Japanese role-playing games, despite having been a mainstay of the console space for many, many years, have fallen somewhat out of favour with the mainstream recently. Even Square Enix's flagship Final Fantasy series doesn't carry the same cultural cachet it once did, with the latest two instalments in particular proving very divisive.

The most common complaint thrown around when criticising the humble JRPG is that it hasn't moved with the times, that it hasn't evolved, that it has become predictable. And while this is true to a certain extent — we're still typically helping whiny-voiced spiky-haired twerps use their total lack of personal magnetism to bring together a disparate group of individuals to save the world from a white-haired androgynous gentleman who wants to use the power of something that came from space and/or inside the planet to BECOME A GOD — it's not quite the full picture. But you have to look a little off the beaten track to find examples of the genre evolving in positive directions.

Three such examples can be found on the Nintendo Wii of all places, in the form of three distinct titles that have become known as the "Operation Rainfall" games, after the movement which has been gently but repeatedly prodding Nintendo to localise them and bring them to the West.

Xenoblade Chronicles came first, with a European release last year and a North American arrival coming in the next month. Offering a vast open world, a bajillion quests, charming British voice acting and quasi real-time combat, Xenoblade certainly wasn't the JRPG we know and love — and it was all the better for it.

Pandora's Tower, an intimate story about a relationship between a monster-slaying man and a girl who is turning into a monster, is the third on the list, with a European release set for this April, and no plans for a North American appearance as yet.

Meanwhile, The Last Story saw its European release in late February, with a North American release courtesy of Xseed Games following later in 2012.

The Last Story is notable for a number of reasons, chief among which is the fact that it's a new collaboration between Hironobu "Final Fantasy" Sakaguchi and Nobuo "The Music of Final Fantasy" Uematsu. That alone should be enough to pique the interest of any genre enthusiasts, but it may also be grounds for caution. After all, these two have been making JRPGs for years, so surely they must be stuck in their ways by now?

Thankfully, such caution is not warranted, for The Last Story is an inventive take on the JRPG genre that dispenses with almost every convention in the unwritten rulebook, replacing them with a streamlined, efficient, rewarding and fun experience that should be a part of every JRPG fan's collection.

The Last Story tells the tale of Zael and his friends, a band of mercenaries with diverse British accents brought to Lazulis Island at the behest of the local Count in order to slay some monsters. Over the course of the 25 or so hours it will take you to beat the main plot, you'll have seen political intrigue, fairytale romances, magic, mystery, comedy, creepiness, conflict, betrayal, tragedy and everything in between. The game's twisting, turning plot moves at a brisk pace and never once gets bogged down in excessive angst or overly philosophical nonsense. There's a section roughly halfway through where a couple of sections feel a little out of place in the context of the overarching narrative, but these remain enjoyable mini-adventures in their own right and are over relatively quickly.

The game's brisk pace is in part due to the way it is designed. Unfolding over a series of linear chapters, The Last Story's narrative is constantly moving forward. Dungeons tend to be straightforward and linear to navigate through, but it's not exploration you play this game for — it's combat.

And what a combat system. Blending elements of character action, stealth, third person shooter and real-time strategy games, it's a real treat. Controlling Zael directly, the player is able to move freely around the battlefield and unleash attacks on enemies simply by tilting the analogue sticks in their direction. As the game progresses, Zael unlocks a series of other abilities allowing him to quickly move around the battlefield, "diffuse" magic circles to provide special effects, and give specific orders to his allies. Meanwhile, said allies hold their own intelligently and realistically, following the player's lead and orders sensibly. Charge in head-on and the rest of the gang will support Zael. Fall back to a healing circle and others will join until everyone's back to full strength.

It's far from straight hack and slash, though. Some combats are over in seconds as Zael hides around a corner and lures enemies out one by one with a crossbow bolt to the leg followed by a devastating "Slash" attack. Others are more protracted, strategic experiences where the terrain comes into play. Mages or archers on high platforms bothering you? Chuck a bomb in their direction, or order your own mages to collapse the crumbling masonry they're precariously perched atop. Despite having to give these orders in real time while the battle continues to rage around you, The Last Story's combat never feels overwhelming, but frequently feels exhilarating. Only an occasionally-wobbly camera and a frame rate that struggles a little bit in large-scale battles mar the experience slightly.

Despite the Wii's much-maligned technical limitations, The Last Story is a glorious-looking game. All thoughts of this being "just a Wii game" or "only 480p" quickly blow out of the window when you see the fabulous visuals, blending a slight sepia tint with some excellent lighting and high-contrast HDR effects, providing a beautifully rich, sumptuous aesthetic. Character models are detailed and well-animated, with clothing and armour changing their appearance as you upgrade it over the course of the game. And the environments are packed with detail, making navigating the game's small but beautifully-crafted world a real pleasure.

It's where the game differs so drastically from the conventions of JRPGs that it becomes the most interesting, though, as lovely as the visuals are and as satisfying as the combat is. The narrative, for example, largely centres around a single city rather than the usual globetrotting adventure, and deals with a variety of very "human" themes — class discrimination, racism, ambition, greed and the lust for power — without descending into "bad guy turns into giant monster" territory. There's plenty of magic and mayhem in there to ensure we don't forget we're taking part in a fantasy story, but for the most part it knows when to rein it in and focus on the characters. A tip of the hat is also given to Western RPGs' fondness of giving the player "choice" in how to respond to situations, but in practice this is a little underused throughout, with the game typically gently nudging you down the "correct" path if you happen to pick the "wrong" option.

The treasure-hunting aspect of JRPGs has undergone a big change, too. There's a small selection of armour available, and all characters can wear whatever they like. All pieces start with equal statistics, too, with differences only becoming apparent once you start upgrading them with materials which can be looted from monsters and chests. You'll be wearing the same armour at the end of the game as you started with — albeit considerably upgraded with a variety of special effects and a gradually-increasing amount of visual badassness. Weapons, meanwhile, can be upgraded to a certain extent simply by spending money on them — but to unlock their latent special abilities and make them considerably more powerful, you'll often need to find specific crafting items.

And — here's The Last Story's killer blow for those tired of 100 hour epics only being that long because of the excessive amount of fighting — there's no grinding. That's right. No random encounters. No running around in circles to attract monsters. No hanging around an area just to beef up enough to beat the boss. Instead, certain dungeons have "summoning circles" available for you to use, allowing you to trigger a small fight and gain some experience if you want to. Doing so will make subsequent boss battles a little easier by powering up your characters somewhat, but it's never obligatory. Characters gain experience at such a rapid rate and combat is such a pleasure, however, that you'll usually want to take advantage of these opportunities when they arise.

I haven't even touched on the wide range of sidequests in Lazulis City, nor indeed the fact that Lazulis City is one of the most convincingly realised fantasy towns of any RPG ever. Nor have I mentioned the curious inclusion of multiplayer, in which players can take their own customised Zaels online to either cooperate with other players against tough monsters or compete against one another in competitive matches. And then there's the guy who rewards you with vegetables and cooking equipment to be used as weapons if you bump into enough people in the streets. The fact there's a sidequest whose sole reward is an army of adoring groupies who scream every time you go to see them. The "Prank Banana" ammunition for Zael's crossbow which causes people to slip over in comedic fashion. Despite being a relatively short game by genre standards, there's a ton of stuff here to enjoy, and it never outstays its welcome. Notably, too, the non-plot-related stuff is all totally optional, as rewards for completing mostly take the form of items which can be acquired elsewhere, a better sense of the game world and its inhabitants and, of course, a smug sense of self-satisfaction.

The Last Story is without a doubt one of the best JRPGs of recent years, and certainly one of the most inventive takes on genre conventions. Even if you've long given up on JRPGs due to frustration at their narrative, aesthetic and mechanical cliches, you'll find something to like here. It saddens me a little that as a limited-run niche Wii title it will likely never find a huge audience worldwide, but those who do give its charms a chance will find themselves amply rewarded with a truly memorable experience.

I finished Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective on iOS last night. I never played the DS original, so when I heard it was coming to iOS, I snapped it up without hesitation, played through the free chapters and immediately handed Capcom and Apple the £6.99 it took to unlock the rest of the game.

Ghost Trick, for those who are unfamiliar, is a puzzle/adventure game from the team at Capcom previously responsible for the Ace Attorney series, one of my favourite story-based franchises of all time. Rather than being heavy on the "visual novel" style gameplay a la Ace Attorney, in Ghost Trick you take a much more active role in proceedings.

To reveal too much would spoil some of the game's excellent twisting, turning plot, but suffice to say this: You are a ghost. You wake up next to a corpse in a junkyard on the edge of town. Understandably, you assume that the corpse is yours, but you have no memory of who you were or what you were doing in a junkyard. You also have no memory of who the panicked-looking redhead in the short skirt and kinky boots is. Thus begins a lengthy adventure as you struggle to unravel the mystery of your own identity while piecing together the events of the night which led up to your death.

The gameplay primarily revolves around the use of the titular Ghost Tricks, which are where you possess an object and then manipulate it in some way. You're limited in your power, however, so you can only manipulate small objects (such as opening cupboards, rocking baskets, making candles flare up, that sort of thing) and in order to possess things, you can only move a short distance at a time, hopping from object to object. Thus part of the challenge becomes determining how you can make use of the environment to get to where you need to be.

There are two basic types of puzzle in the game — sedate puzzles where it's clear you need to make something happen when you can but there's no time pressure to do so; and puzzles where you have a strict time limit as you strive to use the objects in the environment to save someone's life. The latter tend to involve not only working out which objects to manipulate and how, but also timing your moves carefully to ensure things happen when they are supposed to. Failure isn't disastrous, however, as one of your ghostly powers is, conveniently, the ability to rewind time to four minutes before a person's death and try again — often with the ghost of the dead person in tow to offer advice or sarcastic comments along the way.

The game mechanics are relatively simple but the sheer variety of creative puzzles which they are used to create make up a considerable proportion of Ghost Trick's charm. The remainder of said charm comes from a truly loveable cast of characters, second only to Ace Attorney's motley crew in their appeal. The cast is small and introduced gradually over the course of the game's narrative, which means you get to know them all very well. They all have their own skeletons in the closet, however, and this allows for the biggest strength in the game's plot: surprise.

There are tons of surprises over the course of the whole story. The game uses its supernatural angle well to allow for uncanny things to happen, but never strays too far into the realm of total absurdity. Towards the end of the game, the sheer number of narrative threads and time-bending nature of the plot may seem a little convoluted, but sitting down and thinking about things for a moment makes it clear that it's a game which has been thoroughly planned and, within the laws of the game world set out by the story, makes sense.

£6.99 may seem somewhat expensive for an iOS game, but it's time people stopped thinking like that. £6.99 is a perfectly reasonable asking price for the amount of enjoyment you'll get out of this game, and considerably less than it cost upon its original Nintendo DS release.

So stop hesitating and just go download it now. It works on iPhone and iPad and even uses iCloud to let you transfer your save from one device to another. Grab a copy, sit down, relax and enjoy one of the best adventure games in recent years.

The Last Story came out today in Europe. For the uninitiated, this is one of the "big three" Japanese role playing games that many are hailing as the Wii's last great hurrah before it goes off and has a well-earned break ahead of its younger brother's arrival. Said "big three" includes the already-released Xenoblade Chronicles, which is out in North America next month and which I have already discussed extensively elsewhere on this blog; The Last Story, which I will educate you on today; and Pandora's Tower which I confess to not knowing a great deal about at this time. The three games have little to do with one another save for the fact that they're published by Nintendo in Japan and Europe, though in North America it's a somewhat more complex situation.

It's hard not to see The Last Story as director Hironobu Sakaguchi and composer Nobuo Uematsu making a gentle jab at the Final Fantasy series which they both cut their teeth on, and which has now passed into the hands of a completely new team. Even the name means the same thing — Final Fantasy, The Last Story, do you see what they did there?

Far from being a throwback to these industry veterans' glory days, however, The Last Story manages to take the JRPG genre and, like Xenoblade Chronicles, give it a mighty kick up the rectum. It does this by taking almost everything you thought you knew about JRPG conventions and throwing it all out of the window.

The most obvious difference from "traditional" JRPGs is the combat system. While old-school JRPGs favour abstract turn-based systems, The Last Story's combat is somewhat closer to an action game. With elements of real-time strategy. And stealth games. And third-person shooter.

While that may sound like something of a mess, in practice it works very well. Here's how.

You take control of the game's protagonist Zael. Despite having a variety of weird and wonderful characters in your party and being able to equip them as you please, you're always in direct control of Zael. He can run around the battlefield, take cover behind objects, attack enemies, leap out from cover to do powerful "Slash" attacks, fire his crossbow, look around for structural weak points and order magic users to bring them tumbling down, release the power in allies' "magic circles" for various special effects and even — a little later, anyway — give direct orders to his allies.

Rather than thrusting the player into random combats a la Final Fantasy or having enemies scattered around the field a la Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story favours scripted battles which occur at predefined moments. This means that enemies have formations and arrangements which the player must study from the top-down view which pops up before each battle. Allies may offer suggestions on appropriate strategies in which to proceed, which may then be followed or ignored at will, as the party AI will react to how aggressive the player's approach to combat is.

The trouble with prescripted combat scenarios, however, is that it leaves little scope for level grinding or powering up characters, meaning that if a difficult situation presents itself later in the game, there's no means of beefing yourself up to make it easier. Or is there? Well, yes there is. The Last Story gets around this issue with occasional "Summoning Circles" at which it's possible to call up a group of enemies appropriate to the area the party is in and then kick the shit out of them. It's a slightly odd system, but it does at least get around the problem outlined above while avoiding frustrating random battles.

Outside of combat, there's plenty of interest, too. Like BioWare's divisive Dragon Age II, the game appears to largely be set in and around a large city rather than being a globetrotting adventure. Sure, you get to go off and visit other locations throughout the course of the story, but the city of Lazulis is very much a "hub" from which everything else extends, similar to how Kirkwall is in Dragon Age II.

Or, I should say, how Kirkwall should have been in Dragon Age II. Something just didn't feel quite "right" about the whole world we saw in Dragon Age II. Perhaps it was the copypaste areas. Perhaps it was the fact that all the residents of the city seemed to be perpetually standing around doing nothing. Perhaps it was the fact that you spent more time staring at the minimap than the 3D view itself. But Kirkwall didn't feel very "alive".

Lazulis, on the other hand, feels very alive. While the number of NPCs you can interact with directly is somewhat limited, there is plenty of "background colour" going about its business. Women scold children, guards patrol, merchants hawk their wares. And rather than being a passive observer, Zael slinks past people, squeezes down alleyways, shoves past people who are in his way when running, bangs his head on low-hanging signs and goes "ouch" and even has the option of tipping up fruit baskets and then watching in amusement as passersby slip over.

There's a ton to do in Lazulis even when not following the main plot, too. There's an arena in which to fight, plenty of sidequests to pursue and numerous hidden objects to collect. Rather than being a meaningless collection quest, however, said hidden objects provide the means of acquiring new items, upgrading weapons and gaining access to additional dyes for clothing.

Because last of all, The Last Story provides an impressive amount of character customization, particularly by JRPG standards. It's possible to dye each part of a character's outfit, remove certain parts of it to create the look you want and even to make certain parts invisible altogether. Couple that with the equipment upgrade system, which causes armour to change its physical appearance according to how much it's been worked on, and you have a band of heroes which the player feels they can truly take ownership of.

I'm about six hours into the game so far and having a blast. The gameplay is solid, the battle system is less bewildering and daunting than descriptions may make it appear, the cast is endearing (thanks in part to the use of English voice actors, much like Xenoblade), the graphics are lovely (not just "lovely for the Wii", but just plain "lovely") and the story is interesting. While you can clearly see it's a JRPG from the ludicrous haircuts that some of the characters are sporting, there's plenty of positive influence from Western titles here too — customization, choice and a good degree of freedom. I'm getting an inexplicable Baldur's Gate vibe from some of it — perhaps it's just the city-based medieval-ish political story.

I'll be looking forward to seeing what the game has to offer. In the meantime, if you're considering trading in that Wii that's been gathering dust for months — don't. At least not until you've played this and Xenoblade Chronicles. And, if the quality of these two titles is anything to go by, the upcoming Pandora's Tower.