The Last Remnant marks the first actual Square Enix developed next gen title, with previous games like Infinite Undiscovery merely being published titles from other devs. Unfortunately, while there were certain aspects of Last Remnant that I did enjoy, there are some issues that need to be addressed, mostly with technical problems that seem to pop up from the use of the Unreal Engine, and while it doesn't keep the game from being enjoyable, it's sure to deter fans that are unwilling to put up these problems.

Last Remnant's story starts off pretty much like a typical JRPG, you have your main hero that's searching for his kidnapped sister after receiving a message from their parents who are renowned scientists researching the Remnants for various uses. Remnants are apparently ancient tech/artifacts that are scattered around the world and provide various uses. Even the treasure chests you encounter in the game are called Remnants, so they're pretty ingrained into the story and world around you. However, in his search, the main character gets caught up in a battlefield which in turn brings him into contact with another group of heroes which then kicks the story off into the grand, epic adventure mode. It feels pretty standard to begin with, and it's not quite my favorite RPG tale, but I enjoyed the story quite a bit by the end, and found myself suitably invested in the world surrounding the characters.

While the story isn't quite remarkable, the combat/gameplay on the other hand is definitely unique. Battles are engaged by running into or attacking an enemy on the field, which reverts to a battle screen like a lot of other RPG's out there. However, instead of having a party of 3-5 people, you have different groups of characters to control. Likewise, most enemy encounters will consist of packs or groups of monsters, and it tries to simulate an actual battleground as opposed to a more personal fight or encounter that you see in a lot JRPG's today. You can edit out groups later in the game, switch up who is partnered with whom, trying to match up strengths and weaknesses to get the best combination of guys going. There's a pretty good amount of depth involved in team building, and it pays off to mess around with it instead of just going with some type of default setting.

When the battle begins, you'll issue orders to your various groups, so you don't have direct control over the individuals. The orders can range from basic attacks, magic and physical arts (special attacks), item use, heals, etc. Once you've given orders to all your available groups, you'll take turns with the enemy in carrying out those orders. You'll want to keep in mind who you're attacking, as field position comes into play as well. If you attack an enemy head on, you can get into a deadlocked mode, which means that you'll both battle it out without being able to switch targets until one of the groups is wiped out. If you opt to team up on one group of enemies, you can get in flank attacks, which will cause more damage. If you target a group of enemies that has targeted a different group themselves, you can intercept them from their goal, upsetting their plans a bit. There are a few other variations as well, and it adds a lot to the gameplay, making even the standard battles a lot of fun to check out. Also, after battles your party will auto heal, which I actually enjoy, since it takes a lot of post-fight healing hassle out of the equation.

Unfortunately, the rest of the game is a bit of a mess. I'm not one to complain much about texture loading, since I dealt with a fair share of it in Mass Effect, and that ended up being one of my most favorite RPG experiences this gen. Still, Last Remnant will constantly show texture changes, from entering new areas to various cutscenes, and it's really noticeable, so if that kind of thing bothers your enjoyment of a game then it'll definitely affect you here. Also, there's a fair amount of slowdown and framerate issues, particularly in the cutscenes and pre-fight animations (as the camera is panning around), and the actual loading for the various fights takes a bit too long for my tastes, with the worst example being around 15 seconds on occasion.

The voice over work is mostly bad here too, with a lot of lines being delivered in a way that makes it sound like the actors were taking a break after every sentence. It makes the dialogue painful to listen to, and it hardly drives home any emotional impact the script is supposed to deliver. I was hoping to find an option to change the VA over to the original voice track, but I never found this in the options given, just the ability to turn on subs (which in turn meant I could switch off the sound). However, the actual soundtrack is definitely enjoyable, and is one of the better aspects of the entire game.

Visually, the game looks pretty good when everything is either loaded or meshing together right, and while I won't call it the most impressive effort on the 360, there's definitely some quality work put into it. Some of it's going to be subjective for players, like the character design, but the architecture and the world around you looks particularly nice, and I enjoyed the overall design of both the towns (with numerous short cut options), and the dungeons for the most part. Exploring dungeons is easy enough, with maps to help you along the way, and while they're not as multifaceted as I would like, they work well enough. There's no real overworld exploration, and you're given a giant overworld map similar to Final Fantasy X (or something along those lines), that allows you to pick your location to explore. You can almost always backtrack to old locations if you think you missed out on something, but thankfully the game doesn't actually force much backtracking on you.

Ultimately I came away from Last Remnant feeling more disappointed than pleased, but I can't say that the whole experience was a wash. The battle system is really a blast, and well worth checking out for RPG vets, but this isn't the great SE experience I was hoping to find. I'm glad they're trying out new IP's, but this isn't the best start to a new series, and the quality of the technical work leaves a lot to be desired. You can chalk it up to new hardware I suppose, but this late in the 360 lifecycle it seems like the game could have seen a bit more polish prior to release. Still, there were definitely aspects of the game I enjoyed, and I do feel like it's worth checking out, even if it's just a rental or two.