Star Ocean: The Last Hope

"A Veritable Encyclopedia of Platitudes!"

Greetings fellow gamers! First and foremost let me preface this critique by saying that I do love this game and I do recommend it for any RPG fan, and Star Ocean fans in particular. There are great deals of positive factors that work in favor of this game, but the few drawbacks it does have are significant. I will outline the more pronounced pros and cons of the game below.

Story: 5 / 10

This is probably the most pronounced draw back this game possesses. The story is typical JRPG fare and ultimately fails to innovate in any way. I will skip the synopsis because if you have ever played a JRPG (and you most likely have if you are reading this) you already know the entire story. I will qualify this section by stating that although the story is mostly useless drivel, the overall effect of the story is good, it is just the constant use of the same plot devices that brought the whole experience down.

The biggest complaint I can levy against the story is the fact that about 90% of the dialogue consists of nothing more than reassuring platitudes. More often than not you will spend the better part of 10 minutes listening to the crew try to reassure Edge (the protagonist) with near nauseating amounts of high praise. The whole, "We can do it so long as we have friends!" drama is prevalent throughout the story. It would also seem that no matter how many times or how recently the crew has an epiphany about friends, they quickly forget and go right back to doubting themselves... only to go right back into the constant stream of reassurances. I cannot count the times that some one would try to discourage Edge or stand in the way of his mission, which leads to each character giving a speech about how much they love each other or apologizing for some minor slight.

Add to this the fact that a good deal of the cut scenes go beyond the 20 minute mark, often times leading to your controller to turn off due to power conservation. If you took out all the lines about needing friends, the constant apologies and gratitude, as well as the constant self loathing... the total story would probably be less than 1 hour in length... no joke.

Fortunately this is pretty much the end of my complaints about this game, however it is a considerable complaint that really brings down the score of the game in my opinion.

Graphics / Animations: 9 / 10

Star Ocean 4 is definitely a next-gen title, to be certain. There is no lack of amazing landscapes, battlefields, and enemies. The enemies and battlefields do get a bit redundant, but for some reason that rarely entered into my mind. There is an amazing level of detail in the world environments. You can see schools of fish in lakes, ponds, and beaches as well as other marine animals in the backgrounds. In the forested areas you have butterflies that dance about the screen, and birds fly overhead leaving detailed shadows. There is really no complaint that I can measure against the graphics in this game. In so far as I am concerned, tri-Ace nailed this one with ease.

About the only artifact I can mention is the detail with explosions... they just seem dated. In fact they are extremely dated. I remember seeing a space ship explode in space and I was reminded of how bad fire effects looked back in the PSOne days.

Music / Sound Effects: 9 / 10

This category is kind of hit-or-miss in a lot of ways. The music score is, for the most part, very well done and more often than not it fits the atmosphere very well. However, in the few cases where it doesn't work quite right it becomes painfully obvious. My philosophy about music in games is that you should rarely be aware of it. If the music is doing its job then it will blend seamlessly into the action at hand, and only serve to heighten your sense of danger, love, pity, or humor. When it is done poorly you can hear it, and it becomes a distraction from that point on.

As for the sound effects, they tend to suffer some of the same problems that I mentioned about explosions in space... they are a bit dated. Again, for the most part, this isn't too noticeable but it is more noticeable than the music in the game. There are times when a simple sound effect will shatter whatever level of immersion you have managed to maintain because it just doesn't fit, or is too obvious.

Ultimately I know a game has really good music and sound effects if I can make it through the game without ever really noticing it. They manage to accomplish that in this game, by and large, most of the time.

Game Play: 10 / 10

I saved the best for last. There is something that this game possesses at the mechanical level that very few games manage to achieve. Despite the fact that the fights are, in fact, very repetitive (both in terms of enemies and the way you play) the game never seems to grow tired. No matter how many fights I have been in, or how many times I have killed the exact same enemy... I never grew bored with it. It is a most spectacular feat considering the fickle nature of gamers these days. The combat is fluid, the rule set is one of those "simple to learn, difficult to master" jobs. Everything about the combat system in this game lends itself to being played for a very long time.

I find it quite interesting considering the fact that they did recycle enemies, they did recycle battlefields, and they did the exact same things that every other JRPG gets smashed for doing... and yet they did it without ruining the game, a marvelous accomplishment indeed.

The Scoop: 7 / 10

Again I would highly recommend this game to any RPG fan out there, you will not be disappointed. You will most likely be able to excise over 60 hours of quality game play if not considerably more so. I gave the overall score a 7 / 10 (which is not an average of all scores) because everything about this game collaborates to make a memorable experience... with the grand exception of the story; this game makes me recall what it is about JRPGs that keep me coming back year after year. I don't think you can go wrong with this title, just don't expect much more than an average JRPG in terms of a story.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/09

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