The Last Story

 

After playing Final Fantasy X (with a quick detour into Tales of Symphonia) I got this craving for another Hironobu Sakaguchi game (the main creator of Final Fantasy up until X or XII) and thankfully I picked this game up when I revisited Karlstad earlier this spring and together with the compositions of Nobuo Uematsu (the main composer of the Final Fantasy-series) I knew it would at least be enjoyable. So I started playing expecting a turn-based JRPG (since that's what I know them for)... boy was I surprised. It's more akin to an Action-RPG, but with strategy elements as you control your main character directly and then you issues certain commands to the rest of the squad if you need something special done, otherwise they just do what they feel like, which is slaughtering enemies so it works pretty well, although why the healer magician can't put it in to attack when a green barrier is up and then revert back to healing without me giving order is kinda annoying. Since it's clearly impossible not to, let's compare it to Final Fantasy XIII (since even the name alludes toward it, I mean Final Fantasy - The Last Story, they really asked for it) which also focused on a lot more auto-battle, changing up tactics in the middle of the battle. The difference being that Final Fantasy got boring and repetitive due to button pushing while the Last Story you hardly need input more than running into the enemy (like Ys book 1 & 2). Why doesn't it affect me the same? FF XIII is a 60+ game where the battle interrupt my progression while TLS is just under 30 hours (including most side-quest) and there is no random-battles so the story moves along with character building banter during the fights. More enjoyable for someone like me that focus more on story.

So about the story, it's enjoyable as it's cliched. Which I enjoy. This group of mercenaries work for the Count of an island. One mission takes them into some kind of ruins where one of them (Zael... is it alluding to Zeal, the Chrono Trigger flying kingdom? At least in the translation), when they are beset by the undead receives the power of the Outsider to protect those he cares for. Back in the city everyone prepares for the marriage between the Counts niece (who is the real heir to the throne, but her uncle stepped in as she was to young when the old count died... lets say of mysterious circumstances) and Lord Jirall, a relative to the Emperor. So our hero Zael happens to walk the city when he stumbles upon someone hiding in a wagon while two guards search for a girl... as they mention roughly the same age as Zael... gee I wonder if it's the niece and we have the set up of a love story. Of course it is. Anyway, the rest of the story is Zael and the mercenary climbing the social ladder in order to become knights, but as the veil falls on the stories they've seen and heard of they begin to question the goal. At the same time a war between the humans and their century old enemy the Gurack blossoms once again. You have magic cannons, moving island, floating fortresses and meteors bringing doom to the world as the land itself is dying. Really, most things are pretty standard for Sakaguchi stories.

Music is magical at times, the main theme being really beautiful while certain boss themes is really pumping it up. Graphically on the other hand... it shows it was made for the Wii. Not ugly, but the FMV's are nothing more than areal views of the island, I think maybe one FMV in the beginning introducing the mercenaries and that's it. You also get the expressions of the character, but comparably to FF X, I really think FF X will still look good in 10 more years. Doesn't help that the colors are more in the shades of grey area. Also, it lags if too many people are on screen and twice I had the city disappear into the blue sky before it loaded correctly. Or it could be the Wii U's emulation not working correctly, I don't know. No harm done as the game didn't crash at least. Although twice I got stuck in a corner as my comrades blocked the way out and wouldn't move an inch to let me through, the towns people I can just shove aside, but not my friends it seems. So I had to hug the wall and slide past them.

Really sad thing is that it is unlikely a The Last Story 2 would be produced, especially when you haven't seen anything of this world... you just sat at that island, of course it moved around in the end, but all you saw altogether was the main island and three others. You have at least two continents to explore, the political intrigues of the empire itself, an uneasy peace between the Gurack and humans  and more knights to lecture on the true merits of a knight. On the Wii U preferably... or Mistwalker can just port their other games to that console so I don't have to buy an Xbox if I want Ian Gillan to sing while I beat up bosses.