The Last Remnant

by Square Enix

Product Features

• Voice acting choices alowing voices to be switched between Japanese and English or Japanese voices accompanied by English subtitles.
• Groundbreaking graphics and storyline that bring the intensity of gameplay to an entirely new level.
• New Turbo Mode where battles can be played out at twice the speed for faster game progression.
• No restrictions with leader units allowing for more freedom when creating unions.
• New equipment preview feature that allows equipment to be viewed before purchasing/purchased depending on stats and/or aesthetics.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001QA2TYS
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: March 24, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,617 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #82 in Video Games > PC Games > Role-Playing

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Product Description

The Last Remnant is the first installment of a new role-playing game (RPG) franchise from Square Enix. A single player adventure, now available on the PC, The Last Remnant delivers breathtaking visuals, a mysterious character-driven storyline reaching back into thousands of years of game history, a brand new combat system and massive battlefield action where you'll be surrounded by countless foes and friends alike. Quest along side Rush Sykes. View larger. Innovative Battle Union system. View larger. Battle terrifying enemies to the end. View larger. Give in to a world of magic. View larger. Track, trade & buy items. View larger. Utilize an on-screen command system. View larger. The Story: Remnants and Rush Sykes In ancient times mysterious artifacts, referred to as Remnants, were discovered all over the world. Existing in forms as diverse as gems, beasts and even weapons, they were so numerous and their power so great that the civilizations of the world sprang up around them. But as people diverted the power of these objects for their ends they eventually caused a rift in the world's balance. Now, thousands of years later that balance must be corrected, and the story of The Last Remnant begins. Rush Sykes and his sister Irina are children of scientists researching the esoteric Remnants. One day, Irina is kidnapped right before Rush's eyes. Determined to rescue his sister, Rush joins forces with David Nassau, the marquis of a small city-state called Athlum. Together they are determined to pursue the criminals and save Irina from her strange captors. Meanwhile, the world is thrust into confusion as ruling powers bicker over dividing the Remnants' powers. Soon a mysterious man appears calling himself the Conqueror. His presence escalates tensions as everyone eagerly attempts to answer the question: Into whose hands will the power of the Remnants fall? Before he knows it, Rush becomes wrapped up in this international power struggle and realizes that he is somehow connected to the enigmatic Conqueror. Combat Systems: Battle Unions, Morale and Deadlock Battles in The Last Remnant are fought between multiple friendly and enemy unions -- groups of up to five characters who fight together and share resources and goals between them. Players give commands to unions as a whole, which then carry out the actions. Orders in battle are given in a command-select style that is familiar to most role-playing gamers. However, commands in The Last Remnant are not delivered with standard terms, such as "Item" or "Magic." Instead, players control unions with specialized commands, such as "Slam 'em with status ailments!" or "Do area attacks from afar!" Available commands change depending on the current battle situation or the distance and positions of friendly and hostile unions. The Last Remnant also adds a Morale component to the gameplay. Players can check current morale via the gauge across the top of the screen. The higher the morale, the more damage is dealt and less damage is taken by friendly unions and vice-versa. When friendly and enemy unions go toe-to-toe and engage in melee combat, they enter a state called Deadlock. Once in Deadlock, the two unions must fight each other until one union has been completely destroyed. Enemy monsters roam the land where they can be avoided or engaged at will. When battle is initiated, the scene changes to a specialized battle map where friend and foe can fight it out. Horizontal lined icons labeled A, B, C, etc. represent the on-field battle unions. Players choose which hostile union they wish to attack on this screen. Players will also utilize a wide variety of commands that focus on dealing damage or executing defensive maneuvers. Knowing which commands are most suitable for each situation is the key to winning battles. Key Game Features: Experience groundbreaking graphics, that bring the intensity of gameplay to an entirely new level. Uncover the mystery of the Remnants, powerful artifacts from an ancient civilization that are scattered around the world and stand as they were a millennia ago. Navigate a massive battlefield while surrounded by countless foes and friends. Immerse yourself in exhilarating, large-scale battles through a never-before-seen 'union-based' battle command system. New features exclusive to the PC game version. Turbo Mode – Battles can be played out at twice the speed for faster game progression. No restrictions with leader units – enjoy more freedom when creating unions. New equipment preview feature – equipment can now be viewed before purchasing, purchase depending on stats and/or aesthetics. Your choice of voice acting – voices can be switched between Japanese and English. Japanese voices are accompanied by English subtitles. Compatible with the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows. System Requirements: Minimum Specifications: Recommended Specifications: OS: Windows XP SP2/Windows Vista SP1 Windows Vista SP1 Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (2GHz) AMD Athlon X2 (2GHz) Intel Core 2 Duo (2.4GHz) AMD Athlon X2 (2.4GHz) RAM: 1.5GB 2GB HDD: 15GB 15GB Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600VRAM 256 MB or better NVIDIA GeForce 8800VRAM 512 MB or better Sound: 100% DirectSound compatible sound card (DirectX 9.0c or higher) 100% DirectSound compatible sound card (DirectX 9.0c or higher) DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual layer drive DVD-ROM dual layer drive Network: Broadband Internet connection Broadband Internet connection Display: 1024x768 32 bit 1280x720 32 bit DirectX: DirectX 9.0c DirectX 10 (OS default) Input: Mouse, Keyboard Mouse, Keyboard, Xbox 360 Controller for Windows

Product Description

Square Enix brings the brand-new RPG experience known as The Last Remnant to the PC! An enthralling story, countless chracters, and an intricate battle system! Experience groundbreaking graphics, only possible on next-generation platforms, that bring the intensity of gameplay to an entirely new level. Uncover the mystery of the Remnants, powerful artifacts from an ancient civilization that are scattered around the world and stand as they were a millennia ago. Navigate a massive battlefield while surrounded by countless foes and friends.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Game - Especially When Tweaked, January 10, 2010

By 

Daniel Bronson "Dan The Man" (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: The Last Remnant (DVD-ROM)

Overall I enjoyed this game greatly, especially after tweaking it...

PROS:
- The Last Remnant looks GREAT on a high end PC (circa 2008) and plays very smoothly.
- Awesome movie sequences.
- The gameplay can be addictive. If you enjoy leveling in an RPG, you'll find tons of that here (every stat levels as you fight).
- HUGE party size, you've probably never played an RPG with this many NPCs that can join you (there are over 40 of them that are 'unique leaders' and countless others)
- A massive number of quests (especially optional sidequests).
- Battles require some strategy (trying to win every battle with the same formation and attacks will not succeed).
- It's just FUN - between the slick animations and the strategy, these large scale battles are a lot of fun to watch and to play.

CONS (reasons it's not 5 stars):
- The addictive gameplay becomes repetitive gameplay at times.
- Certain game design decisions require you to repeatedly visit an area, just to spawn a special monster (with a random appearance chance), this can be very tedious for those that try to complete 100% of the games sidequests.

CONS YOU CAN REMOVE:
- You cannot equip your NPCs, only your main character (Rush) has editable inventory, but with a change of a line of code in a config file, all characters can be equipped as you see fit.
- With the right trainer (look for a "C# Last Remnant Trainer" on the web) you can change your BR level (which you should read about on the wiki [see below] before you go leveling your party excessively) along with MANY other factors - so the game will not become too difficult nor easy. That's why this game on the PC, when tweaked, can be a LOT of fun.
- Instead of spending hours looking for arcane components to upgrade a weapon, you can use the same trainer mentioned earlier to spawn the weapon automatically in your inventory. If you think this is cheating then don't do it, but if you have better things to do with your time, the PC version of this game is sufficiently editable that you can do JUST the things you want to do with this game.
- Party cap size! Your total party size is capped well below the 40 unique leaders that can join you - and that's just the leader characters! So, again, use the trainer to open up the party size. I use 7 unions of 5 characters each - giving me 35 characters to play with and equip...it is GREAT.

OTHER INFO:
- If you try to beat the entire game (and do all the sidequests, get all NPC bonus parameters, etc..it will be WELL over 100 hours of gameplay). For some people this is just too long a game - especially when aspects are repetitive, but others will love the lengthy campaign (which people claim you can beat in 10 hours if you just burn through the main story - I would never do that though as gaining power in the sidequests is half the fun).

I had fun playing with a gamepad (I used the Logitech Rumblepad 2), and using the original Japanese voices (with subtitles turned on) rather than the English audio - I suggest you try it this way too.

NOTE:

Search the web for "Last Remnant Wiki" and you'll find a comprehensive site that will remove all the questions about what is unlocked where, when to visit certain areas, and - most importantly - when some quests become inaccessible (you need to complete them before certain plot points happen, or you'll never be able to do them again). This game is not that logical, items and events can become accessible or inaccessible without a lot of warning - if you constantly revisited old areas then this probably wouldn't be an issue, but when the map becomes massive you're less likely to do this. Generally speaking you're better off heading to this wiki whenever you are stuck OR you sense a major plot transition is about to happen. The game does give you a heads up when something major is about to happen.

I would recommend this game strongly if you're into PC RPG's, you like having lots of party members to chose from, and you have a (in 2008 or later terms) high end PC. If you have the patience to learn about it and edit the game as you see fit, you're in for a real treat.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous!, April 20, 2009

By 

Colin Todd Smith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: The Last Remnant (DVD-ROM)

Do yourself a favor and get this on PC. The visuals are absolutely enchanting. Works well with a gamepad or even a 360 controller with PC adapter, if you have one. I play it on my tv whilst sitting on the couch-just as I would, if playing it on the 360. The only difference is the graphics are much much inproved. The textures are very detailed technically and artisticly.
Story-wise the game seems pretty generic. The main kid, is the exact same kid from phantasy star universe and a dozen other JRPGs. The races the game has are very well done asthetically, but bland on personality. Gameplay wise its well done the combat is fast, entertaining as well as challenging.

All in all a respectable JRPG with very pretty graphics.

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best rpg SE has made in a while, by a large margin., April 1, 2009

By 

Old School Gamer "What the hell's a gigawatt!?!" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: The Last Remnant (DVD-ROM)

The Last Remnant is meant to be the new forerunner franchise for Square-Enix(most likelly taken FF's crown once the XIII series of games is concluded, but only in theory...) and it gets off to one hell of a start. A lot of people neglected giving this game a chance on the 360 because it had rampent lag issues and texture pop-in throughout the entire game. This does take away from the game somewhat, but with that out the way now, there is nothign preventing this version from making it a strong 9.5 rpg title.

It is heavy on story(even if it gets off to a somewhat slow start) and indeed establishes an interesting universe and premise that SE can easily expand upon in future titles. The whole jist of the game itself is to start to reintroduce the tried-and-true turn-based combat style while also making it appear to be as close to real-time as humanly possible. They do a steller job of creating the most deep and interesting battle system seen in an rpg in a long while. It can involve as many as a couple hundred enemies at points and some battle easily span 30 minutes to an hour of gameplay and, yet, you never get bored. The music plays a large part as it is a huge part of the appeal for me. It is very much like a cross between Final Fantasy symphonics and Castlevania-esque japanese, guitar-laiden, metal riffage that is done with such a perfect flair for the overall feel of the combat. Once you understand the system well enough, you can easily get absorbed in the battles more than almost any rpg I've ever played.

The characters are all interesting enough and well developed as well, including the main hero. Of late, SE seems to have pretty-boyed the protaginists in most of their next-gen rpgs and it has not gone over very well.

The graphics are nothign short of incredible on the pc. They were great on 360, but you still can't compare console power to an upgraded pc capable of playing the best games on ultra high. Check out the demo for the game first and I'm sure you will be as blown away as I was. Watching the various races move during even simple dailogue exchanges looks like a movie. The movement is beyond fluid and, when you couple that with the amazing art of the FF veteren artists, it just jumps off the monitor. The world itself is very imaginative and vast and definatelly geared towards the scope of the universe itself. It's one of the few games where I've really felt enthralled by the world and as much a part of it as any of the people within it.

The lag issues are gone, simple as that. They no longer exist and what might have taken 2 hours on the 360 now can be done in half the time thanks to that. The texture pop-in is simply a result of the engine and still comes in here or there, but it doesn't detract from the overall experience of the game itself. If you're one to define value of a game by something like that, then I don't think you're playing for the right reasons anyways.

I was hoping they would release this next for the PS3 with additional content, as well as the bug fixes, but it's looking less and less likelly so I picked this up rather than wait. I'm going to say this once and only once: IF you are any kind of rpg lover and are looking for a console style rpg that has a great story, severe polish in the graphics, a massive world full of depth, and a combat system you have never played before, then you need look no further than this game. I strongly urge the past, present, and any future fans of Squaresoft rpgs to buy this version of Last Remnant and enjoy one of the 3 best rpgs I've played in the past 2 years.

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