The Last Story

A Wii-exclusive JRPG developed by Mistwalker and published and owned by Nintendo. It is directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, who regards it as a Spiritual Successor to Final Fantasy.

The game follows the exploits of a gang of sellswords who have set up shop on Lazulis Island, governed by the powerful Count Arganan. Soon they get tangled up in a plot involving a princess, mysterious arm-based powers and the hostile Gurak Tribe.

It was released in Japan on 27 January 2011. Nintendo of France has confirmed [dead link] a EU release for 2012. The European version was released on 24 February 2012. As of the Nintendo Direct Conference of February 22, the game is confirmed for a North American release, being published by Xseed.

A character sheet is in the works.

Tropes used in The Last Story include:
  • Accidental Pervert: Zael can choose to either go to the bathroom where Syrenne and Calista are bathing, or not go in and listen to some very suggestive conversation instead. Going in ends up with a black screen, angry screaming and Zael being hit in the face with a towel. Not going in leads to a more interesting conversation.
  • Aerith and Bob: Everybody has a wacky name, except some NPCs. We've got Zael, Calista, Dagran, Syrenne, Lowell and Mirania. Normal names are Ariela (Ariel) and Jill. Except Jill is a man. As well as Therius, who’s Japanese name is Tasha, is also a man.
  • An Axe to Grind: There's the joke weapon axe you get, and then there's the Para Axe, once fully upgraded becomes the Raijin Axe and serves fairly well as a mid-game to end-game weapon until you find a Chaos Blade.
  • An Economy Is You: As far as weapons, armor and upgrading them go, the party is the main source of business. The 'rest' of the economy however is based on the party buying produce and selling it back to earn money, kind of like a stock market.

Street Merchant: Eggs are cheap today, quickly buy some today!

  • An Ice Person: Lowell.
  • Anime Hair: The characters in The Last Story don't have particularly outlandish hairstyles, but they are pretty non-standard, with various spikes, braids and whatnot.
    • Zael has what appears to be bird feathers on the back of his head.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different:
    • You start the game playing as Dagran, and later on when Zael runs away with Calista, you control Lowell for a while.
    • Then during one of the last chapters, you even control Syrenne and Yurick for a bit. Each character has a slightly different playstyle, and the game helpfully provides tutorials when you take control.
    • You also control Calista during a Stealth-Based Mission. Poor Mirania gets left out of the loop it seems.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: In the case of the armor you receive. Each armor and leg armor set you have serve as different sets of clothes for your characters. If you upgrade each piece to +9 the clothing gets more and more ridiculous with the addition of chains, armor pieces over shoulders/legs, capes and other fancy bits. Furthermore, you can fully customise the armour as you see fit, colouring or removing pieces of armour as you like, or even making the character go in underwear!
    • You do get three other sets of clothes later on however that serve as "costume" armor. They have abysmal stats and cannot be customised, but when fully-upgraded grant some incredible effects.
    • There's even a bit of Gameplay and Story Segregation if you try to equip your characters with the clothes they're wearing in their official artwork:
      • Zael is wearing Cloth armour in his artwork. While not necessarily bad, the armour is far more suited to a mage than a warrior, granting bonuses to casting speed and HP.
      • Calista can find the dress she wears in her artwork. However, it's black and there is nothing you can do to change it to white.
      • Dagran's "official" armour in-game is Hunter armour. In his artwork he is wearing what appears to be a version of the Heavy Armour that is impossible to obtain or customise in the game.
  • Annoying Laugh: One of the NPCs that joins in the later chapters is a knight named Baron Huge. He has a really annoying 'Nyahahaha'/'Gyahahaha' laugh. Syrenne points this out and devises ways to cave his skull in later.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil
  • Arranged Marriage: Initially before the game starts, Calista was engaged to Jirall. She meets Zael and things change.
  • Artificial Limbs: When you first meet Count Arganan, you notice that on the left side of his body, his arm and leg are in armor. Looks like he lost them or got them replaced in some unfortunate accident.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: When you go to the Marche, you hear a lot of talking in the background. However for some damned reason it's not in English or Japanese but some completely foreign language. Even the term 'Marche' is foreign as it is French for Market.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking:
    • General Asthar is the leader of the Lazulis Knights. He kicks ridiculous amounts of ass.
    • Averted with Count Arganan, who is pretty much useless in battle.
  • Baby Got Back: Zael and his nice ass, as noted by the women of Lazulis Island.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Near end-game, Zael and Therius do this as they fight off the invading Gurak troops.
  • Bait and Switch Boss: After fighting your way to the captain's cabin on the Gurak ship, he has just enough time to start a pre-battle speech before he's one-shotted by a giant armoured seal-bear-turtle thing that bursts through the wall, which you then have to fight.
  • Banana Peel: You can buy Prank Bananas and shoot them at NPCs and your party members. Hilarity Ensues. You can also use them on enemies too.
  • Band of Brothers: The mercenaries.
  • Battle Couple: Zael and Calista. Some Chapters just have the two of them by themselves until things get messy and the reinforcements show up.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Lowell and Syrenne. Lowell manages to cop a feel and he gets his ass beat for his trouble.
    • Lowell comments that Syrenne 'isn't a woman' and nearly gets beaten to death with a bar stool.
  • BFS: Some of the later upgrades are pretty huge. Made even huger with weapon size codes.
    • The Zanlance is a massive, massive spear.
  • Big Brother Mentor: Dagran and Lowell. Dagran teaches Zael the swordplay type things, Lowell tries to teach Zael the art of flirting with women.
  • Bishie Sparkle: Later in the game (once you can access Multiplay mode) one of the prizes you earn is an 'effect' dye which you can apply on your character's customizable color pallet and it can make them sparkle silver (or gold if you win that one).
  • Bishounen: Most of the younger main male cast fall under this category.
  • Bloodless Carnage: You're beating monsters/humans/animals to death with huge swords and not a drop of blood spills.
  • Blue Blood: The Arganan family and other attached/unnamed nobility, including Lord Jirall.
  • Bodyguard Crush: Zael has a thing for Calista, even though she's already engaged. This changes however.
  • Booby Trap: Exploring the underground ruins and choosing to 'check' the doors for hidden switches yourself instead of having Horace help you leads to the door blowing up Zael or causing him some pain in some other manner.
  • Boom! Headshot!: With enough bowgun arrow damage leveling and upgrading, it's possible to deal ridiculous amounts of damage to enemies with one shot, taking them out instantly.
  • Boss Battle: There's usually one at the end of every chapter that has lots of combat. Sometimes multiple bosses in one chapter!
  • Bottle Fairy: Syrenne, one of female characters, is a heavy drinker. One of the weapons in the game is a wine bottle. Give it to Syrenne and it's hilarious.
  • Bow and Sword in Accord: Zael uses a sword and a one-handed crossbow. This crossbow can also shoot explosive arrows, fireworks and banana peels.
  • Boy Meets Girl: In some very odd circumstances, as boy finds girl hiding in a horse-drawn cart of all places.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Lowell. He pretty much channels the characters that his voice actor Keiji Fujiwara has voiced.
  • Butt Monkey: Lowell. His attempt to flirt with Ariela is completely rejected when she replies with 'What would like to order?' and 'Call me when you've decided what you want to have'. He then says something to Syrenne and gets pushed over the balcony and when the screen goes black, it sounds like he lands on a table. Hard. He gets beat up by Syrenne constantly. Even in cut-scenes he gets the short end of the stick. While examining a mirror he gets abducted by an evil spirit. He is the victim of a groin attack. All sorts of horrible things happen to Lowell, but he doesn't seem to complain. Much.
    • The Gurak Captain also gets the short end of the stick. Each Monster of the Week he tries to sic on the party ends up squishing him or slapping him into a wall before turning to the party. His presence is pretty much denied by Zael, when Lowell and Syrenne ask if he knows' the Captain. Zael kind of thinks about it, shrugs and says no. He then remembers once he sees the Captain getting squished by a monster.

Zael : Ooh, that guy.

  • But Thou Must!: A few moments. For example, during Zael 's knighting, you have to refuse to swear loyalty to Count Arganan. If you choose otherwise, Zael will get caught in a loop of hesitation.
  • Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Averted, as Zael goofs and walks in on the girls bathing.
  • Cherry Blossoms: The Katanas make cherry blossoms fall when you swing them. From their blades.
  • The Chessmaster: Dagran hatches a plan to get revenge on Asthar and get away scot-free. First, he builds up a trusted relationship with the royal family to get close to Asthar and remove suspicion from himself. To speed this along, he encourages Zael to become a knight and befriends Calista. Then he uses the Gurak invasion of Lazulis Island as a massive smokescreen to stab Asthar in the back with no witnesses and an army of potential suspects. It would have been a perfect plan, had Zael not been in the wrong place at the wrong time and gotten himself arrested for Asthar's murder, forcing Dagran to frame Jirall and creating enough inconsistencies that Therius is encouraged to Pull the Thread.
  • Chick Magnet: Zael does pretty well for himself, considering he only has eyes for Calista. When you bump into some of the female NPCs in the city, some of them will comment that Zael has a nice ass.
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Lowell. He hits on the ladies. He usually fails however.
  • Conveniently an Orphan: The entire party save for Lowell and Syrenne are noted to have been orphaned.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Blue and white for the good guys, and black and red for the bad guys.
  • Cool Sword: Some the sword designs are a little extravagant, to put it simply. Some of them get pretty ridiculous and have their own flaming aura in various colors.
  • Counter Attack: Zael and some of the other party members gain this ability to block and then bash their foes' skulls in.
  • Covert Pervert: Zael to an extent. When you run into Syrenne and Lowell at the Arena, Syrenne starts to come onto him and makes him feel really, really awkward. He misunderstands her 'description' of the arena for something akin to a brothel which leads to a sound effect for a minor change in his physiology.
  • Cowardly Lion: Horace. You really can't blame the guy though, he's normally running an Upgrade store, not dungeon crawling or saving the world.
  • Cute Clumsy Girl: NPC character Miina, when first introduced drops lemons from a cart onto Zael. Zael promptly wipes out.
  • Cutscene: Seeing as this is a JRPG, cutscenes happen, a lot. However one mechanic in them requires you to 'look' (in First-Person view) for certain points in the area in order to advance it. This mechanic is also used just before some fights, as you can use it to avoid being ambushed or squished by traps.
  • Cutscene Incompetence: The party pretty much have big huge swords and lots of ass kicking moves... yet for some reason when a cutscene comes up they manage to screw up something royal. Really Zael, you beat the crap out of twenty dudes by yourself no problem earlier, but when three knights show up to take you away, you don't put up a fight.
  • Demonic Spider: The Mystic Spider boss is huge. It also has a high defense when you attack it from the front, as well it can swallow up your party members, removing them from the fight.
  • Disney Death: Lowell
  • Disposable Fiance: Jirall, after a turn of events, Count Arganan tells Zael that he can marry Calista, effectively removing Jirall from the equation. This causes Jirall to get really pissed.
  • Dissonant Laughter: Asthar loves to have a good laugh. Sometimes for no reason at all.
  • The Ditz: Mirania seems to be on her own planet most of the time.
  • Dual-Wielding: Syrenne uses two swords/daggers/whatever she gets her hands on. Also Zefa and Zesha, you get their swords the North, East, West and South Wings when you defeat them.
  • Duel Boss: Four, in total. One against Asthar, then against the Laughing Mad Jirall, later one against the first form of Zangurak and, in the Epilogue, a duel against Therius. Notably, three of them all use quick-time events at set intervals throughout the fight.
  • The Dulcinea Effect: Zael meets Calista, and the five minutes later he beats up a knight and proceeds in running through town helping her escape them.
  • Dub Name Change: Okay Sieren/Syrenne & Yuris/Yurick are fine, but how did they come up with Elza/Zael, Quark/Dagran, Jackal/Lowell, Manamia/Mirania, Kanan/Calista and Ruli/Lazulis? Arganan for some reason gets to keep his name, although he's now an Earl instead of a Count. Since "Earl" is actually just the British Island equivalent of "Count" (seriously an Earl's wife is also called a Countess!) that technically wasn't changed.
  • Dull Surprise: The slack-jawed look on Lowell 's face as a ghost pops up in front of him, and proceeds in abducting him.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Between the limited magic the party has access to; Fire, Ice, Wind, Plant, Light, Darkness, using the wrong one on enemies will heal them. Using the right one... Well, it wrecks their shit.
  • Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Yurick gets access to a final Spirit Arte during the battle against the final boss. His Meteor spell becomes the Big Bang spell. It hits the last boss For Massive Damage.
  • Elite Mooks:
    • The undead in Chapter 1 could count since they resurrect and the idea is you're supposed to run the hell away from them instead of fighting them.
    • The Cave Cougars in a side quest, which at level 40 will kick your ass back and forth if you're not properly prepared. The kicker is you don't even get experience points for killing them.
    • In New Game+, some of the summon circle monsters become this.
    • Some Mooks have the word 'Elite' after their name.
  • Evil Eye: It turns out that Yurick has replaced one of his eyes with a magical stone that greatly amplifies his fire magic. He does not regret exchanging his depth perception for raw magical power.
  • Evil Weapon: Zangurak gives Jirall the Emperor sword. It warps him so that half of his body is scaly and black. Jirall, who already hates Zael tries to use it to kill him. You get the Emperor sword after you defeat Jirall.
  • Expy: The Five-Man Band is very similar to the one in Blue Dragon, another Mistwalker RPG. Add Mirania and Dagran, and they're similar to Chrono Trigger's playables.
  • Eyepatch of Power: Yurick is missing an eye, and he serves one main purpose; blow shit up.
  • Face Heel Turn: Dagran, who turns out to be the last boss of the game.
  • Fan Girl: One side quest involves Zael going to see the fortuneteller to get his love fortune told. He then goes to the Balcony of the plaza and gets to flirt with a random girl. You repeat this process successfully eight times, and then when Zael goes to the bar where the girl(s) tell him to meet them, they all start squeeing madly.
    • Later in the story, some of the maids in the castle start talking about which of the male mercenaries they like the best. They mention Zael, Lowell and Yurick.
  • Fantastic Racism: Humans seem to hate the Gurak, a lot. And likewise the Gurak hate humans.
  • Feel No Pain: One cut scene has Zael giving an armored knight a left cross, with his bare hand if you haven't upgraded your armor much. This knight is also wearing a helmet.
  • Female Gaze: In comparison, women in game do comment on how nice Zael 's ass is. Using both bleach Key Items makes this even more hilarious as Zael will be running around in only his boxer shorts, which happen to be rather form fitting...
  • Fetch Quest:
    • In order to get a rare katana weapon, Zael has to...

First: Talk to Ariela in the bar to get a lunchbox
Second: Give the lunchbox to a hungry kid near the river for a towel.
Third: Give the towel to a guy in the craftsman's alley for a book on magic.
Fourth: Give the book to a young mage in the castle library for a book on Basic Aristocracy.
Fifth: Give the book to a young lady outside the castle for a jewel.
Sixth: Give the jewel to a noblewoman inside the castle for a Ship's Journal.
Finally: Go to the jail to find Zola and give him back his journal for his sword.

    • Other fetch quests include: buying/finding ingredients for NPCs so that they give you materials for upgrading your gear in exchange.
  • Fiery Redhead: Syrenne, who can get pretty riled up when people talk down about mercenaries.
  • Flash Back: The game has some cutscenes which go back to Zael 's past when he's a child. One is where he first meets Dagran. The others are a bit darker.
  • Five-Man Band: This varies as the game progresses. The average party usually sits at five people. There are some cases where the party is larger/smaller depending on the situation.
  • Flash Step: Some bosses have this ability. It gets really annoying.
  • Foreshadowing: The fully upgraded Phantom Blade has a 80 percent chance of increased damage to humans. The weapon is gained long after the games early bandits.
  • Freeze Sneeze: Calista when you first meet her, and Mirania in the Underground Ruins.
  • Frothy Mugs of Water: Averted in the UK Dub.
  • Frying Pan of Doom: This is one of the joke weapons, as well as the most convenient blunt object Mirania had on hand to beat Zola over the head with.
  • Funny Background Event: While Calista is busy arguing with two knights who were harassing a merchant, Zael is in the background pacing back and forth, wondering if he should either interrupt, run away or help. The horrified look on his face is priceless.
    • While we don't see this, during Season 3 of the Arena matches, the Commentator (a human) gets attacked by his new co-commentator (a monster). Whatever's going on there, it sounds hilarious.
  • Gender Blender Name: We have Tasha (Therius) and Jirall. Both are men.
  • Genre Savvy: Lowell (in Chapter 40): "So what's [Zesha's] plan after that?" Syrenne: "Probably the usual kill all humans nonsense."
  • Giant Mook
    • Giant lizard man's gonna kick your ass. Then you realize he's just huge and that's about it. You pretty much one-shot him because at this point it's a tutorial for your Slash skill.
    • Others include Ogres, Giant Spiders and other varieties of Giant Lizardmen which are harder to kill.
  • Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: The Foreigner/Outsider/Stranger which causes most of the later trouble in the plot. It has two pieces; one is in Lazulis Island, the other is on Gurak island.
  • Gladiator Games: There is a large battle arena on the island where the party can go grind Exp, Gold and rare items. This is useful considering the ability to revisit previous maps only lets you grind items and gold, but not Experience Points.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: A few characters have very noticeable scars:
    • Lowell has a very large four pointed star shaped scar on the right side of his neck, which you don't see very often due to scenes where he talks you usually see the left side of his body, as well as his initial equipment has him wearing a scarf/kerchief that covers his neck.
    • General Asthar has a number of scars across his face. They only increase his badassery.
    • Count Arganan has a particularly nasty scar/burn wound behind his eyepatch.
  • The Great Escape: Subverted. The party is put in jail after being accused of kidnapping royalty by Jirall. They plan to escape via the underground ruins in the jail. They end up failing miserably after they fight their way through the undead hordes to find that they've reached a dead-end, so they give up and go back to the cell.
  • The Grim Reaper: The 'vampire' boss Nebirous, which looks more like your classic grim reaper than a vampire. It is actually a coffin with a grim reaper motif.
  • Groin Attack: A wall retaliates at Lowell for kicking it by slamming itself into his groin. Syrenne laughs at him and she gets smacked upside the head by the wall as well.
  • Guide Dang It: Some of the missable rare items and subquests are really hard to find since you have to find that one NPC among the other faceless NPCs in town.
    • Some chapters can be missed as well if players fail to find the correct NPC that initiates it.
  • Haunted House: One chapter takes place in a haunted house. Or rather a haunted manor belonging to some long dead noble.
  • Heel Face Turn: Zola, when Lazulis Island is being completely wrecked by the Gurak (the third time now), will sell you items and upgrade the party's gear. It doesn't really help when he initially did a Face Heel Turn on the party before the game started though.
  • The Hero: Zael finds himself becoming the Savior of Lazulis island after a strange turn of events.
  • Heroic BSOD: Very early on when Syrenne catches an arrow in the chest. Zael freaks out and has a Flash Back
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Lowell jumps in the way of a sword of light that was meant for Syrenne, the music that plays during the rest of the fight is a Tear Jerker.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: You can choose to defeat Zangurak with his own sword when he drops it/throws it at you. By doing so, you get his sword.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: When you first meet Zangurak, he simply Perfect Guards all your attacks and then slaps you across the battlefield.
  • Hot Chick with a Sword: The playable female characters definitely count. Once you start playing around with their armor/clothing, it gets better.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: The knights once they've successfully invaded the Gurak nation, start going around killing, looting and pillaging. This shakes Zael 's dream of wanting to be a knight. They even take the Gurak civilians as slaves.
  • 100% Heroism Rating: After thirty chapters, the party (who was originally disliked by the populace for being mercenaries) finally become the talk of the town because of Zael. At the beginning of the game, if you bumped into people they would berate you. At this point of the game, the people you bump into start apologizing profusely as Zael is now a Knight hero and they start to suck up to him. Even the random conversations between NPCs are about Zael and his friends.
  • Iaijutsu Practitioner: Performed by General Asthar, a Knight of all people. His sword draw is used to take out an incoming griffin.
  • Imagined Innuendo: When you first go to the Arena, Syrenne uses some very interesting words to describe the 'activities' that occur there. Zael misinterprets the place for a brothel or love hotel.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Some of the weapons you receive as quest rewards are pretty... screwy.
    • A leek
    • A footstool/chair
    • A hoe
    • A ladle
    • A pitchfork - although you'd think this would actually hurt someone
    • A frying pan
    • Flowers
    • A hunk of coral
    • A wine bottle
    • Apparently anything that isn't a sword or something similar makes for a poor weapon in Last Story, as the following: a lance, a sledgehammer, an axe and a kitchen knife have incredibly low stats.
  • The Infiltration: Some chapters involve Zael sneaking into buildings, killing the guards and letting his friends in.*
  • Infinity+1 Sword: Once you've cleared the game the first time around, you can upgrade you weapons to +99. You however need to cash to do so first. And gold caps at 999999. Upgrades start costing the 10000s once you've gone past +5. +90 Upgrades start costing around 100000.
  • Interspecies Romance: Once the Epilogue hits, the Gurak end up living on Lazulis island, as Gurak island gets destroyed. As Zael wanders through Lazulis City, he finds there's a Gurak man asking a human male to introduce him to some human girls; in another location a human girl is flirting with a Gurak male.
  • Iron Butt Monkey: Considering all the abuse Lowell has put up with (and the fact he still hasn't died yet) is astounding. The abuse ranges from hilarious to horrifying.
  • Item Crafting: How you improve your weapons and armor. Find rare materials, hand them over to the Upgrade shop and pay a fee.
  • Item Farming: Needs to be done to make that Infinity+1 Sword. Also in a more literal sense, later in game you get access to a farm and can grow pumpkins to sell to the merchants in town.
  • Joke Item: See above.
  • Katanas Are Just Better:
    • Averted to an extent, as the first katana you receive as a rare is outclassed by the fully upgraded version of your starter sword.
    • You receive Zola's katana as a side-quest reward. It upgrades to one of the better katanas in the game, but compared to some of the other swords, it's still fairly low on the list.
  • Kick A Wall: Zael has a tendency to kick walls. And this opens them. Syrenne and Lowell comment on how often he kicks walls open. He doesn't do this out of anger however, just convenience. Lowell tries this later and it ends badly for him.
  • Kill It with Fire: Once Yurick manages to get his Spell countdown to 0 without being interrupted. Monsters and obstructions go boom.
  • Kiss Diss: Lowell tries to get some from Syrenne after catching her (and then groping her). She proceeds in punching him in the gut.
  • Knight in Shining Armor:
    • Therius who is somewhat of a Jerkass.
    • Zael wants to become this.
  • Knighting: Averted. The first time anyway. Zael becomes disillusioned by the knights' behavior during an invasion and leaves mid-way during the ceremony. The second time around he goes through with it.
  • Last Girl Wins: Calista is technically the last girl to join the party as Syrenne and Mirania were already there in the mercenary group to begin with.
  • Laughing Mad: Count Arganan right after you defeat the Guardian Mitra which protects the Foreign Particle half in Lazulis island, he starts cackling insanely and pulls out the sword he stuck in the Particle. It then disintegrates him, all the while he's still laughing like a maniac.
  • Lethal Joke Item:
    • The above joke items when in New Game+ can be upgraded to ridiculous levels. So who wants a piece of the Leek+99?
    • Some of the online prizes include: A rose, a sunflower, a piko-piko hammer, a hunk of coral. These weapons happen to be a lot better than the freebie joke weapons you find in sub-quests.
    • Finally, a use for the Prank banana. Using them on Zangurak makes the fight a lot easier as he will trip, fall and drop his sword. Which you use on him.
  • Lethal Lava Land: The Gurak kingdom is made up of igneous rock and a lot of it. One fight has Zael on a bridge (with no railings) and he can kick mooks off the bridge and into the lava pit below to save time.
  • Limit Break: Around the level 30-40 mark, the characters gain a Spirit Bar and when filled allows them to use their Spirit Arte.
  • Lizard Folk: The first monsters you encounter are referred to as the Lizardmen.
  • Living MacGuffin: Zael, once he acquires the power of the Outsider. And Calista, whose Arganan bloodline can awaken the Outsider's full potential.
  • Lost Forever: A lot of this. Failing to properly explore Lazalis City during your downtime can cause weapons, sidequests and even entire chapters to become lost until a New Game+. There's even a traditional Point of No Return at the two-thirds point of the game (Zael's knighting ceremony).
    • At one point, you can explore Lazalis City at night time. There are a handful of sidequests that are only active during this brief time period.
    • The game does offer a small condolence in allowing you to repeat any dungeon you have already completed. You don't gain any XP, but the rare drop rate is increased and you can claim both the treasures you missed and new treasures you can only get on a replay.
  • Lost Magic: The Gathering ability that Zael gets in Chapter 1 turns out to be from the remnants of an alien rock that split in two and crashed into the planet.
  • Lovable Coward: Horace really wants to run away during one of the late game chapters, but is still willing to help the party out by upgrading their gear in between waves of monsters. Of course forcefully summoning him to you with a MacGuffin will shake the poor guy up.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Lowell, obviously. He suggests that Syrenne should strip if it's too hot. He then tells her nobody would be interested in her naked body however.
  • MacGuffin: The 'key/medal' that Asthar gives to Zael.
  • MacGuffin Girl: Calista 's royal lineage is important later in the story.
  • Made of Iron: The party. You get mauled by a big tiger? No problem. You lay there unconscious for a bit and then your HP refills back to Max and you're back on your feet ready to kick ass. Sword wounds? No big deal. Blasted by a giant death ray? No problem. Eaten by a giant spider/lizard? Fight your way out. Even in cutscenes getting stabbed by random pointy things isn't really a big issue for the characters.
  • Magic Skirt: All female NPCs.
  • Magitek: Despite not having airships or any fancy machines, Castle Arganan is equipped with a magitek cannon, used to blast invaders into dust. Turns out so does Gurak island. This magitek in the castle is used to power the lifts and other contraptions inside as well.
  • Male Gaze: This can be done when the cut-scene camera option is turned on. You can choose to ignore the main details of the cut-scene and look elsewhere (to an extent) to places like Syrenne 's chest or ass.
  • Meganekko: Irmina, Horace's wife. Also Mirania, during Chapter 28. She looks pretty good in them too.
  • Meido: Castle Arganan has its share of maids. They all look the same though.
  • Mooks: The Lizardmen enemies you meet early game will get beaten senseless by your party. Their upgrades don't fare much better.
  • Ms. Fanservice:
    • Syrenne, who wears significantly less clothing than the other mercenaries (mainly in flashback cutscenes).
    • Actually technically ANY character can be fanservice due to fully customizable clothing. Two Key Items that you earn later make this better... or worse? Shocking Bleach and Stimulating Bleach. They make armor completely invisible. Although the characters have some pretty boring undies.
  • My Own Private I Do: Played with. Post Epilogue, Zael and Calista go visit her parents' tomb. But they have to go through an army of monsters first. They're about to have their own little private moment, Zael 's friends have been following them the whole time. Syrenne and Mirania even brought Calista 's wedding dress for her.
  • Mysterious Waif: Calista when Zael first meets her. She's hiding in a wagon.
  • New Game+: There is a New Game + option where you get to keep all your stuff. The regular enemies are the same level as when you met them originally. The bosses however are ridiculously over-leveled and will WRECK you.
  • Not So Different: The humans and the Gurak tribe hate each other rather equally, taking civilians prisoner and the like. This is made even more so obvious as in the first half of the game, the Gurak have human slaves. When the tables have turned, humans raid the Gurak Castle and start killing civilians and taking them prisoner without second thought.
  • Not So Stoic: Yurick after some events. Lowell will tease him about his somewhat childish fears.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Lowell who's pretty much cheerful, happy and hitting on anything that has a XX chromosome. However he's one of the most reliable members of the mercenary troop and steps up to plate when the situation calls for it.
  • Oh Crap: Lowell was just minding his own business until a skeleton popped out of a mirror and dragged him into it.
  • Old Master: Although not that old, Asthar falls under this category of Mentor.
  • Ominous Japanese Chanting: The final battle theme, "The One Who Rules All." Potential spoilers.

Crest of the Foreigner, crest of red,
Bearer of wrath, one who rules all.
Crest of the Foreigner, crest of blue,
Lost in solitude, one seeking an end to the fight.

  • Only a Flesh Wound: Whenever one of the characters gets a foreign pointy object lodged in them. Not so much when a non-player character gets something pointy lodged in them.
  • Orphan's Plot Trinket: Zael 's Lens, which serves as a telescope. He received it from his parents.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: The vampire boss Nebirous resembles the Grim Reaper-shaped coffin more so than a vampire. He is however weak to Silver arrows, which are conveniently given to you during the battle by a ghost. Nebirous also happens to drop the weapon 'Death', which resembles a scythe.
  • Panty Shot: Averted, as when you use banana peels/oranges to trip female NPCs, the models don't have anything underneath their skirts except for darkness. You can however check out the playable female characters' panties if you wish; except they all wear the same drab gray boyshorts.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Calista only wore a traveler's robe over her dress, yet when she lectures two knights for stealing food from a merchant they were bullying, they don't seem to recognize her. She only gets away with it because Lord Arganan has kept her locked away for so long, hardly anyone outside of the castle knows what she looks like.
    • Meanwhile, Zael has no excuse when a mysterious cloaked figure (in the same cloak!) appears to help spring him from jail.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: Calista has a number of fancy dresses. Two of them you get as armor items for the other female characters. The last one is her Wedding dress
  • Pinball Projectile: One boss, Ghoul when hit with Zael 's Slash skill will ricochet off the walls like crazy and then get itself stuck in wall so you can beat it to death.
  • Pirate: You find a shipwreck, inside you find Yurick ' father's body, who was a sailor, who died with his crew trying to protect his village from pirates, for you trouble though, you receive his father's knife which is a Yurick exclusive weapon and outclasses any other knives that you will find for a while.
    • Zola, as you find out through a side-quest had his share of sailing around like a pirate during some point.
  • Plotline Death: There are a few. Asthar when he gets skewered by a sword of light, Count Arganan when he goes insane after being 'attached' to the Outsider and Dagran when you kill him.
  • Power Glows: Any weapon that has been upgraded to a higher level will start to have a colored aura.
  • Press X to Not Die: A few fights require some extra 'actions' like freeing yourself from spider webbing, jumping onto monsters and stabbing them, sword clashing and other fun stuff so that the players don't get all complacent.
  • Prince Charming Wannabe: Jirall.
  • Private Military Contractors: The party.
  • Protagonist Journey to Villain: One of the main themes of the game, according to Word of God. The character in question is Dagran, whose single-minded pursuit of revenge and determination to protect himself from reprisal drives him further and further down the slippery slope.
  • Rainbow Pimp Gear: Nobody's stopping you from making the characters wear nothing but hot pink clothing or other, similar garish color schemes.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Portrayed somewhat weirdly. Yurick wears blue and acts like the blue, however he uses fire magic. Lowell is the red one and uses ice magic.
  • Relationship Upgrade: Takes almost the entire game before this happens, but it does between Zael and Calista. Lowell and Syrenne get their own little one... kind of.
  • Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense: Calista. She's pretty much been held in Castle Arganan her entire life, so when she runs away from home to wander the city, there are a few things she doesn't 'get'. Like how to eat food from the street vendor. And that one has to PAY for food from street vendors. Zael 's wallet becomes a bit lighter the night he meets her.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Both Calista and her uncle can join the party and fight monsters. Calista more permanent than her uncle (who is more or less useless).
  • Running Gag:
    • Both Lowell and Syrenne comment on Zael 's less than tactful method of 'opening' rock doors by kicking them. Calista joins in later.

Syrenne : "Uwa! You're not supposed to kick it!" and "Wha - you kicked it!"
Lowell : "Here it comes! Yep, a kick!"
Calista : "Wait, you're kicking it!?"

    • Lowell pulls an Zael by kicking a wall. The wall retaliates with a Groin Attack.
  • Schizo-Tech: For a place with knights, swords and old-fashioned monster slaying, Lazulis Island certainly has some crazy Magitek that lets them turn the entire land mass into a ship, fire magical lasers from their ships, and have a mechanically transforming arena whenever new challengers arrive. The civilians seem to have no problem not relying very much on this technology.
  • Sea Monster: Some of the bosses are sea monsters. Very annoying ones at that.
    • Muruu, a giant sea turtle that can shoot electricity and paralyzing spines. He also has later incarnations as: Sumuruu, Dark Muruu, Domuruu.
    • Kraken, a giant squid (you never actually see its entire body though...) with massive tentacles that grab you and throw you. It can also has a Wave Motion Gun attack that makes chunks of the cave fall on you.
    • Coconut Crabs, regular enemies that have high defense from frontal attacks and can poison party members.
  • Shirtless Scene: One of the early flashback cutscenes with Zael shows him wearing a jacket. Without a shirt underneath it. Of course any cut-scene can become a shirtless scene thanks to a quest related Key Item.
  • Shock and Awe: The Raijin Axe drops lightning bolts on enemies when you attack with it.
  • Shockwave Stomp: Zael and Dagran in New Game Plus can do the Vertical Slash, which involves running up a wall and then slamming down his sword, creating a shockwave, which does area damage and has the same effect as the Wind ability.
  • Shout-Out: One of the weapons you can win online, the Prophet, can't be called anything but a Keyblade.
    • Some of the events in game are reminiscent of other games.
      • Have Zael sneak by some guards and then calling the rest of the party is akin to an event a la Final Fantasy VII in the Shinra Building
      • One of the Muruk incarnations (a giant turtle) comes flying into the Arena, spinning like Gamera. The citizenry is completely horrified, while the party is baffled as to how a turtle that big could fly by spinning.
    • The very title of the game might be a shout out to Final Fantasy itself - both titles essentially mean "the last one in a series of fictional happenings".
  • Sidequest: Some of them are dead easy, like fetching ingredients for NPCs to plain weird.
    • In order to learn how to dive into the water (you know how to swim however...) you have to catch three frogs. And in order to find said frogs, you must talk to a fortune teller who tells you where the frog is.
    • An old man who lives at the far east end of the river in the city will reward you with various goods depending on the following: 1. How many times you've bumped into NPCs in the city. 2. How many times you've made Zael run face first into a low hanging sign. 3. How many times you've made Zael fall on his ass by slipping on a banana peel/spilled fruit.
    • One sidequest is however just plain mean: You can explore the sewers of the castle town, and there are three level 40 monsters here. You can access this quest very early on in the game (at around level 10-12). You must kill all three monsters by yourself and they will proceed in beating the shit out of you. It is highly recommended to do this much, much later.
  • Skinship Grope: Syrenne starts to check out Lisa/ Calista while they're in the bath. Leads to some Les Yay. Later Syrenne says that she wants to take a bath with Mirania and her wonderfully smooth skin.
  • Slasher Smile: Yurick, gives a particularly nasty one to Zefa as he prepares a spell to kill him. Instead he throws his father's knife at Zefa, and it kills him. Zael has one during an 'episode' he has when he encounters the Last Cocoon, which feeds off of his memories. He ends up during the time when his village was attacked as a child and starts cutting down the bandits (who turn out to be his friends). The smile on his face as he cuts down Mirania without realizing is horrifying.
  • Spanner in the Works: Dagran's plan to kill General Asthar would have succeeded without a hitch had it not been for Zael being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The second half of the game deals with Dagran attempting to keep his plan from falling apart. He frames Jirall to save Zael, but that plan has enough holes in it that it encourages Therius to Pull the Thread. Eventually Dagran has no choice but to kill everyone who gets too close to the truth.
  • Squishy Wizard: Your spell casters don't really do much for defending themselves. They'll start casting a spell, get knocked out of the air and onto their butts, and then try again. Until they die. The idea is you're supposed to protect them while they're casting so that someone, namely the bad guy, gets nuked.
  • Stat Grinding:
    • It is actually a bit easier. Once you are allowed to free-roam in the castle town, Zael can find blue item bags littered along alleys and other obscure locations in town. They're random, but will give various stat bonuses to the entire party.
    • Zael can grind his crossbow/arrow damage in order to make it more effective in battle. This involves either doing quests that give you Arrow damage improvement, or hanging around a windy alley, grabbing feathers that increase arrow damage in 0.1 increments.
  • Stealth-Based Mission: A few of them require you to sneak around, get from Point A to B or elude guards. Some are easier than others when you have tranquilizer arrows on hand, and others require that you don't bash a guard's skull in with the blunt end of your sword.
    • Zael seems to do a lot of the legwork for the party in the stealth department anyway.
  • The Stoic: Yurick in the early game. Later on he starts to loosen up.
  • Straight Man: Zael can be really blunt at times.

Horace: I was caught sneaking around a noble's mansion...
Zael : Huh... so you're a thief?

  • Stripperiffic: Any customization of the female characters' outfits leading to them being much less than modest.
  • Swallowed Whole: This can happen to your party members via three bosses, the Mystic Spider, the Gold Spider and the Queen of Abyss (a giant lizard/dinosaur/flaming t-rex thing). Not getting swallowed is ideal.
    • You can prevent this by using Zael 's Wind Spell when your team-mates are trapped in webbing.
  • Sword Fight: One chapter has quick time event where Zael is dueling General Asthar, Zael however has a bad habit of shouting out which way he's attacking. Or maybe he's shouting to the player to push the button so that he doesn't, you know, die. Later in game Zael can duel against Therius instead, as Asthar is now dead.
  • Sword Plant: Some bosses require Zael to run up walls or perform a Quick Time Event action to kill them by jumping and planting his sword into their head/chest.
    • This is taken to a ridiculous level against the Last Cocoon boss if Zael can successfully drop a ginormous sword on it, skewering it to the ground, so that Zael can the climb up the boss and stab it in the face for 99999 damage, which he repeats until it is dead.
  • Take Cover: Unusually for a JRPG, this is a prominent mechanic, where it isn't particularly smart to run headfirst into danger.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: The party tends to chat a lot during boss fights. This is usually vital in telling the player how to win against some of the Puzzle Bosses.
    • Enforced in a cutscene in Chapter 40 by Lowell during the Zesha fight. *wink*
  • Traveling Landmass: Lazulis Island, once powered by the Foreigner's Power starts to move and Zael can control the whole damn thing when he's in Arganan Castle. The Gurak also have their own moving island which they use to invade Lazulis Island.
  • Trick Arrow: Zael gets all sorts of neat arrows he can fire at people/monsters/etc.
  • True Companions: The party.
  • Tsundere: Syrenne is a Type A towards Lowell.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • You aren't exactly beating people up, but this is still somewhat cruel and unusual. Once you've returned to the main town, you can buy 'Prank Bananas' and shoot them at the townsfolk to make them slip and fall. You can shoot these at anyone, including small children and the elderly. Your party members are a bit more vocal about how much it hurts when you toss bananas at them however.
    • Also making Zael bash his face against signs is hilarious. Making him slip and fall is equally hilarious.
    • During one boss battle, three doppelgangers of your party members appear. If you hit the wrong person (your own friends) they will whine and complain to you.
  • "Wake-Up Call" Boss: That damned tiger from chapter 2 can and will kick your ass if you're not guarding/dodging properly.
    • Any of the New Game Plus bosses are this as some are at least 50 levels stronger than they were the first time around.
  • Wall Jump: One of the skills Zael learns is the ability to run up a wall, jump from it and slam his sword down, creating a shockwave. This can also be used to improve spell effects on magic circles.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Dagran, his means to get revenge on his parents' killers involves helping them up to the point where he can conveniently find the right time to stab them.
  • What Happened to the Tiger?: That tiger in chapter 3? Yeah he kind of shows up once more in between chapters 10-19 and then... poof, nothing. Especially after all the grief he gives you early game.
    • That tiger comes back... near the end of the game. It turns out to be a Guardian Spirit of Lazulis island
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Yurick
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl: Calista falls under this category.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Yurick is deathly afraid of ghosts, despite having no problem (in earlier chapters) blasting undead skeletons. He happens to be one of the party members on your excursion to a Haunted House and he is scared stiff. Getting shoved into a coffin doesn't help his fear either. Most of chapter at the Haunted House is spent listening to Yurick freak out.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Dagran to Zangurak, after Zangurak loses to the party and releases his arm, which has the power of the Foreigner and the Arganan Bloodline. Dagran kills the arm and takes the power for himself.
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