Last Time I Saw You (Chorus, multi-format)
WHEN Spirited Away hit fleapits in 2003, the West finally realised Japan had been hogging all the good animation for itself - but Hayao Miyazaki’s influence extends beyond the big screen, and the latest torch-bearer for the ‘cosy’ game genre takes more than a leaf from Studio Ghibli’s book for an autumnal cockle-warmer guaranteed to lift the spirits.
Following the tale of Ayumi, a 12-year-old boy who embarks on a magical mystery tour in the late-80s town of Amatsu, Last Time I Saw You is a gorgeous hand-crafted whimsy from the Osaka-based studio Maboroshi Artworks. A paranormal coming-of-age yarn stuffed with teen angst and high adventure, its six hours task Ayumi with dispelling a curse that threatens his typhoon-ravaged village.
You don’t so much play LTISY as sink into it like a warm bath, revelling in a small-town adventure where, over the course of 10 days, you’ll run errands, engage with wacky townsfolk and take on a bunch of side quests en route to saving your cursed backwater town.
A 2D-mix of light platforming and combat elements, the only action comes from Ayumi taking his baseball bat to the Yokai (Japanese ghosts) like they haven’t paid their protection money. The emphasis is instead on exploring the town’s nooks and crannies, with Ayumi’s diary keeping track of his inventory and Amatsu’s many shrines acting as save points.
You don’t so much play LTISY as sink into it like a warm bath
Playing out like 2017′s Night in the Woods with a Japanese twist, LTISY’s supernatural hoo-ha is a fleet and affecting tearjerker, and as a 12-year-old in the late 80s, Ayumi is pretty much my age - though the only spirits in Portadown’s woods were Smirnoff empties.
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As you’d expect from an art studio, it all looks glorious, with hand-drawn 2D animation and a gentle score, and though joyously warm and gentle, it’s perhaps too comatose to satisfy hardcore joystick junkies.
A handcrafted ode to youth, Last Time I Saw You whisks you back to a childhood you never had for a coming-of-age tale that’s perfect for the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. This wasn’t my town - it wasn’t even my country - but LTISY manages to milk your nostalgia gland like an aggressive farmer.
A spooky season spellbinder with some of the most gorgeous old-school art I’ve seen in generations, Last Time I Saw You is a must for Japanophiles and anyone who grew up in 80s Northern Ireland dreaming of a life less ordinary.
