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PreviousThe Last Remnant Review
Xbox 360
Import Review
by
Keza MacDonald
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Disappointingly for a game so vocal about throwing JRPG conventions out of the window, The Last Remnant suffers from one of the classic problems of the genre: an extremely slow start, made even slower by an astounding amount of loading. It's a good four hours before you're allowed access to anything interesting like combat and equipment customisation, and in the meantime you'll spend a lot of time staring at the five-to-seven-second splash loading screen that pops up every single time you start a fight, finish a fight, go into and out of buildings, encounter a cut-scene or walk more than twenty paces in a town. Even after so much loading, the game suffers from basic technical problems like shocking texture pop-in and juddering frame-rate, even in the tutorial battles.
One 12GB hard-disk install later and things have improved, but it's far from perfect. Load times are down to two or three seconds, and the in-battle slowdown restricted to conflicts of more than about thirty combatants. But the texture pop-in is still cringeworthily noticeable, the camera still goes mental in buildings to the extent that you have to spend five seconds turning it around before you can leave through the door that you're standing right in front of, and the old-fashioned animation and tearing in cut-scenes is still a definite problem. In a game where you spend as much time just watching as you do in Last Remnant, these presentation problems strip the sheen from what should rightfully be a rich spectacle, elevating them from mildly irritating to a crushing disappointment.
It's certainly not all bad news on the presentation side, however. The Last Remnant's visual design is generally very good, with characters whose distinctive appearance and facial expressiveness render them far more appealing than their serene, airbrushed counterparts elsewhere in the genre. The story and voice acting hold your attention, although as usual the English voice-overs aren't quite up to the standard of the Japanese - particularly in the case of main character Rush Sykes and the Marquis of Athlum (an American doing an English voice that veers between cockney and aristocrat in an amusing way, according to Friend of Eurogamer Simon Parkin).
We still don't know why all Squenix RPGs use random German location names.
Rush is also incessantly energetic, insisting on calling Marquis David 'Dave' within ten minutes of meeting him. Meanwhile, the characters' general battle cries are slightly inane, although the Japanese ("We're FIGHTING these guys!", "I'm OK!") is marginally less annoying than the English ("Let's kick some A!"). Typically for Square-Enix, though, the high standard of direction and general production makes the game's important cut-scenes worth looking forward to regardless. There are moments - usually during the cut-scenes or wandering around in an impressive outdoor area - when the game looks quite beautiful, but unfortunately it almost always goes sharply downhill as soon as anything taxing starts happening on-screen.
It's a massive shame, because after the first seven or eight hours the combat really opens up into something nuanced and compelling. It's turn-based, but instead of controlling individuals you direct an army of anywhere between about five and thirty characters, organised into separate 'unions' or five or so, which share communal action- and hit-points. Give a union an order - all-out attack, watch yourselves, use a fighting or magic skill - and everyone within that unit executes that command to the best of their abilities. You spend most of the battle watching things play out in a cinematic series of animations, the camera swooping between unions and enemies as the battle runs its course.
Don't be afraid of all the words. This menu is actually where you'll be having most of your fun.
Give a union the 'Fighting Arts' command, for instance, and the union leader - usually a main character - performs a special move, whilst others perform normal attacks. Command 'Watch yourselves', and perhaps two characters will attack whilst others use healing spells or items. You find yourself playing a role halfway between combatant and strategist, issuing general commands to the unions and occasionally jumping in with a quick-time button-press to achieve a critical hit or block.
At first you feel completely out of control, especially when you're accompanied by 'guest' unions who operate entirely under their own steam, but the longer you play, the more options and customisation possibilities arise. As soon as you have a reasonable selection of characters under your control, playing around with union leaders and formations affects everything from hit-points to available commands, and has a huge impact on the battles themselves, especially boss fights.
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The Last Remnant
Latest Features
Latest Videos
The Last Remnant - Demo gameplay [0] 26 February, 2009
The Last Remnant - Gameplay [2] 20 November, 2008
Latest News
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Last Remnant PS3 hopes fade further [42]
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Last Remnant dated for PC [19]
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Last Remnant coming to PC in spring [17]
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Last Remnant DLC coming in December [9]
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UK charts: World at War sees off Lara [58]
Latest Screenshots
24 October, 2008 [3]
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MrChuckles
22/11/08 @ 11:07
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i expect i'll pick up all of them in the budget bin. No full price sale though.
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eisenhorn666
22/11/08 @ 11:10
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Well looks like square are just doing this so we all go wow when final fantasy comes out with a 9or 10/10. Its just a soften you up tactic, shame really was looking forward to this but FF13 will really be worth the wait (I hope)
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tomkuryakin
22/11/08 @ 11:50
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This is a shame; I was hoping that this was going to be good. JRPGs seem to have lost their way recently. Lost Odyssey is the only one out currently that I would really like to play. Perhaps White Knight Chronicles will be as good as Level 5's games usually are? I don't hold out much hope for FFXIII because I got very bored of FFXII in the end.
Still, at least Fire Emblem DS is out in less than two weeks. |
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Triggerhappytel
22/11/08 @ 12:01
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Anyone else agree with me that the last genuinely decent internally-developed console RPG Squeenix made was Kingdom Hearts?
I didn't like Kingdom Hearts 2 and found FFXII dull and vapid. They really seemed to have dropped the ball recently. |
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Anyone else agree with me that the last genuinely decent internally-developed console RPG Squeenix made was Kingdom Hearts?
I thought FFVII:Crisis Core was alright, I was actually interested enough to finish it to the end, although I'm not sure if that's my FFVII remake hormones raging. But yeah after FFXII I don't have that blind faith that the next FF game will be that good anymore, how times have changed. :( |
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patchbox360
22/11/08 @ 12:49
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final fantasy 10 was the last really engaging rpg, since then nada, makes me appreciate the series more.
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"I didn't like Kingdom Hearts 2 and found FFXII dull and vapid."
Loved KH2, was much better than part 1 IMO except for the silly 1-button QTEs. And its soundtrack is my favourite of any game. As for FF XII, guess I came halfway through when I accidentally wiped my saves and haven't been able to get myself to play it again. The story was rather convoluted and not really suitable for drop-in/drop-out play and that's the only way for me to stomach the grinding. I can't play RPGs for weeks, I need frequent breaks with real gameplay. |
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andywilkie35
22/11/08 @ 13:17
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@siro - those three rpgs you mentioned are all really good, I loved them
I'm playing Last Remnant right now, haven't got too far so can't really comment but I gotta say that so far I'm not greatly impressed. Hoping it'll pick up, but I have full confidence that Star Ocean 4 and Tales of Vesperia will restore people's faith in JRPGs! |
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Another sub standard JRPG
Hope for Microsofts sake they didnt pay too many millions of dollars for their few months timed exclusivity deal on this !!! I will wait for either the PC or PS3 versions to see if they can fix the issues blighting this game, I know they are including the original Japanese Voice acting on the PS3 BluRay which fixes issue number 1 for me - the ATROCIOUS American voice acting. |
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Having bought this Thursday and taken it back Friday, I can say this game is truely a turkey. IU was playable, and at the end when it got into its stide quite enjoyable. This however this unfinished, rushed out dirge... Here's hoping White Knight is something special as SE have totally lost the plot.
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(Some people think Famitsu is God, some are convinced that their reviews are "sponsored". I dont see myself in any camp (well, until today..))
This got 38/40 last week. 2 perfect 10s and 2 nine's. WHich makes it the 4th bst rated game of 2008 together with LBP. (After MGS/Brawl/GTA4.) How the fuck? 1. With such horrible loading times/technical problems, how can ANY game recieve a "perfect" 10? 2. How much did MS pay them? ;c] @Keza: It says you played the japanese version. Are you fluent in japanese, or how did you go about playing this game?
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 22/11/08 @ 16:09
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spookyzombie
22/11/08 @ 16:10
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I'm quite enjoying this game. The combat is a welcome change compared to the usual RPG norm. I installed this onto my 360 and haven't experienced hideous loading times. I'd say Lost Odyssey takes longer to load battles/area's etc. I'm thinking this is somewhere between a 7/10 and 8/10, but I've taken to it as it's different.
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xXBrombeerXx
22/11/08 @ 16:57
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I habe to agree with Miiiguel here: Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey got bad reviews, but I enjoyed them quite a bit actually. You only have to invest a lot of time in it, preferably with a strategy guide, which often gives you greater insights in the game. I have this particular game too and I find it quite a good one. Not on par with Lost Odyssey, but certainly worth looking into. I really think EG cannot review RPGs anymore. Why did Fallout 3/Fable get such high grades? They're good, but not that many times better than The Last Remnant!? Common EG! Get a real RPG lover to review RPGs. Miiiguel perhaps? Or me?
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FabricatedLunatic
22/11/08 @ 17:08
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Lost Odyssey received a positive review and 8/10. Ditto Eternal Sonata and Valkria Chronicles. Persona 3 scored 9/10. Clearly, Eurogamer do not have a problem with JRPGs.
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Microsoft ain't going to do s***, they're ecstatic enough that SE is supporting their system at all and will bend over to their will.
Although if last remenant does have texture pop ins loading and junk and this is with concentrating solely on the Xbox 360, then I fear what their games would be like if they were full blown multi-format one thing i've always appreciated from SE titles is the high level of polish from their games in general. :(
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most recently on 22/11/08 @ 18:26
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Very good review. I have spent something like seven or eight hours on The Last Remnant the last few days and I can relate to a lot of things said in the review. An excruciatingly slow start, made even harder by the insane amount of loading screens. Then there are cutscenes that are nice but really go on for far too long (especially as the writing is nowhere near as funny and witty as the authors apparently think - Rush calling David (and it's Da-AH-vid rather than plain ol' Da-ay-vid) Dave is simply not funny and a lot of the early cast is distinctly like second rate George Lucas doing second rate Final Fantasy) and the city exploration that is made unfriendly through the introduction of mandatory city map usage. Now, fine, it actually makes things quicker, but, here's the kicker, you CAN NOT access the map and fasttravel any time you want, you have to reach the edge of the particular area you're in for the map mode to be summoned. Pretty flippin' bad design choice if you ask me.
The font size is REALLY small on a SD television set, notably harder to read than in the case of Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts, so be warned. The story and dialogues so far are really and I mean REALLY cliched. I wouldn't mind it so much if this was an old skool, 2D SNES or genesis JRPG where you basically get from point to point quickly and can click-click-click through most of it in a matter of seconds if you dislike it, therefore getting back to doing the fun stuff (i.e. exploration and combat). But here, you have to sit through long cutscenes and in the streets it's click this person, than click that person, read everyone's three lines of text and then walk to the next person etc. There is no way to make Rush run so exploring the city and talking to everyone is a bit of a pain in the ol' arse if you ask me. Then again, at least the game has a saner map system than Infinite Undiscovery which was, frankly AWFUL. But they share pop-in and framerate drops, so there. That there is no random combat is indeed a relief, altough many monsters out there will assault you before you register they are there so sometimes it makes no difference. An interesting thing is that the game gives you the opportunity to engage the monsters/ enemies in battle first and therefore gain the upper hand, but this is done through clicking the right trigger when close enough to the monster. I like this system (similar to The World Ends With You) however the game fails to register this press properly at least one time out of three. Therefore I ended up at a disadvantage in several battles even though I WAS pressing the bugger like crazy and the game's visual information told me I was doing it well... But, at least the battle system IS indeed the best part of the game. Yes, you sit and watch through most of it and the 'critical triggers' (in essence QTE's - forcing you to be attentive and press a proper button when prompted) are not the smartest way of ensuring a degree of interactivity but the strategic component of battling really looks like something one can sink her/his teeth into. Since the game is, as Keza says, pulling a lot of shortcuts for you, making exploration and crawling unnecessary, so you can focus on combat, it is indeed a good thing when you can actually spend a lot of time on strategising and getting ready for battles. However, in the early part of the game, battles are, how shall I put it, idiotically easy. I have not lost even one battle so far even though I was mostly lost when it came to strategising and certainly have missed most critical triggers. I am quite sure it gets tougher as you go on, and I look fowward to being able to force my mind to think strategically. Two other things that disappoint in the beginning: the inability to customize anything in early on (like, I have an inventory full of various components, but the guy who is supposed to open a workshop where I can presumably use these components to build stugg keeps telling me he'll open it soon) as well as the idea that you only walk around using Rush even though your party might have ten or twelve people. I mean, of course, later on in the game you have thirty odd people with you but still, seeing only Rush on screen kinda ruins the mood and makes it feel non=next gen or something. |
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This reviewer is far too good to be writing for Eurogamer, not one of the other baboons working on this site would even consider listing graphical issues such as texture-build and tearing if they reviewed it. In fact, if anyone but Keza reviewed this game it would have got 8/10 and I would actually put money on that.
So yeah, good, detailed and - from what I can tell - accurate review. Cheers for giving us an actual review, not some novelty filled rubbish like the majority of recent reviews on this website. |
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