The Last Story

 Wii
User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 200 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 162 out of 200
  2. Mixed: 24 out of 200
  3. Negative: 14 out of 200
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  1. Mattaclysm
    Aug 24, 2012
    7
    The Last Story is a pretty good but flawed game. Graphically speaking it's by far the best looking game I've seen so far on the WII, because so it does tend to get choppy and gets frequent frame rate drops at times but usually doesn't last more then thirty seconds. Controls are actually somewhat straightforward and somewhat difficult to figure out. I found myself being confused trying toThe Last Story is a pretty good but flawed game. Graphically speaking it's by far the best looking game I've seen so far on the WII, because so it does tend to get choppy and gets frequent frame rate drops at times but usually doesn't last more then thirty seconds. Controls are actually somewhat straightforward and somewhat difficult to figure out. I found myself being confused trying to use certain skills at times but other then that it was easy all you pretty much had to do to attack was run into enemies and the player you control would automatically attack. The story isn't bad and there are a few side quests to help you enjoy the game more, at the time of the games end I had clocked in around 28 hours. There were some boring parts in the game but still it was enjoyable. Music and sounds were awesome and characters were unique and interesting. This game is actually good and I had more fun with it then I did with Xenoblade, but there were some aspects that left me wishing there was more ways to customize my characters or maybe more ways to change the outcome. Still this is one of the best looking games on the WII and one worth playing for RPG fans.… Expand
  2. SkiT
    Jan 16, 2013
    6
    Flawed, but enjoyable. The story has potential, but is not explained enough in detail. At times confusing. Questions left unanswered. Also the story can be a bit predictable. It took me 22 hours to beat, so you could say it's a bit short. The combat is action-packed and fun for the most part. You unlock new moves and skills at a nice pace. You can manage and upgrade equipment and weapons,Flawed, but enjoyable. The story has potential, but is not explained enough in detail. At times confusing. Questions left unanswered. Also the story can be a bit predictable. It took me 22 hours to beat, so you could say it's a bit short. The combat is action-packed and fun for the most part. You unlock new moves and skills at a nice pace. You can manage and upgrade equipment and weapons, this is however very shallow. No quest journal(!!!) Silly dialogue, compensated by good voice acting. The most stereotypical characters I have ever experienced in a game. Nice graphics, and overall design of the world. Good variation of locations. Great soundtrack. I could probably go on forever. The fact is, there are many small ups and downs, a mixed bag. I was left a bit disappointed when it was over, but I can't deny the fact that I enjoyed it while it lasted.… Expand
  3. Regal4point1
    Aug 21, 2012
    6
    The gameplay is fun, and never gets dull, but its such a shame that there isn't nearly anything to tweak with in usual RPG fashion. Each character has two moves each, both of which are not customizable and upgradable. Additionally, you only control one character throughout the game. This wouldn't be such a deterrence if you were given a lot of control of your party members like MassThe gameplay is fun, and never gets dull, but its such a shame that there isn't nearly anything to tweak with in usual RPG fashion. Each character has two moves each, both of which are not customizable and upgradable. Additionally, you only control one character throughout the game. This wouldn't be such a deterrence if you were given a lot of control of your party members like Mass Effect, but you're limited to filling up a gauge to tell them which arts to cast. In this way you'll never get lost in the gameplay like you would with a deeper structure. The story is only decent. While good for the JRPG sub-genre, I shouldn't excuse its cringe-worthy lines and lack of subtlety just because the genre is known for bad stories. It also hits cliches at every turn within the narrative, which is perhaps why this game feels as though it has a lack of verve and intrigue. Mistwalker proves it is inept at creating tension and drive, because the story always seems rather meh.
    The characters, while likable in their own right, are fairly one-dimensional. The protagonist is simply a virtuous do-gooder, there's a princess with special powers, a drunk, a ladies man, a quiet girl. You know, everything you've seen before. This one-characteristic approach to the characters makes them forgettable and unnecessary to the plot. The best thing I can say about it is its pacing. The game flows incredibly well, and never makes you sick of any of its features. This is especially notable because all party members are introduced within the first few hours. The battle system does get new gimmicks to pique your interest at a nice pace, and the difficulty curve is nice (although it is rather easy at the beginning). The game will only take you about 15-20 hours, but its brevity is actually one of its strengths. It does value this time, and the result is a nice flow that is rather addictive and hard to pull away from. The voice work isn't fantastic, but the dialogue isn't that great either. Expect awkward phrases, lectures, and overly long motivational speeches when playing this game. You know, the usual JRPG nonsense. The score is good for background noise, but its hardly memorable aside from the main theme. Unlike other games, when listening to the soundtrack I couldn't remember where it had come from. Despite these gripes, Nobuo did a nice job.
    The game's lack of customization, verve, and weak story make this hard to fully recommend. I would buy at price drop, but new (to support Mistwalker). It is worth your time though.    … Expand
  4. periquayo
    Mar 12, 2015
    6
    Overrated.

    Maybe a 7, I give it a 6 because of the hype, and I'm thinking in a 5 as I write... Good things: Great graphics, cool design of characters and world, great start of the story. Bad things: Mainly it becomes very boring. The scenes become boring because of the lack of expression of the character's faces and the voices. The music is not bad but after playing Xenoblade...    Overrated.

    Maybe a 7, I give it a 6 because of the hype, and I'm thinking in a 5 as I write...

    Good things: Great graphics, cool design of characters and world, great start of the story.

    Bad things: Mainly it becomes very boring. The scenes become boring because of the lack of expression of the character's faces and the voices. The music is not bad but after playing Xenoblade... It is not amazing... the same song repeats over an over and it is not that good. I didn't feel any emotion in any of the scenes or the story after the beggining, so the story did not engage me.

    About the gameplay...The battles seem original at the beggining but become very boring, basically you move your character near the enemies to kill them, covering sometimes... And from time to time you have to shoot with the croosbow. The strategy of the battles is so poor, no challenge at all... Summarizing... Fun the first hours of the game, then so boring...

    It could have been a great game with better music, better face expressions to give climax to scenes, more challeging battles and better leveling system. Maybe too many things to become a great game. I'm a bit...

    Dissapointed.    … Expand
  5. Shinjiro
    Aug 14, 2012
    5
    The Last Story - A game from RPG mastermind Hironobu Sakaguchi. Sounds good, right? Sadly, "The Last Story" is the exact opposite - A game with horrible gameplay and an underwhelming story where only the characters shine... And only at very few, certain moments of the game and without doing sidequests, this 15 hour game has not much time to show you those moments anyway.

    The main    The Last Story - A game from RPG mastermind Hironobu Sakaguchi. Sounds good, right? Sadly, "The Last Story" is the exact opposite - A game with horrible gameplay and an underwhelming story where only the characters shine... And only at very few, certain moments of the game and without doing sidequests, this 15 hour game has not much time to show you those moments anyway.

    The main character of the game is Elza (Zeal in the PAL and NTSC/US version), who's part of Quarks (Dagran) mercenaries and always dreams about becoming a knight, since mercenaries are looked down to in the world of The Last Story (among other things).

    After the first battle in the game, you probably hope and expect that the gameplay offers more... WAY more, correct? Sadly, besides positioning yourself before the battle, how you start it (killing the enemies healer, using your crossbow or sword or destroying a pillar or bridge), there's not much to control in the battle. Do you expect to get to control the whole party, use lots of skills and items, among other BASIC aspects of the genre? That with 7 mercenaries and a party out of up to 6 characters that you can at least CHOOSE which character you want to control? Yes? Well, to bad, there's NOTHING like that. No items, the amount of skills and the amount of strategy is a joke. Yes, you read right. That's pretty much your WHOLE strategy. In every single battle. If you expected lots of strategy because you're playing an RPG, you'll get disappointed. Gameplay-wise, The Last Story resembles more an Hack'n'Slay.

    During battle, when your bar is full, you can give your party orders. But not even then you have much of a "choice". Every character has ONE skill (left), ONE special attack (up) and 2 other commands. At least something, right? Again: No. With the exception of Manamia (Mirania) and Kanan (Calista), the special attacks are THE SAME as their normal skills, just stronger. For example: Jackal (Lowell): He uses ice magic and if it's diffused, the enemies slip on it. His special attack? A stronger ice attack. That's it. Manamia can resurrect (giving your characters an additional life) and Kanan can create a barrier. The often ridiculously bad AI sometimes forces you to use the command option as often as possible, especially if you fight enemies which get healed by ice magic and Jackal / Lowell ONLY uses his magic. (To name an example)

    The story is below-average at the very best. It's obvious when playing that Mistwalker tried to make something more original, but the execution is done VERY badly. Thankfully(?), you don't have to endure it for a longer amount of time since the story (without doing sidequests) is only 15 hours long - Less than 1/3 of what you expect from an AVERAGE RPG. But even WITH sidequests... which are few, don't take long and aren't much fun anyway, you'll be VERY lucky to hit the 20 hour mark.

    Upgrading is a joke. The armor differs between a "heavy" type with more defense, but less magic defense, a "balanced" type with the same amount of defense and magic defense and a "light" type, which offers more magic defense, but less physical one. And their boni often only differs WHEN you get it (e.g. at +6 or +7).

    The online mode offers boss fights and PvP. Whereas the 1st one is rather challenging at first, it gets boring and annoying REALLY fast, since most people (IF you find someone online) prefer to use their physical attackers (like Elza). And having a party out of 6 different Elzas results in a very quick Game Over. Why? Simple: If just a single player loses all his/her lives, you have 30 seconds to finish the battle. If you didn't, your whole party loses. No drops, no anything. Having the option to yell stuff like "Someone diffuse that magic!" doesn't help since nobody listens to it anyway.
    PvP works different, but it's even less fun. The balance in PvP is non-existent. You either enter a map where magic users can and WILL one-shot you EVERY SINGLE TIME or a map where they have no chance at all. Also, if you don't "dodge" magic or hide behind a boulder or wall, you CAN'T survive magic. Even dodging or hiding results in high damage.

    Long story short: The Last Story gameplay is below-average at the very best, the story is way too short and the story-telling isn't very good either. The characters themselves are pretty good (Besides Elza), but since the focus is on him ALONE, you'll barely experience anything interesting about your other party members anyway. The soundtrack isn't bad, but you expect WAY more from Uematsu. The world is tiny, brown and doesn't offer much anyway. The online mode is just plain bad and the replay-value is practically zero, so if you're planning on purchasing it, don't expect anything better than a short, mediocre game.    … Expand
  6. Hikarigami
    Apr 30, 2013
    5
    Astonishingly mediocre. Everything from the gameplay to the graphics to the music to the story are mediocre. It's not terrible or anything, it's just you'd expect so much more from all the hype it was given. The voice acting is awful, a lot of the characters are idiots, ,and while the story does have its occasional high points, it's marred by its abysmal low points. Overall, a mediocreAstonishingly mediocre. Everything from the gameplay to the graphics to the music to the story are mediocre. It's not terrible or anything, it's just you'd expect so much more from all the hype it was given. The voice acting is awful, a lot of the characters are idiots, ,and while the story does have its occasional high points, it's marred by its abysmal low points. Overall, a mediocre game. Don't bother; go play Xenoblade again.… Collapse
  7. Hikarigami
    Apr 30, 2013
    5
    Astonishingly mediocre. Everything from the gameplay to the graphics to the music to the story are mediocre. It's not terrible or anything, it's just you'd expect so much more from all the hype it was given. The voice acting is awful, a lot of the characters are idiots, ,and while the story does have its occasional high points, it's marred by its abysmal low points. Overall, a mediocreAstonishingly mediocre. Everything from the gameplay to the graphics to the music to the story are mediocre. It's not terrible or anything, it's just you'd expect so much more from all the hype it was given. The voice acting is awful, a lot of the characters are idiots, ,and while the story does have its occasional high points, it's marred by its abysmal low points. Overall, a mediocre game. Don't bother; go play Xenoblade again.… Collapse

Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best Wii Game of 2012
3
#3 Most Discussed Wii Game of 2012
3
#3 Most Shared Wii Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 61 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 61
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 61
  3. Negative: 1 out of 61
  1. Game Revolution
    Sep 4, 2012
    90
    This game is the product of a true master.
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  2. GameCritics
    Aug 28, 2012
    50
    The Last Story feels like a JRPG that took incomplete notes as it tried to learn from Western design. The simplistic implementation of massively multiplayer online (MMO) combat motifs makes battles boring or frustrating. The character customizability, though wonderful, is purely cosmetic, never really extending into the play or storytelling. Worst of all, the gameplay and story might as well be two ships passing in the night. While Zael confronts the game's real antagonists in cutscenes, the player simply sits on the sidelines. In games, that's the last way you should try to tell a story. Ra
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  3. NintendoWorldReport
    Aug 28, 2012
    80
    While my review may seem overly positive, the game's small number of flaws are incredibly frustrating at times. That said, if you feel you can look past a few missed opportunities and a flawed but fun combat system, I can't see why you wouldn't enjoy The Last Story. Just don't expect it to be as genre defining as previous Sakaguchi titles.
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