Over the past two weeks, I’ve been pushing through The Last Remnant, one of Square-Enix’s new IPs for 2009.  This is old hat for some of you, but there’s a surprising number of people that I’ve talked to who were interested, but never actually went to pick it up.  So, let’s take a look at it to see how it delivers.

Unfortunately, the main story for this game is mediocre.  The world contains a number of Remnants, ancient artifacts that contain a variety of powers and have lead to wars throughout the ages.  Rush is the main protagonist, he does exactly what his name implies.  His sister was kidnapped by some incredible power, and now he’s trying to find her and save her.  In the process, he stumbles into a battlefield and is then taken in by the lord of a small nation, David Nassau.  They set off to wage politics and continue Rush’s quest, all the while learning that they’re part of a much larger plot set in motion by the Big Bad, the Conqueror, who does exactly what his name implies.  It’s a mildly interesting story that’s also fairly predictable, you’ll probably figure out the ending long before you get there.

The story probably suffers the most from a bad gameplay to story ratio.  Many have complained that Xenosaga’s was far too low, and amazingly Last Remnant has the exact opposite problem.  You’ll be fighting for ages before you get any story advancement.  Some auxiliary story is offered in the sidequests, which are mostly required anyway as without them you’ll never be leveled high enough.  There’s a decent conservation of detail, and some of the quests do tie into the main story.  In fact, you can meet all of the enemy’s generals before they ascend to their respective positions if you’re ambitious enough.  Character development is a mixed bag.  For the main plot, only Rush, his sister, David, and the Conqueror are fleshed out to any real extent.  However, many of the unique party members have their own backstory that you can read about over the course of several visits to their hometown.

I feel the combat, on the other hand, delivers.  It uses a different mechanic than you’re used to.  Individual members are organized into unions that act largely like a single member themselves.  The union has all their health and action points pooled together.  You can alter the stats of the individual characters through the use of formations, which are also critical in determining damage from the many multi-target attacks in the game.  Actions are decided at the beginning of each turn.  Every union chooses an opposing union to target, with a list of basic strategies like “Attack with mystic arts!” or “Hurry up and heal them!”  The available strategies are influenced by the skills the members know, and can be heavily influenced by the union leader.  Combat then ensues with the various unions meeting, flanking, and intercepting each other, with the latter two granting bonuses to the attacking union.  A morale bar shows which side is favored more in the battle, yielding damage and command bonuses to the side with the upper hand.  If you mindlessly press buttons in this game, expect to be taking a lot of dirt naps.

Now for the graphics and sound.  The game runs on the Unreal 3 engine, so it looks pretty.  The CG sequences are, of course, stock impressiveness from Square-Enix.  The larger battle spells and unique skills are also nice to look at.  Unfortunately, the 360 version was not optimized very well, resulting in framerate issues in combat and lots of popin throughout.  The music in towns and dungeons is pretty good, but there are very few battle themes in the game.  You’ll probably want to turn the music off for long combat sequences and start playing something yourself on the computer.  The voice work I think is of good quality.  Johnny Yong Bosch plays Rush, and you should know exactly what to expect there.  The other voice actors also do a decent job playing their characters.  I did like the battle chatter; your characters will vocalize the changing battle conditions and their current actions.  There’s also a larger pool of voice actors for the non-main unique characters, so you’re not going to be hearing a lot of voices used over and over again.

Finally, something important to consider is which version of the game to get.  The 360 version of the game feels like a beta version.  It’s got the graphic issues I mentioned, it’s got some bugs in the system, and it hasn’t been balanced very well.  There’s downloadable content, but some of it you’re going to have to pay for.  On the other hand, the PC version is much more refined.  Bugs have been fixed, the graphic engine runs much better, and combat has been retooled to be more balanced, and overall even more difficult.  The DLC from the 360 version has been worked into the game, being unlocked by completing guild tasks.  For the truly masochistic, there’s also a hard mode campaign on the PC that becomes available after you clear the game once.  If your computer can handle it, PC is definitely the way to go.

On the bottom line, The Last Remnant has a largely typical JRPG plot that’s been coupled with an much more expansive and fulfilling world, as well as a unique, fun, and challenging combat system.  Strategy fans should definitely give it a look, as well as those that are looking for a change of pace.

360 score: 7/10 Omnistrikes

PC score: 8/10 Gae Bolgs