The Last Hero of Nostalgaia

The Last Hero of Nostalgaia is a 2022 Soulslike video game developed by Over the Moon and published by Coatsink. It parodies other role-playing video games, especially FromSoftware games.

Gameplay
Players control a stick figure in a land bereft of heroes. As the quests pile up and their stories remain untold, the people forget their history and life is drained from the world. In a general parody of FromSoftware games, players must complete the backlog of quests, defeat powerful bosses, and discover checkpoints. Besides allowing players to save their progress, finding checkpoints restores life to the land, and the surrounding 2D graphics are converted to 3D.

Combat follows Soulslike traditions: players must time their attacks precisely and dodge enemy blows while managing their stamina, which is expended attacking and defending. Players' equipment also becomes more detailed once players find checkpoints referenced in their lore. As they progress through the game, a narrator occasionally helps or hinders them.

Development
Developer Over the Moon is based in Vancouver, Canada. Coatsink released The Last Hero of Nostalgaia for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on October 19, 2022. It was ported to the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Switch on June 20, 2023.

Reception
On Metacritic, The Last Hero of Nostalgaia received positive reviews for Windows and mixed reviews for Xbox Series X/S. IGN felt it is a "competent RPG" that does not add anything new to the soulslike formula, though they praised the humor, worldbuilding, and visuals. Hardcore Gamer said it has enough charm and challenge to appeal to Soulslike fans, but they said it lacks the depth of some other games in its combat and progression system. Although praising the gameplay, both Nintendo World Report and TouchArcade experienced performance issues on the Switch.