| The Last Remnant for the Xbox 360 is the first role-playing game in a new series from Square Enix. This game delivers breathtaking visuals only possible on next-generation platforms, a mysterious storyline full of powerful artifacts, and a massive battlefield where you'll be surrounded by countless foes and friends alike. 
Join Rush and David as they battle the Conqueror's Army and search for Irina. View larger. | 
Castanea, the Conqueror, and Roeas lead the enemy's search for the Remnants View larger. | 
Orders in battle are given in a command-select style. View larger. | 
Morale plays a role in a unions ability to inflict damage. View larger. | The Story Unfolds
In ancient times mysterious artifacts, referred to as Remnants, were discovered all over the world. People used these objects for their awesome powers -- a choice that eventually caused a rift in the world's balance. A thousands years later, the story of The Last Remnant begins. Rush Sykes and his sister Irina are children of scientists researching the esoteric Remnants. One day, Irina is kidnapped right before Rush's eyes. Determined to rescue his sister, Rush joins forces with David Nassau, the marquis of a small city-state called Athlum. Together they are determined to pursue the criminals and save Irina from her strange captors. Meanwhile, the world is thrust into confusion as ruling powers bicker over dividing the Remnants' powers. Soon a mysterious man appears calling himself the Conqueror. His presences escalates tensions as everyone eagerly attempts to answer the question: Into whose hands will the power of the Remnants fall? Before he knows it, Rush becomes wrapped up in this international power struggle and realizes that he is somehow connected to the enigmatic Conqueror. Allies and Enemies
Before her kidnapping, Rush Sykes lived a peaceful life with his 14-year-old sister, Irina Sykes. Irina is a cheerful, resilient girl who stays upbeat even during the toughest of times. Some mysterious power seems to rest within here, but she herself has no understanding of what it is or what it can do. David Nassau, the 19-year-old who rules over the state of Athlum, spends his days working towards better his homeland. Although he decides to join Rush on his quest to rescue Irina, his motives are his own. Emma Honeywell, the matriarch of the Honeywells clan, Plagus, Blocter, and Torgal round out the allies. The man known only as the Conqueror and his minions are eager to seize the Remnants throughout the lands. His origin is shrouded in mystery, but it appears that something strange and elusive connects this villain to Rush. Enamored with the Conqueror, Roeas has declared her eternal allegiance to him and acts as the ambassador of the Conqueror's Army. Although beautiful in form and voice, Roeas is sadistic and menacing on the battlefield. Originating from a large-bodied species with pronounced fighting abilities, Castanea is Roeas right-hand-man. He rarely speaks or expresses himself, so it is difficult to decipher his thoughts -- although Roeas seems to understand him easily. In addition, the strongest fighters in the Conqueror's army are referred to as The Seven. The Seven lead their own troops and report to Roeas and Castanea. Combat Systems: Morale, Battle Unions, and Deadlock
Battles are fought between multiple friendly and enemy unions -- groups of up to five characters who fight together. Players give commands to unions as a whole, who then carry out the actions. Orders in battle are given in a command-select style that is familiar to most role playing gamers. However, The Last Remnant commands are not delivered with standard terms, such as "Item" or "Magic." Instead, players control unions with specialized commands, such as "Slam 'em with status ailments!" or "Do area attacks from afar!" Available commands change depending on the current battle situation or the distance and positions of friendly and hostile unions. The Last Remnant adds a Morale component to the gameplay. Players can check current morale via the gauge across the top of the screen. The higher the morale, the more damage is dealt and less damage is taken by friendly unions, and vice-versa. When friendly and enemy unions go toe-to-toe and engage in melee combat, they enter a state called Deadlock. Once in Deadlock, the two unions must fight each other until one union has been completely destroyed. Enemy monsters roam the land where they can be avoided or engaged at will. When battle is initiated, the scene changes to a specialized battle map where friend and foe can fight it out. Horizontal lined icons labeled A, B, C, etc. represent the on-field battle unions. Players choose which hostile union they wish to attack on this screen. The Last Remnant offers a wide variety of commands that focus on dealing damage or executing defensive maneuvers. Knowing which commands are most suitable for each situation is the key to winning battles.
  
The Last Remnant delivers breathtaking visuals, a mysterious storyline full of powerful artifacts, and a massive battlefield.
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 Adult RPG Players ONLY |
| Review Date: September 22, 2009 |
| Reviewer: polish$princess, Midwest Rural Sticks |
This game has a Mature Adult rating, and it's not because of the content, but because of the gameplay. The gameplay is too challenging and detailed for teens. I have played the game twice, creating every weapon, achieving Warlock, Lordly Commander classes on more than one character, all the arcana and weapon arts. The game requires deep thinking to analyze how to create effective unions (battle teams). People think the game is random, or just luck, but it is NOT. Every action is completely controllable, but you have to know what you are doing. Too many recent RPGs have been stuck on a formula where you have a single hero who fights aggressively, and with overleveling the game is overpowered. That is NOT the case here.
BR Battle Rank and Arts are separate. Battle Rank is NOT like traditional leveling. Fighting too easy monsters or too many mobs in a mistaken attempt to "level up" will leave your characters with a high battle rank, but without sufficient skills. Players need to focus on challenging monsters and avoid easy ones until late game when anything goes and you are no longer skill building. The game has job classes determined both by weapon type and also by the type of commands you choose. If you want a combat character, choose combat commands, and don't use the mystic arts for that character. In other words, you must plan what you are doing. Anybody who hopes to barrel their way through the story will not make it.
I have helped many gamers on gamefaqs with this game, and I suggest using the FAQs there and the forum for questions, as the strategy guide is horrible and lacks crucial information. I also highly recommend using the lastremnant wikia on the internet.
The best players I have seen with this game are ADULT players with 10-20 years of RPG game experience, aged 20 and older. This game was a Game of the Year for me in 2008 and I never tire of watching other players on ustream playing this game. I repeat, it's not for the kiddies. But if you are an adult RPG player who has also some experience with strategy RPGs, you will do great with this and love it. Impatient teens and other reviewers on this site who couldn't figure out the game clearly do not have what it takes to play this, a vast RPG experience, high intelligence, and a love for detailed strategy.
There is no way to play the same game twice with the sheer number of characters that you can hire for your teams. The bosses and download content are very difficult battles, but once you learn what you are doing, you will find this satisfying. I hope that my comments here will recommend the game to other adults looking for a game with adult characters, not just kiddie characters, and also to people with the patience to learn the system in the game. It is NOT random and takes time to analyze.
This game is meant for HDTVs and will be difficult to see on an older analog TV. You will be disappointed in the graphics and menus unless you have an HDTV which will make the game look so amazing you will have your breath taken away. There are massive dragons to fight that are incredible to watch, and many areas in the world to explore. Have fun fellow adults, this one is for us! |
"its a beaut clark"
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| Review Date: September 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: taki renzaburo, antarctica |
This game is alot of fun, its one of the most addicting games I've played in quite some time. The quest is huge in terms of the number of missions you can do and places you can visit. The battle system is unique and challenging and gives you a lot of latitude for customization - you can hand pick which soldiers you want in your army and how to group them in squads. There is alot of exploration and many secrets too, you can find whole hidden towns and dungeons for instance. The graphics are very impressive - the enemies look great and when you are adventuring there are some truly breathtaking vistas. The high mountain plane of Dillmoor for one offers excellent views of a valley far below and distant peaks. The story is kind of meh but the real focus of the game is on exploration and combat.
As critics have pointed out, the game has longish load time as well as frequent slowdown and texture loading every time the scene changes. I didn't burn the game to my hard drive so these problems were definitely noticeable, but they didn't bother me too much. I much prefer this game to more traditional rpgs like Lost Odyssey which offered little challenge and just became too tedious to finish. If youre looking for something different from the standard jrpg I highly recommend this game. |
Unmissable for the genre
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| Review Date: March 28, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Julian M. Flaks, Boston, MA |
I picked this up while looking for a JRPG for my wife, who is a fan of the genre. Being a fan definitely helps one to enjoy certain aspects at face value, such as our protagonist Rush's asinine remarks. My favourite is shouting, "everyone's getting hyped!" during a battle. I read a lot of reviews which almost put me off, but we both ended up playing it and have found it one of the better ones on the console. We both play other genres of game, shooters, Assassin's Creed, and the amazing Mass Effect, so the ideal in a turn based game is one that justifies the format with some chance to do thinking and decision making.
The battle system is something of an evolution of other systems, with play split into squads that get bonuses based on how they flank or lock enemy units (mostly the difference between 1 vs 1, 1 vs many.) Despite what some comments have implied, you do get a lot of choices and control in the game, and the way they limit you during battle turns makes good sense - at times you wish you had some more granular control, but it feels fair in the context of the game. Or as fair as any JRPGs tend to be. On that note, compared to say Lost Odyssey, we've found less need to consult guides online to find some obscure trick of a boss or certain item we're lost without.
Another big plus in the design comes under the category of "Things to keep your attention". It pays to take on more enemies at once, so if you do any quests / levelling, you try to keep it at where it's a challenge. Even in the exploration parts, things can be a little tense opening a door (not Silent Hill intense, but more in-the-moment than a lot of RPG exploration sequences). In the battles themselves, similar to the shrinking-circle combat moments in Lost Odyssey, you have a chance to suddenly hit a button or trigger to help an attack or counterattack - but in a great piece of design thinking, these can happen any time, during your attacks or when you're being attacked. They also build up - because you hit the button quickly once (easy to miss even for an arcade game enthusiast), the order of turns changes, someone else in your squad gets an even quicker button chance - sometimes even a whole different attack. Because of this, the battles keep you involved, clutching the control watching the nice graphics of the fight in case you miss your one chance to turn the battle around.
I haven't seen technical problems, some textures load as sequences start, which is fine - we're only half way through so we could still have some loading grief to wait for, but from what I've seen so far it's overstated (or was patched a bit at some point?) The world is expansive and there are lots of side quests to play with. I wrote the review in case others ended up with the same indecision - I noticed a big range of views so it's definitely not for everyone. After getting into it we both agreed it would have been a real shame to miss out on. |
Enjoyed thoroughly.
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| Review Date: June 4, 2010 |
| Reviewer: D. Siler, Jackson, TN |
| I really enjoyed this game. The battle system was fun, and I really liked the characters, especially Emma. I thought some of these characters were unique for the RPG genre, which is far too often repetitive and formulaic. Many of the party members were optional; they engaged me and kept me interested in the game. Adjusting to the battle system was a bit arduous, but once I was comfortable with the system, I liked the battles a lot. |
worth more
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| Review Date: July 7, 2010 |
| Reviewer: schmidty yahoo, |
| The game is fun, and well worth the current price. Its long enough, and enjoyable enough for any rpg fan. I would honestly consider it better than Lost Odyssey. Square Enix has yet to dissapoint me. |
Amazing game - install to hard drive to avoid glitches!
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| Review Date: February 16, 2009 |
| Reviewer: G.K., Phila. |
| Amazing game - battle system is completely addictive. Just finished a 5-hour playing session; RPGs don't usually do that for me! To get around most of the technical glitching, just make sure you install the game to your 360 hard drive and play from that. Amazing graphics, great music, innovative battle system. Wow! |
This review is for the GAMEPLAY ALONE!!!
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| Review Date: November 23, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Sweden Is God, |
I read a lot of bad stuff about the graphical glitches and hang-ups in this game, so I borrowed a buddy of mines to play it before I bought it. I never let technical issues's stop me from getting a game unless its something as abysmal as a pc game that crashes every time you save your game or something fun like that.
This game is an extraordinary new title from square-enix. While it certianly pays homage to the strategy titles of old like Shining Force or Dark Wizard, it makes me think more of something like Dynasty Warriors, but as an rpg, a true rpg. That is to say that the battles take place on large fronts but still focus in on your main group. Its essentially a take on the epic feel of the huge battles that take place in a world wide war, but without losing focus on your select group of heroes. Its quite novel actually if you ask me and takes the feel of the drama up a notch. The story, from what I saw of the first 10 hours is quite compelling, especially for something done by the new cash-in squad at SE. The graphics are better than FFXII, so I wish people would stop making that comparison. The art technique and layout of the world itself CAN be compared to FFXII only because that is the type of rpg world SE seems to want to build now. I think their plan is to try and make rpg more accessable to American's by getting away from the Japanese form, which seems to be less popular(god knows why...).
I can tell from 10 hours I will love this game but, having said all that, I am going to wait for the PS3 before I purchase my copy. I own both systems and can wait 4 months or so for the release of what will hopefully be a much more rounded out and perfected version of the game. It seems like SE tried as hard as they could to push this game to market before the holiday season because it was never supposed to come out before early first quarter of '09. Its simply presonal preference though, because I really want to get the best version of this game because it is THAT GOOD, honestly, and I do not want anything to take away from the experience.
If you do not own a PS3 and want every rpg that is worth playing, you sincerly need to buy this game because it will not disappoint you. Tenchnical issues aside, its the best your going to get before FFXIII is finally released(unless you own a PS2 still, then it is Persona 4 ;p ).
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Great Game
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| Review Date: June 1, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Travis J. Riddle, Lake Havasu City |
| This game is fun the graphics weren't that great but they were good enough for me game play was fun I would tell anyone who likes R.P.G's to buy this game. |
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