Poll: Star Ocean!

[Warachia]

Personally, it's kind of a tie between second story and till the end of time, I guess I'd go with second story though, it just feels like it has more character.

You can flat out skip the last hope though, easily the weakest in the series, and it removed any in between scenes of character developement (it had them, but ignored them, the endings for the characters never changed) how do you do that? That's like having fire emblem support conversations that don't change anything between the characters, the different paths of character developement were one of the things that made the games special and unique (aside from plot twists I didn't see coming which the last hope didn't have either).

I will give credit to last hope though, it easily has the worst voice actress of all time.

 

[Warachia]

None of the them. Of the Star Ocean series I've only played/endured The last hope and I'm not picking up another Star Ocean game again before they are the very last RPGs left on this earth that I have not played. That is never.
I know that is wrong the judge the whole series based on one game in it but... no. Last hope was just too awful.

Please don't judge the rest of the games by the worst in the series, that's like me assuming silent hill 2 was bad because I didn't like homecoming.
The main reason you can probably get into any of the others, is because they have NOTHING to do with the last hope, no characters acknowledge it exists, so you won't even be reminded of it.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I liked Till End of Time myself. Granted it was the first one I ever played. I felt The Last Hope was lackluster had had way too many cutscenses. First Departure was OK, but it had the dreaded Random Encounters. I HATE Random Encounters. Those are the only 3 I've played, so I can't comment on Second Story. I also loved the music of Till End of Time, I'd still love to find the soundtrack somewhere.

 

[LilithSlave]

Star Ocean 3 takes a lot of flack. Mostly because the ending was a terrible way of making things epic. I, too, facepalmed at what the "special chosen one" powers of the protagonist amounted to. I can see it was probably supposed to be a deconstruction of sorts of the "chosen one" theme. Or maybe just the age old "brain in a box" philosophical experiment. There's definitely many scientists who believe that such a thing that the end section of the game contains, is possible. In fact, if it isn't already true, we might be the ones to do it.

But the way it was handled as horrible. The pacing of the last part of the game was simply terrible. Really, they just wanted a far greater scale of things than they had the time or money to do. In fact, it's really impossible to make a game of that scale without making it a 200-300 hour game to complete, if not more. And the game feels as if, and is, jerking you around to plot ideas prematurely.

The game is by no means terrible, and much of the game is very enjoyable. It's just a missed opportunity to focus on the right things. The game should have been spread into 4 or 5 smaller ones.

The best part of the game was definitely Elicoor II. It's the part of the game that isn't rushed and pretty well fully fleshed out. Taking part in the political conflicts on Elicoor II was really fun. And luckily this part of the game was the majority of the game. No matter how bad the ending was, it won't take away the fact that the time on Elicoor, was quality and enjoyable gameplay time.

It sadly takes a downturn when you're randomly jerked out of the realm and into the plot twist. The game would be a lot better if they just retconned and rewrote the story and made is a lot, lot longer and better paced. Because again, the time on Elicoor is proper quality time. And the idea of a good space exploration jRPG is a wonderful one. I'd like it if they could one day handle it. But it would take a lot of time and money to do it properly.

 

[DJDarque]

The only one I've played is First Departure. After a few hours of playing the dialogue was unbearable and the gameplay was boring. Not my thing. Sorry.

 

[Hosker]

I loved 'Till the End of Time when I was younger - very fond memories of it. The Last Hope I didn't like much at all.

 

[Monkeyman O'Brien]

Till The End of Time can go fuck itself. How stupid is a game that if you run out of MP your character dies. Then gives you enemies who can attack your MP.

The Second Story is my favourite. I love that game. Am just playing The Last Hope now and yeah, it aint bad. But the field is a bit too busy for my tastes. Can barely see where I am going in some areas.

 

[Korten12]

Till The End of Time can go fuck itself. How stupid is a game that if you run out of MP your character dies. Then gives you enemies who can attack your MP.

The Second Story is my favourite. I love that game. Am just playing The Last Hope now and yeah, it aint bad. But the field is a bit too busy for my tastes. Can barely see where I am going in some areas.

You can also attack your enemies MP, it doesn't go one way. I have killed bosses extreamly fast by going after their MP.

 

[SovietSecrets]

Replaying Till the End of Time right now and got Star Ocean 4 for the 360 a few days ago super cheap from Amazon. Hating Till the End of Time right now though because of how much of a drag the cutscenes are.

 

[Ando85]

I've played them all and I think Star Ocean The 2nd Story is my favorite. I have it on PS1. I played First Departure on PSP. It was entertaining but I felt it was way too short. I finished it in less than 15 hours. Later iterations on I think improved upon many aspects of the original Star Ocean.

I spent over 100 hours playing Star Ocean Til the End of Time. "Til the End of Time" is quite fitting as its a very long game in its own right plus has a wealth of optional stuff to go well past the 100 hour mark.

In my opinion The Last Hope had a downright excellent battle system. I think it rivals even "Tales of" games. But, the other aspects of the game weren't as good to me as the previous 2 games. Also, The Last Hope is home to the most annoying character I have ever come across in a video game, mmm kay?

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

I only played Till the End of Time ( I made it close, but I've never finished it) i remember when I went back to play it recently I found the battle system really clunky. Still, its a preety good game.

I preety much like everyone ( Except Sophia). Personally, I wanted everyone in my party but you have to pick and choose.