Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PS4, Switch
Tested on: Switch
The Last Remnant Remastered – Review
The Last Remnant was released way back in 2008 (2009 in Europe and America) and is probably one of Square Enix’s more obscure and unknown titles. The game, while certainly being interesting for its generation, never saw a sequel or other entries, slowly fading out of the picture of many gamers. We were actually surprised to see a remastered version of the game hit the Switch after moderate success on PlayStation 4 back in December of 2018. Nonetheless, we were quite happy to revisit this nearly forgotten title and try it out on the go.
Story
The story starts off with Rush Sykes his sister, Irina, being kidnapped. His parents are big-shot scientists who research ‘Remnants’, which are powerful artifacts of which the powers and origins are often unknown. Probably for this reason your sister has a mark on her head. During your travels to find her, you come across David Nassau, who rules Athlum, one of the bigger cities in the world. You’ll come across a lot more than you bargained for, going from one epic battle to another, all while trying to save your sister.
Overall, the story is a bit vague and feels like a placeholder for the actual story which never truly gets kick-started. The introduction to the game is lengthy and it does take a lot of time before things finally take off. Nonetheless, what’s there is decent, but it feels like it barely scratches the surface to actually captivate you for hours on end.
Graphics
Graphically, The Last Remnant Remastered is a mixed batch. We can see the upgrade in quality compared to the original version, but animations are somewhat blocky and still resemble the quality of a game that was released during the days of the Xbox 360. The textures have been updated and some of the rough edges have been removed, making it look like a decent title on the Switch, especially during the roaming sections of the game and the lengthy and ever-present cutscenes. The combat looks as impressive as it is appalling. The battles look impressive, thanks to the presence of the many characters your party can consist of and the many enemies that can obstruct your path to victory. Sadly, at the same time, the combat has a lot of rough edges, and especially when zoomed out you can pretty much count the pixels on your screen. Overall, we have to say that the game looks decent, and it has a lot of redeeming qualities, but it still gives you a very dated vibe at times.
Sound
Like the graphical department of the game, the sound design does have some demerits. The music the game has to offer is rather theatrical and certainly sets the tone. The battle theme will get you in the proper mood and the rest of the supporting soundtrack is certainly well-created. The voice acting, however, feels bland and uninspired, and very dated. You’ll constantly have dialogues that have gigantic pauses after each line of a character and when another character supposedly has to respond to the other character talking. It feels more like watching a PlayStation 1 title unfold itself than a next-gen title on the Nintendo Switch. It’s not that the actors do a bad job, it’s just not properly timed and feels like something you can’t get away with in games anymore. Also, Rush is probably one of the most annoying characters to be the lead in a JRPG game with such a long storyline.
Gameplay
The Last Remnant Remastered is a typical JRPG with a few quirks in terms of leveling and combat system. You’ll spend your time going from one location to another, finishing quests, talking to NPCs and getting stronger as you go. The game isn’t always that clear on where you have to go next, but exploring often does the trick. The areas in the game are enclosed, which means there is often not that much space to cover when taking a look at new areas.
You’ll notice that the combat system follows a typical turn-based system, but your party members are actually small formations of troops. You’ll take on mobs, which also consist of different small groups, meaning the battles look a lot more impressive than in other JRPG titles. You can opt for different tactics to stop attacks in their tracks, to intervene with groups attack other party members and so on. This also means that enemy groups can do the same. Sadly, the entire combat system is cluttered with a lot of unclear battle options where you don’t actually know what skills or attacks your party members will use. The latter makes the combat feel a bit bland and you could just put it on auto-battle and what how it unfolds, as it feels like you hardly have any influence on what the hell is going on.
Outside of the combat and the exploring, you’ll fill your time creating parties and leveling up, while the latter isn’t all too clear how everything works. After combat, you’ll often get the message that a skill has been improved, or HP or another stat, which is certainly nice, but it’s quite hard to know what to expect and when.
Conclusion
As mentioned before, The Last Remnant Remastered is one of those titles that are quite obscure and actually also very hard to properly grade. The overall concept is actually quite flawless, with large scale battles, an impressive world, and a very interesting storyline, but the execution of all these items is somewhat lacking in quality. You’ll find yourself thrown into a very slow combat system, without proper depth, outside of the party creation mechanics, and into a story that just feels horrible at times due to the dated dialogues thrown into the mix. If you’re looking for a unique JRPG experience, then we can easily suggest this title for its quirks, but if you’re easily upset by endless grinding with very basic mechanics and awful voice acting for the duration of a very long story, then this one might not suit your fancy.
The Last Remnant Remastered - Review,
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