Star Ocean: The Last Hope

[goh]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I loved everything about SO 2.
I absolutly hated SO 3,didn't like the gameplay and I traded it in when the story got rediculous.

So is this closer to 2 or 3?

[jmood88]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I wasn't really interested in this but after seeing the reviews I might rent it. I need a good rpg to play.

[trobinson97]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

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.

Didn't know that. Very nice.

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I loved everything about SO 2.
I absolutly hated SO 3,didn't like the gameplay and I traded it in when the story got rediculous.

So is this closer to 2 or 3?

I would say the battle system and skills system are more like SO2, but other aspects are a lot like SO3. The Last Hope has basically combined the best stuff from each game, while added a few new wrinkles of it's own.

Battle system takes the 3D battles of SO3 and returns the max party size back to 4, while removing things like separate attacks (strong/weak), MP death, and Anti Attack Auras that SO3 had.

Skill system is more like SO2. Skills you buy from shops or find in treasure chests are just learned once you assign it to a character. You use skill points to upgrade these, instead of having to constantly use skills in battle to level them up.

Pick pocketing wasn't in SO3, but it returns in The Last Hope.

Story wise it's still way to early to comment on, specifically if there's any crazy twist like in SO3 that got people upset.

[Candyman5]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

How would you you think a guy that has only played part of till end of time and none of the others would like this game?
I love Turn ase the first but it seems like developers are moving away from that. Some of the RPG's I have played in the past are, Lost Oddysey, FFXII(I think this was the one), Valkyria Chronicals, Fable, Fallout3 and Oblivion.

Would you recomend this game to me? What I am trying to say is do you guys think I would enjoy this game?

[Pared]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

This looks great. The commercials really have piqued my interest.

[highheatkingsb]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Just finished with the first world. Took me 7 hours to complete everything. I got every monster status to 100% and picked up my first monster jewel. The whole planet was just awesome stuff. I love how everything you do, there is a reward to it, such as the item creation. Awesome game thus far and loving the story.

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

14 hours in and about to leave for the 3rd planet. This has the potential to be the best in the series. Again it's combined and tweaked the best of SO2 and SO3, while adding some new stuff that all of which is great. So far it hasn't been very challenging, but I didn't find SO3 to be challenging either on Galaxy until later in the game. I'm sure the post-game content will be very challenging again. I never thought much of the characters in the Star Ocean series and that's pretty much the case with the characters I've come acrossed and that have joined my party in The Last Hope. The characters aren't bad, I just find them kind of bland. The last JRPG I played was Lost Odyssey and the characters in that game are way better. Edge Maverick is no Kiam Argonar that's for sure. Story is starting to pick up and the game's pacing is better than SO3. Story doesn't break any new ground for a JRPG, it's still very much the same mix of anime stereotypes and cliches. However, the premise of traveling to different planets is cool.

Item Creation is sort of tweaked version of SO3's. You can't do it anywhere like the first two games, instead the launching center is on your spaceship. A familiar face from SO3 is in charge of it. Something new that's been added is called Recipe Creation Conference and basically you pair different party members together and they brainstorm to come with recipes. Once you have the recipe and the listed materials you can craft the item. You don't lose your recipes once you have come up with them.

Love the combat, it's still the bread and butter of the series. It's never going to get old to me. So much fun pulling off blindsides/double blindsides and epic rush combos. Trying to get battle trophies for each character is addictive. Also, I like the new battle bonus board. Basically, there's 4 types of tiles and 14 slots for them. Each tile gives you a bonus after every battle. Like for example, a single blue tile gives you 10% EXP boost after every battle, and you get blue tiles by killing monsters with a critical hit. There's the potential there to get 14 blue tiles, which would give you 140% EXP boost! The other tiles are yellow, red, and green. They each have their own bonus and things you have to do to obtain them. Once you start getting tiles, the trick to keeping them is to not have the board break, which happens if you take a critical hit with the character you're controlling. The board resets once you turn the game off too.

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

This game is great. 27 hours played now and currently on the 5th planet.

While not instantly likeable (excpet for one) the characters have grown on me a lot. Still not much of a fan of their designs and real doll faces. I wish the Japanese voices were included too. I now have a party of six and I'm about to get a 7th. The two recent party members are really fun to use in combat.

Story is pretty good and a few new revelations recently have me very interested to see where it goes. I don't think anybody who likes Sci-fi would be disappointed. Though I will say it's slow builder (at least I found it to be), which might I add isn't anything new for JRPGs.

While the AI is fairly smart, they really burn through some MP. Symbology and Special Arts is all they will use 90% of time if their set to freestyle. I ended up having to change the tactics to freestyle without using MP for just about everybody when not fighting a boss. What's there is fine, but I definitely wish there was more customization options like in the Tales games.

[highheatkingsb]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Just hit the 45 hour mark. I'm at level 61 with Edge and am finally heading to the Purgatorium. I've never enjoyed grinding in a game more than I do this one. Meracle is a beast. I still have two characters left to pick up, so slowly but surely I'm getting there. I get so ticked off at the bonus board, I build it to get 140% XP, and there's always one enemy that shatters it somehow. Great stuff. The story is amazing and there are parts of the game I just want to reach in my television and beat the crap out of Edge. I've never seen a character whine and cry as much as he does. Pathetic at times. One of my favorite RPG's ever.

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I've played about as much as you, but you're 10 levels higher. Quite a bit opens up on the planet after the Purgatorium. Fighting in the Coliseum is fun.

Besides Edge's whining, I find Lymle and her constant saying of "Kay" annoying.

[highheatkingsb]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I've played about as much as you, but you're 10 levels higher. Quite a bit opens up on the planet after the Purgatorium. Fighting in the Coliseum is fun.

Besides Edge's whining, I find Lymle and her constant saying of "Kay" annoying.

Yeah, leveling up comes fast on Planet Roak with your bonus board XP at 140%. Lymle was annoying at first, but after awhile it becomes numb. Who are you using the most Flawless? My party is Edge, Meracle, Reimi (when she's in the party, She's missed a few levels because of the storyline), and Sarah as of now. I haven't picked up the last two characters. It's tough, because I'd like to build Bacchus and Lymle as well. I could care less about Faize though.

[Jasong7777]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Just picked this up the other day. Plan on firing it up tonight. Need to start this before I get RE 5 on Friday.

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Yeah, leveling up comes fast on Planet Roak with your bonus board XP at 140%. Lymle was annoying at first, but after awhile it becomes numb. Who are you using the most Flawless? My party is Edge, Meracle, Reimi (when she's in the party, She's missed a few levels because of the storyline), and Sarah as of now. I haven't picked up the last two characters. It's tough, because I'd like to build Bacchus and Lymle as well. I could care less about Faize though.

I've used everybody pretty equally. The characters are either the same level or only one behind each other.

[goh]

Re: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I like it. It's a lot better than SO 3 but it's no SO 2. It would've benifited greatly from the Chrono Trigger rule (even the in game characters complain about that!) and some more common sense then it would've pratically been Chrono Trigger and that wouldn't have been a bad thing but it's decent as is.

Welch is hilarious and Lymle is also somewhat funny. Hope it doesn't take a giant nose dive at some point like SO 3 did when that wasn't too good to begin with. Would've liked some customization or alt outfits but that's a minor complaint.

It's a bit confusing and directionless at times wich is how I ended up being a bit over leveled with some unintentional griding. If it was someone's first RPG or even game they'd probably throw it out the window pretty quick.