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My Review of The Last Remnant (based on 10 hours playtime)
[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:
Quote:
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:
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!
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
__________________ FFXII > FFT > FFVII > FFIX > FFX > FFVIII
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I got a boner from Marlene in FFVII: AC, Agitha in Zelda: Twilight Princess and Sunny in MGS4. I'm starting to find cute girls more sexually attractive than hot girls. You're reading the words of a pedo in the making.
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R.I.P. Jasmine You (person on far left) who died on August 9, 2009.
Last edited by GalvanizA; Nov 21 2008 at 03:28 PM..
Reason: Added some stuff.
I just got my game informer issue 2 days ago and they gave the game a 7 and 6 out of ten. I'll edit this to type in what they said later (don't remember exactly what they said and i'm at school so i'll have to wait 'til I get home).
-By the way i'm getting this game either way because i've been waiting to get this game (don't even have an Xbox 360 YET but i'll be getting one sooooooon enough) and I basically share the same opinions as the rest of you guys.....
Nice review, I love the battle system. The slowdown is not that bad, people can get by it. It is definitely not as bad as it looks on the internet videos that have been shown. The story is pretty damn good as well. The graphics are very well done. Also I love the boss battle music.
If I were to rate the game on my playtime so far I would give it about a 9/10.
Definitely an improvement of Infinite Undiscovery, even though that was a good game as well even though it had its problems. I do advise to those who have an interest in this to buy it. I am likeing this more than Tales of Vesperia so far too.
Great game but too bad alot of people are going to under rate it. because it has a few minor slowdown problems.
Great review, it's very informative and I'm now leaning back towards playing this game. In that video, the visuals do look great, the movement and expression is amazing. As usual, Square-Enix have great music in their game.
Galv, have you got to Elysion yet? I can't figure out what to do after Dave sets you loose. I went to the academy and now I'm stuck >.<
***EDIT***
I got past that part. Now i'm doing sub quests that take FOREVER. Seriously some of these quests are taking me 1+ hours. There is this one quest that I have open right now with some dragon that just destroys me. Also some more reviews came in...and it's confirmed that the West just hates JRPGs period. They picked at the battle system lag so bad. But if it was an FPS it would be "ok".
"Heroism is by and large a relative thing; it is defined in contrast to th actions of those we call normal. RPG's in particular trade in heroism as a stock feature of the genre. The stories and actions of the characters are over the top and ply heavily on stereotypes to elicit specific feelings from the player. When done properly, I have no problem sinking 40 to 60 hours grinding levels, gaining loot, and hanging on every word of every townsperson. When done wrong, however, you're left with an uninspiring
-To mods and admins: "My apologies for multiposting due to PSP limitations..."
protagonist and a long, slow journey ahead. The Last Remnant is a title whose failure to elevate itself above the normal makes it decidedly less than heroic.
At least The Last Remnant's unremarkable nature is not for a lack of trying. There is an item creation system that uses found materials, plenty of side quests to partake in, and the obligatory unlikely hero. However, the item creation isn't integral to your combat
arsenal (and takes forever to accumulate enough materials/dough for), the side quests are boring dungeon crawls, and hero Rush Sykes. . . well, the name truly says it all.
Perhaps the single most illustrative example of how this game fails to inspire is exemplified by the combat system. Filled with good intentions, The Last Remnant's battles leave you wanting more. In an effort to give you large-scale battles, the game groups up to 5 characters in a single union, and you can control up to 5 separate
unions. This puts a lot of units on the map, but the game doesn't deliver the payoff you'd expect from these brawls.
Part of this is because The Last Remnant - as a turn-based strategy title - neither rewards players with real-time action (although there is a timed-button component), nor with practical prowess. The game's simultaneous resolution of everyone's combat orders (friend and foe alike) creates a shifting battlefield. This prevents much in the way of tactical choices - despite the developer's
obvious laboring over a strategic system that includes flanking situations, the battles transpire in static turns anyway, thus blunting its own possible effectiveness.
The fact that you don't choose which specific actions your units will perform in combat will cheese off some RPG fans. Most of the time I didn't have a problem with this, as the give you a range of genetic battle choices, such as being able to heal and attack in the same turn. One time I wasn't able to cast a poison-cure spell when I
lol, sorry (my only means of access to the internet as of right now)
was poisoned simply because the game never gave me the option.
There are important decisions to make in how you group your unions, but switching you party members' formations around and seeing if your attack rating goes up or down is too little too late when it comes to delivering real gameplay depth. Likewire, the city environments are basic, the overworld locations (like
dungeons, mines, etc.) are no fun to adventure through, and the story manages to make the concept of mysterious, epic Remnants altogether dull. In short, The Last Remnant that has all the trappings of a game in the RPG genre, but fails to stand out from the crowd."
----KATO
Game Informer obviously doesn't know how to review lol. This game is great. I swear reviewers are sucking ass this generation when coming to review everything.
Game Informer obviously doesn't know how to review lol. This game is great. I swear reviewers are sucking ass this generation when coming to review everything.
Actually Game Informer does usually give accurate reviews. I guess it's because they compare the pros who play the games to what people around the world might compare them to what they see in the game. And remember that they said when "DONE RIGHT and when DONE WRONG."
I don't mind any of this and I still can't wait to play this game either way.
My Review of The Last Remnant (based on 10 hours playtime)
