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January 27 marked the 10th anniversary of The Last Story‘s original release in Japan, and game director Hironobu Sakaguchi commemorated the occasion by sharing a ton of early concept art of the acclaimed Wii RPG on Twitter.
The concept art was drawn by artist Kimihiko Fujisaka and ranges from various character sketches to battle system mock ups. You can see a selection of the concept art below, while more can be found on Sakaguchi’s Twitter page:
The Last Story was developed by Mistwalker, the studio Sakaguchi founded after leaving Square Enix back in 2004. Sakaguchi himself is most famous for creating the Final Fantasy series, and his studio similarly specialized in RPGs, releasing notable titles like Blue Dragon and, more recently, the mobile game Terra Battle (which recently ended services after six years on the market).
The Last Story released exclusively for Wii in Japan in 2011, and in the US and Europe the following year. It was one of the titles championed by Operation Rainfall, a fan movement at the time geared at convincing Nintendo to localize three late-gen Wii RPGs (the other two being Xenoblade Chronicles and Pandora’s Tower). The game was greeted with critical acclaim from various outlets, including GameSpot. We scored it a 9/10 in our original Last Story review and wrote:
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“The Last Story is a fantastic game; one that pushes the JRPG genre forward in ways that are innovative yet still complementary to the tradition of the genre. Its rich narrative straddles the line between emotionally affecting and breathtakingly action packed; its thrilling battle system is a unique, modern take on everything that has come before. And its visuals are some of the best ever seen on the Wii, pushing the system to its limits with its beautifully detailed environments and dazzling special effects (even if there’s a little frame rate stutter during more complex scenes).”
Mistwalker’s next project is Fantasian, a mobile RPG releasing for iOS as part of the Apple Arcade subscription service. Little has been revealed about the game so far, but its world is constructed out of real-life dioramas, which are being photographed and imported into the game. Fantasian does not yet have a release date.
