Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Now that we have a new installment in the Star Ocean series, we can now look at how it all began. Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a very fun and difficult RPG. You play as Edge Maverick while him and his crew go on a space exploration in the great Star Ocean. Yeah sounds like your average plot line for a futuristic game. But as we know Star Ocean wont disappoint. Well it turns out that some unfortunate events happen and Edge along with the exploration ship "the Calnus” crash land on a planet. Thus begins are story

This is the best rpg i have brought this year some reviews say the cut scenes were too long but i dont think they were to bad the were well spred out. most scenes were funny some were weird and some were sappy.
The battle system was great big battle areas and cool moves every character is cool ta use and they all have cool moves i found myself using them all through out the game.
All the worlds are huges and and look great some get even bigger when you return to them through out the game.
This game is a good one for the star ocean series.

The game contains some of the best battles i have seen in a JRPG, with an interesting blend of tactics and button mashing.

The story is average, with a fairly derivative plot, but highs and lows at some points that can stir the emotions.

What really let me down about this game are the bad translations, poor lipsinching and very poor english voice work. The female voices are particularly bad, you will find you grinding your teeth while waiting through some of the unskippable scenes. I found myself turning the sound way down.

While there are certain aspects of this game i enjoyed, overall this game was a struggle. I have put in around 20 hours but havent played it in a while. Some of the characters voices are just plain irritating! to the point where i wont use them because i hate hearing their voice… regardless of how good their skills are.

The story is somewhat interesting but at certain points it branches off into something completely boring and you find yourself grinding to hurry and get through it.

Overall i didnt like the character designs, some japanese artist has gone overboard again to make some characters super cute to the point of nausea and then some female characters looking like they should be working on a red light corner. The main character resembles Final Fantasy 7's Cloud waaay too much.

Instead of this game i would recommend Tales of Vesperia. Very similar, yet Tales of Vesperia seems to have gotten it right in all the places Star Ocean have gotten it wrong.

I used to play Star Ocean: The Second Story on PS1 back in the day and loved it to bits. So of course on seeing it on sale for such a low price I pounced on the opportunity and have been nothing but impressed by it.

Definitely recommended to any fans of the Star Ocean series or anyone that likes a good RPG.