The Last Word was one of the entries for the IGMC (Indie Game Making Contest) for 2014. As one of the judges for the RPG portion of the competition it is my pleasure to share my thoughts on the game. This review will basically just be the notes I took cleaned up. It will be based on the competition version of the game, so certain aspects of the game may have been changed. LAST WORD

Presentation
Graphics are custom and really nicely done. Maps are also quite nice and well constructed. Lighting is simplistic but works to great effect.

The custom art assets are really good - I like the character designs a lot, as well as the theme that links them all. The huds are all sleek and, once you understand the systems in use, easy to read and understand.

Writing was well done bar a couple of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes here and there. The characterisation is quite well done and the story itself, while nothing earth shattering, is well presented and at good pace. Each character is easily identified and separate from the other.

There was a bit of vagary at the ending - a few unanswered questions - but sometimes mysteries are like that, so it wasn't a huge deal and didn't spoil the ending.

Gameplay
Game play consists of banter and discourse. Banter is talking to your fellow characters, trying to weed out the truth about what is going on. You use clues you pick up from talking to others to broach different subjects. Those subjects 'level up' as you talk more about them with different people, learning more until you can unlock the next step of the game.

Discourse (battles) are quite interesting and fun. You use three kinds of skills to swing the battle in your favour. Reach one end of the bar and you win. Reach the other and you lose. Each skill has three choices - square, circle, star - which have a strength and weakness against each other. Square > Circle > Star.

The first skill set raises your power, which is needed to create Tact. The more Power you garner, the less you move the pointer to either side. Tact converts power into aggression and aggression moves the pointer quite a bit more than either power or tact.

There are skills you can use which will give you a bit of an edge over the opponent, but for the most part you'll want to convert enough power into tact to attack the opponent a few times and get their composure down, thus making the pointer jump. Composure is a bit like a multiplier. The more points in it a person has, the more the pointer will jump from point to point.

Most battles are pretty fun and challenging, depending on both your skill level, the skills you have and the opponent. The last battle was a bit of a let down, however, as there was no way for you to lose - plot related reasons, but unfortunately it removed the feeling of epicness that came from winning. It was expected but the chance to beat down the Professor with your own merit would have been nice.

You could purchase skills with experience that you gained at the end of battle. You could also purchase bowties and wine intelligence (which was just an optional purchase that unlocked more dialogue).

Banter required you to talk to the characters a few times, root out levels of secrecy and then retalk and gather more information, thus finding out more and unlocking more secrets. Progression was locked by specific knowledge that was required to proceed and continued after winning the inevitable discourse.

Fun factor
I had a lot of fun with this game. There were some areas that were a little frustrating - having to talk to people multiple times to find that one thought that would unlock the necessary information to proceed, but honestly, the characters were enjoyable enough that I didn't really care.

I was miffed that I never found the last bottle of wine, though. :<

High polish, highly fun and an interesting gameplay idea? Characters that are interesting and well-written dialogue? A mystery without the murder and plot that ends on a question? This game has it all~

For the IGMC I rated this game 54 out of 60 - one of the highest ratings I gave. For RMN I'm giving it 4.5 stars. It was fucking fun, okay?