[GAME] Star Ocean – The Last Hope

The last ever Star Ocean game has been released, the previous games have not been as big as some square games, but to fans of the series this is a highly anticipated game which square really need to deliver on.

To those of you who are not too sure what the Star Ocean games are, they are RPG’s with Real Time Battle and are set in the future, when time travel or warping through space is available. In previous games it has normally been set about that time travelling has gone wrong and you find yourself in primitive worlds or futuristic ones. Then learning of a group of people who are doing bad things in these worlds and trying to set things right.

The 4th game in the series is set a little different, after World War 3 has almost destroyed the World, space exploration to find new planets in which the human race can live on has begun and you are part of the team who is going to be braving space and finding our new home. Being with one of your childhood friends on the ship and while your “rival” is now captain of another ship, Edge Maverick, the lead character is determined to achieve the same status as Crowe, his friend.

After some fantastic cut scenes you begin the game setting out into space, preparing to use the new space warping system to reach new planets. While it has been tested and used before, on this journey, all 5 ships that set off are disrupted during the warp and end of stranded on a distant planet (except one, the ship which Crowe is captain of, while this ship has gone missing, no one is able to locate it!) Priority for your ship and crew is to establish a position on this new World and make sure it is safe. You quickly learn it is not safe and are forced to fight your way around the island in search of the other ships that the locator has found. After being safe with 2 of the ships, you and your close friend Remi set off to find the 4th, only to find when you get there everyone is dead and had been attacked by a strange and unknown monster.

So that is where things kind of start to get going and I do not want to go much deeper than this because there are some nice little twists and events that happen even this early in the game which really add to the games magic and make it such an enjoyable RPG. I have been waiting for an RPG which has lured me into it’s world with beautiful graphics, characters who are interesting and not the same as 90% of the rest. An RPG which has a intriguing plot which I need to know more about and a battle system which is enjoyable and makes levelling up exciting and not a chore. Star Ocean – The Last Hope is this RPG I have been waiting for. It has so far ticked all the boxes for me and I really can’t wait to see how this game pans out and ends. 10 hours play time and I have only advanced about ½ of that, due to levelling up and exploring, the areas are huge and you can spend a lot of time trying to go up a level and learn new skills.

While the fundamentals are all great, there are some nice additions which keep things fresh and interesting. As you battle you get awarded trophies and collect Monster data, which leads to completion percentages and achievements. You can battle the same type of monsters to gain knowledge on them and finally be able to make equipment to boost your stats from them. There is a batle simulator to work your way through. So plenty to keep you going! There really is so much more than your average RPG here.

So good graphics, great story and game play. Next would be the battle system, like I mentioned before, it is Real Time, you only control one member of your party at a time, you can switch between them mid battle but the computer AI will follow instruction set on the menu’s and battle to your style with the ones you are not using. While some people may find this a bit odd from the conventional RPG battle system, it really works well, and stringing combos together means the more skilled you are, the better you battle (so kind of realistic in that sense)

Now not many games have all positives and sadly this does have a few bad points, I find the camera to be a bit sensitive and can spin around all too fast and cause you to hit enemies when you want to avoid them. The text can be a tad small for us non HD viewers! But it is more than readable, just something I noticed from seeing it in both formats. The game does still look great in both and is a real joy to play for this reason alone.

So in short, Square - enix have made a great RPG again and are showing why they are the best at this. It has so far been every bit as good as I expected and am looking forward to spending a lot more time on this. I would highly recommend it to any fan of the series or the genre. It is the RPG we have all been waiting for, until FF13 (which if it is as good as this I would be happy!)

That said, this game gets a 9/10 for me (but I am a huge RPG fan, for newcomers and those less keen, it would probably be a 8)


Thanks for Reading!