Head of Vengarl
Banned
First I'd like to give a shout-out to GAF member iosefe, who generously gave this game away in a Steam-GAF raffle (which I won!).
So, The Last Remnant. It's a JRPG (as if you couldn't tell that just by looking at the picture above) made by Square Enix, and it originally came out in 2008 for the Xbox 360. The PC version (which is the one I will be talking about) came out the following year and contained some improvements.
"Well Luap, what did you think of it?"
I can't say I disliked it completely - in fact, there were times when I really enjoyed it. But I could tell from very early on that it was going to let me down. Basically: I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. This game should have been a home run for Square Enix, but instead they hit maybe a double. At its best it has the most fun turn-based combat I've ever played, but the experience is greatly marred by some very poor game design choices. By the end of the main quest, which took me 64 hours to reach, I was so tired of dealing with this game's flaws that I didn't even bother with the late-game sidequests and optional bosses.
Lets start with the good:
+ The battle system
As I said, the turn-based combat in this game can be really fun. The battles have a unique large-scale feel to them, there's a bunch of cool abilities you can use, and lots of strategy is involved both before (union makeup and formations) and during battle. I've had some victories that were maybe on-par with being as satisfying as killing a Dark Souls boss.
+ Cool setting
The world-building in this game is good. The major towns/cities have these huge remnants sticking out of/hovering over them, and it looks really cool. It's a 2008 game but as Xenoblade Chronicles proved to me, good art direction can make up for poor (or in this case, outdated) graphical quality. The music is also good - not great like Xenoblade, but definitely good.
+ QoL stuff
The PC version has a "turbo mode" that fast-forwards through the combat animations; it cuts down on tedium, which is an issue I've had with turn-based games in the past. You can also disable abilities so a character won't use them during battle, which is very helpful and a nice customization feature. Also, your party's HP heals to full after battle, which I really like - forcing me to stay at an inn or use healing items between battles is something I almost always find unnecessary and annoying in games.
Now for the so/so:
~ The story
TLR's story is full of campy JRPG tropes, but it was interesting enough. I'm one of those people who values gameplay over story every time, so as long as the gameplay is fun and the story isn't so godawful that I literally can't stand it, I'm good to go. Here's a post I made in the Steam thread after watching the final cutscene, where I discussed why the plot was actually kinda interesting in the end:
Now for the bad:
- The game explains almost nothing about its mechanics
Apparently that's par for the course for these developers (they made the SaGa series, which I never played), but that's no excuse. What does my character's class mean, and can I change it? Classes are actually very important and you can influence them based on what arts/stats your characters have, but the game informs you of absolutely none of this. What is a synergy and why does it happen so rarely? A synergy means you have 3-5 units with a certain combination of mystic arts, which combine to create a mega-powerful arcana art that hits every single enemy on the field. Gee, wouldn't it have been nice of the game to explain how to learn/trigger them? Well it didn't. Why can I only use unique/remnant/summon arts sometimes? Because your union has to be out of deadlock, and have either high or low enough union morale to trigger it. But, and this is shocking I know, the game chooses not to explain any of this to you. I could go on, but I won't. You basically need to read a Wikia/Steam guide or else you'll likely never figure out how to play this game correctly. And that's stupid.
- Lots of missable quests/characters
There are certain parts of the main quest that will cut off access to certain sidequests. You are given no warning. Also, the way of acquiring some characters (Duke of Ghor comes immediately to mind) is so obscure it's ridiculous. If you intend to face the "true" form of the final boss, you need to complete every sidequest in the game. If you don't follow a guide you will almost certainly fail at this, and will likely miss some good characters/items too.
- The leveling system
The way leveling is handled is the single worst design flaw in this game. It's overly-complicated and ends up being more punishing than it should (and apparently it was much worse in the Xbox 360 version!). Here's a quick summary from the Wikia page:
The bolded part is the issue. Leveling up in this game doesn't make your characters stronger. Stats and arts are improved by repeated use of combat/mystic arts in battle. So that's the problem: you only want to engage in long battles (i.e., boss fights and rare monsters), because all of your characters will be able to improve their arts/stats. If you play the game "normally," you will engage in many battles that end rather quickly, which will not give all your characters enough chances to use their arts, which leads to you having an underpowered party. Therefore, the "optimal" way to play this game is to avoid every non-boss mob in the game that isn't a necessary fight for a quest. There are notable exceptions to this rule for those in the know, two of which include cheesing sidequests to either link a bunch of instantly respawning mobs at once or infinitely respawn a rare dragon, and one of which is an area where you can also link a bunch of mobs together to powergrind. Obviously a regular player will not know about any of that... because who expects that the best way to play an RPG is to avoid 90% of the enemies in the game, except in extremely specific circumstances? You can still beat the main quest (though some parts will likely be very difficult) if you don't play the "optimal" way, but you will almost certainly find some of the sidequest/optional bosses impossible to beat. If you want to beat all the rare/optional bosses, including the true form of the final boss, you are basically required to follow a guide (like this one), all of which include keeping your BR low and leveling certain arts (most importantly the hex Cachexia). The creator of that guide, who obviously loves this game, nevertheless had this to say near the end:
- Units/unions that are dead at the end of a battle get ZERO experience
There's good game design, there's bad design, and then there's asshole design. This is the third one. This scenario will happen to you at some point (likely many times): You fight a long battle against a boss or rare monster, and it happens to kill one of your unions right before you kill it. Well too bad! - those dead units get no stat gains at all. Zip! Nada! It's just so stupidly unnecessary to punish the player like that; it made me irrationally angry whenever it happened.
- Luck plays too large a role
I mentioned earlier that the combat "can" be really fun, and this is true. However, RNG (damage randomization, status effect chances, crit chances) is too much of a factor in battles, and it's really fucking annoying when you're repeatedly on the wrong end of it.
- Other complaints
Upgrading weapons is tedious as hell, especially since in the PC version all 18 of your units can (and should) be leader characters, who will all be requesting materials. With the exception of Rush, you aren't allowed direct control over your party members' equipment. There is very noticeable pop-in and screen-tearing. There's a shit ton of sudden and/or multi-stage battles where you're given no chance to save the game beforehand. And upon dying you get sent back to the title screen - I literally started laughing when it happened the first time because I was so surprised at how archaic it felt.
CONCLUSION:
TLR has moments of brilliance where its potential shines through. Seriously, this game could have been an absolute classic. Unfortunately, the deep flaws in this game make it fall way short of its potential, so I was left feeling frustrated by the end. I really wanted to love this game, but it's just not good enough. The fact that it basically requires a guide to play it properly means I can't recommend it to anyone who isn't a hardcore JRPG fan.
So, The Last Remnant. It's a JRPG (as if you couldn't tell that just by looking at the picture above) made by Square Enix, and it originally came out in 2008 for the Xbox 360. The PC version (which is the one I will be talking about) came out the following year and contained some improvements.
"Well Luap, what did you think of it?"
I can't say I disliked it completely - in fact, there were times when I really enjoyed it. But I could tell from very early on that it was going to let me down. Basically: I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. This game should have been a home run for Square Enix, but instead they hit maybe a double. At its best it has the most fun turn-based combat I've ever played, but the experience is greatly marred by some very poor game design choices. By the end of the main quest, which took me 64 hours to reach, I was so tired of dealing with this game's flaws that I didn't even bother with the late-game sidequests and optional bosses.
Lets start with the good:
+ The battle system
As I said, the turn-based combat in this game can be really fun. The battles have a unique large-scale feel to them, there's a bunch of cool abilities you can use, and lots of strategy is involved both before (union makeup and formations) and during battle. I've had some victories that were maybe on-par with being as satisfying as killing a Dark Souls boss.
+ Cool setting
The world-building in this game is good. The major towns/cities have these huge remnants sticking out of/hovering over them, and it looks really cool. It's a 2008 game but as Xenoblade Chronicles proved to me, good art direction can make up for poor (or in this case, outdated) graphical quality. The music is also good - not great like Xenoblade, but definitely good.
+ QoL stuff
The PC version has a "turbo mode" that fast-forwards through the combat animations; it cuts down on tedium, which is an issue I've had with turn-based games in the past. You can also disable abilities so a character won't use them during battle, which is very helpful and a nice customization feature. Also, your party's HP heals to full after battle, which I really like - forcing me to stay at an inn or use healing items between battles is something I almost always find unnecessary and annoying in games.
Now for the so/so:
~ The story
TLR's story is full of campy JRPG tropes, but it was interesting enough. I'm one of those people who values gameplay over story every time, so as long as the gameplay is fun and the story isn't so godawful that I literally can't stand it, I'm good to go. Here's a post I made in the Steam thread after watching the final cutscene, where I discussed why the plot was actually kinda interesting in the end:
Now for the bad:
- The game explains almost nothing about its mechanics
Apparently that's par for the course for these developers (they made the SaGa series, which I never played), but that's no excuse. What does my character's class mean, and can I change it? Classes are actually very important and you can influence them based on what arts/stats your characters have, but the game informs you of absolutely none of this. What is a synergy and why does it happen so rarely? A synergy means you have 3-5 units with a certain combination of mystic arts, which combine to create a mega-powerful arcana art that hits every single enemy on the field. Gee, wouldn't it have been nice of the game to explain how to learn/trigger them? Well it didn't. Why can I only use unique/remnant/summon arts sometimes? Because your union has to be out of deadlock, and have either high or low enough union morale to trigger it. But, and this is shocking I know, the game chooses not to explain any of this to you. I could go on, but I won't. You basically need to read a Wikia/Steam guide or else you'll likely never figure out how to play this game correctly. And that's stupid.
- Lots of missable quests/characters
There are certain parts of the main quest that will cut off access to certain sidequests. You are given no warning. Also, the way of acquiring some characters (Duke of Ghor comes immediately to mind) is so obscure it's ridiculous. If you intend to face the "true" form of the final boss, you need to complete every sidequest in the game. If you don't follow a guide you will almost certainly fail at this, and will likely miss some good characters/items too.
- The leveling system
The way leveling is handled is the single worst design flaw in this game. It's overly-complicated and ends up being more punishing than it should (and apparently it was much worse in the Xbox 360 version!). Here's a quick summary from the Wikia page:
The bolded part is the issue. Leveling up in this game doesn't make your characters stronger. Stats and arts are improved by repeated use of combat/mystic arts in battle. So that's the problem: you only want to engage in long battles (i.e., boss fights and rare monsters), because all of your characters will be able to improve their arts/stats. If you play the game "normally," you will engage in many battles that end rather quickly, which will not give all your characters enough chances to use their arts, which leads to you having an underpowered party. Therefore, the "optimal" way to play this game is to avoid every non-boss mob in the game that isn't a necessary fight for a quest. There are notable exceptions to this rule for those in the know, two of which include cheesing sidequests to either link a bunch of instantly respawning mobs at once or infinitely respawn a rare dragon, and one of which is an area where you can also link a bunch of mobs together to powergrind. Obviously a regular player will not know about any of that... because who expects that the best way to play an RPG is to avoid 90% of the enemies in the game, except in extremely specific circumstances? You can still beat the main quest (though some parts will likely be very difficult) if you don't play the "optimal" way, but you will almost certainly find some of the sidequest/optional bosses impossible to beat. If you want to beat all the rare/optional bosses, including the true form of the final boss, you are basically required to follow a guide (like this one), all of which include keeping your BR low and leveling certain arts (most importantly the hex Cachexia). The creator of that guide, who obviously loves this game, nevertheless had this to say near the end:
Yeah. It's just far too easy to fuck yourself over in this game. Not to mention it puts a damper on the whole experience when you're trying to avoid most of the battles, and makes exploring areas much more annoying because you're constantly running away from mobs.
- Units/unions that are dead at the end of a battle get ZERO experience
There's good game design, there's bad design, and then there's asshole design. This is the third one. This scenario will happen to you at some point (likely many times): You fight a long battle against a boss or rare monster, and it happens to kill one of your unions right before you kill it. Well too bad! - those dead units get no stat gains at all. Zip! Nada! It's just so stupidly unnecessary to punish the player like that; it made me irrationally angry whenever it happened.
- Luck plays too large a role
I mentioned earlier that the combat "can" be really fun, and this is true. However, RNG (damage randomization, status effect chances, crit chances) is too much of a factor in battles, and it's really fucking annoying when you're repeatedly on the wrong end of it.
- Other complaints
Upgrading weapons is tedious as hell, especially since in the PC version all 18 of your units can (and should) be leader characters, who will all be requesting materials. With the exception of Rush, you aren't allowed direct control over your party members' equipment. There is very noticeable pop-in and screen-tearing. There's a shit ton of sudden and/or multi-stage battles where you're given no chance to save the game beforehand. And upon dying you get sent back to the title screen - I literally started laughing when it happened the first time because I was so surprised at how archaic it felt.
CONCLUSION:
TLR has moments of brilliance where its potential shines through. Seriously, this game could have been an absolute classic. Unfortunately, the deep flaws in this game make it fall way short of its potential, so I was left feeling frustrated by the end. I really wanted to love this game, but it's just not good enough. The fact that it basically requires a guide to play it properly means I can't recommend it to anyone who isn't a hardcore JRPG fan.
