So this is kind of a game that everyone forgot about, but to be quite honest it wasn't very good. The game lacked any cutscenes, the "world" was very small. The combat was okay, but everything else was just bad. What went wrong? I had predictions the lack luster SO5 was due to budget cuts that were made due to FF15, but than we had Nier and World of Final Fantasy which imo are good games. Did the development team go through some major shifts during development?

I know SO isn't a huge franchise anymore, but I was really hoping SO5 would be a success :C

Playing it right now, got it for £10 so passing the time until ME:A. It's okay but I expected better from tri-Ace. This said, I didn't like the last one as the combat didn't quite sit well with me and the sound/voice acting was awful. This one is an improvement on that (voice acting wise especially) but like you say, it had a budget and felt like it was more churned out than anything.

The combat is fine but with a behind the character perspective it gives the combat a different feel compared to the last 2 which had more static camera's for combat, battles can get chaotic in this view and it's hard to keep tabs on everyone.

oh this game was disappointing, I loved the last game(s) but it didn't do anything well, and it just wasn't fun to play in general! huge disappointment I even pre ordered it :(

Yeah, 10 dollars is a good deal I guess, but the game dropped in price so quickly. As someone who spent 60 dollars on it back when it came out, even pre-ordering it, it came as a massive disappointing. The weird thing is I can't find any information about what went wrong. I'm seeing the statement that Kobayashi- san wanted to focus on "seamless" gameplay, but that seems like an excuse to me. I can't really tell what the true culprit is.

Star Ocean 5 was a pretty big disappointment, I agree. 2 and 3 are both excellent games in my opinion, but starting with 4 the series has felt like it doesn't really know what it wants to do anymore. I hope they can get Star Ocean back on track if there ever is another one made.

Tri Ace just kinda sucks anymore. They have only made 2 decent games in 10 years. Beyond the Labyrinth and Resonance of Fate. Outside that just garbage really.

Tri-Ace don't seem to be their older self but there is a reason for that, their lead programmer left in 2013. I think he had a lot of influence on the games made while he was there, such as SO2, Valkyrie Profile and RoF. All very well received and good games. Could never finish RoF myself, the combat was great but samey in each dungeon and long and I couldn't tell where I was meant to go, but the style of the game was superb. Might go back to it sometime however.

I think "last hope" is the better of them all followed by 2. It has all the godies from 2. max 4 chars in battle mode. A mage, fighter, healer, tank classes. With fast loadings. And best combat in any jRPG.
Especially i hate 3 Till the End of Time. It has very bad 3d graphics, animations, camera. Lot of annoing levels with bad puzzles and many "Where the fuck do i go?" kind of moments.

making SO5 a prequel was a bad decision.

Tri Ace lost the magic, of ages past.