In trying to get Nintendo to release The Last Story in North America, I count myself among the most vocal of petitioners. As a fan of Mistalker's work and a lover of Lost Odyssey, I considered it the perfect swan song for the Wii, the kind of game that could embody everything good about the Wii (and there was plenty of good) one last time. When Nintendo refused to release it, I was among the angry and the riotous. 

So, what do you do when XSEED does what you wanted Nintendo to do ... but it turns out that what you wanted wasn't very good? Those who never cared will most certainly jump into the fray to laugh, because if there's one thing the gamer community loves, it's schadenfreude. Others will gladly spin it into a moral about being careful what you wish for. In any case, egg will be introduced to one's face. 

To very vocally demand something, only to review it negatively when it comes out, is a tricky matter regardless of who turns up to crow -- a matter that involves putting pride on the line and preparing to deal with a torrent of smugness. However, the honest reviewer must bite the bullet and face the tormenting crowd with gritted teeth.

In the case of The Last Story, I can only admit that, yes, this is what I asked for ... and no, I don't want it.

The Last Story (Wii)
Developer: Mistwalker
Publisher: XSEED
Released: August 19, 2012 
MSRP: $49.99

The Last Story retains its British localization for the most part, so just like Xenoblade Chronicles, you can expect a lot of European accents and the letter "U" exotically inserted into various words. As with Xenoblade, the regional voice acting lends a unique flavor to the otherwise predictable range of voices we usually get in North American localizations, though whether that's good or bad depends on the character. Protagonist Zael is inoffensive but flat, played by ex-Eastenders star Jack Ryder, while his motley party of fellow mercenaries range from dreary to detestable. Fortunately the villains -- particularly scene-stealer Jiral -- are much more enjoyable. 

The narrative is a fairly interesting tale of a young mercenary who, despite his low social status, dreams of becoming a knight. His world is a dying one, the planet's life resources draining while its people are on the brink of war. During a routine mission, Zael comes into contact with a mysterious voice that grants him a unique, tide-turning power. That power makes him a valuable asset, allowing Zael to get closer to his dream (and an unobtainable noble lady) but also invites him into a decadent court of vipers who seek only to exploit him. 

Though a standard "save the world" plot inevitably rears its head, and its "twist" moments are rather trite, most of the story revolves around Zael's interactions with a part of society placed way above his station, and how he deals with influential imperial figures and their machinations. Mistwalker does a good job of keeping certain characters in a morally grey area, where their actions are understandable up to a point, though when it needs a simple villain, it's not afraid to let the bad guys really ham it up. All told, there is a nice little story that, over a twenty-hour run time, knows when to wrap things up without dragging on too long. 

Sadly, the writing is really the only good thing I have to say about it, and getting through the plot requires more tolerance than it's worth. 

The Last Story introduces a real-time combat system that, while noble in its intent to shake up the genre, is so poorly implemented that it actively ruins any fun that could be had in the game. It attempts to blend various elements from action, contemporary MMO, and strategy games, but by adding so many ingredients to the mix, the end result is unchecked chaos. 

Up to a party of six can partake in combat, but players are mostly stuck with controlling Zael within a group of autonomous allies. In order to attack, the movement stick is pushed toward an enemy, initiating automatic blade swings. Using his mysterious power, Zael can "gather" opponents with a button press, drawing aggression from the combatants and taking the heat off his friends, allowing them to cast magical spells and pull off other crucial maneuvers. There is a cover system that will have Zael stick to any surface with a tap of "A", and he can also shoot a crossbow to destroy environmental structures or take down opponents with a range of specialized arrows. As the game progresses (and you'll be getting tutorials about these hours into the game), Zael will be able to rush to various points of the map in order to hit enemies and "dispell" area-of-effect magic, dive from cover positions to slash unwary foes, and jump off walls to land devastating hits. 

Each character has five lives, which is useful since enemy attacks are often of the one-hit or two-hit kill variety. Zael is the only character who can resurrect fallen allies, by using the "gather" ability and touching their corpses. This will happen a lot because allies are beyond stupid and will require plenty of babysitting. 

The major problem with the combat is that it's a complete mess. It fancies itself as a strategic system, giving the player a bird's-eye overview of the battleground before the fight, but there are no real ways to command your party before initiating the scrap. Once battle starts, it doesn't matter what you know about the enemy formation, because it quickly devolves into an anarchic scrum as your mentally substandard allies charge in all directions and enemies get in the way of any high-threat target you might have identified. The camera does a terrible job of tracking the action, frequently losing focus or remaining fixed on Zael's front when enemies are in his path. Later on, you get a limited capacity to issue commands, but only after filling a special meter, and even then your options are cripplingly malnourished. It's like Mistwalker wanted tactical fights in a strategy-RPG vein, but literally had no clue how to make them. 

Compounding the disorderly ruckus is the fact that so few controls are relied upon to perform multiple tasks. By default, Zael both walks and attacks using the analog stick. He uses cover, dodges attacks, and performs special moves using the same button. He vaults over cover and guards using another button. This leads to each fight frequently become a direct battle between the game and the player, as one carefully edges around enemies to avoid hitting them, or tries to dodge an incoming blow but ends up crouched next to a small wall that was too close. Zael will dodge instead of pulling off a special move because the player didn't come to a dead stop before holding down the dodge button, and good luck trying to distinguish which walls can he can run up and which ones he can't. Then there's the crossbow, which is essential in some areas but is slow to use and leaves Zael wide open to attack. 

Just in case you're still confused as to what the issue may be, let me repeat for clarity -- Zael walks and attacks using the same analog stick. The dodge button, the cover button, and the special attack button are the same button. And while you're wrestling with all this, you better hope you're not fighting a lengthy, repetitive boss battle in which you learn to do one new thing, then do it over and over again while the party allies keep telling you to do it over and over again, as if you've never done it before. 

The worst part is that, for as confused as it tends to be, The Last Story is simple and brainless. So much of the combat essentially plays itself for you, especially once the party is leveled up, that as a player I wonder why I'm even needed. With Zael not having much to do outside tirelessly swinging his sword and occasionally leaping, his job mostly consists of running around after his friends, and that hardly equates to a thrilling battle. While bosses can be a bit more involved, each "strategy" consists of a simple task repeated until the monster is dead. I don't mind auto-attack systems in games like Dragon Age, where at least you have commands to issue and multiple skills to utilize, but it simply doesn't work in a game that has stripped away so much personal influence and turns the player into a reactionary force, rather than a proactive combatant. In fairness, you can gain a little more control by fiddling with options and disabling auto-battle, which at least stops Zael hitting people while moving, but still does nothing to dampen the thoughtlessness of combat. 

Constantly, the game masquerades as something deeper, pretending to give the player choice in how to attack and what to do, but in reality each fight has a particular way to be beaten, leading to each round of combat feeling one-note and linear.

Outside of combat, Zael spends most of his time running between characters in the game's sole town, listening to dialog or collecting random items. Here, the story is not safe from weird ideas that make the game more disjointed and weird than it has to be. Regularly, players will be forced to use a first-person perspective and guide the camera to focus on something before the story will continue. These moments serve absolutely no purpose -- they break up the dialog without cause, they don't offer any sort of challenge or reward with a revelation, and they're far from immersive. Having to stop playing the game properly at regular intervals to partake in a ludicrous round of glorified Where's Waldo? only saps at one's patience. 

As large as the game's central town is, it's not much fun to explore. The range of shops rarely stock anything useful, and while there are stores to upgrade equipment, the process is far too simple to resemble anything approaching a decent crafting system. You mostly just grab one or two items and spend money to watch the gear get stronger. There is an arena, which is only fun if you love fighting the same battles against the same monsters, and the city's populace is just annoying, as Zael constantly bumps into them and listens to their regurgitated criticism. The "bumping into people" feature is especially irritating when it applies to NPCs that you might want to talk to. Since Zael moves with all the grace of a bull in a china shop, he'll frequently bump into an NPC and have to wait for them to stop reacting to the shove and slowly return to their original position before they can be interacted with. Seriously, what is the point of that? How does it benefit anybody? 

There are some moments good enough that not even the incoherent combat or "I spy" distractions can wreck them. One side story involving a haunted house is gleefully silly, while scenes intended to be rousing and exciting genuinely hit the mark. The scene in which Zael is due to accept his knighthood is incredible stuff, while everything involving the aforementioned Jiral is fantastic. Nobuo Uematsu's soundtrack keeps things lively and, while nothing in here is as memorable as his past work, there's a solid selection of music on offer. At times, The Last Story makes powerful videogame narrative look almost effortless, but the fact that such inspiring moments are married to such an unpleasant experience only serves to highlight how disappointing the overall package is.

In addition to the single-player quest, multiplayer curiously makes an appearance. A competitive deathmatch and a co-op mode against boss creatures are available, though the server population appears to be incredibly sparse. If you can find some people to play with, there are nine maps to choose from, though since these modes are inevitably combat-focused, I can't say I find any of them tantalizing. 

It hurts to not be in love with The Last Story, and it's saddening to lambaste something made by the studio that created my favorite Japanese role-playing game of this generation. I tried my hardest to get with the program and enjoy the game for what it is, but if the feeling's not there, the feeling's not there. Every time the game threatens to be fun, something comes along to ruin it. Every time there's a moment of awe, a moment of thwarting disappointment trails close behind. Mistwalker clearly has not lost its grip on the things that make its games great ... but it's terrible at adding anything more than that, and in doing so here it has undermined so much positivity. 

Am I glad The Last Story finally made its way to North America? Yes. I am glad the closure is there, and I am glad for those who actually manage to enjoy this. I am not glad, however, that my experience was tainted by one of the most poorly implemented, unkempt combat systems to ever darken an RPG, and that Mistwalker couldn't even deliver the otherwise solid story without letting unwarranted "features" get in the way. I am not glad that The Last Story is, ultimately, a sub-standard experience from a studio that is capable of so much better than this. 

If The Last Story is the Wii's swan song, it is a miserable dirge, full of regret and remorse. 

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

rancor09

I wasn't expecting more than a 5. Good review.

Mr Andy Dixon

Ouch.

Startyde

Brutal honesty.

OLD SCHOOL

Great honest review, keep up the good work sir!

phr33kachu

It smells like there's going to be a flamewar soon! I will perch in the rafters and eat the heads of the fallen!

TheNopeMan

Why did so many wii owners want this game?

Occams electric toothbrush

BroStar

Jim you forgot to turn off the auto-battle. You essentially crippled your own experience.

maycausecancer

I want Pandora's Tower

Not this shit

breakstart

Regarding the controls, you can switch to manually swinging your weapon with the A-button if the auto-attack doesn't tickle your fancy. Works wonders and I'm surprised to see no mention of it in your review.

flintmech

I played a bit of this in Japanese last year. I couldn't read a bit of it, but I enjoyed the combat... looking forward to grabbing this after work. Shame it didn't jive with you, Jim.

Epic-Kx

Xenoblade was better...

Jim Sterling

Oh yeah, I indeed overlooked mentioning the disabling of auto-battle. I'll make sure to throw in a mention.

MattEdWithCheese

@BroStar Jim tends to review games as they are and if that involves modifying options he doesn't seem to bother. I'm not knocking him for it, I'm sure a lot of people won't bother looking in the options of most games...

joshlpaige

@maycausecancer If you think Pandora's Tower is better than this, you're going to be really disappointed. Out of Operation Rainfall, the only game really worth your time is Xenoblade. Pandora's Tower is remarkably bad.

gunsage

Well, now I'm not sure what to do...I have this pre-ordered and I really want to play it...but a 4...wow.

Glitchy

Oof.

Qreg

I smell a shitstorm brewin' once the Wii fans and JRPG players get here.

pk fire

I'll stick to the "Tales" series for jrpgs. Nice read!

Smo5000

wow, that control scheme sounds like a nightmare. It's sad, I love Mistwalker and I was hoping this game would be amazing :/

I would really like to read the story though as that seems to be the best part of the whole game. Oh well, Back to Darksiders2.

Ana OBrien

A good, honest review!

FearfulInsomniac

It seems a lot of people are giving mixed reviews, so that means I'm definitely getting it, since I usually love RPGs and mixed review titles anyway.

I'm just really confused because Gamestop told me that the game releases Thursday, not today. I looked online, Gamestop says the 16th. Everywhere else, 14th. I'm really confused, but I guess Gamestop really fucked up? Or maybe XSEED did? Either way, I hope that doesn't cut in to sales, fucking up your release dates is always really really terrible, like a Konami kind of thing to do. Nothing creates apathy like finding out the games aren't in yet.

Jinx 01

Oh please let there be a Zero Punctuation review of this.

skullskullskull

The only honest review on the interwebz?
Well done sir.

FunkzillaBOT

A "4 out of 10" -- Damn Jim. Damn!!!

Kazumi

I played a good portion of the Japanese version back when it came out and I found it decently enjoyable. I guess it's not for everyone. Great review Jim.

Wrath and Pride

"In the case of The Last Story, I can only admit that, yes, this is what I asked for ... and no, I don't want it."

Aww shit. Now time to read the review.

LiquidBear

Well.... shit!

Noir Trilby

I'm sad you didn't enjoy it, Jim. I've enjoyed it so far, but I hit a lul in the story after what I imagine is the halfway point. It's like a less innovative but prettier, sepia toned Xenoblade.

@Nopeman

Because Sakaguchi created/and was behind most of the good Final Fantasy games, it looked great, and because any chance of having a new release on the Wii is like water to a dying man in a desert.

flintmech

It's a bummer when everybody thinks any review is automatically more "honest" than others simply due to scoring the lowest. Conversely, a review is more "dishonest" if it's more favorable than the rest. Jim gave his honest impressions of the game as he always does, but that doesn't mean other reviewers didn't honestly enjoy it more.

(I got a page error when trying to post this... hopefully I won't now double-post!)

desert dragon

Odd this scored so low seeing how it got pretty favourable reviews in europe

Talking Bidoof

@gunsage Yeah, me too. I paid in full already, so I'm thinking I'll just bite the bullet and support NOA bringing games over, but still, a 4.

What confuses me is this has been out for over a year in Japan, six months in Europe, and we're just now hearing that it kind of blows? I'd understand if it was like Darksiders II or something else new, but was there really a non-disclosure for something this late? I don't blame DToid for not researching for me, since I always avoid stuff like this to keep the game a surprise, but it still seems like for something that DToid talked about for months back during Rainfall, it would have been nice to get the schadenfreude over with before people started throwing down their pre-order money.

Astralfury

Sounds pretty dire, there was a lot of hype over this thing it's a shame it doesn't live up to it.

Corduroy Turtle

Jeez, thanks a LOT Operation Rainfall. You guys suuuuuuuuck.

Megu

Yeesh, and here I am considering picking it up.

Guess I should hold off a bit or do more research.

LiquidBear

This ruined my day. lol. Jim has disliked games in the past that I have liked so I sincerely hope that that will the case this time, too.

Wrath and Pride

You know it is odd, the combat system is one of the most praised things I've read for this game. So I guess this game is the epitome of a hit or miss.

Now that I remember, TLS was suppose to come out today, yet I've received no call from gamestop...

AdamskiOwenov

I really, REALLY enjoyed this game, so it wasn't exactly good to read this review. Well written, and I could understand his problems, but I guess I just had a different experience with it. Ah well.

santiagodelossantos

Xenoblade is probably the Wii's swan song along side being the best traditional JRPG of this generation. Too bad this one doesn't compare favorably

VGFreak1225

I had a feeling it was gonna be like this. The 81 metascore suggests that there's *something* reviewers are finding to be fun, but I've seen a far more mixed response among the community. Heck, this might be the most mixed response I've seen since Metroid: Other M.

Still, I'll give it a fair chance. I mean, Holmes said he liked it on Podtoid, right? Maybe he and I will find whatever Jim didn't. Appreciate you giving us your honesty in this one, Jim.

RockWallofMight359

Oh joy, now the onslaught of idiot fanboys who won't even give this game a shot because of one person's opinion.

And lo and behold, another low score for another Nintendo game. Big surprise there Jimbo.

Scrustle

Weird... Game Informer weren't impressed with this game either. But pretty much all the reviews for the European release lavished it with praise. I certainly enjoyed the game.

ReeceH92

Damn. I played through the game earlier this year and I think I was a little more forgiving. I agree that the combat controls weren't perfectly implemented - it sometimes became annoying when surrounded by enemies, because instead of moving away from danger Zael would continue attacking and thus continue BEING attacked. I wouldn't go as far to say it ruined my entire experience with the game. My biggest criticism was that the game was far too easy. Five lives were too much, and meant many battles weren't too engaging as you said.

There were some great boss fights though that did provide a challenge. I liked the cover system too - I had no issues with it myself and found it quite unique. I loved the story, characters (particularly Syrenne and Lowell), atmosphere and music. While it didn't have huge worlds like Xenoblade, it had greater detail in its locales. I thought bumping into people, hitting Zael's head on shop signs, and the various accents ranging from Scots, Irish and Southerners were nice touches.

Overall I agree with all the criticisms you made, but perhaps they weren't as game-breaking to me. So I have to say once again: good review! I'm interested in what you think of Pandora's Tower if it ever releases in the US. I found it just as good (maybe better) than Last Story.

JohnApocalypse

Tee, he, he

bicyclerepairman

If you say so Jimmy

pocketbelt

I disagree with the review a lot, especially on the matter of combat seeing as you didn't even acknowledge that autobattle can and should be turned off, but oh well, it's a matter of opinions. At least you seemed to want to like it, Jim.

Hate that people are already taking this review as the gospel because of a low score, though. Game deserves all the love it can get, at least watch it in action before writing it off, fellas.

ShadeOfLight

Having played it when it came out in Europe, I'd say that it was indeed disappointing, but not 4/10 disappointing. I'll be the first to say that Xenoblade is miles better though.

I'd say that Pandora's Tower is at least a decent game. The story's deeper than I ever expected it to be, Elena is just the sweetest thing and the bosses are pretty cool. The level design in the towers could've been better and the combat was not really anything special, but I still enjoyed it overall.

So for me it goes Xenoblade > Pandora's Tower > The Last Story

Jim Sterling

"And lo and behold, another low score for another Nintendo game. Big surprise there Jimbo."

Yeah, luckily it's not as low as the scores I gave Super Mario 3D Land, NSMB2, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, or Xenoblade Chronicles ... oh wait.

The Silent Protagonist

When I read a Jim review, I tend to know his sense of fun stems from easy controls, streamlined systems and an entertaining story.

I'm adaptable to lots of control schemes, enjoy convoluted systems, grinding and I don't rank story too highly, though i certainly can enjoy it.

So I'm still gettin' it.

Talking Bidoof

@Fearfullnsomniac From what I've heard, the 14th was the day XSEED was letting the game ship to stores, so it may take time for them to receive and stock the game. That's only what I heard online though, I'm planning on stopping by my Gamestop later to find out what the deal is.

And thinking about it more and reading the comments, I do remember generally good things about it from Europe. I'm still holding out hope it'll surprise me.