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US, October 16, 2008 - At the Tokyo Game Show last week, developer Square Enix pulled the curtain back on its upcoming "RPG for the world," a new roleplaying game called The Last Remnant that's scheduled to hit U.S. shores next month.
The focus of the demo we played there was on the unique battle system, which groups your party's characters into "unions," which you can command on the battlefield. Unfortunately, there were many menus involved, all of which were in Japanese, so we were forced to muddle through as best we could. But today Square made things a bit easier for us by releasing a few more details about the game's turn-based battle system in our mother tongue.
If you're interested in the storyline and characters featured in the Last Remnant, take a look at our previous article on the topic. In this preview, we're focused solely on the game's combat system, including Arts, Lockups and weapons.
Careful with that axe, Eugene.
In the world of The Last Remnant, you have a large amount of control over where and when you throw down. From what we've seen, there are no random encounters -- when you see an enemy wandering around on the world map, you can either skirt around it or get in close to engage.
Doing the latter puts you in a state called Deadlock, of which there are a number of varieties, depending on where each side's unions are placed and how they are facing. In a Flank Attack, a union is attacking an enemy from the side and deals extra damage as a result. If two unions flank an enemy union, then any further attacks will occur from the rear -- this results in a Rear Assault, which deals even greater damage. And you don't have to be within melee distance to engage an enemy. In a Raidlock, you can force a distant enemy into a Deadlock -- we're assuming with ranged attacks.
Once you've stepped up and called out an enemy, it's time to put your Arts into play. There are three types of Arts in The Last Remnant: Combat, Mystic and Item. By repeatedly using Arts of the same type, you'll be able to beef up the ones you know and learn new ones.
Combat Arts are offensive skills that deal more damage in battle than standard attacks. You'll use up AP when you deploy these attacks, but from what we've seen it'll be worth the cost. Square has shown off two Combat Arts -- Quad Slice and Devil's Due. The former lets your character wield four different weapons in their attack, slicing the enemy in a cross pattern. Ouch. The latter is a dual-wield Art lets you strike with two weapons at your sides. Square describes this action "as if striking imps perched on both shoulders." Serves them right.
In addition to Combat Arts, you'll also have access to Mystic Arts, essentially the magic system in The Last Remnant. These Arts also use AP and can be offensive, defensive or restorative (at both long and short ranges). The spell Caustic Blast, for example, surrounds enemies with "globules of acid" for heavy damage.
Item Arts use items from your inventory instead of AP and can be used to restore HP, buff your party or, we're assuming, hit the enemy with negative status effects like poison or paralysis. In an example Square showed, mixing abyssal tonic and shockberry results in something called Cyclone Cream, which sounds nasty.
When you're not using Arts in combat, you'll be swinging sharp things at your enemies. You can equip weapons in both main and sub-slots in the equipment menu, and how you do so determines your wield style. The Power Grip style lets you arm yourself with large axes and spears at the expense of going shieldless. The One-Handed style accommodates small axes and swords and allows you to equip a shield to bump up your defensive stats. Dual Wield is self-explanatory, and one race, the Sovani can equip a weapon in each of their four arms.
Slice and dice.
With the basics of Last Remnant's combat system out of the way, Square today also included some more info about some of the Remnants themselves, ancient artifacts spread throughout the game world that have mysterious powers. Remnants show up in the form of treasure, insects, beasts or weapons, and some can aid you in battle by attacking groups of enemies on your behalf.
The Gae Bolg, a hand cannon wielded by character David Nassau, the Marquis of Athlum, blasts out a wave of energy that can burn an entire battle area in seconds. Rush, the main character of Last Remnant, has a talisman with a large, statue-like Remnant called the Cyclops sealed inside. It's origins are mysterious, but one thing's clear -- it's apparently quite powerful.
With a complex combat system like Last Remnant's, it's hard to judge how well it will play until we actually get our hands on the game, which we have yet to do in a language we can understand. Hopefully that will happen soon, and we'll be able to give you a full report on the combat system in action.
The Last Remnant is set for a worldwide release on Nov. 20 and 21 on Xbox 360.
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Hmmm...interessant