The Last Story’s squad tactics are buried under an action-RPG costume, 15 years on

The Last Story wants to be a different kind of role-playing game, and for long stretches it is one. Mistwalker and AQ Interactive built an action RPG around Zael, a mercenary on the island fortress of Lazulis who dreams of knighthood. Nintendo published it for the Wii. Japan got it in January 2011, Europe in February 2012, and North America through Xseed Games in August 2012.

Trailer, via GameSpot.

Zael and the Mark of the Outsider

Zael leads a band of mercenaries — Dagran, Syrenne, Yurick, Lowell and Mirania — hired by Count Arganan. After a mysterious force brands his hand, he gains the “Mark of the Outsider,” a power that gathers enemies into one place. That power is the spine of the combat.

Battles mix action, tactical and stealth elements. The player controls Zael alone; the rest of a six-character party runs on AI and takes his commands. Each member has five lives and revives automatically after a set time. Attack directions show as lines between characters. Cover breaks an enemy’s line of sight. Blocking and vaulting run off a held B button. No motion controls, despite the Wii Remote.

Lazulis City and the Arena

Lazulis City is the hub. It holds shops, side quests and item runs between story missions, plus an arena where the party fights for money and gear while other characters bet on the outcome. Ruins and forests carry the main missions. The public house doubles as a save point.

The story pairs Zael with Calista, a noblewoman he first meets as “Lisa,” and drags both into a war between humans and the beast-like Gurak. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the original creator of Final Fantasy, directed and co-wrote it. He started from the mixed response to Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, and with designer Takuya Matsumoto set out to build something unlike his past work. Development ran three to four years depending on the account. The setting began as science fiction before Nintendo pushed it elsewhere.

What the game does best is the command layer. Directing a squad in real time while Zael dodges and takes cover gives every fight a second job, and the arena turns that into a grind worth running. The AI is the weak link. Party members burn lives on their own schedule, and the revive timer makes too many fights a babysitting exercise.

1. Command system: the strongest idea here, and the reason to play.
2. Arena and hub loop: steady, rewarding, easy to lose hours to.
3. Party AI: the flaw that keeps this short of great.

The Last Story arrived late in the Wii’s life and never got the audience its systems deserved. It is not Sakaguchi’s best, but it is his most interesting swing — a tactical squad game wearing an action RPG’s clothes.

Hironobu Sakaguchi · JRPG review · Mistwalker · Nintendo Wii · The Last Story · Wii RPG