![]() ![]() That foray away from home is led by several ships, one of which is the Calnus. Star Ocean: The Last Hope really catches my imagination in that way, because it sees humanity reaching toward the stars to find a new home after they destroyed Earth in a massive nuclear holocaust. I’m in awe of space exploration in general, seeing new things, finding out what is out there, beyond the blue jewel we call our home. I grew up on watching reruns of the original Star Trek and then spent my teenage years watching The Next Generation. I’m innately drawn to just about any form of entertainment with a sci-fi setting. How did my second encounter with this latest Star Ocean game fare, taking into consideration all the additions to the PS3 iteration? Read on to find out! I was so enraptured by actually having a fresh JRPG to play that I let a lot of things slip by in my mind, possibly putting the game up on a higher pedestal than it really should have been located. I pre-ordered and played the game on the 360 and really enjoyed it, for the most part. With that in mind, I purchased my little Microsoft box in late 2008, because I knew what was coming up – the latest Star Ocean game by tri-Ace, one of my favorite JRPG franchises. ![]() To my surprise, they turned up exclusively on the Xbox 360. There was a time, not all that long ago, where I was really hurting for some decent JRPGs. Accompanied by your best friend Reimi, you’re part of an Earth organization sent out to look for hospitable planets.I’m having a feeling of déjà vu, but in a good way. ![]() It is time for the world to look above and beyond, into the great….Star Ocean! World War 3 has left Earth damaged and broken. It’s story starts off strong and stays strong for the 40 hours that it takes to get through the sprawling journey. That’s not even talking about all the side stuff. This game has so much variety and side content to keep you have for hours! 500+ hours to be exact! But we’ll get to that later! You visit so many locales, get so many party members. I couldn’t put this down, and when I had to I was sad about it. There was always something to look forward to. But, even though that happened, it easily became my favourite Star Ocean game! I even cancelled some game nights with friends to play this! The only thing is, at 2am, after I’d been awake for so long already, the 40 minute cutscenes made me pass out sometimes. Now, if you’ve ever played an Action JRPG before, this will feel familiar. When you’re in battle, you fully control your character. When you’re not controlling them, the AI is. Then, there’s the vast landscapes to explore. It could have a side quest for you, where you need to gather herbs or fish or take it to its master! You never know! There’s side quests galore! You get these just by interacting with the NPC’s. In the game, you have the choice of creating a party of 4, out of a possible 8 characters. There’s so many possibilities to make your game easier or harder. It’s all on you! Then each character has 100 in game achievements tied to them, called Battle Trophies. If you’re a true masochist, you can try and get them all! But I warn you. In battle, it unfortunately turns into the same rhythm. Run into the enemy, kill it, get EXP, level up, rinse and repeat. There’s some thing you can do to get extras though. Like extra EXP, or Money, or to heal after battle. It depends if you kill 2 enemies at once, or get a kill with a critical hit. Now the coolest thing, is if you get into battle with one enemy, and you’re around others, they fight you instantly after! It’s called getting Ambushed. Luckily, there’s incentive to set these up. Now, a JRPG wouldn’t be a JRPG without a ton of bosses! This game has them. The nice thing is that these bosses aren’t your normal boss fights. So instead of smacking away until they die, you have to figure out WHEN to attack. They may only take a ton of damage when summoning other enemies. Or you have to get behind them to their weak spot! It was so wicked! So every boss fight kept me on my toes, as I figured out the way to defeat the boss. There’s plenty of these too! From caves, to military bases, to mausoleums. Unfortunately, there’s basically no puzzles in these. So you’re never being tested with normal JRPG mechanics. ![]()
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