[The Awesomest]

Oh yeah, what controllers can we use for this game?

[Pyrrhus]

Classic and Nunchuk. I recommend Classic for the camera control on the second stick, but that's a personal preference.

[MrNelson]

So I just dropped by GameStop to see if they had any in, and (surprise surprise) they didn't. He said they should get some in this week, but he also showed me that there wasn't a street date listed for it in the system (as in there was nothing where it should say S/D: MM/DD/YYYY).

He was awesome enough to give me the soundtrack for going through the trouble though :D

[CorvoSol]

First print editions comes with an artbook and special packaging. Also of note, Amazon's page for TLS now lists it as shipping in 2-3 weeks ._. EDIT: Wow, Gamestop doesn't even have a release date anymore. Did this get pushed AGAIN?

So GameStop Preorder comes with the artbook, or Amazon? Because I preordered from GameStop. I don't care if they're NOT offering anything, but if they are, I wanna be prepared to pick that up, too, while I'm there.

[thetrin]

I also recommend people turn on manual attacking. The auto attack can get really annoying later in the game if you're trying to get to a specific enemy, and you keep snapping to enemies in your area.

[walking fiend]

I also recommend people turn on manual attacking. The auto attack can get really annoying later in the game if you're trying to get to a specific enemy, and you keep snapping to enemies in your area.

I would say so too; one of the first things I did

[RedNumberFive]

I figured my Amazon order would have shipped by now. I'm starting to get the feeling that we're in for another delay.

[El_TigroX]

So I just dropped by GameStop to see if they had any in, and (surprise surprise) they didn't. He said they should get some in this week, but he also showed me that there wasn't a street date listed for it in the system (as in there was nothing where it should say S/D: MM/DD/YYYY). He was awesome enough to give me the soundtrack for going through the trouble though :D

I just checked their website and it says the 16th - that's a change from the 14th I saw last week. I'm hoping it's this week... want to pick this thing up!

[chaosblade]

So GameStop Preorder comes with the artbook, or Amazon? Because I preordered from GameStop. I don't care if they're NOT offering anything, but if they are, I wanna be prepared to pick that up, too, while I'm there.

Every copy of the game will be a "special edition" with the artbook and game a book-styled case. If it doesn't include the artbook and outer packaging, it was gutted.

There's a soundtrack sampler that was part of the PAL limited edition that's being given out as a preorder bonus.

I figured my Amazon order would have shipped by now. I'm starting to get the feeling that we're in for another delay.

Today was the ship date, not the release/street date. They should be available tomorrow or the day after, it will probably ship then.

[Magnus]

Was told the game's delayed at the border (in Canada) and to expect it tomorrow or Thursday. Source: GS Manager

[Somnia]

Based off the shipping data I saw at my old store it'll arrive at gamestop tomorrow or Thursday.

[CKD5989]

What do you guys think? Budget is pretty tight right now but I don't want to miss out. Should I pick this up now or will I be able to drive down to Best Buy or Fry's in January and grab it at my leisure?

edit - grammer

[RedNumberFive]

What do you guys think? Budget is pretty tight right now but I don't want to miss out. Should I pick this up now or will I be able to drive down to Best Buy or Fry's in January and grab it at my leisure? edit - grammer

It's hard to say. Like I said, I'm pretty surprised how easily available Xenoblade is, but my gut tells me this one may be harder to find.

[Mubbed]

GameStop said it will be in Thursday.

[Alchemy]

Preordered back in April, hopefully this doesn't end up being a waste like Xenoblades was.

[chaosblade]

What do you guys think? Budget is pretty tight right now but I don't want to miss out. Should I pick this up now or will I be able to drive down to Best Buy or Fry's in January and grab it at my leisure? edit - grammer

This is what someone from XSEED had to say in an interview about that a while back, take it as you will.

IGN: Do you anticipate a limited run for the game? If demand is present, will you consider manufacturing another run of the game? Berry: Yes, we do anticipate a limited run for the game as we already have a number in mind of how many units we can expect to sell of this title, and all our pre-production efforts will be geared towards being able to manufacture a final number somewhat close to our initial estimated number. It's too early to start thinking of doing additional runs, but as a general policy we haven't been very active on doing reprints of our other titles so far.

[rhfb]

I asked in the other thread but didn't get a response, but it looks like Dolphin is a no go for this due to freezing issues??? Would be a bummer if true but whatever, if I can use the classic controller it isn't the end of the world.

[CKD5989]

This is what someone from XSEED had to say in an interview about that a while back, take it as you will.

Pretty cut and dry. Appreciate the heads up!

[Busaiku]

GameStop said it will be in Thursday.

NewEgg is saying this as well.

[Bladenic]

I simply cannot afford this game right now. Hope it doesn't become too rare. Still haven't played Xenoblade either sigh.

[Dark Octave]

GameInformer gave this a 6/10 or something. I said "god damn" but I finished taking a shit before I finished reading the review. Said something about cliche story and bad camera and controls.

I will still give it a shot of course.

[Kazerei]

I've played so many mediocre JRPGs this gen, I don't even care anymore.

[walking fiend]

GameInformer gave this a 6/10 or something. I said "god damn" but I finished taking a shit before I finished reading the review. Said something about cliche story and bad camera and controls. I will still give it a shot of course.

Haven't read the review, but story is cliched and camera can be bad, though control is good; however, overall it is a game quite better than sum of its parts, any score below 7 is caused by a bad review; depending on personal and subjective expectations, it's something like 7-9

[clear31]

I reserved it months ago and my gamestop did not get it in. I should of just ordered online

edit:

reading through the thread, seems like i'm not the only one i guess

[Mockingbird]

I did 30 offline and 30 online hours of this when I was in Japan. I plan to do it again for this U.S. release. Awesome game. Can't wait to get my copy!

[ViewtifulJC]

Destructoid Review - 4/10

In trying to get Nintendo to release The Last Story in North America, I count myself among the most vocal of petitioners. As a fan of Mistalker's work and a lover of Lost Odyssey, I considered it the perfect swan song for the Wii, the kind of game that could embody everything good about the Wii (and there was plenty of good) one last time. When Nintendo refused to release it, I was among the angry and the riotous.

So, what do you do when XSEED does what you wanted Nintendo to do ... but it turns out that what you wanted wasn't very good? Those who never cared will most certainly jump into the fray to laugh, because if there's one thing the gamer community loves, it's schadenfreude. Others will gladly spin it into a moral about being careful what you wish for. In any case, egg will be introduced to one's face.

To very vocally demand something, only to review it negatively when it comes out, is a tricky matter regardless of who turns up to crow -- a matter that involves putting pride on the line and preparing to deal with a torrent of smugness. However, the honest reviewer must bite the bullet and face the tormenting crowd with gritted teeth.

In the case of The Last Story, I can only admit that, yes, this is what I asked for ... and no, I don't want it.

[Seik]

Thanks for the bump!

For those who are not in context with the first page, I fucked up the release date and asked Duckroll to lock the thread...it happened twice. Sorry bout' that guys.

But hey, NOW ITS FOR REAL! So let's enjoy! :D I'm at my job but tonight there's chances that I upgrade the OT a little, it needs it.

EDIT: That review saddens me. :(

[Meatvillain]

Pretty much completely disagree with Sterling's review, I really liked the game and the combat is extremely enjoyable. Not the first time I've disagreed with a Sterling review though, and it certainly won't be the last. :P

[Shiggy]

Destructoid Review - 4/10 In trying to get Nintendo to release The Last Story in North America, I count myself among the most vocal of petitioners. As a fan of Mistalker's work and a lover of Lost Odyssey, I considered it the perfect swan song for the Wii, the kind of game that could embody everything good about the Wii (and there was plenty of good) one last time. When Nintendo refused to release it, I was among the angry and the riotous. So, what do you do when XSEED does what you wanted Nintendo to do ... but it turns out that what you wanted wasn't very good? Those who never cared will most certainly jump into the fray to laugh, because if there's one thing the gamer community loves, it's schadenfreude. Others will gladly spin it into a moral about being careful what you wish for. In any case, egg will be introduced to one's face. To very vocally demand something, only to review it negatively when it comes out, is a tricky matter regardless of who turns up to crow -- a matter that involves putting pride on the line and preparing to deal with a torrent of smugness. However, the honest reviewer must bite the bullet and face the tormenting crowd with gritted teeth. In the case of The Last Story, I can only admit that, yes, this is what I asked for ... and no, I don't want it.

WHAT?!

The Last Story introduces a real-time combat system that, while noble in its intent to shake up the genre, is so poorly implemented that it actively ruins any fun that could be had in the game. It attempts to blend various elements from action, MMO, and strategy games, but by adding so many ingredients to the mix, the end result is unchecked chaos.

Poorly implemented? Not really.

Compounding the disorderly ruckus is the fact that so few controls are relied upon to perform multiple tasks. Zael both walks and attacks using the analog stick. He uses cover, dodges attacks, and performs special moves using the same button. He vaults over cover and guards using another button. This leads to each fight frequently become a direct battle between the game and the player, as one carefully edges around enemies to avoid hitting them, or tries to dodge an incoming blow but ends up crouched next to a small wall that was too close. Zael will dodge instead of pulling off a special move because the player didn't come to a dead stop before holding down the dodge button, and good luck trying to distinguish which walls can he can run up and which ones he can't. Then there's the crossbow, which is essential in some areas but is slow to use and leaves Zael wide open to attack.

Gaming journalism at its best. There are different control options; I did not encounter any of these issues with a different control setup.

Just in case you're still confused as to what the issue may be, let me repeat for clarity -- Zael walks and attacks using the same analog stick.

Then change it so that you attack with the A button!?


Some other criticisms are justified, while the score definitely isn't.

[RedNumberFive]

Pretty much completely disagree with Sterling's review, I really liked the game and the combat is extremely enjoyable. Not the first time I've disagreed with a Sterling review though, and it certainly won't be the last. :P

Sterling mostly complains about the controls, and how a lot of things are mapped to only a few buttons. Would using a classic controller change this?

[Kai Dracon]

Jim Sterling review = LOL

Sterling has serious trouble figuring out how to actually control games, or investigate in-game configuration.

[Kai Dracon]

I did 30 offline and 30 online hours of this when I was in Japan. I plan to do it again for this U.S. release. Awesome game. Can't wait to get my copy!

Say, just how elaborate is the online portion? I was never clear on exactly what it does.

[Karsticles]

Jim Sterling review = LOL Sterling has serious trouble figuring out how to actually control games, or investigate in-game configuration.

Oh man, I almost clicked the review, too. I can't take anything he says seriously. The man must be terrible at videogames, or something.

[Shokio]

Can't find this game anywhere. Checked GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy, Fry's and even Toys R Us. Does ANYONE in the freakin U.S. have this game yet lol?

[MarkusRJR]

Jim Sterling is literally one of the worst reviewers I've ever seen. I just avoid any review he writes because his reasons for hating/loving a game have little bearing on if the game is fun or not.

[Pyrrhus]

So his complaint is that the game is both too chaotic to plan out but also too easy to need to plan things out? Okay. There's no doubt that this is a light game. Or that it's a bit different in how it controls. But it's not nearly the hassle he says it is.

He's outright wrong that you can't direct your allies in battle or control who you're attacking, however. I don't know how much of his difficulty stemmed from using the nunchuk and remote instead of the classic control.

If he thought it was unchecked chaos it makes me doubt his faculties. It's usually a fight between your 6 combatants and perhaps 8 or 10 enemies. You point in the direction of the enemy you want to strike, hold a button when you want to block (and later tap it if you want to try to deflect an attack and auto-counter). You press another button to bring up a menu where you command your characters to use special attacks. Battles generally come down to being able to correctly prioritize targets and understand elemental strengths and weaknesses. In practice, that generally means "kill the mages first." I'm not sure where he could have gotten confused.

[FlashbladeGAF]

Can't find this game anywhere. Checked GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy, Fry's and even Toys R Us. Does ANYONE in the freakin U.S. have this game yet lol?

news is first round shipments got delayed. Expected on the 16th

EDIT: GS around work says it will have there's tomorrow(the 15th)

[SpaceBridge]

BOO!!

Called my Gamestop where I preordered and they said the game has been delayed to all Gamestops in Canada until Thursday. :( Oh well, we waited months for this, we can wait two days.

[walking fiend]

Sterling mostly complains about the controls, and how a lot of things are mapped to only a few buttons. Would using a classic controller change this?

What he is saying is bullshit, plain and simple; nothing is wrong with the controls when you turn off the auto-attack.

The walls are mostly climable. And of course the crossbow leaves you open for attack, it's so you don't freely disable the mages and archers.

[DownWithTheShip]

My GS says they're expecting it today, but UPS doesn't arrive for a few more hours. I'll let you know if they actually do get it, although i'm not counting on it.

[Alextended]

The controls are fine if you opt to keep auto attack too imo. It's a decent convenience, with it on you'll never (or rarely, I wouldn't promise never, it's been a while since i played) attack someone out of range and so miss, you just adjust how you play a bit (for example hold block - or tap it at the right times - when you just wanna move around otherwise you'll be stalling and mashing on enemies while trying to escape them), it's up to you if you'll use it or not, I do fine with either setup and with either supported controller. The only real issues I had with the controls were in a handful of scenes where the frame rate is borderline unplayable and that they didn't use the pointer for the crossbow/fpv (which shouldn't be a problem for most multiplatform people I guess).

On the presentation side, again, the frame rate only really became an issue in certain scenes, like the very final bits, or certain city areas. Not that it was stable otherwise but eh, any console gamer has played games that didn't perform so well, it doesn't mean it's a constant annoyance. At least it was mostly smoother than The Witcher 2 on my aging PC, lol. I was more annoyed by some not so great cut scene animations and voice acting, which also weren't too frequent thankfully.

I think the game would have been better off with less focus on Final Fantasy style cut scenes, since they don't seem to have had the budget to make them all great, and more gameplay. More bosses and encounters requiring unique approaches, more dungeons, more large battles while on the run, more of everything. And leave the additional story development outside the important parts to simple character dialogue scenes, walking up to them and pressing A like you often do etc.

I also didn't like having lives. I'd prefer a longer health bar. Lives just don't seem to fit. I guess it's more of a presentation issue. Dying and instant retrying a battle is not that different to being knocked down, reviving and adjusting your strategy without an actual defeat. Some people could enjoy how much more instant it is this way, but it kinda makes it feel cheap to me.

That's it. Fun, unique in ways, cliche in others, flawed, more than the sum of its parts, worth playing & rooting for a sequel.

[Hiltz]

I suspected Sterling may have been off his rocker. He seemed to have screwed up other reviews in the past too, like Vanquish.

[Karsticles]

I suspected Sterling may have been off his rocker. He seemed to have screwed up other reviews in the past too, like Vanquish.

And Kid Icarus.

What really drives me nuts is that he always seems to review the games I'm looking forward to. Oi.

[stuart]

This has been on my "To Buy" list for a while (I'm in the UK).

I was hoping the price would come down, but for well reviewed Wii titles the price doesn't seem to alter much. I don't know if they produce a limited number or something. I finally forked out £35 for Kirby's Adventure Wii after deciding it was never going to get cheaper.

[picklecannon]

Amazon.ca changed the release date to the 21st. I just want to play this game before summer ends.

[Apdiddy]

Destructoid Review - 4/10 In trying to get Nintendo to release The Last Story in North America, I count myself among the most vocal of petitioners. As a fan of Mistalker's work and a lover of Lost Odyssey, I considered it the perfect swan song for the Wii, the kind of game that could embody everything good about the Wii (and there was plenty of good) one last time. When Nintendo refused to release it, I was among the angry and the riotous. So, what do you do when XSEED does what you wanted Nintendo to do ... but it turns out that what you wanted wasn't very good? Those who never cared will most certainly jump into the fray to laugh, because if there's one thing the gamer community loves, it's schadenfreude. Others will gladly spin it into a moral about being careful what you wish for. In any case, egg will be introduced to one's face. To very vocally demand something, only to review it negatively when it comes out, is a tricky matter regardless of who turns up to crow -- a matter that involves putting pride on the line and preparing to deal with a torrent of smugness. However, the honest reviewer must bite the bullet and face the tormenting crowd with gritted teeth. In the case of The Last Story, I can only admit that, yes, this is what I asked for ... and no, I don't want it.

Jim Sterling lost all credibility with me after his terrible Kid Icarus: Uprising review and calling a woman unspeakable names on Twitter.

[Himself]

I'm glad the "gaming press" is setting such low expectations for the game. Even amongst fans the reception is lukewarm. These are the sorts of games I end up being pleasantly surprised by.

[Zeer0id]

Can't wait for today's Podtoid, Jonathan Holmes absolutely loves TLS so I definitely expect a fun argument.

[Nilaul]

Guys this game is one of the best games I ever played. The reviewers a complaining about some weird issues. I liked the voice acting, the story, the battle system is possible the best JRPG batltle system yet. There were some occasional framerate issues, but it doesnt ruin the enjoyment.

[Aeana]

Guys this game is one of the best games I ever played. The reviewers a complaining about some weird issues. I liked the voice acting, the story, the battle system is possible the best JRPG batltle system yet. There were some occasional framerate issues, but it doesnt ruin the enjoyment.

Constant framerate issues. There is pretty much no instant in the game where the game has a stable framerate.