Ruined potential
Disclaimer: I'm writing this review a couple of weeks after returning the game, and there are some minor spoilers.
Alright, so I made the stupidass mistake of subscribing to a Movie Gallery, rather than GameFly. But one of the games i happened to rent, was in fact, Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Being bored out of my mind that week, I played the shit out of this game... for about 3 days, and was torturing/drowning myself in mixed reactions all the way up until a certain point, which I will get to later.
First off, the most overtly bad thing about this game - THE GOD DAMN VOICE ACTING! Welch, please read this message: Go die in a fire. Seriously, in all the 18 hours I spent, I never stopped hating this chick. For three key reasons - One, she is completely, and entirely unnecessary to the game plot (and even the game mechanics). Two, she is the worst attempt at a comic-relief specific character of all time. (Yes, even worse than Zach in that DOA movie) Even the one time where I would have liked her to have at least bearable lines, when Rush gets depressed from that "alternate Earth" scenario, I couldn't help but put down the headphones after less than 10 seconds of her talking. Three, see above.
Strangely, the three main characters, I thought, were the most bearable. While I hate the detached little kid who has an obnoxious tendency to put "kay" at the end of a sentence, I still didn't find her nearly as annoying as Welch. The robot guy's only bad points, were in his attempts at humor - I actually had no idea the game was trying to make him be funny, until the other characters pointed it out. I had also heard that the cat girl was on the level of annoyance as the kid and Welch, but I found her to be the least annoying of the three.
Second, the story. Why is this listed second? That's another thing I'll get to, because it ties into the better points of the game. I HATE the story. The intro felt rushed to the point of stupidity. I litterally, asked myself, out loud, WHY THE FUCK DO I HAVE A SPACE SHIP RUN BY A BUNCH OF TEENAGERS?! Why Capitan, you have in fact, very little reason to give me your fair vessel. Essentially, all I did, was kill a few alien dudes, go to the wrecked ship, bring back some strange object (another part of its largely forgettable plot), and then we met up with the friendlier alien guys, and then bam, here's a spaceship go explore stuff. Story of my life. While this might be okay in an action game, (and this is by no means slow-paced as far as the action is concerned), this is marketed, as advertised, and most definitely, an RPG. AN RPG, DAMN IT!
Although, that's just the premise. The story itself, was decent, but feels poorly executed - for as many catastrophes, crash landings, rescue missions and over the top music scores as the game has, there's very little sense of urgency beyond the fact that you don't know where your brother is and if he's alright. This, makes me sick, because they had more than enough resources to deliver.
Now, the first two things, made me return the game eventually, because I just couldn't stand it. But, don't get me wrong, there were actually some good points about this game.
Inbetween the unbelievably bad acting, and absolutely terrible attempts at humor, I actually found myself enjoying the intense battle system, ogling the beautiful art design, and jamming to the dungeon themes.
Speaking of the art design, lets get to that! Holy freaking crap, this game has some serious technical proficiency - the graphics are amazing, and the worlds look beautiful! There are litterally some moments in the game, where you can point out and compare to games that spent their entire length to refining a look, and this game will stand toe-to-toe with those same environments. The best example I can think of, is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and one of the first worlds in The Last Hope where you crash land and there is a petrification virus spreading. (Bacculus, I think it was called?)
Now back to why I listed Story as the second thing I hated about the game, is because even though it is an RPG, and story should be paramount, the action in this game, is awesome. I straight-up loved the battle system. It's well made, and addicting as hell. Case in point: my team's ass got handed to them in the first boss fight, and I had to solo the rest out with Faize, and pulled it off by some miracle with no items left and 10 hp, and this was AFTER getting lost and leveling well-beyond what I would consider fair for the first boss fight in a game- I actually breathed a sigh of relief, got excited all over again, and kept playing with the brief illusion that I was playing a well-made game. If I had been playing with a standard-fare RPG battle system, I would have died several times, and then gave up on the game.
Now to the music... which is downright rock-your-face-off-worthy at times. I very, very seriously contemplated looking up the soundtrack and buying it after hearing the first dungeon's theme. It's not just that theme either, as the rest of the score has a place in my heart that I may still come back to after digesting the reason why I stopped playing the game.
You eventually come across a planet, where there are huge, wild bunnies, that must be tamed, to chase after the next objective. ...Seriously? I stopped juggling the good and the bad points, and just gave up and realized that I would not see a pleasing end-result, that the voice actors would not ease into their roles later, that the people writing the lines would not realize that they get paid to do this, and that the scenario writers would never realize that they have to put together something coherent. I put down the controller, and turned the game off, sad, and disappointed, at this game's ruined potential.
