My most anticipated RPGs of 2011: Day 6

The Last Story - Wii - TBA:

The name Hironobu Sakaguchi is synonymous with the brand Final Fantasy, as its creator Sakaguchi has been at the helm of some of the best games in the series, as well as being the executive producer/producer of countless others. His reputation was built on an unwavering stance of providing extremely polished games to the players and the will to bring something new to the plate. But when the failed movie venture, Final Fantasy: Spirits Within in 2000, came out to massive amounts of negative reviews, he voluntarily left SqaureEnix to make a new company named Mistwalker.

Since then the company has made a few solid if unspectacular RPGs for the Xbox 360 and the DS. But with the The Last Story the company is aiming for something substantial, but what is more important that Sakaguchi-san is the director of the game after a span of 19 years!. His last game as a director was Final Fantasy V for the SNES, so you can see The Last Story is quite an important game for the RPG genre. The Wii may have been an odd choice for a game for this caliber, but with the Japanese release early this year to some really good press it is a clear indication that the game and and console of choice was indeed inspiring.

The Last Story may very well be the last game from Sakaguchi and so the game seems to have pulled all stops and is set to give a great RPG experience. The game uses a variant of the turn based/ action RPG mechanics and twists it in a new direction. It is a huge departure from the turn based system which Sakaguchi specializes in and in the case of The Last Story this translates in huge expectation of RPG players on a whole.

While the setting of The Last Story is reminiscent of awesome games like Final Fantasy XII or Vagrant Story with strong medieval influences, but it still has stamp of a master who knows and loves his trade and it will be interesting to see if whole product is as polish as Sakaguchi older games. Oh yeah the game also sees Nobou Uematsu as the music composer which is always an awesome thing and we can expect the same high level of compositions Uematsu-san is know for.

The Last Story still awaits an official announcement for an English version but very recently there have been rumbling of an announcment soon, but till the E3 arrives its still all up in the air. The Last Story is very easily the last big game for the Wii and if it strikes gold then Wii will end up having one of the best RPGs in years. I really hope the game does get a English version and is as good as the hype!

Co-pilot

Before reading on I suggest to the read this article:

http://kotaku.com/5656943/the-gamer-i-really-am

Playing video games with my siblings is one of my most enduring childhood memories. Spending hours with my older brothers playing Super Mario Bros, or using cheat codes in Contra in an effort of finish game. Jungle Strike on the Sega Mega Drive was a game which me and my brother played quite a bit, doing mission turn by turn or helping out in difficult sections. Another game which vied for our time was Brian Lara Cricket. Here was game which we played tourney style, and it was always a blast. Streets of Rage series was one also another franchise we sibling with play alot.

With my purchasing of the PlayStation, coupled with my brothers getting less and less interested in games, I started getting more time playing single player games, and slowly I enjoyed them more than playing with my sibling. My gaming started to revolve around RPGs and it was good. Although it didn't matter much that none of my siblings were interested in gaming much (barring a few games here and there of course), but I did miss simpler days.

As my brothers left home, my gaming would become a total single player experience, as my sisters were either too young or just not interested. But that changed, just for a short period of time when I purchased PS2's first Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy X. As the game started, my younger sister (who is just a couple of years younger than me) caught a glimpse of me playing the game, and just like that she is like watching me play the game intently, marvelling at the graphics, chipping in with a suggestion on beating enemies and getting really surprised at how the story was developing. This went on for while, and I was kinda surprised that a single player game had caught the attention of one of my siblings. Its not that my sister was interested in the game itself, but she got intrigued with the game's story and the characters.



Now whenever I would put the game, my sister would come and watch the cut-scenes (not FMVs mind you, but story exposition cut-scenes). New developments in the story and characters would be discussed and analyzed. Hell even the sound track would get a bit of attention. I actually had to stop from progressing the story for a month as my sister's annual exams had started, and that gave me ample time to get all the ultimate weapons for my characters and finish all of the side quests by the time her exams finished.

And when the game reached it epic conclusion, and I had broken down into a sobbing mess, my sister was there to witness that doing her best not laugh at me all the while trying to cheer me up during the credits. Yes the game was quite incredible and I regard it as a crowning glory in the world of RPGs, but I know it as a fact that the game become so memorable due to my co-pilot. Even today we sometimes discuss some of the finer points of game's story and the characters.

Invariably after a few years when my youngest sister (who is alot younger than me) started playing Final Fantasy 10, I would usually watch her play and essentially performed the co-pilot's role.

Single player games are still the trend of my gaming, but as I said, for a little while Final Fantasy 10 become a 'multi-player' experience.

But anyways the article written the Leigh Alexander (in link above) was quite the read and will be visiting her blog Sexy Videogameland.