The Last Story- Wii

Rich narrative with characters you actually care about ; Innovative and fast-paced battle system ; Beautiful visuals push the Wii to its limits ; Heaps of side quests ; Great localization

Minor frame rate issues

Despite being set in a single city, there are still a wide variety of quests. One moment, you're fighting off hordes of enemies in Lazulis castle; the next, you're enjoying a quiet drink in Ariela's Tavern before being whisked away to explore musty...

Brilliant, sweeping battlefields ; Slick, varied and exciting combat: part-RPG, part-third person action game ; Trims all the fat, making for a lightning-paced adventure

Cliché-riddled characters straight out of 1986 ; Frame rate judders badly during exploration ; Bit of a pushover

Lively combat and fun scenario design plaster over the narrative cracks. Not the glorious last hurrah we'd hoped for, but as fun as Wii games are going to be in a dry 2012.

Episodic tale adds pace and variety ; Tremendous localisation tailored to UK audiences ; A wonderful, dynamic battle system

Clichéd plot, framerate issues

Although it can't quite live up to Monolith's last astonishing reinvention of the JRPG, The Last Story offers highlights of its own. Full of gags, bawdy humour and pratfalls (what other game gives you the chance to shoot bananas at the feet of citizens...

20 hours seems like a ridiculously short amount of time, especially when it comes to caring about someone. Making a friend or falling in love takes much longer than that. 20 hours is nothing compared to the length of a life; yet games, at times, can...

A JRPG that's hugely innovative; Emotionally affecting characters; Amazing ending; Did I mention innovative?; Fantastic gameplay; Fine-tuned controls

Chugs on Wii hardware; Minor camera issues

There might be a tiny bit of a joke in the name The Last Story. Early in his career, Hironobu Sakaguchi was fed up with game design and decided to quit. He went to his boss and asked to do one last game before he left. That game was the original Final...

Great use of character and story, innovative and engaging battle system, solid graphics, fantastic music, proper use of sidequests, manages to avoid some annoying JRPG tropes

Camera placement can interfere with battle, auto-attack can’t tell when you’re retreating, no sidequest journal