Review for The Last Remnant Remastered. Game for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 06/12/2018
Ten years ago, The Last Remnant debuted on Xbox 360, a particular Square Enix JRPG focused on fighting. The following year the game also arrived on PC with various improvements, including technical ones, while the announced version for PlayStation 3 was canceled, apparently due to some difficulties encountered during development. Now, thanks to The Last Remnant Remastered, finally even the “sonara” user can get their hands on the Square Enix game.
The remastered version includes all the contents of the PC version, that is to say the DLC released for Xbox 360 (which in any case were almost all free), the “New Game +” and the “Turbo” mode to increase the speed of the clashes, a feature that is truly appreciated. Also, they register significant graphical improvements - especially in comparison to Microsoft's console version, which is really problematic in this respect - due to the upgrade from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 4 and the work done on textures and effects.
The leap in quality is appreciable, but clearly we're not at the level of a PlayStation 4 game. Even if we are silent about the depth of field that is not very satisfying and the animations that are not always fluid, there are (and inevitably persist) structural choices dictated by the technical limitations that Square Enix faced in those years: many of you will remember the fierce controversies triggered by the excessive linearity of Final Fantasy XIII and the declarations of the software house on the difficulty / impossibility of developing an open world title - or even just a game full of cities - in high definition. The Last Remnant, in fact, could have (and should, we add, Editor's note) be like Final Fantasy XII, while it proved to be too limited on an exploratory level: not only is there no viable world map, but even the cities are composed of single areas not interconnected, a solution halfway between the classic JRPG and the dungeon crawler, in which the "exploration" takes place only through the menu. And with not exactly lightning-fast uploads, given the digital nature of the product, distributed only on PlayStation Store.
The Last Remnant Remastered, just like the original ten years ago, finds its main attraction in the Artistic direction and in the battle system. The first takes advantage of the figure of Yusuke Naora, former art director, among others, of Final Fantasy VII, VIII, X and (later) XV. The choice of creating a world in which three other humanoid races coexist with the human race, which reminded us of another Final Fantasy, especially the twelfth, recalled by The Last Remnant also for some architectural choices. The character design in and of itself is taken care of, even if they do not fully convince the protagonist Rush Sykes and some details, which ten years later may appear quite démodé.
Unfortunately this is not the only profile under which the good Rush disappoints us, who also manages to turn out to be one of the most annoying and useless heroes of modern JRPGs. Overall, everything the narrative sector and the characterization of the characters turn out not to be up to par, especially in the context of a Square Enix production with a medium-high profile: many plot holes, too many "thrown away" things (and we don't talk only and a lot about lore) ... in short, don't approach The Last Remnant Remastered with the idea of being bewitched by the plot or you will be left with a bad taste in your mouth.
Now as then, The Last Remnant's main attraction is the battle system, which is based on the control not of single units but of handpieces, called unions. At the beginning of each round, the player chooses "generic" commands to be given to the various unions (use magic attacks, heal, charge the enemy), which in fact constitute the real units of the game, so much so that they have their own HP bar and AP (which regenerate at the end of each battle). When numerous unions collide, the challenges become very interesting, also thanks to the positional component, given that side attacks (which inflict greater damage) and interceptions are possible, which increase the range of tactical solutions, both for the player and for the enemies.
Too bad that the gameplay elements are explained very quickly and barely sketched, leaving the player to himself, essentially. This is true in relation not only to combat, but also to all other mechanics, such as crafting and upgrading weapons. Even in cases where things are explained (albeit briefly), the absence of an internal database of the game, of the bestiary and of any form of travel diary (except for the list of missions, which does not even include the tasks guilds). An old school choice, which may remind you of some SaGa, series on which many of the developers involved in the project worked.
The Last Remnant Remastered is a good opportunity to recover a rather particular JRPG and it is also the best existing version of the game, by virtue of the technical upgrade, which is an improvement not only compared to the original version for Xbox 360, but also compared to the one - superior - for PC, from which it borrows all (not many, to tell the truth) additional contents.
► The Last Remnant Remastered is a JRPG-type game developed and published by Square Enix for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 06/12/2018
