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Game Review: Last Dream
11 years ago
General
Does the name remind you of Final Fantasy? This game is a little gem I picked up on Steam for about $5-10 a few weeks ago, and it's definitely been worth all that and more. It's an RPGMaker game that's an obvious homage to the early Final Fantasy series, especially the first Final Fantasy. You form your party of four by selecting from 8 different classes, and then embark an a massive adventure with a remarkable amount of choice and freedom.
The game starts off with a fairly simple plot, just like the first Final Fantasy. Grind up a few levels to get your feet wet, then go rescue the princess. After that, you are tasked with acquiring a ship, and have two different ways to do that, as well as two different routes to reach the next big city. A little while after that, you have to go collect the four Macguffins, and can do them in any order, or just explore the world at large with your new ocean-traveling freedom. That's where I'm at right now, after only about TWENTY HOURS of play time. And from what I've read, there's a LOT more to do after that. Additionally, given the countless different party combinations, there's lots of replay value as well. On top of the different party combinations, every character is unique because of how you choose to level them. Like Shadowrun, when you level up, you are given some points to spend on your attributes HOWEVER YOU LIKE. Your stats do not increase on their own, so every upgrade to a character is by your choice. Here's a quick breakdown of each of the classes:
Knight - Very solid character, but also very boring. He'll carry you through the early game and get to use all of that fancy gear you find. After about 10 hours, other physical classes will catch up to him damage-wise, and ultimately he'll just be the best at staying alive. Late-game he can tank extremely well, but becomes very mana-dependent since he needs mana to power all of his best stuff. I'd only recommend this guy if the rest of your party is VERY squishy.
Monk - My favorite. Starts off pretty underwhelming, doing less damage than all the other physical classes, but around 10 hours in, he starts doing double attacks every round, then triple, then quadruple, and so on. He quickly becomes your best single-target DPS, and can consistently do that every round without a mana cost. Once he reaches the higher levels, he's easily carrying your team. His only downside is his low defense, which means your healer will have to work hard to keep refilling his massive HP pool. I'll take him over the knight any day, and in any party.
Thief - Slightly less combat-effective than the knight, but will get you MUCH richer, and will also have his dick sucked by your engineer (see below). He'll be just behind the fighter in terms of basic attack damage throughout the entire game, and his defenses are just a step behind too. His real strength lies in making you rich. Every enemy has a set of three items to steal, and he can get all of them with enough agility. He'll also be your best source for Tonics, which is what your engineer will use to buff the party. I personally like him better than the fighter, but if your group doesn't need much money (lots of monks, mages, etc.), he might not be necessary.
Hunter - On par with the thief in terms of tankiness and DPS, but also has a number of utility abilities. She's the only one that can tame chocobos (called moas here) as well as scan enemies to reveal their HP and weaknesses. She provides a small assortment of party buffs and healing, so all around very handy. She'll just have to rely on others to do the heavy damage. A highly useful character, but you'll have a hard time finding room for her with all your other options.
Gray Mage - Red mage. Extremely potent early game, but starts to fall behind fast. By late game the rest of your party will have to carry him around. That said, his versatility is pretty nice. There have been NUMEROUS times where I wished I had another source of white magic during a boss fight, and even more times I wished I had a black mage for their AoE potential. Ultimately, this guy isn't bad, just be prepared to do a bit of extra grinding to keep him up to speed with the others and to keep him to a purely supportive role by the mid-late game.
White Mage - Speaks for herself. In most encounters she'll just be sitting back and guarding, occasionally curing a condition, but during boss fights she'll be holding up the rest of your team while they wail on the boss. You probably don't -need- her, but she makes things SO much more convenient. Another important note is that she's the only one that can resurrect party members outside of town for the first half of the game (nope, phoenix downs don't exist as far as I know).
Black Mage - I seriously wish I had brought this guy instead of the knight on this playthrough. Early game you'll have a tough time keeping up his mana, but around mid game the encounters start to have a LOT of large groups, making his AoEs invaluable. While the knight does get a few AoEs later on, they all pale in comparison to this guy. Then there's the fact that you'll encounter quite a few bosses (most of which are optional) that can only be harmed by magic. I seriously would not run another party without either this guy or the gray mage.
Engineer - This guy is Batman. That is, if you give him prep time, he wins. If not, he sucks. He has poor offense and defense skills, and no spells. However, about 15 levels in, his attack damage starts to scale with his intelligence, bringing him up to speed with the thief or hunter. He further is able to amplify the effects of items and grenades, making all of those tonics and bombs you find extremely useful. If you take the time to fill up your inventory with his stuff, he'll be at least as good as the black mage and the white mage. He also greatly speeds up travel in dungeons and the world map by allowing you to use tunnels. He is also the only character able to avert a catastrophe that occurs 12 or so hours in, but ultimately it's not that big a deal in relation to the entire story. Ultimately, if you're willing to take the time to load up on his gear, he's the best support you can have, but you'll probably need to bring a thief as well to be able to afford all that.
With that done, here's the breakdown of the game's elements:
STORY: 6/10
It's really nothing new, and half the time I didn't even know what was going on with the story. About 10-15 hours in it starts to pick up, but still takes a backseat to the gameplay and exploration, which isn't a bad thing. However, it does get props in that it changes NPC dialogue as more events occur in-game, which is a nice touch. I just really wish it had more character-dependent story elements.
MECHANICS: 10/10
Easy to learn, but difficult to master. The level up system is gold, and the party selection system can easily make the first choice in the game the hardest of all.
SOUND: 7/10
Most of the sounds are typical RPGMaker fare, but a lot of the music is surprisingly good. I even discovered one cave that had a remix of the Nutcracker Ballet as its background and fight music. Not bad.
GRAPHICS: 7/10
It's RPGMaker, though I did notice a handful of custom sprites. Nothing fancy, but they did well with what the engine offers.
GAMEPLAY: 9/10
The immense freedom and massive world really makes the game shine. So far the only downside I can see is that your party selection determines the rest of the game. So if you made a mistake with your party (like I did by not having a black/gray mage), you have to live with it for the rest of the 40+ hour game.
TOTAL: 7.8/10
If you're looking for a good JRPG (or just a good Final Fantasy), this game will scratch that itch. Think of it more as a reimagining of the original Final Fantasy, but with way better mechanics and gameplay. Easily worth the low price, and I would highly recommend it.
The game starts off with a fairly simple plot, just like the first Final Fantasy. Grind up a few levels to get your feet wet, then go rescue the princess. After that, you are tasked with acquiring a ship, and have two different ways to do that, as well as two different routes to reach the next big city. A little while after that, you have to go collect the four Macguffins, and can do them in any order, or just explore the world at large with your new ocean-traveling freedom. That's where I'm at right now, after only about TWENTY HOURS of play time. And from what I've read, there's a LOT more to do after that. Additionally, given the countless different party combinations, there's lots of replay value as well. On top of the different party combinations, every character is unique because of how you choose to level them. Like Shadowrun, when you level up, you are given some points to spend on your attributes HOWEVER YOU LIKE. Your stats do not increase on their own, so every upgrade to a character is by your choice. Here's a quick breakdown of each of the classes:
Knight - Very solid character, but also very boring. He'll carry you through the early game and get to use all of that fancy gear you find. After about 10 hours, other physical classes will catch up to him damage-wise, and ultimately he'll just be the best at staying alive. Late-game he can tank extremely well, but becomes very mana-dependent since he needs mana to power all of his best stuff. I'd only recommend this guy if the rest of your party is VERY squishy.
Monk - My favorite. Starts off pretty underwhelming, doing less damage than all the other physical classes, but around 10 hours in, he starts doing double attacks every round, then triple, then quadruple, and so on. He quickly becomes your best single-target DPS, and can consistently do that every round without a mana cost. Once he reaches the higher levels, he's easily carrying your team. His only downside is his low defense, which means your healer will have to work hard to keep refilling his massive HP pool. I'll take him over the knight any day, and in any party.
Thief - Slightly less combat-effective than the knight, but will get you MUCH richer, and will also have his dick sucked by your engineer (see below). He'll be just behind the fighter in terms of basic attack damage throughout the entire game, and his defenses are just a step behind too. His real strength lies in making you rich. Every enemy has a set of three items to steal, and he can get all of them with enough agility. He'll also be your best source for Tonics, which is what your engineer will use to buff the party. I personally like him better than the fighter, but if your group doesn't need much money (lots of monks, mages, etc.), he might not be necessary.
Hunter - On par with the thief in terms of tankiness and DPS, but also has a number of utility abilities. She's the only one that can tame chocobos (called moas here) as well as scan enemies to reveal their HP and weaknesses. She provides a small assortment of party buffs and healing, so all around very handy. She'll just have to rely on others to do the heavy damage. A highly useful character, but you'll have a hard time finding room for her with all your other options.
Gray Mage - Red mage. Extremely potent early game, but starts to fall behind fast. By late game the rest of your party will have to carry him around. That said, his versatility is pretty nice. There have been NUMEROUS times where I wished I had another source of white magic during a boss fight, and even more times I wished I had a black mage for their AoE potential. Ultimately, this guy isn't bad, just be prepared to do a bit of extra grinding to keep him up to speed with the others and to keep him to a purely supportive role by the mid-late game.
White Mage - Speaks for herself. In most encounters she'll just be sitting back and guarding, occasionally curing a condition, but during boss fights she'll be holding up the rest of your team while they wail on the boss. You probably don't -need- her, but she makes things SO much more convenient. Another important note is that she's the only one that can resurrect party members outside of town for the first half of the game (nope, phoenix downs don't exist as far as I know).
Black Mage - I seriously wish I had brought this guy instead of the knight on this playthrough. Early game you'll have a tough time keeping up his mana, but around mid game the encounters start to have a LOT of large groups, making his AoEs invaluable. While the knight does get a few AoEs later on, they all pale in comparison to this guy. Then there's the fact that you'll encounter quite a few bosses (most of which are optional) that can only be harmed by magic. I seriously would not run another party without either this guy or the gray mage.
Engineer - This guy is Batman. That is, if you give him prep time, he wins. If not, he sucks. He has poor offense and defense skills, and no spells. However, about 15 levels in, his attack damage starts to scale with his intelligence, bringing him up to speed with the thief or hunter. He further is able to amplify the effects of items and grenades, making all of those tonics and bombs you find extremely useful. If you take the time to fill up your inventory with his stuff, he'll be at least as good as the black mage and the white mage. He also greatly speeds up travel in dungeons and the world map by allowing you to use tunnels. He is also the only character able to avert a catastrophe that occurs 12 or so hours in, but ultimately it's not that big a deal in relation to the entire story. Ultimately, if you're willing to take the time to load up on his gear, he's the best support you can have, but you'll probably need to bring a thief as well to be able to afford all that.
With that done, here's the breakdown of the game's elements:
STORY: 6/10
It's really nothing new, and half the time I didn't even know what was going on with the story. About 10-15 hours in it starts to pick up, but still takes a backseat to the gameplay and exploration, which isn't a bad thing. However, it does get props in that it changes NPC dialogue as more events occur in-game, which is a nice touch. I just really wish it had more character-dependent story elements.
MECHANICS: 10/10
Easy to learn, but difficult to master. The level up system is gold, and the party selection system can easily make the first choice in the game the hardest of all.
SOUND: 7/10
Most of the sounds are typical RPGMaker fare, but a lot of the music is surprisingly good. I even discovered one cave that had a remix of the Nutcracker Ballet as its background and fight music. Not bad.
GRAPHICS: 7/10
It's RPGMaker, though I did notice a handful of custom sprites. Nothing fancy, but they did well with what the engine offers.
GAMEPLAY: 9/10
The immense freedom and massive world really makes the game shine. So far the only downside I can see is that your party selection determines the rest of the game. So if you made a mistake with your party (like I did by not having a black/gray mage), you have to live with it for the rest of the 40+ hour game.
TOTAL: 7.8/10
If you're looking for a good JRPG (or just a good Final Fantasy), this game will scratch that itch. Think of it more as a reimagining of the original Final Fantasy, but with way better mechanics and gameplay. Easily worth the low price, and I would highly recommend it.
