Star Ocean: The Last Hope news.(56k Warning)

[Losfer]

There is little that is visually stunning

Uh, right.

[Prime Mover]

While I generally can understand the cautionary tone of the IGN review, due to my experience with the last two Star Ocean games... the reviewer does betray some of his personal prejudices. "Outdated save point system" is just a low, opinionated attack. The reality is is that "save anywhere" has been around just as long as the "save point" has been. And the dividing lines really have never changed: wRPGs tend to use "save anywhere" and jRPGs tend to use "save points". I don't see much change in that formula except for in handheld titles, which (thankfully) have begun adopting save anywhere, or temporary save features to allow for the inherent "pick up, put down" nature of handheld systems. It's just like calling overworld maps outdated, or turnbased battle systems outdated. These are not relics of the past, but simply stylistic decisions.

Now, I do think that long involved dungeons should have more save points, or possibly consider using save anywhere, or temporary save features. I, myself, don't like it when I'm FORCED to play more than 30minutes in order to make any progress. Sometimes I've gotta go to sleep... sometimes I have to go pick up my girlfriend, sometimes (in the case of handhelds) my boss walks into the room.

But the point is ithat it's fairly obvious that the reviewer has become fairly bias towards certain types of gameplay elements, and that simply undermines his legitimacy as a gaming journalist.

However, for as much as I absolutely detested Star Ocean 3, I'm not goint to pick up Star Ocean 4 until someone really proves to me that they've turned things around for the better. Unfortunately, my biggest problem with SO3 was in it's overbearing and mellodramatic storytelling, and this review seems to have issue with SO4, so chances are pretty slim that I'll really like this title.

[Akira]

I'm about six hours into this game and so far the story seems much better than SO3. I sense a few tangents / fetch quests may be on the horizon, but the basic structure with all the different planets is quite good. Seems like the best game in the series so far.

Unfortunately, my biggest problem with SO3 was in it's overbearing and mellodramatic storytelling

I know a lot of people hated SO3's story, but honestly, I've never worried too much about amazing plots in JRPG's. Most of the ones that people consider good are still ridiculously cliched and silly. SO3 was annoying though the twist at the end has kind of grown on me. It's a mediocre plot, to be sure, but it's still an epic title, and as a game, it's one of the most fun and best designed RPG's in recent memory.

These are games, not DVD's. I have a pretty high tolerance for cheesy stories if the game itself is really good and there are other redeeming factors. That is definitely the case with SO3 and SO4. Still, if you play largely for the story, I can understand being disappointed with any Star Ocean game.

[Kstar]

I'm about six hours into this game and so far the story seems much better than SO3. I sense a few tangents / fetch quests may be on the horizon, but the basic structure with all the different planets is quite good. Seems like the best game in the series so far.

Yay!  That's all I needed to hear.  I never really played the Star Ocean games for the story, it was more about fun gameplay for me, so I'm not too concerned about the story as long as it is tolerable for the most part :-)  But I'm glad to hear that so far it's shaping up to be a decent installment and if it really is the best game in the series...ROCK ON.  I know I can't wait until I get my copy next week. 

[Silverwolf X]

Your party is fixed it seems.

[Aeolus]

.

[Blace]

http://n4g.com/gaming/News-281531.aspx

First day sales in Japan were massive. It almost doubled TLR, which had the previous best day 1 sales.

[Silverwolf X]

Alright party is fixed, 2nd run onwards you can choose to 'replace' the character back over the one that was supposed to take over but the story events will not show this character.

Battle trophies are also now character specific. its gonna be so fun collecting them all, currently at 20% for most of the initial 4. ^^

[Ithunn]

I don't understand this pressing nature to distinguish JRPGs from anything else. It's nitpicky, annoying and exhausting. I just hope that with the grammatical errors, and swagger-y word choice, people dont view it as an end. Regardless, his review feels much more like a preview with obviously stated bias and it's frustrating. This is why I go to IGN for absolutely nothing. Ran into too many reviews reflective of that author's nature.

[Akira]

Alright party is fixed, 2nd run onwards you can choose to 'replace' the character back over the one that was supposed to take over but the story events will not show this character.

I'm almost done with disk 2. Who can you replace on a second run? And with who?  Don't worry about spoilers.

[Silverwolf X]

You'll know when the character leaves, its pretty obvious. You can only replace the 2nd run through.

I'm still in disc 1. Overlevelled. Edge has 14k hp now at L33... LOL. (HP Up Max adds 10K) and auto HP regen at 400+. -.-;;

[(Tunnels)]

Apparently my copy I ordered through Amazon has just shipped. The delivery estimate says it should be here tomorrow, so I'm guessing it should be available tomorrow, in the U.S. at least.

[daschrier]

I'm going to try real hard not to buy this now, especially since I'm working on the phantasy stars and the last remnant at the same time!

I do love SO games though.

[Akanbe-]

fuck the camera.
fuck the fact that, so far unless i'm missing something, they don't show the armor/weapon on the equip menu.  A little cosmetic change, I know.  But I thought it was a cool feature.  Apparently it's there, but you have to do it in the item menu instead.
voice acting is alright, but anyone else feel like the voices don't match the characters?

the menu change from the japanese version really isn't too bad so far.  dare i say, i even like it?
the cgi portraits aren't optimal to me, but i wouldn't call them hideous either.  If they're trying to bring in a newer audience by changing that, maybe they should have opted out of having catgirl(s) in the game.  The game still feels anime-ish/japanese-ish regardless so... Too early to make any real impression on the game.  I'm not sure whether I'll end up liking it or not liking it.

despite my negativity so far, i still think it has potential to be a pretty good game.

[Losfer]

Argh, Amazon.ca...  Fuck you, guys.  Fuck you.  They seem to think the game is released /March the fucking 3rd/.  My copy will arrive MARCH THE TWELFTH.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

At least there should be a few good achievement guides up by then.  :P

BUT STILL ARGH.