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If the pen is mightier than the sword, the mouth is mightier yet!


One-Sentence Story: In a society where having the last word means having power over others, a small party is disrupted by a gentleman who politely issues orders via one-way intercom.

Genre: JRPG

Description: Photographer Whitty Gawship attends a prestigious get-together at the residence of the impressive Professor Chet Chatters. Members of the party are veteran conversationalists, each trying to gain subtle power over one-another. The mood shifts when Whitty and the others discover that the professor can get the last word in every conversation via his miraculous invention. Dastardly!

But what are the professor's motives? And why invite a commoner?

Last Word is an unconventional JRPG. Battle sophisticated guests using words as weapons. Collect topics by gossiping to unlock mysteries. Drink wine. The night is young and no one can leave until the devious Professor Chatters says so! Can Whitty and Seymour overcome the power of the professor's amazing machine? Or will they succumb to the saucy banter of the motley aristocrats around them? Don't hesitate in getting the Last Word.

Last Word was created in 30 days for the Indie Game Maker Contest 2014. It is currently free to play, but, one day, in the distant future, it may be enhanced and made to sell. Any and all downloads from this page are and will continue to be separate from the potential, horrifying capitalistic future.

Check out LAST WORD here! I hope you like it!



FEATURES

- Unique battle system! Fight with the subtle nuances of conversation.
- Custom art and music! Experience a custom look and feel.
- Vocal SFX! Each character has their own awe-inducing sound. Listen to the quality of that throat clearing!
- Key Topic System! Gather gossip and use them like keys... for treasure!?
- Engaging storytelling! Get whisked away by a narrative brimming with character! And fun!
- Bow Ties! Learn skills and equip them using snazzy Bow Tie Points!



This game was submitted to the Indie Game Maker Contest 2014. The game is complete and playable. However, some screenshots may be slightly out of date--only in the minor details. One of these has a typo, and I think another is missing a fireplace or something...

Latest Blog

Last Word Itch.IO Release

Hey, folks!

I've put Last Word up on Itch.IO for those who prefer to download the game in non-Steam-related scenarios! Long overdue!

As an added perk, I've dropped the price a couple bucks, too. Just a heads up!

  • Completed
  • Merlandese
  • RPG Maker XP
  • RPG
  • 07/06/2014 07:41 PM
  • 05/27/2022 02:22 PM
  • 06/30/2014
  • 169788
  • 51
  • 3028

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ahh I see. I suppose that does make sense,
though there were a lot of little misable conversations throughout the games with the characters. So I think something on that level would have been good.

Part of my problem was that at that point of the game, I was completely convinced that Seymour was lying to me about how proficient he was and that he was hiding something BIG (like maybe he had the Last Word all along and was playing dumb to hide that fact) The fact that the challenges were conversations where he bested the others in discourse only made me think more that he was playing the idiot on purpose.

I was pretty convinced that either he or the servant... what was his name again?? ... were telling tall tales and they were the first people I accused at the end of the game. I missed the hints completely with who was truly the culprit with the stone because I was too busy HOPING that either Seymour was playing me or the servant was playing Chatters. haha I wanted that so bad!!

btw, the bit where the judge gets the stone and decides to destroy it was a very nice touch. I like that bit a lot. At first I was like "HE DID WHAT?" much like Whitty, but then I thought - no, he did the right things all in all. I liked having that reactions, being driven to that reaction and being forced to reflect my own self as I parsed the details more. Lovely work there.

The cat's special skill got a good chuckle out of me as well.

Ah, there was just so many good things - I could go on forever. Seriously, this was wonderful for me.

If you ever decide to do something else in this game's world, I'll be -much- quicker about playing it myself.
Thanks, Cashmere! I wouldn't have been sad to win the Grand Prize either! ;) Luckily Remnants is a stellar game so I don't have to feel all weird about it.
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
I want my IGMC entry to be anything near approaching this level of greatness. I wouldn't have been sad at all if this had taken the Grand Prize. This and Remnants are in the same league, but for different reasons.
Whoo, thanks a lot, MakioKuta! Glad you enjoyed it. :)

The underwhelming Seymour Challenges reward was an intentional thing that kind of backfired. I wanted the challenges to be something that didn't lock out some big reward or reveal in case the casual player didn't want to bother with them. But as it turns out, almost everyone tries the challenges in hopes that there IS something amazing locked behind it. XD Definitely something to remember for future designs.

What you find there is fairly meaningless unless you've played Fleuret Blanc, in which case it's a pretty rad Easter egg. :)


ahhh I wrote a long comment, hit submit, lost net and lost it. :( I'll try to repeat myself in full.

First - I loved this game A LOT! The story, characters, world, artwork, music, and gameplay were all so well done. I had a hard time getting into how to play the game at first - the learning curve was rough - but once I got the hang of it, I found myself enjoying the imaginative battle system. The middle of the game was certainly the height of it for me. The story was building its mystery and the gameplay was just cracking in my brain and I was thinking hard on how to play and what to do.

The ending I found to be a bit grindy at times. Especially when trying to unlock Seymour's challenges.
Which---- I found the result to that to be anticlimactic. Unless I missed something with the box of coins that he was going to hand down to his children ---- It didn't really feel like much of a reward for all the effort it took to find that box.


The story is what really hooked me. Messy family politics <3 My favourite thing. The more layers I peeled back the more I wanted to know. If I had any complaint on the story, it's that I wanted MORE. The world is so wonderful and every character is so developed and interesting. <3

YEAH! Wonderful game!! I'm so glad I found the time to sit and play it properly.
Thanks for all of that, and for playing the new version! :)

The code you're asking for is given only when you beat the game once at least. It's randomly generated for every game. :D
Great game.

I've played the contest version awhile back and am currently playing the upgraded one. Compared to the old version, it definitely feels more polished and complete. I especially like the use of photography there.

Not sure if I like the portraits. I think silhouettes gave the game more individuality. On the other hand, portraits do look pretty, so I can't really complain. Though I would prefer if they weren't static. Some lines just don't go well with the standard expression.

I have some problems with the battle system. While it's very good, by the end of the game it gets old due to the grinding (especially now that Seymour needs leveling up as well. I've spent a lot of time just getting him to the right level). I think the game would benefit from removing levels and simply having you start at greater and greater disadvantage with each new plot-relevant opponent (whom you may later fight again to unlock skills or something).

Overall, though, the game is a lot of fun to play, and my complaints are minor at worst.

However, I would like to ask for advice. I am stuck near the very end,
with the code to the mirror. I've uncovered pretty much everything there is to see, but can't figure out the combination. My best guess is that it relates somehow to the number of elephants in the house, but no matter how I count them, the number doesn't fit.


I would appreciate the help very much. Thanks in advance.
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
I think it's good to add the portrait art just for the fact that you can add it as a selling point for the commercial version. If you kept it, it might be harder to convince people that there's a difference! Which I'm sure there is. It's just that the visual upgrade is the most noticeable one, and the most likely to be the most alluring factor of the new version.
It's definitely a conflict! I love the new art, but I also love the old style. I was stubborn enough to keep the silhouette sprites, too, but even that has been held against me in reviews.

But ah, no worries! I think how it is now it great, and the silhouette version still exists in its own way. :) I just hope the new art doesn't discourage fan art! I want fan art so much! XD

Thanks, Liberty. :)
Congrats for getting on Steam!


You know, as much as the new portraits are nice, I much much much preferred the other ones because they not only gave you the ability to imagine the characters how you wanted them to look but also made you pay attention to what they were saying in order to learn more about them that you couldn't just by looking at them. You went in knowing nothing bar their gender and identifier and formed your own idea of how they looked. Really wish you'd stuck with that instead of listening to whoever told you to make actual portraits. They were wrong. :/

That aside, I'll buy this when I have some money in the kitty. Always happy to support a fellow game dev! ^.^)b

Good luck!
Meighth is upon us! Last Word is now on Steam. :)

Thanks for all of the support!

LAST WORD on STEAM!

Level grind like a fiend so you can see it yourself! It's a little thing but I think it's pretty funny. It doesn't change the story, but there are a few additional lines of dialogue afterwards. Supposedly there's a similar one if you beat Prattle in the intro, but I haven't managed to see that one.


I was banned less than a year ago. If I recall correctly it was while I was polishing the Fleuret Blanc page (there's a reference to Last Word there, by the way, you should probably link it), which was last November. I'm not very clear on the appeals process; the message mentioned I could do something about it, but I was so frustrated by the administration and their mercurial nonsense rules that I didn't want to bother. If there's been a changing of the guard it might be worth it, but it might also be in my best interest to step back a little. TV Tropes does kind of consume your life.
On it. And

What exactly was the easter egg? I tend to be quite thorough when playing games on here (as reflected in my reviews) but I didn't really think anything would change if you beat Chatters the first time.


And also, when were you banned? If it was before last year, there's a good chance of appealing it, as the site now has two new admins who seem to be more forgiving than Fast Eddie (not that I care either way, since I never use the forums and my interactions with staff are kept to a minimum due to temporal constraints.) Anyway, RMK games certainly need all the help they can get on TVT.
Oh, hooray! I'm glad I'm not the only one publicizing RPG Maker games. I used to have a lot of fun with it, but TV Tropes banned me for some reason, so I can't do that anymore. (Maybe I had too much fun with it?)


I'm surprised you didn't mention that there's an Easter egg for winning the hopeless boss fight against Chatters! You also left in an errant bracket under "Last Name Basis".


You should probably credit the developer, though.
In anticipation of the commercial release, here's a TVTropes page by yours truly to get it known to a few more people.
Wow, thanks so much! I listened to quite a bit of it, skipping around here and there to selfishly obtain feedback from certain areas, but I probably listened for an hour and a half to a lot of it.

You both sounded like you were having a lot of fun, which is, as the elderly might say, wicked killer. It was refreshing. I loved the Lady Batman material and how useless McCall was. And Poop Servant! XD It was a good time. Thanks for playing through!
Yo Merlandese, a while ago gourd and I ran across this game and decided to play/record it.

Here's a link to the first episode If you're interested in seeing our reactions to things in the game although I will say this is one of my favorite RMN games I've played so far.
mjshi
Jack of Most Trades
6414
I have no idea what that is, and am amazed that you could pinpoint the issue, and after a Google search, managed to add RGSS player to the "allowed list"...

Question is, weird as to how this is a problem in the first place o.o (your game isn't trying to... do anything, yes? xD) But thank you very much!
I have no idea what the problem is there. It looks like you have everything you need.

Is it possibly a DEP exceptions issue?
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