10 Massively Underrated Japanese RPGs You Must Play
9. The Last Remnant
The Last Remnant is an odd beast. On the surface, it seems like a pretty generic cookie-cutter JRPG; an unnecessarily complicated (though admittedly fairly interesting) game world, save-the-family storyline that weve seen plenty of times before, and hyperactive plucky Chosen One protagonist that are seemingly a dime a dozen in Japan. Another of its flaws is that around the middle of the game, the difficulty becomes less of a curve and more of a wall, which means youll be spending a lot of time grinding in the dungeons. Strangely enough, though, that isnt necessarily a bad thing, because the battle system in The Last Remnant is by far the most interesting aspect of the game. It is turn-based, but rather than just focusing on a few important characters, battles are fought in groups. Each person brought into combat is assigned into one of these unions, and as you progress through the game you can recruit more people into the fray, meaning battles become much larger and grander in scale and complexity. This style of fighting introduces a whole new level of strategy into combat. Because of the sheer numbers involved, orders to the troops have to be less specific; for example, use magic attacks as opposed to cast Fireball. You also have to be careful of your positioning in battle, because getting flanked by multiple enemy groups will only lead to a world of hurt. Formations are vital, as is figuring out exactly which enemy groups to intercept and a wrong decision can lead to a TKO. The Last Remnant innovates nicely on a traditional formula, and that alone makes it worth your while.
