Star Ocean: The Last Hope

"An average entry in an awesome series"

First, I want to say that I enjoyed this game, both as a fan of the series and a long-time hardcore rpg gamer. However, from those same perspectives, this game has a number of flaws that prevent it from being a masterpiece.

Visuals 9 - The visuals in this game are a superlative example of why Square Enix has such popularity amongst rpg gamers. The characters are beautifully done: they are expressive, their motions are smooth for the most part, and they are quite easy on the eyes. The backgrounds are well done, with each world presenting its own unique atmosphere, climate, and topology. The cutscenes are well-done in the same tradition as Xenosaga, with some truly beautiful combat scenes and character interactions that evoked emotions quite well with well thought out body language and mannerisms.

Sound 5 - This, in my opinion, is the weakest area of this game and the reason why many might become irritated, both old gamers and new. The BGM in this game is, quite frankly, less than inspiring, and some major cutscenes - most notably the beginning one - possess no BGM or one that is not really suited to the atmosphere of the scene (ie - the use of that creepy song when Faize sees that nomad girl's bracer lying behind the sacrificial altar in the Purgatorium). I also note that, unlike previous entries in the series, the BGM used generally doesn't have the same flair that always signified to me that 'This is a Star Ocean game'. The voices, while imperfectly lip-synched - as previously noted in certain previews - are not particularly awful, but certain ones - most notably Welch - are incredibly annoying. Others - such as Sarah - come across as very flat at times. The combat sound affects and combat voices are not any better or worse than could have been expected, and they don't stand out in particular.

Plot 8- As rpg plots go, Star Ocean has always presented interesting and interestingly told stories in a rather unique environment, and the fourth entry in the series does not disappoint. The story of humanity's first voyage into the greater galaxy, desperate to find a place for their endangered population to live, is one that is both easily comprehensible and quite compelling to anyone with a reasonable degree of intelligence. The first scene starts things out with a bang... quite literally as a nuclear war caused by accident levels cities and a scene of the White House surrounded by a burning landscape shows you the horror of what just happened. Edge is, both fortunately and unfortunately, a character in the generic hero mold at first, but later events conspired to make me bond with him more as a character, when a certain event nearly shatters him psychologically. Reimi makes for both an interesting female heroine and an obvious romantic interest, and is in many ways an equally obvious cautious counterpoint to Edge's sometimes rash personality. The other characters are all uniquely interesting - with the possible exception of Sarah, whom I found to be annoyingly syrupy sweet, and several are obvious gifts to fans (ie. Meracle). The private actions in this game provide - as usual for Star Ocean games - both an interesting look into the personalities, motivations, and flaws of each character and a certain degree of hilarity (Meracle's insistence that Sarah is a chicken had me holding my sides).

Gameplay 9- This is another area where this game shines. The battle system, with its fast-paced combat and intuitive controls, is both easy to use in comparison with similar games - most notably the Tales series and even Star Ocean 3 - and enjoyable enough that the inevitable grinding one must carry out in rpgs is less tiring than usual. The bonus gauge provides a means to make that task go much faster by enabling the possibility of extra experience, money, skill points, or healing after battle depending on certain actions carried out in battle. The 'blindside' feature, which allows you to basically catch an enemy off guard by holding down a button and then leaping in another direction once they've locked onto you, allows you an easy method to rack up both critical hits and experience blocks to add to the bonus gauge, should you kill an enemy with a critical hit. The main reason I took a point away was because most of the side quests in this game involve fetch and carry missions, and those missions for the most part - in particular the ones given at shops - provide only experience, skill points, and money. In particular, the shop quests often request items that are hard to find at that point of the game and would be better used for item creation. The only other benefit for those quests seems to be a discount at the shop in question... a minor benefit at best when you consider that going back to those shops later on is an almost physically painful process that even includes switching discs later on in the game. The item creation in this game is significantly less random than in previous games in the series - in particular Star Ocean 3, which was a living nightmare - and is a simple process of switching characters around in groups until you've invented every item recipe that is possible at the time and then finding the items necessary for that creation - a somewhat harder task, but not overly so.

Replay Value- I don't consider this a value, so I won't add it to the overall computations. This game does have a reasonable degree of replay value, if only to see the various character endings or to try to play through the game on the harder modes. However, like most Japanese rpgs, don't go into it expecting to enjoy your second playthrough quite as much as the first.

Overall 7- Overall this is a game that possesses a number of superlative aspects and would make a delightful addition to any rpg or Star Ocean fan's game library, as long as they can live with a few relatively minor issues and one aspect that failed to meet expectations entirely.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/09

Game Release: Star Ocean: The Last Hope (US, 02/23/09)