Last Word

The game play is akin to pulling teeth. So enthralling in fact, I fell asleep with it on and now I have over 20 hours. & I had to change my resolution just to see it without straining my eyes. 2/5 stars

Last Word is a charming and genuinely unique RPG Maker experience that managed to surprise me — the discourse system, a kind of tug-of-war resource management game wrapped in a rock-paper-scissors tone mechanic, takes some getting used to but clicks into place in a satisfying way once it does. The real star is the writing and atmosphere: the cast of aristocratic guests, the sprawling gossip web you piece together, and the Cluedo-meets-Professor-Layton mystery all come together into something that feels polished and intentional well beyond what you'd expect from a small team. That said, the grind is real — with so few characters in the mansion, you'll be running the same discourse loops repeatedly to level up before gating bosses, and the investigation phase is mostly just exhausting every topic with every NPC until something unlocks. At around 6-8 hours to completion it never quite outstays its welcome, and for the right kind of patient, story-curious player it's absolutely worth picking up on sale.