The Last Remnant

The Last Remnant is a RPG for the Xbox 360 and PC (a PlayStation 3 port was originally planned but seems to have been quietly canned) 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 and 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 that push it into Obvious Beta territory. 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 Rerelease 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 favorably received.

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"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!"
 * Action Mom: Emma Honeywell. Any questions?
 * 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' for reasons unknown).
 * 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 never remembers his heavily-hinted past.
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit: And how. You're limited as to how many squads you can deploy in battle, and how many leadery-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.)
 * Aristocrats Are Evil:  Subverted with David.
 * Ars Goetia: All Sovani weapons are named after the demons.
 * Artifact of Doom: The Remnants
 * 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 then not, it borders to Useless Useful Spell, and, in certain areas of the game, Game Breaker.
 * They can be Awesome Yet Practical at the same time if you know exactly how to manipulate union morale.
 * Badass: Emma is definitely a badass. So is the Conqueror. Some of the other Unique Leaders could count too.
 * Badass Longcoat: David Nassau gets one. Looks like Emma's wearing one too. And so is her daughter Emmy.
 * Bag of Sharing: Everyone has access to the Item Arts components, even if they're halfway across the battlefield.
 * Bald of Evil:, anyone?
 * Battle Theme Music
 * I think we can elaborate here:
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Press to Victory.
 * Nisus and Schismogensis, the final boss themes.
 * And 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.
 * Blade on a Stick: The Schiavona, after you've used the tablet on it. A bunch of others that you can give to Rush.
 * Blood Knight: Wyngale. So much so, that  just to stop him fighting.
 * He's also a little Ax Crazy, based on his behavior in-battle. He laughs when allies get hit!
 * Bonus Boss: As downloadable content, or unlocked from Guild Tasks.
 * 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 owner use their Remnant it shorten their lifespan; it was the reason for David's father earlier death and probably can be the Marquis' as well. he admits he was filled with anger over it, but came to terms with the sentence.
 * 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 (blue/green), Conqueror (red).
 * Combat Medic: Arguably Irina.
 * Well... Really anyone who's capable of using healing arts and kicking ass while they're at it. That's a good number of Unique Leaders right there!
 * 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.
 * Damsel in Distress: Irina,
 * 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:
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Emma to Rush, though she grew to admit he misjudged him.
 * Destined Bystander: You can meet every member of The Seven (the Quirky Miniboss Squad of the second disc) on the first disc.
 * Different As Night and Day: 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.
 * Double Entendre: Hannah knows Rush can "handle a sword".
 * Drop the Hammer: Nora. You can also equip Rush with a huge hammer.
 * "I'll crush you like a bug!"
 * Dual-Wielding: Emma and Emmy. Rush can dual wield too.
 * All the Sovani. Some even quad wield.
 * Dual Boss: Roeas+ Castanea and Hinnah+ Hannah, once you clear away the Mooks. Or ignore them.
 * 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.
 * Unless its the XBOX version. In that case, 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.
 * Enlightenment Is Not Good As the Enlightened versions of demonstrate.
 * Everything Fades: Any enemy you defeat will vanish in Remnant-like dust. Averted with captured monsters. They stay visible on the field.
 * Evil Albino: The Seven squad has a few. Also, you may encounter hostile Albic Qsiti in Catacombs later on.
 * Evolving Attack: Characters learn types of arts based on the weapon they use and how they wield them . 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..."
 * Fetish Fuel: Emmy Honeywell demanding that you "Hit him harder".
 * 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.
 * To his credit, Dave is completely unfazed by Rush giving him a nickname. It's Emma that smacks him down for his 'disrespect' towards their Lord.
 * The Japanese simply has Rush calling him David without an honorific. Such insolence!
 * To be fair, David does allow Rush to drop the honorific. Emma more than likely smacked him for touching David.
 * David allowed Rush to call him by his first name. That's one step ahead of calling someone by their surname (the starting point of most relationships), but about five steps behind being allowed to drop the honorific.
 * First Blood: Emma inflicts this to
 * Five-Man Band: Possibly Dave and his four Generals.
 * The Hero: Marquis, though he is more like a The Lancer to Rush; complete with balanced combat/mystic skill set and stats.
 * The Lancer: Torgal, who served the Nassau family for over a century already. He is often asked by Dave to explain things to Rush; as Marquis is a public person, Torgal as Sovani is said to be a piker.
 * The Smart Guy: Pagus, and he is in love with history to add.
 * The Big Guy: Blocter, complete with 'let's smash it!' attitude.
 * The Chick: Emma and Emmy, and they are tough ones.
 * 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.
 * Golden Thigh Ratio: Emmy, almost inappropriately so since everywhere else but her head is armored.
 * Many female units also fit the description.
 * Gotta Bind 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.
 * Another rather annoying example is 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.)
 * Well... that's really subject to how you take the "extra dialogue"
 * 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:  Also,
 * Hot Chick with a Sword: Several.
 * Hot Librarian: Possibly, once you finish her quest and she becomes available as party member, complete with a Blade on a Stick.
 * Ho Yay: The bartender in Athlum.
 * Also, David and Rush - pick a scene with them both in it. Any scene. The heavy silence, familiarity and longing looks speak louder than anything.
 * "What's your relationship with the Marquis anyway? Ooh, I'm so jealous!"
 * Those boys do spend a lot of time being really touchy-feely with each other.
 * The apple that David tosses to Rush? Hm...
 * In the Japanese dialogue, David refers to Rush as "Rush-kun," starting from near the beginning of the game
 * Hundred-Percent Completion: Complete all quests to get . As the game has a Lost Forever issue, it's harder than you think.
 * 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, all the way.
 * Shown with full force in his name itself. What did you expect?
 * I Gave My Word: David struggles with this upon realizing.
 * Subverted as
 * I Let Gwen Stacy Die: David's quest has Rush accompany him to Forstrand. It turns out that Dave . It was the point where his only ambition became to get Athlum's independence..
 * 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.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add 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.
 * Item Crafting: This is how Rush gets most of his weapon upgrades.
 * It Is Pronounced Tro-PAY: David is pronounced Dah-VEED.
 * 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:
 * Knight Templar Big Brother: Rush to Irina. Used to be one, until.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Limit Break: Tend to be centered 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.
 * gets, 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.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: You have the Sykes, David and the Four Generals, 27 other Unique Leaders of which one has 7 variations, . And that's not counting the Generic Leaders and Soldiers. Altogether, there's about 300 characters to hire. Take. Your. Pick.
 * Lost Forever: Many sidequests featured in the first disc become unavailable in the second (due to the Time Skip between them).
 * Worse than that. Cannot beat really hard Bonus Boss The Fallen before entering Underwalt? The quest is Lost Forever and you can say goodbye to your Hundred-Percent Completion.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Mana Burn: Cachexia, Artsap and occasionally Land Mine. 0AP for you! Also the basis for many bonus boss strategies.
 * Manly Tears: David
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Take a guess.
 * Near-Victory Fanfare: Reversal! and Turn The Tide, which play when your team has the advantage of high morale.
 * 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?!
 * Noob Cave: Right after the opening battle, Rush gets dropped into a sinkhole along with.
 * Not Quite Dead:
 * Now Where Was I Going Again?: Should you ever forget, David always has the answer.
 * One-Winged Angel: Subverted with . 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 . 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...
 * Puppet State: What Celapaleis would like Athlum, its vassal, to be.
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Seven. 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 centered around the leader, it's best to make sure that the leader's Luck Stat is something favorable. 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.
 * 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.


 * 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.
 * Sidequest: The majority of the game's content. The main story can be completed in a few hours otherwise.
 * 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, though they do fall into the Five Races trope.
 * Standard Status Effects: Poison, Paralyzed, Silence, Curse... Enthralled?!
 * Status Buff: The whole point of Wards and Potions. Comes with the requisite Beehive Barrier for the Protection spell.
 * Storm of Blades: The 'Cerulean Rain' Weapon Art, definitely. Very briefly results in a Field of Blades.
 * There's also 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.
 * Stripperific: Roeas. Also, Hannah and Hinnah.
 * 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
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: for.
 * Take a Third Option: Surprisingly, Rush comes up with this.
 * Take Up My Sword:
 * 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.
 * Tempting Fate: Genre Savvy players could have noticed the pattern. . Two most notable examples are: when Emma admitted to misjudging Rush,  . When David at last told Rush what his true intentions were when taking him under Athlum's protection.
 * 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:
 * Totally Radical: Rush's slang is about twenty years out of date.
 * Khrynia can be considered even worse. She mixes old and new slang all over the place.
 * Other leaders like Darien also use somewhat cringe-worthy slang, though thankfully not at Khrynia's frequency.
 * Turns Red: The Conqueror when he goes into Savage mode.
 * The Unfought:
 * Universal Poison: One poison, but few methods to cure it, thanks to various Arts. Lotions and Remedies. Pick one.
 * Valley Girl: Khrynia. Rush's dialogue with her could pretty much qualify him as a valley girl, too.
 * Rush can also qualify as a bit of a Deadpan Snarker if you refuse to buy her stuff.
 * Victory Pose
 * Wave Motion Gun: The Gae Bolg, David's gigantic cannon Remnant that, upon activation, causes Massive 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.
 * X Meets Y: This game is basically Ogre Battle meets Romancing SaGa.
 * You All Look Familiar: The generic leaders, soldiers and townspeople. The only way to tell the leaders apart? Colors and the emblems on their back.
 * Your Head Asplode: Duke Hermien's final fate.
 * Your Head Asplode: Duke Hermien's final fate.