Risky business, a JRPG evoking 'story'. For every masterful Dragon Quest V or Final Fantasy VII there are shelves of fantasy drivel populated by dark lords, whimpering princesses and magical swords.
This is the narrative detritus of the post-Dragon Quest/Final Fantasy world, their early successes cementing the clichés plaguing the genre today. What's interesting is that both series' creators are trying to innovate in their games. Yuji 'Dragon Quest' Horii in an upcoming Wii MMO, and Hironobu 'FF' Sakaguchi in this, The Last Story.
The Last Story is actually rammed with stories. We can only presume 'Lots Of Stories Culminating In A Last Story' wouldn't fit on the box. Ongoing guff about mystic powers and twisted rulers (kings, not stationery) is a launching point for adventurous 'chapters' (complete with cheesy voice-over man to fill in exposition). One second our hero, Zael, is evading guards in back alleys, the next his mercenary gang are playing at bodyguards for the local baron. Later they're ransacking an enemy warship. Another hour and it's a full-scale invasion of an enemy stronghold.
At their best - fighting phantom doppelgangers aboard a ghost ship, chasing a vampire around his gothic mansion - these hectic moments resemble the trials of Jason and the Argonauts. What is technically the stuff of side missions is made compulsory in the name of adventurous sprawl. Action 'anecdotes' also flesh out characters poorly served by the central yarn. Where many JRPG party members are just there to make the hero look good - 'armed candy', if you will - Mistwalker use downtime to nurture real affinity for our ragtag gang.
GOT YOUR NUMBER
Sakaguchi's story isn't a slave to cutscenes and expository dialogue. Most RPGs struggle to find middle ground between statistic-driven combat and wordy yarn-weaving. Try building a story on numbers and you end up with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and that would make a terrible JRPG. (Caterpillar casts 'scoff' on 'four strawberries', gains +6 'indigestion'.) The Last Story doesn't reject statistics - swords of +5% ice damage are present and correct - but it does bully them into real-time combat geared towards delivering movie-like thrills.
Zael has the flexibility of a third-person action hero. He performs evasive roles, can block and counter, hide in cover and aim a crossbow - complete with headshots for expert snipers. His sneaking abilities open up fun pre-battle tactics. Hopping between cover allows you to flank enemy platoons or, even better, stealthily pick them off one by one. Arrows let Zael lure stragglers to his hiding spot where they can be offed without alerting their friends. At worst, it evens the odds come fight time. At best, potentially messy encounters are skipped entirely.
Last Story's coolest combat innovation relies on Zael's added manoeuvrability. Bestowed a mystical 'gathering' ability early on, Zael can draw enemy attention, heal fallen friends and speed up spell casting. As long as he can survive the heat of an enemy army, team-mates act with greater efficiency. The concept of aggro is nothing new to RPGs, but tying it directly to party ability adds a great element of risk/reward. Physically evading attacks while a vital spell is being cast by an ally is exactly the kind of real-time drama a turn-based system can never hope to match.
Comments
12 comments so far...
WHERESMYMONKEY on 23 Feb '12 said:
Got this on preorder and i can't bloody wait. Going to Finish off American nightmare and then this will fill up my weekend nicely. If i'm really lucky it might of already be in my postbox waiting for me.
ste hicky on 23 Feb '12 said:
Y'really should look in the options screens, I've mentioned this a few times about the Japanese version since launch.
It's auto attack on default.
Set it to manual.
metallicorphan on 23 Feb '12 said:
I hope its not with GAME you have your pre-order with
This game,XenoBlade and Zelda Skyward Sword are reasons to buy a Wii again...now if only i had the money
WHERESMYMONKEY on 24 Feb '12 said:
If you've got a half decent PC you could always download dolphin and use that. It's just like having a wii but in HD.
budge on 24 Feb '12 said:
I think i might buy this for my CoD loving nephew and then promptly borrow his Wii.
RoOhDiNi on 24 Feb '12 said:
It really was Nintendo who asked them to follow a romantic theme.
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/new ... 45444.html
And I don't really think that's a bad thing, as long as you take it for what it is.
I mean I also don't search for deeper meaning in Disney Movies, yet enjoy watching them from time to time for their lightheartedness.
ste hicky on 24 Feb '12 said:
Sakaguchi has always done romance, I expect it on some level in his titles.
Been playing today and I must say I'm impressed more than I was with the Japanese version last year, Thing's are ever so slightly different.
Calista, Zael and co are weird name replacements for Kanan, Elza etc... but that's not what I mean;
Nintendo/Mistwalker have tarted the graphics up with more post processing in the environments than was there initially, More Reflections/Refractions on water, Less compression on some cutscenes overall and rain effects bouncing off the camera in certain places that were missing entirely just over a year ago.
Nice.
The voice cast is the Xenoblade firm, Dunban narrates the tale, though i like Jackal/Lowell the smooth Jock. He's cool.
Anyone up for a 6 player Co Op: Add me (Now for the shame of the friend code
) Hicky 0433 3049 6926
Mattoto on 26 Feb '12 said:
There's a few game i buy on the Wii and i'll get this one.
Just finished Xenoblade, was a blast.
Jakeinator21 on 26 Feb '12 said:
this makes me want to get a Wii. i just might.
stealth on 27 Feb '12 said:
20 hours is lame
radiocat on 28 Feb '12 said:
There are no frame rate issues or stuttering if you play it off a USB hard drive. Since there probably won't be any more Wii System updates, you might as well go the soft-mod way and enjoy the benefits of fast loading times and better performance from games like this. It's pretty foolproof to do these days too. Then you just pop in your game disc and have it ripped to your USB drive.
As for The Last Story, it's absolutely fantastic. I originally bought a Wii on day one under the illusion that there would be tons of Last Story-like games for it. Turns out we had to wait until the very end of the Wii's life cycle to get some. Well, with this Xenoblade and Skyward Sword, I can finally say I'm glad I bought a Wii.
WHERESMYMONKEY on 29 Feb '12 said:
Even if there are its not like you need to update the wii to play anything on it. I haven't updated mine in over a year and it still runs everything fine.
I agree with soft modding it though. i did mine a while ago and have been reaping the benefits ever since. Being able to import the full fat No more heroes was worth it by itself.