• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Last Remnant |OT| of DON'T LISTEN TO REVIEWERS!

vareon

Member
Just finished the game (PC version) last week. Pretty fun. Finished it at BR 68 and the game never felt frustatingly difficult to me. I didn't do some of the sidequests though.
 
I'm not quite sure how to unlock trade items. Should I be selling all the monster parts and things I get? Are there irreplaceable ones I should know about?
 
pancakesandsex said:
I'm not quite sure how to unlock trade items. Should I be selling all the monster parts and things I get? Are there irreplaceable ones I should know about?
If I remember correctly trade items are unlocked by selling captured monsters, not the monster parts which are used in weapon and item creation.

I believe that captured monsters have ranks and that correspond to trade item ranks. You must meet a quota in order to unlock the item, or something like that.
 

usea

Member
I bought this game for my girlfriend when it came out, but I'm just now getting around the playing it (360). I'm about 10 hours or so into the game, and I don't like it. I feel like I have no control over anything in this game.

Unless I'm really misunderstanding TLR's systems, I'm totally baffled by the combination of mechanics they chose for this game. First, your characters apparently advance based on which moves you use more often. Second, you can't directly tell characters which moves to use, you have to hope the game chooses them as one of the seemingly random options.

So I feel like I have no control over what moves my unions are using in battle, and I have no control over the growth of my characters. It's very frustrating. I tried making rush into a mage, and while I've managed to learn Spark 3 and Wind Shear, he just now inexplicably became an Expert Fighter. Now he won't use any mystic arts, no matter what I do. I put him in a union with all mages, I even tried making the leader a mage, and yet when I pick "use mystic arts" in battle, he still just attacks. Even when I have over 100 AP! Use some magic you fucking idiot. Hey, at least when I need to heal, he uses an herb (while my mage who only knows restore and nothing else is content on just attacking. shame I can't level his healing up at all; he's useless).

I really enjoy the way that the game is basically all battles, and I like the music. The texture pop is not bothering me very much. The camera in battles is horrible though, so much that you can't really tell the positions of units at all, and lots of times it makes your characters invisible. The positioning aspect of battles is frustrating too, since it's so abstracted from your control and view that it seems almost random. I like that I don't have to wander towns and talk to boring npcs all the time. The mission system works well, and important npcs are clearly marked with a red icon. All great features for people like me who get bored in towns in rpgs.

I've read about the battle rank and stat system, and how linking fights actually works against you. As a designer I think that's completely retarded, but it hasn't bothered me as a player because I'm too busy making futile attempts to even control my characters.

This is so frustrating. I want to break the disc in half.
 

starsky

Member
usea, the combat of this game can be overwhelming, but once you got it, it's pretty addictive. Do you know on the battlefield when you're issuing command to the party you can see what attack each character will use by pressing a button (probably "X" button)? You can also select which enemy to attack, and they usually use different combination of attack techniques against differing enemies so you can plan how they will progress through the game.

For example: Rush party is deadlocked against Enemy A and if you tell him to attack he will use Spark, but you can make him attack Enemy B, or Enemy C instead and use Wind Shear.

Linking doesn't work against you, don't worry about it. I've only played the game once and I got perfect score achievement, beat all the optional super duper difficult bosses etc so you won't be weaker by doing that.

Another tip, if you want to advance a particular character progression, always use him/her as a leader of the party. The party has SP pool and it always prioritizes the leader move set.

Don't give up on the game, it's pretty good!
 

usea

Member
Yes, I do use X to view which moves characters will do. I'm a decent ways into the game. I've managed to defeat 2 rare monsters that I've come across, and right now I'm trying to finish all the sidequests available to me at the moment. I'm no longer overwhelmed at all by the interface, and battles don't confuse me anymore (from an operational standpoint).

Linking does work against you, since it a worse stats return to BR ratio, and enemies scale with BR. That's just the way the system works. Whether or not you can beat the game, or beat all the hard bosses doesn't matter. I don't play rpgs to beat them. I don't know what perfect score achievement is, but I'm not worried about it. It's not an issue for me either way.

My main issue is that the way characters grow is influenced by something you have no direct control over. I play rpgs to build fun parties and have fun with advancing characters in interesting ways. I'd be fine with either system (loose control over unions or growing characters based on their actions), but both systems together is nonsensical.
 
Due mainly to this thread, TLR had grabbed a portion of my attention. It's pretty well available on Goozex and I have plenty of points to grab it, but in a month or so I'll have a PC more than equipped to handle the game. Are the improvements in the PC version worth the $40 premium, or would I be better served to grab it for the 360 off Goozex?
 
Been playing TLR for the past few days (360), I don't see what the big deal is with the reviewers bitching about technical problems, it's nowhere near as bad as I expected. Game seems fine to me (I did install it to the HDD though).

Really enjoying the game so far, once you get a hang of the battle system, its great fun.

Just got upto Disc 2 earlier today.

P.S. What's with the lack of game timer??
 

jorgeton

Member
Recently finished the game. It really clicked for me in Disc 2, where I learned to accept the battle system for what it was (warts and all) and went around doing all the side quests I could find. It was satisfying putting unions together and then watch as they became well-oiled machines after a few hours of grinding. I never had a problem with linking enemies and my battle rank, I found that although the enemies leveled up with me, I was still more powerful. The bosses were tricky, but the key to beating them was good old strategery, not so much having a the right battle rank.

I also wish it had an in-game timer. I like to know how many hours of my life I've sank into a game.
 

manzo

Member
I started LR one week ago, been playing it nearly every day. Loving it so far.

I'm currently still on Disc 1, BR 45, trying to tackle the Rainbow bond sidequest. I have 3 unions (out of maximum of 4), 5 battle leaders and 10 soldiers. The main story is at the point where I just
found Rush's mom at the catacombs and next I'm supposed to go to Heroic Ramparts
. The Ancient Dragon is kicking my ass with the AoE breath. I think I need to either raise my BR or then re-create/re-think my unions. I've been following a guide for not missing any of the sidequests before Disc 1 ends. I've finished nearly 30 sidequests and 33 guild quests.

My parties:
1) Rush and Veronica plus 2 random soldiers (around 1500 hp)
2) Loki and McGrady plus 2 random soldiers (around 1500 hp)
3) Emma and 3 random soldiers (around 1400 hp)

I have a few questions:

I'm still using the random soldiers that I could get when I first had the possibility to recruit them. Should I just go down the list as far as possible and re-recruit new soldiers and replace the old ones? Kinda feels like not worth doing, since the random soldiers have learned shitloads of different arts. Also, is there a real difference between the races of soldiers? All the bottom ones on the list are Qsitis.

Should I use the "main" leaders (David, Torgal, Pagus, Blocter etc) more? I haven't used them at all since I'm afraid to lose them should the leave because of story twists etc. Are the recruited leaders better than the "main" leaders?

Are my unions' HP's around normal?
 

bucklam66

Member
use david, torgal, and bloctor. david has the most powerful special in the game up to that point. Torgal is great at combat arts (physical). Pegus is good too.
 
usea said:
I bought this game for my girlfriend when it came out, but I'm just now getting around the playing it (360). I'm about 10 hours or so into the game, and I don't like it. I feel like I have no control over anything in this game.

Unless I'm really misunderstanding TLR's systems, I'm totally baffled by the combination of mechanics they chose for this game. First, your characters apparently advance based on which moves you use more often. Second, you can't directly tell characters which moves to use, you have to hope the game chooses them as one of the seemingly random options.

So I feel like I have no control over what moves my unions are using in battle, and I have no control over the growth of my characters. It's very frustrating. I tried making rush into a mage, and while I've managed to learn Spark 3 and Wind Shear, he just now inexplicably became an Expert Fighter. Now he won't use any mystic arts, no matter what I do. I put him in a union with all mages, I even tried making the leader a mage, and yet when I pick "use mystic arts" in battle, he still just attacks. Even when I have over 100 AP! Use some magic you fucking idiot. Hey, at least when I need to heal, he uses an herb (while my mage who only knows restore and nothing else is content on just attacking. shame I can't level his healing up at all; he's useless).

I really enjoy the way that the game is basically all battles, and I like the music. The texture pop is not bothering me very much. The camera in battles is horrible though, so much that you can't really tell the positions of units at all, and lots of times it makes your characters invisible. The positioning aspect of battles is frustrating too, since it's so abstracted from your control and view that it seems almost random. I like that I don't have to wander towns and talk to boring npcs all the time. The mission system works well, and important npcs are clearly marked with a red icon. All great features for people like me who get bored in towns in rpgs.

I've read about the battle rank and stat system, and how linking fights actually works against you. As a designer I think that's completely retarded, but it hasn't bothered me as a player because I'm too busy making futile attempts to even control my characters.

This is so frustrating. I want to break the disc in half.

I got about 12 hours into the PC version of this game before I came to pretty much the exact same conclusions. The complete lack of transparency of how this game plays ultimately killed it for me. That seems typical of Square Enix though - almost requiring you to buy the strategy guide just to learn the basics.
 

starsky

Member
bucklam66 said:
use david, torgal, and bloctor. david has the most powerful special in the game up to that point. Torgal is great at combat arts (physical). Pegus is good too.

This. And if you use Torgal you would want him to keep using Combat Arts only since his special physical attack is really awesome and damaging.

As for recruits, keep the ones you like and have developed dump the less useful ones. Some of the new recruits will get more powerful start skill sets later in the game so check back the rosters from time to time.
 

Sonos

Banned
scorpian007 said:
P.S. What's with the lack of game timer??

a timer on this game might make people quit games forever. I cant tell you the hours Ive sunk into this baby. Best console rpg of this gen imho. Only The World Ends With You beat it last year.
 

Mr YuYu

Member
I started playing this game a week ago and i gotta say i'm not really liking it all that much. (i'm currently going for the first time to Elysion)

I really like the graphics and the audio to but damn that battlesystem seems shitty to me. Hopefully it is because i'm only beginning to play this game and that i'm not familiar with all the depth or something. Currently i have the feeling that all i can do is attack, mystic arts attack and combat arts. I can't even seem to be able to chose what kind of combat arts or mystic arts i want my character to use...

Am I playing this wrong or is this battlesystem very limiting?


As for the story, to early to tell. Certainly hasn't blown me away yet.
 

Sleeker

Member
word on the street is that the PC version changed the way you can build a party?

thats one of the biggest problems i had with the 360 version since i couldnt get enough good fighters in there.
 

Aaron

Member
Sleeker said:
word on the street is that the PC version changed the way you can build a party?

thats one of the biggest problems i had with the 360 version since i couldnt get enough good fighters in there.
Yeah, among other improvements. I plan to rebuy on the PC when I can get it cheap.
 

orion434

Member
I recently started playing The Last Remnant this week and I'm really enjoying it, I'm playing with the intention to get the full 1000/1000 on my first playthrough and it's pretty fun bypassing most of the enemies in the game besides bosses. I'm closing in on the end of the Disc 1 with about 10 more side-quests before I get the wheels in motion that will begin the next disc. I currently use 3 full unions with 2 leaders each... Rush & Balthor, Caedmon & Emmy, Torgal & Glenys and I'm BR27 and each union has about 2000 - 2500 HP. I'm following a stat-building guide and I have a few questions.

I've read that it's best to use 2 Two Handed / Duel Wield Herb Users as Soliders... my problem is that I have these units and ample supply of herbs, but they refuse to use them? Will they only use herbs as "Restore your HP" which basically puts everyone in Standby and removes me from deadlock? Am I better off with units that use Restore / Mystic Arts and use "Keep your HP Up"?

Recently Balthor asked me if he should learn "Restore" Arts and I told him to decide... I believe he's trying to learn said arts but would that make him learn no more Combat Arts? He's a powerful melee leader and before I continue on this path if I messed him up I can reload a previous save to make him focus on Combat Arts.

I began the game having Rush use Single-Handed / with Shield... I barely ever use the shield in battle and decided to give him a 2-handed sword ( ironically I have more DEF with the 2-handed sword ) can he start learning 2-handed Combat Arts or am I screwed and should have had him with a 2-handed sword from the beginning?

In my final position in my Unions ( 2 Leaders , 2 Herb users ) I also have a unit that uses Vivifacation Arts... but again if an entire unit is down I rarely have the "option" to use the command / items? How can one effectively "grind" Revivial arts? Should I even bother with them?

Last question... on Disc 2 will I have more Athlum Soliders to recruit? It seems that as the story progresses there are better units to choose from...should I not bother trying to grind low-level Soliders? Any suggestions with unit-names could anyone provide?
 

orion434

Member
Been Playing now for over a week... and with each day I see the poor design in boss battles. It just pisses me off... I don't mind that much that a Boss can attack once against each of my Unions, hey he's a boss and just 1 of him against 15 other ( 3 full unions with 2 leaders each ) units. But then each of their attacks hits not only the ENTIRE Union he's facing off against... but all the other Unions as well? Then at the end of the turn it's the MASSIVE-HIT-EVERYONE attack?! For those that have played I'm trying to fight "The Fallen" and you have to win within 10 turns as well.

This is not skill or strategy... it's how lucky can I get with Unique Combat Arts. It's starting to get annoying to fight in a 20 minute battle have the turns expire and then retry hoping Emmy, Torgal & Rush use their Uniques... ugh!
 

manzo

Member
rayner said:
Been Playing now for over a week... and with each day I see the poor design in boss battles. It just pisses me off... I don't mind that much that a Boss can attack once against each of my Unions, hey he's a boss and just 1 of him against 15 other ( 3 full unions with 2 leaders each ) units. But then each of their attacks hits not only the ENTIRE Union he's facing off against... but all the other Unions as well? Then at the end of the turn it's the MASSIVE-HIT-EVERYONE attack?! For those that have played I'm trying to fight "The Fallen" and you have to win within 10 turns as well.

This is not skill or strategy... it's how lucky can I get with Unique Combat Arts. It's starting to get annoying to fight in a 20 minute battle have the turns expire and then retry hoping Emmy, Torgal & Rush use their Uniques... ugh!

I just got to The Fallen yesterday evening. Got my ass handed on the 6th turn, so I guess it's time to hit AR to start grinding Greater Demons and Terrapests...
 
Bought this yesterday for the PC (but haven't had a chance to start yet)

Anyone want to recommend a good guide for the PC version? I'm not looking to build the best possible party or find every treasure chest but more to just get through the game with as little headache as possible.

I just don't want to find out some party making decision (or whatever) I made in the first 3rd of the game screws me in the last 3rd
 

manzo

Member
I finally beat The Fallen yesterday at BR 81. I grinded from BR 70 to 81 in AR, killing Terrapests and Oblivion Wings.

Now I'm ready to continue to Mt. Vackel.

I'm starting to get the feeling that the game is starting to be on the evening side. It has been an awesome journey, clearly the best jRPG I've played this generation, hands down.

Last stop, AC!
 

starsky

Member
Definitely the best jRPG I've played this generation too :).

manzo, don't forget to download the free additional game content from the marketplace if you haven't done so. It adds more awesome boss monsters to fight.
 

Monocle

Member
Got my 1000/1000 two days ago after grinding my way through the Ancient Ruins and finally earning weapon arts for Baulson, Torgal and Caedmon. I'd failed to keep my BR low before starting the process (I think I was at 79), so I didn't know how well my efforts would pay off, but they did splendidly. By 105 BR I commanded a badass group of four unions, the weakest of which, headed by Emmy, had around 5000 HP. There's nothing quite like seeing Caedemon hit for 50000 with basic attacks after having dealt less than a third that for the majority of the game. I utterly spanked The Fallen, massacred The Fiery Gates (a souped up version of that horrible Gates of Hell boss from the end of the first disk, available through DLC), and tore through all my remaining missions at record speed. Even dragons, once the bane of my existence, weren't a problem anymore. As great as all this was, I think I'm still the most proud that I was able to take down Holy Servant on my first try before I had a single weapon art—before I'd begun grinding proper, in fact.

Let me say right now that finding Jewel Steels for ultimate weapons is a bitch and a half. I almost had a stroke when Emmy and Torgal demanded these buggers not five minutes after I'd left the Ruins for what I'd hoped was the final time. Fortunately, I learned from the good people at GameFAQs (shut up) that your squad members can actually clone any item in your inventory, excepting weapons and remnants. You see, they use the money that's listed in their items menu not only to upgrade their own weapons once they have the right ingredients but to buy what they want from your stock (not that you ever see a red cent of this "payment"). With each battle a little money is added to their purse. So basically, when your fighters ask for anything that's not a weapon or a remnant, say no. They'll whine, but then they'll just clone it themselves, even if it's an item you have equipped to Rush at the time. By the endgame, most of my army had copied the same HP+ accessory for a massive collective boost. It was glorious.

Important note: if Torgal ever requests Leraje Princeps, say hell no, no matter how nicely he asks. Those bastards come with a nasty little glitch that causes Torgal to be locked at Fencer class and delay upgrading his main hand weapons to a better set until, if you're very lucky, he ditches them in favor of his ultimate weapon. Be warned, the problem isn't guaranteed to self correct. It didn't in my case, so at considerable expense I crafted a Halphus for that furry little ingrate, and to my great relief he eventually requested it. Up until then he was dealing the worst damage ever. Lesson learned I guess. Watch out for that irritating glitch if you don't want one of your best heroes gimped for around two thirds of the game.

As soon as I beat the final boss I tossed TLR on a pile of older titles that I won't be playing for a while, but already I'm feeling the urge to attempt a proper low BR run. Now that I don't have achievements to worry about, I'll be able to focus on making the perfect team. The only thing that would make this better is if I were able to play the PC version.

By the way, the TLR boards on GameFAQs and the TLR Wiki are invaluable reference for anyone who wants to get the most out of this game.
 

manzo

Member
bakemono said:
Definitely the best jRPG I've played this generation too :).

manzo, don't forget to download the free additional game content from the marketplace if you haven't done so. It adds more awesome boss monsters to fight.

Yeah, I've downloaded them. Ran into the DLC version of Gates of Hell and I managed to tickle him before getting raped in every orifice of my body. :D

I'll try them out after I've killed AC.

Monocle said:
Got my 1000/1000 two days ago after grinding my way through the Ancient Ruins and finally earning weapon arts for Baulson, Torgal and Caedmon. I'd failed to keep my BR low before starting the process (I think I was at 79), so I didn't know how well my efforts would pay off, but they did splendidly. By 105 BR I commanded a badass group of four unions, the weakest of which, headed by Emmy, had around 5000 HP. There's nothing quite like seeing Caedemon hit for 50000 with basic attacks after having dealt less than a third that for the majority of the game. I utterly spanked The Fallen, massacred The Fiery Gates (a souped up version of that horrible Gates of Hell boss from the end of the first disk, available through DLC), and tore through all my remaining missions at record speed. Even dragons, once the bane of my existence, weren't a problem anymore. As great as all this was, I think I'm still the most proud that I was able to take down Holy Servant on my first try before I had a single weapon art—before I'd begun grinding proper, in fact.

Let me say right now that finding Jewel Steels for ultimate weapons is a bitch and a half. I almost had a stroke when Emmy and Torgal demanded these buggers not five minutes after I'd left the Ruins for what I'd hoped was the final time. Fortunately, I learned from the good people at GameFAQs (shut up) that your squad members can actually clone any item in your inventory, excepting weapons and remnants. You see, they use the money that's listed in their items menu not only to upgrade their own weapons once they have the right ingredients but to buy what they want from your stock (not that you ever see a red cent of this "payment"). With each battle a little money is added to their purse. So basically, when your fighters ask for anything that's not a weapon or a remnant, say no. They'll whine, but then they'll just clone it themselves, even if it's an item you have equipped to Rush at the time. By the endgame, most of my army had copied the same HP+ accessory for a massive collective boost. It was glorious.

Important note: if Torgal ever requests Leraje Princeps, say hell no, no matter how nicely he asks. Those bastards come with a nasty little glitch that causes Torgal to be locked at Fencer class and delay upgrading his main hand weapons to a better set until, if you're very lucky, he ditches them in favor of his ultimate weapon. Be warned, the problem isn't guaranteed to self correct. It didn't in my case, so at considerable expense I crafted a Halphus for that furry little ingrate, and to my great relief he eventually requested it. Up until then he was dealing the worst damage ever. Lesson learned I guess. Watch out for that irritating glitch if you don't want one of your best heroes gimped for around two thirds of the game.

As soon as I beat the final boss I tossed TLR on a pile of older titles that I won't be playing for a while, but already I'm feeling the urge to attempt a proper low BR run. Now that I don't have achievements to worry about, I'll be able to focus on making the perfect team. The only thing that would make this better is if I were able to play the PC version.

By the way, the TLR boards on GameFAQs and the TLR Wiki are invaluable reference for anyone who wants to get the most out of this game.

I've never had any trouble with any of the bosses in the game. I killed Gates of Hell on my second try and had no trouble with any of the bases (got through them in first try). I don't know if I've been lucky as hell. :)

I started grinding on 71 if I remember correctly, before that I just played normally, didn't really think that linking enemies was bad for you. The first boss that really handed my ass was The Fallen.

I don't have any weapon arts yet. I'll look at them when I'm done with the sidequests so that I can start grinding for AC.

Btw, where did you grind for monster splits? 500 is a fuckload of monsters to be catched.... I think I've probably split like... 200 maybe?
 

Monocle

Member
manzo said:
Btw, where did you grind for monster splits? 500 is a fuckload of monsters to be catched.... I think I've probably split like... 200 maybe?
Robelia Ruins, the room with the teleporter on the second level. It's the same room where the early boss fight takes place on disk 1. You can link about 9 pests at a time in there, which should net you no less than 3 captures per battle, then you can use the zone-reload trick. If you're not familiar with this, what you do is leave the zone where you want to respawn enemies (in this case you'd walk down the stairs), save, exit to title, reload, and reenter the zone. This makes almost any enemy reappear, including most rares. I used it to get about 12 Auld weapons from The Sixth Path's Bloody Nussknacker when I wanted Necrotic Metal before entering Undelwalt (for ultimate weapons to use against The Fallen).

I suggest waiting to get the dismantler achievement until after you've done your grinding in the Ancient Ruins to avoid raising your BR too high without the stat gains that come from fighting strong enemies. The Ancbolders on the third tier are the best non-boss enemy for stat upgrades, so grind them when you're strong enough. (You can tell they're going to spawn when the first tier has no enemies in the halls.) As a bonus, they (rarely) drop the Jewel Steel component I mentioned in my previous post. Unfortunately, in order to get to the third tier you'll have to beat Holy Servant to unlock the door to the teleporter, so you might want to grind the Rockgraters in the third room of the second tier until you're strong enough to handle him. By the way, if you want to kick AC's ass, the strategy posted here works wonders.
 

manzo

Member
Monocle said:
Robelia Ruins, the room with the teleporter on the second level. It's the same room where the early boss fight takes place on disk 1. You can link about 9 pests at a time in there, which should net you no less than 3 captures per battle, then you can use the zone-reload trick. If you're not familiar with this, what you do is leave the zone where you want to respawn enemies (in this case you'd walk down the stairs), save, exit to title, reload, and reenter the zone. This makes almost any enemy reappear, including most rares. I used it to get about 12 Auld weapons from The Sixth Path's Bloody Nussknacker when I wanted Necrotic Metal before entering Undelwalt (for ultimate weapons to use against The Fallen).

I suggest waiting to get the dismantler achievement until after you've done your grinding in the Ancient Ruins to avoid raising your BR too high without the stat gains that come from fighting strong enemies. The Ancbolders on the third tier are the best non-boss enemy for stat upgrades, so grind them when you're strong enough. (You can tell they're going to spawn when the first tier has no enemies in the halls.) As a bonus, they (rarely) drop the Jewel Steel component I mentioned in my previous post. Unfortunately, in order to get to the third tier you'll have to beat Holy Servant to unlock the door to the teleporter, so you might want to grind the Rockgraters in the third room of the second tier until you're strong enough to handle him. By the way, if you want to kick AC's ass, the strategy posted here works wonders.

Thanks for the tips! I didn't know of this zone-reload trick. I was thinking of just creating a different save and grind for monster splits whenever I feel bored; this way my main save won't be spoiled. When I get the achievement, I'll just delete that save and I'm done. :)

I've already killed Holy Servant (killed him at BR 75 if I remember correctly). I thought Terrapests gave me better stat boosts and Oblivion Wings even better, but I'll try Ancbolders. I killed a few of them and I didn't get good boosts, so I gave up on them.

Anyway, I'll return to Ancbolders so that I can get Jewel Steel.
 

orion434

Member
I finally finished up The Last Remnant 1000/1000 this past weekend after beating 3,129 Crabs in Fornstrand. I've read that this is the best method... but clearly it's not. I linked 3 & 4 enemies at a time and averaged 252 kills an hour and I know I've dismantled enemies along the way to this point... maybe 50 which means I average 6 captures every 42 enemies... 1 in 7 and this ordeal took me over 10 hours to complete.

I was wondering how someone without the DLC is supposed to get 100% but once you get Weapon Arts it's a piece of cake. I went from doing 30K - 40K with each union a turn to 150K - 200K each... seriously 1/2 a million damage a turn? I'm starting to think, was it really neccessary to stat-grind? I maxed out my strength around BR75 or so... and everyone cloned the +xx% HP increase accessories. I think it's overkill.

I'm making a more detailed Road-map for my friend... there are certain things that the stat-grinding FAQ, Side-Quest FAQ & Official Strategy Guide does not explain... and I visited the Wiki many times as well. Like just hire a solider with a Francesca and it will evolve into a Divine Francesca and then you can get the Rat-tail / Dragon-tail Formation... that's all you really need.
 

HiResDes

Member
manzo said:
I finally beat The Fallen yesterday at BR 81. I grinded from BR 70 to 81 in AR, killing Terrapests and Oblivion Wings.

Now I'm ready to continue to Mt. Vackel.

I'm starting to get the feeling that the game is starting to be on the evening side. It has been an awesome journey, clearly the best jRPG I've played this generation, hands down.

Last stop, AC!
I wanted to beat The Lost before I continued, but that doesn't even look remotely possible, after I barely snatched a victory from the Fallen. I love the game, but it is so highly unbalanced, story characters are way too powerful, and dual wielding has very few cons. My friend easily defeated the Fallen and pretty much every boss by using David, Torgal, Baulson, Emmy, Caedmon, and a dual wielding Rush...Jager sometimes subbing for Baulson.
 

manzo

Member
rayner said:
I was wondering how someone without the DLC is supposed to get 100% but once you get Weapon Arts it's a piece of cake. I went from doing 30K - 40K with each union a turn to 150K - 200K each... seriously 1/2 a million damage a turn? I'm starting to think, was it really neccessary to stat-grind? I maxed out my strength around BR75 or so... and everyone cloned the +xx% HP increase accessories. I think it's overkill.

I'm making a more detailed Road-map for my friend... there are certain things that the stat-grinding FAQ, Side-Quest FAQ & Official Strategy Guide does not explain... and I visited the Wiki many times as well. Like just hire a solider with a Francesca and it will evolve into a Divine Francesca and then you can get the Rat-tail / Dragon-tail Formation... that's all you really need.

Wow, the weapon arts sound really like game breakers. :)

I still haven't gotten any weapon arts for anyone. I know I'll get a Demonblade for Rush soon and Torgal will get Hawkarang with his current weapon (just waiting for it to come).

I'm at BR 82. My leaders are: Rush, Torgal, Blocter, Jager, Emmy and Irina.
1st: Rush + 4 attack based (main attack squad) 4700hp
2st: Jager, Blocter + 3 tank based (tank squad) 5400hp
3rd: Torgal, Emmy + 2 attack based (second attack squad) 3700hp
4th: Irina + 3 healing based (healer/support fast squad) 3400 hp

Should I try to get weapon arts for all others than Irina?
 

orion434

Member
manzo said:
Wow, the weapon arts sound really like game breakers. :)

I still haven't gotten any weapon arts for anyone. I know I'll get a Demonblade for Rush soon and Torgal will get Hawkarang with his current weapon (just waiting for it to come).

I'm at BR 82. My leaders are: Rush, Torgal, Blocter, Jager, Emmy and Irina.
1st: Rush + 4 attack based (main attack squad) 4700hp
2st: Jager, Blocter + 3 tank based (tank squad) 5400hp
3rd: Torgal, Emmy + 2 attack based (second attack squad) 3700hp
4th: Irina + 3 healing based (healer/support fast squad) 3400 hp

Should I try to get weapon arts for all others than Irina?

The Weapon Arts really are game-breaking... I first got Torgal's and I didn't notice until I saw him hit for 150K alone, you don't need a special turn or anything and it does 2X his Lughs Revenge, you just have to have enough AP to use them... which isn't hard to pull-off. In the end I had 5 leaders with Weapon Arts... somehow Rush didn't get his... and I used him as a healer anyway.

I went with the setup of 3 full unions of 5 with 2 leaders in each. Rush, Torgal, Baulson, Emmy, Glenys & Cademon. I put a healer in each Emmy, Rush & Glenys... and a heavy hitter in each as well. As for soliders I went with 2 item-users for Vivication Herbs and tried to get dual-wielders / two handed. The last spot I went with a combat unit... with 2 handed arts. It worked pretty well until the end... when the healers learn Second Chance / Kiss of Life... kinda made the item-users worthless.

You can get Emmy, Caedmon & Glenys pretty early... and build them up. I got Weapon Arts around BR 105 - BR112. I din't go on any item finding quests... just grinded in the Ancient Ruins as the grinding-guide suggests. I think you need the Jewel Steel to make them and I had plenty in the Ancient Ruins. That "Dismantle 500 monsters" will be a pain... wish it had a little updater like Gears of War 2 so I know how close I am from finishing. I fell asleep a few times at the end it was that boring...
 

manzo

Member
rayner said:
The Weapon Arts really are game-breaking... I first got Torgal's and I didn't notice until I saw him hit for 150K alone, you don't need a special turn or anything and it does 2X his Lughs Revenge, you just have to have enough AP to use them... which isn't hard to pull-off. In the end I had 5 leaders with Weapon Arts... somehow Rush didn't get his... and I used him as a healer anyway.

I went with the setup of 3 full unions of 5 with 2 leaders in each. Rush, Torgal, Baulson, Emmy, Glenys & Cademon. I put a healer in each Emmy, Rush & Glenys... and a heavy hitter in each as well. As for soliders I went with 2 item-users for Vivication Herbs and tried to get dual-wielders / two handed. The last spot I went with a combat unit... with 2 handed arts. It worked pretty well until the end... when the healers learn Second Chance / Kiss of Life... kinda made the item-users worthless.

You can get Emmy, Caedmon & Glenys pretty early... and build them up. I got Weapon Arts around BR 105 - BR112. I din't go on any item finding quests... just grinded in the Ancient Ruins as the grinding-guide suggests. I think you need the Jewel Steel to make them and I had plenty in the Ancient Ruins. That "Dismantle 500 monsters" will be a pain... wish it had a little updater like Gears of War 2 so I know how close I am from finishing. I fell asleep a few times at the end it was that boring...

Thanks for the info. My Rush and Irina can already use Second Chance.

Thank god for a 55" TV and PAP --> I can watch TV at the same time while I grind. Makes grinding a lot less painful task :lol
 

manzo

Member
HAHAHA WHAT THE FUCK

I just accidentally beat Absolute Conqueror, at battle rank 83! :lol

How the fuck is this possible?

I just entered the last dungeon to get a Demonblade from one of the treasure chests. I also checked the last dungeon out to kill Homonculus for the Guru of Mystic achievement. For my disappointment, Homonculus didn't spawn. I wandered to the end of the dungeon and didn't even save, I thought to myself "Hell, I'll check out the AC just for shits and giggles, let's see how quickly he will analrape me to Jupiter and back."

First I killed Roeas and Castanea. No problems there. When AC came, I just kept laughing when he kills my entire union, with max health, with one fucking blow. "This is impossible. Looks like I'll need to grind at least 30 hours in AR before even scratching this motherfucker."

After 40 minutes of just running around doing Kiss of Lifes and Second Chances on my unions, Jager suddenly pulls Lob Omen. LO deadlocks with AC. Things started to turn around, my kamikaze unions did small chips on his health per attack.

Suddenly he does Overdrive III and the music changes. He starts to blink red. "AHAHA I fucking made him blink on BR 83! How the hell?! Am I lucky or something?!"

Then he casts the sword. ALL my unions, except Irina's healing union dies. Irina is left with 10hp. Quickly, everyone up and things back on track.

After an intense 1 hour 40 minute battle, on round 79 I fucking killed him. My heart beat so fast, I don't remember when was the last time when I've had such an intense boss battle.

So, what now? I killed AC, with no weapon arts, no ultimate weapons, only 9 BRs worth of grinding (to kill The Fallen) in AR. Now I'm only left with Monster Dismantler and Guru of the Mystic achievements locked.

I even created 4 hours worth of Excel charts to plan my unions' grindings and what weapons I should create for who. For nothing. :( All those nightmarish posts from Tabris about AC and how you need a perfect plan to even touch him.

I wasn't supposed to kill him yet! :O
 

Larsen B

Member
The difficulty of this game is completely overstated, as is this myth of having a perfect BR.

As long as you know how to strategically fight battles, nothing is impossible to do.
 
I only found out about this manipulating the BR thing now. I finished the game and almost all the side quests without the DLC (no internet for about a month and a half) and without avoiding linking to keep my BR down. I think the stress over it is a little bit of making needless trouble for yourself.

It was a really great game, the story sorta gets lost in the second disc there but the battle system stays really great for the whole thing. The character design and art is all good. The side quests are just great. Quick, easy and keep you battling instead of talking. There's only a few missteps, early on, where it's hard to know what to do next to advance the story, but otherwise one of the best console RPGs I've played in ages. Certainly the best on this generation of consoles, hands down.
 

starsky

Member
Larsen B said:
The difficulty of this game is completely overstated, as is this myth of having a perfect BR.

As long as you know how to strategically fight battles, nothing is impossible to do.

Yup I agree with this. For people who click with the battle system of Last Remnant, no monster is impossible to defeat.

manzo, I think you're ready for the DLC bosses :D.
 

orion434

Member
Larsen B said:
The difficulty of this game is completely overstated, as is this myth of having a perfect BR.

As long as you know how to strategically fight battles, nothing is impossible to do.

Yeah from my experience the Battle System relies more on luck than anything else. Even without the DLC you can get a 30% HP increase Accessory and wear it for awhile and the Soliders will copy it. Then give it to a leader and then they will all copy it. In no time your unions that had 5,000Hp will be over 7,000Hp. I find it frustrating that the stat-grinding is mainly just to raise your HP.

For my friend I'm just gonna tell him to stat-grind until you stop gaining strength... probably around BR75... get the guy that will obtain the Divine Francesca then you can just go for the end. He has the DLC so it won't be too tough.
 

Monocle

Member
Larsen B said:
The difficulty of this game is completely overstated, as is this myth of having a perfect BR.

As long as you know how to strategically fight battles, nothing is impossible to do.
That's certainly consistent with my experience. On my first playthrough I linked monsters like crazy and was blissfully unaware of BR management, right up until I hit Undelwalt and read about low BR runs on GameFAQs. Of course I was horrified, but it turned out there was little cause for concern. Even without boosted stats and weapon arts, I managed just fine against the majority of enemies I encountered. Only rarely did I find myself in a tight spot, like the time I played (and either quit or lost, I don't recall which) a 40+ round battle in Yvalock's Nest against a rare monster that kept using Cavalry Call.
 

Relix

he's Virgin Tight™
So, I am seriously contemplating buying this game.. for the 360. No, my PC's GPU sucks ass and I am not planning on buying a new one since I am gonna be making a new PC after the new ATI GPU line is out.

So, with that in mind, what's the verdict? I liked Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean and Lost Odyssey. I like RTS games as well (I was watching the GT review and it really did seem to play like a RTS-JRPG hybrid). It's $20 on Amazon, and I want a new JRPG to play while the next batch comes. Are the 360 technical problems THAT bad? HDD Installing would fix a big part of the issues I guess. Any specific gameplay issues I should be aware of? Let me know GAF =P
 

Ricker

Member
Relix said:
So, I am seriously contemplating buying this game.. for the 360. No, my PC's GPU sucks ass and I am not planning on buying a new one since I am gonna be making a new PC after the new ATI GPU line is out.

So, with that in mind, what's the verdict? I liked Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean and Lost Odyssey. I like RTS games as well (I was watching the GT review and it really did seem to play like a RTS-JRPG hybrid). It's $20 on Amazon, and I want a new JRPG to play while the next batch comes. Are the 360 technical problems THAT bad? HDD Installing would fix a big part of the issues I guess. Any specific gameplay issues I should be aware of? Let me know GAF =P


Yeah,if you can install,go for it,it's a good game.
 

Llyranor

Member
The tech issues with the 360 version are fine, IF you install it. Loading is fine, texture pop-ups are negligeable, and framerate is fairly solid throughout. PC is (supposedly) an improvement overall, especially since there's a 5X animation speeder (which I wouldn't mind for the 360 version!). The leader cap is also removed in the PC version, so you apparently never to use generic soldiers. I'll argue that this isn't necessarily a good thing, though, since one of the things I like about the 360 version is how you have to pick and choose your leaders (and sometimes make tough choices), and fill up the rest of your party with generic soldiers with various abilities (melee, magic, herbs, healing, etc). Since you don't really need to level them up, it's very easy to customize your party to your needs, and switch members in and out, without needing to grind up their levels. This works because the soldier roster is constantly being updated at the recruitment center, so you can just switch them in and out, and the new soldiers will still be holding their own, no grinding required.

It's a great turn-based battle system that tries a lot of new things. For 20$, I'd easily tell you to take the plunge.

This is purely a gameplay game, though. Do NOT expect anything out of the storyline.
 
The tech issues aren't any worse than Mass Effect once you have it installed. I've been playing it religiously the last few weeks and so far it's my favorite JRPG this generation on consoles, with ToV, LO, and Valkyria coming in closely behind.
 

manzo

Member
Relix said:
So, I am seriously contemplating buying this game.. for the 360. No, my PC's GPU sucks ass and I am not planning on buying a new one since I am gonna be making a new PC after the new ATI GPU line is out.

So, with that in mind, what's the verdict? I liked Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean and Lost Odyssey. I like RTS games as well (I was watching the GT review and it really did seem to play like a RTS-JRPG hybrid). It's $20 on Amazon, and I want a new JRPG to play while the next batch comes. Are the 360 technical problems THAT bad? HDD Installing would fix a big part of the issues I guess. Any specific gameplay issues I should be aware of? Let me know GAF =P

Go for it. Best JRPG game this generation. There is just so much to play. I have only one achievement (monster dismantler) to do and I still have all DLC bosses to kill. Roughly over 150 hours spent, haven't felt tired at any point in the game.

However, THIS THIS THIS x 100000:

Llyranor said:
This is purely a gameplay game, though. Do NOT expect anything out of the storyline.
 

orion434

Member
Relix said:
So, I am seriously contemplating buying this game.. for the 360. No, my PC's GPU sucks ass and I am not planning on buying a new one since I am gonna be making a new PC after the new ATI GPU line is out.

So, with that in mind, what's the verdict? I liked Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean and Lost Odyssey. I like RTS games as well (I was watching the GT review and it really did seem to play like a RTS-JRPG hybrid). It's $20 on Amazon, and I want a new JRPG to play while the next batch comes. Are the 360 technical problems THAT bad? HDD Installing would fix a big part of the issues I guess. Any specific gameplay issues I should be aware of? Let me know GAF =P

I basically install every game I play these days... when I went from Disk 1 to Disk 2 I was like... why is it taking forever for it to load? I forgot to install Disk 2... It's a very noticable difference.
 
Top Bottom