- The Last Remnant for the Xbox 360 is the first role-playing game in a new series from Square Enix
- Breathtaking visuals, a mysterious storyline, and a massive battlefield provide hours of exciting gameplay
- Battles are fought between multiple friendly and enemy unions -- groups of up to five characters
- Commands change depending on the current battle situation or the distance and positions of friendly and hostile unions
- In Deadlock gameplay, the two unions must fight each other until one union has been completely destroyed
The Last Remnant for the Xbox 360 is the first role-playing game in a new series from Square Enix. This game delivers breathtaking visuals only possible on next-generation platforms, a mysterious storyline full of powerful artifacts, and a massive battlefield where you'll be surrounded by countless foes and friends alike.
Join Rush and David as they battle the Conqueror's Army and search for Irina. View larger. |
Castanea, the Conqueror, and Roeas lead the enemy's search for the Remnants View larger. |
Orders in battle are given in a command-select style. View larger. |
Morale plays a role in a unions ability to inflict damage. View larger. |
The Story Unfolds In ancient times mysterious artifacts, referred to as Remnants, were discovered all over the world. People used these objects for their awesome powers -- a choice that eventually caused a rift in the world's balance. A thousands years later, the story of The Last Remnant begins.
Rush Sykes and his sister Irina are children of scientists researching the esoteric Remnants. One day, Irina is kidnapped right before Rush's eyes. Determined to rescue his sister, Rush joins forces with David Nassau, the marquis of a small city-state called Athlum. Together they are determined to pursue the criminals and save Irina from her strange captors.
Meanwhile, the world is thrust into confusion as ruling powers bicker over dividing the Remnants' powers. Soon a mysterious man appears calling himself the Conqueror. His presences escalates tensions as everyone eagerly attempts to answer the question: Into whose hands will the power of the Remnants fall? Before he knows it, Rush becomes wrapped up in this international power struggle and realizes that he is somehow connected to the enigmatic Conqueror.
Allies and Enemies
Before her kidnapping, Rush Sykes lived a peaceful life with his 14-year-old sister, Irina Sykes. Irina is a cheerful, resilient girl who stays upbeat even during the toughest of times. Some mysterious power seems to rest within here, but she herself has no understanding of what it is or what it can do. David Nassau, the 19-year-old who rules over the state of Athlum, spends his days working towards better his homeland. Although he decides to join Rush on his quest to rescue Irina, his motives are his own. Emma Honeywell, the matriarch of the Honeywells clan, Plagus, Blocter, and Torgal round out the allies.
The man known only as the Conqueror and his minions are eager to seize the Remnants throughout the lands. His origin is shrouded in mystery, but it appears that something strange and elusive connects this villain to Rush. Enamored with the Conqueror, Roeas has declared her eternal allegiance to him and acts as the ambassador of the Conqueror's Army. Although beautiful in form and voice, Roeas is sadistic and menacing on the battlefield. Originating from a large-bodied species with pronounced fighting abilities, Castanea is Roeas right-hand-man. He rarely speaks or expresses himself, so it is difficult to decipher his thoughts -- although Roeas seems to understand him easily. In addition, the strongest fighters in the Conqueror's army are referred to as The Seven. The Seven lead their own troops and report to Roeas and Castanea.
Combat Systems: Morale, Battle Unions, and Deadlock
Battles are fought between multiple friendly and enemy unions -- groups of up to five characters who fight together. Players give commands to unions as a whole, who then carry out the actions. Orders in battle are given in a command-select style that is familiar to most role playing gamers. However, The Last Remnant commands are not delivered with standard terms, such as "Item" or "Magic." Instead, players control unions with specialized commands, such as "Slam 'em with status ailments!" or "Do area attacks from afar!" Available commands change depending on the current battle situation or the distance and positions of friendly and hostile unions.
The Last Remnant adds a Morale component to the gameplay. Players can check current morale via the gauge across the top of the screen. The higher the morale, the more damage is dealt and less damage is taken by friendly unions, and vice-versa. When friendly and enemy unions go toe-to-toe and engage in melee combat, they enter a state called Deadlock. Once in Deadlock, the two unions must fight each other until one union has been completely destroyed.
Enemy monsters roam the land where they can be avoided or engaged at will. When battle is initiated, the scene changes to a specialized battle map where friend and foe can fight it out. Horizontal lined icons labeled A, B, C, etc. represent the on-field battle unions. Players choose which hostile union they wish to attack on this screen. The Last Remnant offers a wide variety of commands that focus on dealing damage or executing defensive maneuvers. Knowing which commands are most suitable for each situation is the key to winning battles.
The Last Remnant delivers breathtaking visuals, a mysterious storyline full of powerful artifacts, and a massive battlefield.
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| Well, I bought it without reading any reviews for 20 dollars and change, was not worth it. Bad game design and very poor voice acting, just skip it. |
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I bought this game with a bit of caution as I'd heard of all the terrible reviews it had received. Once I had it, though, I couldn't put it down.
Many people were saying how the texture pop-ins and the loading times are abysmal. I personally haven't had to deal with a loading time of more than five seconds tops. There are a few texture pop-ins when you enter an area, but it's nothing too noticeable.
The game's characters are all fun and loveable for the most part. The only issues I really have with the characters are some of their voices and the phrases they use (David's voice is the worst, in my opinion; it doesn't fit him).
Many reviews say that you will have to continually level up just to fight a single boss as your characters keep dying over and over again. I personally don't have a problem with levelling up as I do it anyway. This may bother some other people, though.
Overall, it's extremely addictive and it makes me sad that Squeenix wasn't able to bring as much of a following with this game as opposed to their others.
Shortened version
Pros:
-addictive
-pretty backgrounds
-nice music/voice acting
-cool battle system
Cons:
-phrases like 'let's kick some a'!' get annoying very quickly
-monsters are recycled through different swatches
Could-be Cons:
-have to battle bosses a couple times through
-how Rush runs/his bum flag glitches a lot
-characters are loveable, but are clichéd (except for Emma) |
| The Last Remnant from an aging hardcore gamer's perspective | 2009-10-27 | 2 / 5 |
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With American PS3 JRPG fans a little worried that The Last Remnant may not make its way over to the PS3 after all, it seemed like a good time for me to give some impressions on the game so perhaps you won't be too sad. Despite hearing that it was a very mediocre game with extreme slowdown, I thought the hard drive installation and my love for Bladestorm would have me enjoying the game more than the average gamer. The hard drive installation helps considerably, but whether I enjoy the game or not is still to be determined.
From the screenshots of the game, it looks like your typical Japanese RPG: young male protagonist, generic JRPG heroes and characters, fight screens, towns, etc. As a JRPG fan (completed Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and Infinite Undiscovery), I'm actually not one that really enjoys a lot of "innovation" in my JRPGs - let me grind away and find treasures and give me an interesting storyline with entertaining characters and I will love it.
The Last Remnant changes things up a bit, and it's so jarring that I didn't have what it took to see this game through. First of all, the battle system is just crazy. It's no longer managing a bench of a dozen or so characters with only 3-4 in battle at a time, but instead you're managing small squads of heroes and soldiers. It seems like it's possible to command up to 5 squads of 2-5 members each, and you give general commands for each squad as opposed to specific commands such as "Cast Cure" or "Use Special Move X". That in and of itself is fine - I love RTS games after all. But even after a couple hours, I still couldn't understand how the squad battles worked - is there strategy in the combat or is it all fake strategy where your decisions are really pointless?
On top of that, other JRPG mechanics have radically changed here as well. You can save the game at any time (pretty crazy for a JRPG) and after every battle, all your characters are at full health. While these sound like convenient innovations, the one thing that boggles my mind is that there's no actual leveling up of the characters. There's strange formulas that work out based on how you put the characters in the squads, and basically the ideal way to play through the game seems to be to avoid all random encounters altogether so you get stronger later - quite an unintuitive way to play the game as a JRPG fan. Combine that with the fact that most of the game seems mostly about taking on random sidequests in the same levels over and over instead of an overarching adventure, and I think I'm going to put this aside for now and try it later if I'm feeling it again. |
| "its a beaut clark" | 2009-09-26 | 5 / 5 |
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This game is alot of fun, its one of the most addicting games I've played in quite some time. The quest is huge in terms of the number of missions you can do and places you can visit. The battle system is unique and challenging and gives you a lot of latitude for customization - you can hand pick which soldiers you want in your army and how to group them in squads. There is alot of exploration and many secrets too, you can find whole hidden towns and dungeons for instance. The graphics are very impressive - the enemies look great and when you are adventuring there are some truly breathtaking vistas. The high mountain plane of Dillmoor for one offers excellent views of a valley far below and distant peaks. The story is kind of meh but the real focus of the game is on exploration and combat.
As critics have pointed out, the game has longish load time as well as frequent slowdown and texture loading every time the scene changes. I didn't burn the game to my hard drive so these problems were definitely noticeable, but they didn't bother me too much. I much prefer this game to more traditional rpgs like Lost Odyssey which offered little challenge and just became too tedious to finish. If youre looking for something different from the standard jrpg I highly recommend this game. |
| Adult RPG Players ONLY | 2009-09-22 | 5 / 5 |
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This game has a Mature Adult rating, and it's not because of the content, but because of the gameplay. The gameplay is too challenging and detailed for teens. I have played the game twice, creating every weapon, achieving Warlock, Lordly Commander classes on more than one character, all the arcana and weapon arts. The game requires deep thinking to analyze how to create effective unions (battle teams). People think the game is random, or just luck, but it is NOT. Every action is completely controllable, but you have to know what you are doing. Too many recent RPGs have been stuck on a formula where you have a single hero who fights aggressively, and with overleveling the game is overpowered. That is NOT the case here.
BR Battle Rank and Arts are separate. Battle Rank is NOT like traditional leveling. Fighting too easy monsters or too many mobs in a mistaken attempt to "level up" will leave your characters with a high battle rank, but without sufficient skills. Players need to focus on challenging monsters and avoid easy ones until late game when anything goes and you are no longer skill building. The game has job classes determined both by weapon type and also by the type of commands you choose. If you want a combat character, choose combat commands, and don't use the mystic arts for that character. In other words, you must plan what you are doing. Anybody who hopes to barrel their way through the story will not make it.
I have helped many gamers on gamefaqs with this game, and I suggest using the FAQs there and the forum for questions, as the strategy guide is horrible and lacks crucial information. I also highly recommend using the lastremnant wikia on the internet.
The best players I have seen with this game are ADULT players with 10-20 years of RPG game experience, aged 20 and older. This game was a Game of the Year for me in 2008 and I never tire of watching other players on ustream playing this game. I repeat, it's not for the kiddies. But if you are an adult RPG player who has also some experience with strategy RPGs, you will do great with this and love it. Impatient teens and other reviewers on this site who couldn't figure out the game clearly do not have what it takes to play this, a vast RPG experience, high intelligence, and a love for detailed strategy.
There is no way to play the same game twice with the sheer number of characters that you can hire for your teams. The bosses and download content are very difficult battles, but once you learn what you are doing, you will find this satisfying. I hope that my comments here will recommend the game to other adults looking for a game with adult characters, not just kiddie characters, and also to people with the patience to learn the system in the game. It is NOT random and takes time to analyze.
This game is meant for HDTVs and will be difficult to see on an older analog TV. You will be disappointed in the graphics and menus unless you have an HDTV which will make the game look so amazing you will have your breath taken away. There are massive dragons to fight that are incredible to watch, and many areas in the world to explore. Have fun fellow adults, this one is for us! |
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