Friday, February 20, 2009

Intro And Review: The Last Remnant

Hey folks, new blogger to FRAG'D so I might as well introduce. You can call me Tsurai. Guess I'm this blogs "Asian guy who plays too many RPG's" Yes I play RPG's, not too much since I haven't seen one worthwhile; so to review a good RPG, might as well praise one made by the masters of RPG's: Square Enix.

A few months have passed since the release of "The Last Remnant", and though I've had it for maybe two months since buying a 360, I've scarcely played it; thus I consider this a "First Impression" rather than a "Review", but I'm new here. Cut me some slack.

Graphics
The Last Remnant has stunning visual appeal for a game made by Square Enix on an American system...granted it would load fast enough. It would take somewhere between 5-10 seconds for the full texture of objects to fully load before anything looks remotely beautiful as the screenshots captured them to be. In the time it takes for such pixels to load, you're bound to observe people that they're supposed to resemble. In a way, you'll have a few moments to reminisce of the original Xbox graphics until you're back in Next-Gen.

Gameplay

You'll find the gameplay very simplistic at first, but that's because of the handicap of using another guy's army. At the very start of the game, they'll introduce some very basic mechanics: hit this thing, move here, etc. By the time they're done with kiddie time, it's the player's turn to step up as General Patton. Your main character, named Rush Sykes, will have to start building up his own squad of generic characters and maybe another "leader". This squad will probably begin with you and another leader, but eventually recruit more characters to build up into a powerful little platoon. From there, one must develop tactics using provided formations of little parties in order to effectively attack/defend; this includes the ideas of interlocking, flank attacks, zerging, and so forth. And of course, let's not forget the basics of RPG's: leveling and gear - not only for the main character, but your other leaders and generic minions, and this ranges from 2-20 people total to level.

Gripes

Ignoring the very simple yet complex combat and the graphics load, you have one other major concern: lag. Yes you heard it here, lag. There will be MULTIPLE instances where your characters will begin to slow down and possibly even stop for what feels like an eternity but only to discover that 8 seconds have passed. Having it as a turn-based RPG, that's no problem, but to have discovered one of your parties has fallen is aggrevating. The last major problem are fighting bosses while "under-leveled". Having it as a "growing level system", you'll never see what level you are, thus you're to guess just when you're prepared. Common sense would dictate that "it's when you stop getting exp, nub." Wrong, you'll never know when the flow haults. The only time one can tell if you're under-leveled is if one of your squad leaders fall (which, by the way, results in an entire party falling if the party's leader falls). You will also endure the immortal voice talents of Johnny Yong Bosch, so you may get tired of it if you've heard his voice in every other Anime known to mankind.

Last Words

I personally stopped playing this almost weeks after I got it, so I may have thrown in the towel early. Being a Square Enix fan, I bought it as soon as I bought a 360, but I advise renting it first to feel the flow. To those who do not have a 360, fear not. Well, fear the wait. The Last Remnant will be hitting PC on April 9th this year...for Japan. It's from Japan, that's what you get. Europe will be expecting Last Remnant March 20th, no current word for the US. Seeing as how Square Enix SHOULD be supporting Playstation 3 (yes, I'm one of those guys who believe Square has turned their back on their country), Last Remnant will also be hitting Playstation 3, yet the date has not yet been specified.

If you enjoy it, I praise you for your dedication. If not, I feel the same pain. My last piece of advice for this game, boss fights. You can only assume you're not ready but take the risk anyway because dying in a boss fight is the only way to measure your progess; thus I say place these words from the great Illidan Stormrage from World of Warcraft into your head: "YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!!!"

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