Do I need to play the other Star Oceans before The Last Hope?

[Amethyst Wind]

As the title says.

And I did use the search button, there were no other topics like this, except the one I bumped earlier that went 3 pages back without a reply in about 90 minutes.

 

[Pasta Lamp]

Not really. You'll miss a few references but all the characters are new and the story isn't really related. It's not a totally new world like each FF but it's close.

Also, the first wasn't even released in America until last year, after the 2nd and 3rd got released here. So it's not that important.

 

[Pennyy9]

It's not as good as the other games, not nearly as good. I wouldn't play it period because it ruined Star ocean for me. Get Till the end of Time.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Just need to bump this because I need a definite answer.

Is it possible to play Star Ocean: The Last Hope, enjoying over 90% of it, without having played the others?

(There will obviously be some in-jokes and references that I don't understand, that's unavoidable, I just want to know whether the level of them is manageable or not?)

EDIT: It's not possible for me to play the others, I don't own the games or the consoles to play them on.

 

[MasterStratus]

You won't have much trouble.
I never played any others and I got almost everything in the story.

 

[FROGGEman2]

Well, you don't want to play any of them, but if you really care, the stories so bad it doesn't matter /has had bad experiences /likes slashes

 

[Symp4thy]

You don't have to, but I recommend trying The Second Story. I think it's hard to find now, but it's a great game.