the game most people importing said was the worst of all the Operation Rainfall games. Sadly America won't get Pandora's Tower so we don't really get to make that decision ourselves.
TigerNightmare
I find it amazing that anyone could love one but not the other. I think I only have one complaint each about those games. First, Crono is a silent protagonist, which I hate. I want to step on his face until he says something. For FFVI, I didn't like doing Street Fighter moves for Sabin that could easily be messed up.
As for Pandora's Tower, I read that there was a final pitch to Nintendo of America at the end of last month but no news since. Fingers crossed.
Thief92
Jared, while I don't agree with you. It's pretty awesome that you aren't a bitch and gave us all your honest opinion. You're the best Jared :)
RememberTheAGES
Jared, I know this review has your opinions but I feel as though you have represented this game poorly and that others will come to the conclusion that they shouldn't even give The Last Story a chance. Rather, I implore anyone interested in an action-RPG's to check it out. Too many reason's not to and I don't have the space to leave the reasons why. It's not a 10/10 game, but disgraceful to give it a 3.5/10. That is all.
Samuraispartan7000
I know some people really don't agree with you Jared, but I just wanted to give a personal thanks for your honesty.
I mean, I haven't always agreed with your perspective on things such as Kingdom Hearts but nethertheless you still have solid arguments for your claims, and that's what really matters here to me. But even then, I can still find things we share in common like our love for the under appreciated Monster Hunter franchise.
Either way, there's always something to fall back on terms of similar perspectives. I just think people need to get used to other people who have different opinions than they do.
Samuraispartan7000
BTW... Will you guys ever do video reviews again? Just seems like its been absent for awhile.
TallFry
As of yet, I can't deliver a clear opinion of this game, as I've only played the first few chapters and just got to know the main characters. However so far the game seems... Too easy for a satisfying challenge. It's definitely a game that prioritizes story over everything else, what with the overabundance of cutscenes that even take place in the midst of a battle. My friend Alex swears by this game and swore by it long before its release, based solely on the creators, but my opinion remains that of the player who hasn't seen everything the game has to offer. Just because the creators are known for amazing, wonderful masterpieces, it doesn't mean that this game is automatically one of them. It takes gameplay to determine a masterpiece, and I haven't played enough yet.