7 Hour Star Ocean: The Last Hope Impressions

So today, I finally reciveved my copy of Star Ocean: The Last Hope in the mail.

Where to start.  Well I guess I'll just describe what I played.  I pretty much played from 4 until 11 straight.  Yea, I know, that's a damn long time for a single session, but I've done more. 

Anyway, so let me start out on the technical side to get stuff out of the way.  The graphics are some of the best.  That's truly all that needs to be said, because what more is there to say?  I guess I could say there's an anime style to things, but you already know that.  I guess I did. 

And the gameplay as in the combat.  This is some of the funnest jrpg combat out there.  In fact, it's a fun combat system regardless of genre.  It's fairly fast paced and deep. Outside of the series I'd have to probably compare it to an action game, but I can't specify which and tha'ts especially because each character plays differently (accessed by simply hitting RB/LB).

So onto the big part--- the universe.  The story is essentially hardcore sci-fi and hardcore anime mixed together.  This means you're either going to find much of this to be either corny or pretty much a dream team deal.  There's strong influences from Star Trek on the sci-fi side (more so than Star Wars) and anime actually draws from Lucky Star High (okay, I kid, it's not that bad, but it definately draws from that side at times).  I really haven't got far enough into the story to judge, but it seems like it'll have a pretty nice story going on here. 

So yea, not a huge amount to say here, but just some quick impressions.   I have officially ended my Infinite Undiscovery blog, didn't post much towards the end of that.  Basically, it stayed the same strength towards the end of the game and then the ending sequence (meaning going towards the final battle + areas) was very, well, unexpected.   It made sense with the flow of the game, but you just wouldn't have expected it near the beggining of the game.

So today, I finally reciveved my copy of Star Ocean: The Last Hope in the mail.

Where to start.  Well I guess I'll just describe what I played.  I pretty much played from 4 until 11 straight.  Yea, I know, that's a damn long time for a single session, but I've done more. 

Anyway, so let me start out on the technical side to get stuff out of the way.  The graphics are some of the best.  That's truly all that needs to be said, because what more is there to say?  I guess I could say there's an anime style to things, but you already know that.  I guess I did. 

And the gameplay as in the combat.  This is some of the funnest jrpg combat out there.  In fact, it's a fun combat system regardless of genre.  It's fairly fast paced and deep. Outside of the series I'd have to probably compare it to an action game, but I can't specify which and tha'ts especially because each character plays differently (accessed by simply hitting RB/LB).

So onto the big part--- the universe.  The story is essentially hardcore sci-fi and hardcore anime mixed together.  This means you're either going to find much of this to be either corny or pretty much a dream team deal.  There's strong influences from Star Trek on the sci-fi side (more so than Star Wars) and anime actually draws from Lucky Star High (okay, I kid, it's not that bad, but it definately draws from that side at times).  I really haven't got far enough into the story to judge, but it seems like it'll have a pretty nice story going on here. 

So yea, not a huge amount to say here, but just some quick impressions.   I have officially ended my Infinite Undiscovery blog, didn't post much towards the end of that.  Basically, it stayed the same strength towards the end of the game and then the ending sequence (meaning going towards the final battle + areas) was very, well, unexpected.   It made sense with the flow of the game, but you just wouldn't have expected it near the beggining of the game.

I'm thinking of trying this one, when I get the time at some point. So far I've bought Fear 2, Killzone 2, and Dawn of War 2 in the last few weeks and hardly touched any of them. Gotta get caught up with everything one of these days. Still have to beat Fallout 3 as well...

Maybe I'll check this game out latter. The reason why I'm not rushing out to buy it is that I have some 2008 games to play and some other recent releases to get to. I hope you continue to have fun though!

"I'm thinking of trying this one, when I get the time at some point. So far I've bought Fear 2, Killzone 2, and Dawn of War 2 in the last few weeks and hardly touched any of them. Gotta get caught up with everything one of these days. Still have to beat Fallout 3 as well...
"

I can't wait to pick this up. I am huge sci-fi fan so I think i'll be getting into this really a lot.

Though its going to have to wait a bit, still playing through Infinite Undiscovery and some other games that I am working on. So it may be a couple months but this is going to take up a lot of my time I know.

I just think that the character designs are horrible, combat looks fun, and besides that it's as dated, glitchy, and generic as every other JRPG on the 360--minus Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odyssey.

I am eager to play a non-fantasy based JRPG, but have Persona 3 FES on my list next.  SO4 is right behind that so I'll be checking it out eventually.  Good thing, outside of KZ2, there is nothing new coming out for months that I am interested in.  

Im interested, then again I havent beaten Lost Odyssey still

How is the combat system compared to the Tales games?

WOW

did i just see a non flaming smugdarkloser thread? no wai

"How is the combat system compared to the Tales games?"

ahh... now at 18 hours.  fucking loving this game
also has such, such good graphics.  Best looking game on the 360