New Last Remnant details and screens

[EddieA]

IGN has some new details and screens for Square Enix's upcoming RPG The Last Remnant.  The game is looking really good, and it's also different enough from their other RPG series to stand out.  It also features my favorite RPG battle mechanic - timed button presses.  It's right up there with Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, and the FF13s as my most anticipated games.

[metallicorphan]

that last screen looks great but i am still not sure about this,i heard it was gonna be like dynasty warriors with RPG elements.

[CeeKay]

i heard it was gonna be like dynasty warriors with RPG elements.

too bad they couldn't make it an action RPG like Rogue Planet.

[kronovan]

i heard it was gonna be like dynasty warriors with RPG elements.

too bad they couldn't make it an action RPG like Rogue Planet.

Huh...but wouldn't Dynasty Warriors with good RPG elements be an action-rpg?

Personally I think the game looks very promising and I hope I have a 360 by the time it hits store shelves. This is afterall a Square-Enix game.

[EddieA]

The only thing it shares with Dyansty Warriors is the epic scale of the battles.  The combat is turn-based with timed-button presses while your characters attack.  Other than that, it's a full-scale RPG, with a world that seems a lot like Final Fantasy 12's Ivalice.

[metallicorphan]

The only thing it shares with Dyansty Warriors is the epic scale of the battles.  The combat is turn-based with timed-button presses while your characters attack.  Other than that, it's a full-scale RPG, with a world that seems a lot like Final Fantasy 12's Ivalice.

that doesnt sound any better,...timed button presses...anyway,hopefully nearer to the date will persuade me otherwise

[Kevin Grey]

that doesnt sound any better,...timed button presses...anyway,hopefully nearer to the date will persuade me otherwise

Timed button presses worked wonderfully in Shadow Hearts and Paper Mario- hopefully the same will apply here. 

[EddieA]

According to the article, it's more God of War-style button presses than Shadow Hearts or Paper Mario.

[Farscry]

According to the article, it's more God of War-style button presses than Shadow Hearts or Paper Mario.

So it's basically an RPG version of Simon?

[CeeKay]

i heard it was gonna be like dynasty warriors with RPG elements.

too bad they couldn't make it an action RPG like Rogue Planet.

Huh...but wouldn't Dynasty Warriors with good RPG elements be an action-rpg?

Personally I think the game looks very promising and I hope I have a 360 by the time it hits store shelves. This is afterall a Square-Enix game.

well, it would be without the massive combats.

[Turtle]

Timed button presses, to me, seem like a cop out way for developers to insert interactivity into the game.

It's basically the RPG world's equivalent of a slot machine.

[metallicorphan]

According to the article, it's more God of War-style button presses than Shadow Hearts or Paper Mario.

So it's basically an RPG version of Simon?

OH
MY
GOD!!

i used to have a SIMON...but it didnt look as flashy as that(see below),and we are talking early 80s...



sorry guys,you can go back on topic now

[EddieA]

God of War-style timed button press events (or whatever you want to call them) are my favorite new game mechanic in a long time.  They allow you to do great-looking, unique manuevers without overcomplicating the control scheme.  Kingdom Hearts 2 has something similar, and it makes the battles much more fun than they were in the first game.

Also, IGN has the first trailer for Last Remnant here.

[metallicorphan]

God of War-style timed button press events (or whatever you want to call them) are my favorite new game mechanic in a long time.  They allow you to do great-looking, unique manuevers without overcomplicating the control scheme.  Kingdom Hearts 2 has something similar, and it makes the battles much more fun than they were in the first game.

Also, IGN has the first trailer for Last Remnant here.

just watched the trailer...i thought this game was 360 only?

[EddieA]

It's for PS3 and 360.

[Turtle]

It may be the latest thing, but it's still kind of sloppy game design when you think about it.  All it's doing is going back to the old style games like Dragon's Lair, except this time you have big on screen prompts for what you need to press.

[EddieA]

Worthplaying has a bunch of new screenshots here.

[Misguided]

It may be the latest thing, but it's still kind of sloppy game design when you think about it.  All it's doing is going back to the old style games like Dragon's Lair, except this time you have big on screen prompts for what you need to press.

I'm not a big fan of timed button presses, but I played the game on Tuesday and it didn't bother me.

Combat is really unusual, I haven't played anything quite like it,
and I didn't really get what was going on until I was almost done
with the boss battle I was engaged in.

You don't control individual characters. You control groups of
characters called unions. At the start of each combat phase
you will choose a battle strategy that will dictate what each
member of the union will do. So as an example, you might
have 3 people in a union, and choosing a basic attack command
would cause all three to attack the target you designate while
choosing a "keep my butt alive" command might have two on
the offensive while the third heals the union. There's a button
you can press to view what each member of the union will be doing
so you can tell what the commands will do.

Hope you're ready to do a lot of watching. If it weren't for those
timed presses, you'd be sitting there watching combat animate
for literally minutes at a time with nothing to do but watch.
The length of time it takes for turns to play out prompted me to
ask the woman showing it to us what the encounter rate was like
but she didn't know. Interestingly, the button presses come at irregular intervals,
and sometimes very quickly on top of each other. the S-E rep
indicated that success increases the chance of another try.

There were some other things at play, such as getting flanked
by enemies and "interference" where your union is trying to
attack a target and another combatant intercedes. There's also
a state called "deadlocked" where you are involved in a fight already
when a round begins. Being deadlocked means you can't change targets.
I'm not real crazy about this idea as it puts some tactical limits on you.
You CAN break a deadlock, but it leaves a large opening for your foe.

Another oddity, and I'm honestly not sure I completely understood this,
but it appears as if not every combat command is available every round.
So, it's possible you may not have the option to use the command you want
at a given point in a fight. I'm not at all clear on what determines this.
It might be certain commands can't be used repeatedly or it might be
something else entirely, I'm not sure.

The game looks really good, as you'd expect from Square. The camera
does jump around a lot to different perspectives during combat which was
disorienting (not in a dizzy way) in terms of trying to figure out what was happening
(I should mention there were 15-20 combatants). The game looks to me
like there is going to be strategy to the combat beyond pick a target, pick an
attack, which is a goodthing(TM) as far as I'm concerned.

If anyone has questions, I'll try to answer, but I think I've told you most
of what I know.

[Kevin Grey]

Thanks for the writeup!  Certainly sounds interesting and unique, perhaps like FF12 though the gambit system of the latter gave extraordinary capability to customize your strategy.  Did they indicate whether Last Remnant would have ability to customize or build those battle commands? 

[Misguided]

I didn't get that impression, but I don't know.
Moreover, I don't think the person I spoke with could have told me.
I was actually think about that in the sense of character development.
Normally in an RPG you unlock new skills and such. Perhaps here you
unlock new battle strategies instead?

[EddieA]

IGN has some new details about the game and a ton of new screenshots.

[Misguided]

That's interesting. See at the bottom of the one screen where it says "Lockup"?
I'm presuming that's the same as what I had seen previously as "Deadlocked".

[EddieA]

I think it's just the localization, as all the screens I've seen that say Lockup have been of the Japanese version, while the one I saw that said Deadlock was from the English version.

[EddieA]

I'm not sure how long it will last, but Amazon has TLR available for preorder for $39.99.

[Qantaga]

I'm not sure how long it will last, but Amazon has TLR available for preorder for $39.99.

   
Good catch EddieA! I was probably going to get it close to release day anyway, but for $40, I jumped on the pre-order.

[MonkeyFinger]

As did I... thanks for the heads up. 

[metallicorphan]

Eurogamer gave it a 6/10...says it has avery slow start,too many loading screens,noticable pop up,bad cameras..they only have one or two good things to say about the title

after loving Infinite Undiscovery,i was still so-so about this...i think only the forum effect can make me get this...but when its cheaper

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=314710


so,er yeah i am asking for impressions from you if you got it,and whether you agree with that Eurogamer review

[Qantaga]

I was notified that my Amazon order (the $40 pre-order special that EddieA found) shipped yesterday. With the Thanksgiving holidays coming up, it may still be a week or so before I get it. The reviews have been a bit lukewarm (GameInformer gives it 7/10 in their latest issue), but I remain hopeful. I'll give some impressions when the game arrives.

[Kevin Grey]

It sounds like a technical nightmare- awful framerate, horrible texture streaming, long load times, etc.  But the core gameplay sounds like it's really good and different so I'm going to wait for the PC version and hope that sufficient horsepower can eliminate a lot of the tech issues. 

[EddieA]

I'm not sure what to think.  Comments regarding the frame rate vary from Gamespot's "abysmal frame-rate problems" to TeamXBox's "The frame rate is a bit rough when multiple unions...take to the battlefield".  Comments at the GameFAQs forums seem to indicate that the frame-rate is not nearly as bad as the Gamespot review says, especially if you install to the hard drive.  Other than the performance problems, Gamespot's review is very positive, with the "The Good" listed as "A long, epic tale in a fascinating new fantasy world, Fun, uniquely strategic battle system, Gorgeous musical score, and Beautiful art design."  My preorder copy from Amazon just shipped, so hopefully I'll get it early next week.

[jersoc]

I was going to cancel my preorder with amazon after hearing all the tech problems. Maybe i'll keep it since it shipped but I dont know. IU had slow downs too using the same engine, but that didnt really hurt the gameplay and that was real time. this game is turn based battles. By the time it comes there should be more impressions to make a better decision.

[Turtle]

Wow, Japanese developers really are still learning how to use middleware.  I heard they just don't have any concept of it over there.

And, if it's this bad on the 360, hoo boy I'm glad the PS3 and PC version was held back.

[jersoc]

And, if it's this bad on the 360, hoo boy I'm glad the PS3 and PC version was held back.

Yeah, cause MS paid for it. I doubt the ps3 version will be any better.

[StitchJones]

Well I'm about 4 hours into the game and I like the combat system so far, it different and you can tell i can get pretty deep.  On the framerate side, it is a MUST that you install the game to your hard drive.  I first tried playing without doing so and it was a technical nightmare, just choppy as hell.  I immediately went back and installed the game and it actually runs pretty smooth now.  I haven't come to a huge battle yet so maybe there will be slowdown there, but after the install the game runs just fine so far.

[Kevin Grey]

I was going to cancel my preorder with amazon after hearing all the tech problems. Maybe i'll keep it since it shipped but I dont know. IU had slow downs too using the same engine, but that didnt really hurt the gameplay and that was real time. this game is turn based battles. By the time it comes there should be more impressions to make a better decision.

Different engines- Last Remant is Unreal Engine 3 and IU (and SO4) are internally developed engines from Tri-Ace. 

And, if it's this bad on the 360, hoo boy I'm glad the PS3 and PC version was held back.

Yeah, cause MS paid for it. I doubt the ps3 version will be any better.

I think that was his point- PS3 typically has worse performance, especially with Unreal 3, so it would have been even worse if they had tried for simultaneous release.

[Qantaga]

On the framerate side, it is a MUST that you install the game to your hard drive. 

   
I'm still a 360 newb. I do have the new Xbox Live Dashboard/Experience installed. How would I go about installing the game to the hard drive? I didn't really see an option under the "My Xbox" area.

[Tebunker]

On the framerate side, it is a MUST that you install the game to your hard drive. 

   
I'm still a 360 newb. I do have the new Xbox Live Dashboard/Experience installed. How would I go about installing the game to the hard drive? I didn't really see an option under the "My Xbox" area.

When you have the game in the drive at the My Xbox area you can bring up an options screen with the Y button, and install from there.


Also, Stitch, keep us updated. I am still interesting in this one because the back story seemed interesting.

[Qantaga]

Thanks Tebunker!

[StitchJones]

Well my initial impressions have not changed with another 6 hours in the game.  It's all about the gameplay.  The graphics are good, but not earth shattering, and the story is your standard stuff so far.  What makes this worth purchasing is the depth of the gameplay, from having unions (multiple parties), to putting them in formations, to recruiting or finding leaders to join your party.  The battle itself has a fair amount of strategy to it and seems like it can get pretty epic.  I'll keep you guys posted, the deeper I get into the game.

[shon]

Well after much debate about whether I should open The Last Remnant or not with all the stories of horrible framerate issues I went ahead and cracked the seal.

I played for about an hour and a half and it is not that bad, and  I did install the game on my hard drive.  The graphics are okay with some pop-in.  The animations are okay but I really don't like the way the characters walk
it doesn't seem natural at all.  The combat animations are pretty cool but it does get a little hectic and sometimes I wasn't sure who was attacking. The timed button presses are varied with different buttons and different
timing,  I did have one instance where some slowdown caused me to miss one of these so we'll see about later fights.

The combat does take some time to gel, but I think I have the basics figured out and I can see there is going to be quite a bit of strategy to the fights.  One thing is that if you see enemies on the field you have to press the RT when you are close and that will let you fight that enemy or a group of enemies before they touch you or they gain the advantage and you have to be careful that enemies behind you don't run up before the effect of the RT takes control. 


The story is okay there are some moments of bad dialog but it should get better with time.