The Last Hero of Nostalgaia Review

When I game I often only play for only an hour or less at a time. This is in part because of my schedule, but also because many games just don’t hold my interest for very long. There are a few games, however, that I get so wrapped up in that I could play all day, and when I’m not playing I can’t stop thinking about the game and wishing that I was home and able to play. I don’t know if my standards have increased or what, but when I was younger I remember there being many of these types of games, yet nowadays they seem to be few and far between. Perhaps I need to try more games, but luckily that won’t be necessary for a bit. I have found a new game to obsess over: The Last Hero of Nostalgaia. Developed by Coatsink and published by Over The Moon Games, The Last Hero of Nostalgaia is a satirical action-adventure RPG that borrows heavily from the Dark Souls series and is filled to the brim with references to other video games, past and present.

The Last Hero of Nostalgaia imagines a world shared by all the characters in our video games. Obviously, they can’t use the actual characters but many of them are similar to some of the most beloved and recognizable characters in gaming. The world in which they live, Nostalgaia, has a deep history and hierarchical society. The heroes of the world (many of the recognizable knockoffs) are at the top, worshipped by the masses. The world of Nostalgaia however, is in disarray, it’s on the brink of destruction and deteriorating fast. It turns out that these heroes have offset the balance. Heroes are meant to go on their quest, complete it, and then eventually die, but these heroes have found a way to avoid death. This unbalance is destroying the world and its inhabitants. Everything is slowly pixelating and the inhabitants are going through what they have dubbed the Great Forgettening where they lose their minds and pixelate, some even lose a dimension (going from 3D down to 2D). I don’t know what going from three dimensions to two feels like, but it looks and sounds horrible. Nostalgaia is on the brink of collapse and they have one chance left for redemption; a stick figure, who has just appeared in the Hall of Heroes. It is your job to traverse through the world and defeat these corrupted heroes to restore balance to the land. 

As a whole, I found the story in Last Hero of Nostalgaia to be entertaining, it’s full of references to other games and has just the right amount of humor, a lot of which is conveyed through the narrator who pipes in at just the right (or wrong) time. Like its inspiration, the Souls series, there is a large magnitude of additional lore to discover by reading all the item descriptions. One particularly compelling mechanic the developers have included is the remembrance system. Since the world is deteriorating, many of the weapons and armor you find have lost their memories. The items in this state are missing their regular descriptions, and instead, just contain a clue on where they can be remembered. If you can find the location, the item will vibrate in your inventory – this is visible when viewing the inventory screen. You then have the option to “Remember” that item and it will change from a pixelated model to a higher definition one as well as gain its full description which will usually talk about the hero that had once wielded the item, but that’s not all; additionally, the item will become slightly more powerful (more damage, or more defense), and if the item is a weapon it will gain a special move (triggered with the left trigger when held with two hands – a la weapon arts in Dark Souls 3 or Elden Ring).

There are many reasons that I’ve enjoyed my time with The Last Hero of Nostalgaia, but perhaps the biggest reason is that the core gameplay, such as the movement, combat, and controls, is straight out of the first Dark Souls. The combat isn’t quite as smooth, but the basic mechanics are the same, heck, many of the animations look like they were copied directly from their Dark Souls counterparts. Coatsink have added a few of the more popular mechanics from later games in the Souls series as well, such as charged heavy R2 attacks, and dual wielding.  Even the equipment and item systems are pulled from Dark Souls, and the magic system is also similar. Here though spells are just lumped in with the items, which I kind of like more – you don’t have to worry about equipping a wand or a talisman or a pyromancy glove or whatever else you might need. The amount of spells is drastically smaller, but the system they have implemented for using them works well and is similar to the limited-use system in Dark Souls.

The combat in Last Hero is fun and familiar. I’d say it’s a little more forgiving than the Souls series. There is a nice variety of weapons to use, most of which are inspired by both well-known and lesser-known video games; early on you acquire a shovel axe which I’m pretty sure is a call out to Shovel Knight, and you can also get a cane spear, which is a reference to Scrooge McDuck (unfortunately you won’t be doing any pogo jumping). The only thing that hinders the game’s combat is the lack of enemy combat styles. There are plenty of different enemy types, but many of them are humanoid with two legs. All of these enemy types have similar attack styles and patterns – the majority of them melee. I think the game could use more abnormal creatures. There are a few, and I found those encounters to be the most challenging.

The world and level design in Last Hero of Nostalgaia is also heavily inspired by the Souls series. Many of the areas twist around on each other and contain shortcuts back to the start of the area, as well as secret passages to other areas of the game world. Overall the game world has a nice variety of areas, and the developers do a good job at building the intrigue of a new area, as you usually get a glimpse of it in the distance before you actually reach the area. The game has many memorable areas. The first main area you explore, Ore Shaft Village, is an early highlight and is more like a large town. The path you must take winds all through the village and there are numerous houses you can explore, and I feel like all of them contained some sort of reward for exploring them. This is a trait that Dark Souls shares as well, knowing how to reward the player. Each new area I’ve come across has piqued my interest and I always want to keep exploring, even when I know it’s time for a break. 

The Last Hero of Nostalgaia has kept my interest despite not having cutting-edge graphics. At first glance, you might think the game has an ugly art style, but I really like what the developers have done. The deterioration that I mentioned before is visualized perfectly. The regular game world features an early Xbox 360 graphical quality, it’s similar to Dark Souls, but a little less detailed. Nostalgaia, however, is losing its fidelity, and everything is becoming pixelated, so the world is a truly unique blend of pixelated textures and regular ones, as well as assets that are blocky-looking and assets that still have their original shape. Even the enemies are affected by the pixelization, as some of them are just 2D flat sprites. You have bonfire-style beacons which act as checkpoints or respawn points, but when you light one they have an interesting effect on the surrounding area. When lit, the fidelity of the area right around the beacon increases, becoming more detailed. I found myself spending more time than I should have admiring the two different artistic styles side by side, as they blended together.

The biggest complaint I have with the world design and the game as a whole is the lack of a regular warp system. The game features a waypoint system allowing you to designate one beacon that you can warp to from any other beacon, but this simply is not enough. The game world is very large, with many twisting and turning paths. After a point, I found it very hard to conceptualize how the areas connected together. I think they chose not to include a traditional warp system because they want the player to use the large system of hidden paths that connect most of the areas. This system has a fantastic real purpose for the inhabitants of the world that I won’t spoil, but using it to get around is very time-consuming. Unlike Dark Souls, The Last Hero has a ton of long loading screens, which I found odd given the fact that the game is on the lower end of the graphics scale

One final aspect of the game that made it stand out to me, is the abilities that you gain as you play that open up new areas and allow you to find more secrets. Is it just me? Or does that kind of sound like a Metroidvania? I haven’t explored the entire game world, but I have two abilities so far, and there might be more. So if backtracking and finding secrets are your cup of tea then you might want to hop on the Nostalgaia train (there is a train in this game, so that joke isn’t as corny as you might have thought).

Conclusion

It seems like there is a new Souls-like game coming out every other week but they always fall short of the real thing. The Last Hero of Nostalgaia is the best Souls-like I have played, it doesn’t stray too far from the source, and it doesn’t try to do too much in terms of its core mechanics. However I think it has a wider appeal than just Souls fans; long time gamers will love all the references, which range from the classics like Mario and Zelda to more modern games like Halo, Dead Rising, and Bioshock. Some people might be turned off by the difficulty, which ramps up somewhat in the second half, but if you’re hesitant then keep in mind that you can play the entire game in co-op. The Last Hero of Nostalgaia is a must-play title for any action-RPG fan and is definitely near the top of the list of my favorite games I’ve played this year.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.