Fans of the Final Fantasy series may have noticed the games declining in quality over the years. I have yet to play any of the newer ones beyond Final Fantasy X (what I regard to be the last true Final Fantasy) but everyone other that games reviewers, who we know cannot be trusted, have said almost nothing but bad things about the newer Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV are simply an MMORPGs with Final Fantasy branding slapped onto them. I started Final Fantasy XII when it first came out but played it one time for 3 hours and had no desire to return to it because it was so boring. I will have to someday though.... And from what I've heard of Final Fantasy XIII, it's simply a 30 hour tutorial where you walk from A to B through linear corridors.
Most of this downfall in quality in the newer games is due to the vast majority of the teams that made the older Final Fantasy games leaving the studio and the new ones are now being made by entirely new people and just can't put out the same quality games the original team did. But thankfully, most of this old team are still making games and still together in the form of Mistwalker Games. And some of the games that they put out, mostly this one and the incredible Lost Odyssey) can genuinely be considered to be the true new Final Fantasy games in all but name because they have a lot more in common with the legacy than the new pretenders to the throne do.
All that being said, I can indeed confirm that this feels like a true Final Fantasy game through and through. The battle system is quite different to the usual fixed standing battles and instead adopts a free roaming system where you move close to an enemy to hit them. You can also command other characters to attack or use magic and distract enemies or enhance ally spells once they have been cast. Despite seeming simple at first, there is a lot to the battle system that I gradually realised as I went through it hacking things to bits.
It adopts a system similar to Final Fantasy IV in that new spells and skills are unlocked just by levelling up so you do not have to hunt down new spells or equipment to get them. There is also the usual armour and weapon systems like Final Fantasy games but in this one, like a few others, you can upgrade both weapons and armour with the use of cash and/or specialist items breathing new life into old equipment. I did a fairly straight run through the game only doing a few optional side quests, but even doing this, I was almost always flush with cash and good equipment so this aspect of it seemed fairly easy except for the difficulty ramp at the end of the game.
One minor deviation from Final Fantasies of old that this game takes is that you are not trying to save the entire world. Just your own island, Lazarus Island, from a reptilian species called the Gurak that you are war with. You play a character who is in a band of mercenaries with his friends who has ambitions to become a knight of the empire. You start off doing small times jobs, but as usual, you get embedded in larger and larger jobs with more widespread effects and end up battling for the fate of the island itself.
The characters in your gang are all very notable and different and well fleshed out through both the main story and some side missions. All but one character who just seems to be there to tick a box and is quite irrelevant in the big picture.... The NPC characters are also very well fleshed out and you do feel strongly about helping/stopping them all. Basically what I'm trying to say here is that the characters and story are very expertly done and do a great job of drawing you in to the world.
This is also one of the most visually impressive Wii games that I have ever seen and it seems Mistwalker did a great job of squeezing every last ounce of performance out of the machine's limited spec to make every character and location look as detailed and wonderful as they could. It even feels like they push it too far a couple of times because there is hints of slowdown in very busy areas and battles where it is asking just a little too much and the Wii struggles to keep up.
I was a little hesitant to play this before hand because I had heard mixed reviews on it from many sources. I had considered striking it from the backlog due to lack of interest but now that I have been through it, I am very glad I did not because it was a truly wonderful JRPG that continues the legacy of the classic Final Fantasy games in the best way possible. Once again, it seems more and more that reviews can not be trusted.
Even the name "The Last Story" is quite similar to "Final Fantasy" when you think about it....
Sidenote: barring any games that I add after the backlog is finished or anything done in co-op, this is the last game on the list for the Nintendo Wii. The backlog is finally coming to a close....
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