Mittwoch, 1. Juni 2011
The Last Remnant (Game Information)
Introduction
I am currently playing this game and so I decided to make a review for it. Chances are that even if you are a gamer you never even heard anything about this game. Actually I never heard of it but one day I stumbled upon it in a game store. It looked quite interesting AND it was made by Square Enix, and since I'm a fan of Final Fantasy (and other Squaresoft/enix games like Front Mission, for example) I bought it right away.
It is a game that was created for the Xbox and the PC. I have the PC version.
The Story
The game starts out on a peacful meadow with Rush Sykes, the main character wandering through it. He's looking for his sister Irina and as he crosses the meadow he witnesses an ongoing battle (this is where you control the units of one of the armies and get an idea of the gameplay). Among all those people and monsters he spots a woman and thinking it is his sister he rushes to the battlefield. Unfortunately he chose a bad time as David Nassau, leader of one of the armies and Marquis of a town called Athlum uses his Remnant, the Gae Bolg (which consists of a handgun he carries and a huge cannon that is fired by pulling the trigger on the gun). With this powerful attack he wipes out the entire enemy army and Rush and the mysterious woman are consumed in a big flash of light.
Somehow a force shield was created around those two and they are safe. Apparently it was created by Rush's talisman which he got from his parents.
However there's no time to celebrate as the ground under them collapses and they fall into a cave. After a short conversation you learn that the woman is Emma Honeywell, one of the 4 generals of Athlum. Rush and Emma decide to get out of the cave together as they can see a light at the end. Going towards this light you get a short tutorial about treasure chests and monsters (or rather how to trigger a fight with them).
And just when they think they are safe a big monster drops from the ceiling just before the entrance. During this fight both Emma and Rush deal absolutely no damage, but after a few turns Rush's talisman glows and he performs his Omni attack which kills off the big thing easily.
Now David and some soldiers enter the cave and he introduces himself and thanks you for helping Emma and invites you to his castle. After some cutscenes David decides to help Rush to find his sister and so the story begins.
The World
Cities
Let's begin with Athlum, since it's the first town you enter. It is near the Yamarn Plain, where Rush first meets David and Emma. This plain is a battlefield and Athlum fought several battles there protecting not only the town itself but also a big city not far away called Celapaleis. Athlum is pretty much their little guard dog and under the control of Celapaleis. David is not even able to use the Gae Bolg unless the Marquis of Celapaleis allows it. There are also several more towns, but I will only give a short description:
Elysion is the heart of the continent and it's where the Academy is located. The Academy consits of scientist who research Remnants and that's pretty much all to it. It is also the place where Rush's parents are working as probably the best scientists.
Anyway, there is also a town called Ghor, which is a big ruin of an ancient big city and now inhabited by strong warriors around the continent who came here to serve the Duke of Ghor who is an awesome fighter. His weapon looks a bit like a giant axe and is also a remnant.
Another city called Melphina is the home of scholars and also has a Knight's Order.
Baaluk is a small village that's behind the Vale of Gods, a dangerous area inhabited by monsters. That's the reason why they rarely ever see any tourists.
In the middle of a desert there is a town called Balterossa, which is the city of merchants, they sell their wares to every town and get some of their wares from mining town of Royotia which lies far to the south behind the big desert. Next we have Nagapur, a very big city and canals are found everywhere due to flood control measures. The only town left now is Undelwalt, where the God Emperor resides.
Remnants
Remnants are basically magic items with special powers. As I mentioned above David Nassau has the Gae Bolg, which is a big cannon.
All remnants are unique and have different powers; some of them can fly, some of them can transport people, some of them are weapons, etc.
Every town has its very own BIG Remnant that protects the town, or at least that's what all the people believe.
Remnants can only be bound to a single person at a time and this bond usually lasts until that person dies. An unbound Remnant can be dangerous as it can become unstable and break out, though such an outbreak doesn't happen very often and usually does not destroy the Remnant itself, but can bring forth monsters or other kinds of destruction.
Even though Remnants are used all over the world and have awesome powers there are still some unknown Remnants around the world and it seems like the people do not know everything about the Remnants. And that's what the Academy is good for. Also Remnants seem to have a price for being used: For example David's Gae Bolg drains a bit of his life from him every time it is used. It is also the reason why his father died at a young age. At the beginning of the game Remnants aren't really important to you or the story, but this changes later on in the game.
The People
There are 4 different races in this game:
Mitra: Nothing much to say, they are humans. No need for pictures, I guess.
Yama: Much bigger than humans (or the Mitra), they usually look like giant fish-people. Even though some of them don't have faces that look like fish, it's a bit hard to describe, you should just see for yourself. However every Yama has a fishtail. Also they are either fat or have lots of muscles, or maybe both.
Qsiti: I hate names like this as I don't know how to pronounce them... Anyway, these are rather fragile looking guys that are smaller than Mitra look like frog-people with long ears (kinda reminds me of Enel from One Piece).
Sovani: I'd say they are feline humans. For example Torgal, one of the 4 generals of Athlum looks like a puma or a panther in human form. These folks are bigger than most Mitra and have 4 arms and are a very proud race. Some of them may be a bit arrogant, too.
Gameplay
Aah, finally we come to the main part of the game!
The gameplay is pretty unique: it is a mix of RPG battles and strategy..
Unions
When you are in a battle you take control of so called unions.
These unions can consist of 1-5 members and you can have up to 5 unions. At the beginning you don't get to control lots of units (to be honest I don't remember how many people you can take into battle and how many unions you can form). As the story progresses you can form more unions, take more characters into battle and recruit more people.
During the fight you give orders to your unions and because it would probably melt your brain to command every single unit (with a maximum of 18) every single turn you instead give them orders like "Attack", "Keep your health up", "Attack with Mystic Arts", etc.
Depending on how much AP (Action Points) a union has they can use more powerful techniques and magic. It also depends on the current situation (status ailments/health/position of your unions) you can give different orders. By pressing the X button on the controller (or the Z button on the keyboard) you can see what every unit is going to do. Usually you have at least 2-3 different options, sometimes up to 5. Some of these options may change depending on which enemy Union you target.
Formations
You can form different formations with your unions to increase some attributes of your union for different situations. There are formations that work good against bird monsters, some work good against beasts, etc.
Some formations boost your defense but lower your mobility, some will boost magical attacks, etc.
There are many different formations which you get from completing sidequests or guild tasks. Also you will finde some in treasure chests.
Deadlocks
When a friendly Union engages an enemy Union, this is called a Deadlock. Every unit from both Unions executes their given commands, but sometimes a unit decides to do something else, but I will tell you more about this later.
There are more things than just Deadlocks, though:
Flank Attack
When a second Union engages a deadlocked Union, this is called a Flank Attack. It lowers the morale of the attacked Union. When executing a Flank Attack the attacking Union deals additional damage and the attacked Union does not fight back (however they can still evade or block your attack).
Rear Assault
After a Union has been flanked twice and is attacked by yet another Union, this attack is called a Rear Assault. It lowers the morale even more and the attackers dish out even more damage.
Massive Strike
If a Union that was attacked with a Rear Assault is very unlucky and gets attacked YET AGAIN, it is called a Massive Strike. This is very very bad for the attacked Union and can be devastating. Now usually in the next turn all Unions would attack the same way as before (Deadlock, Flank Attack, Rear Assault) if you target the same enemy again, but once you get a Massive Strike ALL units that attacked this enemy (except the deadlocked one) with a Massive Strike. As the name already says it deals massive damage and lowers the morale even more. Massive Strikes are pretty rare as there are usually several enemies crawling around and even if there is a single unit it's still very hard. If a Union is hit so often, it usually dies before the Rear Assault.
Now you may think that bosses should be strong enough to sustain this much damage so you can perform a Massive Strike on them, but unfortunately that's wrong because of
Multi Deadlock
This is pretty annoying, but the game would be pretty boring, because it would be too easy to just bash the enemy to death with Massive Strikes. Therefore rare monsters and bosses have this ability:
If a boss is deadlocked with a Union and is attacked again, it is not flanked, but instead creates another Deadlock called Multi Deadlock. Here the boss may attack again and most bosses and rare monsters can take up to 3 Deadlocks at once, though some can "only" take 2.
Raidlock
It's a one turn surprise attack and deals extra damage. There are several ways to initiate this:
1) If a union breaks a Deadlock to perform another action, such as healing, and is then Deadlocked by the union which it was previously engaged with.
2) If a union is on standby, and is then Deadlocked by another union.
3) If a union is doing a long-range attack, and is then Deadlocked by another union.
4) If a union issues a flank or rear assault command, but there are no other friendly unions deadlocking the enemy when that command is executed, then the enemy will be raidlocked instead.
Interference/Interception
This happens when union A targets union 1, but is attacked by union 2 while running towards union 1. This lowers the morale of the interecepted union.
(Please not that not only your unions, but also the enemy unions can use everything I mentioned above even though I have never experienced a Massive Strike on my unions yet. Also Multi-Deadlock is only available to enemy units.)
Morale
Up until now you've read this word several times now, so it's time to explain:
At the top of the battle screen there is the morale meter. Morale is a pretty important part of battles because the team with high morale deals additional damage and the team with low morale takes more damage and has weaker attacks. I already explained how to raise/lower the moral, but there are a few more ways:
Killing an enemy raises the morale of your team, losing an ally lowers it. There are also a few attacks that can lower the enemies morale with or without damaging them.
Reinforcements
Depending on how many enemies you have to fight there can be reinforcements during the battle. There is a maximum of 6 enemy unions per battle, but sometimes you face more than just 6 enemies. In this case you will see rotating squares on your minimap and when you finish off an enemy, then another unit will appear at the end of the turn. When reinforcements arrive, your morale is lowered with each enemy union that enters the battlefield.
Critical hit chance
During a battle the action will sometimes slow down, the background will be turned a bit grey and the 4 Xbox buttons will appear on the screen. Then a big circle appears around one of these buttons and gets smaller and smaller. When it's about the same size of the button you have to press it. Successfully doing so will have positive effects for you:
If you are attacking an enemy and this happens, then you will deal more damage and initiate a critical combo. Now no matter how many enemies would attack after your current party member, the next member will strike now and you will have to press a button again. If you have 3 units and the first and second ones perform a critical strike, the third unit will automatically perform his action or change it (if it was a normal attack and you have enough AP the unit will usually change the attack and use a technique or magic instead) and deal additional damage.
The Critical hit chance can also occur when an enemy unit attacks one of your people:
When a unit dodges or blocks the attack and the critical hit chance initiates, then the unit will afterwards either hit the attacking unit with a VERY strong counter attack or knock the attacker unconscious. This prevents the enemy from acting during this turn again (Only useful for bosses or rare monsters).
Initiating a Battle
There are no random fights in this game. Instead you will see monsters running around and you can engage them in different ways:
1. Run into the enemy
This is BAD. You don't want this. If you just run into the enemy (or rather the enemy runs into you), you start with very low morale and all enemies can attack your units without your people fighting back.
2. Press the RT Button while being near the enemy.
Enemies always have a bubble over their head, you can see their current status with this. Some enemies can be aggressive, some can be non angressive and sometimes you encounter sleeping enemies. You can run into non aggros without problems, because this won't start a fight. When the bubble above the enemy turns from white to red, it means you are in range to start a battle. If you press RT now you will start a battle.
3. Using the timeshift.
Rush's talisman has the abilty to slow down time for everyone and everything for a few seconds.
When in timeshift mode you can run near enemies, which will then turn red. when you press RT now (standing anywhere) you will battle all the red enemies. This is the best way to fight lots of enemies at once.
Why the hell should I battle more monsters?
When you fight more enemies it will increase the experience you gain and raise your chance to get better, rarer and more items.
Battle Rank
There are no levels in this game, your stats increase after battles. Your party members will get more strength, intelligence, HP, AP, etc. when they got enough experience.
Skills and Magic
Depending on the equipped weapon and the race your units can learn different skills and magic.
Rush can learn pretty much everything and he learns new things by getting certain items. Your other people will learn new things automatically when you use them in battles. While browsing the worldmap or the townmap they will sometimes ask you if they should learn something new or not. You decide.
Skills and Magic include things like herbs, remedies, psionics, hexes, healing, support magic, etc.
Different characters will learn different magic and skills.
Note that only leaders and no soldiers will ask you.
Leaders and Soldiers
You can recruit leaders (who are required as a union leader, to create unions) in guilds for money. They are usually stronger than generic soldiers who can be hired in different towns. Soldiers can't learn new moves, but leaders can...
There are also unique leaders, who can be acquired through the story or through certain quests. Some unique leaders can also be hired in certain guilds. The more you progress in the story, the more people you will unlock in the guilds. These unique leaders are stronger and you can talk to and befriend them, unlocking their full power. Some of them may also give you sidequests. I'd suggest that you only use these people instead of generic leaders or soldiers, but You have to decide yourself.
Guilds
Every town has at least 1 guild and you can unlock additional guilds by completing certain sidequests. In guilds you can recruit leaders and you can also get rewards for completing guild tasks. These include things like killing a certain amount of a specific enemy, kill a rare monster, collect specific components or create a specific weapon, etc.
Equipment
The Equipment consists of the main hand, the off hand, 2 accessoire slots and 1 special slot (for a few characters like Rush, this slot is used for his talisman)
You can buy different equipment in different towns as usual, but you can also upgrade your weapons and create new weapons that way. You also have the option to create certain equipment items, if you have the correct components and enough money. Components can be found by killing and disassembling monsters (sometimes you catch a monster after a fight and you have the option to disassemble, or keep it to sell it for some good money to a store, which also unlocks new wares). You can also find components in some treasure chests or by using Mr. Diggs.
You can change Rush's equipment as you like, he can use every kind of weapon. His companions, however aren't that easy to equip. When you have a weapon or accessoire that somebody is interested in, he or she will eventually ask you to "borrow it". If you agree they will equip it. Your units will sometimes ask you to get certain components and after a fight sometimes they want to take some items. You can either give it to them, or keep it yourself. You don't have to worry about upgrading their equipment, as they will do this themself, which is why they need components.
Mr. Diggs
This little mole-like fellow will join you after a certain sidequest. When you enter an area you will see the dig count, this is the amount of digs you have left. In these areas there are different glowing points where you can harvest different components. This can be trees, walls, mountains, spots in the water or on the floor, etc.
You can not dig in towns!
Sometimes you will find special harvesting spots that glow in a circular form. You can only harvest these once, then they are gone, unless you leave and re-enter the map again. However there are some of them that contain Morsels. Mr. Diggs will eat these Morsels and each time he eats one his dig count grows by 1 and your current dig count is refilled.
When your dig count reaches 0 you can not dig anymore until you leave and re-enter the map.
Mr. Diggs will get experience for harvesting and level up in technique, instinct and strength seperately. At specific levels these stats will unlock skills that increase the amount of gold found while digging, the probability of getting more and rare items, etc.
Rare Monsters
Every area has at least 1 rare monster, but usually it's even more. They do not always appear and there are some that can obly be fought once, but there are also rare monsters that reappear. Those guys are a pretty good way to earn some money as some of them have a 100% capture chance so you can sell their body for a high price at a store.
Remnants in battle
Some characters own a Remnant and can use this in battle when their little bar on the left fills up. These remnants can have offensive or defensive effects and even summon a monster to help you in battle!
It's possible that I left out the one or the other thing as this game has a lot of stuff in it, so just leave a comment if you think something's missing.
(I already mentioned some more things in the review, so read it for some additional info.)
I want, now.
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