Star Ocean: The Last Hope

"Okay, I was wrong. Star Ocean 2 is no longer the best Action-RPG, this is it. Star Ocean 4 despite it's flaws, combines the best of both worlds."

Star Ocean: The Last Hope was a extremely anticipated game for me. I'm a major fan of the Star Ocean series. I greatly enjoyed Star Ocean 2 and 3. Star Ocean 1 I have not yet played, but will eventually. Ever since the game was announced, I fully paid off my reservation and waited impatiently for several months. As I waited, I closely watched over the boards in hopes that any new trailers of the game would come out. Eventually the time came and I got my hands on Star Ocean 4. Excitedly, I rushed home and began the game. Did it live up to my expectations? Yes, by all means despite a few minor flaws. It is now my new favorite Action-RPG of all time. What makes Star Ocean: The Last Hope so great? Read on to find out.

Graphics:10/10:Star Ocean: The Last Hope's Graphics are probably the best I've seen on my Xbox 360 yet. Playing on a SDTV, everything looked absolutely amazing. The textures were well done, enemy designs while not too varied were great, lots of animations that moved fluidly for attacks, enemies, characters etc. The Graphics during cutscenes were absolutely incredible. You could see the facial hair on characters and other features. Most of the designs for areas were a little bland admittedly, but it's fine. Especially considering the final dungeon has one of the most graphically impressive designs I have ever seen in my gaming experience. Overall, the Graphics are absolutely amazing in Star Ocean 4. So, Graphics scores a 10/10 easily. Next, is the Gameplay of Star Ocean 4. Which just like the Graphics, is quite impressive.

Gameplay:9.2/10:Tri-Ace took the best of Star Ocean Til The End of Time's Gameplay and Second Story's to create a fantastic Gameplay experience. To begin with, Star Ocean: The Last Hope's Gameplay is similar to the Tales of series. You go from town to dungeon. Doing the typical things at town. Resting, buying items etc. From there, you proceed onto the next dungeon. Battles and exploration are handled with a four man party. Unlike older RPG's, battles are initiated by coming into contact with a enemy on the field. From, there you go into a battle transition screen and combat begins.

For Tales of fans, the battles system will be familiar. The combat places your party and the opposing group of enemies on a small sized battlefield. You can then proceed to run around and attack enemies. Once you defeat all enemies, the battle is over and your rewarded EXP and Fol(currency of SO4) However, there are far more options then simply that. During combat, you can hold the B button down to charge yourself. Once, a white whirl of energy is flowing around your character, you can then move the stick to perform a Blindside. Provided, that the enemy is targeting your controlled character of course ;)

Blindsides are where your character sneaks behind a enemy. The enemy loses track of where you are and is caught off guard once you appear behind them. Once a Blindside is done, and your behind the enemy, you can score easy critical hits. After a temporary amount of time, the enemy then resumes it's normal state. However, don't think you can simply breeze by every battle spamming Blindsides repeatedly. Some enemies are able to counter your Blindsides. Which not only causes you to be damaged, but cancels your Blindside as well. Don't be worried though, there is a way to counter this. While charging your Blindside and having the enemy targeting you, you'll notice the target symbol is red. You can wait until it starts flashing and then perform your Blindside. Doing so, cancels out the enemy's chance of countering you and allows you to easily unload the pain onto them. While Blindside is a nice welcomed feature new to the series, it is not the only one. There is also the introduction of a new feature: The Rush gauge.

Rush Gauge is kind of like a special move or Limit Break if you will of Star Ocean The Last Hope. By taking damage or dealing out damage, the Rush Gauge accumulates. Once it reaches 100, by simply pressing X that character activates Rush mode. It allows them to move and attack more quickly. Plus, not be knocked down or stagger when attacked either. In Rush Mode, your gauge quickly depletes and once it does, the character goes back to their normal state. Another addition to Rush Mode is a Rush Combo. When you activate Rush Mode, instead of pressing just x if you press RT/LT and if a skill is assigned to either button, you'll initiate a Rush Combo. Which is executed through timed button sequences. You must press whatever buttons it displays on the screen during a Rush Combo. Failing to do so, greatly prevents the damage you do with your Rush Combo, and prevents you from getting the Perfect Combo bonus. If you accomplish getting a Perfect Combo though, you'll do one more random skill at the end of a Rush Combo as a bonus. Aside, from the Rush Mode and Blindsides Star Ocean 4 also has two last new features to it's battle system. The Bonus Board and Chain Combos.

First off, the Bonus Board is similar to Star Ocean Til The End of Time's chain feature. Except, it's a little simpler. Basically, you have a bonus board displayed on the very right side of the screen during battles. By killing enemies in different ways, colored tiles are added to the Bonus Board. There's Blue Tiles, Purple, Green and Yellow. Blue Tiles are obtained by killing enemies with a critical hit. Each one accumulated makes you gain 10% more EXP upon winning battles. Next, is the Purple tile. Which makes you restore about 3% HP/MP after a battle. That one is obtained by killing a enemy only using a Skill. Then there's the Green tile which is simply gotten by being ambushed during a battle. It makes you be rewarded more Skill Points once a battle is finished. Last, is the Yellow tile. Kill multiple enemies and you'll acquire it. This tile makes you gain 10% more Fol from finishing a battle. With the Bonus Board covered, it's onto the Chain Combos. The second feature I mentioned earlier with the former being the Bonus Board.

Chain Combos is where you assign a skill to either LT or RT. While doing so in the Skills menu, you'll notice three slots for either button. When you obtain a Skill called Chain Combos, you can assign skills into all three slots. Provided, you level up the skill to max. In doing so, you can use skills one after another and the second/third skills will deal about 50% and then 80% more damage. This adds a lot of variety to the game, and makes players think of useful combos to use for Chain Combos. While, I've just talked about the battle system constantly, don't be mistaken. There's a plethora of things to do in Star Ocean 4 aside from progressing the main storyline and battling.

Major fans of Star Ocean 2, may be pleased to find out that Skills do indeed return. Not battle skills, but skills used for non battle purposes. Such as Pickpocket, Alchemy, Smithery etc. This was a great feature to have returned and it adds a amazing amount of customization to the game. Not only that, but the Skill Point system does too. Basically, you gain SP(Skill Points) from doing various thing such as opening chests, winning battles etc. You can then spend them to upgrade skills. Each time a skill is upgraded it's effects become better. Every skill that is upgradeable, has 10 levels it can be upgraded. Each level obviously demanding a higher amount of SP to be spent upgrading it. The Skill system used in Star Ocean 4 overall, is just fantastic. It adds a lot of customization the game, and is satisfiying to use. Now, the Skill system alone is not the only thing that adds customization to Star Ocean: The Last Hope. The great Item Creation system does too.

As with nearly every Tri-Ace game, Item-Creation makes a return. For the most part, it was improved from Star Ocean Til The End of Time's, but it has some flaws. To do Item Creation, visit the terminal aboard the Calnus. Once there, you can then invent recipes to make items or create items. Both are done extremely easily. For inventing recipes you separate your characters into group and initiate a sequence. During this sequence, the characters in groups try to combine efforts to invent recipes. It happens automatically easily, and once your done with a group, to find other recipes try mixing different characters in different groups. To create items just choose the option to do so. The game then nicely lists all the recipes you have discovered and shows the materials needed to create the items. If you have the components needed, then you can simply just go ahead and create the item. If not, just simply hunt them down.

Now, the flaw comes with how you have to return to the Calnus every single time to perform Item Creation. Until the end of the game, you must walk on foot or bunnyback to the Calnus. This can quickly grow to be extremely irritating and makes Item creation a major pain. Fortunately, at the end you get a warping transport system which can teleport you directly back to the Calnus. Really though, it was a poor design choice by Tri-Ace. Aside from Item Creation, there are Quests and the optional dungeons that you can do.

Quests are basically minor tasks you can do for random people. While I would like to say they are fun, they aren't. Most of the tasks are extremely generic and rather boring. Not to mention, they usually give mediocre rewards out upon being completed. Fortunately, the bonus dungeons found in Star Ocean 4 are entertaining.

Once you've completed the main storyline, you can unlock two optional dungeons. Both of them do live up to the name of bonus dungeons. They contain extremely nice treasures, but are packed with terribly difficult enemies and bosses. Not to mention, in the second optional dungeon, the Wandering Dungeon you have to do it in one sitting. If you exit out at anytime, then you must begin from the first of about 20 floors. Plus, you cannot see the enemies while on the field. At the end of the Wandering Dungeon, awaits Ethereal Queen. Who will certainly give you a extremely difficult challenge and reward you with a 40G achievement upon beating her. Speaking of achievements, major fans of difficult hardcore achievements will be pleased. As will completeionsits too, to hear that SO4 has quite possibly some of the most time consuming and difficult achievements.

Most of them involve open 50% of all chests in game, 100%, gain 10% of all Battle Trophies, 20% of all items created in Item Creation. Just reading about these achievements, should send shivers down the spines of even the most dedicated hard-core fans. Not to mention, Battle Trophies are like mini achievements themselves. There are approximately 900 to collect, and each involve you accomplishing certain tasks in battle. Such as do 99,999 damage, kill x amount of y enemies etc. Fortunately, the Battle Trophies which have returned from SO3 are still as fun as ever to get. With mostly the positives covered, time to go over the second major flaw of the Gameplay.

No opening menus while mounted on a pink fluffy bunny. Yes, you get this the most epic mode of transportation ever in the game later, but you cannot open the MENU ON IT!? Who thought this was a good idea!? It makes riding on bunnies a almost pointless mode of transportation, since you'll pretty much want to often open your menu to check things. Overall, despite this and the Item Creation flaw, the Gameplay in Star Ocean: The Last Hope is amazing. The game is a extreme amount of fun, and has lots of replay value due to harder difficulty modes. I would give the Gameplay a 9.2/10. While everything has been extremely positive so far, now it's time for the horrible aspect of Star Ocean 4. The Storyline...

Storyline:4/10::Simply put, the Storyline in the game is atrocious. To begin with the cast of characters is extremely generic. The protagonist even uses a sword. Accompanying the protagonist, is the main character's generic childhood female friend. Who's only real worthwhile attribute/trait is her tolerance and kindness. As usual too, she likes the protagonist as well, and the game does absolutely nothing to hide it. All the other characters are sterotypically generic. You have the mascot character, hyper character, tough arrogant badass etc. Not only that, but the character designs blatantly show that. It's not like something where you would have some non typical looking character with that attitude, instead as mentioned before, Tri-Ace just shoves it in your face.

While generic-ness would be acceptable, if the game had excellent dialogue and a solid main plot, Star Ocean The Last Hope fails at that. Over the course of the game, there's little of a main objective to keep the main plot interesting. Aside from, your part of a space exploration program that needs to go explore, uncharted mysterious planets. Dialogue is written atrociously poorly. Edge is apparently "developed" by some of the most irritating non logical attitude changes ever. For almost everything extremely major that happens, he blames himself. Even if he clearly, realizes that he could have not done anything in that certain situation. As for the other characters, they are developed during Private Actions. Which admittedly, were actually decently written and fairly interesting.

Private Actions a staple of the series makes a return once again in Star Ocean 4. Basically, during certain points of the game you can find certain characters hanging around. Speak to them and learn more about why they act like they do, who they are and their past etc. By making smart choices during them, you can gain affinity points towards that person. Vice-versa too. You can make that character like you a lot as well. By building the affinity between two characters to a certain point, you can unlock a brief ending involving them during the end of the game. Quite honestly, the character endings are actually worth getting and were entertaining. Overall though, despite the Storyline being terrible, I actually oddly enjoyed the characters a little. Not to mention, the ending was well done too. The Storyline scores a 4/10. It's just poorly written, has too much of a generic not well developed enough cast, and not much of a clear interesting motive to drive the main plot. Last, is the Music.

Music:9/10:Motoi Sakuraba did a great job with the soundtrack. I loved almost all of the songs, except for a few. Unfortunately, one of the worst songs in the game in my opinion, was the main boss songs. Which is not only a terrible boss song, but one of the worst I have ever heard. The strong point of the soundtrack though, is the excellent battle and dungeon songs. Most of the town songs are average, but there's a few really excellent ones. Sound effects are great, I don't think I need to say much there. Last, is the Voice Acting. Which is terrible. Seriously, Square-Enix! Can't you hire decent voice actors with all the financial money you guys have? Guess it makes sense, since the Storyline is terrible. Overall, the soundtrack receives a 9/10. So, is Star Ocean 4 worth a purchase?

Overall:9/10:Yes go buy this game immediately. Star Ocean The Last Hope can offer hundreds of hours of entertainment. If one chooses to do the optional things in the game. The Graphics will most certainly impress people. Music is extremely well done, save for a few songs, but the voice acting is terrible. Sound effects are well done, nothing really to explain there. Last, is the Storyline which is just absolutely terrible. Do not buy this game if your wanting to play your next RPG for the Storyline alone.Overall, go buy Star Ocean: The Last Hope. It's a awesome extremely fun game that's worth buying despite the terrible Storyline. The game ultimately receives a 9/10 from me overall.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/09, Updated 04/01/09

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