Product Description

The Last Remnant is a brand-new adventure from Square Enix. Benefiting from the finest creative talent and the latest technological advances, it is set to raise the bar in next-gen gaming. With graphics powered by Unreal Engine 3 and an innovative battle system, The Last Remnant's simultaneous worldwide release will mark the beginning of a new era for Square Enix.

Brainchild of the team that brought you the Final Fantasy and SaGa series, The Last Remnant delivers a thrilling gameplay experience enriched by stunning graphics, a moving narrative and some unbelievably big battles!

In ancient times, mysterious artefacts referred to as Remnants were discovered all over the world. Offering incredible power, they soon came into the hands of the covetous few, and thus was the world's delicate equilibrium shattered. The people were divided into those who ruled and those who were ruled over. War was inevitable. Our story begins a thousand years later...

Rush lives with his sister Irina on secluded Eulam Island, a place far removed from the ceaseless battle for control over the Remnants which rages on the mainland. However, his peaceful life is shattered one day when he witnesses his sister's abduction by a mysterious group of soldiers. He immediately sets off after them, ill-prepared for the evils of the outside world but determined to find his sister at any cost.

March To War Set:

• Boost your tactical strength with this pack of three formations.
• Scatterswarm - Sacrifices defence to improve attack of left flank and mystic attack of right.
• Goblet - Improves attack of lead ranks, but reduces defence of flanks. Effective versus avian fiends.
• Catapult - Improves of mystic attack of back ranks, but reduces attack and defence of lead ranks.

Game features:

• Cutting-Edge Adventure - Developed to take advanta

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1159 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Square Enix
• Released on: 2008-11-20
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Format: Unknown format
• Dimensions: .37 pounds

Manufacturer's Description

Story

In ancient times, mysterious artefacts referred to as Remnants were discovered all over the world. Offering incredible power, they soon came into the hands of the covetous few, and thus was the world's delicate equilibrium shattered. The people were divided into those who ruled and those who were ruled over. War was inevitable. Our story begins a thousand years later...

Rush lives with his sister Irina on secluded Eulam Island, a place far removed from the ceaseless battle for control over the Remnants which rages on the mainland. However, his peaceful life is shattered one day when he witnesses his sister's abduction by a mysterious group of soldiers. He immediately sets off after them, ill-prepared for the evils of the outside world but determined to find his sister at any cost.

Summary

THE LAST REMNANT is a brand-new adventure from SQUARE ENIX. Benefiting from the finest creative talent and the latest technological advances, it is set to raise the bar in next-gen gaming. With graphics powered by Unreal Engine 3 and an innovative battle system, THE LAST REMNANT's simultaneous worldwide release will mark the beginning of a new era for SQUARE ENIX.

Characters

Rush Sykes
Male mitra. 18 years old
It's useless. He plays by his own rules.

Raised on Eulam Island, far from the power struggles for Remnants, Rush lives a peaceful life with his sister Irina. When she is taken away by a mysterious group of soldiers, he goes after her. Rush is an affectionate young man who wears his heart on his sleeve. Nothing is more important to him than family - and thus he is dedicated to taking care of his sister.

Irina Sykes
Female mitra. 14 years old
I'll be fine! After all, we'll be back with Mom and Dad!

Irina and her older brother Rush both live on idyllic Eulam Island, until she is suddenly kidnapped by a mysterious group. At first glance, Irina seems like your average teen, but she is able to stay cheerful and upbeat even through the toughest times. Some mysterious power seems to rest within her, but she herself has no understanding of what it is, or what it can do.

The Conqueror
Race/Age: Unknown
Terrible things are all the more necessary to remember.

His origins shrouded in mystery, the man known only as The Conqueror suddenly emerges to seize Remnants throughout the lands. His ruthless nature is predicated in the garb he dons, as legend has it that its crimson hue is the splattered blood of his victims.

David Nassau
Male mitra. 19 years old.
Remnants may bring suffering, but I will live with it, just as my father did.

At the tender age of 19, he rules over the state of Athlum. Hoping to gain independence from his sovereign state of Celapaleis, he spends his days working towards bettering his land. He is generally calm and collected - as a marquis should be. Despite his privileged birth, he participates in battles with the Remnant Gae Bolg at his side. David joins Rush in his quest, though his motives are his own.

Emma Honeywell
Female mitra. 41 years old

One of the Four Generals of Athlum, Emma is the matriarch of the Honeywells, a clan that has served Athlum for many years. A brave warrior, she leads troops into battle with courage and vigour. She is always trying to better herself and others, while continually striving for justice. Despite her stern exterior, she is a strong maternal figure to David, and looks after him as if he were her own son.

Torgal
Male sovani. 200 years old

One of the Four Generals of Athlum, Torgal is of the sovani - a four-armed race with a long lifespan. This race generally shuns outside contact, making it unusual that Torgal would work for Athlum, especially in such a prominent position. Considered leader of the Four Generals, his intelligence can make him seem slightly conniving. His past experiences have made him strong, but at the same time have left him emotionally detached from others.

Blocter
Male yama. 24 years old

One of the Four Generals of Athlum, Blocter is from the large, powerful yama race. Although he looks ferocious, Blocter is very kind-hearted. He grew up with David, and constantly worries about the pressure put on him as the marquis. Blocter has vowed to spend his life working for this man he considers family. Being as young as he is, he tends to act without giving much thought to his actions.

Pagus
Male qsiti. 55 years old

One of the Four Generals of Athlum, Pagus is a qsiti - a race of small beings. The main voice of the Four Generals, he excels at gathering information. Generally calm and reserved, it takes a practised eye to tell that he is also the generals' backbone. An ardent history lover, he spends his spare time paging through books and other materials. To his dismay, few are eager to listen and converse about the subjects he is most fond of.

Customer Reviews

The Last Remnant
This game has two very opposed extremes. On one hand, the graphics, design, and environments are absolutely stunning. The Unreal Engine 3 has been used, and the game looks wonderful. However, the gameplay is just not good enough. There are a number of factors that lead me to this conclusion. For one, when you move from one section to the next in a city, why oh why does it have to bring up a map for you to select the next area? It makes the areas feel a lot smaller than they should, and also makes them feel like you're just jumping from one place to the next rather than moving around the same city. But the major problem for me in this game is the battle system - which, aside from being quite boring and tedious, doesn't even seem to make much logical sense. It's almost like a random selection of things that pop up.

Instead of controlling each character seperately, you control units of people that you set before battle. You can have a number on these per battle. When it is one of your units turn, a list of action available comes up on screen, which seem to have been chosen at random for you to choose from. It may not sound so bad in description, but if your unit is about to die, and you want to heal them, and the option to heal doesn't come up... well, you can't heal them, so you more often than not just die. This doesn't happen a lot, but it has happened a few times during the game, and I was stuck on the final boss of Disc 1 for a long time because this problem kept resurfacing.

The story is as can be expected from most other "next-gen" J-RPGs - cliched, but loveable nevertheless. Basically you control the character of Rush Sykes, who at the beginning of the game is forced to watch his sister get kidnapped by a powerful mage. Rush is then compelled to search for his sister, and along the way meets lots of characters until he eventually gets drawn into a much broader canvas of plot. This has been put very simply, so you can imagine it is a lot better when you're playing it.

The game is huge, around 50 hours or so worth of play, though the game doesn't seem to clock the amount of time you've played. It spans over two discs, and is well worth a try - particularly if you like Japanese style RPGs. I recommend installing the game to hard drive if you have one, as the EXTREMELY slow texture loading can be a problem for some - particularly in the already annoying battles, when the slowdown is atrocious. If you can get past the questionale aspects of the game, there is a very decent game here to enjoy, but don't expect another Final Fantasy or Losy Odyssey because it lacks the same depth and playability that these two possess... but fun nonetheless.

Wow.....what a game!
Let me be the first to review on what i would call a life line for the xbox 360!

As the release of gears 2 fades into the background, and having completed fallout 3 and gears 2, I needed another game to pass my time. Having read about this game in early 2007, i didn't even realise it was out. The day i remembered about this game, it was the 20th, so like any other japanese RPG life fan would do, i went out and paid £40 at game!

Now, if you do not like the final fantasy series or even one of my all time favourites 'Lost Odyssey', or even if you prefer the freedom that 'Oblivion' or 'Fallout 3' gave you, then i strongly advise that you DO NOT get this game. I never really enjoyed Oblivioin or Fallout3 as the story line wasnt that immersive, it seems that the side quests are the game fillers.

However, with 'The Last Remnant' i can assure you, that this may top Lost Odyssey, maybe not as far as Final Fantasy, but its so damn close! I've been playing it for around 10 hours, and let me tell you, i cannot get enough of it!

The first amazing feature of this game, is the combat system. Instead of the usual 4/5 characters fighting against 4/5 monsters, you have unions. These unions are consisted of up to 5 units, which you can strategically change each position of each unit with formatioins which all have pros and cons. At the moment my part size is up to 4 leaders(main characters), 3 unions (groups of soldiers) and 9 units. Therefore i have 3 unions consisting of 3 units each. In each city, there is a guild, you may hire and dismiss other leaders, and the further into the game you go, the stronger leaders you may hire! As you may have worked out, im only allowed 4 leaders, so what about the other 5 units? The answer, as you progress through the story, Lord David allows you to use his City's soldiers! These soldiers are free, and basically you use these to fill up your squads...the more you have, the easier battles, but of course, you can take the harder missions also. Imagine a battle with 70 odd units fighting at once! Its like mini wars where ever you go.

Secondly, I was wandering at the start of the game, how skills or magic can be incorporated into the game. It may be a disappointment, but you cannot dictate what each unit does, you control what the union does on a whole...attack with mystic arts, attack with combat arts etc. Mystic arts are things like spark(lignthing) and combat arts are skills like double hit. You cannot mix each one unless the command 'give it all you've got' shows which means every unit performs there strongest skill. Your main character Rush has a limit break, this is similar to 'omnislah' from ff7, where he strikes an entire Union several times dealing heavy damage. There are no limit bars however, it is the same with ff8, you can use this attack when on low health. Beware, you do not attack units, you attack the union. Each unit has an amount of HP etc, and all this is added up with every other unit in the union to give the HP etc of the union, this is the factor you must take into account!

Thirdly, there are no levels like traditional RPG, instead your strength, speed, intellect, mystic, HP skills all grow with battles fought.

Fourthly, I am no longer wandering why monsters carry money anymore, the same with Lost Odyssey and FF12, you have to sell either components or 'captured monsters' or find money in treasure chests(known as remnants). Your probably wondering "selling captured monsters, is it like Pokemon???", no your wrong, after every battle, you recieve components like 'talons, feathers etc' which can be made into other items, customise existing weapons or sold for a low price. Also, aswell as components, you may also capture the monsters you have defeated, these can then be either diseccted into other components or sold at a higher price, usually you will get at least 300 for hard monsters, however, i sold one monster for 1200, i think i have worked out there is a 30/70 chance of capturing an enemy.

Furthermore, as said above, you can now customise existing weapons into much stronger ones. They are categorised in ranks of 'orders'. I have a halberd spear in the fifth order, the original being the 8th i think, and the strongest being the 1st, i can only assume. The items needed for the stronger weapons become much more rarer and i can see myself hunting down the whole world for specific items for the strongest weapons! You can also customise shields!

The final point i will make is kind of a downfall to the game, however, i can understand why this is. Its the animations and voice acting...they don't co-incide, however, the reason for this is that the animations are set for japanese voice acting, not english, so even though one of the characters have finished saying something, he still may have his mouth moving about or his arms waving back and forth.

In conclusion, i must say this is a fantastic game, and not too give too much away with the story, is absolutely amazing. The start is a bit slow, and the game itself may seem complex, however, its pretty straight forward once you know the basics. A game of the year? Maybe in Japan, I think Gears 2 may take that award in the US and maybe Fallout 3 or Gears 2 in the UK. Still, a fantastic game i would reccomend to any RPG fan!

Lacking in all the major areas that an RPG should be strong in
ok, i've played quite a few RPG's in the last few years, so i know what to look for when a games might not be immediately gripping. if you dont feel too into a game after a couple hours what you tend to look for to keep you hooked is graphics, story, battle systems, and length, though not necessarily in that order. so here's my take on all of those:
graphics: this game doesn't open like most square games(awesome introduction movie), it just sorta goes straight into the action, so i didnt see any high quality graphics. ok, but you keep playing and there are no HD scenes at all. and whats worse is that it takes roughly half the time of each cutscene to load the unimpressive graphics fully onto the characters. and whats even worse is that throughout the gameplay and cutscenes there is a huge lag. for a while i thought my system was bugging out, but it plays all of my other games perfectly, and TLR was a brand new game. not so hot...
story: you get thrown straight into the action in the beggining, so theres no time to learn anything about the character(s). now, that doesnt mean anything, lost odyssey did the same thing and turned out to be a brilliant game. but as you progress, youll find yourself sitting there saying "why should i care when all of the cutscenes that give me an already sub-par story arent loading the graphics so i know who the hell is talking?". the story is just too weak to care.
battle system: ok, RPG, taking turns to smack the crap out of your enemies...not realistic, but its a classic style that allowed you to see what was going on in a battle and gave you clarity to know how you were doing. not in this game. TLR feels like its tying to use the same battle style as lost odyssey. but unlike LO, the battles are so fast paced at times that you dont know what is going on. you attack your enemies with slightly different versions of the classics(attack, magic, items, etc.). now you always attack, but you can add attributes to an attack. sounds good, but you cant heal without breaking away from the enemy(which almost doubles their attack) and then getting put right back into the red zone. in LO you had to use the right trigger to set how effective you attack would be. here, you do that same, except with all the buttons on the right. and you either get perfect, or miss. and they move at different speeds every time.
the battles also lag alot, so when you try to press the right button for that critical hit, you usually miss because of the lag. battle system=crap.
length: square always has long games...or always had long games. most take you roughly 60 hours to beat, with at least 10-15 hours devoted to the story or progressing through it. here, i played for about 45 minutes for 2 days and i find myself 1/4 way through the story...and most of those 45 minutes were spent replaying the same parts as the game froze, or i lost a boss battle due to lag. this game is very short considering there are 2 discs. oh, and be prepared to sit through a ton of load screens. all load screens take about a full 90 seconds to load up, and that includes passing through a damn door.

my recommendation is that you pass this game up and go and buy something like Lost Odyssey. but if youre a die-hard square fan and you have alot of time on your hands and are very patient then go for it. but im not a fan of this one.
btw, unlike most square games that have alot of side quests, this has very few. they just take a long time to complete.