Last Resort, a visual novel about regret and commitment, is a short but intense ride through the tumultuous emotions of a man in pain. Read on to see if the narrative experience is worth your money in our review.
Last Resort Review and Score Explanation
Last Resort Score Explanation
| Overall | Last Resort is a typical example of a great concept hindered severely by its lack of content. Even with a relatable central theme and a cast with the potential to develop into memorable characters, the disappointingly short story prevents any of them from making a lasting impression on the readers. The short read also, unfortunately, drags everything else down with it. |
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| Story | Its story revolves around the struggles of a protagonist whose life is shaped by his two biggest regrets. It's a theme that anybody could relate to, which sets the stage for a great narrative to be built around it. However, its short one-hour reading time and need to focus on two different instances severely hinders its ability to steep long enough to leave a deep impression. |
| Gameplay | A visual novel's "gameplay" mostly only involves left-clicking to progress the scenario and occasionally selecting the appropriate dialogue option to continue the story. However, that doesn't take away from the overall experience one can have when playing the game. In this case, the gameplay should include a satisfying ending shaped by the player's choices. But in that regard, Last Resort fails, as despite featuring multiple instances where the player can choose between dialogue options, the ending is ultimately only influenced by their last decision. |
| Visuals | The illustrations in Last Resort are vibrant where it matters and dull where it's needed. In particular, the game employs color tones to depict the protagonist's emotional state well, ranging from the colorful scenes of his happiest moments to the completely colorless events of his lowest points. However, the live 2D models could use some work, as they look quite stiff. |
| Audio | Featuring fully voice-acted (in Russian) scenes for the protagonist's two love interests and endearing music, Last Resort can be proud of having an audio experience that serves to take player immersion to the next level and beyond. However, the game's unpolished transitions between scenes break that immersion at crucial moments, hindering it from achieving true greatness. There's also a feeling of genericness to the BGMs used. |
| Value for Money | For a $5.99 game to offer a short 1 hour of the traditional VN experience with a lack of any consequential player choice, I would strongly suggest that you wait for the game to go on sale if you want the most value for your money. However, even a very minor sale will make the experience worth it, as its story is still something anybody can relate to on a fundamental level. |
Last Resort Review: A Painfully Short Escape
My first exposure to the world of visual novels was through Type-Moon's legendary work, Tsukihime, back around 2007 through the efforts of the good folk at MirrorMoon. Since then, I've read countless visual novels, from the terrible ones like Snow Drop, to very memorable ones like Saya no Uta, to those that could quite literally change your life like CLANNAD.
Visual Novels are basically stories told through text and images in digital format. It's primarily a narrative experience, enhanced by illustrations and themes accompanying the tale as each scenario unfolds. Unlike adventure games, visual novels often lack many interactive elements, such as puzzles or other problem-solving gameplay. On the other hand, it separates itself from digital graphic novels by having a certain degree of interactivity that influences the story, similar to choose-your-own-adventure (CYOA) books or games.
Last Resort falls within that definition of a visual novel in a very traditional sense. It is a story-driven "game" where its "gameplay" primarily consists of left-clicking to progress the narrative and occasionally picking between dialogue choices for the protagonist to use.
The game is about a man whose entire life was shaped by two major blunders: One was with Hima, who had parted from him after an argument, and the other with Rei, whom he had walked away from after they had broken up. These events were the impetus to his nihilistic views in life, eventually leading to him getting kicked out of college and his parents’ home. In his desperation for relief, he reminisces of the days when he and Hima were still together, when they talked about running away from their boring lives to see the world; their "Last Resort". However, these memories only cause him more grief. He curses himself and wishes to go back in time and undo his mistakes.
As he runs away from both home and reality, he blacks out from exhaustion and finds himself in a dream. There, a demon-like apparition of Hima appears and offers him some cryptic advice. He is then returned to that fateful day when he and Hima parted ways.
In a way, his wish was granted.
Its premise centers on the concept of regret, delivered through the memories of our protagonist's failed romances with his childhood sweetheart Hima and college partner Rei. The protagonist has different reasons for having a regretful ending for each of them, which should have been an excellent read for anybody who enjoys the topic. However, the game's short length unfortunately puts Last Resort in a position of mediocrity.
Don't get me wrong, the story does deliver its message quite well. It's just that there's a disappointingly large hole that Last Resort could have filled had it had enough content to fully flesh out the story between the protagonist and his two previous lovers.
Last Resort had everything going for it. It has an excellent writing style, grounded in realism and sufficiently detailed without being excessively wordy. The story is heartbreakingly relatable, and a mere peek can instantly draw its readers’ curiosity. But it’s simply too short. That one fault ensures that its potential to become a magnificent visual novel remain as just that: potential.
Last Resort Full Game Review
Pros of Last Resort
| Things Last Resort Got Right |
|---|
 The Plot Is Depressingly Relatable The Narrative Style Is Easy To Read And Understand |
The Plot Is Depressingly Relatable
The secret to any good short story is how fast it can connect to its readers. Last Resort accomplishes this feat relatively well by tapping into a feeling everybody can relate to: regret.
Last Resort's simple narrative style efficiently conveys the heavy emotions of the protagonist. After all, being presented with an opportunity to go back in time and undo the biggest mistakes in his life, it makes sense for anybody to become much more honest with themselves and act in such a way that considers both themselves and the people around them.
Only then could he say the words he had regretfully left unsaid.
These feelings are delivered through emotionally charged, viscerally engaging, yet painfully empathetic dialogue. The protagonist's honesty when he dreams of a chance to right his wrongs is admirable, and, depending on the ending you end up with, his commitment to better himself going forward demands all the respect it deserves.
The story seems to be written as though the author has had personal experience with the topic. The protagonist is blind to the facts when it’s convenient and honest to himself when it serves his purposes. Anybody can relate to wanting to relive their lives to undo their biggest mistakes, and that feeling is sufficiently delivered through the writing.
Even the supposed "bad endings" are tinged with feelings of familiarity. These scenarios of defeat have the protagonist end up in a state where he just accepts that there’s nothing he can fight against a supposed inevitability, contenting himself to be happy so that he can cope.
The Narrative Style Is Easy To Read And Understand
A complex, wordy narrative style isn't required to elevate a player's reading experience. The most important thing is to be able to get your points across at appropriate moments. For a short visual novel such as this, it’s especially important to consistently do so throughout the entire game.
Last Resort achieves this by having a cast of characters that can exude personality without the need for excessive narrative. Their actions speak almost as loudly as their words, and it doesn't take much to understand what kind of character they are through their interactions with each other alone.
Even how the protagonist delivers the words he regretted not speaking can easily bring you into the same emotional state of guilt.
Cons of Last Resort
| Things That Last Resort Can Improve |
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Its Short Length Leaves Much To Be Told Various Other, Minor Issues |
Its Short Length Leaves Much To Be Told
It takes slightly less than an hour to complete all of Last Resort, including its multiple "routes." Even for a visual novel, that is an extremely short read compared to other works at a similar price point. While a generous length certainly doesn't necessarily decide a visual novel's quality, it does impose restrictions on the work. One of these restrictions is that it must be able to deliver enough content within its limited time constraint to leave its players satisfied.
Unfortunately for Last Resort, the game's extremely short length impeded many aspects of its otherwise heavily relatable story. Its cast, which has the potential to be as memorable as any endearing character from a good higher budget novel, is often abruptly cast aside to make way for the scenario. Its music, which is actually memorable by itself, is similarly always cut short due to the sudden transitions between scenes.
The need to rush through the story also turns momentous events that should’ve been seen as major contributors to the protagonist's biggest regrets into completely baffling decisions, due to the lack of context. Ultimately, there’s only really enough time to sympathize with the main protagonist, forcing Hima and Rei to become simple plot devices that serve as subjects of his guilt.
In fact, the game doesn’t even offer a proper ending. If its intent was to create an open-ended conclusion, then it fails as it doesn’t even end with a cliffhanger or a nail-biter. Instead, it just feels like the scene was suddenly cut before the game closes with a few words from the developer.
Various Other, Minor Issues
Like many indie visual novels, Last Resort also suffers from minor, yet glaringly apparent shortcomings.
For one, the visual novel utilizes live 2D, where illustrations are given minimal animation and movement to give the illusion of life. While it does strike the lip syncing aspect out of the park, almost perfectly matching the Russian voice acting, every other movement the characters make looks stiff and mechanical.
It's also guilty of giving its players the illusion of choice. Similar to many visual novels, Last Resort allows its players to select between different dialogue options for the protagonist to make. Usually, each choice shapes the conclusion the player will end up with. However, in Last Resort, every dialogue option aside from the last one doesn't matter. It will only change a few lines of text that directly follow the player's decision, after which the different options will converge to the same linear storyline.
The transitions also need more consideration. For emotional stories like this, giving players time to get drunk in the aftermath of every scenario is essential to the immersion. However, Last Resort's transitions are abrupt, almost like a jab to the face, snatching the player’s attention away from the previous scene without warning.
Last Resort Overview & Premise
Plagued by a life weighed down by his past, the protagonist lives a life of disappointment. He is expelled from his university, constantly hounded by his parents, and lives each day with no hope for the future. The only things that bring him comfort are his memories of his first love, Hima, and that of his ex-girlfriend, Rei. Ironically, those memories are also why he is at his lowest.
But one day, he is suddenly visited by dreamlike versions of Hima and Rei in a dream. There, he is able to relive his most precious moments with them, and perhaps even change the outcome of their separation, even if it's detached from reality. Will the experience change him for the better, or will it further drag him down the abyss of his guilt?
Who Should Play Last Resort?
Last Resort is Recommended if You Enjoy:
• No:Worse
• Eden*
• Last Call
Last Resort is a story about regret. You'll enjoy Last Resort's short story if you're a connoisseur of such topics, central to the plot of many other visual novels such as Last Call. Similarly, if you're also a fan of the writer's previous works, such as No:Worse, then Last Resort features the same style as his other titles, with marked improvements over them.
Is Last Resort Worth It?
Even a Minor Discount Makes It Worth a Purchase
At $5.99, Last Resort doesn't offer much in terms of the VN experience. Not only is it too short, but the game also plays out more like a kinetic novel, visual novels that only have a linear story, despite having opportunities to select dialogue options. But despite that, the lesson that Last Resort offers is an important one to learn, so even a minor sale would make the game worth the price. I’ve seen visual novels that cost less than $10 get as much as a 70% discount back then, so it’s not out of the question.
It's also worth noting that this entire game was pretty much singlehandedly developed by one person, with voice acting provided by the Russian V-Tubers the main love interests were based on, Hima and Rayni. That's quite an achievement that deserves some respect so of you want to show your support just for that fact alone, then a full price purchase is absolutely justifiable.
Last Resort Trailer
Game8 Reviews
Last Resort Product Information
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| Title | Last Resort |
|---|---|
| Release Date | August 28, 2023 |
| Developer | Aleksey Izimov |
| Publisher | Aleksey Izimov |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Romance |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | Last Resort Website |
- Disclosure: Game8 was provided with a free copy for review purposes, with no other compensation. #lastresort
