Posted July 17, 2012 by Chris L. in GO Critic Originals

Weekly Round-Up: The Last Story

Each week I’m going to take a bit of news related to gaming, share it with all of you and then spend my weekend finding as much cool stuff as I can surrounding that particular game or franchise. Got a suggestion for what to do next? Send your ideas to editors@go-critic.com! Be sure to make the subject of your e-mail “Weekly Round-Up”

XSEED and Mistwalker announced this week that their upcoming Wii exclusive RPG The Last Story will finally be released in North America on August 14. As previously reported, all initial shipments of the latest title from the creator of the Final Fantasy series Hironobu Sakaguchi will automatically be upgraded to the limited edition with an included soft cover art book and special packaging. The bigger news out of the release date announcement was the pre-order bonus of the game which nets you the seven track soundtrack CD pictured below. For those of you unfamiliar with Mistwalker or The Last Story, the music for the game was created and produced by Nobuo Uematsu, one of the most iconic video game composers to ever grace the medium. To get your hands on this deal pre-order your copy of The Last Story from Amazon, GameStop, or EB Canada.

Interesting stuff for this weeks extras: First off during an Iwata Asks interview from Nintendo of Europe, Sakaguchi-san and Uematsu-san have an interesting exchange in regards to development of The Last Story. Believe it or not, the music initially created for the game was rejected by Sakaguchi and Uematsu almost backed out of the project:

Iwata: With Sakaguchi-san taking on such a huge challenge with The Last Story, I would imagine that what he was looking for from the music differed from previous projects. I’ve heard that you had a pretty tough time meeting these demands, Uematsu-san. Could you tell me a bit more about that?

Uematsu: Certainly. For the first time in a long time, I found myself on the wrong track and really had a tough time of it. When Sakaguchi-san spoke with me about the project, I accepted readily, saying that if he would have me, I’d do it. He asked me to start work on the main theme song, the battle music, and the music for the town. I went about working on it in the usual way and presented it to him… And that’s when I got back this really, really long email basically telling me: ‘This is all wrong!’

Next up is the book based on Mistwalker’s Xbox 360 RPG Lost Odyssey titled He Who Journeys Eternity: Lost Odyssey: A Thousand Years of Dreams. The book was released in Japan only in November of 2007 and for those familiar with LO it is a compilation of the dream sequences that Kaim encounters throughout the game. Although they do break up the game’s narrative when you discover one they are some of the most powerful and emotional sequences in any game I’ve ever played, some even put me on the verge of tears. If you can read Japanese or want a neat collectable for your video game stash try and track down a copy of it!

Finally for those who like The Legend of Zelda here’s a neat pic to add to your internet photo collection on your computer, it comes from Siliconera. Their staff had the opportunity earlier this year to take a tour of Nintendo’s Paris studio run by none other than Sakaguchi-san! Pictured below with our favorite Hylian hero giving the shaka sign (hang ten for the non surfers) it’s great to segway into Party Wave! his latest iOS game releasing soon for $1.99.

That’s all for this week folks, see you next week for another Weekly Round-Up! Remember send your suggestions to editors@go-critic.com with the subject “weekly round-up” to get your voice (and even your stuff!) recognized! See ya next time!

Chris L.

Self-proclaimed "Savior of Hyrule" and video game journalist/mercenary. Chris spends his time writing for Go Critic, Destructoid, and anyone else who will let him share his opinions. His specialties are JRPGs, Survival Horror, and anything Nintendo.