By Jeremy Azevedo

There really isn’t any shortage of RPGs to choose from this season, with new titles flooding the 360, Wii, DS and the PS3. But if you can only make room for one more after Fallout 3 and Fable 2, The Last Remnant should be the one.

The Last Remnant is just about the best-looking RPG I have ever played. Square-Enix employed the Unreal Engine 3 to construct visuals on par with the best that the 360 has to offer. This comes at a cost, when the machine struggles to keep up the frame rate or takes a full minute to load the next area anytime you go anywhere, but it’s a minor hindrance, really. The characters look great, whole armies are present at any given time, and the controls work perfectly.



The Last Remnant cans the usual “plucky, orphaned teen hero experiencing an existential crises” bullshit and instead focuses on a wider reaching plot centered on ancient and unknowable technology, politics, cold war and military operations. There are no labored love interests or children, and though your main character is a teenager technically, he is also quite different than what you would expect, as he is a total dick.

Throughout much of the games opening, you fight alongside Marquis David Nassau (whom your character refers to as “Dave”, enraging the members of his cabinet) and the four generals of Athlum. The four generals, who are representatives of the four prevailing races (giant fish-men, four armed cat people, Yoda-like frog dudes and humans), are all great characters that you will enjoy fighting alongside. Even better, you don’t even have to micromanage all their stats and equipment. Since they come and o so frequently, Square-Enix wisely decided to have them take care of themselves, merely requesting items from defeated enemies from time to time which they then use to upgrade their equipment. Awesome.

The real selling point of The Last Remnant, though, is the combat. In this game, every minor skirmish feels like the final battle in some other, lesser game. You issue commands to your generals, ranging from regular attacks, combat and mystical attacks, special moves and healing arts. They then lead their entourage of troops against the enemy, strategically flanking them and crushing their moral before utterly destroying them, taking captives and divvying up their loot. Every battle plays out differently, and a rocking heavy metal shredding soundtrack pumps it up. During skirmishes, quick-time button presses allow for greater criticals, keeping you focused on the fight. I found myself going around hunting enemies on purpose, fighting as many at a time as I could, just to see if I could survive. The challenge is as high as you like it to be, as you can attack single enemies or groups all at once, though the rewards are much better for braver combatants.



In between battles, you can take sidequests at the pub, hire mercenaries (most of which are way cool) and upgrade your gear using monster parts from the field. The towns are beautifully rendered, and the dialogue is surprisingly sharp and well acted. Again, micro-management is not really necessary, though, as you can generally compensate for lack of preparation by making smart decisions on the battlefield.

If you like JRPGs, but are really looking for something new that is easy to pick up (despite the deceptively complicated appearance) and refreshingly deep in story and character, you could do a lot worse than The Last Remnant.

CraveOnline Score: 8.5 out of 10
1 if you really liked any of the politically charged Suikoden titles and/or the large scale combat of Dragon Force (the Sega Saturn game, not the band)
-1 if you like having more direct control over your units, as in a more traditional RTS game (i.e. you are a huge nerd)