The Last Remnant

"A Magnificent 360 RPG"

The Xbox 360 is flawed by having relatively few RPGs considering how long it has been out so far. There are some gems like Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesparia. There are also some that you feel you have to push yourself to keep playing such as Enchanted Arms. The Last Remnant definitely received harsh criticism, but is it well-founded? Let's see.

Sound- 8/10
The music is certainly not on par with wonderful tracks from the likes of Chrono Trigger or Wild Arms, it is however good to listen to. I often find myself not even listening to music in games anymore. The Last Remnant, however, had a set that had me actually turning my TV up to hear the music in its detail. Voice acting was also very well done in this game. When voice acting was first making an appearance it was almost preferable to have a mute option in the game, but there is no need for that here.

Graphics- 8/10
Some did not think the graphics good in this game. I, on the other hand, found them to be absolutely stunning. You cannot walk into a new city without taking a moment just to survey the landscape around you. Some remnants in this game were gorgeously designed. Of course there was an issue with texturing here and there, but if you install the disc to your hard drive it is hardly noticeable. The character designs were great, even the bad guys. Let's face it, it is hard to enjoy a game if you don't think the bad guy looks somewhat menacing. The races all looked well-designed.

Gameplay- 9/10
The battle system was very unique in The Last Remnant. You were issuing orders to groups instead of individual people. It took a certain amount of control away from you. It sometimes handicapped you because the option to heal didn't come up. But the battles were always enjoyable. They were somewhat long at times, but still never boring. Part of the challenge was to keep your Battle Rank from getting too high without powering stats at the same time. To achieve this you often had to avoid some battles which was a shame because they were so enjoyable.

Story- 9/10
This is probably the most important part of a game to me. It's nice for a game to have good graphics but if the story is bad, it is worthless. As mentioned before, the antagonists of the game are very well done. The overall plot is almost cliched at this point: some person is starting a war that sweeps across the world; your small band of heroes is the only group that can save it; etc. etc.
Although it is cliched, it was still interesting to play through the story. It was very engrossing and never seemed overdone.

Value- 10/10
Often not a category of a review but this game has replay value. There are sidequests that can keep a person playing for many extra hours. I always base a purchase of a game on $1/hour. If I pay $60, I want 60 hours. This game is about $40 new right now, and it easily has 40 hours of gameplay.

Overall, the game had few flaws. The biggest being texturing, but that can be nearly overcome by installing the game to your hard drive. This is one of the best RPG games I've played on the 360 to date and should not be overlooked due to some bad reviews.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/17/09

Game Release: The Last Remnant (US, 11/20/08)