GalvanizA
Nov 21 2008, 02:31 PM
[Note to mods: You can close my other thread that had my impressions.]
I mainly decided to write this review as there seems to be hardly any out there by journalists for the game. I want to make a clear statement that you should read before you think about buying this game:
Are you one of those people that enjoyed the feel of a SQUΛRE RPG in the PS1 era and complain that the PS2 era just didn't bring a title with that sort of feel? If so, BUY THIS GAME!OK, I bought this game for my 360 only knowing about the 38/40 it got from Famitsu and the 7/10 it got from Official Xbox Magazine USA.
First off, here's some info on the key people at SQEX on the project. This is the first internal made SQEX game of this generation; the others were made by their 2nd party developers such as tri-Ace. This game is being made by the SaGa team and the Art Producer is Yusuke Naora who was Art Director for the popular games FFVII, FFVIII and FFX as well as Unlimited SaGa and Romancing SaGa both on PS2. Akitoshi Kawazu is Executive Producer (obviously as he's head of the SaGa team); the Director is Hiroshi Takai who was Battle System Director for Romancing SaGa on PS2, before that he worked on Battle Visual Effects on FFXI. The Composer is Tsuyoshi Sekito who has helped with the OST of great sounding SQEX titles such as Dawn of Mana and FFVII: AC.
I want to say straight away that there are a number of technical issues with the game. I'm a graphics whore in terms of how a game looks but not one in regards to technical issues but some of you might be so I want to make it clear now that this game does have SOME frame rate issues. However, I barely noticed them after a while of playing. There seems to be pop-up during battles but that's intentional I believe as it suits the design of the way the battles play out.
Anyway, the game is great. If you are into RPGs and are a fan of SQEX then I would definitely pick this up.
Battle System
The battles are like with 60+ people and each side is split up into uniuns of 4 people. At first I found it rather confusing but soon realised that it just treats each union as if they are all one character in a FF party when it comes to assigning commands. If you press 'X' whilst navigating through the command list you can see what the command makes the different people in that particular union do, so in essence it just streamlines the process instead of having to select commands on an individual person in a unit considering the amount of people in battle.
The QTE are a great addition to combat as they give you some interaction whilst the fight plays out, though it seems that the timing of the button press differs depending on the reflexes of each particular person in a union. Also they seem to be chainable so if you manage to pull one off the other units in your union seem to have a higher chance for QTE succeeding as well. I quite like the bullet time that kicks in when you have to press a command during the QTE portions, it's very stylish and you can see the rest of the combatants who are fighting in the war also slowed down. It looks cool IMO. You see, the screen never seems static in this game when commands are being played out, characters are always moving and jostling for position. I mean even when you are selecting actions you can see then trying to fight the enemy so it gives it this EPIC feel you would never have seen in a FF game where they are line dancing. You have to remember that the battles in this game are like with 60+ people. The team said they wanted to give the feeling of epic battles involving many characters and IMO they have succeeded.
Graphics
Amazing IMO. Seriously, it's like a playable SQEX FMV. There are technical issues with slow down and pop-up as I mentioned before but the graphics themselves are just great.
I mean just watch this part of the intro which is all rendered in-game. It's like FMV quality:
YouTube - The Last Remnant - Opening Intro
Other Points
Well I’m only about 10 hours in so I can’t really comment on the story much but it’s very interesting and I can’t wait to see how this games tale plays out. The voice acting is quite good and so far I feel quite attached to the characters and the personality each one has. The lip-synching seems to have been done for Japanese but that's to be expected. I also love the multi-racial party, half of your main party members are not human which is fresh after being disappointed with no playable Bangaa or Moogle party members in FFXII. Oh and a special mention about Emma, she is just a complete badass! :D
Closing Comments
All of this is only my opinion of course, and bearing in mind that I enjoyed FFXII a lot. I think though that the Chrono Cross/Xenosaga style field encounter system will entice some players and the open fields are step above FFX. Try the game, it's definitely a title that shows why we all fell in love with SQUΛRE.
Score (Based on 10 hours and 16 minutes playtime)
8.5/10
I mainly decided to write this review as there seems to be hardly any out there by journalists for the game. I want to make a clear statement that you should read before you think about buying this game:
Are you one of those people that enjoyed the feel of a SQUΛRE RPG in the PS1 era and complain that the PS2 era just didn't bring a title with that sort of feel? If so, BUY THIS GAME!OK, I bought this game for my 360 only knowing about the 38/40 it got from Famitsu and the 7/10 it got from Official Xbox Magazine USA.
First off, here's some info on the key people at SQEX on the project. This is the first internal made SQEX game of this generation; the others were made by their 2nd party developers such as tri-Ace. This game is being made by the SaGa team and the Art Producer is Yusuke Naora who was Art Director for the popular games FFVII, FFVIII and FFX as well as Unlimited SaGa and Romancing SaGa both on PS2. Akitoshi Kawazu is Executive Producer (obviously as he's head of the SaGa team); the Director is Hiroshi Takai who was Battle System Director for Romancing SaGa on PS2, before that he worked on Battle Visual Effects on FFXI. The Composer is Tsuyoshi Sekito who has helped with the OST of great sounding SQEX titles such as Dawn of Mana and FFVII: AC.
I want to say straight away that there are a number of technical issues with the game. I'm a graphics whore in terms of how a game looks but not one in regards to technical issues but some of you might be so I want to make it clear now that this game does have SOME frame rate issues. However, I barely noticed them after a while of playing. There seems to be pop-up during battles but that's intentional I believe as it suits the design of the way the battles play out.
Anyway, the game is great. If you are into RPGs and are a fan of SQEX then I would definitely pick this up.
Battle System
The battles are like with 60+ people and each side is split up into uniuns of 4 people. At first I found it rather confusing but soon realised that it just treats each union as if they are all one character in a FF party when it comes to assigning commands. If you press 'X' whilst navigating through the command list you can see what the command makes the different people in that particular union do, so in essence it just streamlines the process instead of having to select commands on an individual person in a unit considering the amount of people in battle.
The QTE are a great addition to combat as they give you some interaction whilst the fight plays out, though it seems that the timing of the button press differs depending on the reflexes of each particular person in a union. Also they seem to be chainable so if you manage to pull one off the other units in your union seem to have a higher chance for QTE succeeding as well. I quite like the bullet time that kicks in when you have to press a command during the QTE portions, it's very stylish and you can see the rest of the combatants who are fighting in the war also slowed down. It looks cool IMO. You see, the screen never seems static in this game when commands are being played out, characters are always moving and jostling for position. I mean even when you are selecting actions you can see then trying to fight the enemy so it gives it this EPIC feel you would never have seen in a FF game where they are line dancing. You have to remember that the battles in this game are like with 60+ people. The team said they wanted to give the feeling of epic battles involving many characters and IMO they have succeeded.
Graphics
Amazing IMO. Seriously, it's like a playable SQEX FMV. There are technical issues with slow down and pop-up as I mentioned before but the graphics themselves are just great.
I mean just watch this part of the intro which is all rendered in-game. It's like FMV quality:
YouTube - The Last Remnant - Opening Intro
Other Points
Well I’m only about 10 hours in so I can’t really comment on the story much but it’s very interesting and I can’t wait to see how this games tale plays out. The voice acting is quite good and so far I feel quite attached to the characters and the personality each one has. The lip-synching seems to have been done for Japanese but that's to be expected. I also love the multi-racial party, half of your main party members are not human which is fresh after being disappointed with no playable Bangaa or Moogle party members in FFXII. Oh and a special mention about Emma, she is just a complete badass! :D
Closing Comments
All of this is only my opinion of course, and bearing in mind that I enjoyed FFXII a lot. I think though that the Chrono Cross/Xenosaga style field encounter system will entice some players and the open fields are step above FFX. Try the game, it's definitely a title that shows why we all fell in love with SQUΛRE.
Score (Based on 10 hours and 16 minutes playtime)
8.5/10