Star Ocean 3 is a very independant-minded game

[Dahne]

I don't mean the story, or the characters; I mean the inner mechanics of the game itself. It's fun as heck, but some things just don't make a lot of sense. Hopefully some people here can straighten a couple things out for me.

Firstly, the "Rate" gauge. It seems to start out at the beginning of battles pretty good, then rapidly drops to 0%, and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do to make it go back up. Is it just a method of encouraging you to do a lot of damage fast?

I've only just beaten the mace-wielding guy at the training grounds, so the only party members I've had are Cliff and Nel. Nel behaves herself pretty well, but Cliff has recently gotten into the habit of, upon observing that I am struggling against several viscious monsters, going off into the corner and expressing his feelings on the subject through interpretive dance. Is there some tactic to give him that'll make him, you know, do stuff?

[SoulBlazer]

Ah, one of the great RPG's I played last year, and the first to experience in full widescreen glory on my new 32 inch HDTV Widescreen TV. What a treat!

Anyway, to try to answer your questions:

I don't recall the 'rate' guage, to be honest. Do you mean the one where it has the energy that gets used as your party fights in the battle? Just letting it build back up worked for me.

As far as the AI battling problem -- this happened to me a couple times as well. Best thing I found to avoid it was to pick a formation where everyone starts close together and assign the AI to Aggresive. I always stayed with the main guy when possible, but if circumstances demanded it I would rotate to someone else and get them to attack a different foe or cast magic.

I know that probaly was'nt much help, but the battles do get easier once you go further in and power up your charcters. The battles are TOUGH -- I had my party wiped out at least a dozen times. Save consantly and don't be afraid to run for your life if things look bad. Some enemies in some areas are too tough to handle at the start of the game, such as the soilders soon after you can explore the second planet you land on.

[Dahne]

Your skill in double-posting has increased! (100)

It's been years since I played it. Why is Everquest still in my BRAAAAIIIIN?

[Dahne]

You know the bonus battle gauge? The one that, when it fills up, gives you lots of nice things like triple EXP or extra money? Rate is the percentage number right by it. It's the one that controls how fast it fills up.

Thanks for the AI advice. I'll have to give that a shot. I tend to have problems with computer-controlled characters in many games dropping everything in the middle of a battle and shouting "daisies! I must go smell them!"

Actually though, this game has done a lot to remind me of the joys of a good RPG.

[dreams]

I'm quite glad to hear that I'm not the only one having problems with Cliff. That guy just sits there in the corner way too much for my liking. :roll:

As for the bonus battle gauge, the percentage drops throughout the battle at a steady increment. Basically, the faster you do a lot of damage, the better bonus you get. You can not make it increase.

I've also noticed that the starting percent is related to your current level and the level of the monsters you are fighting. If you're fighting easy-peasy monsters, don't be surprised if your starting percent is around 10 or 20.

[FantasiaWHT]

Easy solution! Go play Tales of Symphonia, where the AI is way more customizable than Star Ocean and does a better job even when not customized ;)

Sorry, had to get that in hehe :)

[SoulBlazer]

Oh, THAT bonus guage. ;) Shows you how much attention I paid to it.....

The AI is not perfect, but it's better then some other games I've played. You can also just play as Clif in your battles if you want to -- he's a real hard hitter and you'll have him for most of the game.

Yeah, I really enjoyed the game a lot also, even more then SO 2. The side quests were fun, the graphics as I said above on a widescreen TV were jaw dropping, the story was quite good, and the gameplay was fun, even nice and hard, just the way I like it. :)

Just be warned about your party being wiped out. Take any chance you can to raise your levels and improve your weapons. Also, a lot of the conversations (I forgot what the game calls them) have a VERY NARROW frame in which you can have them. If you don't have Elizabeth Hollingers top notch strategy guide for the game (where it says these in the back), then anytime a event happens check all the towns. It sounds like you're allready on the second planet if you have Clif and Nell, and you'll spend over half the game there before you leave, so learn it well. ;)

[Aussie2B]

Star Ocean 3 definitely doesn't have the greatest AI out there, but thankfully tri-Ace at least made better AI in their next game, Radiata Stories (not to mention you get tons of commands you can call out in the middle of battle, and assuming they don't have some ailment that prevents them from getting the message, they'll do exactly what you say). I didn't have much issues with Cliff because I MUCH preferred to use him over Fate. He's an awesome fighter if you control him yourself.

As for the gauge (Heat up gauge? I think that's what it was called, but I'm guessing the name of it was changed in the US release, just like everything else), just wait till you get to the end of the game. Geez, what a pain it becomes. Sometimes I'd fight mega-hard enemies, and it STILL started at a piddly percent, if not zero. It's especially bad if you're trying to get everyone to 255. If you keep your levels balanced, it can be extremely hard to find any enemies that'll raise it at all once you get to 200+, and it's definitely not fun trying to get to 255 without having that experience bonus.

[TurboGenesis]

Cliff is a good malee fighter and I had him set to be agressive. He will get close to the enemies and just pound on them though he tends to take more damage that way but he does have more HP so it should balance out. I never figured out what those numbers did the % would just drop down during battle but it really doesn't matter I guess?

Nel is the #$%@! She is probably the most balanced character and also can use some symbology or as she would call it runology.

Its a long game, took me 81 hours to beat it though I always spend alot of time leveling up. I still have the bonus dungeons to do...maybe some day.

[Dahne]

Man, using Cliff is WAY better. But is there any way to make him automatically my controled character? It's annoying to have to switch at the beginning of every fight.

[Aussie2B]

Go to the character formation menu and change the setting for the leader (or whatever they call it in the US version).