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Game Review: The Last Remnant

posted by nikki at 5:56 pm.

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I know, I know… this game came out over two months ago. It took me this long to get through the damn thing.

I can’t remember seeing a Game Over screen this often since my first attempt at Super Mario Bros. when I was eight (and for some god-forsaken reason, they didn’t add a continue option to Last Remnant, so on Game Over, you have to wait for the title screen to load up, wait for your save to load up, and work your way back to wherever you died).

The Last Remnant, currently available on 360, coming eventually for PS3, is the story of a boy named Rush Sykes, who watches his sister get kidnapped and subsequently heads off on his own to search for her. Along the way, he meets up with the Marquis of a small city called Athlum, and his four generals… and in typical RPG style, they come to see that they have a common enemy and join forces.

Actually, there’s a bit more to it than that. The story really revolves the Remnants… artifacts of great power, controlled by the lords of the land. When a mysterious warrior known only as the Conqueror appears and begins collecting Remnants for his own unknown desires, it sends the entire continent plunging into political turmoil and to the brink of all-out war.

The story, as is usually the case with Square Enix, is great. In fact there are times when it’s very easy to forget that you’re not playing something in the Final Fantasy series… which, as this is intended to be an entirely new IP, may or may not be a good thing. The characters, too, are likable and easy to connect with. Some are even memorable.

Unfortunately, where this game falls short is in the gameplay. I’m not a fan of strategy RPGs to begin with… but Square Enix of late has been creeping just a bit too far into the realm of games-that-play-themselves. It was noticeable in Final Fantasy XII (though, truth be told, I enjoyed that game a lot), and it’s even more prominent in Last Remnant.

It actually got to the point that, when I had four or more unions on the field during a boss battle, I could give my initial set of orders and walk away, sometimes for upwards of five minutes… which I ended up doing quite a lot, because watching the same battle animations over and over gets really boring after the first few hours. The battles themselves were obscenely long, too… One of them (which was basically a mini boss) had so much HP it took me almost two hours to whittle it down to the point that it was at critical status.

And then it killed me in one round, and I had to start over.

That wasn’t exactly a one-time occurrence, either. It seems like victory is often dependent on luck over skill. Case in point… one battle, the first attack hit every member of my party with Curse, which has about a 50/50 shot at KOing any given member every round. All four unions immediately had their leaders KOed, at which point I could no longer take any action for the remainder of the battle… which lasted two or three more rounds.

On my second attempt, the boss never even cast Curse until he was a sword-poke away from dying himself.

So overall, how did it rate?

Story - 10/10
The story is a good one, and lets face it… when you play an RPG of any sub-genre, story is what you’re primarily in it for.

Characters - 9/10
Good, solid characters, a none of whom are in the mold of Square Enix’s usual angst-ridden fare. In fact the main protagonist is so upbeat, it’s almost comical at times. The voice work, too, is better than average.

Battle System - 1/10
I don’t think I can stress enough how much I disliked how battles worked in this game… largely because there was almost nothing for me to DO during battle. When you’re outnumbered 2 to 1 on the field, it’s a LONG time between command inputs. Beyond that, I’m no expert in strategy, and maybe I just never really grasped the finer nuances of party make-up, but it really never seemed to matter much who was in my active party or how they were positioned. The most important characters were always the leaders, and the others were just there to boost the HP pool and and take a swing at the monster that was trying to eat us all.

Technical Polish - 5/10
Visually, it’s a beautiful game. It really is… but it’s very, very slow. Battle animations lag and loading screens are all over the place. At first, I thought it was just me, but I’ve seen other gamers online commenting about it as well.

Replayability - 2/10
If I ever dig this one out again, it will probably be to do the sidequests I missed the first time through.

Overall - 5.5
Despite a plot that I really felt myself getting into, the frustration level of The Last Remnant will probably deter many traditional RPG fans from even bothering to finish it. The battle system is governed more by luck than by skill, and the sheer length of the battles (especially throughout the second disc) make it stretch on to the point that you just don’t care anymore after awhile.

Nikki Blight: is still trying to find that damn princess... when she's not writing fresh code for the217.com.