StarOcean

[potatobob]

I just reserved StarOcean at EB, and i was wondering what it's about. I kinda just reserved it becuase I got a free poster. Anyone know what its about please tell me.

[SoulBlazer]

You mean Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time by Square Enix, correct?

That game was susposed to be a PS2 launch title. God knows when it will fianlly came out. :)

It's a RPG, an older-looking one and where you have manual control of your party members in a action battle scene.

I just hope the original Star Ocean eventuly can run on emulators and get translated. I hear it's the best SNES game that never saw a English release.

[Hakkenden]

Its about a boy named Claude and a girl named Rena and depending on who you picked the main character will be different and certain events. Anyways.. Claude is warped from an Earth federation space ship to a planet called Expel
their he meets Rena who is being attacked by a monster. Claude blows up the monster and then hears about the mysterious Sorcery Globe and that everone whe tries to investigate vanishes. They are chosen to investigate and that is the begining of your journey.

This is a great game for anyone who plays RPGs. it allows you too custimize how you fight battles for instance you can control one of you party members and have the others on their own AI settings or go turn-based. You get to even make items with your charcters abilities (which has a low successon rate at the begining because its used to get some charcters' best waepons)
Its long enough and even contains a hidden dungeon you can play after you have already beat the game.
And that should be more than enough information.

[kainemaxwell]

But how's Star Ocean 2?

[Dahne]

Star Ocean 2 is the one Hakkenden described.

Unless that was a response to your post taht got put out of order.

[aremid23]

I was looking forward to this game, but the mediocre reviews have me wanting to wait. Not that magazine reviewers decide anything for me, but the way they are describing things has me leary. Think I'll wait to hear other gamers' opinions first. Plus, the battle system sounded alot like Tales of Symphonia at first, but now I'm thinking it won't be as good. I need to get that comparison out of my head before trying Star Ocean.

[kainemaxwell]

Star Ocean 2 is the one Hakkenden described.

Unless that was a response to your post taht got put out of order.

SO2 was the one for PSX, right?

[Aussie2B]

You mean Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time by Square Enix, correct?

That game was susposed to be a PS2 launch title. God knows when it will fianlly came out. :)

It's a RPG, an older-looking one and where you have manual control of your party members in a action battle scene.

I just hope the original Star Ocean eventuly can run on emulators and get translated. I hear it's the best SNES game that never saw a English release.

How could it be a PS2 launch title? o_O The PS2 had already been released in both Japan and US BEFORE the very first announcement of the game, and even then it was well understood that the game would take awhile to complete development and even longer to be localized for the US.

The first Star Ocean can run on emulators and has a translation, and that's been the case for a long time now. The translation isn't very good, in my opinion, though, and I prefer playing the real cartridge (the game is glitchy on emulators).

ANYWAY...

Getting back to the original topic, if you guys want info on Star Ocean 3, you can read my review at GameFAQs:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/review/R77789.html

Or an "enhanced" version that has pictures and is slightly longer on my own site:

http://www.inverteddungeon.com/triacesuperfan/so3review.html

[Daria]

I just hope the original Star Ocean eventuly can run on emulators and get translated. I hear it's the best SNES game that never saw a English release.

You're like 2 or 3 years out of the loop. It can run on emulators and there is a full patch out for it. :P

Edit: Although the translation still isn't technically done. I don't think they've released the final yet. But it's playable.

[FantasiaWHT]

It was on my "might rent if I get the chance" list but has now moved to my "highly doubt I'll want to play it" list.

Just not getting good reviews... I'll play a game that's getting bad reviews if I think they're counting certain aspects too highly, but...

I just get this big huge "meh" feeling whenever I look at/hear about this game.

Besides, it's coming out within a day of Pikmin 2 and Phantom Brave... lol

[poe]

I want the game, especially since I consider SO2 one of the best games ever as far as scope and gameplay go. As mentioned above, though, with Phantom Brave due out the same day and Fable coming soon too (which has made me want an X-Box almost all by itself), Star Ocean can wait. Particularly since it's a SquareEnix game, and will be everywhere and easy to find as a result, while Phantom Brave will be considerably less so I imagine.

[Dahne]

SO2 was the one for PSX, right?

Yep. It was pretty darn fun. The beginning is an interesting slice of Japanese culture, as much of the first hour or so consists of the characters being polite at each other. LOL

[potatobob]

What kind of fighting style does this game have, turn-based , tactical, free-battle mode thing were you can move around freely during a battle?

[Dahne]

If you've played Tales of Destiny, it's a bit like that, except in a 3D arena instead of 2D.

If you haven't, then, from my knowledge of SO2:

When you enter a battle, you're transported to a large, 3D arena. You move around freely, controlling one character while the AI controls the rest. So you can run up to a monster to attack, run away while it prepares to counterattack, go over to help the weak mage who's getting beat on, etc. The action pauses while you select an ability, spell, or item. In SO2, at least, some of the bigger spells pause the action to play their animation, while some of the smaller spells are cast in real time. It gets frantic, but it can be really fun.

[Aussie2B]

It was on my "might rent if I get the chance" list but has now moved to my "highly doubt I'll want to play it" list.

Just not getting good reviews... I'll play a game that's getting bad reviews if I think they're counting certain aspects too highly, but...

I just get this big huge "meh" feeling whenever I look at/hear about this game.

Besides, it's coming out within a day of Pikmin 2 and Phantom Brave... lol

Ugh... PLEASE for the love of God, DON'T listen to what those so-called "professional" reviewers have to say about the game. They are CLUELESS.

One magazine said that the music was the worst RPG soundtrack EVER and that it would get no praise from anyone. However, in Japan it has gotten nothing BUT praise. There was even a sold-out concert of the music. I wouldn't have spent over a hundred bucks buying the soundtracks if it wasn't a good soundtrack (neither would countless other people do the same), and I can think of A LOT of RPGs that had MUCH worse soundtracks.

Another magazine complained of "poor collision detection" because they couldn't hit an enemy after knocking them down. No shit, dumbass, of course you can't hit an enemy with an uppercut when it's laying on the ground. :/

Other magazines whined about it being too challenging and complex, which to them equals "OMG! bad gameplayz!". One lady reviewer complained that it took her HOURS to figure out what to do next at times, when it took me MINUTES despite the fact that I barely know Japanese. Has this chick even PLAYED an RPG before?

One magazine was so stupid as to claim that the characters and story were BETTER than the gameplay aspects. o_O What the hell, man? The game was DESIGNED to put gameplay first and foremost. The characters and story, while not terrible, are weak in comparison to the gameplay. Star Ocean is NOT Final Fantasy or Xenosaga, and it's NOT why someone plays the series. If that's what you're expecting or wanting from it, you may as well save your money for the next story-driven/weak gameplay RPG.

So yeah... sorry about the rant. o_O If you want intelligent reviews from people who have actually thoroughly played the game, check out the reviews on GameFAQs.

[Aussie2B]

I kinda feel like I'm being ignored in this topic. o_O My review tells you everything and anything you'd want to know about the battle system. I'm the only person around here who has actually played the game already (with the exception of Eternal Tune), so you'd be better off reading my review rather than getting your information from the assumptions of people who have never even played it. :/

[FantasiaWHT]

It's not just the reviews... I had the gigantic "meh" feeling just reading about it.

Dunno!

Gotta be picky these days with the little baby around, not much playtime.

Maybe if I hear more than a couple internet folks rave about it I'll check it out, but for now it's on the back burner.

[kainemaxwell]

Thanks for that mini battle system review Aussie!

[EnemyZero]

I don't even bother reading reviews....most of the times its like goin to the movies, usually the movies that get 4 stars suck and the ones with 2-0 are sweet....Anyways yeah Star Ocean WAS at one point suppose to be a launch title for the JAPANESE market...not US.....there were rumours of a US launch but it stunk up the charts in Jap....the one coming to the US is the jap directors cut...the japanese market seems to be taking to the DC of the game better than the original

[Azazel]

You mean Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time by Square Enix, correct?

That game was susposed to be a PS2 launch title. God knows when it will fianlly came out. :)

It's a RPG, an older-looking one and where you have manual control of your party members in a action battle scene.

I just hope the original Star Ocean eventuly can run on emulators and get translated. I hear it's the best SNES game that never saw a English release.

As people have already said it can run on emulators and was translated like in December if I remember right. As for being the best Snes game not getting english release I can think of probably about 10 games that are better than SO. If it had a batter storyline my opinion might be different. In the first one you only have direct control over the main guy. The other characters you just give them a battle stretegy. The battle system is kind of real time turn based but also kind of action. You give commands like in a turned base system but as soon as you issue the command and attack you and issue another command and attack again immeditely. No waiting like in most turn based systems.

The music seemed pretty good from what I remember. They story seems a little weak. Don't know if it has to do with the translation or if it just has a bland story to begin with. Without having a Japanese script in my hands I'll never know for sure. I think the translation is mostly done, just that there going to fix a few things here and there. I never noticed that many glitches when I played it. I played up to the second cave and never figured out how your suppose to open some of those doors. I found a few switches but I'm been stuck there for quite a few months. Unless someone tells me what your suppose to do there I'll probably never pick it up again. I will agree that that game is probably more about it's battle system than it's story.

[Hakkenden]

I thought since he said EB that it had to be that one.....anyways I encourage anyone to buy any game with Star Ocean in its title.

[Ed Oscuro]

Its about a boy named Claude and a girl named Rena and depending on who you picked the main character will be different
O_O

Anyhow...the original SFC game is still pretty cheap, yes?

[Lemmy Kilmister]

Its about a boy named Claude and a girl named Rena and depending on who you picked the main character will be different
O_O

Anyhow...the original SFC game is still pretty cheap, yes?

It's goes for about 50-60 bucks used.

[Aussie2B]

I don't know where you could buy it new these days. O_o

I've seen it sell for a lot less than that, though. You could probably get it for $35 or so. Back when I got it, it was around $50, but this was prior to it being emulated so there was more demand for the cart.