Board 8 > A bunch of Star Ocean games are on sale. I've never touched the series.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Star Ocean 2 and 3 are pretty good. 1 is alright but really dated (2 kind of is too but its better). 4 was unbearably bad and I never got around to wanting to play 5 to find out if it was okay.

Also 3 is the one with the infamous twist you're talking about.

2 and 3 are generally considered the best. 4 was meh but i heard the PS3 version (international) fixes stuff that the 360 (one I played) fucked up

The first three are worth playing, assuming you are ok with the twist in 3.

Board 8 told me so3 was a worthy purchase back in the day. I've never forgiven that lie

I never even made it to the twist!

Maybe I had stronger opinions back then and it's actually a fine game

Be forewarned that the PS4 SO3 port has some weird crashing bug that seems to happen depending on map usage. It doesn't have autosave either.

Not sure if they ever patched that out. Probably wouldn't, knowing Square.

SO1 - Good
SO2 - Great (Not in this sale because they never released the PS4 remaster in english)
SO3 - Good
SO4 - Battle system is good, everything else is bad to very bad
SO5 - Okay, but had a very limited budget and it shows

1 is good
2 is great
3 is meh leaning bad
4 is meh leaning good
5 is fine but hampered by no budget

It'd be nice if there were a version of SO3 that let you keep the JP voice acting. The English voice acting is the worst in any game I've played.

So the PSN sale has First Departure R, Til the End of Time, The Last Hope, and I&F.

I guess I'll just grab the first one, as it doesn't sound like this series has the reputation that something like Trails or Ys does.

No. No it does not.

1. 2 and 3
2. 3

Big_Bob posted...

I guess I'll just grab the first one, as it doesn't sound like this series has the reputation that something like Trails or Ys does.

Yeah not really. I'd say the first 3 are pretty solid JRPGs with a fairly unique premise, especially for their time (sci-fi/fantasy hybrid JRPGs have become more common since then, though) but even the best ones aren't must plays IMO. They're still pretty good, however.

Star Ocean is not a good series. 2 was really good and everyone has just wished the others could be good since, frustratingly the only game that not easy to get nowadays. The demo for the new one is real bad, so there's not much hope there.

Unironically the best thing about the series is it has really, really good menu sound effects.

I feel like at the time Tales of Symphonia and Star Ocean 3 were big rivals here on B8

Symphonia dunks on it though

And then Tales left it completely in the dust. Fitting, since I believe Star Ocean was a ripoff or clone made by ex members of the Phantasia team.

Sakuraba not withstanding (who composes for both), SO is just in this weird ass holding pattern of shovelware. Berseria and Arise alone prove Tales has far more quality control, especially lately.

Then again, I'm not saying Takes wasn't always better. I just think by and large, even Tales's lesser entries are better. People swear by Symphonia, Abyss, Vesperia, and Graces, though I wasn't really wowed by those.

Still, when Star Ocean's claim to fame is one of the worst plot twists ever, you really fucked up. The sad thing is SO3 has this stupid charm to it too. Why they had to ruin it with the twist is beyond me.

UltimaterializerX posted...

Is 2 on sale or am I blind?

2 isn't even out in the US for PS4.

I would say most of the mediocre Tales game like Xillia and Grace's are still better than SO3 which most people consider one of the better ones. The series just has way lower standards.

SO2 is good, but the series average is Talez of Zestiria and that's not an average you want to have. I would honestly rather play Zestiria again than SO4 or 5 and that game nearly gave me a nervous breakdown.

from what ive played of tales SO is definitely the better series. only played 7 tales though

SO 6 goty

What are the best Tales games? Steam currently has a sale on at least some of them it seems

Berseria and Arise.

Never really enjoyed the older ones. I usually hear Symphonia, Abyss, and Vesperia mentioned. Those 3D line battle systems are rough to me (the line mechanic is hit or miss). I prefer Berseria and Arise because they have free movement around the field.

Abyss is the best one but it only sits on the PS2 and 3DS.

Berseria is...at worst second best, tied on a good day, and the actual part where you play the video game is better than Abyss. Easily accessible, dirt cheap right now.

Vesperia has some problems but it's still a classic.

Symphonia has aged pretty badly gameplay eaise but it's still a solid experience.

Arise has really good feeling combat, even if the story and characters are mid to good, still a great package and the highest budget afair for sure.

Xillia is mid. Graces has arguably the best combat but the game is pretty mediocre overall.

Zesteria is very, very bad. Bad enough that the guy who had been running Tales for like a decade (leading the mediocre years) was likely forced out over it due to some behind the scenes stuff. Berseria was the first game after he left.

Well, that answers a lot. Whoever is running Takes now kicked the series in the ass.

Hideo Baba was a blight.

Arise is not a top 5 Tales game.

Berseria is the way to go IMO.

Everything after Vesperia sucks

I really hated Abyss. The pacing was just so piss-poor. It felt like the story would just grind to a halt every so often.

I just picked up Vesperia Definitive though. Having a game on sale for less than $10 will do that to you.

I actually really liked Arise, felt like the pacing and gameplay was pretty fun and the story was fine for a Tales game.

I ended up getting Zestiria just for curiositys sake even if I know going backwards in this franchise is usually bad news

I played Vesperia for the first time on Switch, and I really could not get into it. Combat felt stiff and clunky, and the characters/story were pretty boring. Also all the missables, ugh.

I enjoyed Abyss, Xillia, and Berseria.

I played an assortment of Tales games and the only one I really liked a lot was Berseria which is my easy favorite though the gear system sucks. Man I wasted so much time breaking down and selling vender trash and upgrading weapons. Abyss was strange but it got better, but still it seemed over my head at the beginning and I didn't think most of the characters were all that likable at least initially. Then uhh Phantasia I actually played a lot of the Super Famicon version and the PSX version. It's pretty cool but I dropped them after awhile not sure why. Had some other brief opinions but meh I meant to post about Star Ocean so without making this a wall of text......

Star Ocean: 2nd Story is going to feel really outdated today but it's still an all time favorite. The PSP version plays better but I really dislike the new art style and some other things about it. Star Ocean 4 I don't like to use this word because it is so overused but it is certainly cringe at times. The battle system though is extremely good and the characters while being apart of the cringe some are alright at times. I might be literally the only person who likes Lymele. Star Ocean 3 is what I actually thought Star Ocean 4 would be. One of the best things about SO4 is how you actually feel like you are travelling in a sea of stars. The scope of SO3 was more limited than I was expecting (think I just didn't realize the PS2 wasn't that powerful enough or was never intended to be that way).

So Star Ocean 3 is cool but more limited in scope than I expected and MP death is still annoying. Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness was definitely a big miss. I was playing it and expecting it to be bad well it wasn't good at all, but I wasn't hating my time playing it. I got it for cheap and granted gave up halfway through it for something better, but eh it exists still as a poor example of a game in the franchise.

Star Ocean 1 seems seems fine played a few versions to certain extents but ehhh I already wrote enough I think. Free to ask me about things or I may check back on this topic too.

i remember the gameplay in 3 being really really fun

3 is god tier

The fact that so many people in this topic are talking about Tales instead should tell you all you need to know. Don't buy Star Ocean.