Review for Last Time I Saw You

From the moment I started Last Time I Saw You, I decided this was a game worth playing – partly because of the animation, partly because of my initial character interactions, partly because of the mystery of its dream sequences.

Last Time I Saw You is from Osaka-based studio Maboroshi Artworks, but curiously enough, the lead designer and many other credited team members have Latine names. Whether this is because the Japanese developer has a second team in a Spanish-speaking country, or because in the post-Covid era remote work is often the norm, I couldn’t say; but the combination works well. The Japanese side of the team means the game is practically dripping with authenticity, from the environments to the prominent use of Shinto mythology to the food the characters eat (I had to look up what "oden" is, and now want to cook it). From the western side, the dialog is well-written and always understandable, and the story perfectly comprehensible.

The game’s narrative is its most compelling aspect. You are a 12-year-old boy in a small Japanese town (although, really, the protagonist is far more mature than I was at 12), interacting with both adults and your classmates, but having recurring dreams of being in a fantasy landscape where you encounter a mysterious girl. A typhoon strikes the town while you are at school, and you have an experience that opens the entrance to a nearby forest. In the woods you encounter the girl you dreamed about, who is in fact a forest spirit, and has a series of quests she wants your help with. The area itself is peopled with creatures from Shinto mythology, including a kappa (water wraith), a fox spirit, intelligent samurai crows and others.

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Last Time I Saw You is reminiscent of Studio Ghibli movie productions, which also delve into Japanese folklore. However, don’t expect animation at a Studio Ghibli level. I don’t mean that the animation is bad; it’s perfectly okay, for what it is. The locales are quite attractive; environmental animations involve small motions but do make the surroundings feel alive. Character movements are typical of (fairly high-end) TV animation – not what you’d expect from a cinematic experience – but that is also perfectly okay. A far cry from pixel art, this is decent, if not elaborate, character animation. 

Much of your time in Last Time I Saw You is spent in conversations with characters. While you do have some response choices, dialogs are mostly about getting to know the various personalities, learning about the story, and sometimes receiving (or resolving) quests. More of the game is spent in light platforming; while the number of environments to traverse isn’t huge, you do need to get across all of them to resolve the main quests. I use the term “light platforming” with intentionality. There are platformers I either cannot complete; or in some cases (as with Gris) would have liked to complete and maybe could have if I’d persevered, but eventually became frustrated with and quit. I am not a digital native; I started as a tabletop wargame designer and did not, as I expect many of you did, grow up with NES and Genesis games. I was in my late 20s before I started playing videogames seriously, and neither platformers nor FPS games are my métier. So the fact that I could complete this game without major platforming skills should reassure you that you can do so too. (That being said, some obstacles require quick move-jump-air slide actions, three buttons in quick succession, but you can do that. Really, you can.)

There’s also a very mild combat system – no Zelda-style boss battles, but you pick up a baseball bat early in the game, and occasionally black spirits attack you. You can whack them (for a small coin reward) or evade them. You have three health orbs, but losing them all isn’t a big deal; it sets you back to your last save point. This isn’t really a problem until the end-of-game ascent to the mountain top, when the spirit attacks are pretty relentless. It’s a fairly short sequence, and perseverance will see you through to the end. (Also, for that segment, save every time you encounter a shrine, so you don’t get sent back further.)

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Save points are worth talking about; this game has no autosave feature. Instead, Shinto shrines are sprinkled about both the town and forest map, and to save, you have to pray at one. You do have a number of save slots, but mostly you’re saving to preserve progress, not because you fear you might make a wrong decision. Absolutely do save frequently; on a couple of occasions I lost progress by not doing so, which is a drag. (There’s an achievement for using all shrines, which I didn’t get, but FYI, the child’s drawing of a Shinto shrine on the wall in the school is a save spot. So if you’re going for that, use it.)

As far as audio is concerned, there’s no voice acting, and not a lot of in-game music. There is ambient environmental audio, of course, and the bell-ringing mini-game is tuneful. You'll hear the usual footsteps, varying by terrain, and audio stings. The end-game music is kind of forgettable J-Pop.

The young people featured in Last Time I Saw You are not bland NPCs, as in so many Japanese-style school-centered games. They each have personalities, and getting to know them by exploring conversational options is entertaining. The creatures in the forest are also unique and worth exploring; I particularly liked the kumiho, a Korean-mythology nine-tailed fox, apparently trapped in the forest since WWII. She has a real chip on her shoulder because the Japanese spirits look down on her. The kumiho presents a kind of subtle way to raise such issues without rubbing your nose in them.

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A bit of drama – both among the middle school youths and the protagonist’s parents – provides some emotional context. And the ultimate apotheosis and ending is both emotionally impactful and satisfying.

There is, incidentally, a free demo for Last Time I Saw You. Play it, of course, if you want to make sure this might be a game for you. However, do be aware that it doesn’t have a “load save from demo” feature. So if you work your way through the demo and then buy the full game, you’ll have to replay that portion. Hammering on dialogs does speed up the process, but it’s not ideal.