Star Ocean: The Last Hope International PlayStation 3
Metascore
74 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 45 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 45
  3. Negative: 1 out of 45
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  1. VideoGamer
    90
    Last Hope International is the definitive Star Ocean 4 experience, and as far as I'm concerned, the best next-gen RPG money can buy.
  2. GamingTrend
    90
    Star Ocean: The Last Hope - International gets so many things right that it is easy to look past its weaknesses.
  3. GameFocus
    87
    If you didn't get a chance to pick up Star Ocean: The Last Hope last year or don't own a 360, yet love Japanese style RPGs, then you owe it to yourself to give The Last Hope International a spin.

User Reviews

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User Score
7.4 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 85 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 13
  3. Negative: 1 out of 13
  1. Sieghardt
    3
    The game is plagued with plot holes, the characters are mostly unlikeable with a couple being particularly bad. The script is awful to the point of being painful to go through at times. Vast swathes of the story are essentially pointless and do nothing to further the main story, which is a real waste, it could have been more enjoyable if they put more effort into the overall story instead of derailing it into a series of dull fetch quests.

    Gameplay starts off pretty good with some new features like blindsiding but as you proceed and unlock more special moves it devolves into spamming the stronger moves, with MP death removed and MP recovery methods aplenty there's little to stop you, especially when you get the endgame attacks that have huge areas of effect.

    The game boasts over 200 quests but sadly most of these are just bring me 20 of x monster drop type deals with only a handful offering anything interesting to do.    … Full Review »
  2. EstebanP
    9
    I'm really enjoying this game. About 30 hours in. I liked Star Ocean Till The End of Time on the PS2 and so it's not really a suprise that I like this. This is an improvement on that title. I was nearly convinced by the average reviews not to buy this game, I'm pleased that I did. If you liked Star Ocean on the PS2 you will adore this version. P.S. The voices are not that bad.… Full Review »
  3. vahn
    5
    In the star ocean series one thing always got me until I was able to see the ending credits, and unfortunately that's not the story. The general plot-line in the star ocean is the space and the travels to various planets and even though this concept is very old and overused the interest of space travelling it's always a nice feature in games when it's used properly (look at Mass Effect to see what I mean). And I just wonder: why did they not develop this concept properly for this game? The story itself starts actually very good and you'll be actually interested in how this will end...but you'll just end up being very disappointed and frustrated after few hours. How can I even start? First of all the story doesn't have a natural flow: you are supposed to explore other planets, which are somehow VERY similar to each others, but soon enough the game puts you through many kinds of boring and sometimes useless fillers that anyone would couldn't stand, making you lose the interest of the story, without mentioning that if you count the story without the fillers this game would be a lot shorter. And also, if this game is called Star ocean, why do we have so much "fantasy-like" features like magic ? Although explained the magic in Star Ocean doesn't fit properly (and again, look at the "magic" of Mass Effect to see what I mean) The story gets worse "thanks" (sadly) to the characters that, in my opinion, are the WORST characters ever created for an RPG EVER: all of them are basically flat characters with very clichè behaviours (the brave-but-stubborn character, the silent-but-cool warrior, the caring female that sticks only with the main character, and so on) and even though sometimes clichès can be interesting if they are done right these ones are so bad that they look more like "parodies" of bad characters...and I beg you to believe me I'm not joking when I say that I didn't care a single bit for them when something bad happened to them because I HOPED that to happen all the time! At least there's one thing that saves this game: the battle system. As usual, the battle system of this series is made action based and it's very engaging and very fun to play, with upgradeable skills, the possibility to chain spells/moves and the possibility to chain the skills of 2 characters by using the rush gauge. Although fun, it's not flawless (It's kinda tricky to trigger the combo properly and not worth it, not all skills are useful and you can basicly use a mage to spam your magic for winning the match) but it's surely the best and only good part of this game. There are also other things like the crafting system and the quests system but both are useless and boring (you'll find better equipment from shops and the quests aren't very exciting). I'll give this game a 5 ONLY because of the battle system so if you don't mind a bad story but at least a good action-based rpg then this is for you...or else beware!… Full Review »
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