Reinventing the JRPG with The Last Story

If it ain't broke, should you refrain from fixing it? Although a slight rephrasing from the original statement, this question is one we have all probably faced in some shape or form. The idea of rephrasing, or perhaps refreshing, old ideas for a new circumstance is likely another situation we have found ourselves in. Whether you like it or not, this is often the state of combat and game design in role-playing games, where we can see numerous iterative versions of a rather traditional formula. It's a bit surprising that game designer, producer, and scenario writer Hironobu Sakaguchi, one of the creative minds behind the beloved Final Fantasy series, found himself asking the same question after releasing Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. “I have an RPG formula from the 25 years experience I have in the industry,” He told the media, “which is a turn-based, orthodox one.” So if the tried-and-true isn't cutting it, where do you go next?
 

Well, you go back to your roots, so to speak, with a title as terminal as the original Final Fantasy: enter, The Last Story. As Square Enix began to question the validity of turn-based combat in Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Sakaguchi would be turning the genre on its head in his own way, hoping to encourage player freedom while still offering a strategic flair. In taking a look at the way Western video game design and the awareness of a progressing industry helped Sakaguchi and his team at Mistwalker develop new systems and formula for this Wii-exclusive active-selection RPG, we can see how much of an exception The Last Story proved to be, resulting in an underappreciated title that ultimately failed to make an impact.

Before continuing, I would like to state that this article covers many of The Last Story's design and narrative elements, including some story spoilers. If you have not played the game, are interested in doing so, or simply don't prefer to learn about plot points in this way, I strongly recommend taking a look at the game. Otherwise, please enjoy.

If you have ever seen The Last Story's cover on your local retailer's shelves, it might not strike you as something all that ambitious or different from your normal Japanese Role-playing Game. Yet, from the opening moments of The Last Story, there is a clear difference in the presentation of information, pacing of narrative, and basic mechanics that shows a marked departure from the traditions of the genre. While many titles break their main narrative into numerical segments, The Last Story turns its chapters into full-fledged dungeons, thoughtfully designed, organic experience set-pieces that often have specific gimmicks and party layouts. While many chapters feature an introduction that establishes their specific scenario, the first chapter of the game begins briskly, in the middle of a mission. This action-oriented opening is backed by party chatter, a mechanic Takuya Matsumoto, lead programmer and level designer for the project, mentioned as a method of maintaining the “tempo of the game.” The team drew reference from both western television dramas as well as trends found in the trends they saw when they attended E3 during development. They kept close tabs on the games that were being released during their development to make sure that The Last Story continued to fit with modern game design. Whether or not they were able to do so is up to the player's interpretation, however there is a certain vibe that The Last Story gives that is markedly different from other JRPGs, and even those of its contemporaries. The first chapter itself is able to detail the game's cover and stealth systems, as well as its melee, primary, and secondary ranged attack modes. Near its conclusion, the player unlocks a new power that enables them to draw aggression from enemies and set up specific combinations with teammates.

Zael, the protagonist of the game and the player avatar, is an immediately striking character, mainly because he doesn't adhere to any traditional RPG archetypes. He wields a broadsword, but also a strategist with a ranged attack option. He also has Gathering, the aforementioned ability that draws enemy aggression akin to a tank. In short, he's got a wide variety of tools, and that doesn't just end with the character's own abilities. Zael's whole team of mercenaries revolve around him as a constellation of linking abilities, and he can utilize their unique traits in order to shift the tide of combat. Sakaguchi admitted “[the developers] had an experimental phase of about a year” in which they toyed with new ideas that drove home the theme of order and chaos. Zael's Gathering ability is an attempt to balance the field and set up for attack combinations, of which there are quite a few, and serve as the basis for almost all of the advanced combat techniques in the game. The validity of the combat was tested via continuously running artificial encounters and tweaking its systems until the team at Mistwalker felt confident in its versatility, which would eventually extend to player-versus-player and co-operative online battles. Unfortunately, these modes are no longer accessible in the game's current state, thanks to the death of the Nintendo Wi-Fi service. This is truly unfortunate, as they are the most unique feature in relation to its contemporaries.

Many RPGs have utilized the idea of fighting enemies within the physical environment, but The Last Story takes this a step further by allowing the player multiple methods of approach primarily through environmental manipulation. Zael is given the opportunity to sneak around his enemies for a surprise attack early on in the game, he is also given the chance to destroy a bridge stationed with archers by queuing up a teammate's magic spell. While the game establishes these enticing strategy options, the player should not assume that enemies will always be standing out in the open before a battle, rather than hiding or spawning from other corridors. In other words, strategies cannot always be developed prior to battle, and the player will oftentimes do so on the fly. Similar to many other of its contemporaries, however, is that the game never stops gifting the player with new combat abilities and micro tutorials explaining their purpose even up to its eleventh chapter. After the closing of its first act, however, the game falls into a familiar pacing that allows the player to experiment with their tools to a moderate extent, with abilities appearing via level up that further the depth of each skirmish.

While many of the game's chapters progress the main narrative, some of them are not mandatory and rely heavily on specific gimmicks within the combat system and smaller, succinct narratives, operating as side-quests. Many of these non-required chapters must be discovered in the game's central hub Lazulis City, its closest attempt at a familiar overworld. Lazulis City is arguably one of the more fascinating aspects of the game, if only because of its organic design. The town develops progressively with each completed chapter, as NPCs will interact with Zael in different ways and new stores, goods, and basic quests will appear. Material grinding is present, but handled differently, as Zael can either train his team at the Coliseum or run through the back streets of the expanse town snagging drops with his crossbow sight. Rather than opening the entire world to the player, they are limited to the area around Lazulis Island and the City itself, and players do not always have the ability to return to previously-visited areas- at least, not without seriously dangerous foes appearing. The central hub mechanics are also completely turned on their head thanks to several story beats in which the party goes to other regions. To elaborate, even with a great deal of narrative forward momentum, The Last Story always allows the player the opportunity to customize and improve their party.

The actual narrative of The Last Story is also a point of interest, largely because of how effectively it retreads relatively basic grounds. Originally, Sakaguchi had approached Nintendo with a science fiction themed story that was rejected, resulting in a more rustic and fantasy-based motif. However, the largest twist of The Last Story is that remnants of this abandoned narrative still remain, with the Outsider that gives Zael his Gathering ability revealed as an extraterrestrial being that landed on the planet. After the game takes such great lengths to establish its low-fantasy mood, this subversion comes across instead as a much tamer approach to the ideas explored in a number of JRPG titles, partially because of how the information is presented within storytelling. The Outsider, and indeed, much of The Last Story's narrative revolve around the idea of physical belonging, or coexistence in a place that is fit for the individual. Each of the mercenaries possesses their own idea of coexistence, some of which change over the course of the narrative, but all interwoven into Zael's own quest. Returning to the idea of order and chaos, those who seek to create a new standard of living through pain and suffering are considered chaotic and are positioned as antagonists, while those who seek to establish order are hailed as champions. At least, such is the case in the long run. The knights that Zael and his mercenaries aspire to become are corrupt individuals hidden behind plates of armor, manipulated by greater forces in order to retain their status. There are a select few who are able to see past these machinations, such as Asthar and Therius, but they are so deeply familiarized with the way of the world that they hesitate to engage with newcomers. 

There is more than just a struggle for survival within this narrative, there is a questioning of morals and an understanding of natural order meant to be communicated. Although that summary might glorify the thematic elements of the game somewhat, its focus on an intimate scope and individual character development is a large part of why The Last Story succeeds in telling such a common narrative in a different way. The combination of its strangely cozy aesthetics and large number of small, yet charming quirks make for a very engaging experience, one that feels fully-realized even within its shorter, 40-50 hour comprehensive playtime. There is rarely a unique character design introduced within the narrative- both main and in side-content- that is not fleshed out to its fullest extent. Zael's band of mercenaries get a substantial amount of development throughout the game's many chapters and its in-mission party chat, and even those who end up somewhat lacking are redeemed by their specific quirks, or their utility in combat.

If the game's theme is order and chaos, however, then one balance it does fail to achieve is properly representing this in both its narrative and combat, which feature elements that do not mesh well. While Gathering does allow Zael to command the attention of foes and thus create structure and order in battle, the ability contributes little to the narrative. Instead, the actual Mark of the Outsider has much greater purpose. A parry function is gifted to the player in an extensive dungeon sequence, it equalizes the level of aggression against a singular enemy alone- in many ways, it feels like an element that exists to add a particular layer of depth to the very few individual duels that only really make an appearance in the third act. The waning strength of the world is felt very little in terms of the abilities of the characters, especially that of a specific spirit of nature of whom I will refrain from labeling explicitly. But, when the two sides of gameplay- narrative and combat- are in sync with each other, and the feeling of restoring order to a chaotic place feels justified, the game does feel strongest. Fulfilling quests often leads to a more stable way of life for the people of Lazulis City, and is therefore a method of attaining order. Clearing the field of enemies may negate chaos, but the narrative thread is poised to work against this idea, as it paints the suffering of the people as a result of such action. Despite possessing such a compelling combat system, the goal of the game is to create a world in which such conflict is nonexistent. Ultimately, The Last Story leans heavily on tropes found in numerous JRPGs, which encourage understanding and cooperation as a means of order that will perhaps circumvent chaos.

Playing any other iteration in the Final Fantasy franchise and seeing how it stacks up against the Last Story might surprise a player whose expectations are seeped in tradition. However, the closest and most surprising similarities one might find are in the linear pacing of Final Fantasy XIII. Both largely rely on straightforward dungeon-structure and a rotating cast of characters in their playable roster, but The Last Story opens up far sooner in terms of player freedom, as well as offering a variety of scenarios that offer twists on its gameplay in comparison with XIII's straightforward battle structure and rigid narrative. In comparison The Last Story seeks to confine its action rather than attempt to cover the entirety of a vast world. Final Fantasy XIII's deep mythos is impressive, but unfortunately hidden away behind an in-game lexicon. Meanwhile, The Last Story focuses on what is necessary and allows side-content to flesh out its world further. Its rustic, vagabond nature is a huge part of its charm. It helps that very few JRPGs attempt this sort of intimacy in scope, though those that do exist are appealing for many of the same reasons. Whereas XIII feels like a tightly-wound narrative, The Last Story encourages players to live in its world, to appreciate infrequent set-pieces when they arise, but also delight in its frequently bizarre nature, which is still tame in comparison with XIII's own setting. In looking at the two RPGs together, there is an interesting sense of where their respective developers seemed to envision the genre progressing. While neither completely abandons the RPG fundamentals, they elaborate upon them in different ways. The Last Story still possesses level-ups, equipment crafting, and material grinding, but it also attempts to streamline and contextualize combat, going as far as having players use specific equipment, characters, and even mounts.

The Last Story is not technically flawless, with several odd performance issues, nor is it perfectly balanced, with a New Game+ that is largely unchanged save for some new skills and absurdly high boss HP. Some may have a hard time coming to grips with its unfamiliar systems, which don't truly mesh until the point where the player gains access to the Command function. Others might find the opening love plot a bit contrived.  Despite all of this thoughtful and unconventional design, being one of localization company XSEED's best-selling products in North America, and receiving high marks for its innovation, The Last Story has had little impact upon the state of the modern RPG. Titles like The Witcher, Dragon Age, and most prominently Dark Souls have dominated the discussion space, largely because of the wide amount of freedom they give to the player. We have not seen Mistwalker, or Sakaguchi for that matter, attempt to revise and improve the formula in later works, and few others have attempted systems like those on display in The Last Story. The niche Japanese RPG market has clung to its traditions more than ever, as we see a myriad of turn-based titles with minor alterations released yearly, and a very few rare exceptions attempting to follow certain other gaming trends, none of which were set by this particular title.

Was The Last Story ahead of its time, or did it simply miss its chance to make a splash? Part of it may have been the Wii, which was widely adopted but mostly considered a casual system. Maybe Sakaguchi's determination to create something new and different resulted in something too alienating even to traditional RPG fans. The lack of continued online functionality means a hefty chunk of its replay value is lost, which may be why the game never returned on the Wii U's virtual console service. Although Mistwalker themselves teased artwork depicting familiar characters and aesthetics back in 2013, which can still be viewed on their Facebook page, but Sakaguchi has never hinted at any sort of project existing. The Last Story was simply a mixture of the right people, with the right design philosophy, at the right time, a feat that can be difficult to reassemble, especially if demand is low. Despite all of this, if you do happen to have your old Wii, or, bless you, a Wii U laying around, you owe it to yourself to pick up and play this strange and unfamiliar RPG. A charming localization, solid combat and storytelling, and a drastically modern design masking its familiar narrative make it a modern fantasy that deserves to coexist with the greatest RPG titles on your shelf. While The Last Story may indeed be a singular, conclusive title, we can always cross our fingers in the hopes that it isn't a final fantasy.

Do you have any experiences playing The Last Story? What are some JRPGs that its aesthetic and storytelling remind you of? What would you want to see in a sequel? Feel free to comment below, and please look forward to coverage of similarly rustic titles in the genre as we continue coverage.