The Last Story
 

The original creator of Final Fantasy (Hironobu Sakaguchi) announced a new game for the Wii recently, called The Last Story.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s...farmer/62l.jpg

I wonder if this is going to be the final fantasy of this Last Story....

Ignoring the bad naming skills the creator has, I'm kinda looking forward to more information...

Wikipedia article

Xenoblade/The Last Story is going to be developed by Monolith Soft, the developers of Xenogears and Xenogears. Working with Mistwalker proved that Sakaguchi can't create an excellent game alone without an excellent team. Hopefully, this games has much better potential because it is developed by Monolith and it was one of Nintendo's major announcements this year. I will be happy if the composed is Yuki Kajiura, the composer of Xenosaga II & III, Mai-Hime and Tsubasa Chronicle.

Xenoblade is a different game from The Last Story. Xenoblade was first introduced as Monado: The Beginning of the World last year, while the Last Story is a new RPG that was just recently introduced.

LOLOLOL What was I thinking? XD You are right. Sorry about the mistake.

Xenoblade=Monolith's project. Monado was actually Xenogears's initial name.
The Last Story=Sakaguchi's and Mistwalker's next project.

I think the announcement of the two projects together confused me and I thought that Monolith was going to be a co-developer, just like what Feelplus and Artoon did with Mistwalker's previous games Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon.

Anyway, I still hope that Mistwalker develops something excellent and worth the wait, not just something "good" (LO :rolleyes:). I don't care if it is for the Wii or not since I don't care about the graphics.

Well, when he named Final Fantasy, Square Soft was going bankrupt and he was going to retire after finishing it. Then it saved the company. So...that one, I can understand. I'm not as sure about this title though. :heh:

Also, I'm listening to the theme on loop even though it's really short.

Well I hope it's better than Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey...

Lost Odyssey was decent, It's just people expected production values similar to Final Fantasy. With a bit more polish, you could've called it a Final Fantasy and people would eat it up. It's still one of the stronger next gen J-rpg's.

Blah, why the Wii of all things. I might actually to dust it off.

Lost Odyssey was good at most. The game was simple just like a SNES game in HD graphics. Even some SNES games had better much better battle systems and better level design. The story was good and so were the graphics although the game had some issues with UE 3.0 engine. The game's budget was high but the game itself lacked production value and could have been more polished. Sakaguchi alone can't do anything as good as Final Fantasy without the highly experienced developers at Square Enix. You couldn't have called FF even with more polish. The game simply needed much more than that to reach that level and it is not even close to FF. Many people praised the game because of the fact that this generation lacks JRPG. The best things were probably the dreams and the soundtrack which was composed by Nobuo Uematsu even though it wasn't as good as any of FF games.

Don't get me wrong, I like the game. But I wouldn't give more than 7.5/10 as a professional score coming from some who have been playing JRPG for years.

Honestly what did it really need though? A more advanced battle system? Level design isn't that different. Art direction maybe, but for me they all look crazy. The only thing that makes FF stand out more is that has more frills. The core it self ain't that different.

FF9 considered one of the better FF's didn't have much to offer either next to that magical feeling. Though I prefer certain FF games over LO. I can't argue with a straight face that some where better. The short stories just add to the magic. I applaud SE for doing new things everytime, but the quality has been anything but consistent. I can honestly say that LO does fit in between the best and worse of the series. I am talking about the 3D one's. Comparing FF1 to LO is hardly fair.

Since you mentioned FF9, I agree that the game had a unparalleled magical feel but not just that, everything in the game was applied properly and it had the best PS graphics. It had the feel that makes you call it a masterpiece.

LO wasn't even close to any of the 3D FF games. I wouldn't compare it with FF1 of course but FF V, for example, had much better battle system. The battle system of LO didn't really have anything to standout. It just had the usual RPG magic and elements applied basically and even the ring attack wasn't that much of an addition. The CG cutscenes were also mediocre. As I said, the game was good. Not excellent, not legendary, not a masterpiece and not something big that gamers would brag about everyday.

A simple and clean game with a basic battle system that didn't bring anything new to the table with nice HD graphics. The result is a "good" game. I still don't know why some people would think others hate the game if they say it is not very good or not excellent. Overall, LO wasn't the kind of RPG game that I would be looking forward to the most. Anyway, does it really matter? Our masterpiece is coming next month.

I still don't really understand your point. Do consider the game excellent? Would you give it a score above 8.5? I think it doesn't deserve. But do you think the game is good? I thought we agree on that.

I don't consider the game excellent, but what it did capture is that epic feel that FF is known for. Gameplaywise it wasn't innovating, but FF9 gameplay wise wasn't innovating either. The majority of FF games honestly aren't that innovating, but have certain quirks that expand the same basic system. Sure the CG cutscenes weren't all of that, does that really matter if the game already presents a pretty good epic feeling. What Sagacuchi tried to with LO was similar to FF9 go back to basics, while keeping that style the 3D FF's are known for.

I think a 8,5 would be an accurrate score, my point is that FF's aren't all 10's either.

FF9 is possibly the only one that didn't have something that wasn't that innovative which the abilities systems. But do I need to remind you about the rest? Like the materia system in FF VII, the sphere grid in FF X or the gambits of FF XII (I didn't like FF XII that much but this is not our point LOL). All of FF games were polished to the point of "almost perfect". However, I agree with you that not all FF games are 10/10.

If you said the epic feel from the beginning, I would have instantly agreed with. I DID actually shed some tears while playing LO and the characters felt so alive.

I gave the game 7.5 which is strict but I would say that the majority would give it between 7.5 and 8.5. But I hope that Sakaguchi will make an >or=9 game this time. I don't know why but this time I am anticipating something significantly better. I am looking forward to The Last Hope on the Wii. I don't care about the graphics as I said above.

Still was the Materia system just nothing more the equiping items that give magic and then leveling them up? FFX/FFXII is just variation of the talent tree system. LO did introduce a system where Immortals could learn from mortals. Though nothing special imo, my point is it that different from what FF introduces. Though FF always seem to innovate like crazy if you ignore the western rpg's. :O

Even though I hate the wii with a passion and I do think the name sounds retarded, I do hope this will be Sakaguchi's big break. I can steal my nieces Wii anyhow. :p

But the abilities learning in LO was limited :D. Should I remind you by the countless number of choices out of materia system? Go and play FF again, will ya? You are starting to forget its awesomeness :p

Anyway, there are many decent Wii games that will be released this year such as SMG 2, Metroid: Other M and the new Zelda. In addition to many other games. I am not a Nintendo fan, but we have two Wii consoles at home. No wonder Nintendo makes billions of dollars out of it :heh:

It might have to do with, that I don't really care much about gameplay in rpg's, unless it's an action rpg. I'm happy if it just isn't frustrating.

I actually replayed FF7 to FFX last year. :p

i just want a remake of Xenogears with update graphics, the completion of the 2nd half of the game and a better dub or better yet a jap lang/eng sub option.

I agree a proper 2nd half would do so much good. That game could've easily become my favorite JRPG ever, if the 2nd disk wasn't crap. :|

Well Xenoblade is in development from Tetsuya Takahashi(director of Xenogears/Xenosaga). It's getting released spring 2010 for the wii. Wii is getting a lot of jrpg lovin. I think the wii/ds just might be the jrpg systems to have.

I can understand why here. Developing for the 360/PS3 is costly with on the high expectations to be met and it's a high risk gamble as to whether the final product will met the sales target.

With the last-gen spec and the deep market penetration rate, it's caertainly a draw for developers without deep pockets in hope of a lucky break like Mistwalker here. Their DQ and FF clones was mediocre at best and that last outing on the DS was abyssmal. It's little wonder they turn to the Wii.

But there's no telling those casual gamers who sucks up softwares like Wii Fit,Wii Play and Wii Sport Resort can bear to sit down for about 2 hours a day in front of the TV or even invest 30+ hours in a game.

Hopefully with the ease of development and low cost of the Wii, they can make a truly exception JRPG. Preferably with a really new and innovative battle system though. I'd rather them not take a couple steps back when they should be pushing forward.