omg, cant w8, but i never played any SO games b4, but i heard its like phantasy star, and i LUV phantasy star. how is the battle like? is it llike phantasy star episode 1 and 2 for the gamecube, or is it like ur in a circle and kill ur enemies?
TGS 2008: Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope Hands-On
The latest Star Ocean is everything we wanted it to be, with beautiful graphics and the same engaging gameplay.
TOKYO--Role-playing game fans are in for a treat, especially if you've never had the opportunity to play Star Ocean before. The original is being remade for the PSP, and now we have Tri-Ace developing Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope, which takes place before the Star Ocean saga. The story is set after World War III and follows humankind as the species makes its way into outer space. The battle system will feel familiar, and it's simple to get into and very easy on the eyes. We spent some time at the Microsoft kiosks to take a look at what appears to be a spectacular RPG.
We were placed in an area that looked like an enormous cave with winding catwalks. A map and a compass in the top right corner of the screen helped guide us around the mazelike environment as we looked for enemies to attack. Enemies appear onscreen, so we ran up to some undead-looking creatures to start the fight. We were then taken into a large arena, and like previous games, we were able to control one character at a time. Using the right bumper, we were able to toggle through our diverse party, which consisted of an archer, a magic user, and another melee fighter. All the battle really entails is spamming the A button and throwing in some special attacks with the right and left triggers.
The battle will end rather quickly, but not without a lot of sweeping, elaborate swordplay and special attacks. The visuals look amazing, and the character designs are attractive and detailed. Each fight ends with a bit of a slowdown to bump up the wow factor and let the characters show off their killing blows. The interior of the cave wasn't much to look at, so we ventured outside into the cold for a glimpse of the snowy white landscape. It didn't look like there was much to do there, either, so we went back inside and continued to hack our way through the enemies.
From our brief playtime, we're already hooked and want to play more. Fans of Star Ocean will enjoy the updated graphics because the battles are fun to watch. It's also a blast to play because it's easy and approachable for anyone. If you've never had an opportunity to play a Star Ocean game, here's your chance to get into the series. Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope will be released on February 19, 2009 in Japan, and we will update this article once the North American date has been announced.
[Update: The North American release date is February 24, 2009.]
77 comments
I absolutely fell for the Star ocean series - because of The Second Story. SO: The Second Story had so much going for it, so much to do - it almost felt limitless. Then I played SO: Till the End of Time, and the sour grapes began to grow. It felt rushed - and it felt like the game was rushing the player along. Gone were many of the distractions of Second Story - making the game an "on rails" RPG. Sadly, even the story was bad; in particular the ending, where they got lazy and instead of making the end a full quest they made you go through a 99 level borefest fight in a building. I want to like future SO titles, so I hope this one doesn't have fatal flaws like The End of Time did.
I wiah they would change the battle system up a little bit. I mean come on, mashing A(or x) gets a little old after a while.
for me the most important recipe in a rpg game is it's story if the story/plot suck it will end up collecting dust in my closet w/o me finishing it.
The Second Story was amazing, First Departure was so-so, and the third was just plain bad. For me, this game really is Star Ocean's last hope.
Im going to try this game out. I used to be a huge fan of JRPGs. Lately I just havent been pulled in though. Ive tried Lost odyssey , tales of vesperia. I just didnt get into them, the battles seem so boring now and days.
Btw, this looks incredible. I loved SO3. And that "pressure-sensitive garbage" was pretty intriguing to me. The graphics and environments really do look incredibly.
no men tsar ocean 4 it wont be in ps3 cause ps3 dont sell well why do you think they will only release this game in 360 Port this game to ps3 it would be a pain and why they should? if they do that them i want MGS4 in 360 >
Yeah this will be an awesome game. Too bad it's only for the Xbox... At the moment anyway. I'm sure they will eventually release it for the PS3, just after the Xbox release. And what do you mean by "pressure sensitive garbage", Omegagear? The special attacks depended on distance of the character... Unless you were on 4D mode... Anyway great game by the look of things.
Oh, thank god the special attacks are mapped to the triggers again. That pressure sensitive garbage from SO3 nearly ruined that game for me.
"If you've never had an opportunity to play a Star Ocean game, here's your chance to get into the series." As an RPG fan that's never played a Star Ocean game before, I think I'll take your word on that and I'll be sure to keep my eyes glued for a UK release date. :)
This game looks to be great =) oh and lostn stop troling and just be quiet no one cares
"@lostn I hate to break it to you but the 360 is still leading in software sales." Look up 'supreme' in the dictionary.
i'm a fan of star ocean, and rpgs as a whole, but i'm also a fan of the PS3...but I will have to shed my pride to play this and last remnant, i want them...although they said it MIGHT come for the ps3 but i'm not going to wait for them to get started...
leading by what: 4 million units, with a one year head start, and a lower price??...talk about pitiful
well there are many idiots in the world who would waste their money on a machine that at most times loses to the xbox 360 in game graphics. most good games that were meant to be ps3 exclusives except for mgs4 are on xbox 360 with better graphics. A great example vf4. So if all the good, meant to be ps3 exclusives end up on xbox360 while very few xbox360 exclusives end up on the ps3 and usually with crap graphic (e.g lost planet), why waste money in getting the ps3.
"Last console generation PS2 reigned supreme now its the 360's turn. " Hate to break it to you, but the 360 is hardly reigning 'supreme'. It's 4 million units ahead of the PS3 with a one year head start. It trails the Wii in every zone.
Are Tri-Ace the same people who made IU? God, I hope not. Visuals look nice though. Much better than IU and Last Remnant.
But it does matter what system it's on. Depending on which system it's on changes whether i can play it...OR NOT!!! If it's multisystem than i don't care XD
Who cares what system it's on as long as it lives up to the franchise? I play games, not consoles.
It's important to know if it's exclusive or not for e-peen stroking reasons. That way you can tell all your buddies that don't happen to have the exclusive system that they're idiots for not buying the superior console.
Same here, for some reason I just couldn't stand Star Ocean 3. I'm also hoping I'll like it way more..better rent it first then :P
Good grief people. To answer the question of exclusivity. It is exclusive for now anyways. It'll be out for the PS3, hopefully in the near future, maybe not in 2009, which sucks, but it will be out for the PS3 nonetheless. If the developer saying that "it may or may not be an exclusive" doesn't hint anything and knowing some of the history of the developer, this game will be on the PS3 after the 360 version comes out. Microsoft plans to sell units with this game in Japan before the release of the PS3 version, so it might work out better for them. I don't know what kind of deal they made, but it seems that they wanted to put the game out earlier than their competitors. But the PS3 version could be coming with extras like Eternal Sonata, so either buy it early 2009 or wait for the PS3 version which will be pretty late. Worth the wait? Depends on how good the game is.
yea you right there clarkspark. the ps2 was the best of the best last time but the ps3 is more of a blue ray player with games then a game system. I dont play shooters that much, so the MGS4 isnt effecting me too much.. whats worse is that i dont get into alot of movies so blueray isnt all that useful to me either..i have the x box and the ps3 but if the games dont pick up on the ps3 soon im gonna have to trade it in:(
If Japan doesn't want anything to do with the 360, then thats their lost. I have both systems but I only play games on the 360. (Except for MGS4) Other than that PS3 is my Bluray player. Last console generation PS2 reigned supreme now its the 360's turn. That being said, I'm enjoying ALL the great RPGs that have been coming out for the 360. Keep 'em comin.
~Egg99 Sorry, but I have to disagree there. Apparently, infinite undiscovery caused the 360 to outsell both the ps3 and the wii (not the ds because of pokemon platinum) and that wasn't even a very good game. So a game that looks as good as this will likely do even better. It wouldn't be a waste, the 360 already has some very nice jrpgs. I can't wait for this one :3 I hope the voice acting is better than So3
@Egg99 I agree with what you said, but I'm guessing Square and Microsoft are going to try to use this to sell more 360s in Japan. They probably know that it won't sell them another 10m consoles, but it could be a good stepping stone. That said, I'd like to see if they sold more consoles when games like Lost Odyssey were released.
The problem with this game being exclusive, as fanboyish as this might sound, is that it's a complete waste of a great game. It's not the the 360's a bad console, it's the fact that Japan wants absolutely nothing to do with the system. Sure, Microsoft's gonna sell a few consoles in Japan with this game; they're also going to remain in dead last regardless, and be so far behind that they won't have any hope of gaining a significant foothold there at LEAST until the next batch of consoles arrive. My point is that there's gonna be a massive amount of people who won't get to play this game because SE decided to make it exclusive for a system that has no hope in that country. It just goes to show you how greedy companies can get when development costs start to rise.
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Review Scores
| Platform | GameSpot | Metacritic / User Score |
|---|---|---|
Game Info
- Release Date: Feb 23, 2009 (US)
- ESRB: TTitles rated T (Teen) have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older.
- Release Date: Feb 8, 2010 (US)
- ESRB: TTitles rated T (Teen) have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
- Publisher(s): Square Enix
- Developer(s): Tri-Ace
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Release:
- ESRB: T
Star Ocean Last Hope Navigation
