The Last Remnant Review (PC)

Genre: JRPG 

Developer: Square Enix

Publisher: Square Enix

Release Year: 2008

System: PC, Xbox, PS3

It seems that SquareEnix tries to re-live the thriumph of its golden era (I dont have to say which one that is), while adding some new features in its games but not so succesfully I am afraid. I believe that the biggest mistake that the developers make is that they never listen to what the audience has to propose or even if they do they screw up in the end. Here is The Last Remnant a jrpg with turn based battles that feature some RTS elements. More in depth we have:

PLOT: 8.5/10

The plot is quite classic yet very enjoyable with the classic fantasy world and its kingdoms. In the first intro we see Rush rushing into a battlefield while he searches for his freshly kidnapped sister! In the fictional world of TLR, there are several races such as the Mitras, the Yamas, the Qsitis and the Sovanis. With a few words the plot unfolds around "Remnants" that are ancient powerful magic relics that possess immense magic powers and have been the cause for many wars throughout the history. Each Remnant is bound to a human and only he can use its powers. If a Remnant stays inactive for some time it can spawn monsters! Enough said, I won't do any more spoilers. Play it yourselves!

GAMEPLAY: 6/10

In TLR you get to control a youth named Rush. You venture in 3D invironments in towns and dungeons while the city and wolrd maps are simple images (kinda .. "Naaaaahh" to me). 

The PC version of the game (it is published for Xbox and PS3 as well) has some issues when it comes to the controls part! For instance when you are in a shop and browse through the menu of available items pressing the UP and DOWN arrows besides the highlighted item changes, also the camera is changing angles. Which means that they have put two different functions in a single button! Quite convenient huh?! Damn no! There is not any visible effort  to rewrite the buttons from Xbox to pc but instead its like playing the game through an emulator, for instance you are prompted to hit "A" while you must hit "SPACE"! With other words it is like the company makes you buy an original Xbox controller to make your life easier! The in game menu follows the standards of older SquareEnix games where you will find sub menus as "equip", "party formation etc.

The enemies are visible on the screen and you can ambush them avoid them or get ambushed (you dont wanna do that). Well here comes the sad part! The battle system thought it seems quite promising it ends to be very boring one sided and soooo automated! Its seems like the developers would like to make it extremely simple yet strangely difficult to win a battle sometimes. What do i mean? Here is the thing. When you enter the battle there is no option of escape!! The player has to choose between some automated commands like "attack", or "back em up" or "attack with combat arts". Seriously? All you have to be careful about is not to get flanked (amonst enemies) and all is great! i mean come on?! what happened to equipping/using magic or using items manually or choose characters for their own specific abilities and stuff like that!? Many will say that TLR differs cos it is more like strategy when it comes to the battle part but i disagree! Even if it is that way its quite noobish because i dont know if it is just me but i dont see anything strategic there or anything that would related to Rome Total War for instance (there are the units instead of single characters but thats just not enough)! Unfortunately the gameplay isnt its strong part!

MUSIC/ATMOSPHERE: 8/10

The music part is one of its strong I guess, and each town dungeon and so on has its own music. It is very pompous and magnificent at parts and manages to get you quite well in the mood.

GRAPHICS: 9.5/10

Graphics are wuite detailed and "clean" with lots of colors and drawn and designed with creativity and talent! The only thing is that sometimes it gives me the impression that there is so much symmetry especially in towns! 

OVERALL: 8/10

In general terms TLR is a game worthy of your time and money that every jrpg games must at least once experience if u try to be openminded and dont try to relate it to the FF series!