Game Review

[Zloth]

A game that could have been great with just a little more work...

The Last Remnant looks like a game that's one or two months of development short of greatness. It's got a lot to love but there's a lot that is quite infuriating, too.

The big thing with this game is it's new battle system which is different from any other game I've ever played. Instead of having 3 or 4 characters fighting against the (allegedly evil) monsters, you get a whole wagon load of characters. Most characters are hired for a one-time fee, others come to you for free as part of the story. You take these characters (up to 18 by the end of the game) and organize them into units of up to five characters each. The unit has hit points and action points, both of which are the totals of each character's hp and ap, and is also set to a formation. Various formations have different plusses and minuses. There are dozens of formations and hundreds of characters to pick from, so you're going to be doing a lot of decision making here.

Battles are turn based but, unlike other games, you do not give precise commands to each character. Instead, you give general commands to each unit. Things like 'attack that enemy unit with physical attacks', 'stay back and use ranged spells', and 'hang in there'. The game will show you precisely what your characters will try to do with each of those commands but you will not be given the option to use any command any time you want. It is pretty good about giving you all the options you are likely to want but it isn't perfect. Folks who insist on micro-managing their characters can get pretty frustrated by this but I think it's needed to keep the game flowing. It would take far too long to pick out each action you want each of 18 characters to take each turn.

On the battle field, you have to think strategically. When one unit fights another, the two are "deadlocked." The unit will not be able to break away from that fight without harsh penalties, though it can be done. If a second unit attacks a deadlocked unit, that second unit is granted a "flanking" bonus to their damage and will not be deadlocked. Same for a third unit. A fourth unit will be granted an even larger bonus for a "rear attack" and any further units.... well, by that time the hapless unit is going to be dead for sure. This brings up a big decision in the game: do you use a few units that are full of people or lots of small units? Big units have more hit points so they can take more damage before they fall - except against area of effect attacks, which damage everyone in a unit. Several small units making flanking tactics easier to pull off but small units don't do as much damage and can't take as much, either.

Battle turns can take awhile to play out. Naturally, the game designers don't want you falling asleep while all the cool animations and blood splattering is going on, so they give you a little something to do while the battle plays out. From time to time, an opportunity for a special hit will pop up. The arrow keys will appear in the center of the screen and circles will converge on one of them. Hit the right one at the right time and you get various bonuses, like characters attacking earlier or getting to use more expensive skills. It's simplistic but it effectively keeps your attention. You can elect to have the game click for you if you would rather take nappy time between giving orders.

As you walk around the world, you see only the main character. You can start a fight by getting near enemies and then clicking a button, which will cause you to go into battle with all enemies that are within about 10ft of your character. You're also given a "slow time" ability which makes it pretty easy to pick out just what enemies you will take on in any given battle, which leads to another decision: how many can you take at once? Taking on more enemies at once gives you greater rewards and is a heck of a lot less boring than taking them one at a time. Too many leads to your characters doing ragdoll deaths and a reload.

So this is definitely a game with a deep battle system. The story is a pretty good one, too. It isn't going to knock your socks off but it's entertaining enough to keep your interest. So why am I slamming on the game? It does a lot of stuff wrong, too.

• Horrific Mouse Control When you are walking around, the game loads up data, causing it to freeze every 20 seconds or so. (Probably a scheme cooked up so the game would work on XBox's pathetically small memory banks.) If you happen to be moving your mouse when one of those little freezes hits, the game will completely lose track of the mouse and you'll find yourself pointing in a random direction. It's annoying in towns but can be really horrible if you're in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. I've found myself using keyboard alone much of the time.
• No Mouse Menus All the various menu screens, including the main menu, ignore the mouse completely. This is just downright criminal, even for a console port. I've ended up wasting a lot of time and missing several features simply because I didn't know what the keyboard command was. If you've got an XBox controller hooked to your PC then you can just use the on-screen prompts but, if you don't, those prompts are just wasted screen space. You do eventually learn all the commands (just like we did back in the DOS days) but it's terribly sad that you have to do that at all.
• No Cutscene Skips Like all JRPGs, there are plenty of cutscenes to move the story along. Fine by me, I love a little television break here and there. What I don't like is seeing the same cutscene over and over again. While I wouldn't call it hard, this game is challenging so you can expect to get kicked around from time to time, especially against the fights that follow a dramatic cutscene. And guess what? There's no functional way to skip the cutscene. I say 'functional' because, if you look in the list of commands, there is actually a key to skip over the events. It just doesn't work. (Or maybe it does - see end note)
• Weak Animations The in-battle animations are great. However, the animations used in the cutscenes are not so good and sometimes look downright robotic.
• Here We Are Again The game has a lot more quests than areas to quest in. That means you end up going to the same place over and over. They do often open up other areas within a dungeon/forest/whatever which helps a lot but, particularly at the start of the game, you find yourself going over the same terrain quite a few times.
• You Must Hurry (To Your Doom)! This is a common one in JRPGs. The story builds up, gets exciting, and you are told that you need to go delve into some dungeon immediately or all the world will be eaten by a giant mutant space hampster. If you go and try it immediately, you will be butchered because the dungeon is designed for somebody twice your level. So, instead of getting caught up in the story, you need to hit the pubs and look for some sidequests to get your skills up. Instead of telling me I have to immediately run out and get splattered, couldn't the game have told me that I need to immediately go out and get my strength up so I could take on the space hampster?

What's really maddening is that the first three problems just don't need to be there at all. Reading FAQs on the game, it's obvious that they spent a good bit of time making the game better balanced than the XBox-version. Why couldn't they have spent some of that time working on the mouse, too? Other console ports work great with the mouse.

Anyway, despite all the major issues, I'm still enjoying this game. You do memorize the commands after a bit, the robot animations are kinda funny, and I'm watching the FAQs (http://lastremnant.wikia.com/wiki/Th..._Remnant_Guide has been a particular help) to make sure I don't get duped into missing some of the content because I went and did what the game told me to do. And, when I get stuck with a cutscene for the n'th time, well, there's always a bit of dusting I can do around the house. The battle system makes it all worth while.

P.S. It turns out that you CAN skip cut-scenes. You have to pause first THEN hit the skip key.

P.P.S. The game has the most deadly silence spell you will ever see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mP4o0BDuPQ

[The Gray Knight]

Who the heck uses a mouse for these types of games anyway? A keyboard works fine, just use the arrow keys for the camera movement. That freezing and disappearing mouse cursor doesn't happen to me (maybe you're overestimating your PC?)

Once again, just use the keyboard, its actually faster.

The story was uninteresting anyway, I'll give you that.

Well, it only seems that why if you grind too much in a few areas, otherwise it really isn't that big of a problem.

It's not like the game is forcing you to rush to your doom.

Heck, I don't even know why it even got a measly low score of 66 on metacritic in the first place.

[Xabu]

I use a 360 controller and it works fantastically.

My only problem with the game is that it doesn't explain itself better. I've had no difficulties figuring most things out, but I can easily see a lot of players bewildered by all the seeming randomness of some of the game's basic mechanics. No one explains union morale versus party morale, the value of each individual captured monster, the consequences/benefits of your character's questions about how they should set their path/acquiring new abilities, etc. This is (mostly) documented in the Wiki, but having a game still leaving you guessing the vast majority of the time without some third party help can't be good for new players.

But overall I've loved my experience so far. Combat looks and feels fluid, no lag/stuttering, great soundtrack; story is a bit throwaway but theirs enough elsewhere in the game to distract you from it.

[Zloth]

You use a keyboard because you don't HAVE a 360 game controller, of course!

The game didn't force me to rush to my doom, but the story made it sound like I was supposed to rush in and save the day as fast as I could. This happens in quite a few games, not just Last Remnant. The story writers want an exciting story that builds to a climax but the game designers want players to have some fun with their top tier powers before the final, epic battle and the end of the game. If Star Wars were a JRPG, I think Luke would deliver R2-D2 back to the rebels just ahead of the Death Star then go out and fight monsters in the jungle for an hour while the Death Star politely waited for him to level up a bit.

[Zloth]

Update: Actually, now I use the keyboard again because the d-pad on my 360 controller is so bad. And the mouse problem still exists for me, even though I'm on a new computer. (I've got six cores and a GeForce 480 so it's *not* a slow computer problem!)

It's kinda sad how Steam forums format that post I made. It wasn't my intention to draw everyone's attention straight to the bad points! Heck, I'm playing through for a second time now, so I obviously have been enjoying the game a lot.

[Brumbek]

Ok, I have to reply to this to clear up some inaccuracies. As you realized you can skip cutscenes...you may want to edit your post to remove this point.

More importantly, you CAN use the mouse in the menus! My mouse works perfectly in all the menus...and it's quite handy I might add. And I use the mouse and keyboard to play because I'm not a console noob!

And you criticism about too many quests...do you actually want less content? The quests are all optional and a fair amount of them open up new areas in old dungeons so it isn't just the same old dungeon for each quest...

I'll grant you the mouse control is annoying. It's an Unreal engine thing. Mass Effect 2, Alpha Protocol and others suffer varying degrees of this.

The point about being too weak to go fight the story bosses at first...well, I never had that problem. I mean the bosses level based on your battle rank so you don't need to grind...but I'm one of the few who don't find the game challenging perhaps due to my insane skills? jk

Anyway, in case you didn't notice I'm a Last Remnant lover. I think it's one of the most perfect RPGs ever (apart from minor technical issues as noted). To me it's on the same level of perfection as FFXII, FF Tactics, Ogre Battle, ect. But anyway, I guess you are entitled to your opinion...for now.

[Transmeta]

This should never be compared to FF or any other 'RPG' made by Square or Enix or whatever they want to be called this week. It is an incredible and engaging single player game that destroys most of the crap MMOs that pollute the PC market. I love how the 'low BR' PC players ♥♥♥♥♥, it's not the same game as the crappy 360 version, put your time in and you will be rewarded.

[Brumbek]

Originally Posted by Transmeta

This should never be compared to FF or any other 'RPG' made by Square or Enix or whatever they want to be called this week.

I totally agree the game is incredible. Although I would compare it to specifically FFXII because both are awesome and both were created by some of the same developers at Square. And FFXII is not really a typical FF, but anyway. There seems to be a high correlation between people who love FFXII and people who love TLR. Moreover, there seems to be a high correlation between lovers of Yasumi Matsuno games (FFXII, FFT, Ogre Battle series) and lovers of TLR.

FFXII has universal acclaim on metacritic. If there was any justice in the world TLR would also have universal acclaim because I believe it totally deserves it.

[Zloth]

Well, I suppose you could say the mouse works in the menu, but it doesn't work like a mouse. Mice use pointers. You point at what you want to do and click it. Not in this game.

I really don't understand it, either. They clearly put a good hunk of work into rebalancing the game for the PC. They made the DLC actually become part of the game and did it in a very non-lazy way. They even added the ability to turn arts on and off. But they couldn't be bothered to give us a mouse pointer on the main menu!? Weird.

Ditto with the cut-scene skip. Pausing a video in order to skip it? I've seen that on some console games but it never even occured to me to do that on a PC game. You just hit space or maybe escape and off you go - it's been like that forever.

Also, I never said there should be less content. I said there's too much content for the areas so they were forced to re-use them. I think it's pretty obvious that what I would like to see is more areas, not less content.

(Pause for a lightning storm - NEVER EVER leave your computer on in a lightning storm!)

I went out and checked some reviews. Some of the low ball opinions were just outright dumb. Thunderbolt's review said the battle system wasn't all that different from any other JRPG, which is a bit like saying cricket is pretty much the same as baseball. Most of the reviews seemed fair to me, though.

[Zebideedee]

You CAN skip cutscenes. It's start then select on x-box controller, surely these buttons can be redefineable as keys?

Thing that put me off about this game was that battle scaling crap*. It was never mentioned and I found out the hard way. I was grinding away for a while to get my guys some decent skills, then when I got to the Nest of Eagles (I think) fight, they would one hit kill most of my guys. This is after a good many hours of gameplay. I could have started again knowing what I do now, but bah, next game please.

*Oblivion had this too, but thing with Oblivion is that you have a lot more control over yourself. Not the case in this game

[Zloth]

Yeah, you can skip, but you have to pause first. That's just strange. Why do that?

Getting a union one-shotted is common throughout the game. And when the big bull decides to play baseball, you'll probably see more than one fall. Yeah, it's tough, but you can handle it as long as you've got a character with vivication herbs in each party. You can NOT solve the tactical problem by beating up on trivial monsters for 10 hours straight, though.

[Nekomancer]

About skipping cutscenes. Maybe you should have read the manual. They tell you how to do that.

View the manual (Link)

[Brumbek]

Pausing before being able to skip cut scenes is a feature. It's done so that you don't accidentally hit a button and skip a scene. Most of us have probably experienced accidentally skipping a crucial cut scene because of overzealous clicking or such. Several games have adopted the pause then skip method, which I personally think is preferable.

About enemy scaling, again this is a feature because it makes it so you can't just level up a ton and make the game super easy. Almost all classic console RPGs were static leveled so you could grind and get very powerful and totally destroy all enemies including bosses. Can anyway say level 99 plus Atma Weapon plus Genji Glove plus Offering one hit kill in FFVI?

So as Zloth pointed out, TLR remains tactical no matter how much you level up. And the problem of unions getting wiped out isn't a "problem" unless you inadvisedly deadlock all your unions. The key is to keep one or two unions free to revive/heal other units. I was BR 70 when I beat Nest of Eagles and didn't have any issues. In fact, I've rarely died in TLR because I play it safe and heal CONSTANTLY, which in turn has powered up my healing arts to very strong levels.

[Zloth]

Accidentally skipping a cut scene? How do you do that? It's not like you're playing the game then the cut scene pops up right in the middle of gameplay. It's not like the key is a key you use in gameplay, either.

I have seen it in another game, though. Namely Final Fantasy 13, also from Square. I still can't figure out why. I'm sure there is a reason that will make some kind of sense (at least on consoles) but I'm at a complete loss to come up with anything.

"In fact, I've rarely died in TLR because I play it safe and heal CONSTANTLY, which in turn has powered up my healing arts to very strong levels."

Are you playing through a 'plus' game? Good luck keeping everyone standing at that level! Many of the boss attacks will one-shot even high-hp unions. Luckily, you've also got the cash to keep the vivication herbs stocked.

Edit: Oh and Nekomancer? Where does it say that in the manual?

[Brumbek]

Originally Posted by Zloth

Accidentally skipping a cut scene? How do you do that?

Are you playing through a 'plus' game? Good luck keeping everyone standing at that level! Many of the boss attacks will one-shot even high-hp unions. Luckily, you've also got the cash to keep the vivication herbs stocked.

So you've never been a little too zealous in hitting/clicking buttons to get through dialogue quickly and then hit it once too many when a sudden cut scene happens right after a dialogue? I salute your skills then, or I question how many older RPGs you've played? FFXII also does the pause-skip method and again it's great because then you can't accidentally drop your controller/bump/hit a button and skip a really crucial cut scene.

I'm not playing a 'plus' game. I'm on my first playthrough still. And referencing an entirely optional 'hard mode' as proof that TLR is a hard game isn't exactly convincing.

Again, having an enemy one-hit kill a union doesn't make the game hard, it just makes it so you have to be careful to not deadlock all unions. Plus managing the morale meter is incredibly crucial in TLR. So the challenge of the game will vary widely between people who are resourceful and level up the Bluff skills and those who don't.