I'm pretty up and down with this game. Mostly because of the combat. Sometimes it's really good. I like that paying attention to the environments is somewhat part of the game. It feels like the environment is actually really a part of the game. And I don't mean "oh this tile has x2 damage", though the game does have something like that thanks to gale another positive. But I mean I like that I'm moving around and cover seems to play in how I approach my enemies. Do I lure them to cover so that I can use slash? Or do I just wait for them to come to me while I'm still hiding? I don't know, it's pretty cool you know? I feel involved in the battles sometimes.
But really on the flipside it feels like a lot of that is kind of pointless and battles amount to taking aggro and defusing things. The game is pretty easy and while reviews mention that the game has these battles that feel like puzzles, I sure have yet to encounter them. There's also the fact that the game can just feel very chaotic at times and the games flimsy engine doesn't help. I'm also playing on manual so I'm pressing A to actually do shit. It makes the game feel like an actual game. But it is pretty wonky, since each slash like pushes whatever your hitting back a bit(unless they are like stuck on a wall) ,but since your in the mindset of any other action game you feel like hey I just mash x to get combos, but after 1 hit all you will hit is air. So it's kind of shitty.
As for the story, well I quite like it. I know most reviews cited that the supporting characters lack backstory or depth. I guess this is mostly true, but I don't care. Honestly, the characters are pretty entertaining. They all have good well defined personalities, wich leads to good character interaction. While most of them are pretty much character types you've seen before, they are done well here. So I like them. They aren't annoying characters at all and mostly avoid the "teen angst" complaint that's thrown at jrpgs all the time. The characters feel like well realized, smart, and mature characters. It also helps that this game has pretty much the best character designs I have ever seen. Best looking main cast ever. I said before that I like the main character, and I do. He is probably the best jrpg lead of recent times. Not to say he isn't bland, but he's not annoying to follow. He doesn't whine and most importantly he seems to have a good head on his shoulders.
The story to me is pretty decent. It's nothing amazing, but thanks to the decent cast it gets the job done. It eventually goes to typical crazy jrpg places, but for the most part the story is level headed. It's got a good personal journey thing going on that's light ant not too overly serious. It's just kind of fun. I would also say it's pretty decently written.
Though I think the game has pretty fantastic character designs and would say the art design is pretty fantastic. The graphics are ugly and not a good suit for the Wii. Wii games can look good, but not TLS. Bad textures everywhere and the game is asking for detail since the outfits(which btw are cool and not crazy as seen in say a FF game) and the games enviorments are pretty elaborate. The game also has some pretty terrible slowdown.
Anyway, I would say The Last Story is a pretty good game.
