Blending humor into just about any scenario is typically a good idea and after experiencing the Stanley Parable style humor in the hardcore action world, I have to admit that this definitely blended well! Over The Moon and Coatsink have released The Last Hero of Nostalgaia with the mixed inspiration behind it yet it seems they managed to blend them in a way that was fitting. Let’s just dive into what this game is all about!

Story

The world of video games, known as Nostalgaia, is collapsing backward into a mysterious pixelation, with every particle of fidelity bleeding away. As oblivion appears to await all of our cherished gaming memories. But as the lighting dims and frames diminish, with the world on the brink of extinction, hope emerges to fight back. As the most simplistic pixelated stick-man hero, you must fight through an army of its mindless inhabitants, while being jeered by a cynical narrator who despises your very existence.

Gameplay

The combat in this game is definitely best described simply as being hard yet fair. Just like you’d expect from any souls-like title, your combat experience will be based on the weapon that you have selected and the stats that you have built up for your character. Every time you increase one of your stat levels, it counts as a character level-up.

They do induce the weight limit option in this game where if you put on armor that is too heavy, you will end up going really slow and the stamina cost for attacks will be incredibly high. This is definitely bad because blocking with your shield is part of stamina and I found myself blocking a lot in this game. You are better off picking decent armor that doesn’t make you encumbered so that you can keep your movement speed normal and your stamina cost averaged out.

In order to level up, you will have to defeat a bunch of enemies and gain memory essence. The bigger the enemy, the more essence they provide. That’s not to say that smaller enemies are easier to fight, but you want to aim for bigger rewards. Once you have enough saved up, you simply go to the nearest beacon and level up.

As for what beacon’s are, they are your checkpoint. When you find a new beacon, it fixes the broken and low-tier pixelization directly around it, gives you full health, refills your heals, and gives you options. The options include leveling up, giving up a specific type of item, tethering to the beacon so that it will be where you spawn when you die, and teleport to the beacon you are tethered to given you want a quick way to backtrack. Also, while in the beacon menu, it will tell you how many items in your inventory can have their memories remembered in the area.

What I mean by having an item’s memory remembered is kind of exactly how it sounds. As you gather new weapons and shields, many of them will have the option to be remembered, but in order to do that you will need to select that option in your inventory while standing next to the correct NPC for it. There is no indicator for which NPC to go to or anything like that, so good luck remembering your weapon options. You will come across some that can be remembered by using up some of your memory essences if you’d prefer.

Now, to address the elephant in this game, it does have a lot of direct Elden Ring similarities to it. Not just because it is a Souls-like and shares that system, including the beacon, but you can also drop messages for future players to read. They are limited to an options menu, but I posted a few of these in hopes of being helpful to someone in the future. You can also rest at a beacon and it will reset the enemies and such in the area.

Of course, there are also friendly NPCs to interact with. Some of them are in places near a boss fight and will agree to aid you in this. The first time this happens will feel sketchy, but if you ask them to go together they will fight with you and if you ask to tether to them then you can fight the boss alone but you will be able to respawn right there in the boss fight again. This can be canceled by simply saying No when it comes time to respawn for the boss fight - or beat the boss if you can.

The last thing to keep track of is your items. You will be given a number of items at the start and will be able to find more later on. This can be prepared in your inventory menu and then quickly swapped while playing. Here you can put things like a green herb, an item that can refill your energy or ammo, your throwing stars, and more. Your first thing on the list will be the health pieces that refill every time you rest at a beacon, but I suggest having your throwing stars ready.

Audio and Visual

While I can’t say that the music is all that amazing, especially since there were times it would replay or overlap itself, but the voice acting is almost unnecessarily good. The narrator, serious NPCs, and even the silly NPCs all had clean, clear dialogue and sounded fitting for their role in the game.

I did really appreciate the art style of this game though! Having a mixture of 3D elements with the pixelation of a dying video game world was such a nice touch. And it was even nicer when you see the world stabilize and clean up whenever you sit at a beacon for the first time.

Replayability

Given that there are multiple ways to set up your character’s stats and a whole list of items to use, there is definitely some replayability. Especially once you find out which NPCs can let you remember what items. Getting a bunch of items remembered would help your overall character, even if you don’t use that item specifically, after all.

What It Could Have Done Better

A map would have been incredibly helpful for this game. While the world itself isn’t massive and the story, or fight path, is pretty much linear, a map to show where I have gone and what doors I have passed through would be nice.

Verdict

The Last Hero of Nostalgaia definitely blends comedy and action quite nicely! I really felt like I got to experience something new with this title and enjoyed having gameplay that is challenging yet similar at the same time. The weapon variety felt pretty widely useless as they were weaker more often than stronger, but I do find myself using the same gear for far too long in games like these anyways. All-in-all, this is a game I would recommend to those who enjoyed Elden Ring and other souls-like titles because the comedy alone won’t be enough for those who don’t have patience for that type of challenge.

The Last Hero of Nostalgaia is now available on PC via Steam, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.