Really poor judgement call, I bought the new Star Ocean

[DiverNB]

Spoilers, etc. etc.

I've never really played JRPG's, and this is in fact the first time I ever decided to purchase one, unless you count Phantasy Star Online for my Dreamcast, but that game was pure dungeon crawl so I don't.

Anyway, the lovely Star Ocean: The Last Hope is associated with the infamous Square Enix, and developed by Tri-Ace so I figured I'd try and see what these things are all about. The premise sounded good, and I thought would be impossible to fuck up, Earth is irradiated by a 3rd world war and humans then look to space. It didn't make much sense to me that Earthlings would have the technological capability to go to space after a nuclear war, but it's later revealed they were contacted by aliens who gave them help yadda yadda. Not the worst story I've ever heard, and it looked to me like they were trying to keep the plot coherent. And thus far (I'm on the 2nd disc now) they have been trying to keep that together and are doing relatively well.

However, all of this is over shadowed by the fact the games characters are the regular japanophile horse shit I'd expect to read from some shitty jap cartoon or comic (Or "manga") It breaks down like this

Stereotypical Blonde hero who is brash
Blonde Heroes stupid love interest
Elf Boy
Cat Girl
Little Girl
Big Brutish and mysterious hero
Elf chick
Air-head angel chick.

The characters are so generic, so predictable, that at one point where you were supposed to feel "sad" one of them was leaving, I felt relieved hoping that I was going to get a party member that WASN'T going to be some generic 1 dimensional character. Deep down I knew this wasn't going to be the case however, being so predictable I took a guess that in the next hour or so she would rejoin my party and everyone would be happy again, and that I would get a 15 minute cut scene of cheesey and horrible dialogue.

Well I was fucking wrong, it only took 15 minutes. What kind of shit story telling is that?

Anyways, just remember the dialogue now, it's fucking terrible. It makes Fallout 3's intelligence checks look revolutionary. My girlfriend walked in on my playing the game over the weekend and I shut my Xbox off out of embarrassment. The humor is juvenile, and there are plenty of

"I AM EDGE MAVERICK AND I WON'T LET MY FRIENDS GET KILLED"
And that REALLY is the main characters name. Fuck you Japan

As for the rest of the game, combat is fun but boring at the same time because the default difficulty setting is stupid easy and you can't ramp it up on your first play through, you have to unlock new difficulties by beating the game.

All in all, don't buy this game.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Star Ocean supposedly is too much on the cinematic and passive side even for Japanese games, and even Japanese Roleplaying Game fans were aghast at it.

But hey, I hear that the Shin Megami Tensei stuff is actually good.

 

[DiverNB]

I think I'm done with JRPG's for a wile after this anyway. What system is Shin Megami Tensei for?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Isn't it called called Star Ocean: The Last Hope? How fitting, because the series was failing badly and this game seemed to be their last hope at saving the series, yet they failed anyways.

 

[BethesdaLove]

I shut my Xbox off out of embarrassment

I know that feeling.

 

[Qwinn]

...

...

"Edge Maverick"?

Hahhahahahahahahahahahahaha.

I've never been able to stand jRPG's. I've always been turned off by anime in general, actually. For one thing, I find it kinda creepy that virtually every artist a country produces has essentially the same artistic style. That's just bizarre.

I think the only jRPG I've ever manged to play or finish was FFX, which was passable and which seems to be considered the cream of the crop, which is kinda sad.

Qwinn

 

[Fat Dragon]

But hey, I hear that the Shin Megami Tensei stuff is actually good.

Eh, not really. Most are shit, like those terrible Persona or Devil Summoner games. Nocturne is really the only one worth playing imo and it's surprisingly good, one of the best JRPGs out there. Interesting post-apocalyptic setting, challenging combat that punishes you severely for fuck-ups (enemies 10-15 levels lower than you can wipe you out easily if you fuck up), and multiple endings decided by the choices you make throughout the game. About as good as a JRPG can get.

What system is Shin Megami Tensei for?

Most are for the PS2.

 

[Jasede]

Nocturne and maybe the predecessors, SMT 1 and 2 on the Super Nintendo are likely the only ones you would enjoy, indeed. Especially Nocturne.

 

[Andhaira]

Dude, play dragonquest 8. Its bloody fantastic.
Also, final fantasy 10 ( though its on the easy side)

 

[Jasede]

No.

 

[Konjad]

Dude, play dragonquest 8. Its bloody fantastic.
Also, final fantasy 10 ( though its on the easy side)

Stop joking around, someone could take it seriously.

 

[Xor]

I made the mistake of buying DQ8 back when I owned a PS2, it was basically a boring grindfest with a predictable story and bad voice acting.

 

[Zeus]

I've never really played JRPG's, and this is in fact the first time I ever decided to purchase one... Anyway, the lovely Star Ocean: The Last Hope is associated with the infamous Square Enix, and developed by Tri-Ace so I figured I'd try and see what these things are all about.

Why would you do that?

If you want to see what the fuss is about, don't buy a game that's that's getting average reviews even from die-hard fans of the genre.

It's like me saying, "Hey I wanted to see what these CRPGs are all about, so I picked up Jade Empire! It's developed by BioWare!"

 

[Panthera]

I shut my Xbox off out of embarrassment

Pathetic.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Star ocean went to crap after the second one. That game had some balls. Your party was formed based on choices you made during the game, you couldn't recruit everyone at once, and they fucking literally end the world, even worse than FF6. It cuts together a bunch of ending scenes based on the relationships between all the characters too, which are based on decisions made in cutscenes and things like whether a character healed another during battle. AND it had a fucking difficulty mode that multiplied the enemies' hp and mp by 4 and all their base stats by 2.

Then Enix got bought out. RIP.

 

[DraQ]

JPG?

Play Anachronox.

 

[DiverNB]

I've never really played JRPG's, and this is in fact the first time I ever decided to purchase one... Anyway, the lovely Star Ocean: The Last Hope is associated with the infamous Square Enix, and developed by Tri-Ace so I figured I'd try and see what these things are all about.

Why would you do that?

If you want to see what the fuss is about, don't buy a game that's that's getting average reviews even from die-hard fans of the genre.

It's like me saying, "Hey I wanted to see what these CRPGs are all about, so I picked up Jade Empire! It's developed by BioWare!"

It was in the 6-7's range from what I saw, what I got was a 4.


If the game has ANYTHING going for it, it's the environments. Not particularly great, but they kind of stand out next to the shittiness of the rest of the game. Finally a game where stuff isn't shit brown every where. It's got color and I like it. I am, however, very fond of sci-fi space theme stuff so go figure

 

[Rabidredneck]

Dragon Quest 8 is one of the best PS2 RPG's around. I played the hell out of it when I had a PS2, tho I never beat the post-game challenge dungeon.

I have Star ocean 4, have played it a lot. Here are my thoughts.

Graphics: The environments range from pretty to gorgeous. Theres a lot of eye candy while you're running around. Many special attacks and magic attacks can look pretty impressive, the spells Stone Hammer, Explosion, and Tornado come to mind. Theres a lot of detail in the characters as well. One of your party members, Bacchus the cyborg, is particulary impressive. Make him jump, little jump jets pop out, one of his early special attacks has a missle launcher pop out of his back and launches a barrage at a target.

And then there's Myuria's bouncing boobies. Hypnotic...

The Combat System: This is one of the main reasons I like this game. Combat is real time, with you in control of one character in a party of up to 4. You can switch control between characters on the fly, and can reconfigure your party, equipment, even skillslots mid-fight as well. Special attacks can be mapped to the left and right triggers, and once a character learns a skill called "Chain Command" they can have up to 3 attacks mapped to the same trigger, for six attacks total. So that character can launch a LOT of attacks very quickly (attack-attack-attack-LT-RT-RT-LT-LT-RT)

Item Creation: This has been a staple of the SO series, and is a fun thing to play around with in SO4. You develope or find recipies, and use raw materials you find, harvest, or buy to make things. Unlike previous games, theres no chance of failure in making an item. However, getting some of the raw materials can be a pain, but usually the effort is worth it. And once you get Sarah with her Synthesis skill, you can start customizing weapons, armor and accessories by adding various factors to them. With careful planning, your party can become pretty overpowered. 'Course you know what they say about overkill..

I don't think this game deserves all the hate it's getting, I think it's got a lot going for it. But I will say there are things they should have done differently. A lot of the humor in the game is pretty hit or miss. When it works, it works, when it doesn't, bleh. The biggest offender here is the character Welch, your Item Creation interface girl. There were two instances where I snickered at one of her scenes, all the rest was pretty much "GET OVER WITH ALREADY!!!"

Edge goes through a time in the game when he becomes "Emo Edge" after a big plot point. He eventually recovers, but the phase goes on WAY too long, and more than once I declared to the screen "For christ's sake, stop being such a damn crybaby!"

For Finishing, I say rent it at least, give it a fair try and decide for yoursefl if you like it or not.

 

[Hobo Elf]

DQ8 is just a horribly boring and long grind

 

[DiverNB]

Dragon Quest 8 is one of the best PS2 RPG's around. I played the hell out of it when I had a PS2, tho I never beat the post-game challenge dungeon.

I have Star ocean 4, have played it a lot. Here are my thoughts.

Graphics: The environments range from pretty to gorgeous. Theres a lot of eye candy while you're running around. Many special attacks and magic attacks can look pretty impressive, the spells Stone Hammer, Explosion, and Tornado come to mind. Theres a lot of detail in the characters as well. One of your party members, Bacchus the cyborg, is particulary impressive. Make him jump, little jump jets pop out, one of his early special attacks has a missle launcher pop out of his back and launches a barrage at a target.

And then there's Myuria's bouncing boobies. Hypnotic...

The Combat System: This is one of the main reasons I like this game. Combat is real time, with you in control of one character in a party of up to 4. You can switch control between characters on the fly, and can reconfigure your party, equipment, even skillslots mid-fight as well. Special attacks can be mapped to the left and right triggers, and once a character learns a skill called "Chain Command" they can have up to 3 attacks mapped to the same trigger, for six attacks total. So that character can launch a LOT of attacks very quickly (attack-attack-attack-LT-RT-RT-LT-LT-RT)

Item Creation: This has been a staple of the SO series, and is a fun thing to play around with in SO4. You develope or find recipies, and use raw materials you find, harvest, or buy to make things. Unlike previous games, theres no chance of failure in making an item. However, getting some of the raw materials can be a pain, but usually the effort is worth it. And once you get Sarah with her Synthesis skill, you can start customizing weapons, armor and accessories by adding various factors to them. With careful planning, your party can become pretty overpowered. 'Course you know what they say about overkill..

I don't think this game deserves all the hate it's getting, I think it's got a lot going for it. But I will say there are things they should have done differently. A lot of the humor in the game is pretty hit or miss. When it works, it works, when it doesn't, bleh. The biggest offender here is the character Welch, your Item Creation interface girl. There were two instances where I snickered at one of her scenes, all the rest was pretty much "GET OVER WITH ALREADY!!!"

Edge goes through a time in the game when he becomes "Emo Edge" after a big plot point. He eventually recovers, but the phase goes on WAY too long, and more than once I declared to the screen "For christ's sake, stop being such a damn crybaby!"

For Finishing, I say rent it at least, give it a fair try and decide for yoursefl if you like it or not.

Graphics are good in some places, completely BLAND in others (Most in door environments are boring boring boring)

I do like the combat system, one of the better things going for the game. THe AI (Enemy and friendly) is pretty well made, your allies will dodge spells, heal each other, etc. etc. and just generally not act like dumb shits. Same goes for the enemy AI as well, they will attack your weakest members whenever possible.

Humor is fucking terrible, and so are the characters. I guess if you like 10 year old humor and think DBZ or other anime is funny then you will like the majority of the games script. I'm not particularly fond and feel like I've known these 1-D characters for ages because they're such a bad copy-pasta job.

Also item creation is boring. 100% of all items in the game are pointless (Excluding armor and weapons) because you can just spam special attacks.

 

[Lockkaliber]

Try Vagrant Story for the PSX. It's probably the most worthwhile JRPG you'll find, and a great game in general. Incidentally, it's also the one JRPG that resembles a WRPG the most.

 

[Morgoth]

Sell that Star Ocean shit and get Lost Odyssey instead.

 

[DiverNB]

Sell that Star Ocean shit and get Lost Odyssey instead.

TO be honest I was going to buy lost odyssey but couldn't find it. I heard it's decent, but really, how is it?

 

[Rabidredneck]

Lost Odyssey is both really awsome, and really depressing. Every one of the Thousand Years of Dreams stories will have you reaching for kleenex. Kaim's past as it's revealed demonstrates how immortality can suck.

Best 360 game I've played in a while.

 

[Morgoth]

Sell that Star Ocean shit and get Lost Odyssey instead.

TO be honest I was going to buy lost odyssey but couldn't find it. I heard it's decent, but really, how is it?

It has a slow and uninteresting start, but a few hours in it starts growing on you. It has superb cutscenes, likeable characters and a great combat system, but it's also very linear. Most importantly however, it isn't so childish and kinky like all that Square-Enix shit.

 

[Luzur]

is that the Star Ocean where you begin as town guards and a mysterious sickness turn everybody into stone?

last Star Ocean i played was on SNES, likewise with Dragon Quest.