AnimeGlobe.com - Video Games

Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Or First Of Much Hope To Come)

Posted by Kishiro in Video Games March 02, 2009 at 11:41:22 PM

Anime and Manga themes and video games go hand in hand these days, and they have for the last two decades of the video gaming industry boom. That comes as no surprise seeing as how many of our games come from Japan, just like Anime and Manga do. So what does that mean for the current next generation of gaming? It means things like this...

I unfortunately didn’t have time to play through the whole game, but I did get through enough to be able to tell you enough to help you decide whether you want to pick this game up or not.

The game is set in a post apocalyptic world, ravaged by World War III. The world leaders witness the destruction they’ve caused (whom, by the way bare an awful close resemblance to every other generic American President and Sadaam Hussein), and are soon to call a peace treaty. The world then bands together to set forth and find a new life and a new planet to call home among the stars, seeing as how they’ve made Earth uninhabitable. Way to go, mankind.

The game has that overly Anime feel to it, just like a good ole fashioned SNES RPG. It’s futuristic, and slightly medieval at the same time, plus there are giant bugs and other such things to fight. You get to roam through the worlds freely, in any direction. You can dash, but you may not jump. So don’t get any funny ideas.

Entering combat literally means doing just that, it also means you can avoid it. To enter combat, you must come in to contact with a roaming enemy representative. After doing such, you’re taken to the combat area/mode, and engage in an “all range mode” limited area to fight in, similar to that of Star Fox 64. You can move in all directions, and now that you are fighting, you may jump, but there are only two ways out of combat—victory or death. You can switch between each party member to manually control during combat, by pressing the RB or LB buttons.
Each party member has their own talents and skills, all using super futuristic versions of weapons you’d find in WoW, Fable, or Elder Scrolls. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, high tech swords and bows and arrows. The rail guns we brought with us to the vast ocean of stars are no use against giant bugs, which apparently have shields that protect them from high velocity metals, so we have to kick their exoskeletons the old fashioned way—that’s right—high frequency forever sharp workshop blades made of titanium alloy.

But honestly, the combat system was rather enjoyable once you get in to it, although rather repetitive and easy to master at lower levels. There are two main ways to level each character, and a third system that augments bonuses when leveling skills and gaining exp, depending on how you perform in combat. The combat is indeed real time and free form, if I haven’t made that clear already from my descriptions. You can also select from about 4-6 options on how you want your party members to perform in combat. You can choose how much effort they put in to combat, whether they go full force, or whether they use any MP or not. I have found that they tend to take much less damage when I’m not controlling them. Go figure.

The BEAT System is one of the two progressive leveling systems for each character in Star Ocean: The Last Hope.

The opening dialogues are pretty cheesy, so feel free to skip them if you want; I promise you aren’t missing anything good. Unless you’re an absolute nut for story and characters, there are only two important things to get from the first half hour or so of cut scenes and such, which I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out from the rest of the game. Beware, there are little Asian girls throwing up the peace sign on BOTH hands in the early stages of this game, they are highly energetic and annoying. Stereotypes and clichés at their best.

The sets and environments are actually rather impressive, especially in High Definition. They really are a beauty to behold, and the art is nice enough too just look at. Perhaps it is the way the water gleams and shines on the planet you crash land on before the game really starts to pick up and let you really play it. The music isn’t anything really to rant about. I think I honestly stopped noticing there was any at some point. It isn’t a really impressive score like some games we’ve seen in this genre or it’s kin in the past. Take your pick of the ones that have had soundtracks that you’ve fallen in love with, this game contains no songs like that.

I do like this game, and think it is worth playing through all three discs that come in it’s case. I just wish I had the time to do just that. Pick it up and give it a shot, hope you XB360 owners enjoy it, and cherish it. Clutch it like gold, because as of right now it is an exclusive just for us, until further notice. Go explore the stars.

--Kishiro

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