When I think of an underrated game, I immediately think of Last Remnant, released on the XBOX 360, reworked for PC a year later, and remastered for the Switch and PS4.
The Last Remnant has easily become one of my top JRPGs made, easily having sunk in hundreds of hours on its various releases, summing up to about 1000 hours in total. Coming out during an awkward time of JRPGs on the XBOX 360, it was destined to fail in the West. At the time, the top JRPGs on the console were Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and Infinite Undiscovery. I’m not knocking any of those either but if you wanted top quality JRPGs, the PS3 was the way to go at the time.
Set in a medieval fantasy setting, each town is attached to what is referred to as Remnants. The Remnants have an unknown origin but affect the environment around the cities, purifying water, creating a desert, and even guarding the city itself. However, there is always politics on who can bind themselves to the Remnant until our main villain shows up and begins binding himself to all Remnants, a feat no-one has accomplished. Our protagonist Rush is searching for his sister during this time and figuring out more about Remnants and the world around him.
There are plot twists every now and then, especially at the end, but the story does have a wonderful sense of world-building when talking to NPCs and completing sidequests. Most NPCs have much to offer in terms of lore regarding the history or current events and I urge you to speak to them after each major event. The change in dialogue is a wonderful thing to read.
What really did it for me with this game was the combination of gameplay and music. Nothing like leading an 18-member party (or more if you’re using hacks on the PC version) while bumping to some rock/metal music. I had never seen a game have you control so many members fighting armies of humans and monsters. During certain story intervals and finishing sidequests you will unlock mercenaries to hire for your party. Although you are capped at 18 units maximum, you can hire dozens of mercenaries and soldiers through the guild or the recruiting captain. Mercenaries can offer sidequests and can be spoken to in their respective towns, offering backstory of themselves, creating a bond with our protagonist.
Combat is what made the game very hit or miss with the players and for me it was a definite hit with one major issue. Your team is split apart into groups called Unions and during fights, you give them general commands. The issue is that they are general commands; you cannot be specific with what actions they take (this can be alleviated somewhat by turning off certain skills in the menu on non-360 versions). However, their AI is smart enough at times to change their action based on the current situation. For example, if a member isn’t set to perform an action but has healing abilities, they will change their action to heal if the Union HP is low. This in turn really made players focus on proper Union creations as you never want a random set of units in a group, you want them to have roles or similar attack styles (whether its magic or physical).
Stat growth is similar to that of FF2 or the SaGa series, with traditional leveling gone and stats growing based on the actions you take during fights. There is a new mechanic called the Battle Rank system where it acts like a general level for the entire party but affects how enemies will scale (similar to FF8). The morale bar will give you an idea of the Battle Rank difference. The game will punish you for grinding on weak enemies which is something I liked. A simple breakdown of the best time to grind is here
- Morale – Red > Blue = good-great stat increases
- Morale – Red = Blue = decent stat increases
- Morale – Blue > Red = little to no stat increases
If you ever get a chance to play this, go for any version not on the 360. The original release was marred by texture issues, constant framerate drops, and very limiting party building. Sadly the PC version is no longer on Steam but the PS4/Switch versions are exactly like the PC version with minor tweaks.
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