Current Events > Starting STAR OCEAN - The Last Hope...what should I expect?

(+) Yeah! (+)

This was actually purchased for me very generously by another CE user (thank you)...Star Ocean 2 for PS1 is a top 4 or 5 game for me all-time, but I was not a huge SO3 - Till the End of Time fan.

What should I expect with Last Hope?

Here I go!

No hope.

Terrible voice acting, awful characters, surprisingly boring plot, pretty fun combat

The best SO game in my opinion. (many many MANY will say otherwise, but i love it)

A lot of grind with a pretty eh story. The real shine comes in the gameplay and learning how to chain attacks with each character.

Crafting all the cool food and weapons. You can make some pretty crazy shit.

That and a lot of tropey silly moments.

Oh and Myuria

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/2/4/AAFOjXAADViA.jpg

MC_BatCommander posted...

Terrible voice acting, awful characters, surprisingly boring plot, pretty fun combat

Yeah the voice acting so far is wtf. My ship just crash-landed and some bugs attacked me - but are immune to our people's railguns! OH FUCK.

I killed them with a sword.

I just got a BEAT level up - no idea what that is...but yeah

TheBrainbuster posted...

I just got a BEAT level up - no idea what that is...but yeah

They are a buff you can apply to your characters

One set is more active and gives boosts to blindsiding and attack combo skills and such, the other is more passive and just stat boosts.

I like to level them evenly on all characters and then set it to neutral when i max it out.

Flauros posted...

They are a buff you can apply to your characters

One set is more active and gives boosts to blindsiding and attack combo skills and such, the other is more passive and just stat boosts.

I like to level them evenly on all characters and then set it to neutral when i max it out.

Oh sweet, I changed the BEAT on my bow-and-arrow girl Reimi.

1st boss down...yahoo!

the series was never good and somehow manages to make exploring other planets super boring

a main character named edge maverick

there are so many missables and huge areas

Arumat is my boy though

also my username is inspired by the MC's "ultimate" attack in the game "Scintillant Stream"

Illuminoius posted...

the series was never good

wat

I only played it because of Myuria and the fun and flashy combat.

Combat is deep but not necessarily fun once you have like 20 hours of play as the same character.

TheBrainbuster posted...

What should I expect with Last Hope?

Meowrica!

NecroFoul99 posted...

Meowrica!

I wanna see Meracle and Yuuki team up and claw some shit to death
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/1/6/AATz36AADZb4.jpg https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/9/3/AATz36AADOWJ.jpg

Oh yeah, Meracle joining your party really does mean that the game just got way more easy. She's so good.

Welp, time to continue my quest.

Illuminoius posted...

the series was never good and somehow manages to make exploring other planets super boring

It's because the series on the whole is just the laziest Sci-Fi ever, your main characters all come from advanced civilizations, but you only ever get morsels of interacting with said advanced civilizations, while the majority of your playtime is always spent in some backwater medieval mudhut shit hole. >_>

Ving_Rhames posted...

It's because the series on the whole is just the laziest Sci-Fi ever, your main characters all come from advanced civilizations, but you only ever get morsels of interacting with said advanced civilizations, while the majority of your playtime is always spent in some backwater medieval mudhut shit hole. >_>

That's what makes it fun...

Expect some hope but only some. It's actually the last of it

TheBrainbuster posted...

Yeah the voice acting so far is wtf. My ship just crash-landed and some bugs attacked me - but are immune to our people's railguns! OH FUCK.

I killed them with a sword.

There's one character that's REALLY bad. Annoying as fuck really. You'll know her when you see her.

some bullshit

Star Ocean 4 gets a lot of hate, but it had one of the best combat systems on 7th gen consoles.

But if you're playing with English voices, then prepare yourself for one of the most annoying characters of all time, 'kay.

Scintillant posted...

there are so many missables and huge areas

Arumat is my boy though

also my username is inspired by the MC's "ultimate" attack in the game "Scintillant Stream"

My current username was also inspired by Star Ocean 4. I just changed Nox Obscurus slightly (TC, don't look that name up yet, will be spoilers)

NoxObscuras posted...

Star Ocean 4 gets a lot of hate, but it had one of the best combat systems on 7th gen consoles.

I hated the characters (most of them at least), but I really liked the combat system.

Ving_Rhames posted...

It's because the series on the whole is just the laziest Sci-Fi ever, your main characters all come from advanced civilizations, but you only ever get morsels of interacting with said advanced civilizations, while the majority of your playtime is always spent in some backwater medieval mudhut shit hole. >_>

The problem is far more based on the justification for said low-science interactions. In something like Till the end of Time they justify it by not wanting to cause too much of a stir with powered weaponry, something that is mostly acceptable if you ignore the fact that they didn't do things like change their clothes and that would give them away instantly as well. Here they have you drop your railguns because the first enemy is immune to them and then the game just assumes that the player is a moron and has already forgotten about them, thus meaning that the characters don't have any reason to move back to modern weaponry.

Legato-and-Vash posted...

There's one character that's REALLY bad. Annoying as fuck really. You'll know her when you see her.

It's okay because once TC gets around her extremely grating voice acting he'll have to deal with the fact that she's just an offensive stereotype!

In any case The Last Hope is a game with terrible writing. Not the FFX "Hur hur, he make da silly laugh!!!!", where the entire complaint stems from one directorial decision that the voice acting portrayed exactly as it was supposed to be and is only brought up because it's early on, but actually bad. Every new cutscene will introduce worse writing until every scene creates massive plotholes by the end and even slightly thinking about what is going on or what is said completely annihilates the narrative. It isn't like Till the end of Time where the problem stems from the idea that the twist just cannot work in a video game narrative positively, the writers in TLH just suck. I legitimately just walked away during the ending cutscene I had written the game off so much, something I have flat out never done in any other game.

Bump, time to continue my quest for the evening

omg this sidequest needs me to get 10 Insect Eggs and they NEVER DROP OMG

It's the worst SO imo. The 5th one is incredibly uninspired and forgettable and it's still better.

TheBrainbuster posted...

omg this sidequest needs me to get 10 Insect Eggs and they NEVER DROP OMG

pump points into the skill that gives better/extra drops for insects. I think edge has that one

Flauros posted...

pump points into the skill that gives better/extra drops for insects. I think edge has that one

Anthropology? I'll try it

The graphics and game play are outstanding. Everything else is bad.

This topic made me want to do another play through, so... bought it on Steam (yay summer sale), since my other copy is the 360 version lol.

It's Entomology - my bad

Okay...Entomology is level 9 now, I used all my damn Party Points on it...let's try now

What do "Battle Trophies" do anyhow? I keep getting them but they don't give me anything

AHA got the 10 eggs. Sweet

TheBrainbuster posted...

What do "Battle Trophies" do anyhow? I keep getting them but they don't give me anything

They are for achievements for the game.

As well as giving you more voice clips with the more you unlock (i think you gte more at 25, 50 and 75% unlocked per character) to spice up battles.

You also get more CC with more trophies so you can add more combos and skillsto your build. it becomes super useful the more you can add

This Entomology skill is actually great because the insects are dropping Seeds that give me permanant + stat boosts

:O

Flauros posted...

They are for achievements for the game.

As well as giving you more voice clips with the more you unlock (i think you gte more at 25, 50 and 75% unlocked per character) to spice up battles.

You also get more CC with more trophies so you can add more combos and skillsto your build. it becomes super useful the more you can add

Sweet, thanks

No problem. I love that game so much. Just wait till you can set up a mage party and spam explosions.

The battle trophies are also one of the reasons this game is a massive grind to get 100% completion. It takes like 450-500 hours to get all of the battle trophies. And of course, there's an achievement for getting all battle trophies.

But they aren't needed to beat the game, just annoying to completionists or achievement hunters lol.

I recognize this ship - the Calnus.

This was Claude's ship in Star Ocean 2. :3

NoxObscuras posted...

The battle trophies are also one of the reasons this game is a massive grind to get 100% completion. It takes like 450-500 hours to get all of the battle trophies. And of course, there's an achievement for getting all battle trophies.

But they aren't needed to beat the game, just annoying to completionists or achievement hunters lol.

I never went for the 100% on those because some of them are just silly. like getting specific damage numbers. That shit is annoying, especially once you hit some redonk level on your 2nd new game plus run.

I know there are tricks to doing it, but im lazy.

For meracle and arumat to obliterate the game when you get them, lol. They are so much better in comparison to edge you were think they are the main characters. Reimi also gets way better than what she started as once you start getting her later special moves.

The game is full of some serious WTF plot points, some bad voice acting and the occasional odd design choice, but I liked it overall. I liked it less than SO1 and SO2, but more than SO3. Good luck!

Just be prepared that you want to switch it over to Japanese Voice w/ Eng subs from the get go otherwise your ears will start bleeding.

Mad-Dogg posted...

For meracle and arumat to obliterate the game when you get them, lol. They are so much better in comparison to edge you were think they are the main characters. Reimi also gets way better than what she started as once you start getting her later special moves.

Excellent :D

Mad-Dogg posted...

For meracle and arumat to obliterate the game when you get them, lol. They are so much better in comparison to edge you were think they are the main characters. Reimi also gets way better than what she started as once you start getting her later special moves.

Flysavagesparrows x 100

a crappy game