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

[Kstar]

Mine came in the mail today and is waiting for me at home....this day of work could not drag on any longer.

[dab3]

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.

I'm in the same boat here, but I chose the 2-3 day shipping. I don't think it'll come any earlier than standard though since I just received Vesperia today (tuesday) and it shipped last thursday. But whatever, this will be the determining factor if I will change my Resi-5 express shipping to free standard ship.

BTW, I live in BC, and its coming from Ontario, so the 5-7 is usually a great over-estimate. Don't worry, you should receive it in a couple days from ship date.

[Eusis]

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...

I prefer options with menus, especially since we had them with the 16-bit Final Fantasy games, but since the original was too modern Persona-ish the change is for the better there. The portraits on the other hand, you nailed the big reason this just seems dumb to me. They're all clearly anime-ish, to the point of screenshots looking kind of creepy, so what's the point of changing the CGI portraits? If this were a less anime-ish game like Last Remnant I could see why it'd be done, but they're only going to draw in the kind of crowd that either loves anime or tolerates the crap enough to play this.

[Blace]

tolerates the crap enough to play this.

That's me! I don't like anime :P

[Parn]

Played about 2 hours, and it's alright.  Animations are awkward, and the dubbing is generic anime stuff.  The combat is fun as expected, and the blindsiding concept is neat.  Soundtrack so far is kind of weak, but the planet visuals are snazzy.  I'd say more, but it takes awhile to type on an iphone.

[Akanbe-]

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...

I prefer options with menus, especially since we had them with the 16-bit Final Fantasy games, but since the original was too modern Persona-ish the change is for the better there. The portraits on the other hand, you nailed the big reason this just seems dumb to me. They're all clearly anime-ish, to the point of screenshots looking kind of creepy, so what's the point of changing the CGI portraits? If this were a less anime-ish game like Last Remnant I could see why it'd be done, but they're only going to draw in the kind of crowd that either loves anime or tolerates the crap enough to play this.

I agree.  The original menu's reminding me much of something out of persona.  After playing more, I'm definitely finding the portraits fairly creepy. 

When you finally get a third member to your party, try doing item creation.  What follows are two of the worst vomit inducing scenes you will ever watch.  I don't know if they are trying to be funny but it's completely fucking stupid and not funny in the slightest. 

[dab3]

Played about 2 hours, and it's alright.  Animations are awkward, and the dubbing is generic anime stuff.  The combat is fun as expected, and the blindsiding concept is neat.  Soundtrack so far is kind of weak, but the planet visuals are snazzy.  I'd say more, but it takes awhile to type on an iphone.

Have you guys realized that almost every single high-profile RPG for the 360 is composed by Sakuraba? Infinite Undiscovery, Eternal Sonata, Vesperia, and now Star Ocean 4. I admit that listening to his common sound could by quite repetitious by the time I reach this game.

[Masamune]

I'm really enjoying this game, a lot more then I thought I would be.  The VA isn't annoying, which is all that I require out of VA's.  Battle system is really enjoyable to me, I enjoy grinding and fighting stuff.  The archer chick is really fun to play, if nobody gave her a shot yet.  I like the BEAT system a lot in that it lets me pick the stats I want to upgrade and you can also go middle of the road and combine the options.  Good stuff, I think the game has a lot of potential and I'm really hoping the storyline will be better then SO3.  Initial impressions are good, probably worth buying if it's your type of RPG.

[daschrier]

Just picked this up at BB.

Had $20 in rewardzone certificates so it was worth the purchase.

Look forward to trying it tonight.

[Losfer]

Has anyone been keeping up on the achievements?  xbox360achievements.org are saying it's, like, a minimum of three playthroughs to get all the achievements...  Ow.  :P

And you gotta get a hundred battle trophies manually for each character and get ALL of the endings.  Sounds pretty grim.

[Blace]

Yeah, but this game is so much fun I might actually have to play through it 3 times :P I played 3 hours straight before work. Such a fantastic battle system. Story hasn't done much, but I'm intrigued to see what craziness it might pull on me. Voice acting is nothing good, but it isn't on my nerves so I'm fine with it (like everyone else). Graphics are pretty.

[(Tunnels)]

Played a good amount of time yesterday. Very very satisfied with my purchase. This game feels more like SO2 than SO3 in my opinion, which is a good thing. I love the new PA system (I'm a visual novel fan, so I have a soft spot for affection systems), and it isn't as awkward as SO3's was. Battle system is fun and pretty fluid, and the battles move fairly quick. I was also surprised to see that the boss was quite difficult, seeing as I had thought I was over-leveled. It required a bit of strategy.

I'm pretty happy with the voices, but I have a high tolerance for voice acting. Lymle's voice is a bit odd, though; is she supposed to be monotonous?

[Kos-mos]

Lymle's voice is a bit odd, though; is she supposed to be monotonous?

Yeah, she's very monotone in the Japanese version as well which I was watching part of an internet playthrough of, I believe there are a couple of clips out there with her Japanese voice in it too so you can see that was the intention.

[Akanbe-]

Yeah, but this game is so much fun I might actually have to play through it 3 times :P I played 3 hours straight before work. Such a fantastic battle system. Story hasn't done much, but I'm intrigued to see what craziness it might pull on me. Voice acting is nothing good, but it isn't on my nerves so I'm fine with it (like everyone else). Graphics are pretty.

yeah, the battle system is great.  I also like how you can power level a lot easier if necessary with the flick of the wrist.

Unsure of how I feel about using SP to power up your moves.  I kinda preferred the SO2 method of just using it a lot to power it up.  I guess it has its advantages, but SP is a little more limited than in previous games so... i dunno.

Has anyone been keeping up on the achievements?  xbox360achievements.org are saying it's, like, a minimum of three playthroughs to get all the achievements

I wonder if the battle trophies go with achievements in any shape or form?  I've gotten a lot of trophies switching around characters and have yet to see an achievement with them.

[John]