Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Mike Repella

The words Square Enix and Role Playing Game usually equal a fantastic and highly enjoyable RPG. Which is why I was excited to review The Last Remnant for the PC. Little did I know that I was about to be punched in the face with blandness and boredom. The best way to adequately describe The Last Remnant is by comparing it to Final Fantasy 12, but without a sole. It’s easy to make this comparison because The Last Remnant is an RPG, it’s made by Square Enix and it has the overall look of Final Fantasy 12, but that is where The Last Remnant’s comparisons to a masterpiece like Final Fantasy 12 end. 

I applaud Square Enix for trying something new with the unique battle system and for porting the game from the 360 to the PC. But let’s take a closer look at why the game ultimately falls flat and is entirely forgettable.

Review PC Specs:
Intel i7 CPU
6 gigs DDR3
Twin GeForce 8800 GTs in SLi

 

Perhaps the game’s strongest feature is that it is the best looking Japanese style RPG available on the PC. The game was ported from the 360 , but this isn’t your typical console to PC rush job. PC gamers are given all of the usual graphical options that they have come to expect from PC games, such as multiple resolutions to choose from and wide screen support. There are also texture and detail settings ranging from low to high. The end result should allow people with lower end PCs to run the game and people with a high end PC will get a better looking version than the 360.

The look of the game will be very familiar to anyone who has played Final Fantasy 12 on the PS2. Overall the cities and environments have a very realistic feel to them. The human player models all look fairly lifelike. Like the Final Fantasy series there are also several other humanoid type races in the game that aren’t quit human, which add to the atmosphere and fantasy feel of the game. Where the characters are lacking is in their animations. The main character in particular doesn’t move around as smoothly as a real person and the animations are a step down from those found in other modern RPGs.

One area where gamers with a lower end PC may take issue with is slowdown during the battle sequences. The 360 version was notorious for slowing down during battles, mostly because of the large amount of characters on screen at one time. I personally didn’t notice any slow down on my PC setup, but I am running on a higher end rig and those on a low end machine may see some slow down that I didn’t experience.

One of the keys factors I use while rating the sound in a game is whether or not I get the theme songs stuck in my head. If they do that's usually a good sign that the music is good. The Last Remnant is one of those games where none of the songs really stick out to me and thus are mediocre at best, but still not terrible.

Square Enix is a company that usually hires decent voice actors to deliver the in game lines. For the Last Remnant it almost seems like the company realized that the game was average at best and therefore they hired voice actors who turn in average performances. Many of the lines are delivered very flat and monotonously. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t Resident Evil 1 levels of bad, but it certainly doesn’t stand up to what we have come to expect from Square Enix.

Since The Last Remnant is a Japanese RPG the controls aren’t really a big issue. Gamers have the option to use the mouse and keyboard, an Xbox 360 controller  or just about any other two analog stick controller they may have. I used a Logitech dual analog controller and surprisingly enough the game recognized it right away and changed the button configuration to match my controller. Even the on screen button commands matched up with the numbered buttons on the controller. This is a nice feature and I commend the developers for taking the time to make sure the game has several options for the wide variety of controller setups available on the PC.

Prior to The Last Remnant I had only fallen asleep one time during a videogame cutscene. That time was during a cutscene in Metal Gear Solid 4. The reason for that was because the scene was damn near an hour long and it was 2 o’clock in the morning. During my play through of The Last Remnant I honestly fell asleep during a 2 minute cutscene in the middle of the day. I tell you this in order to express just how dull The Last Remnant is. Many RPGs will start out slow, pick up by the middle of the game, and then really start to click once your character becomes more powerful. By the time I got 30 hours into The Last Remnant I realized that the fun factor was never going to happen with this one.

The story centers around a main character named Rush (yep just like the band and the radio host) who lives in a world where the various governments battle for control over “remnants”. Remnants are mystical artifacts that bind with humans and give them special powers. Rush’s mission in the game is to save his sister Irini who has been abducted by the bad guys because of her special gift to use the remnants. Before long Rush finds himself caught up in a battle between warring nations and blah, blah, blah. Really in all honesty the story never takes off and doesn’t hold a candle to numerous other RPG storylines. I didn’t really care about the characters, I didn’t care about any twists in the story or even the eventual outcome. Wake me when it’s over.

The Last Remnant tries to set itself apart by offering a unique battle system that can literally throw dozens and dozens of enemies at you all at the same time. Players have the ability to form several different teams which will all fight on the battlefield with you. Each team is made up of four characters of your choosing. The teams share common hit point and power pools. Once engaged in battle, players select which enemy team they want to attack and which basic type of action they want to take against the enemy unit. You can order your teams to all attack one unit and if executed properly you will surround the enemy unit and deal massive damage to them.

The battle system is meant to display large scale cinematic battles. There are several problems with this system which prevent it from being enjoyable at all. The biggest problem I had is that the player is given several different action selections- such as attack, heal, help friendly team, etc.-but you are never given all them at one time. For some reason the game will only give you a selection of a few options each turn. If you want to heal a unit and you aren’t given that option at the start of your turn, then too bad you can’t heal. It’s an absolutely horrible design decision that really limits the player’s ability to play the game how they want to and even got me killed several times throughout the game.

The next problem with the system is that there is almost too much going on at one time. Player units tend to look like enemy units and battles don’t progress in the typical RPG fashion where one side carries out their actions and then the other side goes. Instead a player unit will attack, then an enemy unit will attack  and then maybe a another enemy unit will attack, and so on until all of the units carry out their actions. Any time there are more than six or seven units on screen at once it becomes very hard to figure out what is going on and who is actually being attacked. Add to that, the fact that dozens of units can be on screen at once with the camera swinging all over the place and you have a pretty confusing game on your hands.

The problems don’t end there. Players have the ability to pick the characters that make up their units. The system allows you to go to the local guild and hire team members. Team members will level up and progress along with the main character, but for some strange reason the player has no ability to change the team’s equipment and weapons. Only the main character's equipment can be manually changed. Throughout the game players will collect new equipment for their team, but you will have to wait for individual team members to ask you to equip the gear for them. Sometimes you will collect a far superior item and the team member who needs it won’t ask for it. It’s a really horrible design decision, which only adds to the overall poor design of this game.

It will take anyone willing to trudge through this one roughly 60 hours to finish the game. This includes the main storyline and all the side quests that come in the form of guild missions. Once the 60 hours are up I would be amazed if anyone was willing to replay the game again. But, if you don’t own any of the current or last generation consoles and you really want to play a modern Japanese RPG then you may get your money’s worth out of this one.

If Final Fantasy 12 made a deal with the devil and forfeited its sole, it would become The Last Remnant. The game is uninspired, boring, and a mess in many key areas. The one thing it has going for it, is that it’s a Square Enix RPG that has been adequately ported to the PC. I really hope that Square Enix doesn’t take the sales numbers of this turd into consideration when they decide whether or not to port future RPGs to the PC. As it is, there are so many other quality RPGs on the PC that it would be a real shame for someone to waste 60 hours of their life on this snore fest.

Square took their time and delivered a solid port, giving the PC game several graphical and control options. It’s just too bad that the game they ported is such a mess in every other way. It may seem like I am being extra harsh on this game, but this is a Square Enix game we are talking about. Gamers expect the best from them and this time they didn’t even come close. Stay away.

* One final note. A Steam account is required to play this game, in fact you have to install Steam prior to even installing the game. This is true even for the disc version. If this is an issue for you then don't buy this game.

Gaming Trend Score

65

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 70
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 45
5. Value/Replay: 50
6. OVERALL:65