Star Ocean 4 International coming to the PS3 on Feb. 2010

[Dice]

I've been wondering is the Playstation 3 version really worth getting or should I stick with the XBox 360 version?

Up to you.  Disc swapping fucking reeks.  But they also nerf a few characters (Reimi particularly - although she's still in my team), and they moved some items (Reimi and Arumat's best skills being of notable mention) and made others harder to create.  And if you're one of them "purists" who hates the fact the menu screen changed from the anime one... well... the anime one will worsen your ability to see colours as bright as you once did.  It's highly saturated and there's too many colours flying around compared to the tamer CG one.  Some of the anime portraits suck donkey dick too (I think anime-Myuria looks ugly compared to the real-face).  Otherwise, you can play the title in Japanese. 

If you can find it cheap and find the question worth asking, it might be worth it.  Especially for the added challnge (something I was happy to get back to after Golden Sun: DD constituted mashing the "attack" button to achieve victory).

[Annubis]

They nerfed Reimi? How much? Arumat and Meracle are technically way stupidly stronger.

[Dice]

They nerfed Reimi? How much? Arumat and Meracle are technically way stupidly stronger.

I hear it was some of her skill damage and her critical hit % that took the major hit.
Most of the time my party is still Arumat, Meracle, Reimi and Sarah - so it didn't bother me; I do think these are the biggest tanks though.

[Annubis]

Ah ok, I think I understand what they did.
The base critical hit % of each character is different. Reimi was sporting a crazy high one compared to everyone else. Which was even worst when you gave her the skill "critical hit". Although I don't remember the exact data.

[Hoshino_Kid]

My party consists of Arumat, Bacchus, Sarah, and Edge.

Sarah is the best healer despite having crappy AI.

[Dice]

My party consists of Arumat, Bacchus, Sarah, and Edge.

Sarah is the best healer despite having crappy AI.

Funny, I thought Edge was out classed by the end, or more specfically, by the post-game dungeons.  Maybe I just didn't set him up right....

[FlamingR1ft]

Edge is probably somewhere in the midpoint in terms of how good the characters are in battle.

I personally used him all the way through because I always keep the main character in the party. My party ended up being: Edge, Reimi, Sarah, Lym/Arumat/Meracle (Depending on what the battle called for).

[Ivalice Alliance]

I own both Star Oceans on the PSP, Till the End of Time and The Last Hope International and have yet to play any of them.. Any particular order to play these in?  I was just gonna play both PSP, End of time and Last Hope.  I figured any order would suffice.

[Hoshino_Kid]

I own both Star Oceans on the PSP, Till the End of Time and The Last Hope International and have yet to play any of them.. Any particular order to play these in?  I was just gonna play both PSP, End of time and Last Hope.  I figured any order would suffice.

Chronologically:
Star Ocean 4
Star Ocean 1
Star Ocean 2
Star Ocean 3

Quality wise:
Star Ocean 2
Star Ocean 1
Toss up between Star Ocean 3 (similar gameplay to SO2 but I found it more difficult and a tad slower) or Star Ocean 4 (a fast pace SO2 battle system that has loads and loads of numbers)

Content wise (from most to least):
Star Ocean 3 or Star Ocean 4
Star Ocean 2
Star Ocean 1

[FlamingR1ft]

I could not stand SO1. SO2 was better, but it didn't really appeal to me personally. 3 was generally pretty quality, and I liked 4 too minus most of the characters.

[Farron]

I could never finish Star Ocean 2 because when I was about 5 hours in my friend asked his game back (back when the game was released for ps1).
For Star Ocean 3, I'd give it like a 6 out of 10. Far from horrible, but it gets you tired sometimes. Especially the plot but towards the end I think it gets a lot better.
I thought SO3 was a breeze but then again, I grinded on a particular monster, something like a blue jelly, and gained so many levels that I was killing all the bosses from half of the game to the end in less than 1 minute, until of course, the last boss which like in most Tri-Ace games really put you to the test. He was so hard a friend of mine made to the end and gave up because he thought it was impossible. I didn't think it was impossible as it took me about 8 tries only to kill it with only 1 character alive but probably one of the hardest I've seen.

A little off topic but another Tri-Ace boss the made me try about 15 times of the last boss in Valkyrie Profile 2. The entire Seraphic Gate was a pie next to him. The only one I didn't beat was the last boss in the seraphic gate ... (I hate having exams while reaching last bosses)

[Annubis]

It's not really difficult, you just have to understand the system and abuse it. It's pretty much that in any tri-Ace game.
I beat SO3 fully on 4D difficulty and cleared the Seraphic Gate x 10 on a 1 crystal run and I don't think I'm pro at these games at all.

In comparison, that's a pro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xBX68MDXe8

[Dice]

I could never finish Star Ocean 2 because when I was about 5 hours in my friend asked his game back (back when the game was released for ps1).
For Star Ocean 3, I'd give it like a 6 out of 10. Far from horrible, but it gets you tired sometimes. Especially the plot but towards the end I think it gets a lot better.
I thought SO3 was a breeze but then again, I grinded on a particular monster, something like a blue jelly, and gained so many levels that I was killing all the bosses from half of the game to the end in less than 1 minute, until of course, the last boss which like in most Tri-Ace games really put you to the test. He was so hard a friend of mine made to the end and gave up because he thought it was impossible. I didn't think it was impossible as it took me about 8 tries only to kill it with only 1 character alive but probably one of the hardest I've seen.

A little off topic but another Tri-Ace boss the made me try about 15 times of the last boss in Valkyrie Profile 2. The entire Seraphic Gate was a pie next to him. The only one I didn't beat was the last boss in the seraphic gate ... (I hate having exams while reaching last bosses)

I had a problem with VP2's last boss...mainly because I didn't realize the new character comes completely unequipped. =(
I found him decent otherwise, Alicia (sorta) dealing the most damage while everyone stays behind and helps on out.

I liked SO3, particularly the battle system and the difficulty.  But I LOATHED the dungeons.  In general, they were far, far too long and equipped with annoying puzzles.  The whole moving-block-in-the-maze was ridiculous, worse yet, it was used in two different dungeons (tres originale).  I think one of the worsts was 3 dungeon area maps in a row.  Stuff like that makes it tough to wanna reply such an experience when the game is already kinda tough. x(

[Hoshino_Kid]

I could never finish Star Ocean 2 because when I was about 5 hours in my friend asked his game back (back when the game was released for ps1).
For Star Ocean 3, I'd give it like a 6 out of 10. Far from horrible, but it gets you tired sometimes. Especially the plot but towards the end I think it gets a lot better.
I thought SO3 was a breeze but then again, I grinded on a particular monster, something like a blue jelly, and gained so many levels that I was killing all the bosses from half of the game to the end in less than 1 minute, until of course, the last boss which like in most Tri-Ace games really put you to the test. He was so hard a friend of mine made to the end and gave up because he thought it was impossible. I didn't think it was impossible as it took me about 8 tries only to kill it with only 1 character alive but probably one of the hardest I've seen.

A little off topic but another Tri-Ace boss the made me try about 15 times of the last boss in Valkyrie Profile 2. The entire Seraphic Gate was a pie next to him. The only one I didn't beat was the last boss in the seraphic gate ... (I hate having exams while reaching last bosses)

I had a problem with VP2's last boss...mainly because I didn't realize the new character comes completely unequipped. =(
I found him decent otherwise, Alicia (sorta) dealing the most damage while everyone stays behind and helps on out.

I liked SO3, particularly the battle system and the difficulty.  But I LOATHED the dungeons.  In general, they were far, far too long and equipped with annoying puzzles.  The whole moving-block-in-the-maze was ridiculous, worse yet, it was used in two different dungeons (tres originale).  I think one of the worsts was 3 dungeon area maps in a row.  Stuff like that makes it tough to wanna reply such an experience when the game is already kinda tough. x(

VP2's final boss was a pain in the ass because:

Code:

- Alicia, Lenneth, Ahly, and Silmeria merge to become Valkyrie, who's locked at Level 55.
- Even if you're sort of overleveled (I was 70++), you'll have a difficult time because Valkyrie was well... Not as strong as the valkyries.
- You lose the strong characters, namely the valkyries.

[Dice]

Odd.  I beat him on my 2nd try.  I know a fire-defense is really key (it tends to do the most damage), and linking accessories was a heavy component.

I used Val as a tank.  She dished damage and took it while I split the parties so they could heal and support (Rufus was an ace for that).  It took a while, but he went down.  He wasn't easy but nothing hard.  Where ironically, I got my ass handed in Seraphic Gate.