PS3 Fanboy

We really haven't heard anything about The Last Remnant for a while now -- the game's PS3 version still lacks a release date (the delay is attributed to the Unreal Engine while the 360 version will be out this November) and details on the game mechanics are fuzzy at best.

Luckily for fans, Siliconera has unearthed some information on the battle mechanics for the multiplatform RPG. It is being summarized as a "turn-based RPG with multiple parties" -- you control several parties of up to five characters each. Instead of issuing direct commands to the members of the party, you issue more generalized directions such as "time to get physical/mystical" (physical/magical attacks on enemies) or "attack, but stay healthy" (attack close-ranged enemies while healing) to the entire party. Finally, there's also a morale meter on the top of the battle screen: high morale means you deal more damage while damage received will be reduced and vice versa.

This whole system doesn't sound especially innovative to us. So instead of controlling 4-5 members of your party in a typical RPG, you control 4-5 parties that work in a similar fashion? We'll reserve our final judgment for the game when it comes out though, not that we know when that will happen. Check out the latest screenshots for the game -- you can find all 70 of them in the gallery below.

Don't let the subject line fool you -- while there's still no firm release date set for The Last Remnant on the PS3, it's coming and it's about time we learned a little more about the game. A bunch of press members sat down with the game's producer, Nobuyuki Ueda, then tried to get some information about the game's battle system and storyline. We'll summarize the important bits and let you decide if you want to read the whole thing.

The game is supposed to appease both Western and Japanese gamers. English development is ahead of Japanese, so the English dub is proceeding along smoothly, Ueda says. The battles are as large-scale or as small-scale as you'd like. You have control over five "unions" with five members in each union, but it seems like you directly control either one at a time or the leader of each union during battles.

Once battle starts, a timer is in place that'll signify when more enemy units will join in the brawl. The greater the number of enemies you choose to encounter, the greater the reward. Think of the DS title The World Ends With You to get an idea what they're going for. The morale meter does not indicate rewards; it helps you see how well other units will pay attention to your orders. While the game sounds like it keeps many traditional RPG elements, it also sounds like it may be more hands-off than expected. We don't know for sure, so we'll not make any judgments until we play it for ourselves.

The official site of the The Last Remnant is now online. There's a trailer, a prologue, information on the battle system, 4 characters with voices and 12 screenshots. You can even choose between three different songs as your background music. The game prologue mentions Remnants as ancient artifacts of awesome power but unknown origins, and that mankind's usage of them has caused "a rift in the world's balance." Isn't there always a rift in the world's balance in every Square game?

The game is to be a 360 timed-exclusive supposedly because of a delay caused by the Unreal Engine the game is using. The screenshots seems to focus on the environment, landscape and building architecture of the game. The style also reminds us of Final Fantasy XII. So, still looking forward to The Last Remnant or bitter over the delay?

Even though Unreal Engine 3 troubles are hindering the development of this multi-platform title on the PS3, we're still looking forward to The Last Remnant. Given this new stream of screenshots featuring battles as well as a lot of excellent concept art from Famitsu, our anxiety for a firm PS3 release rises further. Check them out and keep your fingers crossed for more information soon.

Once again, another Unreal Engine-related delay strikes again. The Last Remnant is one of the timed exclusive RPGs from Square Enix on the Xbox 360, but that wasn't because Microsoft shelled out the big bucks. According to an interview with Gamespy, the delay was "mainly for development reasons." The Unreal Engine has been difficult to work with on PS3, and that's been the cause of the delay. "We're developing the game using the middleware Unreal Engine, and the Unreal Engine has a slower development on the PS3 side."

Thankfully, ever since Epic worked on the PS3 with Unreal Tournament III, things have been running more smoothly on Sony's platform. "It was only really workable after Unreal Tournament was published, so this was mainly a development decision."

Square Enix's other PS3 RPG games, Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, utilize Square Enix's in-house Crystal Tools engine.

[Via NeoGAF]

Fans of Square Enix RPGs may have assumed PS3 was the safe bet this generation of consoles. However, during a press conference in Japan today, the famed RPG maker announced its plans to support Xbox 360, with at least one exclusive, and two timed exclusives for Microsoft's current generation platform.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope, the fourth iteration of the popular RPG series, has been announced for Xbox 360 only. The official website makes it clear that the game will be a 360 title, but plans for a PS3 version haven't been completely ruled out yet. "We cannot announce anything on that. We can say that it will be released first [on the Xbox 360]. Whether we'll release it on the PS3 is undecided. We may release it, we may not." [Source]

Another Square Enix game, The Last Remnant, will be multiplatform. However, the game will debut on Xbox 360 first this year, with a PS3 version to come some time after, perhaps next year. This continues Microsoft's aggressive push to secure the Japanese RPG market, with Square Enix's Infinite Undiscovery being an Xbox 360 exclusive as well. PS3 fans need not fret too much, because at the very least, the Final Fantasy XIII games are still exclusive on PS3. For now.

[Via Joystiq]

Here's a slice of news pie that we wouldn't mind gulping down with a tall glass of awesome. Everyone in the RPG business knows the rule: Japan gets the game about six months before any other area. Right? Maybe that won't be the case anymore. Square Enix's Yoichi Wada went on record recently, stating that they plan to start "making simultaneous releases the norm."

Does this include PS3-exclusive Final Fantasy XIII, or the multi-plat Last Remnant? It might. Due to the overwhelming strength of the gaming market outside of Japan, we're seeing a shift in game release ideology. Either this means the US and Europe will get the aforementioned games earlier than expected, or Japan will get them later than anticipated. Who knows -- maybe Square Enix really will start opening up development offices outside of Japan.

Okay, first, off, if Xenogears were getting a next-gen makeover, the dude with the eye patch in this trailer would be a pretty spot-on recreation of Bartholomew Fatima. Minus the really long ponytail. That random observation aside, this new trailer for The Last Remnant is exactly what we expected from Square Enix -- awesomeness, mostly. We've all heard the phrases "one young man's adventure begins" and "it's time to awaken" before, but that's all right. We can discount a few cliches here and there. The game looks to be a blast and getting a simultaneous release across two consoles and two countries ... well ... that's pretty cool, too. Still no solid release date, so we expect a fairly vague mid-2008 date to crop up somewhere.