RF Generation Message Board

So Duke.Togo, Wildbil52 and myself have been tossing around the idea of playing through The Last Story (Wii) in the very near future. We want to play through it at the same time so that we can talk about what we're experiencing and even dabble in the multi-player a bit.

Just thought I'd toss an invitation to anyone else who might be interested in joining us. The game is still current enough that you can still pick it up locally so hopefully at least a few others might jump in.


Friend Codes/Skype:

Crabmaster2000 - 3440-1645-4575 ------ Skype = Crabmaster3000
Fleach - 4213-2594-4998 ------- Skype = fleach.rfg
techwizard -  4814-6100-9172 ------- Skype = thelambpost

That's a great idea! I've been wanting to pick up this game, so I have some incentive.

If you think you will grab it soon, let us know so we can include you.

I'm in. I just have to wait the 2-3 days for Gamefly to deliver it.

Sweet!

How does starting on the 10th sound to everyone?

Got some time this afternoon to find the game so count me in.

How will work? Will it be like a book club in the sense that we'll play up to a predetermined point then discuss our experiences?

I would caution that everyone would need to set a certain point in the discussion, and if spoilers are going to be mentioned, that the spoiler tag be used:

This game is awesome and although I played it when it came out, I'm looking forward to joining the discussion!

this sounds like a cool idea and i might even want in on it. my only concern is what shadow mentioned about spoilers...i can't think of a way to coordinate and tell people at what point to stop playing without  spoiling the story. unless there are distinct cut off points like chapters or missions of some sort (i'm unfamiliar with the game).

I'm sure that if someone who has already played the game can be the group leader we should be okay. That way co-ordinated cut off points can be determined. Otherwise we could break this up into chunks using chapters.

ya, i just mean how do you tell someone where to stop without risking spoiling something? like to describe where to stop you would have to describe what's going on at that point i would assume, which might be hard to do without spoilers in some cases :P . unless there are actual chapters, then it's a lot easier.

GrayGhost can you chime in about the concerns with spoilers? If its not broken up into chapters maybe we can have a discussion after each boss battle or something?

I did a quick search and according to GameFAQs it seems The Last Story is divided into 44 chapters with the last four being parts of an epilogue.

Looks like we're in for something big.

As long as you guys can give a man with kids time to keep up, it sounds fun.

I don't have a wii :*(

Lost it in the war.

Hopefully that'll make things much easier for us. So does the 10th work for everyone?

i'd like to get in on this too then, in-game chapters will make it way less complicated. the 10th would work for me but i wouldn't be able to start until about 7pm pacific time...were you thinking of getting everyone to play almost exactly the same time, or just aim to have a certain amount done each day?

personally i'd say depending on the length of the chapters, one chapter per day of playing would probably be best for everyone. that way those that are busy with kids and whatnot won't have much trouble keeping up.

The 10th works. It should give me enough time to finish Farcry 3.

December 10th is good. I like the one chapter per day idea. That should allow for everyone to be able to follow along.

Yeah it is divided into chapters, but I wouldn't use each chapter as a cutoff point. It's a 25-30 hour game so those chapters go by fast. Maybe chunks of chapters would be good for discussion points. I don't remember so well because it wasn't something I was paying attention to, but maybe every fifth chapter would be good?

I hate to say this, and this in and of itself may be saying too much, but there ain't much to spoil in this game.

Don't get me wrong, spoiler-free is the way to go, I'm just saying there isn't much to worry about.

Very tempting. A perfect reason to be more active on this site and play The Last Story...

Not to mention another chance to be a part of a community driven playthrough. I always get a little peeved at myself for not joining in on the previous ones hosted here.

I guess I'm in as well.

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. I never owned a Wii so will I need to buy any hardware or controllers to play this on my Wii U?

When I tried to get into the Wii menu and couldn't access it because I don't have a Wii remote.

WHAT?  6 days to finish Far Cry 3?  Come on, man, take your time!

I believe you'll need a Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

Glad to have you on board Scythe!!

oh ok if it's only 25-30 hours then i agree longer cutoff points would be better. someone should start a poll to vote on different ways of doing it to see what everyone would prefer.

I vote for beating the entire game in one session while having a 10+ person simultaneous Skype call :)

i'm up for the voice chat but nope.jpg to marathon it LOL

edit: though i'd prefer teamspeak over skype, not a fan really. i have a teamspeak server if needed  :)

If we can coordinate a skype call across various time zones that suits people's schedules, skyping while playing would be awesome.

Otherwise, I suggest we just play up to a predetermined cut-off point then on the discussion date get on skype, the forum, or a chat room and talk about our experiences.

@wildbil52: I have Gamefly games (including Last Story) waiting for me and some games from the library are sitting on my desk as well. I'm almost done with the game anyways with only five missions left.

What is teamspeak? If its free and easy to use I'm willing to give it a shot.

I couldn't Skype unless there's a phone app for it. My comps in my room and our only Tv is in our living room.

Teamspeak is a popular voice chat service.  It isn't free but you do get your own server dedicated to voice chat.  http://www.teamspeak3.com/?OKEY=google_its3_teamspeak-s

There is the RFGeneration Chat Room, you know... it's IRC, so you guys can chat while playing too. You can even mix/match, where IRC and Skype/Teamspeak are used. There's also Ventrilo for another option.

to clarify, it's free on the client side. it only costs to rent a server, which like i said i do have one already ;). it's really simple to use and a small lightweight program to download/run. it's specifically intended for people to use while gaming, just like Ventrillo.

edit: i just remembered my server is only a 10 person max (you pay per user slot). so it's an option with less than 10 people, but otherwise skype will have to be it. or the RFG chat like shadow said, but i much prefer voice chat while gaming, i'd rather not have to be keeping an eye on a text chat. not to mention my keyboard would be too far from my tv whereas my headset has extension cables so i could voice chat much more easily :P

I'm up for trying it out if others are as well.

Whether we end up going to Teamspeak or Skype would kind of equipment is needed?

I've used Skype before to chat with distant relatives, but I only use the built-in camera and microphone on my laptop. It seems like I have to get some gear for this.

If you've got a Guitar Hero/Rockband mic around the house those work good with Skype and any old pair of headphones. You'll just need to figure out a way to mount the mic close enough to your face. I use a camera tripod and just wrap the extra cord around it to keep it there. Your built in mic will work too if you dont have anything better, just plug in some headphones to reduce the extra noise coming into it.

ya the most important thing for the sanity of everyone else listening is to use headphones, not speakers...hearing your own voice echo through someone else gets annoying really fast.

I know that problem all too well. After some rummaging around the house I found a Skype compatible USB headset.

I'm ready to rock!

Totally awesome game, my favourite Wii title. What chapters people play will be interesting. Having only played it once it'll be interesting to hear about what quests and decisions people make since the game isn't entirely linear and each side quest also gets its own chapter number.

Sounds like it might get messy in here. Can't wait!

this should be fun! just let me know if anyone wants to try my teamspeak server instead of skype and i'll pm the info to whoever needs it. if everyone prefers skype that's fine though, i'll go with whatever most will be on.

Everyone pumped to tear open that cellophane tomorrow?

What's the game plan for the chat? I'll be free tomorrow before 4pm or after 10:30pm EST. The latter would be best for me because I won't be preoccupied with anything else.

I think that 10:30 for you is 7:30 my time, which would work for me. I'm gonna probably play it a bit earlier than that. If you want to meet up at that time and try out the multiplayer I'd be game.

i'll be playing starting around 7-7:30ish same time zone as crabby. what kind of multiplayer does this have, is it co-op story or something else? co-op might be neat to do if everyone wanted to form groups to work on it.

Will we be playing the main story individually while chatting about what we're playing? My only concern is that this might be a fair bit of multitasking. The game's an RPG so we'll already be busy micromanaging our teams while coming up with battle strategies (apparently battles occur in realtime).

I'm leaning towards playing to predetermined plot points, then meeting up on Skype, Teamspeak, or a chat room and discussing how we did, what we liked, etc.

i'm fairly comfortable voice chatting while playing at the same time, but it does tend to be a bit more difficult with story focused games when you want to hear the cutscenes. we could always set a specific time to meet to chat, but then anyone who wants to chat while playing can go ahead and do that too.

I guess I'm the odd one who can't have a conversation while playing a game. But then again, growing up as an only child, I never had to talk while playing a game.

I'm fine with whatever is decided upon.

I thought we would just enjoy the single player stuff on our own and then discuss it here in the forums (or in the chat if people are interested). And then use the Skype/Teamspeak stuff when we play the multiplayer together since I dont think there is any sort of voice chat within the game.

Gonna go pop it in right now and get started!

Just got home from work and I have to jump straight to homework. Looks like The Last Story will be my lunch date for today.

Just looked this game up in the database. No pictures. I'll have to fix that.

So I woke up very early today (one of the joys of working nights I suppose :/) so I had some alone time to give it a try. I'm saved at the very beginning of Chapter 5 and just over 3 hours of play time. I spent probably about half of that exploring the city and doing little side quests, some of which were quite amusing and others were just your standard fetch quests. I did all the side quests that I could find except I wasn't able to find 2 more Frogs to catch for the one boy by the docks, only 1. Anyone know if the other two are around or maybe its something that I wont be able to do until a bit later?

I did two bouts in the Arena and I have to say its pretty interesting. I'm usually much more of a fan of turn based RPGs, but I think this might be an interesting battle system. Looking forward to putting some more time into it. I'm also assuming that the online multi-player is going to use the Arena format. I believe there is both a co-op and competitive option for it too. If you guys want to post of PM me your friend codes for the game I can edit the first post in this thread with everyone's code.

Even on the 5th Chapter there isn't much to spoil story wise yet. They are still kind of just exploring Zael's character and havn't gotten to the meaty stuff yet. The music is pretty good so far and I'm liking the english voice cast. The character models all look king of odd to me though. Almost like they are wearing creepy masks.

I was using my Classic Controller to play and it worked well, but it dawned on me that the Crossbow stuff would probably be better with the Wii Remote/Nunchuck so I switched over....... only to find out that you don't use the Wii Remote as a pointer for the Crossbow anyway. That seems like an odd thing. Oh well, I swapped back to my Classic Controller.

I used the classic through the whole game.

Are you doing the standard battle type or manual? There is a big difference and I must recommend manual.

So, no gamepad compatibility? I'm not expecting the screen portion to work, but will it function as a controller?

I'll give it a go using the remote/nunchuk and see how it goes.

Nintendo must be laughing all the way to bank when people who never owned a Wii are trying to play these games.

The Gamepad turned off when I entered Wii Mode on my Wii U.

I forgot that it mentioned Manual Mode GreyGhost. Thanks for reminding me. I'll give that a try too for sure.

After an hour and 45 minutes of playing I got up to the beginning of Chapter 5. I'm enjoying the game so far and think it's got some good things going for it. The story is interesting, although very little has been revealed so far. I can pick up on the Final Fantasy stylistic elements within the story telling which is nice because I absolutely love that series.

The character design is interesting, but I'm going to question the use of English accents. The main characters are mercenaries, but they speak the well educated upper-middle class. It's no deal breaker, I'm just nitpicking.

I've been playing the the remote/nunchuk combination. It's a little tricky to grasp the controls, so I might just head out and buy a Wii Classic Controller. Please tell me that works on Wii U as I've spent a good chunk of money to get this game up and running.

Considering that I have never played Wii games, and am not accustomed to the remote/nunchuk set up I left the battle mode on auto. There were a couple instances where I had trouble turning off gather because of my unfamiliarity with the weird placement of the C button. I'd say it's just a matter of spending more time with the game to get used to the button placement and set up.

My overall impression is that this is going to be a fun game. I get the feeling it's an old school RPG in design with a contemporary execution.

If anyone wants to dabble in the co-op multiplayer tonight I'm free after 10:30pm EST.

I should be around for some co-op tonight. I'll post me friend code and Skype name when I get home later.

Towards the end of Chapter 4 I think. Not bad so far, but I can't quite tell if it's really gonna grab me or not. I also can't quit thinking about Xenoblade Chronicles as I play it (My GF and I were cracking Manado jokes during chapter 1). I'll have to make sometime between homework this week to really sink my teeth in it.

Updated the first post with my Friend Code and Skype Name.

Crabby, can you add my Skype Name to the first page too? It's fleach.rfg

Doesn't look like your online Crabbo.

NVM.

just finished to the start of chapter 5, so far it's not bad, like silent scythe though i'm not sure yet how much i'll like it. it controls well (even with wii mote/nunchuk), and the gameplay seems good. i'm just not far enough into it yet to say for sure if i'll like it, and it's not one of those games that instantly grabs my interest at the start. i laughed quite a bit at some of the things you could do though. the world trembles at my feet as i throw apples in the street ;) . and the prank banana crossbow ammo. also the music is great, and the story seems good so far.

some things i'm not happy with though are the lack of a quest log...at least for side-quests. i really hope this changes later, because i know i'll be forgetting what i was supposed to do on some side quests if i don't have a way to track them. the only other complaints are some graphical and audio glitches...textures flickering on and off near the edge of the line of sight, and some dialogue being voiced at first and then partway through the voice stops and there's only subtitles. otherwise not bad.

@crabmaster2000 i couldn't find the 2nd or 3rd frogs either, i'm assuming they're somewhere near the river but the only clue was the fortune teller that pointed me to the first one at the docks. there was one boy who mentioned someone that lives in a hut only accessible by swimming across the river, but i never saw any way to actually swim. there were ladders leading out of the water to the docks, so maybe there'll be a way to swim later.

also i just setup my skype account, could you add thelambpost to the list of skype names please, crabmaster?

Yeah I meant to mention that it was pretty annoying not having a quest log too. Glad you brought that up. With longer quests and just having multiples going on at once it'll get pretty annoying if they don't have a remedy for that.

So Fleach was kind enough to meet up to test the online portion with me tonight, with Duke.Togo listening in to our Skype chat. I think the consensus was that the co-op portion was no good with just the 2 of us. We either need to get a party of 6 or come back when we have much better equipment. It was disgustingly hard and we tried most of the different fights available. We got slaughtered. One or two hits was all it took to kill us and when it was all said and done we were lucky to get 1-2% of the bosses health down.

Deathmatch on the otherhand was a bit more interesting. With two people it was a bit slow, but I imagine it to be pretty frantic is we can get a full roster of 6 involved in the match. They have extra items around the arena to equip, lots of areas to hide and climb on. Seemed like it had some potential.

I'm pretty rusty but it'll be interesting if I could time it right to take part in some online play.
I never even touched the online part of the game until after I finished the story mode so have no idea how it fares at lower levels. Will look up my code next time I get a chance to hop on the Wii.

so the 5 chapter per day idea seemed to go well for me, should we keep doing 5 per day or just play it by ear depending on how long they seem to get later on? i wasn't sure if we had even fully decided on that for the first day or not, everyone just seemed to have an unspoken agreement on it :P .

also for skype, unfortunately i have to work until 9pm PST tomorrow, so i should be online around 9:30 or 9:45 roughly if anyone is still on at that time. i've added crabby and fleach to my skype contacts so i'll see if anyone's around when i get home, i'd like to try out some of the multiplayer with you guys too if i can :)

Just going to chime in and give my two cents on what Crabby and I played last night.

Co-op was definitely very difficult with our low level characters. I was under the impression that the co-op mode featured the main story line but with your online friends taking control of the other principle characters. What it ended up being was like an arena type deal where you and your friends have to take down a boss.

Deathmatch was more fun, but I agree, it needs more than two players. I think we likened this mode to Super Smash Bros in an RPG setting.

All in all, it was a good experience. These online multiplayer modes showed potential.

As for the 5 chapters per day... I'll probably fall behind today. I stayed up fairly late last night, so I just might take a power nap and then head off to work. This won't leave me with a chance to play today as the TV the Wii U to hooked up to is also the main household TV (and I'm sure certain family members won't want to watch more silly video games). I'll try to get onto Skype and chit chat if techwizard and Crabmaster decide to play/Skype tonight.

Just found out my brother-in-law will be coming up for a surprise visit this evening. He is only staying for a couple days, but because of that I won't be available for online until Friday at the earliest. Probably won't have much time to play the game at all while he is here either. Don't worry about leaving me behind though, I can always play catch up when he heads back home.

I put in another session this morning and got to Chapter 12 I think it was. Story is moving along a bit more now and the battles are opening up a lot more with new skills and a slightly bigger party becoming available. I'm really liking the fighting more and more. I spent a bit of time in the Arena and whenever I see one of those Summon Circles I tend to spend 5+ extra battles on them. I think I've levelled up my characters a bit much because of it though. At the very start of Chapter 12 my characters are all levels 17 and 18. Got a really unique weapon equipped right now too. I think it's called the Zero Blade, and it looks like a massive Pizza Cutter! I'm loving it.

Its got more interesting now, but I'm still hoping for more. I'm intrigued enough that I want to keep playing though so that's definitely a good thing.

i thought of a better idea than a daily pace to go by, why not weekly? say 20 or 25 chapters per week (sunday - saturday), that way with the holidays and family visits getting in the way it'll be easier for everyone to work it into their schedules. or whatever amount people think works best, and it would only be a rough checkpoint, like give or take a chapter or 2.

Weekly checkpoints. I like that idea.

You're right that this will allows us to stay on track while maintaining, shall I say, social lives. However, 20 chapters per weeks means we'll finish in just barely over two weeks. I was thinking more along the lines of 10 to 15 chapters each week.

Well guys, it's open to discussion.

ya i thought about that too, 10 to 15 might be better

I'm on board for weekly also. That makes a lot more sense and I feel a bit stupid for not being the one to bring it up :P

Sounds good to me, I had a semi-surprise visit from family as well so I'm a bit behind.

I finally had a chance to start. I made it to Chapter 7. The combat is decent, and I have to agree that the crossbow controls could have been more interactive than press A. I'm looking forward to continuing the story tonight.

Cool to have you on board Addicted!

It looks like some people have already reach the first weekly cut-off point. I guess I've got some catching up to do, but first I want to try out the arena.

The cool thing about a weekly goal is others can drop in at any time and still catch up.

lol, I peeked too, but now you have me quite curious about the other option. Did you guys touch after that or just talk? Apparently I'm a perv because I peeked and touched!

I tried the touch option twice before I selected talk. Some of the choices in this game remind me of Leisure Suit Larry.

@Fleach: Glad to be able to play this game as a group.

Are we talking about the Stargazer's Tower scene?

Say, does anyone else find Zael a nice guy, but a little wimpy? Maybe he's too much of a nice guy.

Since we have a decent number of people playing this game we should all try the online features.

Something about his get up reminds me of Rob Thomas...

Just made it to chapter 12 and... my opinion hasn't really changed. Some of the new abilities change battle up a bit but it still feels a little lackluster at times, I'm not sure but I feel like I'm doing very little in battle aside from pointing Rob in the right direction and holding forward.

Characters, Voices and Graphics are all still to my liking though. 

The story-line has me going back and forth though. It's played to a few RPG Cliches and avoided some major ones as well. And at this point... I would say more but I can't use the spoiler tag for some reason :P

Yeah, I get hit with this error if I try. Is it the same on your end?

i've been busy actually and having done anything past that one bath part, so i didn't get to the touch or not option yet lol. here's a video of the other option at the bath (skip to 2:25) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5odu-heSX8&t=2m25s
DON'T WATCH IF YOU DON'T WANT TO RISK SPOILERS FOR THOSE NOT AT CHAPTER5 just saying ;) .

Just made it to Chapter 12. The story does open up but I made the game too easy by spending too much time at the arena. It does suffer some major slowdown during the arena battles as well. Spoiler permission error with me as well.

I remember this haha. I was being a complete gentleman too up to this point when a little voice popped in my head and said. "It's just a game, what's the harm of peeking."

Yup

Made it to Chapter 16. I'm trying to play a little further as I'm going on vacation this week and won't be able to play until after Christmas.

I'm on the chapter where you have to rescue your buddies on the warship. I know this probably means I'm well behind everyone else, but I just haven't had much time to play lately.

The story is getting more interesting now and Zael seems a bit less wimpy. I'm enjoying the battle system quite a lot now that I've unlocked the tactical command issuing feature. This will make things a lot more interesting.

i'm still only on chapter 10, falling a bit behind...i'll catch up this week though

I finally popped the game in again last night and played up to Chapter 17. We're finally getting some plot revealed!! Its definitely getting a bit more interesting, and the fights are becoming a bit harder. I actually have to figure out how to approach some battles and not just run in All Guns Blazing. They really seem to be hitting home the point about the Garuk's relationship with Humans. Must be something to that later on me thinks.

No doubt my fave RPG this gen. You will have to do 2-3 play throughs to get every chapter as some are optional and easy to miss

I was curious about that because I think I went 1-14 then 16-17. Wasn't sure if I missed something or just didn't notice the chapter 15 heading. Since 13 and 14 seemed almost like side quests I thought maybe I just missed one more after those 2. That pretty much clears it up for me.

I didn't know you could miss or skip chapters. Cool.

i think that might have happened to me with #2, i don't remember seeing that and suddenly i was at 3

Should be able to put a bit more time into this tonight if all goes well.

Made it to chapter 23 I think. I'm either doling something wrong or the last few mini bosses and boss were designed to be super annoying,

Played a bit more last night. Last chapter I beat was Chapter 25, but I think I went right from 22 to 25 so I'm hoping I can find at least one of the 2 chapters I skipped before moving on. They may have gone slow with the story at the start of the game, but its going full tilt with it right now. I'm loving it! Big juicy chunk after big juicy chunk. I'm kind of surprised that its still introducing new game mechanics at this point in the game too. My characters are all in the early 30s now and just learned a new technique for a couple of them. Definitely having to switch up my battle tactics much more often lately as the old "run in screaming and hacking" just isn't gonna cut it for most battles.


Which bosses are you referring to? I havn't notice that at all.

I still can't use the spoiler function so I apologize if I ruin anything for anyone.

The big Shade boss and the few fights leading up to it.

The earlier fights just seemed annoying to me. The ones where you had to stun those giant skeleton things before you get one shot on the dark master or whatever. I found dodging the skeletons attacks a bit difficult and even when defending he broke me out of "glow mode" about one 1/3rd of the time. The first fight wasn't that bad but the second and third time seemed to drag on thanks to being swamped by mobs and dealing with two giant skeleton guys.

The Shade was the first time I used the command feature to varying success. Switching Marania from attacking to healing and back slowed down the battle and I never got to heal anyone who had gotten possessed. Dagbarn ( or whatever, I forget his name. I honestly call him Delita because I don't really trust him) was always so aggressive when he was possessed I always just killed him and I never learned what to do when Marania was possessed so I just killed her too.

I see what you did there. Hardy har har.

Spoilers below if you guys don't want boss strategies......














I found with the big skeletons that you could only block his horizontal swing. For his overhead cleave or ground stabbing thing you had to use your dodge. So as soon as I saw him prepping a move I'd hold block, once it was apparent which move it was just start dodging around. This also put you in a great placement to hit him from behind while Dagran (I also don't trust him) fights him from the front.

For the Big Shade I used command a fair bit too. Leaf spell with Marania and then pummle him until it wears off. Knock his skeletons off the ledge quickly before they wander inland (if you're quick its super easy), then command Marania to cast a heal circle. Use gale on the heal circle and it'll disperse it so that Dagran regains control of himself. Repeat until you've slain the shade. If you've got Dagran with you its pretty quick since you guys can chain attacks really easily on the Shade.

Did you do the fight in the sea cave with the Kracken? That one was interesting.

i'm way behind now...i'm a bad procrastinator, plus christmas kept me busy lol. currently at chapter 13, i was at 10 before playing tonight. i plan on trying to catch up this weekend. starting to get more interesting though, i like where it's going.

It definitely picks up from there on out. I'm enjoying it a lot more now that during the first 10 chapters.

Nope I haven't fought any Krackens yet.

Played a lot more tonight and its getting EPIC!!! I'm at the very start of Chapter 35 now and I can't wait to see what happens next.

I should have some time to play tonight now that I'm back from vacation. Still on Chapter 16.

Spoilers- I'm gonna complain about another boss here-


The Kracken.... calling it intresting is being too nice in my opinion.

This boss handed me my first loss, in fact it was generous enough to hand me 3 in a row.

The fight is alright except when Lowelle asks me to vertical slice something. When I do it to the Kracken all Zael does is a little break dance on his head. The camera seems to focus on a stone pillar in the middle of the battlefield when Lowelle talks but as far as I can tell V. Slicing it doesn't do anything. 

Spoilers below!!







What level are your characters at because I'm not finding these fights as annoying as you are? I think my guys were all around 30-33 when I went in. Have you been upgrading your weapons and armor as well? When I did the vertical slice Zael sunk his sword directly into its head and then got shook around before he sunk back into the water. The took off about 1/5 of his life meter for me and had him disappear immediately after I got off him.

The other option was to straight on attack him. In that case you have to constantly be aware of him casting that black circle around you and dodge out of it quickly otherwise it does MASSIVE damage. Because of that I stuck with the vertical slices. A bit slower, but much safer. The tentacles really weren't much of a problem. 

My characters are in the 29-30 area. weapons are all around +5 and armor +4 for just about everything. That black magic circle one shots me pretty easily which is a pain because it usually hits me while I'm getting the vertical slice ready. A successful(?) vertical slice seems to take off more like 1/10 of it's health for me I think. It's health bar depletes so slowly that I wasn't sure I was pulling off the V. Slice correctly. I don't think the numerical damage displayed either when I landed it.

Thats not far off from where my characters were at. The damage text was pretty faint over top of the Kracken, but it was there for me. Other than looking through your equipment for more optimal setups I'm not sure what other advice to give. There is a boss coming up at the end of Chapter 34 that I LOVED, but I'm a bit worried you might find him frustrating too :/

I find that most bosses are fairly easy once you learn the appropriate strategy/micromanagement style required for the battle. That's how I've been playing so far. Just trial and error until I win.

I remember struggling a bit with the bosses Silent Scythe mentioned too. Maybe not as much but they still stick-out in my mind a little because of the struggle nonetheless.

played another 3 chapters tonight, i'm up to 16. shouldn't take me too long to catch up at this rate, and the story just keeps getting more interesting.

Finished this sucker off tonight!!! Can't wait til you guys catch up so I don't have to worry about spoilers, lol. Anyone up for some online tonight (Saturday) or tomorrow?

Might not make it past the Kracken, this guy is seriously giving me problems.

I might join in some online play tonight. If you guys are going to Skyping too, I should be able to at least join in the banter.

What time works for you? Maybe we can co-op that Kracken boss and come up with some strategies for Scythe and others when they get there.

Thats ok Crabby, I got the Kracken after figuring out a few things such as:

Ditching the Fire Weapon I had equipped, the extra elemental weakness damage didnt amount to much.

When V. Slicing from a long distance the damage may happen before you even get to the Kracken, so don't get discouraged if it seems like you're not doing damage when you're on top of him.

When Lowelle says "Run the ceiling's collapsing!" That's when you should use you're command point to tell everyone to retreat because they'll just interpret his warning as "Stand still it's our only hope!"

Didn't get much further after that. Though I found the chapter 20 mission so I did that, and had some heart to heart talks with Lowelle, Sayrenne and Yurick.

Glad you broke though! It should be smooth sailing for quite a while now.

slowly catching up! i'm on chapter 20...though i've actually already done 21, somehow i skipped one and went back. i think it was because both were side quests as far as i can tell.

Yeah that happened to me a couple times too. I was afraid I was missing some questing at first, but was relieved to see that I didn't after all.

I turned my wii on just to look for Castlevania in VC but was too much money so I decided to see what disc was in the wii(been a couple months since I turned it on) and it was TLS. I went to my save file that has the game beaten and thought I had every chapter done but stumbled upon Chapter 43. Short one but this happens a lot as you get surprised with another chapter

I love it when I dig out a system and find a game inside. It's always so exciting!

Anyway, I put in some more time with the game last night. I'm still on the Gurak Warship. I spent a good chunk using the summon circle and doing some level grinding. Gotta admit, I like the idea of the summon circles. It's such a nice alternative to wandering the world map waiting for random encounters when trying to level up.

same here, everything to do with the combat just feels great.

It gets even better a bit later on even.

Chapter 33, Funny... I find myself going back and forth from being really mad at the story and being happy with it. If nothing else I can give it props for getting me emotionally invested.

I hope to finish it within the next two days.

I made it to Chapter 22 last night. Story is picking up but the pathing for Zale's companions is wearing on my patience.

that annoyed me a few times too, especially when it's a small room and they block the door.

Can get annoying yeah, but at least you can hold block and flip over them.

That's what I was gonna say. I liked it because you could flip over them. Thats fun!!!

Game has many great little touches in animations. Funny I only now discovered how to dive even tho I had the game a full year

Chapter 39, Gonna finish tomorrow. The last two bosses gave me trouble again. It's no fun when bosses can one or two shot you...

So I'm not alone in thinking that there are loads of bosses who can KO you in one hit.

I'm at chapter 18 or 19 so I'm going to power through as much as possible tomorrow.

i meant in the city areas where you don't have battle controls like flipping over people :P

anyway i'm at chapter 23 now, already finished 24. the bosses can be difficult but not that bad, i feel like i've over-levelled my characters a bit. i usually do 3-5 summons whenever i see the circles, i haven't even done too much in the arena.

When everyone gets to the end we should see if we can't figure out a time that the whole lot of us can meet online for a few co-op and vs. matches.

Beat it. Last boss took a few tries but not too horrible.

I can't wait to discuss this game with you guys when all is said and done.

so what chapter does the final boss fight take place in, sounds like around 35?

I believe it was more like 39-40. Some of the chapters are short though as most of the end game is just jumping from boss to boss.

At chapter 34 now. I wanted to shoot Captain McGiggles.

lol, I love his chuckle!

Music was pretty awesome for this fight IMO.

I think a massive co-op/versus match when we're all done or nearly done the game is a great idea. When roughly would you guys want to do this?

Remember there is 44 chapters and some optional. So can take a couple playthroughs. The past year played the game at least half a dozen times if not more. Dunno why but the game just sings with me. My fave RPG this gen

Finished the game. It did seem to go on and on and on towards the end, but the ending was good enough to justify the wait.  I enjoyed it a lot more than the latest Final Fantasy.

Is everyone finished the game? Today I played up to Chapter 29. It's really picked up and I'm having a blast with the story.

What levels are you guys? I'm hoping to do some online co-op with anyone whose interested.

I was level 68 or 69 when I finished the game. I had to return it to Gamefly so they ship Ni no Kuni in time.

I have everything leve;ed up to 99 weapons knight armor and Zael as well as everyone else.

not yet, i'm still on chapter 28. glad i'm not the only one who's behind ;)

Welcome to the Stragglers' Club!

finished to the start of chapter 35! almost there, it's definitely getting epic now.

The game gets really interesting around the chapters in the mid-twenties. Interesting plot twists are revealed, the battles become more exciting.

I'm roughly at the same point in the game as you Techwizard. Hoping to finish today.

Good luck on those working to finish. I'm interested to hear what you think of the ending.

So true. First the first several chapters I was waiting for the game to really draw me and and get moving and right around that point your talking about it did just that.

Just played up to the beginning of Chapter 41. It feels good to join the guys who finished the game.

The boss battles in Chapter 40 were downright fun! I really liked how the story culminated although I knew Dagran was the traitor from early on... I mean he was missing for a good chunk of the game. The character started off pretty superficial and Zael was very wimpy, but the way they matured was presented very well.

That was $40 well spent. I'd say this takes the number two spot in my top RPG list right behind FF X.

i just finished too! i walked around the castle a bit during the epilogue and found chapter 42, so i finished that before stopping...though i haven't actually found the start of 43 yet. i highly recommend talking to as many people as you can everywhere in the epilogue, there seems to be a lot of cutscenes that pop up to tie up loose ends and add a bit more to the characters.  chapter 42 itself was pretty integral to the story too.

one thing i was kind of weirded out by was to not see any credits at the end...it makes me wonder, does the game not count it as fully finished until we go and do all the rest of the chapters we've missed? or is there really no credits sequence?

There was a credit sequence for me, did you get the final scene at the stargazer tower?

really? that's weird...i did get a cutscene at stargazer's tower, with the outsider being sent away. after all that it just faded to white and i was back in the castle bedroom.

There's another stargazer's tower sequence at night. The credits roll shortly after that.

...

so i just beat The Last Story this morning guys! i didn't even say anything about beating it last night. you must have imagined it. i hope. :laugh:

anyway ya i explored a bit more this morning before work and found the actual ending, it was good! though i don't like that you had to search to find it...they could easily have just continued the cutscenes from the outsider scene at stargazer's tower. it was hard work getting to that part, and it would have been nice to have a more laid back ending where it's like other games...you beat the boss, and then enjoy the rewards of a satisfying ending to the story. this way made it a feel a little anti-climatic and more work than it had to be.

i do like that they have a lot of things being wrapped up as you explore the city and castle, but i think they could have done the ending to the credits, and then put you back into the epilogue after you finish.

Now that you mention it, I kind of agree that it was a fair bit of work to get to the final credits. Even though I didn't mind fighting the baddies in the Arganon tomb it would have been nice to just cut to the chase and show everything in the form of cutscenes.

http://thehut.pantherssl.com/design-assets/products/10578879/ll.jpg

why does europe usually get the better limited editions for everything

I own both US & PAL  :razz:

I would love to own the soundtrack for this game.

I agree, the music was fantastic. Especially the pieces during the later boss battles. I was rocking out the Jirall fight music.  :freakboy:

If you pre-ordered it through a couple different places you got a sound track. One came packaged with my copy.

http://www.gamepodunk.com/_/industry-news/nintendo/xseed-offering-a-soundtrack-pre-order-bonus-for-the-last-story-r1008

I really like how the game ending works since in all honesty I wasn't ready for the game to end yet... The only negative thing with an interactive ending is I'm worried I may have missed out on some events or chapters.

It's a pity the soundtrack didn't come as standard with the game like it did Xenoblade Chronicles.

XB came with an OST? News to me. I never got one. Came with an artbook and in PAL only the CE came with a red CCP. TLS in LE's PAL and US came with a OST and artbook and the PAL version got a steelbook. Also yes you did unless you got all 44 chapters

i know i missed a handful early on...maybe 3 or 4. but later in the game i was more thorough, i'm 90% sure that i didn't miss any chapters from at least 17 to the end at 44.

Awe, the art book would be cool. But the standard Australian release (didn't get any Limited Editions over here) comes with the OST disc.

i always prefer a soundtrack over an art book. art books are cool, but in most cases after i've looked through them once i never look at them again. soundtracks i usually go back and listen to them a few times at least, sometimes many times if it's really good.

Yeah, very true. So the best thing is when the soundtracks come with art in the booklet so you get the best of both worlds.

I like getting both :P

ya both is best obviously :P but when there are multiple sets to choose from i would rather have one with a soundtrack

Definitely a soundtrack I'll have to eventually track down, along with Chrono Cross.

we need to co-ordinate to do some multiplayer now that everyone is finished. i played some with Fleach last night and it was really fun, but i think it would be even better with more people. i'm free all day wednesday if anyone is available then. i would say tomorrow but i work until 9PM PST, and it's already past 9 for tonight...unless anyone sees this fast enough to want to do it now.

That's not a bad idea, Tech. Two people just isn't enough to beat the bosses in Co-op mode. We'd all have to level up too.

the bosses definitely need more people...and probably higher levels. i don't know how much grinding or second playthrough i want to do just for 6 boss fights in multiplayer though. i think we should just see how they go with more people first, and if it's still bad then we stick to deathmatch for now ;).

also my friend code should be added to the original post, it's 4814-6100-9172

Fleach, did you guys have any more luck than when it was the two of us with extremely low level characters?

I'll talk to my wife and see what she has planned for Wednesday. I might be able to make that work.

if by luck you mean being killed in one hit by everything we fought then sure! lol

Wow, still? That sounds like when we loaded up our brand spanking new characters and gave it a go.

i tried with Zael, who i had levelled to 68 in single player, and i was still being one-hit killed by most attacks.

maybe we have to rank up more in deathmatch first

Tech and I found out that when you load up a save file for online play all you carry over is armour and weapons. The online mode has its own leveling system. You have to beat people in death match and stuff to gain levels.

If only we could have more people for co-op... Then we could just swarm the boss like ants at a picnic.

Yeah I know you only got your equipment loaded into the game. Wasn't aware you could level up online though.

ya after playing a few rounds of deathmatch i hit "rank 2". i'm not sure if it's tied to your account, or the specific character you used though.

It's probably tied to your account. But those bosses are damn hard.

I've been volunteered to babysit my nephews Wednesday evening apparently so I cant join the raid. Im pretty open on Friday and Saturday though.

You mean volun-told. Gotta turn down the lights and fire up the arcade machine then.

I'm good for Friday/Saturday.

Friday is best for me, no plans then. saturday would work but it would have to be at night, i'll be working until 5 then.

I'll try and see if I can manage to get online around then. Friday is okay since that'll be Saturday here. I'll probably go by internet time (http://www.swatch.com/zz_en/internettime/) (as used in Phantasy Star Online) to figure out the right time once there is a more solid date/time in place.

you could use this: http://www.timeanddate.com/time/map/

hover over the red dots to see the exact current time in that city, to get the time for that time zone. when we say PST we mean GMT -8

Goes to show how big of a time diff we have, -8 vs +9.
It'll be interesting to see what time it'll be for me over here.

I have family in Melbourne, so I'm used to the time difference. If it's midnight in Toronto, it'll be 3pm (the next day) in South Australia.

Man, I hope I don't have to stay up to all hours of the night to do this.

We doing this tonight or what!?!?!?!

I'm good from around 4:00 PST to 9:00 at the latest

i'm game for...game. between 4 and 9 sounds good for me. i'm not sure how long i'll be playing because a friend is coming over for the weekend, but we usually just play a bunch of games anyway so he'll probably be ok with watching. i'll do at least 30 minutes to an hour though

Something serious came up at home. I wont be around tonight. Sorry guys :(

Bummer, hope it all works out for ya Crabman. Sorry to hear that.

Here is my friend code finally:
0175-6937-5262

mine is on the main page, i'll add you to my wii friend list cobra.

something is wrong with your friend code...it says "friend code incorrect" when i add it, i double checked that it matched what you posted.

No wonder people hate friend codes. It must be region restricted or something. I tried entering your code and it said it was incorrect.

I didn't mind them until now. Damn, looks like I'm out by default.

wow that sucks. maybe we'll have to cancel for tonight then...if it's just me and fleach again i would rather wait for more people, 2 is not really enough.

I wonder if all games have this horrible restriction or if it's just a few games.

Sorry about yesterday guys. I should be able to hop on today between 4pm and 9pm PST again tonight if anyone is around.

Sucks about the friend codes not letting Cobra join us though :(

I get home around 9:30 tonight, that's 6:30 in PST. If the Wii U isn't being used for Netflix when I get in I'll join you guys.

i should be on around the same time as fleach, maybe a bit earlier.

Sorry I'm late to the party on this.  Just started the game, reached chapter 3.

Nice to have you on board Bil!! When I started this I thought you and Duke were possibly going to be the only participants ;)

I'll jump on Skype around 6:30 then and keep an eye out for either of you guys.

Just fired up the game. Doesn't seem like Crabmaster or Techwizard are playing.

Bil, how are you liking the game so far?

Too early to say definitively but my first impressions are:

Visually, the game doesn't look great.  That's to be expected with the Wii but these visuals seem more on par with PS2.  Xenoblade Chronicles is even worse and that game is great so it's not a dealbreaker.

The pacing at the beginning of the game is bad.  Throwing you into a meaningless dungeon and swapping the character you are playing as is confusing and disorienting.  Also, I don't like how someone in your party is ALWAYS TALKING.  The game would have had a much cleaner start if the game began at the beginning of Chapter 3, you know, when they show the title screen for the first time.  I got much better character exposition speaking to the characters in my party at the bar than I did in that starting dungeon and all of that info could have been conveyed later.

I tend to see a game for what it ISN'T as opposed to what it IS when I haven't played very much of it.  Once I get into the groove of the game and settle in, I see the forest for the trees, and I will have a much more balanced view of the game as a whole.  Even thought my first impressions sound negative, I am exited to play more now that I am in a town, can explore, and the real game is beginning.

sorry fleach i completely forgot about doing this tonight. i'm going to be busy the rest of tonight so maybe tomorrow.

No worries Tech. I don't know if I'll be able to do tomorrow but I'll certainly join the Skype chat.

Crabby and I just finished playing and we discovered the secret to actually getting somewhere in the co-op battles. We joined random battles with higher ranking players and kinda leeched off them getting the reputation points at the end of it all.

Bil, why are you canning The Last Story? Sure it's not the best RPG out there, but it's pretty good. I guess you're a little biased because you played Xenoblade first. But I do agree that the first handful of chapters are very slow and the being thrown right into a dungeon isn't the best way to start a game.

I'm not canning it, I'm just saying that in my first hour of play I wasn't blown away.  I can be overly critical because I tend to over analyze every aspect of a game.  It's the reason why I never wrote a review for a game I didn't finish first.

I like and trust the designer and I am excited to play the meat of the game, I just think the beginning was weak.

I'm the opposite when I start playing a game like this Bil. Its all rose colored glasses unless something pretty significant jars me back into reality (like the combat in FFXII :P ). I get pretty immersed into it with little effort on the games part.

Sorry we missed out on you Techwizard. Like Fleach said we were able to slay some beasts tonight!!!! We both made it to the 5th or 6th rank so things are getting much more manageable. I think if we had 4-5 party members at that rank we could actually take down some of the co-op bosses. The death matches were ok too, but both were really helped by the fact that I was Skyping with Fleach. It would have been a pretty thin experience otherwise me thinks. If we can get Techwizard and Bil involved (or anyone else interested) and everyone on Skype at once I bet it would be a blast.

Sunday is a no go for me. My sister is up for a surprise visit so I've got dinner/evening plans for the night. I'm fairly open on Monday so far as well as evenings on Thursday-Saturday right now.

I'm looking forward to seeing your opinion as you complete more chapters. Keep us updated!

I'm the same. RPGs are special to me so I'm pretty enamored by the game unless something disrupts the experience.


Late next week is good for me too.

Is everyone using classic/pro controllers?

i'm glad you guys found a way to rank up better! now maybe we can actually start doing something with those co-op bosses. i'm not sure about late next week...saturday would probably work, i'll try to remember it this time ;). monday is also good for me if you want to do some then crabmaster, it'll give me a chance to catch up in rank.

@bil i agree the beginning was kind of weak, and the graphics throughout the game were...ok. the FMV cutscenes looked great, and certain areas looked pretty good in-game, but overall they were lackluster. some points were pretty glitchy too, like a certain part in town where for me the textures would always disappear if you went down the alleyway from a certain direction.

that being said, the gameplay, story, and music are all great and they more than make up for it. the story starts to pick up after the first 10 chapters or so, so just keep with it for a bit and you'll probably like it more. also i played through the whole game with wii-mote/nunchuk, they worked fine for me.

Is anyone going to be playing online tonight?

i will!

Sorry guys. My family is pretty sick so everyone is home and we are having a family day.

@bil - I've used the classic controller the whole time. Feels really good.

Sorry to hear that. Hope you guys can enjoy some family time together.

To answer Bil's question, I've been using the nunchuk/remote combo. I don't have a classic controller, but I do want to buy one. Any reputable sellers on ebay or amazon that I should look into?