The Last Story

**Fluffy** · 03-16-2012, 03:35 AM

Didn't see an actual thread for this game, so guess I'll make one. Anyone else playing or played it? I'm interested in how others view this game.

I just finished the game, so I'll post my final thoughts. I find it easier to separate it by category, so I will.

Story: Mediocre. Unimpressive. Generic. Honestly, I thought the story was pretty uninteresting. Not a whole lot even happens in the story. The story is probably short enough that I could tell everything that happens in under 20 sentences. However...

Characters: This is, I feel, where the game shines. The characters were good enough that they make up for the lack of a good overall story. The interactions between all of the characters seem natural and believable. I had a sense that this really was a group of close friends who cared for each other and had been through a lot together. This game is all about the characters, especially Zael.

Combat: Great, innovative battle system. However, the game does have a few flaws here. One of them being that you only play as Zael through about 98% of the game. Because of that, the battle system can get pretty repetitive. Most of the game is also far too easy, to the point that even bosses are pushovers. The game does rectify this in the final few hours, though, in which the Game Over screen and I became pretty good friends. More on this in the Other section.

Graphics: Good looking characters. A few good looking scenes. Overall, though, the environment didn't do much for me.

Music: There are a few good tracks, and you'll be hearing them quite a bit. Why? Well, because there isn't much else that's any good. It wasn't a major problem, though. It was decent enough.

Length: You could probably finish this game in about 20 hours if you go straight through it. I took my time and did just about everything that can be done on a first playthrough, though, and it took me a little over 40 hours. I'm pretty satisfied with that.

Other: A few other thing this game does right. One of them is the second playthrough. Upon completion of the game, you can save and start anew. You keep your levels and items, but boss levels scale up. I think a few non-boss enemies also scale. They become quite a challenge, sometimes killing your characters in a single hit. This is something I wish more games would do. You can also upgrade your equipment further than possible on the first playthrough.

There's also multiplayer. I haven't played this, but it looks pretty fun; especially the co-op boss battles. The only thing I don't like about multiplayer is that I feel it's best played after you've finished the game, as some of the characters you can play as, or bosses you can fight, I'd consider to be at least somewhat spoilers. This is one of the few parts of the game that you can actually play other characters though!

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty good game. I enjoyed just about every minute I spent playing it, even if some of the things about the game weren't great. If I had to rate it, I'd give it a...

8.5/10

But seriously, Xenoblade is better!