Video Game / The Last Remnant

The Last Remnant is a RPG for the Xbox 360, PC, PS4, Switch, Android, and iOS developed by Square Enix.

The plot concerns the efforts of a young man named Rush Sykes as he attempts to rescue his sister Irina from a secretive faction involved in forbidden experiments with preternatural artifacts called Remnants. Rush soon finds allies in the form of David Nassau- the marquis of a nation called Athlum- and his four loyal generals. Meanwhile, a mysterious badass known only as The Conqueror has begun to lead an army through the nations of the world, seizing any and all Remnants in his path.

Combat in The Last Remnant is similar to games like Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, Soul Nomad & the World Eaters, and Romancing SaGa. Instead of controlling single characters, one groups individual characters (units) into squads (called 'unions' in the game). One then controls these unions in battle by issuing general commands, such as "Attack them with everything you have!" or "Keep your HP up!".

The Xbox 360 version was heavily criticized for having massive amounts of slowdown during battles, as well as many other graphical misgivings. This was blamed on a few things: the release was rushed to meet deadlines, and it was the first time Square Enix had used the Unreal Engine (which carries a few graphical quirks of its own) to make a game. Installing the game to the hard drive does fix the majority of the slowdown, but not perfectly.

The Updated Re-release for the PC cleaned up all these glitches, eliminated the slowdown, removed the hated "Leader" designation, added a Turbo Mode to speed up battles, added new content (including the free DLC offered to Xbox owners), tweaked the game balance and generally gave the whole thing the kind of polish it should have had in the first place. The result was a game that was far more favourably received.

In September 2018, Square Enix ceased sales for the PC version. An HD Remaster for the Playstation 4, containing the content previously exclusive to the PC version along with updated graphics, was released on December 6, 2018. A Switch port of the HD Remaster was released on June 10, 2019. A mobile version for Android and iOS was released on December 12, 2019.

---

Tropes Found in The Last Remnant

• 100% Completion: Complete all quests to get "The Final Instance" achievement. As the game has a Permanently Missable Content issue, it's harder than you think.
• A Taste of Power: In your first battle, you command David and his four Generals with their squads. You can't lose. And then Gae Bolg comes into action.
• Aerith and Bob:
  • In spades. Ranges from, for example, the fairly regular Emma, Kate and Hannah through to the slightly-odd Rush and Hinnah and anywhere past. Three of Athlum's generals are named Torgal, Blocter and Pagus- and are lead by the mighty Marquis... David. (Although it is pronounced 'Dah-Veed', which is the way it is pronounced in Spanish, French and Russian; as a side note, Marina and Irina are Russian names as well).
  • It should also be mentioned that many of the unusual names (such as those of the aforementioned generals) are found on characters that aren't human, which could be a justification.
• After-Combat Recovery: Your fighters are restored to full health after every battle.
• Always Chaotic Evil: The Beastmen, who are intelligent enough to form armies and co-ordinate attacks, but do not have a single settlement.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Would have probably happened, except Rush never remembers his heavily-hinted past.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You're limited as to how many squads you can deploy in battle, and how many leader-type units you may have deployed. Rush is a leader unit who must always be deployed, of course. Somewhat relaxed in the PC version: they removed the "Leader" designation, meaning that there is no longer any restriction on the number of unique (in other words, non-generic) units you can have deployed. (Though in exchange, enemies have more HP and are generally harder to defeat.)
• Authority Equals Asskicking: David Nassau and his four Generals are well-equipped, and have moves that do serious damage.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Unique Arts, Remnant Arts, Weapon Arts, and Summons. Mostly because of how much morale it needs to trigger them and their high cost. More often than not, it borders with Useless Useful Spell, and, in certain areas of the game, they may be too powerful. They can be awesome yet practical at the same time if you know exactly how to manipulate union morale.
• Bag of Sharing: Everyone has access to the Item Arts components, even if they're halfway across the battlefield.
• Bald of Evil: His Excellency.
• Battle Theme Music:
  • Clash of Opposites, during the first battle, against rares and other spots.
  • Struggle Eternal, against quest bosses. Usually.
  • Flamedrop plays in dungeon-type areas (blue diamonds), while Sword Sparks plays in open areas (green diamonds).
  • Sliver of Hope and Reversal! play when the morale gauge is at the extremes for more than one turn, and during the first half of the game. Reversal! also plays when you're about to finish off The Conqueror.
  • Beat the Odds and Turn the Tide have the same conditions as above, but during the second half of the game.
  • Out of Control, against Remnant based enemies.
  • The Gates of Hell. against anything that Wagram summons and their pallet swaps.
  • Press to Victory. The Seven and their Enlightened forms.
  • Nisus and Schismogensis, the final boss themes. Schismosgenesis only triggers after the Conqueror ditches the Valeria Heart. Only Nisus plays when fighting against the White Conqueror.
  • The Horns of Victory play when you win.
• BFS: You can choose to equip Rush with one. David also gets the Frostblade later on in the 360 version.
• Big Brother Instinct: Rush even lampshades this while talking to David about Irina at one point.
• Bilingual Bonus: During the attack Twin Snowpetal, the kanji for Snow Moon Flowers appear. However, during Khrynia and Irina's copied Dual Snowpetal, the background features hiragana spelling out the word instead.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the end, Rush does stop the Conqueror by erasing all Remnants from existence, at the cost of his own life, since he is also a Remnant. However, the after-credits scene shows the possibility that Rush is still alive and is coming back for his friends and family.
• Blood Knight: Wyngale. So much so, that the Imperator forced him to bind to the Brimuslabus just to stop him fighting. He's also a little Ax-Crazy, based on his behaviour in-battle. He laughs when allies get hit!
• Bonus Dungeon: The Ancient Ruins. As DLC or from defeating The Fallen.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Some Rare Monsters look almost exactly as regulars, up to the point you may encounter Raging Persephone, which will most likely crush your party in the first turn unless you are extremely overpowered or have a specific tactic for its nastiness (Overdrive). The only warning is that it's in a single room at the end of map, close to the Transporter.
• Breast Plate: Mostly averted, but featured full force in Roeas. She's bringing metal hot pants back.
• Cast from Lifespan: It's said by people in Athlum that each time owners use their Remnant that it shortens their lifespan; it was the reason for David's father's early death, and probably the cause of the Marquis' as well. In the cutscene following Emma's death he admits he was filled with anger over it, but came to terms with the sentence. He seems to be well at end-game.
• Challenging the Chief: Leucetius attempts during his bonus talks. He doesn't believe that Rush should be leading the party against The Conqueror, so he goes to persuade others on the matter. Blocter overwhelms him, claims that he Wouldn't Hit a Girl after losing to Emmy, and receives an intimidating glare from David. He gets it in the end.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Rush is green, Irina is blue, and Conqueror is red.
• Combat Medic: Anyone with the correct skill set can use healing arts, both magical and item-based.
• Combos: The result of chaining your Critical Triggers for a Critical Offense.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Just how does the party walk through Lavafender unscathed?
• Critical Existence Failure: Averted. When a union is left with only 1HP, probably all but one unit will be KO'ed. Usually.◊
• Death or Glory Attack: The option does come up from time to time while in the red. Just don't do it when you only have one union left.
• Defeat Means Friendship: In the PC version you can defeat the individual members of the Seven and have them join you.
• Destined Bystander: You can meet every member of The Seven (the Quirky Miniboss Squad of the second disc) on the first disc.
• Distressed Damsel: Irina, but only for the first part.
• Double Entendre: Hannah knows Rush can "handle a sword".
• Dual Boss: Roeas+ Castanea and Hinnah+ Hannah, once you clear away the Mooks. Or ignore them.
• Dual Wielding:
  • Emma and Emmy.
  • Rush.
  • All the Sovani. Some even quad wield.
• Earn Your Bad Ending: Well, earn That One Final Boss technically. The Conquerer's strength in the final boss varies depending on what percentage of all the quests you've done. But counter-intuitively, the more quests you do, the stronger he gets. Thus if you just run the main quests and ignore all the side quests (which is admittedly hard to do as the main quests are no push over) he will be the weakest strength possible. But if you do 100% completion, he is one of the strongest bosses in the entire game.
• Empty Levels: If your party is too small. Your battle rank goes up according to number of battles and types of enemies fought. This increases the difficulty of bosses and monsters. So if you thought about turning Rush into a One-Man Army by putting him through Training from Hell in the Ruins of Robelia castle, you are in for a nasty surprise. Tip for beating this: build up large chains. If it's the Xbox version, on the other hand, your only recourse is to focus on your equipment and consistently fight enemies who are stronger than you. Statistically Speaking anyway.
• Energy Ball: Most of the Evocations are these; Mystic Missile and Flash Arrow are projectiles. Silencer and Grenade Impact are dropped. Eclipse has a smoky ball thrown.
• Everything Fades: Any enemy you defeat will vanish in Remnant-like dust. Averted with captured monsters. They stay visible on the field.
• Evolving Attack: Characters learn types of arts based on the weapon they use and how they wield them^note or not, in the case of Mystic or Item Arts. Once a character learns an art, repeated use of the art will improve it, or unlock more advanced arts of that type. For example, a character using a single one-handed weapon might learn "Knee Splitter". Repeated use leads to learning "Knee Splitter II", and later on "Cutting Lunge" or "Double Slash".
• Evolving Weapon: Your party members' weapons will automatically upgrade once you reach a certain BR in the 360 version, but you can choose to upgrade them earlier by helping them obtain components. They upgrade much more slowly in the PC version and it isn't linked to BR, encouraging players to look for components.
• Eyepatch of Power: David has Kellendros which acts as a targeting device for both the Gae Bolg and the trigger gun.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: David's coat. But he makes it look fabulous. One of the characters even comments, "What's with the two sides of his coat being different colors? It's a good thing he's cute..."
• First Blood: Emma inflicts this to The Conqueror during her last stand in Athlum.
• First-Name Basis: Lord David Nassau, Marquis of Athlum, allows Rush to call him "David" when they first meet. Rush decides to go with "Dave" instead. This is also something of a Running Gag. The Japanese version simply has Rush calling him David without an honorific. Such insolence!
• Flaming Sword: Most notably Vespe, though several upgraded weapons qualify.
• Going Through the Motions: Most sidequest dialogues use stock animations, though the main plot is full of pre-rendered movies, as well as motion captured acting.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: You can bind all the Remnants later on in the game.
• Gratuitous English: "Remnant", "Yes, my Lord", "Talisman", etc.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • You need to be careful while progressing through the storyline for when quests open up. The most notable example is the quest "The Fallen," which is only available if you finished a certain quest beforehand. Failure to do that one quest, "Frustrations," will result in the Bonus Dungeon being blocked off, along with the final components to most equipment upgrades and treasures.
  • The Melphina quest chain involving Roberto and Ophelia. To get 100% on the 360 version, you have to agree with Ophelia, which results in losing out on recruiting Roberto. Thankfully, the "At Hatred's End" quest isn't required for 100% quest completion for the PC.
• Guns Akimbo: Lugh's Revenge.
• Hammerspace: Just where does Rush keep his equipment?! He can whip out a full-sized spear in cutscenes!
• Herd-Hitting Attack: There are few. Arcanas, AoE attacks (Snowfall, Caustic Blast, etc.), Union attacks (Dragon's Roar, Wildfire, etc.)
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Rush is usually depicted in the official art holding a sword. He even starts with a sword. But it's subverted because you can equip him with almost anything.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Emma Honeywell's duel with the Conqueror. Also, Rush at the end of the game.
• I Gave My Word: David struggles with this upon realizing he got Irina involved in war in the end. Subverted as given her stubborn streak, she wanted to help out anyways. They also needed her in the end.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: David's quest has Rush accompany him to Forstrand. It turns out that Dave is blaming himself for letting an unnamed girl die, as he failed to get authorization for using the Gae Bolg on time to keep the city safe from attackers. In the end, he confessed these feelings in place they used to meet as children. It was the point where his only ambition became to get Athlum's independence. He made it.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Only present in the JP version, where Hard Mode is known as "Randomly Killing Maniacs/乱殺マニアクス"
• Idiot Hero: Rush Sykes.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: The Frostblade is... well, a blade made of frost. Impossibly cool, indeed.
• Infinity -1 Sword: The Faleria Heart (PC). It gives Rush a 99% Evasion rate and 100% Instakill chance on a target. Problem? All stats have a 1 on them, and (un)luckily, tougher monsters and bosses are immune to Instakill.
• Item Crafting: This is how Rush gets most of his weapon upgrades.
• Jiggle Physics: Watch the sovanis' ears especially.
• Just Add Water: Pick 'create' or 'customize'. Any. You will spend hours first hunting rare monsters to get a guild rank, then a required magazine, and then kill bugs and revisit caves to get your Cool Sword.
• Killed Off for Real: Emma. Though her daughter comes in to replace her in battle immediately afterwards.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Rush to Irina. Used to be one, until David convinced him to treat her like an adult.
• Kukris Are Kool: Wielded by Qsiti warriors.
• Lady of War: Emma Honeywell, complete with armor that covers her whole body and an aristocratic accent. Also, her daughter Emmy.
• The Last Title: The game's name is The Last Remnant.
• Leaked Experience: In the PC version, anyone in reserves will still very slowly gain stats and improve equipment, but they won't gain skills. It's the same on the 360, but the stat gains are limited to leaders. In the 360 version, players can take advantage of a skill grinding trick, where leaders in reserves effectively gain skill experience based on what Rush does in battle. In both versions, units not hired will slowly improve their stats and skills, but not equipment.
• Level Scaling: The most enemies scale their stats based on reaching certain BR thresholds. Rare monsters on the PC scale in a more traditional manner. Rare monsters on the X360 and bonus fights in both versions do not scale and instead have a set range of stats for the game to load up.
• Light Is Not Good: As the Enlightened versions of the Seven and the Conqueror demonstrate.
• Limit Break: Tend to be centred around Remnants.
  • Rush and Irina get "Omnistrike". Rush also gets "Talisman's Gift" and can summon Cyclops.
  • David's "Ex Machina" and "Gae Bolg"
  • Emmy's "Hundred Flowers", and the Namul Niram summon.
  • Torgal gets "Lugh's Revenge" during the Six Bases raids.
  • Pagus' gets "Megalore" at around the same point.
  • Jager gets the Lob Omen summon, the "Beowulf" unique art, and if you gave him the right weapon, the "Schiavona" Remnant Art.
  • Leaders that end up with equipment that lets them use Weapon Arts.
• Low-Level Advantage: Partially how the BR system works. Stat gain chances are scaled to unit, army and enemy Battle Ranks, so grinding while keeping a low BR will yield the biggest increases.
• Luck Stat: You know that weird fourth stat? It does something, but no one really knows what... Consensus seems to be union cohesion, which affects commands generated.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Some units have shields. They help increase blocking and evasion, and even Shield Bash those who are unlucky enough to attack them.
• Mana Burn: Cachexia, Artsap and occasionally Land Mine. 0 AP for you! Also the basis for many bonus boss strategies.
• Manly Tears: David during Rush's heroic sacrifice at the end.
• Near Victory Fanfare: ''Reversal!'' and ''Turn The Tide'', which play when your team has the advantage of high morale. Reversal! also plays when you're on the brink of defeating the final boss.
• News Travels Fast: How does someone in Baaluk know about that quest in Undelwalt anyways? Or someone in Royotia knowing that the Cosmos Maiden is late? Hell, why is everyone (except the ones in Ghor) interested in David's love life?!
• Ninja: The Ninja class for the PC version. Allows the union to skip right to Rear Assaulting the enemy if it's already been Deadlocked. This allows for extra Morale gain and deals extra damage to the enemy union. It's also one of the few classes to offer immunity to Instakill.
• Noob Cave: Right after the opening battle, Rush gets dropped into a sinkhole along with Emma.
• Not Quite Dead: The ending implies that Rush isn't actually dead, since he says he's going back because everyone is waiting for him.
• Now, Where Was I Going Again?: Should you ever forget, David always has the answer.
• NPC Roadblock: In Athlum, there's a Comforted Yama that won't move even when asked. It's his favorite spot where he feels so close to the Valeria Heart. Of note, there is a glowing spot behind him, with an associated Notice This icon.
• One-Winged Angel: Subverted with The Conqueror. Although he does get more powerful when you drain half his health (and gains a red glow), the only thing that changes otherwise is his swapping out the Valeria Heart sword for his old fashioned mitts.
  • Though he does gain a few new tricks while he's at it, like Obliterate and Photon Field. Good luck hitting him while Photon Field is active.
• Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: The amount of blood that can be spilled in battle when you drag it out long enough is rather... questionable. By endgame, units that have been active regularly should be dead several times over.
• Parental Abandonment: Played straight but ultimately averted with Rush and Irina's parents. The game starts with John and Marina sending a message apologizing for being away at the Academy, but once they meet their children both have prominent roles in the game, and neither of them die although John ends up in a six month coma after protecting Rush from one of Wagram's spells. However Marina plays the trope straight; she was a street dwelling orphan who was taken in by the Academy.
• Party in My Pocket: The game's a little weird about this. Unique leaders can be found in their respective cities in specific spots, and only story relevant characters appear in the cutscenes. So, just where is everyone else you hired? Don't think you can fit 40-odd people in a pub...
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • Many sidequests featured in the first disc become unavailable in the second (due to the Time Skip between them).
  • Cannot beat the really hard bonus boss The Fallen before entering Underwalt? The quest is lost and you can say goodbye to your 100% Completion.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Hinnah and Hannah. Hinnah is white-haired, loud, straightforward and about as foul-mouthed as the game's rating allows. Hannah is black-haired, polite, manipulative and a bit of a Vamp.
• Puppet State: What Celapaleis would like Athlum, its vassal, to be.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Seven. They're recruitable in the PC version, while in the 360 version they simply die upon defeat.
• Random Number God: Quite a lot of boss battles seem to depend on whether the game feels like letting you win or not. Also, the commands available to your unions tend to depend on which enemy union they're targeting, how much AP they have, and whether or not the machine feels like throwing the player a bone.
  • It's all about union morale. Max out the bar and just watch how many times you can spam certain Special Arts.
  • Good union construction also helps with commands as it can cut down on the "randomness." Since the union's commands are centred around the leader, it's best to make sure that the leader's Luck Stat is something favourable. Especially helpful for those doing a Self-Imposed Challenge since Morale tends to be red a lot of the time.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Conqueror.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: David Nassau, Marquis of Athlum, proves to be a competent fighter who leads from the front.
  • The Duke of Ghor as well, for the same reasons, though admittedly not as effective as David.
    David: What is he doing here! He wasn't supposed to know about this!
    (moments later, as the Duke is cornered)
    David: We've got to save him!
    • Which is mostly a Gameplayand Story Segregation moment for plot convenience, considering that Duke is a top-tier warrior starting out with his very own remnant weapon, once you recruit him.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Fallen, at least according to Wyngale. It doesn't help knowing that The Lost Remnant appears out of thin air after obtaining the Eye of the Gods.
• Shared Life-Meter: The game has this for the squads you build to fight enemies. An especially lucky enemy roll could leave five characters badly injured but alive... sharing all of one HP. Conversely, some enemy attacks can KO individuals without doing much damage, couple that with healing spells not automatically reviving fallen units and you can end up with a single wakeful character while the other four are KO'd.
• Sidequest: The majority of the game's content. The main story can be completed in a few hours otherwise. That said, you likely will struggle if you don't complete side missions as you won't have many unique units AND will be underleveled since the game expects you to spend at least some time running sidequests.
• Smug Snake: Wilfred Hermeien.
• Spiritual Sequel: The game is pretty much Romancing SaGa 4, renamed so that westerners would buy it. Hell, it was even given the working title SaGa Frontier 3, and contains many elements and names from previous SaGa games. Several of them as the Remnants themselves. Have fun looking for them!
• Split Personality: Zuido.
• Stance System: Some characters can switch between the One-handed, Power Grip and if possible, Dual Wield styles. All have their advantages and disadvantages. One-handed is the fastest and allows for shields. Power Grip is as fast as One-handed and hits harder, but no shields. Dual wield is the slowest, but hits the hardest and allows for both weapons effects. Changing between all three means no shield, but offers a variety of skill activation rates.
• Standard Fantasy Setting: Mixed up a bit. Nobody will confuse the four-armed long-eared furry guys for elves or the giant talking fish-people for dwarves.
• Status Buff: The whole point of Wards and Potions. Comes with the requisite Beehive Barrier for the Protection spell.
• Status Effects: Poison, Paralyzed, Silence, Curse... Enthralled?!
• Strong as They Need to Be: Doing more sidequests can makes The Conqueror stronger in the final boss fight. He's not spending all that time sitting on his butt.
• Storm of Blades:
  • The 'Cerulean Rain' Weapon Art, definitely. Very briefly results in a Field of Blades.
  • The Rain Of Blades attack from The Fallen and its pallet swaps, which uses a variety of different swords but is otherwise the same animation.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: Every damn boss battle when you want to heal your squad but not break deadlock? Your only choices will be "leave, heal and let everyone stand around picking their noses" or "attackattackattack!"
  • Note that retreating to a safe distance and healing is generally safer than remaining engaged. As long as at least one Union is Deadlocking the boss, you can break Deadlock without getting Raidlocked. And if you keep your inventory stocked with enough items to use your Item Arts, there shouldn't be a problem finding the "Keep your HP up!" command.
• Summon Magic: Rush can summon Cyclops, Emmy can summon Namul Niram and Jager gets Lob Omen if you hire him and complete his quest.
• Take a Third Option: Surprisingly, Rush comes up with this. As by the order of Imperator, any country taking actions against the Conqueror would be named a traitor, and letting him do as he pleases means a new age of slavery. Rush, who wasn't born in Athlum, decides to help out Dave by trying to take whole Conqueror's army by himself. Of course, the Marquis wouldn't have any of it.
• Take Up My Sword: Emmy Honeywell is told to take up her mother's sword by David Nassau: "Serve me, as did your mother before you."
• Tempting Fate: It seems that confession in The Last Remnant is a straight way to get killed. Two most notable examples are: when Emma admitted to misjudging Rush, she got killed directly afterwards. When David at last told Rush what his true intentions were when taking him under Athlum's protection, it was Rush who got killed... Well, not actually. The Stinger confirms he is alive, in both versions, and is going back to his friends.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • Makes bees and beetles fly and roll in a whole new fashion.
  • And maybe even your own allies. Especially if it's Overkill with Grenade Impact V. They go flying like ragdolls!
• This Cannot Be!: Wilfred Hermeien. Twice.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Like the Cerulean Rain example above. There's also the axe variation with Hawkarang.
• Time Skip: Between the first and second discs. Six months to be exact.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Rush was a Remnant all along.
• Totally Radical:
  • Rush's slang is about twenty years out of date.
  • Khrynia mixes old and new slang all over the place.
  • Other leaders like Darien use somewhat cringe-worthy slang, though thankfully not at Khrynia's frequency.
• The Unfought: Wagram.
• Universal Poison: One poison, but few methods to cure it, thanks to various Arts, Lotions and Remedies. Pick one.
• Turns Red: The Conqueror when he goes into Savage mode.
• Valley Girl: Khrynia. Rush's dialogue with her could pretty much qualify him as a valley girl, too.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Gae Bolg, David's gigantic cannon Remnant that, upon activation, inflicts a lot of damage to every enemy in the battle, usually ending it outright. Seriously, this thing is terrifying.
• We Buy Anything: Vendors even confirm it when you select the "Sell" option.
• You All Look Familiar: The generic leaders, soldiers and townspeople. The only way to tell the leaders apart? Colours and the emblems on their back.

---