The Last Story

[Fazermint]

I recently finished The Last Story, and since I've got nothing better to do I'll write down my thoughts on the game

The Last Story is, for most people, a love it or hate it game. I love it, but plenty of people think it sucks, is overrated, and so on.

To appreciate this game, you have to know what kind of game it's aiming to be. The main focus is on telling a story, not being the best action RPG ever. The emphasis on storytelling may be wasted on some people, but I found it to be the game's strongest point. You, the player, are dragged into the epic tale of Zael and his friends, a band of mercenaries looking to rise above their financial situation and social status. The plot has some clichés here and there, but the overall experience is quite compelling.

This doesn't mean that it sucks as an action RPG, though, quite the contrary. The battle system is unique. Zael's main ability is called Gathering, that is, you can forcefully draw the attention of your enemies away from your allies and onto yourself. This puts you in a dangerous position, but your allies will back you up with magic. Zael wields a sword and a crossbow. The crossbow can be used to snipe enemy mages and archers, and the sword is mostly used as a button-mashing attack force. As you level up you get a couple of sword skills that make it a little more interesting, but it's not very deep. The core of the battle system is giving your allies orders and dominating the battlefield with your Gathering ability. You can play as one of your allies on a few occasions, but for the majority of the game you play as Zael.

To sum it up, it's a decent action RPG in its own worth. It tells a compelling story and always stays fresh. If you don't have this game yet, I can heartily recommend it, granted you like action RPGs.

Anyone else played this game? What are your thoughts on it?

[Freedan]

I played it, and enjoyed it quite a bit.

It's nothing revolutionary, but it's fun to play. The story moves along quickly, so you're not slogging through. I was probably finished in a little over 25 hours, and I spent a lot of time messing around with sidequests and stuff.

The combat is fun, but the "issuing commands" thing isn't necessary most of the time. Often, you can just hack at whatever you're fighting until it dies. Some bosses will need more advanced tactics, though.

Something I was really happy about; level grinding is quick. Like, really quick. There are certain areas where you can fight as many monsters as you want, and you gain a level after every fight or two. But when you're at a high enough level to finish the area you're in, your EXP returns take a huge dive (like, say... needing 10 fights or more for a single level). That's the game's way of letting you know it's time to move on. You can grind 8 levels or so in 5 minutes, and the extra levels really make a huge difference.

Zael was a bit of a flat character; not bad, just generic. Some of the others were great, though. Syrenne and Lowell were always entertaining together.

One final note: the final boss' motivations seemed rather shoehorned in at the last minute. I had my suspicions about them, which turned out to be right, but it seemed to come out of nowhere. "This happened, so I'm doing this". I don't remember if I had heard anything about it until the very end.

It's definitely worth playing if anyone's interested. There's a new game + as well, which I'll eventually play through (but 100% completion would take forever, if you want to fully upgrade your equipment). The enemies stay the same, so you can bash your way through with no effort, but the bosses get massively powered up, so that keeps it challenging.

[Fazermint]

I agree with pretty much everything you said

The pacing is just perfect. There was never a moment where I thought "I'm sick of the cutscenes, gief action!" or the other way around. I clocked in about 22 hours, but I didn't pay attention to sidequests. Will do in NG+ some time.

I agree that the combat is quite straight forward, and the issuing of commands isn't always necessary (I found myself using it a lot during the last 30-ish% of the game, though). I must commend the creators on trying to create an interactive battlefield. The possibility of destroying bridges and other structures to get an advantage, get your allies to destroy enemy barriers, plus the fact that there are enemy archers and mages that need to be dealt with quickly, makes it a lot more interesting. It doesn't always work, as sometimes the best strategy is just mashing the attack button, but you can see how much effort was put into designing battles.

It feels like the developers thought "Okay, we forgot to add a final boss. What should we do? Okay let's make [X] the final boss and add this plot twist and it will be okay!" I'm ok with the fact that [X] is the final boss, but I would have liked to have seen clues and hints throughout the game.

And yes, Zael's boring. This seems to be the trend in games - wanting the player to be able to identify with the main character. A logical result is a generic personality with no bad habits or quirks.

[Freedan]

Actually, I thought they foreshadowed [X] as the final boss well enough. [X] disappeared for long stretches halfway through the game, and seemed to have some kind of suspicious agenda going (which was confirmed later on). When I was nearing the end and still had no resolution with [X], I figured that's who the final boss would be.

My problem was X's motivation. There was a reason for why they did what they did, but was it ever mentioned once before their big reveal at the end? I honestly don't remember so much as a hint of bitterness on their part throughout the story.

Kind of seemed like the mother of all ass-pulls. Really, there was no reason Zangurak couldn't have been the end.

[Fazermint]

I guess you're right, I probably wasn't paying enough attention

Still, would have been better if you saw [X] express his anger in some way instead of acting cool all the time.

[Z] could have been the last boss and no one would have lifted an eyebrow. Still, the final battle with [X] was pretty cool, so who am I to complain