Why is there so little talk for The Last Story on VGC? I thought there should be a thread on VGC just to talk about The Last Story, like there was for XenoBlade.

First off, when were you guys able to get your copies of the game? Here in Canada the game was delayed 4 whole days, and I was only able to pick it up on Saturday around 4PM. I read people in the USA were able to pick the game up as early as Thursday (2 days late).

How do you think this shipment delay will affect games sales? When I went to EB Games, I didn't see much promotional material or ads for the game, they didn't even have a row of empty boxes to show a new Wii release. However Pre-orders are likely in the 50,000 range (Damn you VGC for not telling us exact numbers).

What do you think the game will sell like? I think the game will realistically sell about 150,000 units lifetime in North America, puttting sales numbers about the same as Japanese numbers. I hope this is enough to convince XSeed to localize Pandora's Tower. I bet week 1 sales for USA and Canada will likely be around 60k but week 2 numbers will be fairly strong, maybe 25k.

Also, are you happy with the British accents in your game? I have yet to play my copy because of work, but I really loved the British accents in XenoBlade, it gave the characters some....character.

I can't wait to play this game, and I am really surprised how below the radar this game is.

P.S. It's a bit annoying that this game doesn't count toward Club Nintendo Points (despite being a Nintendo game, localized by XSeed), but Tales of the Abyss for the 3DS does count. It's shameful that NOA doesn't support these hardcore JRPG's.

I got the game back upon it's PAL release in February.  I paid extra for the special edition because the steelbook looks fantastic, see video:

NoE also ran a few Q&A sessions with Sakaguchi in the weeks preceeding the game's release as well.  I attended the one in London, and I heard one occurred in Paris as well.  I got a signed poster will adorned my university room until the end of the academic year (and probably will again in a few weeks) and he signed my FFV cartridge.

As for the game itself, I personally enjoyed it and view the game as a solid 85%.  I've said this many times, but I truly believe the key to enjoying it to view the game as an action game with RPG elements, rather than visa-versa; at the Q&A session I attended Sakaguchi implied the same.  This is best illustrated by the game's bosses; instead of as in most RPGs where bosses are defeated by one's team being a sufficient level and exploiting elemental weaknesses, in this gmae bosses are more similar to those found in Zelda or an action game; the player must perform specific actions /items/weapons/spells to get the boss in a vulnerable position and then attack and then repeat.  According to the Nintendo Channel I spent 31 hours on the game; I estimate that no more than 3 were on the online, meaning roughly 28 hours on the main story.  Even though that is short for an RPG, it's worth remembering that it is above average for an action game (also even some of my favourite RPGs, such as Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG and Secret of Mana, have similar lengths).  While I think the game could've been longer, I wouldn't got as far as to call it short.  Graphically, the game is amongst the best on the Wii, with very good character models, water effects and in particular animation (it's quite funny watching Zael running into people, slip on banana skins and hit his head on swinging signs).  However, this takes it's toll on the frame rate which frequently drops, usually in hectic battles, but sometimes even in the real time cutscenes.  The game's music is good, but lacks the quality found in Uematsu's more famous work, that said the game has a few classics, such as the main theme and my personal favourite:

Gameplay wise, the game is good, but needs a little refinement IMO.  If a sequel is ever made, more spells/abilities need to be added, in the online multiplayer their should be far less OHKO moves.  The game has very little in the way of sidequests, there is a colloseum which is very fun (I had more fun in it that those in other RPGs such as the Tales games), but can only be accessed a few times over the course of the game.  Equally, the game has quite possibly the best hub world in any game I have ever played, but one can only explor it about a dozen times during the story.  Difficulty wise, the game is easy, bordering at times on very easy.  Only the final form of the final boss did I find at all hard.  For example, in the penultimate dungeon there is a small stealth section where one must hide behind pillars and move between them when enemies aren't looking; to cut a long story short I cocked up and a regular battle started, which was no harder than any other.  In most games I would've been punished by automatic failure or a battle with an unbeatable or very hard enemy, but not in The Last Story.  I loved the final 3-4 hours of the story and believe that to be the best section of any action game I have ever played; the bosses/minibosses are awesome (the battle in which the above music plays is my favourite bit of the game), the last 2 dungeon designs are very good and it has some good plot twists, it's also worth noting that the final dungeon is only time in any RPG I can recall where the party is split up and I enjoy it (usually I dislike those sections).

tldr:  basically the game is good/very good, but by no means a masterpiece.  Think of it more of an action game than an RPG and don't go in expecting FFVI or Chrono Trigger with current gen graphics.

Didn't ship yet? :(

Picked up the game yesterday. I'm 4 hours in and extremely bored. I'm hoping it'll get interesting but it doesn't look like it at all.

It's arrived at GameStop. I've played for two days, and now will stop for two days to give NSMB2 equal time, then figure out some schedule to divide them

I agree with MrTTar, in that it really does more like an action game with RPG elements than an RPG. If Xenoblade could be made analogous to WoW, then The Last Story is Super Paper Mario, where your characters grow and you can buy and use weapons in a purely RPG-ish way, but balance between grinding and skill when it comes to winning battles leans far more towards skill than grinding (whereas in Xenoblade, i'd say a 60-40 split favoring grinding).

I'm enjoying it so far, but it hasn't really picked up its own pace yet.

Was this game developed by the same studio that made Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon? I think I recall hearing its the same studio... If so I may need to pick up a copy someday soon.

Sakaguchi's personal studio, Mistwalker. Yup.

Oh sweet! I wasn't even aware it was Sakaguchi's studio, that's pretty awesome. I'll definately pick up Last Story, most likely today, pretty hyped now :P

I have my copy but haven't played it yet, but my gamestop drop the ball on this game, it was supposed to come out the same day as darksiders II, when I went to pick it up they said it came out the day after, came the next day, they said it comes out on Friday; but somehow the CD soundtracks came before the game!?!?!? WTF!!!

I don't know who's in charge of the shipping to gamestop, but they got hit with a freakin derp-ray

I ordered my copy from Amazon in Canada and I should get it next week. I am pretty exctited for it because I enjoy Xenoblade Chronicles. I am a little dissapointed that it is delayed here in Canada. It's my first time ordering from Amazon so I hope everything will be ok. In the meantime, I have Sleeping Dogs to keep me busy. Game of the year materiel right there in my opinion.