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The Last Remnant: Life at 12 frames a second is a beautiful thing.
Yes, it's actually a non-FF/DQ game from Square. Who woulda thought.
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It sounds good, but I'm open for any and all next-gen RPGs on the horizon. |
The fact that it's by Square-Enix is pretty much enough to put me off it. I'm interested in RPGs, and I will admit that Square-Enix are among the most technically acomplished RPG developers, but I'm more than happy to play less polished games if the story and characters are interesting. That's something that (for me) Square Enix just haven't delivered at all, since the PS1.
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This sounds very interesting. Got any links to pictures of the game?
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No pictures yet. The magazine isn't out yet, so I don't know if there even are pics, or they just aren't available.
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Sounds cool (and different) at first glance, but 3 seconds later, it sounds like a totally lame idea. |
Ditto the Skepticism, though I am surprised they're actually trying something new.
Still, I like to know what happened with Chrono, they instead went ahead with a new Mana and look how well that turned out... Though making something completly new might make them realise what it takes to make a great game... |
So is this a 360/PS3 game then I take it? Pretty sweet.
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I dunno . . . . They're talking about using marketing demographics as the main inspiration for the game's lead characters as if it's something we should be excited about. Besides, isn't that what most RPGs do? Usually we get at least six different marketing stereotypes, though.
That's it -- this game will be the worst thing to have ever existed, without a doubt. I will probably buy it if it has a decent story and not too many action elements. |
This all prob stemmed from the fact that Vaan looked girly in FF12, so they feel the need to remedy that and reaasure people or something.
I swear if Nomura leaves, its the end of Square untill I see some competance in their game making or marketting in games OTHER than Nomura's works. The more I think about the two main characters the more contrived it sounds. |
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Well so far it LOOKS good, but then again I expect no less from Square in terms of visual eye candy. Thanks kainlightwind!
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From what I heard Dawn of Mana wasn't that great, at least from importers. And there's a lack of 2 player which I believe was in almost every Mana game.
And yeah, the pacing was crap in KH2,(though Final Mix fixed a number of problems I had with the new scenes) but I don't think the story was crap. The difficulty was too easy, but now that I got Final Mix, I went back to proud anyway cause critical is torture. And like you said, at least its fun. FF12 was very dull to me, and aside from KH there wasn't any recent Square release that was really solid , (aside from Enix games like VP2). And then before this was announced, all I see in Squares upcoming lists is a whole bunch of FFs, and FF1 and 2 were being re released over and over and over again. Advent Children is a mix bag, there was no way to tell a a story that measures up the original in less than 2 hours, but the CG and animation is sleek. Yet the pacing still had issues. But overall I was more entertained than FF12. Its all our own opinion, But looking at the insame succeess of KH, you have to admit that losing Nomura will have a pretty big impact. |
I played Dawn of Mana and I enjoyed it, but than again, Mana games have always pleased me (I'm a sucker for pretty looking games).
Agreed, Nomura has a huge impact on the company, but that doesn't mean that he's the only good thing going on at SE. I also agree that SE is really going a bit overboard with milking everything FF-related and the endless re-releases, but what else would you do with your most successful franchise? FFXII was a huge succes, and Revenant Wings also looks to become a big hit (at least with the promotion and that damn prelude tune playing on every corner in Osaka). Maybe I'm just a bit biased since I've never really been a fan of Nomura and his art, but I still think people worship him a bit too much for all his flaws. |
I wouldn't say I worship him, seeing as I did point out flaws that I didn't like. But he seems to be the only one that's creating solid products and no major hiccups. FF12 was a very troubled production from various sources. Whatever trouble they had with KH was probably minimal enough to not cause a big fuss over.
Resi Evil, MGS, Silent Hill and alot of other franchises are successful, but I don't see their upcoming lists with 20 ish titles all under the same franchise and name. And while its refreshing to finally see something new and original, the whole seperate demographic main characters just sounds so bleh, like they're trying to hard to PROVE something. "We CAN make awesome MAIN characters that are as manly and cool like Solid Snake!! ....................... REALLY! We swear!" And who likes try hards and wannabes? All I ask is for Square to not sound incompetant with their game concepts. I mean first is the mikling of the 10 or more FFs, and now its a "we're trying to be pleasing to both very different demographics" strategy. I'm not saying its easy, but its also not impossible to create ONE character that appears to BOTH demographics. You just need hard work and TALENT Square! Making two characters seem like the lazy and cowards way out of creating one that is well developed enough to be memorable. |
I like how their global marketing strategy includes Japan and America and leaves out Europe. This'll probably sneak out 7 months later here, if at all coz, you know, we only play football games and Tomb Raider in Europe.
At least they're trying something new although just from looking at the screenshots one wonders how much innovation there's actually going to be in there. For now at least, something like Mass Effect looks like a much more exciting proposition. |
Looks like Final Fantasy, Nomura is a joke, I'm holding out any actual judgment until we see story notes.
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I was already annoyed from reading that they assumed Americans would like "The Conqueror" while Japanese would prefer Rush Sykes. They could have easily made one or the other recruitable at some point afterwards and each character would have a fanbase regardless.
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Square games might not be all-around masterpieces nowadays, but I always enjoy playing them. And they get real close in many aspects a lot of the time. DQ8 and FF12 were both very enjoyable, and the novelty of KH and KH2, despite story/plotline etc. issues, made it fun as well. I'm sure I'll buy into this one and enjoy it, though my expectations on plot won't be very high.
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I really hate the mark Nomura has left on the Final Fantasy franchise (not to mention many other lesser Square games he's designed characters for...Can someone say "pallette swap"?) and I didn't enjoy the first Kingdom Hearts at all (so naturally, I didn't pay any attention to the sequel). I think Square has been downright awful for a long time now, but I don't think it's solely on Nomura's shoulders...That whole company has issues from the ground up right now. I do think he has been given too much control of their most important projects. What bugs me is...Why are the two guys who basically made Final Fantasy working at another company (Sakaguchi/Uematsu), while those that remain at Square whore the living fuck out of it? So yeah...The Square side of SE is pretty "meh" these days. |
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They do this even though they'll wind up pumping out formulaic titles that makes a small niche avoid their titles. Quote:
BTW, I like how you mentioned Sakaguchi and Uematsu seeing as how both have been meh for a good while now. |
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Sakaguchi specifically didn't have much too do with many Square games in his final years with the company, his name was pretty much stamped on em because of who he is, but every game that he has entrenched himself in regards to the development has come out wonderful unlike the never-changing bullcrap that is churned out by Nomura. |
*Shrug* Aside from Ys Origin and Wild Arms Vth Vanguard, the music for Blue Dragon is the best RPG score I've heard in awhile. And I'm finding out now I'd much rather have even uninspired Uematsu than some of the various replacements they've found for the series. Yes, even Hanjuku Hero 3D.
As for Sakaguchi...I'm not saying he's been god or that I'll buy a 360 just for Blue Dragon. I'm just saying he was the guy who oversaw the coming-up of FF (and Square, to be honest), so it's odd seeing him in another company and those remaining to have so little direction (other than to spam FF). Doesn't boost my confidence in Square at all. Seeing "OMFG! DEMO-fucking-GRAPHICS = innovation" for this particular game isn't helping matters. |
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Many of these gamers just want the same FF formula, without Nomura, and Mistwalker seems to provide this. Blue Dragon isn't exactly amazing, but taking the above into account, it's preferred over something from the Square-Enix camp. Quote:
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Edit: Ah, something else. The culture may have changed, such that the development environment isn't tolerant of new ideas or approaches to features we've taken for granted. |
Also I find it bizarre that Game Informer, a US magazine is the first magazine to ever get shots from the game, its Square trying to get more focused on the US market by telling us "Don't worry, if you hate our girly main characters, we created one just for you?"
I mean usually the big news from SE always ended up on a magazine like Jump first in Japan, weekly ones. I believe the US doesn't HAVE any weekly game mags. Quote:
Trouble is Square is just way too famous and over shadowing other RPGs. Yeah, I may be a huge KH fan, but I still like venture more into different RPGs, which is why I'm glad GFF is back so I can read up on other RPGs and try them out. I have my eyes on Odin Sphere now. I mean, I went to two gaming concerts and naturally Square images didn't appear on their screens. Why? Cause they know they're too famous for it now, and to them its "better" to be more protective of their work, and unlike games like Odin Sphere they don't need show their game shots and videos cause they feel they don't need to market it, cause over 90% of the audience there are already fans of Square games and music. I think that arrogance has affected the way they make their games, along with the lack of new talent. Strange is Konami and Capcom have franchises that can deem them into such pride, yet I haven't seen them go down the Square route or milking, nor did they went protective of their video material, so MGS videos defintly were at both game concerts I went. Why is Square the only exception? |
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I don't believe FF7 or 10 was his work, he only did the character designs. KH is the first games he ever took on the direction helm. I think his point was that its not a Nomura trait, but a Square trait to keep making director cuts to games.
I wish people if they don't like a particular staff member like Nomura, at least blame him in games he actually directed. KH2 was still solid in its gameplay and I had alot of fun despite some story and pacing problems, but the story to be was still solid enough, probably cause I really love the characters. If people still think he's a hack or not a great game maker cause they didn't like KH2, then fine, but at least your opinion is informed. Stop trying to pin him on everything that goes wrong in Square just because he has some credits in multiple projects. The only games we CAN blame is the KH series, Versus 13 and the upcoming DS It's a Wonderful Life. And getting back to THIS game, Last Remnant, the director is Hiroshi Takai, who also directed The Bouncer. Keep in mind though that similar to Xenogears, the game's developement was cut short by Square's impatience to the point that Dream Factory no longer works with them. So take it as you will... |
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Unfortunately that's probably what it'll take to get them to change. |
I guess when he's hated as a character designer, it's only natural to hate him as a game designer and not distinguish the two. I do see he's not shy about remaining visible though, so that does give off the illusion he's more important than he seems.
That's interesting about the Bouncer though...Makes sense, now that I think about it (since so many people said the game was supposed to be a lot bigger, more interactive environments, etc and it turned out ridiculously short/simple to get in on the post PS2-launch). Shame, but yeah, XG had the same issue. |
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A: AC is not a game, but a movie, and Nomura hasn't had experience in that field. B: There is NO WAY a movie can tell a story that even measures up to the scale of any RPG. You can't slam everything on one person without giving it some thought. KH2 was suppose to have alot of stuff from Final Mix, but it was because of schedule and BUDGET that they can't put it in, and NOT because Nomura's incompetant. And his character designs are all subjective in opinion. Quote:
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I have to say that I'm a huge fan of Square-Enix and everytime I see their logo on a game, I will most likely buy it and I don't remember being too disappointed. I even liked Dirge of Cerberus, but mainly because I knew what to expect of the game and lie it for what it was. Hell I even really like the game the bouncer for his style and character >.<
but I have to say that I liked more Squre-enix when they weren't focus so much on Final Fantasy. I like when they came up with brave fencer mushashi, Parasite Eve, Chrono and all those original game. Now all we se about SE is FF and DQ, oh! and KH too (they did said when they created KH that they wanted it to be part of they biggest series) I mean now I'm glad that they are trying to do something new and I hope it will work and I really hope that it mean that they'll continue to make more of those original title. I think they are going too far with all those FF spin off and even if I like the Final Fantasy XIII project now that they have announce 3 more title for this, I'm really starting to be worried now... The problem is milking title work and they know that they'll make money with them... I just hope they realize that the more they milk Final Fantasy the more people might loose interest in them. Anyway I still like them because they still make good, fun and beautiful games, but they are starting to be a little to generic for me and my favorite games now then to be more original title then some Squere-Enix games. |
The screenshots looked like they were taken from a was-going-to-be Drakengard 3 or something =\
Well hopefully we'll get more info on this in the coming weeks or next month. The main JPN Character looks a lot like whats-his-name from Star Ocean 3 and the US Character looks like he was taken from a Devil May Cry early artwork sketchbook. Still, nice to see a NEW game from SquareEnix. |
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I'm just saying the misfits that are running Square now owe Sakaguchi a lot for establishing something that's keeping them in business, because they certainly aren't doing it any justice. |
It's business, they don't owe him ANYTHING since he started his own company, there is no room for loyalty, legacy or other crap like that here.
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I would hardly describe SE as losing consumer confidence. Sure, those of you who pay attention to the career paths of their employees and wish their lives away waiting for another FFVII might be wary but as Enk said, they're in the business of making money, not catering to obsessives and "Hard core" gamers (Such a contradiction in terms that phrase).
They churn out FF cash-ins because that's what the majority of the game buying public want and that's how they make their money. It seems to me that some people here are mistaking businessmen for artists... |
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Here's it is This is for Japan mind you, but you can see how their sales have slipped considerably since VII. Quote:
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I mean, look at what happened when people discovered that Tomb Raider or the Twisted Metal (between 2 and Black) series wasn't that good...Or PS3...Over 3 million served, but it's hard to consider it a rousing success yet. |
I think some of the drop in sales is due to saturation of the market as well. Obviously things were different in the US but here in England, when FFVII came out there were literally no more than five other rpgs available on the Playstation. For a while I was the proud owner of every single rpg available in PAL format on the PS and still had plenty of time to play through each before the next came out.
These days though, despite PAL being an unpopular option for rpg makers, there's still fucking loads to choose from which enables gamers to be a bit more picky. Essentially, it's not that earlier Square games were better than the current lot so much as there's better alternatives now so people are increasingly looking at other games. I'll admit I don't really understand all this Nomura business. I ain't the type to read the credits at the end of games and couldn't tell you who designed or directed any of the games I like. I pick games based on the opinions of people who've played them (One advantage of our shitty release dates here) and on the strength of earlier games in a series. I'll always buy Suikoden games because I've enjoyed them all so far. Likewise, I bought FFXII because I liked the earlier ones. I personally reckon IX was the best and X was let down by an over reliance on levelling up to beat the tougher bosses and some truly terrible voice acting (You'd think with the time delay for a European release they could dub over the American accents along with dubious pronounciations). With this new series, for people like me a FF connection would probably be a good thing to be honest... |
First screens and artwork for Last Remnant that came from the SE conference:
http://images.xboxyde.com/gallery/pu.../1260_0001.jpg http://images.xboxyde.com/gallery/pu.../1260_0002.jpg http://images.xboxyde.com/gallery/pu.../1260_0003.jpg -Using Unreal Engine -Story and setting is medieval mixed with more Sci-Fi and Fantasy. -Active Battle system similiar to FFXII (and also looks similiar to Drakengard and even Dynasty Warriors) -Simultaneous release in the US and Japan on both the PS3 and 360 |
wow the artworks is nice! who's the character designer btw?
I hope they will make a good gameplay out of this (not like drakengard or dynasty warrior) |
Oh no, I see a morale bar.
Dynasty Warriors anyone? |
This is actually an interesting project, with the stated foci on the West and Japan. Yeah, that's hindered by generic Japanese hero being the main character, but it's still something out of to the usual.
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Some of these screenshots are turning out to be quite impressive. I was a bit skeptical hearing about this title at first but it looks like there's a chance for a possible winner here. It looks like they're going for a weird mix of RPG elements in large-scale battle situations. It certainly would be pretty refreshing.
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I would second that, but only ONE of them. Playing one of the DW games is fine enough - the rest are literally the same damn game rehashed with a slight bit of stuff added in.
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Yeah, that's why I meant this didn't exactly strike me as "refreshing", since I've played through both DW4 and 5 already. I bet neither character here is as badass as a steroid-induced Sun Shang Xiang.
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The only thing DW and TLR have in common are Army Battles and I can named a number of games like that.
Anyway, here is a detail Preview of the TLR from Gamespot: Quote:
IGN's Impression can also be found here: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/787/787050p1.html Also Hiroshi Takai didn't direct the "The Bouncer", he was just a Planner. He worked on LoM and Romancing Saga(PS2) Battle Systems too. As far as "SE hate" is I really bit much.They are actually, doing new oniginal game here, and bash it SE little to purpose especially since we know very little about it. It doesn't matter what they past games are like as it has little to due with this game, considering it's helmed different team anyway. |
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Regarding Last Remnant, I like the artwork and while the first gameplay screen looks crap the positive impressions of the footage along with the need for more info puts me in the "cautiously optimistic" camp for now. |
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New (but burly) scan: http://img168.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_530lo.jpg |
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This game looks intense. Goes to show how diverse the UE3 engine can be.
As for the game, X360 RPG fools should rejoice for this will be one of the 5 great RPGs the 360 will ever see and already looks better then Mistwalker's 70% "done" Lost Odyssey where the art style is ridiculous and the AI doesn't know what's going on. And how far is TLR? Probably 30%, pathetic. Jagged: People like Simo will just auto-engage their Anti-whatever defence simply based on whatever the object of their hate is, so there's no sense in trying to sway someone that doesn't have an open mind about things. Especially when their argument is so poorly supported. Uploaded Image: Honestly what are these guys doing? They don't move during the whole video. |
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Of course that doesn't excuse SE from any criticism and the point towards Jagged's post was anything but "poorly supported" which anyone can see just by looking at SE's roster. |
Your point was that the Final Fantasy games are all the same. While I will give you that Star Ocean is similar from 1 - 3 it's not like they come out with them every year like a Mario Party or a Madden. However any one who's played the majority of the FF games will tell you that other then the fact that they're the same genre and the name, very few of them share more then that.
Also your comment on the graphics, seeing how it's probably only 30% done and already looks 200% better then Halo 3, I don't really see how whether TLR's graphics are the best on the system or not, it still beats out most 360 games. http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/...0013322265.jpg Finally whether you are or arn't Anti-Square really is no concern to me, however if you don't want to give people this impression just be aware of posts like, "Yeah but that's one original title compared to 15 Final Fantasy titles and 3+ Star Ocean games which make up the majority of SE's roster." -Simo |
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*drool* |
http://kotaku.com/gaming/spiketv/the...ght-265270.php
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I just saw this on IGN's preview section and wow this is going to be an awesome game, I guess. They don't know whether they want to release it in Europe yet, though O_o
http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/ar...2031911165.jpg |
first trailer of the last remnant!
http://media.ps3.ign.com/media/904/904859/vids_1.html I think it has the potential for some epic big battle ^^ |
Even though it barely showed gameplay, I can sorta start seeing where the tactics and call for renforcements can work. I just hope it does turn out to be a good quality game, as it would encourage Square to get out of their comfort zone and do more different original games.
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Wow, I didn't even noticed this untill I looked it up on Wiki on a lark for news, we now have a 360 release date.
IGN: The Last Remnant Dated for 360 and Announced for PC November 20th worldwide release date for the 360 version. http://na.square-enix.com/remnant/landing.html Official site launces in a day or so. E2 trailer is up and from what I can tell, the graphics are hot (Duh) and the voice acting actually sounds pretty good. Gameplay? Since when did Square showed off gameplay? |
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I only ask because when they released launch dates before it was for a simultaneous US/Japan launch, not strictly a worldwide one (In fact catering only to the two smaller of the international gaming regions). Looks like a fun game though. Kinda FFXII with bigger battles. |
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But that kind of thing is one in a million situation. I'm looking forward to this, though I generally like mass army type games. |
I think from the sounds of it, Europe is included. Otherwise IGN would have phrased it differently.
Also, the countdown has ended for the official US site and we now can get.... Nothing. Absolutly nothing. The site is the same except the clock is gone. What the hell was that countdown for then? |
First gameplay footage, after such a long time since announcment too.
TGS 2008: The Last Remnant gameplay videos - TGS 2008 - Forever Fantasy So far the gameplay footage looks kinda boring and slow... Maybe I'm getting jaded with turn based combat, and it seems like the wait time between inputting commands and watching guys hit each other once looks alot longer in THIS game... |
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Best indepth impression on game found it on TLR message broad on GameFAQs.
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Another good impression: TGS 2008: The Last Remnant Hands-On - Xbox 360 News at GameSpot IGN, RPGFan and RPGamer and all of them have been very positive, it's also noted been by some of people who at TGS that TLR was one most popular games on show floor. Quote:
These much better videos of the game: Developer Walkthrough: Gametrailers.com - The Last Remnant - TGS 08: Walkthrough Part 1 Gametrailers.com - The Last Remnant - TGS 08: Walkthrough Part 2 There is a Tutorial Trailer up too: TGS08: The Last Remnant video - Gamersyde Official Japanese site: THE LAST REMNANT "ラスト レãƒ.ナント" Here, you can see more Character art, screens and some of music. |
Also, the same tutorial that's up on Gamersyde can be viewed
here |
Pre-Order info (Japan):
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Source NeoGAF. New Screens: Images of The Last Remnant - Gamersyde |
I preordered this at GAME the other day actually, it looks pretty cool I think. I'm not sure if they'll be doing anything special for preorders though, except the usual double loyalty points,
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Actually, I've just found info on the US Pre-Order here:
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The RPG Observer > Articles > Square Enix Announces Free Stuff |
IGN has a new preview up.
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More Vids! HQ and mostly combat though: IGN: The Last Remnant Trailer, Videos and Movies EDIT: Sorry for the double post, I'm having some connection problems. |
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"Let's kick some A!"
Uh-huh. Yeah. Ok. :33: The game looks like a mess from the IGN videos I saw. The map video has some nice screen tearing. Since this is a timed exclusive I hope they fix the slowdown and screen tearing issues when it comes out on the PS3. I'm so sick of these sloppy unpolished JRPG games on the xbox 360. (Blue Dragon, LO, IU). Or maybe the Japanese should stop trying to use the UE3 and make their own. |
I dunno about that. Because the trailer battle and town movie scenes I've seen so far seem pretty seemless. Personally for me, SQUARE's doing all right. And this' just the beginning of what SQUARE's capable of doing. Which'll eventually open the doors for future games within the company to release on the 360. Games like;
* Star Ocean: The Last Hope * Final Fantasy XIII Perhaps Atlus or NIS America may follow suit as well, with their own game engines. |
The list of achievements is out for this game. There are 22, for 1,000 points, 5 are secret. Also, a move I really like is the descriptions don't make it completely bloody obvious what you have to do to get them:
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Two of the secret achievements go for 200 points each, meaning they're probably along the lines of collect every fucking thing in the game in under 2 hours or something silly like that. Still, I prefer the way the achievements aren't just a clinical list of "Kill 50 monsters, Use this skill 200 times" and so on. It's still pretty obvious how to go about getting them but more in a way that you'll just get them as you play, rather than having a set goal and grinding up to it which to me is not a fun way to play games. |
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They aren't really unique in any way, they just have a different, slightly more vague wording. It's still a checklist, and it won't really change anything. |
Oh sure they're just a checklist but at least there's a hint of mystery as to what they are. Having thought about it a bit, I reckon one of the big secret ones will be collect all the remnants or something similar and the other will be finishing the game. Given that the exact details of how to get them all will be plastered all over GameFAQS within days there's no point making them really criptic anyway but I just personally like the idea of not having definite numbers written next to everything.
I did find it amusing yesterday though when I was looking at one site that listed these out and in the comment section 2 of the 5 comments were along the lines of "I'm going to hold off buying this until a list of exactly what you have to do to get the achievements is available so I know if it's worth it". I mean, it's sad that there are people whose main consideration when getting a game is the achievements it offers rather than, you know, whether they'll actually enjoy the game but I guess as a developer you've got to be pretty happy that you can churn out a stinking turd of a game and some people will still buy it if it lets you grab 1,000 easy achievement points... |
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Gamekyo : The Last Remnant : nouvelles images |
I'm willing to bet £10 that big statue thing in the background of the city does a Final Fantasy IX and starts moving and fighting by the end of the game.
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Famitsu Review just came in and gave the game a surprising 10/10/9/9, 38/40.
OXM scored the game 7/10. For some reference Famitsu scored IU 9/8/8/7, 32/40 and OXM 8/10. Amazon.com is also having a special pre-order deal on game for 40 dollars. Here's Famitsu take on it: Translated info on the game on thanks to duckroll at Neo GAF. Quote:
Some new vids: Desert Battle from Game Videos: YouTube - [SQ ENIX]The Last Remnant - Great Sand Battle Boss Battles from IGN YouTube - [IGN - 360]The Last Remnant - Boss Battle Pt. 1 YouTube - [IGN - 360]The Last Remnant - Remnant Pt. 2 |
I don't know if I trust Famitsu as an RPG review source, especially with Square. However, I am still fairly intrigued by Last Remnant. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be at all given the earlier trailers and the just recently released videos of the game in action. It looks like Square might have made a really good game, and the 40 dollar preorder on Amazon USA is extremely tempting. You don't get to see many games like this for that kind of price these days and, dare I say it, that's a fucking smart move on SQ Enix's part.
I wasn't sure what to make the mechanics explanation trailer, as it was entirely in Japanese, but it certainly left me puzzled. I'll likely end up looking into something on Gamefaqs or what not. |
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It's already confirmed you find the Formations later on in the game, it's just that the codes give those to you right off the bat. I'm not sure if I want to use them, in that regard, but perhaps I'll sing a different tune later.
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I think it depends how much of an effect those formations have on the gameplay. If they just add a few tactical options then I'll use them but if they're game winners in themselves (Like the magic boosting one in Suikoden 5 which when combined with Zerase and the rune that gave her magic points back pretty much broke the game or the one in Breath of Fire 3 that made the whole party as fast as Rei) I'll steer clear until I unlock them in game I think.
I'll be surprised if they're more than simple "Increase magic/ranged/melee" types, just for a bit of tactical choice early on. |
Here's an impression from someone who has the game on GameFAQs.
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If a GameFAQ member found the battle system only a little confusing then it's probably dead simple. Looks encouraging though, I'm quite looking forward to picking this up on Friday.
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I'm hesitant to buy this game. Of course famitsu gave it a good score since the game apparently had a 10 page flip-out ad in that issue. On the other hand, there's only a 7/10 rating so far on game rankings. I want to get more opinions on the game before I buy it. After the garbage that was Blue Dragon and LO I'm scared to buy another random next gen RPG.
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I'm in the same boat, Miles. I really wanted this game to be good, but as it was intended for a "Western RPG gamer" no western publications have really been overly excited by it. Now, I thought Lost Odyssey was good, and Tales of Vesperia is nothing but awesome, so go try that instead.
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Wow. I started this tonight and I really like it. I like the characters, music is superb, art and atmosphere. Battles seem good, but we'll see. I played about an hour tonight.
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Bear in mind though that according to Skills I have incredibly shitty taste in games. :) |
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If ya ask me, Square-Enix RPGs have been pretty good as long as they aren't Final Fantasy, just recently. I'm willing to try this one. Mind you, considering how many other games I'm playing right now, I'll wait for the price to drop just a little. I won't get to play it for at least a month, regardless. I'm thinking it has been amply demonstrated by now that there can be decent RPGs on the 360, so I wouldn't be so hesitant. Even if you've been left with a lingering distrust of Mistwalker, this game need not fall under any such suspicion. |
Played the game for a bit last night.
The game actually starts off well in presentation. I like the soundtrack and situational changes, where if you had max morale, the music turned into a high tempo rock which is similar to how DW would work if you were winning :tpg: But aside from that, the battle system is a nice change in the way how rpgs work. You have each individual person(unit) to customize, but then they're put into squads(unions), in which they act as one entity. As far as how strategy is involved in formations...haven't gotten to that point yet. However, it has given the basis of the flow of combat, where you have deadlocks(where one union is in combat with another), flank attacks (attacking a union from the side that is not engaged in combat with the one attacking) & rear attacks (same thing but from behind). It also throws things in there like interceptions(where if one union is trying to attack their intended target, but is attacked/blocked by another union, they get a free shot in), and breaking the line of combat after a deadlock(union has a possibility of attacking the union trying to break away), and much other stuff not done, and that was just a bit of the tutorial. Also I was laughing a bit at the facial expressions and motion capture of the main character at one scene in the game, because of the situation in which it happened. The production & presentation value is honestly higher than that of what Infinite Undiscovery did. Now the only drawbacks I have at this point in the game, is the slowdown that happens when there is more than 35+ units on screen at the same time(which even then, the slowdown happens randomly), and the main character's running animation(the walking animation is fine). I did install the game to the HDD since the NXE update, and it definitely cuts down on loading time. The amount of space used was 6.1GB. |
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100% agreed. The facial expressions during the david/dave scene is great. I was busting up. |
I just started playing it, and I do like Emma quite a bit in her first appearance. Abrasive, but not in an obnoxious way (ie, she rightfully gives Rush shit for stupid things). Haven't seen enough of the battles to pass judgment, but it appears the game has some texturing issues-- not unlike Mass Effect's.
Playing it off the harddrive, but I'm not sure if that's helping the loading times. As it stands, said loading times are frequent but brief (usually no more than three seconds). |
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Gamespot gave the game a 6.5/10, but review text doesn't match the score at all:
The Last Remnant for Xbox 360 Review - Xbox 360 The Last Remnant Review |
Well, some places are trying to make 6 the new 7 in order to balance out the horrendous reviewing system used for video games, so that may be why the reviewer says any RPG fan looking at Last Remnant should at least give the game a try.
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Yeah more UE3 trash. The game is good but not good enough to distract from the massive amount of technical shortcomings. A real disappointment too because if Square-Enix did one thing right it was polishing their games to the point of technical flawlessness. I would like to say wait for the PS3 version to see if they improve on the technical aspect but since its UE3 it is going to perform even worse than this version.
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Makes me wonder how the PC version is going to fare. Either way, I got it for 40 dollars on Amazon, so I'm actually pretty happy with the impressions so far. If I paid 60 dollars for this thing? Yeah, probably not so much.
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I'm not sure if the did or not but even if they did that is Epic, and Epic is practically the only developer that has been able to get sold results from their own engine.
But in general UE3 showings for the PS3 have been much worse than on the Xbox 360 mostly due to a much more mature toolset being available for the Xbox 360. Who knows, maybe S-E will surprise the world with the PS3 version, but I'm not really holding my breath on the prospect. |
I've played about six hours so far. The slowdown in battles is horrific although that does make the QTE easier to hit. There's a lot of texture pop up but no more than GTA or Mass Effect. I've not installed it and spend about 10 seconds waiting for each fight to start. The main character's running animation is as bad as Suikoden IV's and he's got buck teeth. The music is bog standard Jrpg fare and pretty uninspired and most of the text is unreadable on an SDTV.
And yet despite all that I love this game so far. The battle system is really intuitive and although I've not got far enough to unlock too much depth yet, I can see how it'll get interesting later. Also this is a grinder's dream. You have to collect new weapons, can build new weapons from ingredients and upgrade the ones you already have. You can kill monsters for ingredients and dig for them, so there's hours of finding shit to be had. The story is probably pretty standard but develops slowly. I can see me playing this for a while. I got killed four times earlier trying to beat a boss too so it's harder than most jrpgs. If you like technically poor but interesting rpgs then get it. If you're one of the people who hate Square on principle then don't bother. |
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Other than that I basically agree with what was stated. (Only thing I don't get is the buck teeth statement :confused:) Formations will play a role later on within the game, and the stat/leveling system is that of Romancing Saga (where you battle to get stat increases). |
I actually like this game so far. The only thing that bugs me is how bland all the areas look. They're incredibly boring and uninteresting.
Also, can you only change Rush's equipment throughout the whole game or do you get access to do other characters later? |
After battles, generic characters can sometimes seize some of the raw materials you gather in order to strengthen their weapons (maybe armor too?). Not sure about the big important characters like David or Emma, since no one else has joined me as a full-fledged party member yet.
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Game Trailers has just put up it's review which by far the best I've seen and read for TLR. It's pretty fair to game.
Gametrailers.com - The Last Remnant - Review HD Story: 8.2 Design: 8.7 Gameplay: 8.5 Presentation: 7.0 Total: 8.0 Quote:
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It looks like they opted out of the "6.0 just to be safe, guys" and just stated they liked it. Not bad, Gametrailers. Now stop being gay on Gametrailers TV. "WHAT IS THE WII DOING NEXT, WHO KNOWS NINTENDO SO GROUNDBREAKING FADTIME"
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Okay, one of the loading screens finally pointed out the difference in wield-types, which I was a little confused about.
Single-handed wielding has the best evasion rates, but lowest attack power. Two-handed wield have high attack power, but make you slow to attack. Dual-wielding has the highest attack power by far, but makes it "nigh impossible" to evade. |
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Has anyone worked out what the little symbols besides some characters stats mean yet? Also, how come every character has a different last stat? For example Emma has a love stat, whereas Rush has bravery or something. I assume it has something to do with binding Remnants later in the game but that's only guesswork so far. |
Yeah, Rush is the only character who's equipment can be changed directly. How it works for the other Characters is that in the end of some battles, they will request to take some of the spoils and overtime they will upgrade themselves with equips. They will even ask to borrow Weapons, Armor, or, other things if it's better than what they currently have.
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Didn't this game just come out last week, how is it $40 already?
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Amazon Preorder, Jimmy. Thing is, my copy JUST shipped, so the price advantage came at a delay in shipping. Still, I feel better owning this game and all its bonuses for 40 dollars than having it immediately for a full 60 dollars.
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Yes, but it is still just $40, uh postorder.
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At Amazon or everywhere else? It wouldn't surprise me if it dropped everywhere else, at least not with how Infinite Undiscovery turned out price wise.
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Just Amazon I guess. That is pretty much the only place I buy my games now, unless somewhere else has a special deal going or something. Yeah, I guess Infinite Underscore has dropped to $30 now, hasn't that game only been out for like a month? The JRPGs must be struggling.
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Game's been out since September, actually.
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I've actually been really curious about the price collapse of Infinite Undiscovery over a sixty-day period, but I'm guessing bad response from the media mixed with poor sales to cause it.
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Rush is officially my favorite youth hero (until he ruins it), because of "Sure thing, Dave!"
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Some DLC has been announced for the Last Remnant, most of it being stuff on par with what was released for Lost Odyssey (ie, trinkets and an extra dungeon).
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I've found I don't like Last Remnant so far. The biggest flaw by far is the randomness of your battles. Not having a command you need show up on a specific turn can be downright fatal.
Of moderate annoyance are the characters. So far I can't say I'm warming up to any of them and the lead character is the worst of all. Then there are the minor things such as font choices. Sometimes you have to squint to read it. I can see the potential in the game but the execution is seriously flawed. |
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Honestly I'm just curious to know what flaws you see in the game, to get a better understanding Reason I ask this is because a lot of the complaints, aside from technical issues which we all know of, is of people nitpicking at the smallest things which are apparent in other games, and yet they're fine with those issues happening in other games. |
I've heard a few people complaining that they don't get options to heal when their party is about to die but personally, I find that this issue is lessened if you form a union where every member has either restore spells or can use herbs, which makes the "Heal the others" option crop up a lot more, especially if you keep that unit out of deadlock. Also, playing it by ear seems to result in healing spells a lot more often than the available commands would suggest. I started out trying to make all my unions balanced in terms of combat skills, offensive magic and healing but specialising seems to work much better.
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I don't really have the problem of not getting the options as much as usually my guys don't get a chance to use their healing item/spell before they get killed off. That's ok though, as I've not really come into any really difficult fights yet, that weren't my own doing from linking too many bad guys together and triggering a battle.
And the graphical issues that everyone are complaining about are helped by installing the game to the hard drive. Sure, there is still slowdown during battle, but the overall performance of the engine is better. It is almost as though UE3 was not designed to run off of optical media. Oh wait. |
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A friend of mine bought this the other day and it looked okay. First of all, the first disc wasn't reading and the 360 told us to put in a DVD or game disc. I put the second disc in, the game started up with the intro and then told us to put in disc 1. We did, and it started working.
The graphics look okay and the battle system reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy X. I was definitely liking the music for it and the story seems rather interesting. Of course, she's a big fan of Johnny Yong Bosch so she was definitely happy to hear him as the main character. The voices in general were alright to me, though I think I heard a little Integra Hellsing in one of the characters. Overall first impression, not bad. I'll wait for the price to go down a bit before I consider getting it, but what's really turning me off is the battle system. While it's original, I'm just not into the whole "choose your command for the entire party" and then switching to another party (if available). If I had to, I could probably get used to it. |
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I'm surprised how well the story is turning out. It's pretty level and fun to watch. Rush is an idiot, but likable and the whole cast really carries itself well for what they are. Rush and David could very well be gay, though Emma's question with Rush was hilarious for what it would imply to a dirty mind.
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Also progressing so slowly for now; doing quests and the like. Man, just wishing my leadership capacity increases so I can do that quest in Balterossa. |
One of the secret achievements is for obtaining 200,000 gold, the other for spending 100,000. There's also the two 200 pointers but I've not looked them up yet.
Does anyone know, is there a point at which you can no longer upgrade a weapon and have to create or buy a new one? At the moment I've got Rush with a sword and shield and I've upgraded the sword twice, I think it's a Warrior's Broadsword or something now. Can I keep upgrading this over and over into a mental weapon by the end or will it max out at some point and need replacing? On a similar note, do you reckon it's better to keep the leaders you recruit and build them up or hire more expensive ones instead? |
For those achievement faggots (colonel skills cough) good luck getting the other 2 secret ones. I've read that the two secrets each worth 200 are for true Japanese players. Beat the whole 60 hour game without reviving a dead union in battle EVER (for one of them) and also never letting Rush's union die (for the other 200 secret one). Crazy shit.
So those people like skills who only enjoy video games for the achievements will really enjoy getting those. |
You of all people shouldn't be talking shit about gaming tastes or habits there, buddy. <3
An actual ACHIEVEMENT though. Man. Can't remember the last time there was one of those. Horror of horrors. Who would have GUESSED. Honestly, I can't wait to get this. I had a shit tonne of fun with my rental. |
Don't lie, you hate this game too.
I think the never revive a dead union in battle one would be ok. I mean, I have been playing for a while and don't think I even have the ability to do that yet, so I don't know any different. The other one is pretty silly though. Never going to get that one. |
Yeah, I've not got a revive ability yet at battle rank 20 so that's a possible I guess. Rush not dying is silly shit though, it's way too easy to get killed in this game by being gang-raped by enemy unions while the rest of your team are deadlocked for that to be fair. Unless of course you just fight one group of enemies at a time but that'd be boring as fuck and you'd take ages to find any items. Does anyone know if the enemies scale in this? I'm guessing not as the two rare monsters I tried to fight so far (Both on the plains near where you start, a big bird thing and a big wyvern thing) both took my party apart in a matter of turns and increasing my stats up to their level was the only hope I held out for beating the fuckers.
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See, everyone who's farther into the game than either of us seems to say the exact opposite. Apparently there's some really rough shit later on that pretty much necessitates the use of the revive function.
Sounds like some grind heavy bullshit if you wanna go for either of 'em in any case. Additional Spam: Quote:
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In which case I may have to rethink my "Run in and hope for the best" strategy against the Dominator and the rareys. I've noticed you get more, harder monseters when you revisit a location (Demons in the Ivory Cliffs place the second time I went there) but also, if you go back into Blackdale after finishing the story bit there, there's whole extra sections opened full of monsters than kill you very, very quickly so I assumed it was more like FFXII whereby you can get to most of the places on the map pretty much right from the start but the monsters there will kill you very easily.
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And yes, finally, fina-fucking-lly, defeated that huge dragon on Salamander's Belly. Guess I got lucky on that one since bfore he could cause major ruckus, half of his HP was off. Then just relied on keeping HP up. |
Well, I can't seem to find it any cheaper then $45, and that's before shipping. I have seem the price fluctuate, but only by a few dollars here and there.
I guess I'll just wait till the price comes down in a few months. Hmm, upon seeing the new title, I guess I should ask: is the slowdown all that bad? |
Slowdown happens every so often in battle. I don't ever really see slowdown with the game installed on my hard drive, but framerate and texture pop-in problems are still fairly apparent.
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It might be me just getting used to it but I'm sure the slowdown and loading times have decreased since I downloaded the DLC.
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As some of you know, I work at Game Crazy. We had a bunch of left-over pre-order prizes from The Last Remnant (the codes to unlock a few addition battle-modes I believe), so if anyone didn't get one, PM me and I'll PM you back a code.
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When you buy trade good weapons, are they un-customisable or something? I only ask as I have Rush wielding a flamberge but the workshops say they can't improve it. Does this mean it'll never get any better or do I need to find a certain item or better workshop to allow it to be improved?
Also, I noticed for the first time yesterday that your reserve leaders improve their skills to match your main party but I've only seen main character ones do it so far. I hadn't used the four armed dude for ages (As he's not that strong, sucks at magic and has fuck all hit points) but when I switched him in on a whim, I noticed that he'd changed his swords for axes and learnt a bunch of new arts, despite never being in the active party. Is it just the main story people that do this or will all your leaders improve, even if you don't use them? At the moment, I'm favouring ones that look like they'll have missions for me at some point (i.e. those with specific descriptions on the recruiting screen) but there's already far more than I can fit in my party. I'm currently in Elysion, about to go off with Emma somewhere but clearing up side missions first and there's only room for three leaders other than the Athlum lot in my party so I've gone with Baulson (Who is ridiculously powerful), Violet (She costs a lot, she must be good right?) and Gabriel (Linked to Violet and has the funniest in-battle comments of anyone in the game, also pretty hard, great defense) but there's a guy called Loki in Athlum and the leader of some knights or something in that town in the desert I could add who have specific descriptions. I finally managed to beat a rare monster yesterday although admittedly it was only the Lil' Salamander at the entrance to the Great Sand Sea. I do love how even when you're pretty well powered this game can still fuck you up in random fights. I spent fucking hours ploughing through the caves under the Sand Sea doing a quest to kill a monster or something and found it far harder to beat the random Wyverns down there than the actual boss. Multi-deadlock type monsters with attacks that hit your whole team like Dust Devil can fuck your party up really quickly, especially when there's a couple of them to fight at once so you can't just deadlock them with one union and keep the rest at long range either healing or if you're lucky, using the "Attack from distance" command. I'm enjoying this game more and more the further in I get. |
As far as the 2 secret achievements thing which miles pointed out earlier:
Apparently they were fake, considering someone just recently posted pictures of the last 2 achievements. Achievement List: Spoiler:
First Secret Achievement: Spoiler:
Second Secret Achievement: Spoiler:
So everyone can stop worrying about not dying. :cmb: |
Damn you kago. I wanted to make skills suffer. ;_;
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Actually, that's kind of a shame. I may have been right, but it would have been nice to have SOMETHING to work towards instead of "do X 100 times" shit.
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Even when your party is beefed up and such, shit like pinprick and surefire can kill one of your members, at worst botch the squad. Happened to me couple of times.
Aside from the 4 (past Nagapur) Athlum generals, my current leader roster has Baulson, that dude who's Kate brother is (rarely use him), Loki, Nora, Caedmon and Gabriel. Also what do you think is the most optimal party/union distribution that you folks have used? My max leaders has gone up to 6 and 15 units can occupy any battle easily. I've been using 2 unions, 3 leaders each and the rest soldiers. Is it advisable to distribute your party thinly (i.e 5 unions of 3 members each or similar) to cover more or stick to a minimum amount that can deliver the goods? |
I started using Loki last night, mainly to activate his quest but once he'd caught up to the rest of the party he's a bit of a beast. I told him to study Hexes and had him supported by two soldiers who both know Poison and Paralyse cloud. Their "Attack from afar" command produces 3 lots of Poison Cloud II as a rule which is enough to wipe out most of the unions I'm facing at the moment.
I'm still stuck with the opening amount of leaders and unions (4 and 3 respectively) and I reckon max number of unions is better. That way you can avoid getting flanked too often and with a bigger party, you're often wasting attacks by killing monsters before everyone's had a go. Currently I have Rush and Gabrial or Emma in the first union with a soldier who's a double hard quisti sword user, a combat leader heading up two soldiers as my second union (Baulson, Blocter or the dude with four arms whose name I can never remember) and a magic basde third union (Loki, Pagus, David). I try to match the soldiers to the leader so the aforementioned hexers to go with Loki and a couple of Spark and Wind Shear dudes if it's Pagus or David. Although the magic union is a little more fragile, you can counteract that with the vanguard formation which gives them a good defence bonus. I try to put some form of healing skill in every union to cover themselves and the others and touch wood, unless I get greedy and take on too many monsters at once I'm managing ok. I did the bit with just Rush and Emma in the mines last thing last night and had them as seperate Unions. They both had Spark V as a default option in every fight so I was one-hitting everything they fought. The boss was a bit tougher as it had Spark V itself but a tactic of healing up at every opportunity and a run of three Omnistrikes killed it off quick enough. Emma got killed but only because she got shocked on the second to last turn, dropping her defence against Spark to zero. The toughest random monsters I've met so far have to be the Evil Eyes in the Lavafelt cave place. I think I might need to swap down to two, powerful unions to beat those as they're multideadlock enemies, making extra Unions work against you, not for you as they get in more attacks that way and your unions don't have the HP to take them. That's one of the things I love about this game so far. If you're getting killed it's not because you're neccesarily under-powered, it's more likely you need to re-think your strategy. Everything's killable, if you approach it the right way. Edit: Has anyone worked out the right combinations of units to get any of the advanced formations to work? I think I've got Ballista and one other but I've not yet managed to trigger them. |
The SaGa guys sure love their random factors. This is definitely the game where they got it to work, though sometimes a close battle is won or lost based on your luck stat. Especially if the enemy Reasses to something like Laser Breath or Eclipse. Luck being a factor in battle is specifically due to your character's "Personality" stat. The higher a stat such as Emma's Love is, the better your chances of dodging and triggering critical actions.
Formations other than Athlum's Arrow are useless until you get past the 12 Battle Units limit. It provides a decent spread and balanced attack and defense without compromising your defense. It'll win you the most battles while keeping you out of the Union Menu until it actually matters. Loki is decent, though he pales in comparison to Nora. She has access to the same skills he does, but she hits twice as hard, takes less damage, and has far more HP. Since bosses aren't immune to debuffs (just highly resistant), it's good to have both active if you want to tackle some of the harder foes early. I just got Silence Gas, so I can't say how effective it is, but Paralyze Gas along with Poison Gas is a godsend. A thing to note is that you don't have to worry about enemy strength when it comes to enhancing your soldier's skills. You have to worry about the leader making primary actions before their subordinate units can act. I've found having multiple leaders prevents this. Units of the same level/development working together tends to help prevent one person homogenizing things, thus ensuring you can develop a balanced army. Again, you can't improve your magic if your units never get to use it. Units that never do anything but attack scraps won't develop very well in battle unless they have an established skill set or their luck kicks in and gets them a reassess/development action. I unlocked the Vanguard formation earlier and that's probably the one formation I've found worth switching to. I just completed Pagus' quest easily because of it, and it wasn't as hard as that damned Ankylo Dragon thing which I beat thanks to double paralysis and two units with Revival Tinctures. |
You can get Blocter to learn Hexes too, I use him and Loki together for maximum status effect combat. Blocter has a huge amount of HP too which is handy.
I can't say I've used Arrow of Athlum much. It struck me as the middle of the road, average formation and I prefer to specialise rather than create a load of jack of all trades types when I play rpgs. I've been using the one which adds to the Mystic attack and defence of the back ranks for my magic union and either Vanguard or the one with three across the middle and one up, one down which improves attack and defence for my Combat arts union. By having a dedicated magic using union, I generally either trigger 3 spells at once when I use Mystic Arts, get the "Attack from afar" option which again, only triggers spells or the soldiers there rarely do enough damage with a melee attack to end the fight. That way, the leader is casting a spell pretty much every turn, thereby maximising the chance of improving the ones they have. I'm not sure if it doesn't hurt to have them just do attacks now and then though. I've not played enough to work out how to increase your chances of getting a new art rather than improving an old one but all the help text suggests that using the same one over and over improves it so I'm pretty sure that just selecting the Mystic Arts option increases your chance of getting a new art, regardless of whether they get to cast the spell or not. I believe that the official guide has been released now so doubtless someone will have transcribed it onto GameFAQs soon (Along with those hilarious copyright notices they always use when they're basically copying the guide and in-game menus out, fucking idiots) which might go some way to dispelling a bit of the mystery behind how a lot of things in this game actually work. To be honest though, I quite like not knowing exactly the maths behind a game's mechanics as it encourages you to develop your character the way you want them rounded out, rather than going for the most mathetically effective option all the time which I feel takes any semblance there ever is in a JRPG of actual role-playing straight out. |
Blocter is awesome, he gets access to the first revival spell before anyone else in the game other than possibly Pagus. I just started branching out on formations and it is definitely the way to go once you're at a certain level of development. I just didn't have the patience for the hit in defense I was getting against certain units while in larger linked battles. Now I've hit a point where I can probably take the hit that "Flank Attacks" were giving me earlier, and Vanguard is much better for my spell casters than Arrow of Athlum ever was. Your approach has the most benefit, though I was happy just to have a better survival rate given my play style.
Have you had Synergy kick in for your spell casting units? It's a hell of a way to turn a battle around, as the damage can occasionally match attacks like Omnistrike and Ex Machina/Gae Bolg. Pagus and the magic casting union I put him in learned a Synergy spell, though I can't remember the name off the top of my head, I'd draw a guess as to it being called "Blackout" or something. I'll get it from the menu when I'm not in battle. For spell improvement, I don't think it applies for physical attacks the same way, you can look at your character after they cast a spell to see if they're close to improving. You've probably already seen a white aura emit from your units as they perform spells. That's the sign you're at least close to an upgrade. The only thing that mattered to me (so far) regarding info from a strategy guide was knowing if I could miss something on the first disc. Apparently you can screw your reward in the quest involving the Crimson Shards over by beating it before collecting all Nine. Word is that Hell's Gate is the point of no return on disc 1, so I'm keeping that in mind as I go along. Experimenting in this game has been very fun, and while I'm sure there's a science, I agree with you that this game is best done "from the hip" and in the player's own style the first time around. |
I'm actually really shocked at how much you've taken to this game, Rotor. Seems to've met your expectations to at least some degree?
My brother has been eating this game up quite voraciously, and I've let him thus far because of Prince of Persia. I'm giving him to the end of the day to get to disc 2. |
Honestly, I had no expectations coming in other than genuine intrigue. It was 30 dollars on Amazon and I really liked how it looked. I know Shin mentioned earlier that the presentation is standard JRPG fare, but if you're into this sort of presentation (the music, the story) you could do worse than Last Remnant. I like the dynamic music, because while the tracks alone are terrible, they work wonders while in game. Again, if you're into this sort of thing. Rush is goofy and likable, and probably gay, and I'm usually interested in the things I do while playing. I had this love/hate relationship for Persona 3 because I HATED social links, but this game I enjoy doing everything that's available. It's nice that that's there to appreciate.
Thing is, I pick the game up on and off between playing HD Remix, so my progress has been fairly slow. If anything, that's one thing I'll say about the game. You can sometimes play for a good hour or so and not really make any significant progress as far as overall completion is concerned, but it's just damn fun to play. If you're tired, you can also set Trigger Actions to Auto, which is a plus for folks who just want to get shit done without having to factor in nailing trigger actions (IE: Why can't I just hit the button and finish already?). |
Haha, I'm really tempted to set defensive triggers to auto, I never seem to hit any (And I get 95% of offensive ones). The side quests can take hours at times, the first one in the cave under the Great Sand Sea took a long fucking time as I fought most of the monsters rather than running past them as I was getting a lost of skill points off them, probably about an hour altogether including a couple of attempts at beating the groups of Wyverns. The second quest down there I just ran straight to the teleporter and fucked over the boss, took about 10 minutes.
I had a go at beating the monster at the end of the shard quest without bothering to look for any shards. Took him a lot longer to kill me than I thought it would, almost 10 turns. I think I'm overpowered for where I am in the story but I've not been grinding as such, I just tend to kill every monster I come across while I'm doing the side quests and I guess the skills keep adding up. I think my battle rank is 30-something and I've just done the Rush/Emma bit in the mines. |
Man, fuck Validus. Aside from having been christened something from the Disney school of naming, this damn bird managed to keep me on the ropes the entire battle thanks to Curse. Usually if you send one unit in to intercept a bird's first round of casting nothing but this bastard of a status debuff, you're good to go. Ol' Birdo decided that it needed to have words with Rush, my guest, and Loki's unions. If there's anything I don't hate more it's getting hit with this spell. It's been an uphill battle and I still don't know if I'm gonna pull off the victory.
The "Synergy" spell is indeed called Blackout. I get about 4000-5000 damage per cast. I'm at Battle Rank 56 at the moment, though I just got finished meeting a certain NPC and his entire brigade of monsters. I made it a point to get here since this is when you have better access to leaders/soldiers in my opinion. It's made doing quests a lot smoother, though I'm happy the game has given me the impression of scaling to match my level. I've only done a few quests where it was an in and out scenario. A lot of times there's at least one monster who just will not go down. I've had a few battles where I've lost because I couldn't pull off a defensive critical action, the thought of setting it to auto pretty much goes off nonstop when this happens, but I think part of the fun is the risk involved. Plus, nailing Critical Triggers one after the other is damned satisfying. |
I think the defensive ones are harder because you're not expecting them. With the offensive ones you grow to learn your character's animations pretty quickly and the point at which a critical will trigger so you're looking out for them.
Unlocked the ability to have four unions, five leaders and twelve total units in combat last night. Recruited Nora and am saving up for Caedmon. Also unlocked three new formations from Violet's guild, Cascade being the most useful I think. I've now gone with four groups of three, Rush and Gabrial (His in battle comments sound like Chris Morris, I can't bring myself to get rid of him), Baulson and a combat group, Loki and a magic group and David and a balanced, backup group with good healing spells and a mix of Combat and Mystic arts. It's a real shame there's no option to save your union set-ups because fighting large, single monsters is much easier with two powerful unions than four weaker ones but swapping them all around all the time is a real pain in the arse so I tend to just run past the really scary ones at the moment. At the rate I'm progressing, I think the next dlc will have hit before I advance the story much further (Dec 22nd) which isn't necessarily a bad thing. |
Yeah, not having the ability to save Union configurations was probably a contributing factor to my using Arrow of Athlum early on. I opt to avoid the tedium of being in the menu and messing with Unions rather than try to optimize every single encounter.
For Defensive Triggers, what tends to throw me off is the randomizing of the button required for a successful execution. Not only are animations for attacks easily recognized over time, as already said, but the buttons for Offensive Triggers are predesignated to the equipped weapon. Swords - A Button Rods - B Button Spears - Y Button Hammers - X Button Axes - Right Trigger Spells default to the weapon you're using, of course. What sucks is that you'll be used to hitting A for your Offensive Triggers and then, sure enough, a Defensive Trigger kicks in and you press A instead of B or some such. I find that Defensive Triggers tend to yield crappy rewards, especially if you don't get a direct damage counter or you stun the opponent and no one else attacks that enemy's union/that round of battle ends. I did set Triggers to Auto last night as a test and Triggers will occasionally miss even when set to Automatic. I didn't test the failure rate, it only failed once on a Defensive Trigger, so it's not a deal breaker if you insist on something closer to 100% accuracy. It beats being human. |
I'll admit I never realised they were preset by weapon, I assumed it was a coincidence I was getting a lot of "A" triggers (I have a lot of sword users). That's going to help a lot...
The only time I reorganise my unions if after getting beaten by a boss or rare monster or if there's a bunch of similar randoms in a group, such as the Evil Eyes in Lavafender. I wouldn't want to fight more than one at once but regrouping into a couple of hard units really helps taking them down, as does using formations with a high mystic defence. |
A word of warning, the final boss of Disc 1 pretty much comes out of nowhere. My best, non-spoiler advice for anyone who wants to avoid this is to turn back if you pick up a "Defender" two handed sword in a treasure chest. Also, Shin, how did you find the special guild in Athlum? All I've heard is that Violet has something to do with it and I'm completely stumped other than that.
Also, to anyone who cares about the story enough to talk about it, I had a flashback to Beerfest after the last story mission I played: Spoiler:
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The only secret guild I've unlocked is in the city northwest of Athlum, where you hire Violet after doing a couple of story missions for some old guy in the pub. There are about 3 guild quests in there though that involve killing the monsters you find in the path west of the Sandsea and the Numor mines, all of which seemed to give out new formations, Scattershot, Cascade and another one I think.
I'm not sure if Violet or Gabrial give you any quests after you recruit them because I've not managed to find either hanging around a town, unlike Baulson and Loki who are available to chat to in Athlum. I'm crap at remembering the names of characters and places in games. :( |
The secret guild that I have unlocked is in Celapelais, that Swords thing where you can recruit Violet at 12k. Also observed that most of the recruited party members can be found in the city they were recruited.
Personally, when I got the Defender, I ended Disc 1. My only regret is doing shit for Haruko. |
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Spoiler:
Right now, I am battle rank 60~, can use 6 leaders per battle, and 5 unions. Until the most recent story event, I had been using a Rush+Emma union, a Loki union, a Nora union, and a David union. Now that I can use 6 leaders and 5 unions, I have added a Caedmon union, in addition to a small adjustment to a previous unit, referenced in the spoiler. Caedmon is powerful, but enemies seem to dodge or block his attacks more frequently than anyone else's. Loki is extremely powerful, and knows a poison gas spell that is awesome. Nora is basically a girl version of Loki at this point, and David is well rounded, with good attack, good mystic, and good recovery skills. I dominate battles for the most part, with the only exceptions being some boss fights or rare monster fights, but I haven't lost one of those in a long time. I did just scrape by with one union alive, with under 300 hp in a big quest boss fight though. Since my groups are powerful enough to basically be able to one hit kill enemy unions when I use a combat art, I am having difficulty improving certain characters' arts, so it seems that I am at the point where I need to scale down my battle party and do a little grinding, just to get a couple of people caught up. |
I liked the hat :/
Spoiler:
I'm rounding out character quests on Disc 1. It turns out that they're Battle Rank and Time unlocked. I used Caedmon for a decent chunk of time and he finally spoke to me in Balterosa(sp?) to unlock part 1 of his leader specific quest. I'm probably going to keep him since he has high magic and strength, with some amazingly powerful evocations for someone who's supposed to be an all-rounder. Plus, dual wielding halberds > 4 Swords. Also, a good piece of information I found, stat growth is apparently preset for many Union Leaders and Units. The Battle Chain plays a heavy factor in developing your party members. So not getting ambushed and fighting as many enemies as possible before leaving an area is vital for getting those stat boosts/skill upgrades. |
Yeah, you get much more frequent/better stat boosts with a big battle chain. Your chain goes up quicker if you fight multiple enemies too so if you're stat boosting it's better to start off linking multiple crap enemy unions to build the chain up then go for individual big guys to maximise the opportunity to get stat advances. I was doing that kinda while doing the quest in the desert where you have to read the numbers on the posts in a certain order, just fighting everything I saw. Ended up with a chain of 260 odd and pretty much all the active units were getting stat boosts after every fight.
Caedmon is stupid powerful, doing the same damage with a normal attack as Rush does with Devils Due (I'm using twin katanas at the moment) and having that completely over the top Silencer art. Also yes, two halberds looks wicked. I went down from four unions of three to three of four as they were getting wiped out a bit too quickly. Mainly in the first quest in Darken forest where you unlock some geezer who's name starts with "R" as an available leader, the boss at the end was sa big union of frogs, a union of little bird things and some double-hard tree monsters. The unions of 3 just didn't have the HP to last out the rounds so now I've got Rush and Caedmon as all-rounders, Pagus and Blocter together as a magic/healing unit and Baulson on his own with some seriously tough soldiers as the hardcore physical union. |
Yeah, I knew about the battle chain piece. I very rarely get ambushed. Like maybe twice the entire time I've been playing, so it was not uncommon for me to regularly finish dungeons with the chain count over 150, with half of my characters getting some form of stat growth after each fight.
Apparently, if you complete all three of Caedmon's quests, you unlock another special guild, in Elysion this time. His first quest was the one that got me the 30 enemies in one battle achievement too. I think the second fight was over 35 bad guys, this time throwing in a couple of giant, powerful birds at the end, instead of just the little, soft jhanas. |
Did you get all of those quests one after another, russ? I've only gotten part 1 and if I could get an idea of how long it takes to get the next 2, that'd be great.
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I got part one, then I ran around doing a whole bunch of other quests and eventually was given the opportunity to do part two. It may have been triggered by advancing the story, but I'm not 100% sure. It took a while for the second part to show up, at any rate. I'm still waiting on part three right now.
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Do you know if you have to have the leaders in your active party to trigger their individual quests or is it enough to have recruited them? I'm using Caedmon and Loki a fair bit but not as the leaders of their own units, I wasn't sure if that would make a difference either.
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They just have to be in your reserves, but having them as active members helps a bit, Shin.
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Currently at Battle Rank 85 and improving stats from characters I never use (i.e Rhagoh, Loki, Nora and the generals Blocter and Pagus).
Current roster is the usual (away from the main story ones): Rhagoh, Glenys, Gabriel, Loki, Nora, Violet, Caedmon and Jager. Also considering dropping a few of 'em AFTER their individual quests are finished and recruiting new faces such as Allan (after Torgal's quest in Royotia), Paris (after Lavafender), Darian (Elysion - Mephina quest), Sheryl (Crookfen and Fornstrand) and that one Yama dude who`s a Legendary Specialist (about 55k on recruit). Just figuring out what quests are near completion so I can dispose some dudes. |
I know that characters you don't use learn new skills in the background to keep up but do their stats not increase too? I'm sure when I used Torgal for the first time in ages he'd not only learned a bunch of four-arm skills and changed from swords to axes but didn't seem to be overly weak compared to everyone else.
Also has anyone tried dropping someone then re-recruiting them later? If so, do they improve over time or stay exactly as you left them? |
From what I have observed, dormant party members level up progressively slower than their active counterparts. Sure, they learn new skills and gain new weapons but the damage output only increased a little (I could be majorly wrong though). Hope this helped, Shin.
Also since I want to fight the Fallen, I have reverted to an old save file. Back in Disc 1, at BR 68. Recruiting Caedmon after doing a couple of quests to boost my BR up tp 75-ish, if I am lucky. |
My BR is 55 as of last night and I'm starting to find the random fights a little too easy. Whilst the level increases for the monsters upgrades the level of their skills, it doesn't make them do any more damage really or be able to soak any up. It's not like I've been grinding particularly though, just doing a shitload of side quests without advancing the plot any. I'm currently doing the quest to get back Hannah's sister and the fight against a load of bugs when you first meet her was over in a single Permafrost spell from Rush.
I'm currently leaning towards making Ruch a wizard rather than an allrounder, if only for the big area of effect spells being more useful than a single-union powerful battle art. This game's going to take me forever to finish but I love it. |
Holy fuck, the Japanese guide for this game is 992 pages long. The Bradygames guide is apparently 301 pages and, obviously, nowhere near as comprehensive. I'm nowhere near my 360 to play the game, but I left off at BR 72 on Disc 1 with 41 Quests Completed. I'm not going to get the 42nd quest since I agreed with Roberto during his quests, but I guess the consolation is that I get him as a Party Leader if I so desire.
992 pages, jesus christ. |
I think I'm just about done with the sidequests on disc 1 now at BR 64. There might be a couple more that'll activate when I advance the story a bit though.
Does anyone know any good tips for getting the Dominator to spawn in Blackdale? He was there the second time I ever visited the area (And kicked my arse) so I figured I'd come back later and get him but now the fucker won't spawn and I'm getting a little bored of killing those pointless spiders on the way to him. If there's one thing I'd change about this game it's every big bird monster having a turn-one curse ability. If you're just fighting one it's fine, just send in a lone leader to soak it up and hold back the rest of your unions but when you go to fight a Skylord and there's three split into two unions, you're basically losing half your team before you start and predictably, get murdered. Do you ever get an Art that cures curse? |
Do not reload your save as opposed to entering Blackdale and walking to Dominator's spawn location and then physically exiting if he doesn't appear. You have to do that over and over. I know of no other way to increase its spawn rate, as it took me about 45 minutes of entering and exiting to get the damn thing to show up. If you do get it to spawn, you can actually make it reappear by going 2 zones away from its area location and then coming back. Do not exit the dungeon if you're trying to get this to happen, obviously.
As for Curse, there's an accessory called the Wishing Coin you'll want. Its effect is debuff length - 2, that's about the best chance you've got if you actually want to survive Curse. |
I finally finished disk 1 last night having completed all the side quests and with a slightly over the top BR of 75 after beating the last boss. I'm now paranoid that I didn't do something that will mean I'll miss a sidequest on disk 2. I'm pretty sure I got everything but I read somewhere that you have to have recruited Glynis on disk 1 to get her quest to activate on disk 2 and I didn't. I've now rushed straight out to recuit her so hopefully I'll be ok as I've not seen anywhere else mention she has to be recruited on the first disk, just that she has to be recruited. I think I've got all the quest-giving leaders I can have on the team at present so rather than worry about it, I'll plow on and see what happens.
Even though the team is rather over-powered, I was still picking up a lot of advances while nosing around the lower levels of the Numor mines although the monsters there didn't seem all that tough (With the exception of the Greater Demons I accidentally ran into that wiped me out in three turns). I found the Dominator after about 40 minutes of running in and out of Blackdale and handed him his arse but apart from him I've not gone out of my way to complete any guild tasks, you seem to pass most of them just through playing the game and completing quests anyway. |
On another note, is there any news on the release date of the ps3 version?
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I think it's still a TBA 2009 at present.
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I have to complete a couple of side quests in my restart, but otherwise, I am about to assault the Nagapur aquaducts (which means I am knocking on the door of disc 2). I fully expect to embarrass The Gates of Hell this time around. |
I'd be lying if I said I paid much attention to my stats. Each of my four man unions has about 2,500 hp though and Baulson is currently doing around 10,000 damage with a Thunderclap, Pagus around 5,000 with a Spark. Matey at the end of disk 1 was hitting us for about 400 damage an attack (When he hit), Hells Gate was only doing around 250 damage per attack and I killed it in six turns, including a first turn of saving up APs, a second turn of killing all the smaller monsters (Pagus and David both used Blackout, unsurprisingly David's killed everything) and then just hitting it hard until it died. I only had to heal once I think. Heh, when I fought the Dominator it was only doing around 40 damage per hit to me, I probably could have taken it on a little earlier.
I reckon my team could be a lot more powerful for their rank, I spent a fair bit of time fighting weak enemies while doing sidequests so didn't really maximise the stat advancement potential but I've not had any problems killing anything so far. The Ancient Dragon I killed first time and the two generals you fight when they attack Athlon were stupidly easy. I've also probably put too many leaders onto Mystic arts, having only really Gabriel, Torgal and Baulson as pure Combat types (And even then Torgal and Gabe know a few higher level spells) but I'll probably tell Glynis to go Combat Arts when she asks. I think if you set up the right soldiers in your unions and don't just rush into the fights, your stats are of secondary importance to your tactics though. Once I learned to hold people back to raise their APs and use them for healing I pretty much stopped getting killed and having a dedicated three man Blackout team means you basically never get swamped by multiple weak enemies. I think if I were to play through again, I'd have a stupidly powerful team based on what I've learned so far but then rpgs are often like that, you don't learn the nuances of the system until it's too late to capitalise on them. |
The Last Remnant (PC/360/PS3[Eventually])
Oh yeah, this was coming out on PC, wasn't it?
The Last Remnant, or "Holy Shit S-E Made A New IP," is a kind of strategical RPG in the way that battles flow like your typical RPG, but everything is squad and morale based. Get your A kicked, and you'll only get your A kicked further. Kick A and you will proceed to kick more A. The story's about a guy named Rush who's trying to find his sister, while she's being experimented on for controlling war-machine "Remnants" or something. Rush, who has famous parents, is joined by a local ruler and his generals to find his sister while at the same time keep said ruler's lands safe. The game came out on Xbox 360, but had no shortage of graphical problems. The PC version has addressed many of these (It runs great for me) and has even made some changes to the game. Changes include:
System Requirements (From Steam) Spoiler:
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Yeah, the fact you can use all leaders was apparently always the idea but the graphical limitations of the 360 meant they had to introduce the generic looking soldiers. Now you can have 18 leaders in your active battle party which means people might actually use some of the non-story leaders and that the game will be a shit load easier, unless they've beefed up the badguys a bit.
Reports so far suggest the loading times are seconds, if that and the game looks pretty amazing if you've got a decent setup. Personally, I'm not going to bother getting the PC version (Still not finished the 360 one although my team is close to max stats now which will leave a couple of hours of finishing the story and months of hunting rare monsters) but I'd recommend this to anyone who was going to get the 360 one but was put off by the technical issues. It's a top game and worth a look. |
It uses the Unreal 3 engine, so it'll run on mid-level hardware, just probably at medium-low settings. There's always the demo on Steam to try out if you're not sure, anyway.
I've got 4GB RAM, a Radeon HD 4850, and an i7 920 and I still have to run the thing on medium-high to keep a high framerate. I could probably put it on max and get 30FPS, but I'm a fag and always try for 60. |
I tried the demo and I can play it on medium on my rig and the graphic a still beautiful but with some lag ehre and there in battle. The demo was really fun gameplay wise since there was no story at all in the demo but the little side mission were pretty fun to do.
I'll probaly pirate the game since my rig can't play it at it full potential until the ps3 version comes out if it's not cancelled... |
I just heard about this game being release for pc but I didn't realize there was a demo. Going to try it out and hope it runs well. Still also hoping for the ps3 port since I won't be able to enjoy it fully on my monitor
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I'd have thought the PS3 version will be a port of the 360 release rather than the PC one though and the gameplay tweaks they've made to the PC version have, by all accounts really improved the game. If you can run the PC version, I'd plump for that over the PS3 port.
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We can always hope that the tweaks from the pc version will go into the ps3 version as well. I don't know if the turbo mode can be done on console but hat wouldn't be a big lost. I think the other tweaks can be done on ps3 though.
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I'd kill for a turbo mode in the 360 version. The other flaws are livable, but sitting through all those animations while I twiddle my thumbs gets old fast.
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An unpleasant bit for those waiting for the PS3 version, from the GDC.
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I wonder if it's still in the works, or if it'll just fade into obscurity. The official site still has the PS3 logo, though. |
Given that they struggled to get the engine to work properly on 360, it's perhaps not surprising that the PS3 version is struggling then. I'd be amazed if they managed to get an all-leader battle party running on a PS3 like in the PC version without severely cutting down the character models. I know it can chuck around polygons better than a 360 but not that much better.
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I believe it can chuck them round that much better, but it just takes a lot more work and clever shit to do so. Given they don't have control over the UE3 engine, sorting out that clever shit might not be possible. But yeah, doesn't sound good for the chance of a PS3 version appearing. I feel less bad about grabbing the 360 version in the sales now.
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