The Last Remnant
Preview
Another promising RPG from Square Enix
by Howie Howard
previewed on X360
From the creators of Final Fantasy
Let’s start out by having a show of hands as to how many of us have played and enjoyed games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Keep those hands up and keep counting because you will find that over 75 million and 41 million copies were sold respectively between both games throughout the years. Couple that with the fact that Final Fantasy has spawned countless sequels and even movies and we can come to realize that what Japanese Developer and Publisher Square Enix is attempting to accomplish can be viewed as extraordinary. If successful, and I completely believe that it will be, it could mean a monumental step above what the Final Fantasy games have accomplished. The fact that the same development team is leading the work on The Last Remnant tells me that things will certainly blast off with a loud bang on the November 2008 launch date.
We all know how the Final Fantasy games worked, but what is the Last Remnant all about? The Last Remnant is a role-playing game that has a completely new way of doing things; it's a war and fighting game that has adventuring elements to go along with a bunch of battles and quests that all happen in a middle age fantasy world. The sights and sounds are amazing and the development team has taken full advantage of the Xbox 360’s advanced hardware.
The story
A young man that can only be called a reluctant hero. His name is Rush Sykes and he is traversing this strange and fantastical world looking for his kidnapped younger sister, Irina. A rather authoritative young man named David Nassau accompanies Rush. David is the Marquis of a land called Athlum and he has an agenda of his own which serves to heighten the excitement even more. Throw in some other beings named The Conqueror, Blocter, Torgal and Emma Honeywell and we can all expect to experience a fine plot indeed. I used the word 'beings' above to illustrate that the inhabitants of this world are not all human. They can be anything from a race of beings called the Yamas, which are fish-like looking people, to the Osisis, which are small reptiles, and the Sovannis which are cat like folks with four arms!
The Remnant is a force throughout the land that inhabits different objects. These objects allow the people that own them to control great powers. Some Remnant items are very large and they might be found protecting a town or giving an area special magical powers. Other Remnants take the form of items that can be used as extremely powerful weapons. Remnants are ancient objects and their purpose and source of power is a mystery. This mystery in turn can cause the game player to dream up his or her own interpretation of what the Remnants are and this further enhances game play.
