The first of the last

In a surprise twist, I've gone ahead and started The Last Story. My roommate and I used to play console RPGs together on a regular basis, and once he found out about the game's pedigree he took an immediate interest in seeing what it's all about. What better way to do that than to play as a team, riffing on plot holes and character flaws together as The Last Story unfurls?

And, since it's a game on my list after all, why not blog about it.

The first thing that bites you as a player is the completely unexpected combat system. Rather than being turn-based, fights take place in real time, in fairly expansive environments that you can affect with your party's attacks and magic. True, much of the promotion of the game touted its combat mechanics as something that set it apart, but the control is more lockstep than you'd expect.

Rather than one button doing one thing and pressing that button to do said thing multiple times, the combat controls are similar to those of No More Heroes: Press the "A" button to attack, and you'll cycle through a few animations. The biggest difference, though, is that you need to be within range to actually attack - otherwise you'll just practice your hiding behind or vaulting over (if you're holding "R" on the classic controller) whatever is in your way. Otherwise, aside from the controlled character, Zael, having a handy crossbow with him, the controls are a matter of being within range and following the prompts in the lower right.

So far, my impression of the story is that it truly is the last of them. We've seen a couple of flashbacks and cutscenes to this point, and they've not been as exposition heavy as other RPGs' early parts. Most of the game's exposition - particularly of the characters' motivation comes from conversations had and scenes seen in the game's present. Though even then, some parts are missing.

For example, it may be a fine assumption to make, given the game's fantasy setting, but an explanation of why being knights is important to Zael and Dagran would be helpful. Plus, it would allow for some world-building. In the game's title card scene (that plays about 15 minutes into the game) we see a knight in a blue cape and gold armour standing fatefully and overlooking the city. He looks very cool doing this, and based on the get up he's a knight. But is this it?

From Zael's conversations with the others we can gather that there's a war that's going on in the outside world. Do he and Dagran want to become knights so they can do what they're currently doing as mercenaries but get more respect doing it? Right now that's the best guess I have aside from "being a knight is cool, I want to be cool, I want to be a knight."

Nevertheless, a game's story can't be judged from just under an hour of play. Especially an RPG's story. So we'll see how it plays out. We're already on chapter 3 of a grand total of 44, so there are still quite a few sessions left with it.