I was very, very excited about the release of The Last Story. This excitement was not dulled by the cancellation of my pre-order. Quite the opposite - the possibility of losing out on the Limited Edition entirely made the anticipation all the keener.
Having collected the box from my folks' house at the weekend, I've put a little over 10 hours into the game (I think...), and had a good rummage through the Limited Edition's extras. I haven't yet listened to the soundtrack CD, but I've leafed through the artbook (rather small, in terms of both physical size and content), examined the metal case that can be used to accommodate both the game disc and the soundtrack, and flipped the game case's insert round to display the nice bit of artwork on the back. It may not be the most lavish Limited Edition I've ever bought, but at least it doesn't come with yet another controller!
But on to the game.
It's a curious little thing. The weirdest part is that I seem to recall that the Final Fantasy series has drawn criticism for its most recent entries for being not so much roleplaying games in the style of the earlier entries into the franchise, as they are interactive movies with a few battle scenes... And that's precisely what The Last Story appears to be, at this point.
I'm through to Chapter 10 or 11 - whichever one is set on a boat - and several of the 'chapters' have involved nothing more than a few minutes spent running around and exploring sandwiched between some very beige cutscenes. Each chapter begins (and possibly ends) with a short piece of narration - not quite Bastion, but it gives the game a similar storybook feel. In at least one chapter, I thought the game was building towards something only for the chapter to end... and it felt as though nothing had actually happened in that chapter - a new location, a bit of exploration, lots of chat... and then on to the next chapter.
As I've mentioned before, RPGs often leave me frustrated. I don't think I've ever played one that left me bored.
Thing is, when the battles happen, they are presented as third-person action with RPG elements. Much like Xenoblade, there's an auto-attack function and the other members of your party will make their moves independently of your input unless you issue specific commands. Unlike Xenoblade, however, all this third person action presentation is smoke and mirrors - what you really have is the kind of tactical strategy game that always gives me a hard time. Even when the game is telling you how to win the battle - via spoken dialogue - I, personally, found that the winning tactics weren't always clear.
Actually, I'm speaking of the first big tactical battle - again, on the boat - where a large creature has an attack that can hit - and dizzy - everyone in the party simultaneously. One of my party has a certain spell which, when interrupted by one of the player character's special moves, creates shields to protect everyone. With the shields active, the monster's attack only ends up dizzying itself, allowing the party to get in more attacks and the player to jump on its tummy for a quick game of stick the piggy.
Sounds like a winning plan, yes?
Well... it would be if I could tell whose spell, and which spell.
I know it's one of the girls, and I think it's Mirania, but I'm not familiar enough with their voices to be certain... there are only two possible spells in her arsenal at this point. Trouble is, neither of the spells list anything about shields either before or after being broken. Trial and error got me my first 'Game Over' (actually my third or fourth - the 'evading the guards' part in an earlier chapter was exceptionally troublesome... or should that be tiresome? - but my first from a battle), with all my party losing their five 'lives'.
It's not as if I'm just going to give up on the game, but I'm certainly not feeling compelled to return, however interesting the story is, and however funny, cheeky and well-delivered some of the dialogue can be. The British voice cast probably have a lot more to do in this than in Xenoblade - where they just recycle generic soundbites in the battles, rather than carry on detailed strategy discussions - and I still get a kick out of British accents in my fantasy RPGs, but some of it does feel a little stilted, and Zael's voice actor is sometimes a little lifeless compared to Shulk. It's not as bad as the average (read: narcoleptic) American voice cast, but some of it misses the mark.
Also, I can only hope that later chapters vary the colour palette - everything thusfar has been very, very beige...
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