The tri-Ace General Discussion (& Star Ocean 5) Thread

[Agent D.]

I truly despise the current designs. It looks like anime threw up on a cosplay convention. They look disturbingly like real people playing as animu characters, it's actually putting me off.

[Dice]

I truly despise the current designs. It looks like anime threw up on a cosplay convention. They look disturbingly like real people playing as animu characters, it's actually putting me off.

Yeah.  At times like this I hate that I'm a JRPG person when I barely like half the stuff in JRPG's besides a general preference for 'their gameplay style'.  
And it makes me a bit sad because Tri-Ace has some excellent 3D artists, sadly stuck to doing lolis and other silly cosplay-esque designs.  And I think this matches with what we were talking about yesterday in the Tales thread, I actually think the game would look better if it went for a cel shading look than this sort of "ani-realism" which just makes characters come out weird.


I almost want this to happen again.

[(Tunnels)]

This is a pipe dream, but I'm hoping for the return of Private Actions.

Star Ocean 4 still had PA's, they were in the form of the scenes you can witness while on the Calnus waiting for the next planet to load warp drive.

Very true, but I hated those PA's. Ideally, I would love PA's in the vein of SO2, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

EDIT: But enough about those, I actually am pretty stoked. There's some nice set pieces in those scans, so I can't wait to explore some of those environments.

[Alisha]

better quality pics
http://www.rpgsite.net/news/4223-square-enix-reveals-star-ocean-5-integrity-and-faithlessness-for-ps3-ps4

[Aeolus]

^


Man, the difference between the game models and the artwork here is staggering. It really shows up in the pink haired chick due to all the extraneous details visible in both versions.
 

This is a pipe dream, but I'm hoping for the return of Private Actions.

Star Ocean 4 still had PA's, they were in the form of the scenes you can witness while on the Calnus waiting for the next planet to load warp drive.

Very true, but I hated those PA's. Ideally, I would love PA's in the vein of SO2, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

EDIT: But enough about those, I actually am pretty stoked. There's some nice set pieces in those scans, so I can't wait to explore some of those environments.

Same. The town with the windmills looks neat and I'm interesting in what's going on in that shot of the party fighting in the street below.

[mecharobot]

Yikes. This may turn out to be a good reason to get a new sony console after all. Don't really care how dumb it is (since I'm not delusional enough to expect a serious scifi story to happen with this franchise), as long as it's as much fun to play as the past titles. Well, I guess they could not half-ass the archetypes (screaming random shit is not good slapstick, you know) like in the last game and try to make them more like SO 2 characters were. With the gameplay intact and good character chemistry that could easily be one of the generation tops for me.

[Hathen]

I truly despise the current designs. It looks like anime threw up on a cosplay convention. They look disturbingly like real people playing as animu characters, it's actually putting me off.

Fidel and the witch don't look too bad IMO but goddamn Miki just looks awful. (My guess is that Lilia will look really bad too)

[Agent D.]

Oh god delete the photo Hathen, it's making me physically ill.

Seriously, I enjoy jrpg archetypical heroes as much as one with my personal likes can, but this is painful.

[Klutz64]

I really don't see the huge issue everyone is having. To me it just looks like a graphical improvement of Star Ocean 3, gladly turning away from the glassy look of Star Ocean 4.

[Mickeymac92]

I actually don't think it looks that bad. They're not great, but it doesn't weird me out, either...

[Hathen]

I think the character looks fine in the art, and maybe it's just that shot, but the head doesn't look like it belongs on that body at all. The problem I'm seeing is that anime faces look "attractive" to people because of their simplicity, but they try to make the clothing look realistic with the lighting and everything and the two styles do not mesh well at all. So basically, it's a result of them trying to please both graphics hounds and people who want perfect waifu characters at the same time.

Tales of games, on the other hand, probably look less impressive overall but keep a consistent anime look in the whole thing, and the thing looks more appealing overall.

[Dice]

I actually don't think it looks that bad. They're not great, but it doesn't weird me out, either...

I'm kind of a little exhausted that so many JRPGs look like a Neptunia game.  Basically, if I had to pick and in terms of what style jives better with me, I'd rather my characters look more like they came Valkyrie Profile or Resonance of Fate than Star Ocean.  I'm sort of over massive-eyed, rainbow clad, sunday morning anime look; I like the more serious looking designs like in VP or Xenoblades, or just something a bit more tame looking.

EDIT: Plus what Hathen said.  If it's a question of style, SO5 art is so damn cute n' sweet it's giving giving me a cavity.

Still, that said I'm excited as hell this was actually announced, and it's not mobile, and (presumably) will likely make it overseas if the rest of the series' history has any say in it.  And after incorrectly circulated news that Tri-Ace was sort-of taking "a step back" from 'big titles', I'm just happy this exists to show how completely false that was.

[Agent D.]

Anime looks great because it's anime. What's happening in video games isn't really anime, so the designs start looking exactly like I said, someone cosplaying a bad anime character irl including the terrible facial features. If you wanted anime in a video game, why not just make it more anime like and less realistic?

[EmeraldSword]

I beat Star Ocean: First Departure and The Second Story when they were ported to PSP ages ago. I never got around to picking up Till the End of Time on PS2 back in 2003 while I was in the midst of transferring colleges. I can't remember why I passed on The Last Hope back when it came out in 2010 on PS3 either. I do know my wife beat the game and liked it though. I can vividly remember hearing a few expletives shouted out at some of the hard bosses and reoccurring game over screens that followed, lol.

I'm curious as to how Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness will turn out. I have yet to pick up a PS4, but am increasingly desiring to take the deep plunge with FF Type-0 out and FFXV's work in progress. Maybe a delightful FFXV/PS4 bundle is my Christmas tree's future this year. ^_^

I'm reserving judgement on this upcoming Star Ocean as I'm taking in the thoughts of the first few pages of this thread and the outside links with pictures and info.

The weirdest thing I can't seem to get passed is my first impression of the character designs like you folks. That pink hair female character's face. Is it just me or does it look like she's completely missing a nose in some shots? Her eyes do look a bit larger than the rest of the group too. Sigh...

I like your thoughts on art direction though Dice, a mature character design would be welcome. Easier on the eyes for a lengthy epic sci-fi sprawling adventure.

[Dice]

That reminds me... I wonder what the sci-fi element is here.  So far this all seems old school planet (are they gonna pull an SO1?).