The Last Remnant - Reception

Reception

Square Enix reported that the game had sold 580,000 copies, including both PC and Xbox 360 versions, by March 31, 2009, which was less than two weeks after the game was first released on PC. The Last Remnant received a largely mixed reception. It received a more positive reception in Japan than elsewhere, something which the developers credit to different styles of reviewing between cultures. They also felt that the Japanese reviewers scored the game too high. It received a 38/40 from Famitsu magazine; the review praises the battle system for its unique, massive-scale battles reminiscent of Romancing SaGa but refined to a wholly new class; however, they criticized the learning curve as well, the length of battles, and the inability to choose specific skills for individual units. Famitsu later gave the game their 2008 "Rookie Title Grand-Prize" award.

A common complaint from reviewers was graphical issues. IGN stated in its review of the Xbox version that the game suffered from extreme technical problems, while GameTrailers named the "persistent graphical issues" as one of the Xbox version's weakest points. GameSpot, IGN, and 1UP.com cited in their Xbox version reviews abysmal frame-rate problems and awful "texture pop-in", where the textures were displayed as low resolution for several seconds before being replaced with higher-resolution ones, as some of its main failings. However, all three review sites gave a higher score for the PC version, citing drastically improved graphical performance, but still with texture pop-in and slow loading times when moving between areas and when entering or exiting a battle as well as unskippable cut scenes. Other issues raised by reviewers included "cluttered screens and annoying 'quests'" noted by GamePro, "over the top" and stereotypical characters opined by Game Informer, a poor and generic story according to IGN and 1UP, and long loading screens and cutscenes which were criticisms brought by G4, 1UP, and the Australian Official Xbox Magazine.

Another common complaint among reviewers was the battle system, which were described as "repetitive" by GamePro, frustrating by IGN in their Xbox review, and "boring" and the worst part of the game by 1UP. G4 also criticized the battle system, saying that the game played itself. This criticism was not universal, as GameTrailers cited its "unique battle system" as providing "a lot to enjoy", IGN called it "the most interesting part of The Last Remnant" in their PC review, and GameSpot called it "intriguing" and especially fun in the larger-scale battles. The game's visual style was praised across many reviews, such as those by GameTrailers, 1UP, and GamePro, who described the style as "an innovative 'East-meets-West'", while GameSpot called it a "distinctive fantasy world" that is "beautifully constructed". The music was also a source of praise, and was noted as such in the IGN reviews and the GameSpot reviews, which called it an "excellent symphonic soundtrack" with terrific melodies. GameSpot, in their review, also praised the game's story as "epic", in contrast to many of the other reviews, though they noted that Rush wasn't "the most interesting leading man" and preferred when the story focused on the Conqueror.