First of all let me start by saying im a big Tri-Ace fanboy, i've spent 200+ dollars for an X360 Arcade "Jasper" model, i've even choose this game over Uncharted, Killzone 2, and many exclusive PSN games, Tri-Ace games > All In my personal opinion.
At anyrate, i became a fan after Star Ocean: Till the end of Time and from there on it was all awesome.
So when it comes to Tri-Ace i know how they think and make there games... and i've gotta say, SO:TLH feels like a step in the right direction but it has flaws that were sadly influenced by western games that there other games seemed to get pass.
In the end, Star Ocean: The Last Hope was/IS a great JRPG game and was well worth the 200+ bux for the 360 + the game, very well worth it.
So here goes the review (yay!...) ....
- Gameplay - 9/10 - If theres one thing that makes Tri-Ace games stand out from all the rest, it's action packed without giving up Strategic elements, Blindsides, Rush Combos, Skill Swaping, Chain Combos, Perfect Combos, Symbols, Items, Item Creation, In-Battle switchable characters, Instant Weapon Swaping, Instant Armor Swaping, and so on. In the end Tri-Ace continues there Awesome battle systems with SO:TLH and it'll most likely be the best this generation, Until Versus XIII comes out, then...and only then SO:TLH will be dethroned.
- Storyline - 8/10 - At first it bothered me that it felt like a bad rip-off of star wars, but i kept in mind this game takes place even before the original star ocean, in other words its the very first adventure in the star ocean series, so i tried to follow along and in the end in turned out to be very much like Till the end of times storyline, except in Till the end of time the Twist they find out that there (aka) the main character and the entire star ocean world is all FAKE and is just a MMO game made by a higher race like nerdy gods or something like that, in SO:TLH the twist was with Faize mainly, Edges best buddy went the way to the darkside and so forth, but what i found weird was that the "Phantoms" are very much like the "Seraphims" from till the end of time from a story-wise perspective, still even though it felt over-used as a slight change from Till the end of time, it was still enjoyable, the Prive Actions really made the games story stronger and felt well put together then SO3 did because almost all PA's are on the ship, while in SO3 you have to find them in random areas, which was in the end an annoying thing do to.
- Sound/Music/VoiceWork - 8/10 - The sounds in the game are much more enhanced from Star ocean: Till the end of time yet some keep the same effects such as enter'n battle and certain attacks, though many are missing from SO3 some are still present while the rest are enhanced. The music, felt dull and first almost lazy, but futher on it got brighter and in some cases epic, but it lacked the musical boost that SO3 had in general from normal battles to story battles to boss battles. in other words, the music in SO:TLH was good, but it does not compare to SO3's Musical work. As for the voice acting i found it to be MUCH better and i mean MUCH better then SO3's overall voice work, the only 2 characters that bugged me were Lymles and Sarahs, to squeky and downright weird. As for Edges (SO4) Voice work VS Fayts (SO3) Voice work the guy who did Edge was faaaaaaar better, you could really feel the emotions in certains parts of the game and story, although it felt like a bad episode of a cliche anime some times it was good none the less.
- Controls - 10/10 - Plain and simple, as much of a traitor i felt playing a Star Ocean game on a "Non-Sony" console, it felt RIGHT for some reason, now i feel as if the PS3's controller is only semi-right for JRPG's while the 360's (In this Case ONLY) felt right, real easy to handle and had a really user friendly interface, though i still prefer my JRPG's on PlayStation controls, the 360 is not to shabby for JRPG's infact i'd call it Near-Perfect status with the case of SO:TLH. the SO:TLH interface was also well built, easy to get around and it keeps its only saves while PS3 games use the PS3's Save system which pisses me off somewhat.
- Lasting Appeal - 10/10 - Like any other Tri-Ace made game, there all made to last LONG, the bonus battles and content after you beat the game will last you a good 20-80 hours OR MORE depending on how you do thing, and like any other Tri-Ace game before The Last Hope, this has not changed one bit, also Gaberial Selavestes is a character that returns in every Tri-Ace game as the TRUE final boss of the game, him and another called the Etheral Queen count as the main bosses of all Tri-Ace based games, even IU had this feature, although it was called the Seraphic Gate like other Valkrie Profile games instead of new made up ones in star ocean games. basiclly anythign related to Tri-Ace prepare to play over a hundred hours easy.
- Extra Content & Future Content - 10/10 - Just wanted to add this in, from playing the game 52 hours + i've seen various clues and possible hints to a Star Ocean: The Last Hope port, i wont go into detail but lets just say dont be to surprised to see an "Uncut PlayStation 3 Version later on this year or perhaps some time next year, at anyrate the extra content would be as follows IMO... (Scroll down to see the Possible Extras in the Possible PS3 port.)
- Overall Results - 9.5/10 "incredible" - In the end this is obvious proof of how true gamers such as my self should be, you go where your games go simple as that, DO NOT let your bias get in the way of what really matters in the end, your personal guilty pleasures of games. And Star Ocean: The Last Hope did this for me, although i'll admit its not the only Xbox 360 game i own, its the MAIN reason i wanted a 360, and games like Infinite Undiscovery and owning a 2nd HD console are just Bonuses to the main prize. and SO: TLH was worth every cent spent. well done Tri-Ace for keeping Star Ocean alive this long, and i hope to see more from you guys, also congrats to Microsoft aswell for getting such great support from this awesome JRPG dev group. so sad there over-looked most of the time.
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In Conclusion, Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a game worth buying a brand new console for, although as a fan i expected more of a hardcore feel that Till the end of time gave off, the new in-game battles are far more well put together and are very smooth going then SO3's battle system could have ever been and thats the main thing that matters, i would however like to note some things that i found interesting and in some ways disturbing.
- Crowe - He never became playable, yet im sure he had his own weapon set and skill set made but was not added for whatever reason.
- Arumat - im certain he had more to do with the story then what the game let on, also hes the only character in the Star Ocean Series ever alongside Crowe to look like they belong in a Final Fantasy VII spin off instead which is pretty cool because every other character in any SO game looks to Anime-Looking / Action-Figure-ish.
- Online Mode / Co-Op mode / Local VS Mode - None of the 3 was in TLH, which makes me even more sure a PS3 port is bound to happen somewhere down the line.
- Etc... - There are quite a few more things i noticed that could indicate an Uncut version of SO: TLH but im faaar to lazy to mention them right now in this review so if ya wanna know give me a PM or post on my wall or whatever im tired damnit. :/
Side-Note: Theres only one other thing i found really wrong with this game, to back-track to other areas you must put in the proper disc to return, which means... i had to Switch discs every 5 to 10 mins, sure sounds like no big deal but im lazy and some quests needed me to do this and man i was pretty fuckin pissed, in star ocean: Till the end of time this was NOT present so... WTF!?
At anyrate, i'd prefer it all on one disc if possible for i am lazy to do side-quests after im done with the games main story, sounds like no big deal but its pissed me off. :(
If it was every Hour or so then no big deal imo, but 5 mins sometimes 3? ............the hell tri-ace?
