You don't realize just how good a gaming year it's been until you look back at all of the games you actually played. From physics puzzlers to ninja simulators, 2012's library was full of interesting, creative, unique experiences.

Remember how Nintendo wasn't going to release The Last Story in the United States, even though it's an awesome role-playing game and the Wii was barren for two whole years? Remember how XSEED came in and scored a publishing deal just by asking for the game late last year?

I didn't play The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. To a role-playing game player like myself, that seems particularly wrong, but I just didn't feel like digging out all my Wii stuff and going through the motions.

I've been playing The Last Story, as you know. While researching (read: aimlessly Googling) the game earlier this week, I happened upon this old Iwata Asks interview from 2010.

Ever wonder how a Japanese game makes its way to the U.S.? What exactly does video game localization consist of? How many millions and millions of video game letters get translated from Japanese to English every year?

Lost among this week's barrage of awesome new video games is The Last Story, a role-playing game that's slipped pretty damn far under gamers' radars considering it was designed and directed by the man who created Final Fantasy.

Wii action-role-playing game The Last Story will arrive on August 14, XSEED said today on its Twitter account.

Just listen to those grand inflections. This is the new trailer for The Last Story, an upcoming Wii RPG that will be out in the U.S. this summer. (Still no official release date yet.) As you can see, the characters are very English. It's almost as if this game was localized in Europe last year and still somehow took…

Nintendo has an annoying tendency to keep games all to themselves. Over the past few years, the Japanese company has sat on the rights to much-requested series like Mother, Fatal Frame, and Fire Emblem, stubbornly refusing to translate and ship them over to U.S. shores.

A long time ago, the combat in Japanese role-playing games was extraordinarily simple. Classic turn-based RPGs would hit you with a deluge of random and scripted battles. To beat them, you'd select options like "fight" or "magic" from a series of dropdown menus. You'd usually only die if you were under-leveled, in…

Unless you're a huge fan of dubstep and Michael Bay movies, you probably weren't too excited after this year's E3 press briefings.

In 1987, a young director by the name of Hironobu Sakaguchi was charged with making a game for his small game company, Square. Up until this point the company had had moderate success with racing and platforming games, but it was clear to all that Sakaguchi's game was likely to be his—if not the company's—final…

The Last Story, the latest game from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, made its Western debut last Friday when it was released in PAL territories.

Hironobu Sakaguchi doesn't worry too much about the future, he said in an interview with Eurogamer published today. He worries about the now.

Hearts exploded with giddy appreciation for Nintendo this week as the gamemaker announced it would be partnering with publisher Xseed Games to bring fantasy Wii role-playing game The Last Story to U.S. shores this summer. Nintendo has traditionally treated its RPG properties like adolescent children, keeping them…

Despite being 1) a Japanese game, 2) an RPG, and 3) a Wii game, The Last Story has not one but two online multiplayer modes included in its package.

Nintendo is partnering with publisher Xseed Games to bring Wii RPG The Last Story to North America this summer, it said today during an online broadcast.

With The Last Story getting its European release next week, let's take a few minutes to talk about its action-packed battle system.