Posting this here 'cause it's an old game, a niche game, on the Switch, and I don't want to detract from the Red Dead hype in the general game thread. Last Remnant rant/rambling.
So I recently bought The Last Remnant on Switch. This is the fourth time I've bought this game. It's been years since I've played it so I'm quite rusty on my in-depth knowledge of the game but in general I know enough to get through.
The game levels enemies by scaling them to your level, which is called a 'battle rank.' The game has an interesting stat gain and leveling mechanic in battle ranks. Basically, go big or go home; high risk, high reward is the name of the game here. You can activate this ability called 'timeshift' on the overworld and when you get close to an enemy, it lights up red. Any enemies you 'link' this way before the timeshift ends, you can hit the R trigger to 'link' all the enemies into a single battle. Each enemy on the overworld can bring anywhere from 1-3 (maybe 4, not sure if they changed this) 'unions' into battle. So, you can engage a single enemy on the overworld but it might bring 1-3 'unions' into battle, each consisting of 1-4 enemies in each union. Get it? The stronger the enemies you fight, the lower your unions' morale going into battle, the greater your stat gains at the end of battle. I've seen units get 5 stat upgrades + 2 skills all from one battle.
The goal for most people is to keep your Battle Rank low, because enemies will quickly become super powerful, and if you keep your rank low while grinding properly you can get massive stat and skill gains which will help you roll over enemies instead of the other way around.
So I was half-properly grinding in this remaster. I was linking a bunch of monsters, but not the strongest ones in the areas, so while I was slowly gaining BR, I was only gaining moderate stat gains, and the enemies were scaling a bit more quickly than me. I had to spend all day grinding yesterday in the area before the halfway-through-the-game mark, just to tackle one of the most infuriating boss fights I've ever experienced,
The Gates of Hell. This bastard will attack on its own 2-3 times per turn, then get another attack every time a union attacks him. If you're using 4 unions like most people do, this amounts to 6-7 attacks - AOE attacks - per turn. AND he can immediately enthrall your KO'd unions, making them fight for him, which basically means if they even touch your living unions, you're plummeting to a game over the next turn or 2.
But I did it, god damn it. I corrected my grinding mistakes and powered up so much he didn't even come close to killing me once. Now I've reached the back half of the game where it gets REALLY open and fun, and my units are powerful enough to make looking for my endgame roster easy.
The only serious downside here is that I sped through the first half and missed a bunch of permanently missable sidequests which I'll have to save for New Game +.
This game is absolutely infuriating but I LOVE the depth of the combat and stat systems and linking/chaining enemies together and how the more you do it the more you get rewarded. But oh my god, I can't think of a single other game that is so heavily flawed, so rage inducing, and yet I can't quit playing it.
Topic: The Official Nintendo Switch Thread (Read 26767 times)
