good to hear that
but I'm still pissed at the developers who could've done a better job

No, trust me, it's far more strategic than any other X360 JRPG.

I'll give you a good example of a battle in The Last Remnant (even an early battle):

You chain together 2 enemy parties (in a similar way you would with Blue Dragon). There are 6 enemy unions with 20 characters, total. Some are cannon fodder, some are tanks, some are mages.

You join the battle with your troops - 15 characters in 3 unions (or groups, we'll call them).

The key to success in The Last Remnant isn't anything outside of proper formations for your unions, union synergy, lets call it (the fact you have a smartly-built party ala Ogre Battle with tanks/attackers out in front, and healers/mages in the back), as well as your tactical engagement.

Why? Because unlike a turn based game, the game demands actual party strategy - Rather than group up on 1 party at a time, it could spell disaster. If you target a group that is far away, an enemy union may intercept that party, and start in by hauling off and killing the entire 5 party members before attacking. Once. The game demands proper intercept tactics, flanking maneuvers, and strategy inside each Deadlock (or battle where your union is in a fight to the death with another union).

Again, good example (spoilers abound):

Early-ish in the game, you get to fight a boss with a total of 2 unions - 5 characters each against 6 enemy unions - 5 of the unions are the cronies, and 1 is the big boss. If you went for the boss, you'd be toast as the cronies would flank your units, giving them a quick death. Focus on one at a time, and it's the same issue, because of enemy interceptions/flanking maneuvers.

So you have to use proper formations and strategy to beat the boss. In the bosses case, if you split up your Unions by using heavy damage skills/magics, you can mow down the first 2 enemy unions without taking a single hit, and by the time the still-remaining enemy unions have a chance to attack, you have enough HP to bear the brunt of the attack. By the time I got to the final boss, I killed him in 1 turn because my attack was so vicious - I initiated a flanking attack for around 2,000 dmg to finish him off. And that was at Battle Rank 3 (equivilent of Level 3 in a normal RPG - your individual characters progress in an Oblivion-style leveling system, while global traits increase with Battle Ranks).

yeah, i bought both games last friday like you did, the impressions on neogaf sold me on TLR.

wow....way to self-own oneself.

trolling...LOL

@mrstickball

I will say this again.....LAIR was bad (but not 4.5/10 bad) if it didn't have control/technical issues it would've been a 7+ rated game

I think reviewers have an inward hate towards these type of things...

The Last Remnant
Famitsu = 38/40

96% for The Last Remnant.

So mrstickball, you're not alone finding TRL awesome.

Oh yeah....and we all know how much people respect Famitsu reviews around here.

Hear, hear. This game rocks. I get the feeling at least a few reviewers saw some framerate stutters and the pop-in, and panned it out of hand.

Grinding has rarely been so pleasureable!

With the install, btw, the load times are near nonexistant. I don't even have time to read the tips that show during the load screens.

I don't think reviewers are scoring JRPGs right. I hated IU (stopped playing when you have to escort the big group back to the town) and really like Last Remnant.

I like the story and think the graphics are fantastic. The voicework is generally really good (I think David is by far the best, Irina is a little rough, but I still like her). The technical issues are a non-issue for me.

The flaws that stand out like a sore thumb are balance related. Most reviewers never even mentioned them. I talked about some of them in another thread, but stuff like curse (which can't be cured although your units will cast refresh to try to remove it) and the hexes (and blackout) are just broken. I was on a pretty easy sidequest and the boss could one shot me with smoke grenade, while his melee attack did maybe 1/15 of my health. Another time, I was one shotted with a silence spell from a non-boss Magus unit (poison is friggin brutal as well). On the other side, during the main quest on a boss I killed his 5 full strength backup units simultaneously with 1 blackout. My parties are packed with hexers :).

Multi-deadlock and bosses spamming special attacks can be frustrating too. I've seen 3 special attacks in the same round. I don't totally mind the boss countering with a normal attack, but if he counters with a special attack that one shots you, that's lame. Then in the same round when he does it to the next unit, that's even lamer.


I have to imagine the game was rushed, when playtesting nobody could have missed some of this stuff.

@wakwakawa

sorry but the "reviewers aren't scoring JRPG's right" argument is bull

Valkyria Chronicles got wonderful scores....Persona 4 has brilliant scores.....so far only Xbox 360 JRPGs havn't scored great cept for LO.

um issues with the browser right now...... or a short in the key board