The Last Story

Ill-advised attempts at humour? The humour is the only thing that elevates this game's humour above mediocrity.

The voice acting is fine too.

As regards to the comedy, your mileage may well vary of course, but I found most of it painful rather then charming. As for the voice cast; there are definitely a few decent actors in there (Asthar, Lowell), but mostly they're a bit fresh out of drama school and in a CBBC serial (Zael, Dagran, Calista, Syrenne) while others are just terrible (Mirania, Yurick). While I was playing for review my partner asked if it was just because she wasn't used to the genre or was the acting really that bad compared to the likes of Red Dead Redemption. I explained that these localisations are appreciated and have come a long way since horrific, botched translations and/or people acting in their second/third language - but - that yes, this game was sadly cursed with sub radio soap opera performances.

Could this person say the word jrpg enough?

I wish better people could write reviews

6(?) occurrences of (J)RPG in a 1500 word review of a JRPG - I didn't feel that was excessive. Sorry you didn't like the review, Tanto. I'll try to be a better person from now on :)

@Leon_Cox All of the VAs in The Last Story are experienced actors/voice actors. Zael was voiced by Jack Ryder. Mirania was voiced by Montserrat Lombard. Certainly not 'fresh out of drama school', as you say.

From videos I've seen, the tactical aspects remind me of Valkyria Chronicles.
RPGs should embrace that format more.
Both Valkyria Chronicles and Resonance of Fate were ahead of their time and under-rated. Sad.

In the beginning of the story, I found it very hard to relate to the voice acting. I've already finished the game and I have to say that the voice acting kind of grew on me. Although sometimes it was hard to understand due to bad script writing as you already said. I am from the Netherlands so I'm afraid I didn't understand some of the words that were probably more local British English. Although I was a bit reluctant at first to play the game, all in all I think that it was a very enjoyable game. My apologies for any grammar or spelling mistakes.