You'll feel more cheated and abused the further you get into this dull un-inspired mess.
I'm not a beginner… but not too far removed from one, when it comes to strategy role playing game however… this has taken my cherry.
I feel ashamed and dirty… used and abused… cheap.
Why couldn't I have waited for something that would have treated me so much better than this, a game that would respect me in the morning, a game that wouldn't slink out the door without leaving me a phone number?
It had all started off so well, a nice basic tutorial about combat, a few simple "go fetch" quests to get you some cash and experience… everything looked so promising.
But I should have seen the signs… to draw enemies into battle you press the right trigger button and a circle appears around your character, all enemies within are drawn into battle… just like Blue Dragon did… but so much better.
In battle itself to keep the player interested you're asked to press a button at a crucial time in the attack to supposedly inflict more damage… just like Lost Odyssey did… but so much better.
As time went on the illusion of happiness and quality began to slip, the plot moves on but the game doesn't move on with it, the battles remain the same just with more people to help you fight, more people to command and more units to move… but the same bland combat.
You can instruct a unit to attack using combat arts but you can't tell them which combat arts to use, they decide for themselves, thus they'll use the least effective attack in their range of moves when what you really need is the big daddy move to finish a boss off… alternatively they'll decide for themselves not to just use the basic attack to finish off the already crippled spider but the huge massive move you wanted them to use 10 minutes ago when it bloody mattered.
You reach the second disk, and if you've got any remaining sanity left… well done… but the game refuses to change, the fighting is still the same as in the opening battles many, many hours before… side quests still involve you going to a location, killing everything and then returning to the quest giver… a quest giver who won't be grateful, a quest giver who will probably try and kill you later on rather than say thanks for the help matey.
You'll feel more and more abused… cheap… dirty.
Texture pop in is present, certainly now worse than in Mass Effect but that had a great game to back it up… here, we have generic plot, generic weirdo characters, generic cliché ridden locations and some horrible attempted westernization of the dialogue… the word Cowabunga should never appear in a role playing game… not unless you get to eat sliced, fried turtle after the battle has been won.
The frame rate occasionally stutters, never in any place where you might suffer as a consequence, but enough to annoy, generally this happens in battle as one of your team strikes a pose for the camera… and the game will wait for itself to catch up before launching the attack, but often characters will strike a second pose for the camera, and when you got 18 characters in your team participating in the one battle, which may take several turns to complete these stutters can add up to a lot of wasted time, and its worth mentioning here that you will be doing a lot of fighting… and by that I mean, you'll be fighting for around 85-90% of your total playing time.
It all started so well, but I feel like I've been used, my initials joy at its very presence now tainted forever by bad experience, I've been taken for a fool and played like, like… some, something that gets played… you know what I mean god damn you.
I'm in counselling now… in a much nice, brighter place where people don't mock me… much… a place where you feel appreciated and they don't judge you for your past deeds… on hang on… yes they do, but at least Albion hasn't yet tossed me aside like yesterday's newspaper… I won't be going back to Last Remnant, and if you feel the urge to sample it's "delights" then think carefully… or be played for a fool.