This time of the year seems to be the IT time for gaming and RPG’s across all platforms. Final Fantasy XIII, Star Ocean International, White Knight Chronicles International Edition, and now Last Rebellion. There is certainly no shortage of amazing RPG’s on the Playstation 3 right now so the real question is how does this one stack up against the competition.

Like many JRPGs, this game has a heavy impact on story. You play the role of Nine, a Blade (one who has amazing powers to destroy things physically) who was adopted by the king to help restore order from the Belzeds in the kingdom. Very early on in the game, you gain another party member, Aisha, who is a Sealer (one who has great powers to destroy the souls of enemies) that you find out has amazing strengths. I could tell more but it would give away a lot of key points of the story. The story has its twists and turns but the real meat of the story is built up to the end.

Onto the gameplay, it has a very steep learning curve but it rewards players with a very streamlined campaign that is fairly short (14 hours). The battles can be difficult and it is tedious to level up. The real fun is during the boss battles that can (depending on your level) last some length of time. They are your typical turn based battles. However, the amount of strategy you need to use is almost ridiculous, in a good way. It makes every battle virtually different in the sense that there are so many options as you switch between characters. The downfall is you can easily be overwhelmed. Try sticking to just hitting the opponent where you need to, and try different combinations of body parts to find the weak spot in the correct order to deal the most damage to your foe. The system itself is flawed, but the conception is genius. You level up your magic skills by collecting sheets of magic paper that can be distributed throughout your various abilities. The graphics are nothing to write home about sadly. The graphics had potential at one point but it seems they took all the development time focusing on the battle system.

Presentation is key, especially in an RPG. As for the ‘cutscenes’, they are simply referred to as ‘events’ which are just simply hand drawn watercolor images of the characters who are interacting with each other in the foreground with simple text below. I know it was an artistic choice, but most stories are better told through cinematic interaction, not watching a slide show. However with all the bad things I am saying about this game you would think I hate it. It’s quite the contrary, as it is my duty to point out the flaws. I must also let you know that for hardcore RPG fans this is most definitely worth at least a rental, primarily because, again, the story is very short. The combat system alone is something to witness, along with the story and the art. The game nears the end when your character reaches around level 50, depending on how much grinding you do. The game is far from polished or perfect, but what is here is a great RPG that can be enjoyed by fans of the genre at the very least. So give it a try, at the very least it is worth a rental for its simple straightforward RPG elements and linear story. Here’s hoping they improve with the possibility of a sequel hinted at the end with high end cutscene elements that really show what it means to be a Playstation 3 exclusive.