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Return of the JRPG Maestros
By Ryan McGee | January 29, 2010
Two new titles announced today by the architects of some of my old favs.
A few years removed from their latest works, the venerable dynamic duo of Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu have revealed their next creation: The Last Story
At first glance, it’s tough to miss the irony of the choices made behind blatant artwork and name allusions to their seminal work. A sound business decision no doubt, yet I cannot help but ponder whether these great artists realize they will never approach the impact of Final Fantasy if they pay homage (and therefore second fiddle) to it in every way.
Is the title and artwork reminiscent of something you know?
There is speculation based on some patent filings and references by Sakaguchi that The Last Story will feature unique playing mechanics. Therefore, it should come as no surprise given the time the title must have been in development that it will be released on the Nintendo Wii. Perhaps we’ll be summoning Ka-nigguts of the Square Table and Gigglymesh with 1:1 MotionPlus gestures, unless the Vitality Sensor determines our hearts are beating too fast because such powerful allies only answer the call of heroes that are calm under pressure… ;-D
Teaser splash here. Uematsu-san can still pen a simultaneously sweet, melancholy, and haunting melody.
Tetsuya Takahashi, creator of Xenogears and the Xenosaga trilogy also returns in another title announced for the Nintendo Wii today: Xenoblade
Xenoblade was formerly known as Monado: Beginning of the World, and premiered with a trailer at E3 2009. The new moniker, while it will obviously help sales, is yet another example of an artist willingly putting themeselves in the shadow of their own previous work. Too bad for the legalities of the situation; I would welcome a sequel to Xenogears like few others. At least the music on the teaser splash is epic…
Both titles appear to be scheduled for a nebulous “2010″ release. Here’s hoping they illustrate these old maestros still have the gusto!
Topics: Random, Wii Games, Wii General, Wii News | 2 Comments »
January 29th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Nice man, thanks for brining notice to these. Can’t wait to see how this turns out I might actually have to buy a system. =)
February 1st, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Sacrebleu! That would be an awesome development… :-)