The 1st time I bought this game I didnt have room to put it on the hard drive and I have to admit I was pretty dissapointed by the graphical "pop" and the long load times. I ended up selling it on Ebay after spending a short time playing the game. Well the other day I was at Gamestop and I saw it was down to $18 so I came home and read some "positive" reviews and decided that I should give the game a second chance now that I had room to put it on my hard drive this time. Well I have to say that it was a noticable improvement from what I remember the game being like straight off the disc. After finishing the 1st disc I was absolutely blown away by how great this game is. I think I may actually like this game better than Lost Odyssey and I really enjoyed that game. The battle and party system is much better and I like that you are building an army not just a small party also the fact that there is no random battles is something I really like. Aside from the technical issue with the textures "popping" on after a few seconds the game is really detailed and has great graphics. Square really put alot of time into the cities, enviroments, monsters and characters models. There are so many little details and textures on everything if you stop to notice them it is quite impressive. I think this might be one of if not my favorite RPG ever and Ive played alot of RPGs. Even if you dont have room to put this game on the hard drive I still recommend it because it is just too good to pass up. Im really glad that some people enjoyed the game and spent the time to post positive reviews otherwise I may have missed out on this amazing game. Thats why Im giving my opinion, just incase someone out there is wondering if its worth picking up. Its a shame that more "professional" websites couldnt see past the flaws in this game and give it the praise it deserved. Gametrailers was probably one of the only accurate reviews out there when they gave it an 8 out of 10. Personally I give it a 9 so far and Im not even done yet. I hope they make another remnant game or something using this gameplay style unfortunatly the poor sales and low review score means this probably is the "Last Remnant".

Did you beaten the game?

no...Im still on disc 2. but so far Im really impressed. I am trying to do most of the sidequests and so far the game hasn't been very hard. Its definatly taking awhile to go through, I guess maybe 25-30 hrs on the 1st disc. I had a few tough bosses, like the 1st time I fought a "bird" boss....curse was killing me, then I learned to stay back and so far the rest has been pretty smooth. I like that when you go back to previous areas there are new monsters and rare ones to look for. It just has so much content that I know I will play the game a second time. Also I wasn't really focused on weather to be a dual wielding/melee type or use magic and I didnt give much consideration to who was in what party. Next time I play it I will be more focused. For example I was using a shield for awhile but recently switched to dual Dragonflys. I hope that doesnt make my character weak switching back and forth, so far no problems....I just really enjoy the game and Im so glad I bought it again.

I can help you if you like because I beaten the whole game.

"Square really put alot of time into the cities, enviroments, monsters and characters models." What a load of horseradish. The world map looks like it's come out of an 80's adventure book, and the towns haven't even been finished. They clearly couldn't be arsed with streamlining anything, and the result is a whole host of loading screens that look plain ugly. The worst thing, however, was that they couldn't even be bothered to tell you how to play the game properly. If you don't bother reading up about how to level, how to set up your unions, and how not to fight monsters, you aren't able to complete it. They obviously didn't bother testing the levelling system, either, because if they did, they would've overhauled the whole thing or just got rid of the morale bar and monster linking. That's the thing that gets me more than anything about this game. Every now and then, I go back to it, and in all fairness, I enjoy it. But then I get frustrated at how little effort they've put into the game. The levelling system doesn't even do what it should do, and they couldn't be bothered to change it, and there's none of the polish that a completed game should have.

I agree that the frequent loading screens are irratating but they havn't ruined the experience for me. I think the towns are quite detailed even though they are too small. I was refering to the textures and details they put in them, I think that part looks good. I also like the character and monster models, again the textures and details are really nice IMO, the dragons in particular are very impressive looking. I would also have to agree with you that the game doesn't really explain things very well, maybe they expected everyone to get the guide which I don't agree with.....I have been using the walkthroughs I found online, mainly IGNs and TheLast RemnantWiki, to help me with the game which has helped out alot. Im not saying the game is perfect and you are entitled to your opinion but so far I find the game to be quite enjoyable and I don't mind spending hours just wandering around hunting rare monsters and seeking out components for my party members or for weapons and accessories. It almost has an MMO feel in that regard. Right now I'm BR 65 and going through the Bases part of the game. I'm not sure how much is left but so far Im satisfied and I dont think it deserved to get such poor scores from the "pro" game reviewers and from those people who played it for an hour and decieded they didnt like it and then made a review after not really playing the game. You can tell that the people who put the time into finishing the game gave it much higher scores overall. So many people ask for something "new" and when a company gives them that they just complain about how it should have been more like previous games in the genre.

Thanks for the offer to help Outcast but I'm using the walkthroughs available online when I need help.

No problem and sorry to bother you then.

Indeed. I know I'll -love- this game when I put the time in (after all, you get out what you put in), but I'm still reeling from the fact they either -expect- you to use a guide or were too lazy to sort out a pretty big kink in the levelling system. The graphics are good, and some of the monster models were definitely impressive, but I think they definitely skimped on some areas, and a few days polishing it up could've made the pill a little less bitter for me. :)

I love the ending but I wish I can keep going after I beaten the game.

 OutcastNeedhelp wrote:

No problem and sorry to bother you then.

no problem I appreciate the offer.... Im not following those guides unless I get stuck or need to know what monster drops a certain item ect...I hope I dont lvl to high and then the game will auto lvl too much and kick my "A" lol .... the boss on the 3rd base has been tough so I went to the 6th and it seemed pretty easy...so Im going around and trying to gain some new arts and trying some different party arrangements hoping that will even the playing fiend next time I face him ^^

I put alot of the blame for the technical issues on EPIC and there Unreal 3 engine....too many games that use it have those same "texture loading/popping" issues and I think that really hurt this game when ppl first started playing it...I know I felt let down the first time I got it. But since Ive been able to put it on the HD its not so bad...reminds me of the same issue with Mass Effect, which I also enjoy...of course that game got rave reviews despite its problems which doesn't seem fair.

Dr SandyPants I here ya....I know you must like the game too seeing how you have shown so much interest in it ^^ Yeah it could have been better for sure but as it is I still enjoy it and hope they do something in the future that resembles this gameplay style (building armies instead of just parties) and smooths out some of the issues that we all had with this game. Like the way too frequent loading screen, the leveling problem, not being able to equip gear to party members, better menu's for quests information, better maps with more info on them...I could go on with the things I would like to see. I think this is a great first step and If they did get it right next time, that REALLY would be an awesome game.

Should I follow the official guide or the one wiki page?

 OutcastNeedhelp wrote:

Should I follow the official guide or the one wiki page?

I have had the Wiki page redirect me to some other webpages which I didnt care for but It seems to have the most accessable and detailed information. The IGN guide is good for the walkthrough but doesnt have the details for Sidequests and item creation. There is a good Item creation FAQ at GameFAQS that I looked at and I will probably print out eventually. Im not sure what the offical guide has or does not have but I imagine its good. Havent you beat the game already though ? are you going to start over and play it differently this time ? I know I will try again and use different weapons and arts...if I havent done It right so far then I may be starting over sooner that I planned .... so far so good....I hope

Okay thanks for the advice.

 OutcastNeedhelp wrote:

Should I follow the official guide or the one wiki page?

http://lastremnant.wikia.com/wiki/The_Last_Remnant_Wiki_-_The_Last_Remnant_Guide

Okay thanks again for your great advice everyone.

Well I just fininshed the game last night and I give it a 7.5 out of 10. I was disappointed that there is not a new game + after you finish it and wheres my achievment for beating it, oh you have to do every quest, wow... thanks SE. The main things I didnt like were of course the technical issues with loading and textures, but the fact that you can't give items to party members was a poor choice and the fact that you never really feel in control over them made battling a guessing game, I would have prefered more direct choice in what was happening. And where are the awesome cutscenes SE is known for, all of them seem to be using the in game engine and having some of those highly polished clips would have really been nice. Finally I would have to say that the game does a poor job of explaining how to play it and only after getting to the second disk did I feel I understood how to play the game. Overall I still had a great time playing it. It was a nice change from the standard JRPG formula, It lasted a long time, I'm guessing around 50 hrs, and when I was done I felt like playing it over again to see how I could improve my stratagy in making my character and unions better, which is a good thing. I really hope SE continues the series because this is a great start, with just a few changes like giving the player more choice and control over the characters, expanding the union battle system and improving the menus, maps and leveling system it could really be a great game. I would like to see the QTE's expand to multiple button presses to trigger different dodges, parries, attacks and so on, just hitting 1 button got a bit old by the end although it was good that you hit different buttons they could have made it more complex and that would have made it even better also it needed more summons, who doesn't love summoning huge monsters and machines to fight along side you, thats one of the great things about FF games, and the ones offered in this game were very limited, also the addition of mounts would have been sweet, imagine having a calvery and charging across the battlefield for some truly epic battles. Also if a character asks for an item they should say where to find it. I could think of alot of ways to improve upon the game but overall Im glad I spent the time to play it and I still recommend it.

 wwwWHITEWOLFwww wrote:

Well I just fininshed the game last night and I give it a 7.5 out of 10. I was disappointed that there is not a new game + after you finish it and wheres my achievment for beating it, oh you have to do every quest, wow... thanks SE. The main things I didnt like were of course the technical issues with loading and textures, but the fact that you can't give items to party members was a poor choice and the fact that you never really feel in control over them made battling a guessing game, I would have prefered more direct choice in what was happening. And where are the awesome cutscenes SE is known for, all of them seem to be using the in game engine and having some of those highly polished clips would have really been nice. Finally I would have to say that the game does a poor job of explaining how to play it and only after getting to the second disk did I feel I understood how to play the game. Overall I still had a great time playing it. It was a nice change from the standard JRPG formula, It lasted a long time, I'm guessing around 50 hrs, and when I was done I felt like playing it over again to see how I could improve my stratagy in making my character and unions better, which is a good thing. I really hope SE continues the series because this is a great start, with just a few changes like giving the player more choice and control over the characters, expanding the union battle system and improving the menus, maps and leveling system it could really be a great game. I would like to see the QTE's expand to multiple button presses to trigger different dodges, parries, attacks and so on, just hitting 1 button got a bit old by the end although it was good that you hit different buttons they could have made it more complex and that would have made it even better also it needed more summons, who doesn't love summoning huge monsters and machines to fight along side you, thats one of the great things about FF games, and the ones offered in this game were very limited, also the addition of mounts would have been sweet, imagine having a calvery and charging across the battlefield for some truly epic battles. Also if a character asks for an item they should say where to find it. I could think of alot of ways to improve upon the game but overall Im glad I spent the time to play it and I still recommend it.

I didn't think the game was anywhere near as good as Lost Odyssey.  As far as the actions during battle, did you ever try pressing the "X" button then switching between enemy groups?  If you do that, you can see what the characters would use for each enemy group.  Sometimes, you could use  gae bolg when attacking one group but not another.  I would always attack the group that would allow it to be used so it would devastate the battlefield.  If you haven't played Tales of Vesperia, give it a try.  It's a very good JRPG.  It easily rivals Lost Odyssey and the main character is a bad quantum singularity instead of one of these whinny emo kids like we see in The Last Remnant (and so many others).

Im glad I gave it a second chance too. The game, for some strange reason feels akin to FF3 for me.

Outstanding game.

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Semper Fi