After its release in 2008, The Last Remnant attained somewhat of a cult following from people who owned it on Xbox 360. I have heard so many good things about the game over the years, but it was something that passed me by and flew under my radar. As an RPG fan though, I was very excited to see that Square Enix was remastering the game on Switch. Sadly, I find myself confused at the hype after getting my hands on it.

In The Last Remnant Remastered, you play as Rush Sykes, a young man whose parents are famous for researching Remnants. Remnants are ancient artifacts that have mysterious powers and have caused numerous wars from people trying to claim their power. Rush and his sister Irina lived on a peaceful island, away from their parents and civilization as a whole.

After Irina is kidnapped by a mysterious foe, Rush begins a quest to rescue her, joining forces with David Nassau, leader of Athlum, a city-state on the mainland. This quest becomes much more than it initially seems, and becomes a climactic struggle between good and evil. It feels very similar (in a lot of ways) to Final Fantasy XII, with a little bit of Final Fantasy XIII thrown in. However, the gameplay is very different.

Instead of playing as individual heroes, you lead groups of units (known as unions) into battle. Unions can hold between three and five units, led by a general. Some characters you obtain over the course of the story, others can be hired and do not appear outside of battle. You can have three to five unions on the battlefield at one time. The frustrating part about this union system as an RPG fan is twofold.

First, you do not outfit your unions with equipment directly. Rush himself can be equipped with weapons and armor, but your units request materials that upgrade their gear. I am a micromanaging fiend when it comes to my party and their equipment, so the lack of capability to gear them myself was very frustrating.

The second frustrating part goes in line with combat itself. In combat, you do not command your unions directly. Instead, you select choices based on the situation, that dictates the type of action they do. So instead of saying “Cast Fire,” you would instead select “use magical attacks” which is very vague and far too imprecise for my liking.

For clarification, I have been playing RPG’s for well over a decade and a half. I am used to the strategy and preparation involved. I am used to utilizing enemy weaknesses against them. I found The Last Remnant’s Union mechanic to be very hard to understand, and even harder to manipulate to your liking. Half the time I chose options that I thought made sense, but I was mostly just flying by the seat of my pants, having no idea what I was doing.

Now, to circle back a little to things that make marginally more sense, you do not fight random encounters. Instead, enemies wander around the field areas that you explore, and you can attack them however you like. If they catch you by surprise, they get the advantage. If you surprise them, on the other hand, you get the advantage. You can also utilize Rush’s “Time Shift” ability to attack multiple groups of enemies at once, giving you the opportunity for better rewards.

There is also a morale mechanic involved (similar to full-scale military combat) that affects how your units (and the enemy units) perform. As your characters deal damage (or take damage) the moral bar changes. Of course, there are other factors involved, such as party members dying, or other mechanics altering morale. Regardless, if your morale gets too low, your party performs less effectively. Conversely, if your morale is high, you perform better and your opponents suffer the consequences.

Sometimes you can obtain captured monsters as battle rewards. These can either be sold to a vendor or broken down to get more crafting components and materials to upgrade your allies. Personally, I like the idea of selling captured monsters for money, but in a lot of cases, it serves you better to break them down for materials.

Outside of battle, you either explore field areas, getting treasure chests, solving puzzles, doing side quests and experiencing the story, or explore towns, utilizing vendors and collecting quests from NPC’s. There are tons of quests to do, and I find the story to be interesting and engaging. You can, of course, strengthen weapons and gear for Rush as well but I find the combat and gameplay mechanics to be very limited and lacking substance.

The sad part about that is that I really enjoy the story and world of The Last Remnant Remastered. The environments are beautiful, the graphics are well done, and the voice acting is exactly what you’d expect from a Square Enix RPG. There are so many great character designs, but the gameplay itself is lacking.

I can see some aspects of why The Last Remnant became a cult classic. The mythos involving the Remnants is interesting, and the mechanics themselves are interesting in theory. Sadly, It feels as though a lot of these mechanics could be done so much better, even if it was just a toggle option to allow you to give exact commands or more vague ones.

I want to love The Last Remnant Remastered, I really do, but the combat (which is arguably a vital part of any RPG) really takes the wind out of my sails. It isn’t at all friendly for people new to RPG’s, and the tutorials don’t explain enough for you to be able to learn how to manipulate the mechanics to fulfill your needs. In a lot of ways, it feels like The Last Remnant wants to be a strategy game and an RPG, but doesn’t really know how to do either.

If you already love The Last Remnant, then the remaster is probably something you’ll enjoy. There is something to be said for being able to take an epic RPG on the go with the Switch’s portability after all. However, if you’re new to RPG’s, or haven’t given this one a try, I wouldn’t suggest getting it at full price. RPG fans might enjoy the story, but the gameplay leaves so much to be desired that I am sure RPG fans will be very disappointed.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of The Last Remnant Remastered was provided by Square Enix for this review.

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The Last Remnant Remastered

$19.99 USD

5

Score

5.0/10

Pros

• Beautiful Visuals
• Interesting Story
• Great Soundtrack and Voice Acting

Cons

• Union System is Hard to Understand
• Progression is Very Limited
• Combat is Disappointing