The Last Story (Wii)

I grabbed a copy of xenoblade last year and enjoyed it immensely, I also loved Skyrim but the jrpgs have a special quality about them which seperates them from there western counter-parts. Having thought about it for a while I have come to the conclusion that it the characters that are so different.
Last story (and xenoblade) have fantastic characters and a much more cinematic feel to them. I know Skyrim/ kingdom of Amular have a lot of cinematics/text in them but it all feels so disjointed, where as in Last story I found myself hooked to every cut scene and unwilling to skip in case i miss an important fact.
This games combat system takes a while to get used to but once you do it's quite exciting and unique. You can run about the areas in real time dishing out damage as well as pausing the action to order your squad to help with magic/ special abilities. Your have the ability to "gather" the enemies attention, so battles usually play out like this: Gather enemies attention, allow mages to cast spells uninterrupted, manipulate that spell to add special abilities (armour break, slow etc), hack away until they die!
There is a city hub in between missions which is a bustling medi-evil style fortress with loads of side streets and side quests to discover and explore. My one slight annoyance is that its hard to track side quests, so if your forget where some one told you to go then...good luck!
I wont ramble so in conclusion this is an engrossing character based rpg with a engrossing story and unique combat system which has made me fall in love with my wii again.
I hope you enjoy it even half as much as i have.

With the current trend of Jrpg's taking a nose dive into the forever deepening loss. The last story (TLS) comes in swinging to remind us all just what a jrpg is about, More so when it concerns the fabled final fantasy series (to which we owe thanks to Mr sakaguchi).

If compared to the likes of Final Fantasy XIII (and FF13-2 to some degree) TLS comes out on top, Easy as chips.

This is a beautiful driven story with an easy to master combat system which is both fun and enjoyable. The progression and rate you gain skills fits the story line perfectly as you start your quest as a mercenary. The story is slow to start, to allow you to get to know the people you find yourself with as you take control of a young wanna be knight zeal, You find yourself on forgotten pirate ships, Chasing Spirits of the land and even exploring haunted mansions in the side quests.

The game is short however, and it leaves you wanting more but skipping the side quests you can easily ammount 20+ hours of play, and there is always the extras provided by the side quests and multiplayer the game offers.

The mulitplayer comes in to types, Deathmatch and co-op. the deathmatch you pit your character against another players, there is no draw backs as replaying the game after completing it allows you to carry on with the level you have attained, Including Equipment and skills, and do it all again with Scaled Boss fights. You will walk through the general battles with your lvl 68 character during your second play through and have quite a shock when the boss you face is scaled to level 75. Providing a more deadly twist to the turn of fate you find your characters in.

The co-op game allows you to team up with up to 5 or 6 other players to take on the boss's. These fights are not easy and the rewards for completing them usually pay out Weapons and upgrade materials per Defeat. These items you can actually use in your solo game.

So back to the game. You have alot of control over these characters, able to completely colour and customise each characters cloth look, Change equipment in a system similar to the earlier final fantasy's.

The game brings back a true feeling of one of square-soft's old master pieces. And rightly so. The music is beautiful as is the story line, you find a deep story intertwining you and your party, and you find alot of twists and turns that shock and awe our you as the player.

Your relationship grows with the characters as the game goes on, And you find your playing for those moments, to spend time with specific characters.

The story turns from being about your journey towards knight hood to saving the world from impending doom. from the evil gurak forces. You soon realise that not everything is how it seems, and that the forces you face are more complex then one man of evil, and another of good. Your decisions impact the world and whilst sometimes it seems like those decisions are out of your control, you gain control back eventually.

This is a kick ass game, with a amazingly fun battle system that seems to grow as your characters get more powerful, It reflects your skill as a player, and the skill of your characters levels too, meaning this system is easy for anyone coming over to the Wii to experience this game.

Words cannot describe to true effect how good this game is, i can only say this, Whilst short, the game is great, and regardless of content your looking at 30+ hours of game play to play through everything. This game rewards those players who like to complete full content. (an example of this is unlocking the "remove curse" from weapons vendor, Allowing you to gain powerful weapons and items for upgrade, something which you will miss out on if you just stick to the main story.

10/10
A beautiful game from an amazing developer.

This is basically what I was waiting for, after summer release of Xenoblade Chronicles. Another great Japanese RPG, made by fathers of old Final Fantasy games, which left Squaresoft and now working in Mistwalker team. Game is pure fun - maybe a little bit chaotic battles, after couple of hours you get used to it. Graphically - it's Wii game - and it's enough for me. I preffer good storyline, deep characters and challenges, rather than beautiful graphics (like new Final Fantasy). Maybe it isn't perfect, but in this generation - it's a rare gem. If you liked Xenoblade Chronicles, you'll definitely like The Last Story. Brilliant game, much, much better than Final Fantasy XIII-2. For Nintendo Wii owners - must have title.