Tag Archives: the last story

The Last Story Sells Well For XSEED, Sells Second Prints For $30

Leave a reply

Despite the somewhat shaky launch of The Last Story, XSEED sent out a press release celebrating the game as their most successful title ever. This prompted XSEED to go ahead to the production of a second printing of the game without the artbook in it and sell it for $30. Even better, the launch copies of the game (the ones with the artbook) that might still out there will now sell for $40. So if you haven’t bought the game yet, now’s a good time to get it, and you might even be lucky if you find those launch copies. Also, to all you Wii U owners out there. The game might like better if you have an HDMI cable. While the Wii U doesn’t upscale Wii games, its passing via HDMI might be somewhat beneficial and make things look less like an .mpeg on an HDTV.

Hopefully Nintendo’s seeing this. While a success for XSEED might not have the same definition for Nintendo, they don’t have to put their expectations so damn high to the point that it’ll be unattainable. And you don’t have to spend a crapton on marketing. So Nintendo, especially NoA, don’t be so damn stingy with the games in Japan.

The Last Story is XSEED’s Most Successful Title [Operation Rainfall]

Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up: Week of 8/27/12

Leave a reply

And here we are in the end of Composers’ Month where we detailed Nobuo Uematsu. We had a triple dose of Final Fantasy with Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy IV, and Final Fantasy VI. We lived 1000 years with Lost Odyssey. And finally, we told a story with The Last Story.

If you want to see the music as it goes up (and not wait every Saturday for these wrap-ups), remember to go to our Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM

Continue reading →

The Last Story Ends My Relationship With GameStop

2 Replies

About two weeks ago XSEED released The Last Story to the masses… Hold on, let me correct that. XSEED shipped The Last Story to the masses. Of course on August 14 I called GameStop and I was told that they didn’t have it in yet. You can see how that all went down here. So then, On Thursday of that week there was a podcast taping, so I wasn’t going to have a chance to pick up the game. Looking online, it looks like GameStop wouldn’t have it until that Friday. So I made a good choice to not bother calling them. However, upon coming home something happened that pretty much solidified my choice in stores for the foreseeable future.

Continue reading →

The Last Story Launch Hits A Little Snag [UPDATE]

4 Replies

Yesterday I got dressed and was ready to haul ass to Gamestop in the Hub of South Bronx to pick up The Last Story. I called the Gamestop to make sure it was there. As soon as I asked the question, I was immediately responded with “It should be here tomorrow.” And I mean he immediately answered me, like he was asked that already by someone else. Considering how pompous I feel, being a gamer of such refined taste as I in a neighborhood such as this, I thought I was the only one in the neighborhood to preorder the game. I mean, I was the only one that preordered Xenoblade here and I had to make a second trip some days later for the artbook. I also preordered The Last Story that first day too. Certainly I deduced that I was remembered.

But I digress. I equated this to Gamestop being up to their old shenanigans again. But just out of curiosity I checked to see if other gamers were having this issue. And lo and behold, I wasn’t the only one. In fact, this was affecting many Gamestops and other stores in the U.S. Confirmation of shipping delays came straight from XSEED’s Twitter. Even Canada was having issues. So if you didn’t get The Last Story yesterday, check today. But do call ahead to make sure. Looks like Gamestop’s off the hook… for now.

Continue reading →

Matsumoto: Wii U Controller Could Be Beneficial To JRPGs

Leave a reply

I know it’s more a Strategy Game than an SRPG, but think about it.

Marvelous AQL and The Last Story Lead Designer Takuya Matsumoto said in a Siliconera interview that the Wii U Gamepad could be beneficial for JRPG strategizing. “I feel that the Wii U’s interface… works best for browsing and arranging information,” said the Lead Designer, alluding to how menu heavy JRPGs can be at times. “This special feature will likely bring about opportunities for deep research into JRPG strategy.” He went on to say that other info, like bios, story synopsis, enemy bestiaries, etc. could also be handled by the Wii U Gamepad.

This could bring about a much more streamlined experience for JRPGs. Now by streamlined I don’t mean “dumbing-down,” but more that it’ll make the actual selecting of menu items a lot faster than on a standard controller layout. Think of how quickly you might’ve selected things on Wii games using the IR Pointer. It was pretty damn quick. Also, while Matsumoto says JRPG strategizing, this could apply to Strategy RPGs. Games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, Valkyria Chronicles, and Front Mission could benefit from this approach. These games are rife important information on terrain, units, and other miscellaneous info that the gamepad could provide without having to take you to a separate screen on the TV, or clogging up the screen with info (think Final Fantasy Tactics Advance). Heck, it could even work for RTS games like Starcraft. Some might see the Gamepad being used for just menu based stuff like maps and menu items in the future, rather than playing a more pivotal role. It happened on the DS with one of the screens being used as such, and it was fine by me.

Wii U Controller Will Push JRPG Strategizing, Says The Last Story Lead Designer [Siliconera]

XSEED Confirms August 14th As The Last Story’s Release Date

Leave a reply

Those wanting to try out the aptly named The Last Story will be pleased to hear that XSEED has announced August 14 as the game’s official release date. Before, the game was suspected to release on June 19th according to retails like Gamestop and Amazon. Then retailers announced that the game would release on a later date. While many called this a delay, XSEED didn’t see it as one since they themselves never announced a release date and that the June 19th date was speculation from retailers. But here the legit, 100%, straight from the horse’s mouth date. Tuesday, August 14th, is the day to get The Last Story.

XSEED has also announced that those who preorder get a special soundtrack CD. Though they don’t say it on the Tweet, you also get an artbook if you buy it in the first print run (regardless if you pre-order or not). They haven’t clarified if you’ll get the bonuses regardless of store.

So now that you know the date, have you finished Xenoblade yet?

XSEED Tweet [via Kotaku]

XSEED Delays The Last Story, But Sweetens The Deal

2 Replies
Click for full image

Before the mayhem of E3, Amazon customers who pre-ordered The Last Story were sent emails informing them that the game would not be released on the expected date. In the email, it stated that “the release date for the video game listed below has been changed by the publisher…” It goes on to state that the estimated release date would be August 6th, which is a little over 5 weeks from the original release date of June 20th. So we’ll have to wait a little longer to enjoy what may be the Wii’s Last Story.

But on the heels of this delay comes some good news. XSEED has revealed that a special Limited Edition will come with all first run copies of the game. The game will come with a 44-page artbook (way more pages that Xenoblade’s), with both the game and artbook coming in a box. If this is the reason for the delay, then I welcome it. I’m a sucker for collector’s items that are standard with the game (like Ar Tonelico, Devil Summoner 2, and Persona 2). I just finished Xenoblade, so I’m more than ready to play this. Not sure if those who pre-ordered have a better chance of getting the artbook, nor if it can be picked up without a pre-order. I’ll update you when I find out.

XSEED shows off The Last Story Limited Edition [Destructoid]

While We Enjoyed Xenoblade, Europe Got This…

Leave a reply

I want to cry. So… so much. While Nintendo of Europe has shown how awesome they are by being the bigger man by localizing the three games and giving them awesome collectors editions, they went one step further and created this. Exclusive to HMV, the box came with an artbook depicting concept art for all three games and left extra room to store your three games, Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower. Note that the box does not come with the actual games themselves, nor is this the Limited Edition box for Pandora’s Tower (it has its own LE).

You got this if you pre-ordered any version of Pandora’s Tower. Prota tipped me on this during a Spring Break hangout at the ol’ campus. I couldn’t believe it. Then he showed me it on Facebook. My jaw dropped into the pits of Tartarus. For a while, both links lead to missing pages on HMV. But the Limited Edition on has since returned (though whether or not you get the box with the game is still a mystery). While I thought that image you see up there was fake, this video proves that it does exists and that NoE are the kings of trolling the hell out of us American gamers. But hey, if you got the disposable income to get the box somehow, you can still put your NTSC games in there. I probably would.

Again, thanks to Prota for the tip.

Xenoblade OK for Retail Buying, The Last Story Not So Much

Leave a reply

I wondered about this since the beginning of March if people would be able to buy Xenoblade without having to Preorder. I already preordered the game, but I’m just curious since since Nintendo’s lack of faith in the game selling made it seem like one of those preorder exclusive deals. Thankfully GoNintendo had the answer, and the official word from Nintendo is that they “…can confirm the Xenoblade Chronicles will be available exclusively for purchase through U.S. Gamestop retail locations…Nintendo never stated that it will only be available to those who preorder it.” So going by their word, you don’t necessarily need to preorder to score a copy of the game. But then again, it’s best to preorder anyways to make the numbers look good ahead of time.

Now The Last Story, that’s a different… err story. While you can probably get away with not pre-ordering Xenoblade and pick up on-the-spot, XSEED will be practicing the Niche Publisher Limited Run scheme that has been successful so far for publishers like NIS America, Atlus, and XSEED themselves. In other words, The Last Story will have a limited run in the U.S. and XSEED will print copies close to the number of pre-orders that they get. So if you want to score yourself a copy of The Last Story, you’re better off preordering. Thankfully the game will be stocked “at any retailer that wishes to stock it.” So if you hate Gamestop, you can get it at another store, like Game Champ!

No worries, Xenoblade Chronicles available for those that don’t preorder [GoNintendo]

The Last Story will probably get a limited run in NA [GameZone]

Did The Last Story U.S. Release Date Get Leaked?

Leave a reply

Looks like it. A User by the name of Conegamer at gamrConnect noticed that The Last Story‘s Metacritic page has posted a release date of June 19, 2012. Conegamer does point out that Metacritic has been wrong before, but with many signs pointing to an ambiguous Summer release for the game, Metacritic may not be too far off.

Remember kiddos, Xenoblade gets release on April 6, a Friday. Those that pre-ordered get a snazzy artbook. Though I’ll have to confirm with Gamestop if those artbooks apply to those that preodered before or after they said it. And to U.K. gamers, GAME doesn’t have The Last Story in stock. So you might have to look elsewhere for your TLS fix.

UK Retailer GAME In Big Trouble, Not Stocking The Last Story

1 Reply

Just as news breaks that The Last Story was being released in North America, UK retailer GAME had downgraded everyone’s preorders of the Limited Edition version to the standard one. Now comes word that they won’t be stocking that version either and have cancelled all preorders for The Last Story. So far there’s no word yet if those preorders were getting refunded. As Metro point out, this is just another black eye in what seems to be a flurry of punches aimed at GAME as they try to survive losing credit insurance from banks. Ever since the credit downgrade and losing that insurance, it’s been difficult for GAME to stock games as companies are fearful that they won’t see those sales. GAME couldn’t stock Tekken 3D Prime Edition, Metal Gear Solid HD, and NeverDead. And now they’re having trouble stocking not only The Last Story, but practically all of Ubisoft’s Vita titles. That five games in one shot!

Hopefully this won’t spark a downward spiral for the videogame retail industry. Many have been citing the death of brick & mortar game stores as being close by. With the problems occurring at GAME and publishers’ efforts to curtail the used game market through practices like online passes and DRM, those analysts might have something to boast about. Though as a person from the outside looking in, it looks like the UK gaming public saw this coming (if the comments are anything to go by).

GAME won’t sell The Last Story or Ubisoft’s Vita games [Metro]

The Last Story Coming To America Courtesy of XSEED Games [UPDATE]

Leave a reply

In a Nintendo Direct video posted this morning, Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed that The Last Story would be coming to North America sometime this year. Interestingly, XSEED Games will be publishing this title (after reports said that Nintendo didn’t want another publisher handling it). No word yet if XSEED will be using the build created for Europe or if they’ll be using American voice actors. [Update] According to Operation Rainfall (via the XSEED Forums), The NA localization will be based on the European version. So I guess this is another score for the Rainfall guys. There’s still one title left, but I think it’s safe to say that we’re good for now.

Reggie also revealed the winning art that will be used in the inlay of Xenoblade Chronicles if anyone’s interested. Maybe there will be one for The Last Story as well.

The Last Story English Trailer

Leave a reply

And finally there’s a trailer for Mistwalker’s The Last Story with English voices. Since the primary market for the PAL release is European (obviously), the voices here are British, just like Xenoblade. Of course I have no problem with it, at all. And they seem to fit even more too, especially for the Lowell character (uh, no offense), even though we don’t hear his voice. Regardless, The Last Story is scheduled for release in Europe on February 24, with Australia getting it a day before. And remember, Xenoblade graces our shores on April 6th.

The Last Story Gets European Release Date

Leave a reply

In the midst of all the celebration of Xenoblade’s U.S. release confirmation, Nintendo has set February 24, 2012 as Europe’s release date for The Last Story. Hironobu Sakaguchi and his company Mistwalker are the makers of this game. The last major games they made were Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, both Xbox 360 releases. The Last Story was release in Japan in late January of this year. No word yet on if The Last Story while join Xenoblade in coming out in the U.S., but I’m assuming Nintendo of America is going to see how this game performs in Europe before taking any action on it.

The Last Story gets European release date [CVG]