Star Ocean: The Last Hope - 4K & Full HD Remaster picks up the decent JRPG developed in 2009 by tri-Ace and refurbishes it with more than positive results.
Star Ocean 4 was in my opinion one of the best rpg games ever made. You had allot of hidden stuff you could explore. Many characters and an arena. I can't tell how many thousands of hour I've been playing this game but it was allot. The only 3 things I did not like in this game was
1. Very complicated questing when you've done 1 thing wrong and you failed in a huge amount of other quest, achievements and so on. Without any information it was very hard to not mess something up so you didn't had to start all over.
2. Some very long dungeons did not have any Savecores where you could save your progress. Very huge dungeons had a very high chance that the game freezes or something else so you've done all the hour of work for nothing. This happened to me billion times.
3. Sadly Square Enix messed up the Remaster version so you are not able to set the volume, sounds like you would wish to. So playing this game on PS4 while having a party conversation is a pain. The dialogs volume is like 60% and music and the rest is at 100% that's make it hard to understand what the character are actually talking about. So I stick with the 360 version.
But after all that Square failed with the Remastered Version just because of the volume sadness the game itself is just godlike. Star Ocean games for ever.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a massive game with plenty to do and see. While the acting might be very poor and the character models weird and unnerving, the rest of the game is littered with things for the player to do, regardless of if they are adventurous or just want to rush to the end. It terms of good RPGs, this isn't the best, or even the best in the series, but it's still an excellent title that only holds itself back enough to notice. Thankfully, it's not back far enough that you won't care.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope isn't offensively bad like Integrity & Faithlesness and this remastered porting does improve a lot the game on the technical side. Still extremely animesque, it keeps delivering on a solid combat system and a few twists which may appeal fans of the genre.
If Square Enix and tri-Ace really wanted to do this remaster justice, they should have done more than a graphical boost. They should have fixed the overworld map. They should have at least given non-Pro folk an option for the Modern art style. Perhaps they should have also worked on the input lag, included the ability to skip long cutscenes (even if it’s the first time seeing them), or skip through dialogue.
This Remaster Star Ocean: The Last Hope should have been a remake. Now the game feels old with just a new look. The fighting is good, but everything else feels old and that's a shame. It just can't compete with the rest of the RPGs of today.
This is the best game I've played in more than a year. It's much more than i was expecting and just fall in love with it. I wood have paid full price knowing what i know now but for 20€ ? It's the best game I've ever bought for that money. If you like RPG games and games like Nino Kuni or White Knight Chronicles this is a must buy.Everything in this game it's to like but the only detail wood be AAA new generation graphics, graphics are descent still. If your looking for an incredible Adventure and a magnificent Story, this is your game besides the combat it's awesome .
After playing every Star Ocean game available (and loving 90% of them) I can honestly say this one is a bit of a let down. I seriously expected more from this series. I wish I could rate it higher then 7 but several things take the score down quite a bit.
Problem #1 is the english voice acting. Reimi was the only voice actor who didn't make me cringe during dialog. The rest are borderline atrocious, with one character decimating that line altogether. I'm not sure what to make of Lymle. If the voice actor was going for a lobotomized, traumatized child then they're spot on. Seriously, she sounds like she has suffered massive head trauma. Acting lessons are good, kay?
Problem #2. The special arts of one Edge Maverick (seriously who came up with these names? Cliche much?). Many do less damage per second then just spamming the basic attack. While they do more damage per button press, when you spread that damage over multiple hits and you factor in the time it takes for each skill to finish they do less damage and take more time then pressing the basic attack button 5 times. Not to mention how they leave you more vulnerable during the time it takes to execute that skill. Making them more risk then reward.
Pros: Beautiful graphics. Although the land could use a bit more foliage the character models and many of the textures are beautifully rendered. The addition of being able to swap between Anime or "Modern" style for the artwork is a definite plus. The ability to swap VO languages and to experience the game with Japanese VO is a definite plus as well. Especially when you take into consideration Lymle's annoying English VO and the poor overall quality of the English VO.
If you're going to play this game swap it over to Japanese VO. I expected more from this series, I really did.
Star Ocean The Last Hope is a very interesting JRPG but requires a great number of hours to complete it 100 %. I just played this game for the story and to unlock all the endings. I was not going to gather all the battle trophies, spaceship data, weapon data, monster data, possible items and treasure chests because it takes a lot of time. Also, I did not finish all quests, colosseum challenge, bunny racing, and I did not try to defeat two superboss because it requires a great level (Lv. > 160-200) to defeat them. To complete this game 100 %, you should take more than 200 hours. All this is very interesting but still a little too much.
I will not talk about the graphics because the graphics was also good on the PS3. I do not judge the game according to the graphics. I will actually talk about story and battle system.
Story: The story of this game first begins with the exploration of the universe and then is directed towards saving the universe. I like this game beacause the exploration of the universe. In previous games, the story usually takes place on one or two planets, while in this game the story takes place on several planets. Through Private Actions, you learn the individual stories of each character and their interaction, which additionally complements the main story. Generally speaking, the story is very interesting, in some parts it is funny and in some parts it is serious.
Battle system: The battle system has advanced far enough from the predecessor. The characters no longer die if the MP comes to zero, and new functions such as Blindsiding and Rush Combos contribute to improving the battle system. In this game, also it is much easier to fill out the bonus board than it was in Star Ocean Till the End of Time. All these new functions make the battle system much more interesting, and I think this is the best battle system in Star Ocean games.
Conclusion: I gave this game 8 out of 10 for the story and battle system, while for minigames and sidequests I give 5 out of 10. My average rating then would be for this game 6.5 out of 10, so I will round the score to 7 out of 10.
I really am annoyed by this game Kay.
Item creation **** in this game. who in their right mind thought 20 was a reasonable cap and require things that take over 6 to craft a single item. And that item multiples are needed to craft quests items, synthesis items, and more items needed to be used in crafting. To make it worse far too many of those basic resources can not be bought and need to be farmed. Coal for example cant be bought kay. Coal needs to be mined for a specific world and when you do, you are not guaranteed a single piece of coal kay. you have to wake around the map spanning that entire world to find all the spots and those spots do not respawn unless you go all the way back to the Calnus......
There is a character in this game you get relatively early and her catchphrase is Kay. It is the most annoying thing I have ever heard and I have heard trump speak..... If I could kill off this character I would pay to do so. Kay KAY KAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Combat is subpar but tolerable. The bonus system is a neat idea but the execution isn't. there is a surprising lack of monster types. you will fight the same monsters that are recolored the entire game. This is worse than many old RPGs on the SNES and NES. The beat system is boring and doesn't enhance the game at all.
The story is Ok but many of the characters are just stupid and break any immersion you will have in the game.
The Quests system is just terrible. It provides no info that would help you complete it. Go find my cat, deliver a letter, item required, etc. Where do I go, do I craft an item or grind it????? Frustrating at best.
The world maps are boring and have areas devoid of any planning. Like on Lemerus there is a long track of land without plants or monsters or anything....... The mini-map is nearly useless.
Save yourself the stress and avoid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (kay)
this game is complete trash and should have never been made hate this crap the only good ones are 1,2 AND THE REAL 4 THIS IS 5 YOU DIDN'T EVEN NUMBER THEM CORRECTLY SQUARE ENIX. YOU ARE SO FRIKEN STUPID AVOID THIS GAME AT ALL COSTS YOU WILL RAGE QUIT
SummaryStar Ocean: The Last Hope continues the franchise's soaring space opera, blending science fiction with fantasy for a unique RPG experience. The refined gameplay features four party members and team-oriented combat, while maintaining the innovative real-time battle system that has become a trademark of the Star Ocean franchise. The year i...