This should technically be in 'General Square-Enix', since this *is* a purely Squenix game.
*warn'd*

I got this game last week (after buying it for $34 off of Amazon), though it was the day before I left the state for thanksgiving. I played it for a long, long long long time that day. I can't say exactly how long, because the game has no 'clock' to say how long you've been playing! Which is something pretty major for me.

Anyway, I kinda like it. I was confused as all hell for the first few hours because the battle system is very wacky, but I did get the groove of it after a while. I don't think a rental state-of-mind will do justice to it, since it will take a long long time not only for the system to click, but until you actually become able to properly customize your unions and explore the system. This 6 hours (or so) barrier could be taken as a negative, and I can't particularly argue with that.

There's a lot going on. The battle system is both deceptively complex *and* deceptively simple. Simple in the sense that you give out very basic commands to each union during the course of battle, yet complex in that the way you set up your union plays a major role in what your union can actually *do*. It is confusing to not be able to control every action of each individual when you want to, but I'm beginning to understand how to exploit the system.

For example, the IGN review mentions not being able to heal when he wanted to, there are several things to take into consideration:
-does he have anyone in that particular union who *can* heal, be it through items or an arts?
-if yes to either or both, do you have any healing items stocked? do you have enough AP to use a healing art?

It does seem needlessly complex, and would indeed be much better if there were a normal menu option to just heal. There are a lot of things about the system I don't like. Overall though, I really like the vibe of it.

When it comes to RPGs, the gameplay system is one of the major draws for me. Anyone who pays attention to me here would know I'm not really a fan of the older Final Fantasys--the gameplay was kind of boring and I didn't care about any of the stories. Though FF12 came with something very different, and I really enjoyed it. I really like Dragon Quest (4 at the moment) too-- while the gameplay is even more boring than FF (though very fast) and the story is also kind of 'bleh', it just gives me a good feeling. Last Remnant's hook for me right now is the Union and Battle system that is making my brain work to try and figure them out. The story I'm not too concerned with at the moment, and I kind of have low expectations for JRPGs of this style in general. It's a good looking game when it wants to be, though it has some serious, constant (but not gamebreaking) graphical hiccups. I haven't had the displeasure of running the game without it being installed, so I haven't experienced just how bad it could be.

Overall though, I definitely would *not* have purchased this game for $60 off of a game store shelf. Thank god for Amazon selling this game for so cheap (it's currently going for $29.95.... THIRTY DOLLARS for a brand new 360 game), I'd certainly say it's at least worth what I paid for it.