Some news on Last Remnant -- SaGa Frontier 3, almost

Critics hate Square Enix's Romancing SaGa, SaGa Frontier, and Unlimited SaGa efforts. Many critics never even bothered to review the PS2 remake of the original Romancing SaGa which was, all things considered, an incredibly deep, nonlinear, difficult game. But, like many games that can either be graded very high or very low, being different doesn't always work. So what do a number of the SaGa developers do when they're tired of getting hammered by critics? Make a game that looks amazing, like Last Remnant. We make this reference because Famitsu Xbox 360 scored an interview with the four main designers behind the game and guess what? They're the four main people behind many of the SaGa games. We'll summarize the info they divulged below.

• Production on Last Remnant began shortly after the completion of the PS2 remake of Romancing SaGa, dubbed Minstrel's Song.
• Getting used to Unreal Engine 3 was a difficult task, they said. Early work started with getting tons of characters on screen at once.
• The battle system may be too complicated, they've been warned. Well, if any of you experienced the hellish amounts of fun and confusion from SaGa Frontier 2, we're sure this won't be that tough. The four designers agree.
  
• Like in games akin to Ogre Battle (the N64 version comes to mind), you can organize your units in groups of five, choosing who to put in which units. Their attacks won't be automatic, though. You issue commands yourself, like a standard RPG.
• The trailer shown at the Square Enix party was all real-time, but the rendering and such were only at 30%. So expect a lot to appear different with the final product.
• The game should be about 30 hours in length.
• No release date, yet.

Our interest in this game went from "very interested" to "seriously, get my checkbook right this moment" after hearing the staff behind the game are being just as ambitious as with every SaGa title. But does this portend a poor reception for the game? Or will the casting aside of the SaGa name, a different direction, and other such artistic and gameplay choices turn people on?