The Last Story

[JordAnime]

Nintendo trademarked this one a while ago; there was a good deal of speculation as to what it was.  I thought it was going to be that new core game from on-again, off-again Nintendo directorial super-star, Masahiro Sakurai.  Some suggested it could have been the name of the next "Zelda" game, but then, Nintendo doesn't trademark the subtitles for Zelda games, so that one was out. 

All this speculation was WRONG, though!  It's the latest game from Mistwalker, and Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy.  This is the first time Nintendo and Sakaguchi teamed up to create a game, well, Nintendo's publishing it anyway, but I'm sure Nintendo wouldn't publish just any old thing. 

Here are the details curtosey of GoNintendo"

- due out in Japan in 2010
- RPG
- developed by Mistwalker
- Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy creator, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, Chrono Trigger) involved
- game involves 'universal feelings that all of humanity share

Here's the Japanese website, which features a logo and looping musical theme from the game, most likely composed by Nobuo Uematsu(considering he composed music for Mistwalker's other entries). 

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/slsj/

It's good to see Nintendo publishing more core games, two RPGs from pretty big developers in one year under the Nintendo banner!  2010 is looking like the year the Wii strikes back.

[GamePunk429]

This is pretty sweet, it does seem like Nintendo is raising the bar this year with core games. I had not heard about this before and it looks like it will be fully revealed in March so I will look forward to this.

Though Mistwalker studios has produced the finest RPGs so far I do have high hopes for this. I feel that Nintendo needs a good core RPG franchise, the one thing they are missing from their repertoire,

[hisak]

We don't really have any information, so it's hard for me to get excited, but it has me interested. The music on the website is amazing.

Geist

Nintendo didn't publish Geist in Japan. (In fact, no one did.)

[JordAnime]

Nintendo didn't publish Geist in Japan. (In fact, no one did.)

No, but Nintendo did have a developmental influence on it, they said they'd be involved but not as much as with Retro or Silicon Knights(back in the day).  It turned out pretty poorly and I think Nintendo pretty much disavowed all knowledge of its existence. 


Onto The Last Story "news"

http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=112798

"At present, I'm focused on this one game. It's my only project. It will be raised strongly, beautifully, and gently." - Mistwalker CEO Hironobu Sakaguchi

That sounds good, because I think he was working on Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon simultaneously, which may have been a bit much for the new studio.

Here are some twitter rumors

http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=112804

- info and media for the game is due out this Spring
- a possible Wii bundle for the game is being discussed
- there are plans to make The Last Story a franchise, if the first game succeeds

That last bit makes me laugh...after all, wasn't Final Fantasy supposed to be just that, and here we are waiting for XIII with XIV in the works and who knows how many crazy spin-offs. 

[hisak]

- info and media for the game is due out this Spring

That would make sense. GDC sounds like a good time for more information.

- a possible Wii bundle for the game is being discussed

This doesn't really affect me, but if it means we finally get a black Wii that could be a good thing.

[hisak]

We have art!

One.
Two.
Three. (Overworld?)

Consider me more intrigued. It sounds like we have a very good chance of a North American release for this.

[The_Human_Cyborg]

Awesomesauce! So many console RPG's for wii... I'm happy!

[JordAnime]

For me, The Last Story is going to have a hard time measuring up to Final Fantasy XIII, but I feel like Mr. Sakaguchi will be offering up a very different type of game than Final Fantasy XIII, so we'll see.

[hisak]

The first trailer has been released, and I'm suddenly incredibly interested. I'm not sure what my expectations were for this game, but I certainly didn't expect this.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDJ5eMkHkj4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDJ5eMkHkj4</a>

Now all we need is for NoA to localize it.

[hisak]

I'm not sure if anyone here has been following the news on this game, but it's been announced that the game has now completed development. It's going to be released in Japan on January 27. There's also a big media event about the game in Japan in two days. It's being promoted so much that there's TV spots directly promoting the media event. Hopefully this huge push for the game means that we'll get a localization, preferably by the end of 2011.

[hupla]

THIS JUST IN, NINTENDO ADOPTS THE "FUCK GAIJIN" POLICY OF NAMCO BANDAI.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-01-20-why-the-last-story-is-japan-exclusive

[Ales]

I've been quite interested in this one too but I guess I can see what they mean with having a lot of stuff to do at the moment. I can wait for it as long as I know it's coming here I'll be fine.

[JordAnime]

Hey OMG the game is out!  

I picked my copy up today from Gamestop and the packaging is just awesome.  Seriously one of the best jobs ever; I know the European version has the nice steelbook box, but the US version has this really beautiful and fragile box.  I wish they'd give this kind of attention to detail with Zelda games, the main case is like like a book; and when you display it, there's no Wii Logo or information at all; it just says "The Last Story".  Inside is the game and a really nice art booklet, and if you preordered you can stick the crummy sampler soundtrack in there too!

As for the game, I've gotten into it a lot quicker than Xenoblade, which while I like it, it never really draws me in; The Last Story does, for some reason, I think it's because it's more character focused than the Xenoblade, which seems to be more about the environment and battle system.  

[Hyruleansoldier]

Oh cool!  It's been out here for a while and I'm planning to get it, just not right now since I don't want to pay full price for something I probably won't end up playing right away (the same thing happened with Xenoblade Chronicles).  Got tons of others games to play first.

But this one looked very good.  I assume it can be compared pretty well with Xenoblade?  Keep us updated!

[JordAnime]

The primary similarities with Xenoblade is that they're both Nintendo produced JRPGs for Wii from some really talented groups of people with British voice overs.

Xenoblade probably makes better use of the Wii's limited capabilities by providing a really vast world to explore, The Last Story is more intimate, and at times fools you into into thinking its a next gen.  It also has some exceptional FMV, they're not over-produced like recent Final Fantasy cutscenes, but they match the game's style really well.  Xenoblade relies exclusively on in-game cutscenes, which while it does keep things grounded, it can reduce the dramatic effects of certain big moments.

Also I find the British voice acting more palatable in The Last Story than in Xenoblade.  Xenoblade could have benefited more from a slightly over-the-top American anime translation.  I guess as an American, I come to expect british voice overs from characters of nobility and grooming, and there's a lot of that in The Last Story, whereas Xenoblade seems more a down-to-earth story about average people. 

Again, I haven't played through either of these games yet fully.

Finally, my hat's off to Nobuo Uematsu, this is one of his finest scores ever, and that is saying a lot from the man who did the music to almost every Final Fantasy game.

[GamePunk429]

I've been looking forward to this, I will probably pick it up sometime this week. Now that summer is coming to an end and my softball and volleyball leagues are ending in the next month I will have more time for gaming.

[JordAnime]

I ran into a serious issue with the game the other day, there was a battle that I was going to lose and I had to reset the game due to no ability to restart from a checkpoint, at least no obvious ability.  The issue came during a major cutscene in the game, the video played but it was skipping like crazy, I turned the system off in fear, but I hope it's an issue that can be resolved by a lens cleaning, because I don't want to have to send the stupid disc into XSEED.  I had heard reports that the company had a problem manufacturing the disc, hence delays.  Really, though, how hard can it be?  It's not like the localization is different than the NoE version.