Every so often, a video game will come along that seemingly defies all preconceived logic and common sense. That can be a good thing, or it can go the way of The Quiet Man. Unfortunately, Last Labyrinth is a PlayStation VR title that very much belongs in the latter category. Its core mechanic is sound enough, if a little stale by this point, but it's the decisions made around the edges that turn this into one of the most baffling experiences we've had inside a virtual reality headset.
Strapped to the confines of a wheelchair, this is an escape room-style undertaking which limits you to just a single interaction. A laser is perched on top of your head, and you'll use this to guide a young girl through various puzzles that range from the insultingly simple to seemingly impossible.
Holding the X button triggers the laser to fire, and the female in question will head to wherever it was pointed. If there's something to interact with there, she'll point to it and you’ll have to confirm whether she should use it or not with either a nod or shake of your own head. And that's the entire game.
We assume there is some sort of narrative that ties each room together, but we couldn't tell you what it is. The entire game is told in a made-up language outside of the main menu and there aren't any subtitles to help. Escape rooms are a great fit for PSVR, and so we have absolutely no idea how Last Labyrinth managed to get things so wrong.
Comments 22
This looked interesting but sounds like a complete mess was a little shocked at the price on psn. Seems even stranger that it hasnt been translated at all.
Ha ha, the game isn't in Japanese - its a fictional language so that you can only communicate through actions. I don't think you understood the game at all.
If you think this game is bad, wait till you play Reborn A Samurai Awakens (recently released a week ago). It's more baffling than both this game (also worse than Golem) and it has to be seen to be believed lol
@LiamCroft Hi! Developer here. Thanks for the review!
We should have made one point clear, Katia (the girl) isn't speaking Japanese, or any known language at all - it's a made-up language.
One of the game's themes is "non-verbal" communication, which is why the focus isn't on understanding her through words (or subtitles), but rather her body language, reactions and interactions with the player.
Thanks again for the review and the feedback, we appreciate it.
@AMATAKK Thank you for the insight. I have updated the text slightly to reflect that.
The Pros and Cons are the best.
@SoulsBourne128 Ah yes, Reborn Samurai Awakens. What a mess that was. I was surprised by the lack of polish given the game was in development for 3 years. My guess is that Geronimo Interactive lost faith in their project and winking just didn't know what to do, which explains why Winking VR dropped from backing the game up. I wonder if they released it now just to cash in on the Star Wars game hype, given that the gravity attack is called "the force" and the saber sound effects being straight up ripped from Star Wars.
Say what you will about Last Labyrinth but the game does have its own share of charm. It's not without flaws but it's okay. Plus, as you can see, the developers of Last Labyrinth actually responded to criticism unlike Reborn devs, so kudos to them.
That counts as a review?! You said "it's bad, but we won't bother telling you why". Pathetic.
I like the character with the green hair. Looks cute.
I dont like the review. I miss any reason why its so bad. With a lot of games we have made up languages i dont see that as a minus. And if the game gets a 3. Are the controls not working is the game extremely ugly?
What a pathetic review this is. You can tell no work went into this at all. The reviewer just sh*ts on the game and provides no real reason to back up the horrible score given. These short reviews just seem like a way for someone to get a game and quickly put something up with barely any information. If I was the developer I'd never send you a game again.
@Flaming_Kaiser Exactly. He barely touches on any of the issues in the review. Some puzzles are easy and some are really difficult? How so? Why not tell us? Maybe they aren't difficult for someone else and you just don't understand what you're doing. Just horrible review overall.
@PSfan4Life22 Thank you!
I'm sorry but this review is truly terrible. I love this game. The atmosphere is great, I did about 15 puzzles so far and enjoyed them all and I'm looking forward to seeing all the endings and find out what the story is all about. Also the torture scenes when you fail are great.
Puzzle games are not everybody's cup of tea, but this one is so well done that it's truly ridiculous to give this a 3 without any solid arguments. If you like a good puzzle game with a terrific setting this simply is a must-buy.
That you didn't understand that the girl speaks a fictional language is the only baffling point here.
@LiamCroft No problem. Always open to giving people criticism when they deserve it.
Sad to Hear this! I do love the mini review format!!!
@AMATAKK I have a question; was this game in any way connected with the 3DS game Beyond the Labyrinth, which never released in the US? I ask because I was always interested in checking that game out but never was able to, but I think this may be a great way for me to see that world.
@Chlocean Hi! No, Last Labyrinth is not related in any way to the title you mentioned. It's entirely original.
The mini review is a dreadful format - at least if you can't effectively convey a point in such a small amount of time. And I'd argue that's going to be tough to do for the majority of games, so it would be a very niche format when used sensibly. If you want to hold on to this format, perhaps consider making it so that formal reviews simply have a "TLDR Corner" with a distilled review like this.
The people who can't be bothered to read more than 4 sentences without becoming bored can check that out along with the score, and then the people like us - those who prefer to understand why a score was given, not just that the author didn't like it "because" - can read the full-fat variant.
Reviews this short don't do anything. You'd be better off removing the text at that point and just giving a score - I'll be honest, I can't imagine much would be lost by chopping off such a short amount of text simply due to the fact that such extreme brevity inherently lacks nuance. Reviews need that nuance.
This review has me in stitches!
First 3 paragraphs: A short synopsis of the game.
Final paragraph: "We didn't actually play it LOL"
As I commented on another thread, this is the worst review on Push Square. The mini format is okay, but this review does nothing to convey your feelings to others about whats wrong with the game. And the language blunder is embarassing, to say the least.
.. I think everyone should try the demo - oddly, I rather enjoyed it! :S
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