Quick Review: Last Word

Ooh, another RPG Maker game playing with expectations!

Looks like it's missing a room. Or twelve.

Made by Twelve Tiles, published by KOMODO and released on Steam on May 8th, 2015, Last Word combines a visual novel and an RPG. This story takes place long ago in the fictional country of St. Lauden. You play Mrs. Whitty Gawship, a photographer invited alongside several aristocrats to a manor owned by linguistics professor Chet Chatters. The man plans to unveil his newest invention, a one-way transmitter, and test it in the guests' presence. There are stories going around involving every person at the party, and it becomes your task to untangle these dynamics and figure out the greater picture, even if it means dueling every guest in heated debates. Needless to say, Chatters has an agenda of his own...

There's a reason that talk about most topics
is labeled "gossip" in the chat menu.

Whitty collects “topics of conversation” by talking to the guests, learning more about this world and the backstories. And it’s high society, so everyone’s life is messy, they’re just good at hiding it. The topics you discover “level up” as you find new twists, with each having thoughts about the development. The game plays with the arrows and Z, X and C; C is the action button, X is the Cancel button and game menu button. Z lets you open the “topics” menu and change Whitty’s subject of conversation. The same menu keeps track of progress at the latest level of a conversation, showing what you've discussed, with whom, at that level.

Talking is a free option. Discourse, however...

The sprites are colored silhouettes and everything happens in one place, giving the game a Clue-like feel. Discussing with guests on specific topics and interacting with décor elements can lead to “special events”. These grant Whitty extra “stored EXP”, the game’s currency, which can be spent at the house servant for new skills to use in “battle”, or on the cat first seen in the study for new topics and perks. The skills require “Bows” obtained by advancing the story and discovering secrets, though you can also buy some from the cat.

That cat’s really got everything.

Sometimes, it's best to save Tact. Other times...

Combat, AKA "Discourse", is a whole other ballgame. The conversation is displayed as a bar at the bottom of the screen, with a gauge at the center; if you push it all the way to the right, you win, but if the opponent pushes it all the way to the left, you lose. There are three types of arguments (Disruptive, Submissive and Aggressive), which come in three flavors (Subtle, Normal, Overt). A Disruptive argument gives Power, which is spent with a Submissive argument on the next turn to obtain Tact. Then, Tact is spent when delivering Aggressive statements, which push the meter a lot further towards the opponent’s end of the scale.

I'm beyond return? That's bad. And it's tough
to make a Colonel go uncivilized, too. OK,
let's do rock-paper-scissors, circle beats star...

Discourse is further influenced through a rock-paper-scissors element. Both characters have a Composure bar with six nodes. When a character uses an argument that wins the rock-paper-scissors game on what the opponent last said, the opponent loses a Composure point, which means they’re getting heated up. Aggressive statements made against someone who’s lost a lot of composure push the gauge even further towards their end.

At the end of a “Discourse”, you earn both EXP and Stored EXP. Levels determine the starting point of the Discourse; it’s closer to your end if your level is lower than the opponent's, and vice versa.

It’s a complicated system to figure out on your own. There are some early tutorials, but the system would have benefited from being explained in even greater depth. The Skills you can purchase with Stored EXP further alter the mechanics. Most characters have skills of their own, too...

The Seymore Discourses function more like
puzzles within the game's combat system than
"battles" proper, and some are TOUGH!

Of course an elderly judge would have a lot of
experience Discoursing. Boasting (yes, that's his
name) won't accept a Discourse with you
until you're around Level 25. Quite a ways in!

I’ll always applaud RPG Maker games that do something new with the software; this one ups the ante by being something I’ve never seen before, period. The visual novel aspect is great on its own, its only weakness being that all characters have only one pose and expression. An engaging story, lots of worldbuilding, clever twists, and enough information to let you solve the mystery by yourself. Discourse is one of the most unique "combat" ideas I’ve ever seen, with surprising depth and complexity. The game also includes a few side-quests to look for, such as challenge battles involving the shy Master Seymore, who got to the manor at the same time as Whitty.

Although, it’s not perfect; come Chapter 5, level and money grinding becomes necessary, and though it encourages looking for more secrets, it stops everything in its tracks. Although I learned to appreciate them, both systems aren’t intuitive; it takes a moment to figure out how to switch between topics of gossip, and Discourse still feels difficult to grasp even once you think you understand it all. It takes a lot of getting used to, but it's worth it in the end.

Yeah, you should give this unambiguously unique experience a try!

Last Word is available on Steam for 9.99$ USD.