The Last Story Diary is a series of articles in which I will chronicle my adventures while playing the Japanese version of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s The Last Story. While there will be no spoilers of the story’s dialogue (I don’t know Japanese), there will be descriptions of certain situations I encounter that could be considered spoilers.

As I booted up my imported copy of The Last Story, I was greeted by its elegant title screen. A beautiful piece by legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu plays as the screen fades to white and the title appears.

Upon choosing New Game, I was shocked to find myself in direct control within seconds. There were no incredibly long cutscreens explaining the world to me or seemingly endless segments in a peaceful town, waiting for some ancient evil to show up. Instead, a short camera pan showing my location, Lizard’s Cave, was the only thing preceding my journey through the first dungeon.

A very brief, optional video tutorial showed me the basics of the controls. Always on the lookout for treasure, I decided to venture in the opposite direction from the game’s initial starting point. I came across a weakened part of a wall which I was able to break open. This revealed a treasure chest. Yes, there was already a secret to find before I had ever gone in the direction the game wanted me to.

After moving around a bit, I decided to delve into the game’s menus. Not only do they have a slick design, many of them thankfully have a decent amount of English text. I noticed an option named Color. It allowed me to change the color of eight different aspects of each character’s clothing as well as toggle visibility on certain pieces of my armor.

I could tell I was going to have some fun with this. Immediately, I switched from the grim, funeral-ready palette my characters wore to a bright, pink jacket and blue jeans. You can save these pallets for quick access.

While familiarizing myself with my abilities, I found that I can take cover behind walls (both chest high and regular height) and take pot shots with my crossbow. By accident, I also discovered that I could cartwheel over the backs of my party members (forward or backward). Any game that allows you to cartwheel over your comrade’s back while wearing a bright pink jacket is a-ok in my book.

Before encountering enemies, I was presented with a battle map. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t any actions I could take at this stage. It did, however, give me an overview of everything I was up against. After an easy battle, I noticed my party’s health seemed to regenerate between large encounters.

A later battle proved more interesting as it introduced me to destructible environments. By looking around in first person view, I was able to find a structure and order one of my party members to cast a magic attack to bring it down. At this point, I fought not only enemies on the ground, but also snipers on a bridge above. This forced me to make use of both my sword and crossbow.

Things got much more interesting, though, when I received the gathering ability. The touch of a button will toggle it on, causing all enemies to focus on you. There are obvious dangers by pushing the “Hey, guys! Come kill me!” button, but it allows you to manipulate enemies into leaving your magic users alone. Magic attacks have a countdown timer and if your party member is hit before it reaches zero, they’ll lose their progress on casting that attack.

Another interesting bit about gathering is that you must have it on to revive fallen party members. Everybody, including main character Elza, has four lives essentially. Lose one of your own and you’ll get up after a moment with your gathering ability turned back off. But if your party members need a revive, you’ll have to run over to them and enable your gathering ability, alerting the enemy in the process.

A special circle right before the dungeon’s boss allowed me to respawn enemies in case I wanted to grind. I unintentionally tried it once before continuing. After I entered the boss room, everything really started falling apart. I had no idea what I was doing, and almost lost. A giant creature threw spears of energy that exploded after a delay. Occasionally, I got impaled by one which, after blowing up, caused massive damage.

The creature occasionally went on a rampage, destroying pillars in the room. One of my party members cast a circle of fire which, when I entered it, powered up my weapon with the fire element. There were also items on the ground labeled “cannon” that I could throw, causing a white circle to appear, though I wasn’t entirely sure how they worked.

After a long fight in which all my party members died, I finally bested the beast. It wasn’t until looking online later that I learned I was suppose to lure him to a bridge with the gathering ability and blow it up, causing him to fall to an instant death. Whoops! Better luck next time, I suppose. Still, having the “insta-kill” be optional rather than required is a nice change of pace, even if it meant me doing things the hard way.

Shortly after leaving the dungeon, I found another large fight waiting for me. I ran across a mountainside as tons of civilians ran the opposite direction until I came across a white tiger with a blue glow. This boss fight was much less drawn out (since, you know… I was actually SUPPOSE to fight this one). But aside from the standard attacking, dodging, and guarding, I also needed to lure it away as one of my party members helped a few trapped civilians escape. It added an interesting layer to the fight.

And that’s where I ended my first play session with The Last Story. Be sure to check back soon for the next entry!

Tags: Hironobu Sakaguchi, import, JRPG, Mistwalker, Nintendo, Nobuo Uematsu, rpg, The Last Story, The Last Story Diary, Wii

This entry was posted on Monday, January 31st, 2011 at 5:00 am and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.