I think I'm the only other critic out there that gave this a negative review (I gave it 5/10), though for somewhat different reasons to Game Informer.
I may as well post the review here
And I may as well help out and give some notes. (Although Nintendo Life already did a more thorough review of the game.)
On a purely technical basis, this game is too ambitious for the Wii hardware.
That seems unlikely. We've already seen bigger games on the Wii perform better.
It’s hard to care about these characters. There’s one-note clowns, such as a woman with a penchant for alcohol (how original), and one-note heroes, such as the main character, who is a mercenary with honour that wants to be a knight (how original).
Are we talking about The Last Story here or all JRPGs?
The melee chaos is also not helped by the muddy colour palette
Combat is only as good as a game's colour palette.
there are no random encounters.
Why keep glossing over all the best things in the game?
There’s also next to no real customization involved in the game.
Not with skills, but the game has loads of weapons and armor to play around with. You can mix and match armor sets and tweak how each character looks without sacrificing defense. Ignoring that bit of customization does this game a real disservice.
i just beat the last story today and wow its hard to say which is better the last story or xenoblade
the last story probaly might be the best game i played on the wii
That seems unlikely. We've already seen bigger games on the Wii preform better.
Like what? I can't recall a Wii game that has tried to do character models this detailed, and approach environments with the kind of complexity that you usually only see in HD consoles.
In fact, I could have sworn moments of the game look like an attempt to cram Lost Odyssey's engine into the Wii.
Are we talking about The Last Story here or all JRPGs?
The Last Story. Even the Wii has JRPGs with more interesting stories - Pandora's Tower, for instance. And when you start looking at the quality of stories available in Xbox 360 and PS3 JRPGs, it's just embarrassing.
Combat is only as good as a game's colour palette.
It is when it's so muddy it's hard to see what's going on. Of course, a moronic camera doesn't help.
Why keep glossing over all the best things in the game?
I wasn't actually saying that was a bad thing.
Not with skills, but the game has loads of weapons and armor to play around with. You can mix and match armor sets and tweak how each character looks without sacrificing defense. Ignoring that bit of customization does this game a real disservice.
You can do that in Eldar Saga. A game that has a Metacritic score of like 10. It's not doing a disservice to ignore a feature that every single JRPG - good and bad - does now.
I'm definitely having fun with the game. I am still pretty early in it though. I don't see how it's getting these negative views based on what I have played. Then again, one of them is Game Informer and I never like their reviews. I think I got to Chapter 7.
I now feel like my review has just been validated. All I need is for Edge to also pan it (and I think they did?) and my review gets to sit with the holy trinity of decent English games journalism.
Edit: Nope, Edge was very positive on the game (8/10 for score nuts), so I guess I'll have to agree to differ with them.
Are you being sarcastic? I can't tell. (Destructoid is often looked down upon by people - I quite like their reviews though).
People look down on it because the Destructoid folk have a habit of criticising their favourite games. I like them because they articulate their position well, and they tend to look at games beyond just the surface.
Destructiod is the only major publication that seemed to get that Lollipop Chainsaw was criticising sexism in games, not being sexist itself. Destructoid slams games that are completely unoriginal (Mario Kart 7), and Destructiod is the only major publication that seems to get that the reason Warriors games "never change" is because they're actually well made games and Tecmo Koei is producing them for their sizable fan base, and not the Call of Duty fans. Destructioid is the only major publication that seems to realise how derivative The Last Story really is.
I don't always agree with Destructoid, but I appreciate what they're trying to do and the message that they're taking out there.
I like their reviews, as you say, because they do point out the reasoning for their opinion quite well. I don't usually worry about the score (in fact I think Jim Sterling often puts unwarranted scores up, even if the review is reasonable, simply to piss people off who put too much stock in the number at the end) but I do think they're not afraid of calling things as they see them. Usually.
I used to have a blog link here. I'll put it back up when the blog has something to read.
I like their reviews, as you say, because they do point out the reasoning for their opinion quite well. I don't usually worry about the score (in fact I think Jim Sterling often puts unwarranted scores up, even if the review is reasonable, simply to piss people off who put too much stock in the number at the end) but I do think they're not afraid of calling things as they see them. Usually.
Jim Sterling manages to be both an idiot and genius at the same time.
The guy knows how to analyse a game like no one else, but his commentaries on the actual games industry is just embarrassing.
I still boot up this game just for the atmosphere in the main town. It's such a lively, buzzing place with an overhead feeling of despair injected by the music. Reminds me of Clock Town in Majora's Mask.
pietriots.com - where serious gamers have fun with their puppies
Yeah I love the atmosphere in the main town as well. This and the music throughout the game.
The gameplay was even good enough for me to play it again on NEWGAME+. I loved collecting items and weapons for a while and finding quests and secrets I missed on my first try.
I gave it a 10 because it's simply my favourite RPG on Wii. Don't need to repeat myself about the things I loved.
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn on 2nd place, (Heroic and superbly designed, but you need to play the Gamecube prequel first)
Super Paper Mario on 3rd, (I'm one of the few who loved the change from turnbased to realtime combat)
Monster Hunter Tri on 4th, (Very fun to play online, and extremely good graphics and atmosphere)
Xenoblade Chronicles on 5th, (The biggest most epic RPG on the system with the best soundtrack)
The Crystal Bearers on 6th, (Quite exciting and full of variety, but plagued by some weird decisions like some controls or the map)
and Tales of Symphonia 2 on 7th (Gameplay is not much different from the first game, but the new characters are crybabies).
I can't rank Pandora's Tower, Eldar Saga, Baroque, Chocobo's Dungeon, Echoes of Time and Opoona as I haven't finished them yet, and Arc Rise Fantasia isn't out here.
I wish we could have ARF here in Europe, along with Earth Seeker and maybe Zangeki. Now we're talking RPGs.
When I'm done with Pandora's Tower I want to go back to Eldar Saga. The gameplay is very much like Monster Hunter just with more real RPG elements and plenty interesting skills and jobs.
I also want to go back to Opoona. I think it's worth it to make progress there just to hear more of the unique quality soundtrack.
I'm playing this now. It's possibly the best RPG I've ever played, barring Chrono Trigger. I'm at the ship portion of the game, and am really starting to get attached to these characters, thanks in no small part to the wonderful storytelling and often-brilliant writing. It's one of those games that, when I'm not playing it, I'm thinking about playing it.
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