Star Ocean: The Last Hope

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I'm picking it up too. Can't wait. I really enjoyed Till the End of Time.

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

GamePro Review - 4/5

Star Ocean's trademark real time battles make a triumphant return in The Last Hope, overhauled with brand new bells and whistles allowing players to truly maximize and customize their gaming experience. Gamers can now assign one of three different fighting styles, or "Beats", to their party members. Depending on how you approach your characters' Beats (offensive, defensive or neutral), they'll receive certain perks with each Rank Up to better compliment their fighting style. Offensive fighters might become better at pulling off critical hits, or Blindside attacks, where defensive party members can make the most of their Rush gauge - an innovative bar that, upon being filled, boosts your characters guard and allows for the opportunity for Chain Combos.

Symbology and Special Arts also return with a series of beautiful animations and devastating spells. Using the aforementioned Chain Combos, characters can customize and link together various Symbology spells or Special Arts to truly put the hurt on your enemies. One of my favorite new additions is the battle system's Bonus Board: a unique assortment of multi-colored tiles that are earned with special feats performed during combat (defeat multiple enemies with one strike, defeat an enemy just using a Special Skill, etc.) Each tile earned during battle gives players an extra boost upon victory. For instance, defeating an enemy with a Blindside attack awards players with a blue tile that presents the party with an extra 10% of experience once you've triumphed over your foes. These tiles can be stacked and chained together, allowing gamers to earn up to 140% the amount of experience points you'd normally earn. When utilized properly, perks from the Bonus Board can really cut down on tedious level grinding, item collection, and even heal your party upon triumph.

Similar to Star Ocean 3, random battles have been replaced by roaming NPCs who, based on your approach, can be surprised with preemptive attacks or will even ambush you if you let your guard down. Similar to past Star Oceans, you can switch between party members on the fly using the left or right bumpers. I really have to give props to tri-Ace for making each and every character feel incredibly different: Edge's attacks are slow and powerful, where Reimi's long-range arrows are perfect for picking off enemies from a distance. With each character excelling in a certain area, albeit Symbology or Chain Combos, it's an absolute treat to mix and match various party members in hopes of creating the ideal team. The team AI is no slouch either, with characters wisely choosing the best tactic to compliment their teammate's attacks.

PROS: Beautiful visuals; fun battles; innovative item creation system

CONS: Voice acting's a mixed bag; story takes a bit to get interesting; "Edge Maverick?" Really?

OXM Review - 8.5

tri-Ace’s first 360 RPG laid down some interesting groundwork with its real-time combat, trademark item-creation system, and occasionally breathtaking character graphics, but Infinite Undiscovery ultimately stumbled under its own weight and lack of polish. Last Hope, on the other hand, takes all of those elements and ratchets up the level of TLC. Character models are lovingly detailed, especially during in-game cutscenes. Item creation is much more sophisticated and allows “teams” to invent recipes for items, weapons, and more. Side quests are numerous and better implemented. And the story feels weighty and well-thought-out.

+ Addicting mix of battling, questing, and storyline.
+ Satisfying number of extras, goodies, and secrets.
- Needs more save points and more direction in side quests.
? Was that the first intergalactic fist-bump in a JRPG? Ugh.

[Cubfan]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I will have Star Ocean: The Last Hope tommorrow. It had shipped from ebgames.com

[jfsolo]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

This is game to play when you know you got nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one to bother you.

I'm actually stoked about the long cut scenes, because I am a unabashed cut scene ho. I'll just have to deal with the long dungeon sequences.

[highheatkingsb]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Tomorrow is going to be awesome!!!!

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

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[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Picked up a copy. Can't wait to play later.

[Lerxt]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Gamefly shipped mine today too! I should have it by Thursday or Friday. I can't wait for the weekend!

[Mrcabone]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Picked up a copy. Can't wait to play later.

I picked it up also,waiting on impressions before I open it.I've never played a Star Ocean game and I need a RPG after that weak s**t Fable2,by the way the Star Ocean case is pretty heavy , must be a thick instruction booklet.

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I picked it up also,waiting on impressions before I open it.I've never played a Star Ocean game and I need a RPG after that weak s**t Fable2,by the way the Star Ocean case is pretty heavy , must be a thick instruction booklet.

Instruction booklet is 45 pages, which is definitely bigger than most you see these days. Also, 3 discs stacked on top of each other.

[highheatkingsb]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Played for 4 hours tonight. My first ever Star Ocean experience as well. Story, cutscenes, and battle system are all awesome. Only flaws I've had thus far is that I had to invert the right analog when you turn the camera to move. It just feels opposite from the other games I play on standard. That and the packaging. I mean, really? Not nearly packaged as bad as Lost Odyssey though, but you'd think these companies could find better ways to box their stuff. Other than that, the game itself and game controls are incredible for the first 4 hours. Can't wait to get deep into this one.

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I've played about 3 hours so far. The battle system is just awesome. It will be familiar and slightly different to those that played SO3 and even SO2. Combat in The Last Hope is faster paced than in SO3 and they did away with separate attacks (strong/weak). There's a little more depth with the addition of Rush and Blindsides. You have a Rush gauge that will fill up during battle when you attack an enemy, get hit, or Blindside. When activated, you move and attack faster, take less damage, and won't get knocked down. You can also combo this with a special art or symbol. Blindsides are all about timing. The game goes into a cool slow motion cinematic camera angle when you pull one off, and basically you get behind the enemy and any attack from there will be a critical hit. Enemies can counter this and I believe do their own Blindsides (I have yet to this though). Battle trophies return and there must be about a hundred for each character. Skill system is handled a little different than previously. Specifically, the battle skills. You no longer have to use them constantly in combat to increase the level, instead you just spend skill points earned to level them up. Aside from individual skill points, the entire party will gain skill points and you can disperse these however you like. Haven't messed with Item Creation yet, but this time around there's a tutorial.

Graphics are pretty nice, especially the in-game cutscenes. There's a noticeable drop in resolution going from the field to combat, at the sametime, it's also going from 30fps to 60fps. There's a few framerate dips, but it mostly stays 60fps during combat. Load times are nice and fast. The field camera is kind of annoying at times. To early to comment on the story or characters, but I will say so far the voice acting isn't as bad as people made it out to be. It's certainly not any worse than SO3. Music is pretty good. I especially like part of the music on the first planet. tri-Ace totally ripped that from the movie Sunshine.

[trobinson97]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

thanks for the impressions Flawless, sounds like what I expected, great.

[bcruise]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

How's the CPU's AI for your characters? And what kind of options do you have tactics-wise for controlling them?

One of my minor gripes with TTEOT was that sometimes my CPU guys would just run away and not even try to fight the enemy, and they weren't hurt or anything (Hi Cliff). It happened less once I leveled up their offense and defense skills, but it sure made the early part of the game a headache.

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

How's the CPU's AI for your characters? And what kind of options do you have tactics-wise for controlling them?

One of my minor gripes with TTEOT was that sometimes my CPU guys would just run away and not even try to fight the enemy, and they weren't hurt or anything (Hi Cliff). It happened less once I leveled up their offense and defense skills, but it sure made the early part of the game a headache.

So far the AI is no slouch. Haven't seen them not engage enemies and they have been pretty wise when it comes to choosing the best tactic to compliment teammates. I used Reimi several times (shooting arrows from afar), and the enemies where targeting her, but they couldn't get to her, because Edge and Faize were destroying them.

Tactic options seem pretty much the same as SO3. You can toggle things off to not use during combat and you got the 6 basic scripts (freestyle, gang up enemies with or without using MP, ect). You can change these mid-combat like previously, only difference is the look, it's now a radial menu like in Mass Effect. Really the only new tactical stuff isn't options, but the systems like Rush Mode and Blindside that I mentioned before. There's also another new system called BEAT styles. You got 3 to choose from for each character: Strike (offensive battle style) Neutral (neutral battle style), and Burst (defensive battle style). Something that proves to be really useful this time around is the added ability to jump/dodge by pressing B.

Looking forward to getting a full party of 4 and more, because you can swap out characters mid-battle even if they aren't in your current party.