The Last Remnant

[Iron Maw]

Official Japanese site:
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/remnant/

More Screens and Art:
http://www.gamekyo.com/element5818_g...t-remnant.html

So far SE's new RPG for PS3 & XBOX360 has been getting lots positive press and impressions at TGS 08. It's to be released next moth in worldwide 11/1908 to 11/20/08.

I'm really looking forward to the game, especially after reading previews from TGS.

This is pretty much best impression I've seen for the game:

Originally Posted by Sonsaru

The 360 Booth is pushing it nicely, a good sit-down, large screen TV and a demo with more content than you can hope to see in the time they give you to play it.

Two saves, one from the start of the story and one that allows free roaming. I'm mainly interested in the battles, I know i'm going to buy the game and I'll enjoy the story then, so I free roamed.

When running around you can "slow down" time, a bar appears at the side of the screen and you have until it runs out to make contact with enemies and then hit the "encount" trigger to fight them all at once. I did a few battles against 4-5 enemies and then really went for it, starting one against 13 enemy units just before I got kicked off - the booth girl said it would probably have been impossible to win, anyway ^-^

And I loved it. The combat system is interesting, something a bit different, and looked to have some depth and some nice features. A lot of the decisions will be made outside combat, I think, as you seem to have a lot of control over placement of characters in each unit etc. But it looks really nice, solid, well developed and polished.

The reason being, of course, that it is the first JRPG to have been multi-console from inception. Even those that eventually jumped the gap (Enchant Arms, Trusty Bell) did so after coming out on 360 first. Infinite Undiscovery, for example, certainly suffers from lack of development time - just after they finished the 18 characters, complex item creation systems etc. they realized they didn't have the time or money to make a game to put them in, and even Lost Odessy, when I really liked, could have used a little more polish. Last Remnant is being tounted as 60 hours of story and half the towns in the game don't *have* to be visited - it that is true, and from what I saw today playing it myself and other people playing it, it's going to be the best JRPG on the 360 to date and may even beat (or at least equal) Tales in terms of total content. The que was very short so I'll definitely go around again tomorrow, anyway.

Pressing the R Trigger on the field triggers the "Encount Ring." You will fight any monsters within it. However, as I mentioned above, you can use the "time slow" ability to run around and pick up as many enemies as you want to fight before pressing RT to further boost the enemies you will fight.

In the demo you have four parties. The leader of each party seems to be a "face" character, a unique character, and then they have generic frog / toad / whatever creatures as underlings. I did go into the menus (I love doing that at TGS, almost no one else does it) and you have a lot of control over party compositon - looks like 5 (or maybe 6?) in a party, you can set leader, sub-leader, and the formation you have you have them in changes things like attack and defense. Of course, I was on the clock so I didn't mess about in there for *too* long ^-^

Once battle starts a mini-map in the top corner shows your units and the enemy units in relation to each other. When I use "unit" I guess I should use the game term, a "Union" of characters. Each Union has a single HP bar rather than individual HP for each member, and attacks against any member of the Union will damage this shared HP. Once that HP reaches 0 the Union is defeated. At least in the demo the only detrimental effect to this was that those characters don't get any stat boosts after battle - there was no after battle healing etc. required.

You have to look at the mini-map, then, and decide which of your Unions you want to attack which enemy Unions. If you can get your units to hit the side or rear of enemy Unions you will do more damage, but of course if you expose your back or side to enemies they will do the same to you. Without being fully aware yet of what information I need to know and where it is displayed on the screen I had a bit of trouble tracking who was running into who once the battle started (the mini-map vanishes during the actual action), but toward the end of my play I was pretty sure I just didn't know where to look rather than the info not being there at all.

When giving orders to your Unions you can select overall orders - things like "Attack," "Use Special Attacks," "Heal Yourselves," or give individual orders to each member. This system allows you to micromanage but the defult setting is one of speed, which is lovely to say you are dealing with 14+ player characters. A few clicks and you are set. Combat starts.

As the attacks play out, sometimes the face buttons or a trigger will appear on the screen. A circle starts to move in toward one of the buttons (quite like the Lost Odessy system but not quite as flashy) and if you correcly time a press of the correct button then you will do more damage or block enemy attacks. Again, not having built these parties up myself it was pretty crazy to be given control of so many characters all of a sudden and a lot of the time it was just frogs / toads hitting trees and mushrooms, something like that. That's why RPG demos are so hard to get right - when you've built everything up from scratch it is okay, but it is a lot to absorb when just thrown into it.

Still, the combat showed a lot of promise, and is an interesting twist for turn based in that movement of the Unions / positioning on the mini-map etc. are also important. I was looking forward to my impossible battle, and as the director said in the recent Famitsu interview, diffculty has basically been left to the player, you can make every single battle as hard or as easy as you like. Most of the other people I saw playing hadn't bothered / couldn't understand the tutorial video and were using their four Union to crush a single bee at a time ^-^ My going into the menus also revealed more powerful weapons for the main character to be equipped and the ability to give him a sword in each hand.

I also used one of his special moves, which involved a cool Nightcrawler style vanish, appear and attack, vanish again, appear and attack kind of deal. The specials looked pretty cool but I didn't have time to work out who those gauges and stuff work properly.

Anyway, it looks very promising, and with the US and Japan getting it on exactly the same day this info is as relivent to you guys as it is to me. This has jumped from 'that RPG that I'm going to buy but don't know anything about' to 'that RPG that will likely put Gears of War II on hold for a bit'. Good times in November!

message detail One crazy thing I didn't mention - no EXP. At all. When each battle finishes characters get stat increases based on what they did during that battle. An interesting idea, but it still relies on numbers + it means you have to keep a closer track on exactly what your character's stats are, rather than having an overall level to look at for a quick grasp of their strength. Not sure about this point, though, can't get a feel for it from the demo at all.

In Famitsu it said there will be some bonuses for fighting more groups at once, but basically it just depends on how you want to play the game. Once you get a lot of units in play the battles are long(er), of course, but when that battle finishes you've just cleared out a large section of the dungeon. The impression I got from talking to the booth girl / the number of areas open in the demo (you can go to 5-6 places, no way there is time - rather than a "demo" you are pretty much just playing the actual game from save data) / the Famitsu review is that a large part of the game is just about exploring and fighting freely. The loading time going into battle was far better than LO, too, btw, though there is a little time there.

Tutorial Trailer:
http://gamersyde.com/news_7219_en.html

Developer Walkthrough:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41139.html
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41141.html

[Lebron]

Wasn't all that interested in the game before, but the developer walkthrough and tutorials have definitely peaked my interest. Now I'm actually looking forward to getting my hands on it. I mean, I was still going to give it a go before, but my expectations were pretty low.

[DragoonKain3]

Hmm... 'chaining' battles ala Romancing SaGa with most of the battles pretty much AI controlled ala Ogre Battle, though manual control if you really want it? Looks like I'll be enjoying this purchase.

[Iron Maw]

Yeah, I've heard the combat describe as a mix of Ogre Battle, Lost Oddyssey, and bit Blue Dragon.

It's funny that you mentioned Romancing SaGa since that's the team who's working on it.

TLR along SO4 also made EDGE's top 20 games of TGS,SO4 at #7 and TLR at #8.

They have a write up on them here:
http://www.edge-online.com/features/...best-games-tgs

[SkoolRumble4Ya]

Man I want this game but there is no release date for the ps3 version which sucks. Damn you Square.

[rg4619]

I still don't know what to make of this game, but the decision to buy was made long ago. Few development teams are breaking new ground with turn-based battles, so it's great to see a lot of effort going into this.

[Niu]

Really praying this game to be well, but on the other hand, Kawazu isn't too hands in on the project as well as Koizumi nowhere to be seen... really worries me.

[Iron Maw]

Pre-Order info (Japan):

The article states that pre-orders in japan for The Last Remnant will come with a DVD called Square Enix x Xbox360 Trailer Collections. This is the trailer DVD opposite of the Square Enix x Xbox360 Sound Collections CD that came with Infinite Undiscovery. This time, the DVD will include trailers and TVCMs for IU, TLR and SO4 from not just Japan but all over the world. There will be about 30 trailers in total. Also included on the disc will be clean versions of the opening FMV for all 3 games. Yes, that includes SO4, even though the game isn't out yet.

Inside the cover of the trailer DVD (just like with the sound collection CD) will be a download code for a set of 3 formations. In The Last Remnant, you set up each Union with a formation to determine how the Union will be spaced out during battles. Different formations are more effective for different types of characters. The 3 bonus formations are Trick Play, Delta Cross and Power Raise.

Screenshot of Formation Setup:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/...81015/last.htm

Source NeoGAF.


New Screens:
http://www.gamersyde.com/news_7237_en.html

[Lebron]

Of course we get nothing like that if we pre-order here in America, figures. Oh well, someone will probably upload it to the net anyway. Really want to see the Star Ocean 4 opening.

also, I want the face plate that comes with the premium pack in Japan.
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/...1003/lrp02.jpg

[DragoonKain3]

Actually, we do still get the three formations (I dunno if it's the same formations but different names) and a 'funky' poster.

But yeah, DVD extras > Poster... NA got jipped, just liked Infinite Undiscovery (lithogram card? Oooh... that's so special... what's this, a CCG? /sarcasm)

[Iron Maw]

Yep, we still get the 3 Formations, but only if you Pre-order for GameStop Gamecrazy etc. You only get a poster if do it form Bestbuy apparently.

IGN has a New Preview up:

The Last Remnant Combat Exposed
Square Enix drops new details on weapons, magic, items and more.
by Ryan Geddes

October 16, 2008 - At the Tokyo Game Show last week, developer Square Enix pulled the curtain back on its upcoming "RPG for the world," a new roleplaying game called The Last Remnant that's scheduled to hit U.S. shores next month.

The focus of the demo we played there was on the unique battle system, which groups your party's characters into "unions," which you can command on the battlefield. Unfortunately, there were many menus involved, all of which were in Japanese, so we were forced to muddle through as best we could. But today Square made things a bit easier for us by releasing a few more details about the game's turn-based battle system in our mother tongue.

If you're interested in the storyline and characters featured in the Last Remnant, take a look at our previous article on the topic. In this preview, we're focused solely on the game's combat system, including Arts, Lockups and weapons.

In the world of The Last Remnant, you have a large amount of control over where and when you throw down. From what we've seen, there are no random encounters -- when you see an enemy wandering around on the world map, you can either skirt around it or get in close to engage.

Doing the latter puts you in a state called Deadlock, of which there are a number of varieties, depending on where each side's unions are placed and how they are facing. In a Flank Attack, a union is attacking an enemy from the side and deals extra damage as a result. If two unions flank an enemy union, then any further attacks will occur from the rear -- this results in a Rear Assault, which deals even greater damage. And you don't have to be within melee distance to engage an enemy. In a Raidlock, you can force a distant enemy into a Deadlock -- we're assuming with ranged attacks.

Once you've stepped up and called out an enemy, it's time to put your Arts into play. There are three types of Arts in The Last Remnant: Combat, Mystic and Item. By repeatedly using Arts of the same type, you'll be able to beef up the ones you know and learn new ones.

Combat Arts are offensive skills that deal more damage in battle than standard attacks. You'll use up AP when you deploy these attacks, but from what we've seen it'll be worth the cost. Square has shown off two Combat Arts -- Quad Slice and Devil's Due. The former lets your character wield four different weapons in their attack, slicing the enemy in a cross pattern. Ouch. The latter is a dual-wield Art lets you strike with two weapons at your sides. Square describes this action "as if striking imps perched on both shoulders." Serves them right.

In addition to Combat Arts, you'll also have access to Mystic Arts, essentially the magic system in The Last Remnant. These Arts also use AP and can be offensive, defensive or restorative (at both long and short ranges). The spell Caustic Blast, for example, surrounds enemies with "globules of acid" for heavy damage.

Item Arts use items from your inventory instead of AP and can be used to restore HP, buff your party or, we're assuming, hit the enemy with negative status effects like poison or paralysis. In an example Square showed, mixing abyssal tonic and shockberry results in something called Cyclone Cream, which sounds nasty.

When you're not using Arts in combat, you'll be swinging sharp things at your enemies. You can equip weapons in both main and sub-slots in the equipment menu, and how you do so determines your wield style. The Power Grip style lets you arm yourself with large axes and spears at the expense of going shieldless. The One-Handed style accommodates small axes and swords and allows you to equip a shield to bump up your defensive stats. Dual Wield is self-explanatory, and one race, the Sovani can equip a weapon in each of their four arms.

With the basics of Last Remnant's combat system out of the way, Square today also included some more info about some of the Remnants themselves, ancient artifacts spread throughout the game world that have mysterious powers. Remnants show up in the form of treasure, insects, beasts or weapons, and some can aid you in battle by attacking groups of enemies on your behalf.

The Gae Bolg, a hand cannon wielded by character David Nassau, the Marquis of Athlum, blasts out a wave of energy that can burn an entire battle area in seconds. Rush, the main character of Last Remnant, has a talisman with a large, statue-like Remnant called the Cyclops sealed inside. It's origins are mysterious, but one thing's clear -- it's apparently quite powerful.

With a complex combat system like Last Remnant's, it's hard to judge how well it will play until we actually get our hands on the game, which we have yet to do in a language we can understand. Hopefully that will happen soon, and we'll be able to give you a full report on the combat system in action.

The Last Remnant is set for a worldwide release on Nov. 20 and 21 on Xbox 360

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/920/920585p1.html

More Vids! Mostly combat though:
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/9...61/vids_1.html

[Iron Maw]

More Images:
http://www.gamekyo.com/newsfr29307_t...es-images.html

[-Kh-]

This week's Famitsu review:

10/10/9/9

Famitsu also states that the game on its own is 40-60 hours long, and about 80 hours if you complete all the optional stuff.

[rg4619]

Wow, that's one hell of a high score, although I don't place a lot of trust in Japanese magazines.

[-Kh-]

Famitsu reviews are to be taken with a grain of salt anyway.

However this was supposed to be a b-grade game from SE, just for reference Infinite Undiscovered scored 32/40.

Either being sceptical it is really surprising to see such a game score that high. I had it pre-ordered it already, although I was still doubtful, but if other reviews are somewhat like this one, then it will be a great purchase.

[problemedchild]

Amazon has the pre-order at 40 bucks if anyone wants to get it early.

I'm just worried about the combat system though, some of the gameplay videos make it look extremely boring.

[-Kh-]

This is what the review says:

- Players might be confused at first because you're unable to select specific commands in battle, but once you learn how to form a Union and play around with the options of Formations and their arrangements, the game gets really fun.

- Battles are long, but it's not much of a problem. The real problem is being sucked into long subquests and not knowing when to stop playing.

- The battles are large scale but simple to control. Complicated commands and equipment details are automated, and instead the player focuses on the formation of the troops and predicting enemy movements.

- Providing each team with support in combat lends itself to uniquely challenging and intense combat.

- There's slowdown and stuff when there are tons of characters on screen.

- Last Remnant is a refreshing and original RPG in the vein of the Romancing SaGa series.


In the "This week's recommendations" column the Famitsu reviewers also have high praise for the game, saying that it's a masterpiece you will remember for a long time, and that the game contains tons of optional content beyond what is expected, and that it's a highly strategic epic.

[problemedchild]

That sounds pretty good, I'll be looking forward to it. Just hope that the game has either a decent dub or the Japanese tracks.... Infinite Undiscovery's dub made me weep.

[-Kh-]

Well, actually I don't know if it has dual audio.

I'm about to receive IU, might be coming today in the mail or later this week. So it doesn't have DA? That's a shame, I liked how Lost Odyssey does have it.

[DragoonKain3]

My tastes usually are very much in line with Famitsu, so I really do think I'm gonna enjoy the game.

This one though, just takes the cake...

- Last Remnant is a refreshing and original RPG in the vein of the Romancing SaGa series.

Having Romancing SaGa as my favourite PS2 RPG for the longest time running, now I'm really pumped to play the game. Hopefully I finish it within 2.5 weeks, since that's when Persona 4 (of which the prequel is the one which dethroned RS as my favourite PS2 RPG) is getting released.