Best Star Ocean: TLH combination.

[Dice]

Your guys distaste for this title has left it sitting on my shelf for over a year now-LoL.... Everytime I finish a game and am selecting another, the general attitude of this forum quickly ushers me past Star Ocean 4.... I am however currently nickle and diming a playthrough of First Departure and enjoying it...

Most of us don't mind SO1 and SO2 nearly as much as we do So3 and So4.  I think that's somewhere around 80 points!

Duuude... SO1 was crap.  The PSP one anyways.  It was CLEARLY half assed, and the Millie sprite was obviously a redraw of Rena's from SO2.  It did nothing different, and I'd argue the SNES title did more for gaming.  Mt Metox was actually a really pretty and flowery mountain... the PSP version made it a big brown rock.  Could you ask for more generic artstyle too?  I said earlier that the Item Creation system was a direct import from SO2, just changing some items around.  The game's extra's are easily beaten too.... oh, I forgot, this board doesn't like a challenge and just wants a good story. >=/



Hey look, Ranma Saotome made a cameo!!  Good grief.  I was annoyed with SO1...

There was nothing about SO1 that impressed me beyond the realm of "it's like SO2"...sometimes too alike.

[Yggdrasil]

oh, I forgot, this board doesn't like a challenge and just wants a good story. >=/

I play Dark Souls everyday, your argument is invalid.

[Dice]

oh, I forgot, this board doesn't like a challenge and just wants a good story. >=/

I play Dark Souls everyday, your argument is invalid.

I generalized so I can be a jerk.

[Eusis]

Hey look, Ranma Saotome made a cameo!!  Good grief.  I was annoyed with SO1...

What's hilarious there is that usually when they do remakes they try to distance themselves from blatantly copying designs. When I saw someone use the picture of that guy from the remake as his avatar I wondered where the hell that Ranma picture came from at first.

[Akanbe-]

Your guys distaste for this title has left it sitting on my shelf for over a year now-LoL.... Everytime I finish a game and am selecting another, the general attitude of this forum quickly ushers me past Star Ocean 4.... I am however currently nickle and diming a playthrough of First Departure and enjoying it...

Most of us don't mind SO1 and SO2 nearly as much as we do So3 and So4.  I think that's somewhere around 80 points!

Duuude... SO1 was crap.  The PSP one anyways.  It was CLEARLY half assed, and the Millie sprite was obviously a redraw of Rena's from SO2.  It did nothing different, and I'd argue the SNES title did more for gaming.  Mt Metox was actually a really pretty and flowery mountain... the PSP version made it a big brown rock.  Could you ask for more generic artstyle too?  I said earlier that the Item Creation system was a direct i

Hm, I only played the SNES version.  Didn't know the PSP version sucked so bad, but I did hear how easy it is.

[Annubis]

SO2 was where the serie peaked in awesomeness.

Characters:
- We've got a pretty big cast and you can pretty choose who you want or don't want. If anyone annoys you, there's only 4 obligatory characters and the rest is pretty much up to you.

Story:
- Lets write a good story and let people see it from 2 different angle.

Battle System:
- Turn based 2d battles? F-THAT! We're doing 2.5D real time. AWWWWWWW YEAH!

System:
- Skills: Learning to cook increases my damage? *puts on chef hat*
- Item Creation: Descent IC, but way too random on most skills. (then again, best IC of the SO serie)
- Private Actions: Hang out with the characters you want to hang out with or learn more about. Fully optional.
- Endings: 1 ending but over 100 character epilogues depending on many factors.
- Extras: bonus dungeon, hard modes, sound collection, music player, image collection.

[AuraChannelerChris]

Your guys distaste for this title has left it sitting on my shelf for over a year now-LoL.... Everytime I finish a game and am selecting another, the general attitude of this forum quickly ushers me past Star Ocean 4.... I am however currently nickle and diming a playthrough of First Departure and enjoying it...

Most of us don't mind SO1 and SO2 nearly as much as we do So3 and So4.  I think that's somewhere around 80 points!

Duuude... SO1 was crap.  The PSP one anyways.  It was CLEARLY half assed, and the Millie sprite was obviously a redraw of Rena's from SO2.  It did nothing different, and I'd argue the SNES title did more for gaming.  Mt Metox was actually a really pretty and flowery mountain... the PSP version made it a big brown rock.  Could you ask for more generic artstyle too?  I said earlier that the Item Creation system was a direct import from SO2, just changing some items around.  The game's extra's are easily beaten too.... oh, I forgot, this board doesn't like a challenge and just wants a good story. >=/



Hey look, Ranma Saotome made a cameo!!  Good grief.  I was annoyed with SO1...

There was nothing about SO1 that impressed me beyond the realm of "it's like SO2"...sometimes too alike.

Oh my god, I loved Ranma 1/2.

...Oh, wait, that's not the point.

I only played SO3, and the only thing that annoyed me was Fayt's screams and his little yet Heroic BSoD moments. "They're looking for ME!"

[Dice]

Story:
- Lets write a good story and let people see it from 2 different angle.

You didnt really think before you typed that, did you?

The entire first half of the game (ie; Expel) was technically and completely unnecessary seeing as how... it gets blown up anyways, and your efforts literally get destroyed.  The second half is ACTUALLY about the plot.  Let's also avoid the absolutely astronomical odds of Rena's super-duper special pendant and self winding BACK on Nede having coincidentally arrived on Expel after some other freak-accident happens prior to the games events.  Realisticaly, the plot shouldn't have happened at all, and is pushed by even another extraordinary event: Claude fucking around with some teleportal device on a dilapidated and ruined planet in the middle of butt-ass nowhere.

And characters?  Wide array sure....  Our main characters leave a lot to be desires.  Claude wanted Rena's ass for soo long and soo hard, he throws a fit everytime Dias is on screen.  And Rena seems to have a "moment" with every male party member and can't decide who she wants to fuck till she gives in to Claude's constant do-goodery.  Celine has to be the worst... Her "gaining weight issues" aside, she has a lame romance with the kingdom's prince, ruining one engagement, and also comes into a PA as someone who could have had her way with the married man of the game, Bowman.

And no... call the split story line "cool", but you get these "two-sided perspectives" bits on maybe 3 occasions of the game; the only major and proper split-up being at the beginning when Rena gets her ass kidnapped.  But I pick Claude every playthrough, because it means I don't have to put up with the stupid "fetch Dias' sword" sidequest that just leads to Claude being an even more jealous wanker about that.    Really, the split story is only a good way to see some extra Private Actions, and to finally decide for yourself which man or woman Rena/Claude will finally hook up with, because them two chasing each other proves exhausting and boring.

And the multiple endings sucked even more ass.  The greater half of them being "I'm glad we're friends!  Let's travel s'more!" types.

SO... did Star Ocean 2 have a good story??  It's charming...I guess.  BUT NO.  It fucking does not.

I say charming because I guess the "save the world" plot is cute and cozy, and the Rena and Claude "will they, won't they" romance can be just darling.  But if anything, I like the world created more than the story made for the universe itself.  The locations are pretty, and clearly there is a big history with Demon's in the game (sadly never touched on, to focus on the big bad Sorcery Globe.... which was a really underplayed element to the game). However, the locations are really what made "the story" for me.  From space, to the past, to the present (but for a billion-year old race, Nede was extremely underwhelming), and the Hoffman Ruins having inexplicable icons of Catholic saints and the Virgin was a fascinating touch to a "cave dungeon". 

I digress.  The battle system and all around it were the highlights and should be treated as such.  And why this fact LEAVES people when it comes to the 3rd and 4th title when their stories are just as bad is beyond me.  Some RPG peeps are too obsessed with story, me thinks, and to a fault.

PS Edit: and sadly you're forced to fight the fucking Elvis-demon a few times too many.

[Annubis]

I love how I hate SO4 and you love it and I love SO2 and you hate it.

About the story, it's not terrible, bad nor mediocre and certainly not great or perfect =/ Good is about the best adjective I can find for it.

Here's my adjective ranking table:

Nonexistent is Tetris
Terrible is Battle Golfer Yui
Bad is SO4
Mediocre is Eternal Sonata
Great is Persona 4
Perfect is Ever17

EDIT: who's the Elvis demon? I'm afraid I haven't found any character to be very Elvis-sy. We're talking about THIS Elvis, right?

[Dice]

I love how I hate SO4 and you love it and I love SO2 and you hate it.

I don't HATE So2, though.  On the contrary, I love it so much I'm sure I've played it over 5 times and "picked up" on the nuances above.

Like I said, my beef is people picking on SO3 & 4's storyline when people are completely missing the actual fun of the title.  It's literally paralleling the Tales series' "let's play it for the battles".  The customization in SO3 is hard to rival in an RPG, and was completely necessary to the joy of destroying enemies.  It wasn't ridiculous either, you'd earn the 99,999 damage and HP, unlike Disgaea and it's "sister titles" that love throwing big digits to make it like some dick measuring contest of who can throw the most amount of numbers around.  The battles also punished mindless button mashing, like those point in RPGs where you could waltz through easy battles, but you had to do some grinding because the next boss is kicking your ass.

I also find it funny how people are completley willing to forego Resonance of Fate's storyline even when it was all but there and more metaphoric than interpretive dance most of the time.

Tri-ace has never made a good story, in my book.  But it doesn't mean I don't rank them amongst one of my favorite publishers because they've kept games about the actual "play" than the "plot".  There are only a few instances where a plot has been good enough for me to overlook the shitty gameplay; but I find it absolutely amusing how people can throw a game down because the plot was too crappy that they didn't want "the game" part of it.

[Annubis]

I find it absolutely amusing how people can throw a game down because the plot was too crappy that they didn't want "the game" part of it.

You still need some balance.
SO4 had a godly battle system but I just can't motivate myself to do a second playthrough, even if I do want to challenge the higher difficulties.
On the other hand, with SO3 I have over 600 hours on it and 96% Battle Trophy. So, even with a mediocre story (well on average, Elicoor was good but after that it's a slow descent) I managed to enjoy it a lot because even the worst part of the game were passable.

[Farron]

Tri-ace has never made a good story, in my book. 

Not even Valkyrie Profile ?

I love how I hate SO4

I just love how I took you sentence out of context and now I can relate to it.
I'm sure there is something I like about the game, or else I wouldn't have played 20+ hours but for the most part, I hate it.

[Dice]

Tri-ace has never made a good story, in my book. 

Not even Valkyrie Profile ?

It's okay.  It's definitely the best from Tri-Ace, but I thought the story had some balancing issues.  It doesn't help that it was backed with a pretty forward and direct script.  It had trouble deciding if it was a god-plot (it was weak how Loki was introduced super late, and was brought in as a villain extremely poorly), Len's plot, the dead character's plots (yeah, interpret it how you want, but the deets behind Belanus' death are all but apparent, and there was no logical explanation for Lawfer's besides "what you look into it").  I thought the game was incredibly atmospheric, and I wish the game delved more into it's fascinating lore and history (the way Suikoden's love to do and are good at doing).

[Traveling Swordsman]

I liked SO2. My issue with SO4 is that you cant even get to the best armor and weapons until you have finished the game.

[Azrael]

That's a truth for SO2 and SO3 as well.