The Last Story - HD Texture Pack

themriron2 · (This post was last modified: 02-17-2020, 05:59 AM by themriron2.)

(I know this should be in the HD texture pack forum, but I can't post there yet! New account.)

Hey all,

I only got around to The Last Story at the start of last year, but I loved the game. A while ago, I got to work on a HD texture pack for the game, and 6 months (and hundreds of textures) later I think I'm ready to release a proof of concept.
Before I post any screenshots or links I have to give a huge amount of credit to Matrix2525's HD GUI texture pack for saving me a lot of time on the GUI.

This pack uses a mash-up of waifu2x-enhanced textures from the base game as well as suitable replacements, edited and fixed to fit the game. I must stress that this pack isn't finished; however, with my limited amount of free time, I wanted to release something from this project as I haven't had time to work on this project in quite some time, and wanted to release what I have done. I hope it is an improvement over the base game in any case.

Screenshots: (Show Spoiler)

And for comparison, with old textures: (Show Spoiler)

Download link (PNG only, will convert to DDS if there's demand)

Enjoy the pack!

EDIT: I wasn't sure whether I was allowed to advertise here, but in the README you'll find a link to the Discord server where me and a few others try to play Last Story together with the few remaining players that we know of, and we'd really appreciate newcomers to keep the game alive - if I'm not allowed mention that, don't worry, I'll remove it and reupload.

e2zippo · 02-17-2020, 12:00 AM #2

This is aweome, this game really deserves it, it's really good!

I'd love a DDS-version as well if you're up for it Smile

How much of the game is done?

Thanks!

themriron2 · 02-17-2020, 05:58 AM #3

(02-17-2020, 12:00 AM)e2zippo Wrote: This is aweome, this game really deserves it, it's really good!

I'd love a DDS-version as well if you're up for it

How much of the game is done?

Thanks!

I've been chipping away up to chapter 30 at the start of the Gurak Castle. Most of the stuff up to that point has at least been cleaned up somewhat.

I'll see if I can do a big batch conversion to DDS later.

linker357 · 02-19-2020, 04:58 AM #4

This is amazing! Please post it in the HD Texture pack forum as soon as you can, thank you!

e2zippo · (This post was last modified: 02-19-2020, 05:44 AM by e2zippo.)

Looks a missing texture in the beginning of the game, or have I messed up?

[Image: qdKOG4g.jpg]

themriron2 · (This post was last modified: 02-19-2020, 07:09 AM by themriron2.)

(02-19-2020, 05:42 AM)e2zippo Wrote: Looks a missing texture in the beginning of the game, or have I messed up?

That's actually an oversight in my upscaling. Some of the textures are so low resolution that they look like that when upscaled, so they usually need replacements. I'll trawl through the textures and see what's the problem and get back to you; I have a "beta 2" otherwise ready for upload, in DDS form no less.
Edit: That is actually an original texture in the game, by the looks of things... I see no difference with the pack on or off. I think the texture is originally just very low resolution. Thanks for the catch, been too busy in later areas of the game to notice - I'll get to that tomorrow.

e2zippo · 02-19-2020, 07:21 AM #7

(02-19-2020, 06:31 AM)themriron2 Wrote: That's actually an oversight in my upscaling. Some of the textures are so low resolution that they look like that when upscaled, so they usually need replacements. I'll trawl through the textures and see what's the problem and get back to you; I have a "beta 2" otherwise ready for upload, in DDS form no less.
Edit: That is actually an original texture in the game, by the looks of things... I see no difference with the pack on or off. I think the texture is originally just very low resolution. Thanks for the catch, been too busy in later areas of the game to notice - I'll get to that tomorrow.

Thanks for the fast reply! Looking forward to the next version!

02-20-2020, 08:20 AM #8

Great job with the environments so far! I'm guessing character textures come later? Looking forward to this packs progress. Smile

calebthegeek · 02-21-2020, 10:45 AM #9

Amazing work! I always get excited when I see a new HD texture pack pop up here. Huge fan of JRPG's but never even heard of this game, definitely gonna look into it.

themriron2 · (This post was last modified: 02-23-2020, 10:43 PM by themriron2.)

Hey all, thank you for the kind words. I have been very busy recently.. I did a lot of work in the days following the initial release but haven't even had time to check this thread or upload that work for days now. Fortunately I can now share with you a second beta of the pack; the full changelog is in the README, but suffice to say I've added a lot - the size of the pack has almost doubled in PNG form (1.3GB -> 2GB) in those few days, and I have been working on this pack since March 2019!
I have also converted the pack to DDS to substantially reduce size and memory use. The PNG pack was already quite optimised, as I did a lot of bit depth reduction by hand, but DDS is a much more efficient format - the PNG optimisation was mainly for my own benefit, as the PNGs serve as "master copies" and I work with PNG when making the pack.

To answer a few questions:
- I have actually already done quite a bit of work on characters. I have run most protagonist (and many antagonist) textures through a denoised waifu2x upscale, making manual adjustments where I see fit. However, I'm no artist, so remaking these textures is out of the question... if this is anyone's field of expertise I'd be delighted if they could step in!
- There are many spots in the game, like in Castle Gate Plaza as per e2zippo's screenshot, where the game actually uses very low resolution textures. On Wii hardware at 480p this isn't an issue.. but when we're scaling all of these textures at a high internal resolution their lack of clarity becomes very apparent. I do my best with these but they often require straight-up replacements. You'll also encounter some harsh artifacting in the Bandits Hideout, for example, as there is just no detail to be brought out of these textures and instead the noise is made more blatant. Again, I will do my best to replace these when time permits.
- To those looking to play the game for the first time - play it! I'm usually not a JRPG fan and find their length intimidating, but this game clicked with me right from the start and can be beaten in about 20 hours - very manageable. It's a great game with some engaging combat and I actually wrote a review if anyone is considering taking the plunge.

Without further ado, the download to the pack is here.
Check out the README for more information, and if you like the game, you can also find the Discord server there where we play the game together online. Thanks Smile

EDIT: I'm not actually allowed edit the OP to update the download link -- if any mod viewing this could do that, or allow me to do so, that would be great.