[Gaming] The Last Remnant

A while ago, when The Last Remnant was featured in a Steam sale, I ended up spending a lot of time reading reviews and whatnot seeing as how the game for poor to mediocre reviews on both the Xbox 360 and PC versions. It was only until this week that I actually sat down and installed the game for play.

I was somewhat skeptical at first due to all the (bad) things I've about the game but I've been playing it for the past couple of days and I'd have to say that it's pretty damn fun.
I can't say that I've gotten far in the game, but the story doesn't seem like it'll get good anytime soon; however, the thing that got me addicted would be the battle system.

The game uses a squad-based system in which you can assign your party members into "unions", or squads/groups. By doing so, you can round out your squads or, with the use of formations that you learn as the game progresses, specialize them.

The battle system revolves around these unions. Like a fusion between strategy and turn-based, at the beginning of each turn you give each of your unions to either attack, use combat arts (skills), mystic arts (magic), let the AI decide, or some conditional options (standby, help another union, heal, etc.).

The battle commands you see at the beginning of every turn

However, when you issue these commands, you have no control over who does what. The skills and who uses them are determined by the AI although, from what I've seen so far, they're all simply pretty damage-dealers so it doesn't really matter.

Pagus casting "Spark II", KOing a monster group

What really got me hooked on this game, though, was the strategic side. This isn't exactly a typical "attack, repeat" sort of game, though it may feel like one at times. Larger battles require choosing your targets and skills appropriately.

Engaging an enemy squad that has not been engaged results in a "Deadlock" in which neither side gain an advantage.

Engaging in an already-deadlocked group will result in a "Flank Attack." This gives a morale boost to the group attacking which results in an attack boost.

Engaging an enemy group that has targeted (but has not yet engaged) another group results in an "Interference."  This also gives a morale boost to the group attacking which results in an attack boost.

Unions have a collective health bar and when that bar reaches 0, the entire union becomes incapacitated and can no longer fight in that battle. The same goes for enemy monsters as well though. If you manage to lower the squad's health to 0, all the monsters in that squad fall as well.

A monster group getting "Terminated"

The constant analysis of the situation made this game feel so much more engaging than the typical "I'll just have a cleric spam heal" turn-based system that I'm used to. Now don't get me wrong; I love turn-based RPGs, but this I felt like this battle system had you constantly on your toes.

In The Last Remnant, the tide of the battle can change at any second simply because you engaged an enemy incorrectly or your attack got intercepted (the enemy's version of interference) and for me, that's what keeps it exciting.

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