Star Ocean 4

[HiddenWoodchuck]

Star Ocean: The Last Hope was announced for the 360 during the Xbox RPG Premiere. I was wondering if anyone was interested in this... so I thought I would post it up. I've seen some screenshots here: http://www.starocean4.org/star-ocean-4-the-last-hope/star-ocean-iv-the-last-hope-screenshots.html along with some trailers and info. There is a trailer on Xbox Live as well, if anyone wishes to check it out.

I think I've seen mixed opinions on Star Ocean here, so I thought someone might be interested in knowing the news.(if they don't already...)

[Popsicle]

Coolio, I remember seeing a short trailer for this awhile back. I might pick this game up once it comes out. Thanks for sharing the news!

[Bobtheduck]

I've never played a Star Ocean game, but I know they have quite the dedicated fanbase... SE only makes SO like EA made Rock Band or like Activision made Call of Duty... It's actually another company that made the Star Ocean games, Tri-ace I believe they're called. They're also making "Infinite Undiscovery" another RPG on the 360.

I hope this game hits the PS3 also, since the entire series has been on playstation until now, but as they got their start this gen working on Infinite Undiscovery, I won't count on it.

[HiddenWoodchuck]

I've never played a Star Ocean game, but I know they have quite the dedicated fanbase... SE only makes SO like EA made Rock Band or like Activision made Call of Duty... It's actually another company that made the Star Ocean games, Tri-ace I believe they're called. They're also making "Infinite Undiscovery" another RPG on the 360.

I hope this game hits the PS3 also, since the entire series has been on playstation until now, but as they got their start this gen working on Infinite Undiscovery, I won't count on it.

According to wikipedia(hopefully accurate), it was asked about a PS3 version: "When asked whether the title would see release on the PlayStation 3, Square Enix producer Yoshinori Yamagishi replied "We can say that it will be released first [on the Xbox 360]. Whether we'll release it on the PS3 is undecided. We may release it, we may not."

I don't mind personally... I love both consoles, but this news was kinda weird to me at first. I thought someone was kidding about it coming out on the 360... guess it shouldn't really have surprised me, but it did for some reason. I expected it to be a PS3 title, but I hadn't really heard much about it until now.

[Nate]

I don't know if I'll get this or not. It all depends if they fixed the Item Creation system. If it's still broken like it was in 3, then forget it. :\

Also, *spoiler about the major plot twist in SO3*
[SPOILER]even though this is supposed to take place before Star Ocean 1, I don't know if I can play another Star Ocean game knowing that the entire universe is just an MMORPG.[/SPOILER]

[Gabriel 9.0]

It looks interesting, I haven't even played Star Ocean 3 yet...

[Tommy]

I don't know if I'll get this or not. It all depends if they fixed the Item Creation system. If it's still broken like it was in 3, then forget it. :\

Also, *spoiler about the major plot twist in SO3*
[SPOILER]even though this is supposed to take place before Star Ocean 1, I don't know if I can play another Star Ocean game knowing that the entire universe is just an MMORPG.[/SPOILER]

I'm a huge fan of the Star Ocean games.
I can say that I did enjoy Til the End of Time more than The Second Story even though both were incredible in my mind.

But seriously, is a weaker Item Creation really a good reason to not buy a video game altogether?
What if the story was incredible and the characters were improvements over the other games or the battle system was ten times more fun?

Oh, and to respond to your spoiler
[spoiler] Why not just remember that you're only playing a video game anyways? Think of all the .hack fans. [/spoiler]

[ADXC]

Actually I liked the item creation in SO3 and I don't think it was broken. Man I loved those boots of prowess(I think that's what the name of the boots were called).

But anyway I thought this was coming to the PS3, now all of my hopes and dreams for the PS3 (Because that would be like the main RPG for me for the PS3. The PS3 really doesn't have any good RPGs yet so this news is saddening.) are shattered. Oh well.

[TriezGamer]

Actually I liked the item creation in SO3 and I don't think it was broken.

That leads me to two ponderances:

Did you understand the item creation system and actually use it?

and

Did you play the same game I played?

[Nate]

I've noticed that generally the only people who like the SO3 item creation are the people who didn't play 1 or 2. The people who've played 1 or 2 recognize the item creation in 3 for the absolute garbage it is.

[ADXC]

Well, ok Nate you got me there. Yeah, Ive never played one or two because Ive never seen either for sale. And also I don't have my old PS1 to play them on. If I did find one of them I probably could play it on my PS3(My PS2 is broken.) but I wouldn't be able to save. So yeah, the first and second probably did have better item creations. Im just saying it wasn't a complete waste for me. I'll admit though that creating a certain item was very hard to do based on it being for random chance(Like when you put in the cost for the materials to make the item.). So I didn't like using it all the time.

And I haven't been around as long as you guys have been(To play the first and second.), either. But please don't say that SO3 was bad, because I really liked the game. I'll let you say what you will about the item creation(Because of y'all's knowlegde of previous games in the series.), but please don't say the whole game was garbage.

[Nate]

If I did find one of them I probably could play it on my PS3(My PS2 is broken.) but I wouldn't be able to save.

Why wouldn't you be able to save? Is your hard drive full already? o.O Did you only get the 20 GB one or something?

I'll admit though that creating a certain item was very hard to do based on it being for random chance

The Item Creation in 1 and 2 was based on random chance too. But, well, here's how it worked. Being that I've only played a small bit of 1, I'll mostly go on 2.

The first thing is every character has Talents. Talents range from stuff like Sense of Taste, Sense of Rhythm, Dexterity, and the like. Basically, if you have a certain talent, you can do a certain item creation better. For example, a character with Sense of Taste has a better chance of making something good with Cooking than one who doesn't. A character with Dexterity has a better chance at making something with Metalworking. Dexterity also helps with the Pickpocket ability, which isn't an Item Creation skill, but something else entirely...SO2 had abilities used outside of battle, like that and Scout (which either reduced or increased random encounters) and Familiar (which called a bird to you ANYWHERE as long as you had Pet Food. This meant no longer would you be hours into a dungeon and unable to heal your party, you could buy recovery items at any time).

So then, you had your skills. Skills were what you needed to make Item Creation go. Most Item Creation abilities required multiple skills. For example, Cooking required Good Eye, Kitchen Knife, and Recipe. If you didn't have all three skills, you couldn't use cooking. Skills were purchased at various Skill Guilds in towns. Also, UNLIKE SO3, Item Creation was available as soon as you started the game, as long as you had the necessary skills and raw materials.

But skills weren't just for Item Creation, oh no. Skills also served a SECONDARY purpose, which was to increase your stats. For example, Kitchen Knife increased your STR by 20 X the level of it. So for fighters, learning Kitchen Knife was a must, since at level 10, their STR got a 200 point increase. Then there were also the combat exclusive skills, such as Feint, Flip, Strong Blow, etc.

Anyway. Item Creation was a lot simpler. It worked like this. Say you wanted to cook something. You just open the menu, choose Item Creation, and then choose Cooking. Then you choose what you want to cook with, be it Seafood, Grain, Fruits and Vegetables, whatever raw materials you had (these were bought at shops). Then, the game showed you whether you succeeded or failed. Also you had a chance at getting a ?FOOD item, which you would then have to reveal what it was with the Identify skill.

But anyway, it didn't have a stupid bar thing or whatever. I don't know what that was about. It didn't cost any money to do, aside from buying the raw materials. And it was easy to see if you succeeded or failed, the game told you right then and there what you made. And you didn't have to buy it from a shop later (what was that crap?), you had it right there in your inventory.

Plus, there were also other things that could help you make super awesome items. For example, there was an item called the All-Purpose Knife that by equipping it, would increase the chances you would make something good with cooking. There was a helmet called the Beret that would also increase your item creation skill, and there was even a song you could play with Orchestra that would help too!

Oh yeah, Orchestra was one of the Super Item Creation skills, that opened up if everyone had a particular skill, like if everyone had Cooking, the skill Master Chef would open up, allowing you to combine two types of food ingredients. Reverse Side allowed you to create items like Forged Bills, Forged Checks, Stock Certificates, etc., that you could sell for a load of cash at shops.

I could go on and on about how superior this Item Creation system is, but it's pretty obvious. XD

but please don't say the whole game was garbage.

I can't say the WHOLE game was garbage.

Good:

Combat was better than the other SO games.
Characters were likable.
Voice acting was infinitely better than the second game.
Music was...well okay.
Going to different planets/areas was way cooler than SO2's "You're stuck on this planet for this entire disc, and this planet for this entire disc."

Bad:

MP reaching 0 = character dying. STUPID.
Plot twist mid-game. UGH.
Making it way too difficult to find out what to do next (I once wandered around an area for an hour before I figured out I had to talk to some nondescript NPC to advance the storyline...that's inexcusable in this day and age).
Item Creation sucked horribly.
"MAY THE GRACE OF APRIS BE WITH YOU!" Worst character voice ever.

[ADXC]

Well from your desription of the item creation from the first two games, they do sound better than the one in the third one. And I'll just leave it at that.

The reason I can't save is because my PS3 won't allow me to save PS1 games(Same when a while back when I would play them on the PS2.). I do have a PS1 memory card, but I think it's broken. And as I said I can't find PS1 games anywhere. That is excluding eBay and other websites. Im not going to get in that part(Because my computer isn't exactly at it's best state and ordering takes so long.).

Well to be truthful, yeah I did hate it when you died whenever your MP reached 0. But it was also sorta a challenge. Like, don't let Sofia use all of her MP otherwise she will die. In other games that didn't happen, then that character would live and be useless untill they got some MP back(This is for those spell casters that don't have really any direct physical attacks.). The way I saw it was you the character, could also cause MP damage against foes. And if the foe was a little low on wits then you were in good shape. But say it was one of those angel type enemies(Sorry I can't remember the name of them) toward the end of the game who had alot of MP and HP, then it would take a while. So yeah, as much as I hated my characters dieing because of MP dehyration, I still thought it was different and saw that this game may not be about just brawns alone(Because if you had a brawny person fighting, then would be usually low on MP. While mages would have tons.).

When you say plot-twist you mean when it was like part 4 of the game, right? Im not sure what to say about it. I did think it was a little weird though.

I think I will agree with you on the NPC thing, it took too long and was just time-wasting.

I don't know too much about voice acting so I can't say anything. What do you mean anyway? In your pros you said the "voice acting was infinitely better than the second game". And then in your cons you said, "Worst character voice ever." What are you saying exactly because Im just not sure. Or wait was that a person who said "MAY THE GRACE OF APRIS BE WITH YOU!" Who said that again? I do remember it, was it Penelope(I think that was here name.)? Oh ok I think I know what your saying. Just that particular voice was the worst character voice ever.

[Nate]

The reason I can't save is because my PS3 won't allow me to save PS1 games(Same when a while back when I would play them on the PS2.).

Your hard drive might be corrupted then...you should probably contact Sony and see what you can do about it.

I do have a PS1 memory card, but I think it's broken.

Yeah, but you need a Memory Card Adaptor, and I don't know if you can transfer stuff from the Internal Memory Card to an actual one. I don't know because I only used it to transfer my PS2 saves to the Internal Memory Card. I should probably create some more PS1 memory cards on my hard drive but I don't know how many you can have at once.

(Because if you had a brawny person fighting, then would be usually low on MP. While mages would have tons.).

But that's why I hated it. For example, Cliff was a powerhouse at the beginning of the game, but then there came a part where the enemies wouldn't do anything BUT MP damage. Since Cliff is a physical fighter, he doesn't have a lot of MP. This means he would die. Every fight. The game only gives you so many recovery items. Using more mage-aligned characters is great in theory, BUT, since the monsters are doing MP damage, and your mages are also using MP at the same time to cast their spells, it leads to them dying just as much too. It's ridiculous.

When you say plot-twist you mean when it was like part 4 of the game, right? Im not sure what to say about it. I did think it was a little weird though.

I meant everything that happened right after the Time Gate on Styx. Which possibly creates a plothole in the Star Ocean games. The reason why is,
[SPOILER]In Star Ocean 1, the plot revolved around Ronixis going back in time to try and find a cure for a deadly plague on an undeveloped planet. To go back in time, they use the Time Gate on Styx, which transports them 300 years into the past.

But since the entire universe in Star Ocean is just a massive MMO, and the Time Gate is a transport to the "real world," how did the Time Gate send Ronixis and Iria back in time? Did it recreate the game as it was 300 years prior, and then recreate the present based on changes made in the past? The whole thing's stupid. That's why I like to pretend SO3 never happened.[/SPOILER]

Just that particular voice was the worst character voice ever.

Right. Aside from that one character (can't remember her name but she was with Nel and had purple hair), the voice acting was superb. Star Ocean 2's voice acting on the other hand...not so much.

[ADXC]

Oh yeah, I think I remember now. Was that when Nel's friends save Cliff and Fayt in like a buggey type thing? Yeah I did find that voice annoying, but I got over it.

You should remember that I haven't played either one or two so I wouldn't be able to spot a plothole. But if I did, then yeah I would be confussed. But nowadays what RPGs don't have plotholes(Kinda kidding here.)?

I sorta just played SO3 because it sounded good, and well, playing without any previous game knowledge was nice. I'll admit though I would like to play the first two games. (Have you watched the Star Ocean EX anime? If so, is it any good?)

Yeah, it was Cliff that I too used alot. It was weird seeing him get killed off so soon considering he had a massive amount of HP(He was just a big-old powerhouse lunkhead. Why?! WHY?!! Why did you never read a book Cliff?! But Im just kidding though because I do like Cliff he would tear through enemies so well.). Now I will also agree that using mages is risky, but I would usually keep whatever mage I was using at the back of the field or room and using magic in moderation. Sometimes I even had to use them myself because they would often waste all their MP on enemies that were close to them and not get far away.


OFF TOPIC- A while back my friend gave me a copy of his FFVII, and I tried it on my PS3. But the disk wouldn't play. Of course the other PS1 games would, it's always the best games to not work when you want them too. So Im wondering if there would be a way to clean it. But Im also afraid that it's days are done.

Sorry for going offtopic.

[Nate]

Why is that funny? That's...that's the purpose of a forum. o.O

[ADXC]

Fall asleep? I'll have you known my good sir that I was fully awake while playing SO3, well except when I stayed up late playing it.

And I really enjoyed it. I know others didn't exactly like it, but I did. So I wouldn't go around bashing games because I didn't get the complexity of the story.

[Souba]

I actually liked SO3 too, I thought it was a great game! :-D It was also my introduction to SO series so it'll always have a special place in my heart. I'm looking forward to SO4 too!
Beloved in Grace,
Souba

[Nate]

it's more towards 'everyone here missed the entire point of so3'

helpful tip:try not to fall asleep during the second half of it

Helpful tip: don't assume things, because you often turn out wrong.

I have played the majority of SO3, and didn't sleep at all during it. I didn't miss the point at all. The world is a video game. It's clear as day. Yes, I'm aware that when all is said and done, Fayt and the others determine that even if they are just data in a computer program, that they have achieved consciousness and therefore they're just as alive as anyone in the real world.

I don't care. It's stupid, and cheapens the other two Star Ocean games (okay, technically three if you count Blue Sphere). I hate that plot twist, and the game is dead to me because of it. Further, by making the Time Gate a "doorway" to the real world (4D space) it DOES create a plot hole in the first Star Ocean game when Ronixis and Iria use the Time Gate to go back in time...if the universe is just a game, how were they able to travel to the past? What does that make the Ten Wise Men in Star Ocean 2? They were trying to destroy the universe, and I'd hardly think the Eternal Sphere staff would just let them succeed. So were they prototypes for the Executioners? That would be a bit odd given Indalecio's feelings for his daughter Filia...he shouldn't have had a daughter if he was just a staff-created character.

So I fail to see how I "missed the point" or how I was "asleep" during the second half.

[Nate]

[Mr. SmartyPants]

This.

[Raiden no Kishi]

the definition of a troll is 'anyone who disagrees or otherwise not in sync with the local populace'

Yeah, sounds like your behavior in this thread. Acting like a know-it-all and giving out almost no information in some misguided attempt to appear clever is very out-of-sync with the populace here. If you're not going to contribute meaningfully to the discussion, why waste your time and ours?

.rai//

[ADXC]

Yeah Rai and Nate are right. We don't need that stuff here.

[Stephen]

i could say the same to you
unfortuently,i'm right

some more advice:recount what happened in the second half

[Raiden no Kishi]

it's a misguided attempt to get you to use your brain for once

If you're trying to appear less like a troll and more like a productive member of this forum, you're not heading in the right direction here.

.rai//

[ADXC]

No, "contributing meaningfully and productively" involves acting like you actually know something about the subject that you're discussing. Being as vague as you can does not support this.

Like saying specific things that you didn't like about the game would be "contributing meaningfully and productively". Because how can we know what you mean when you're being as vague as possible? When writing a paper, speech, or even a post, you want to be able to clearly and efficiently explain your opinion without making the reader do all of the work. Because otherwise, it's not your opinion at all, it's theirs'.

Sorry to come hard on you as a new member(It's nothing personal, believe me.), but this stuff needed to be said(If it hasn't already. Sorry Rai and Nate if you have already said this stuff in your posts.).

And one tip of advice: at least honor moderators and users that have been here for quite a while because they know what they are talking about and only have your best interest in mind. Just please know that Im trying to help you out, okay?

[Stephen]

Just a suggestion DavidC, if you act like a troll...you may be treated like one. I would suggest you ease off attacking people or you may find yourself dealt with like a troll.

[Raiden no Kishi]

apparently 'contributing meaningfully and productively' involves spoonfeeding

Two can play.

The secret to the universe . . . is pancakes. I'm not going to spoon-feed you the explanation. If you don't understand, use your brain for once in your life, as well as your "shift" and "period" keys.

.rai//

[Haruhiko]

I own the Star Ocean 3, but I haven't gotten around to playing much of it. However, I'll almost definitely pick this up.

[Raiden no Kishi]

i apologize if i misinterpret your post here,but this sounds childish to me
i'm sure you can see how i came to that conclusion without my needing to point it out,as much as i see how you've all came to the troll conclusion (incorrectly)

Actually, I've never played any of the Star Ocean games. Of course it sounds childish - I'm being facetious in order to show you how ridiculous you're being. You say that everyone missed the point of the game, but don't bother to help anyone figure it out. We are not fools (despite your treating us as such), "DavidC," but perhaps there's something those who played SO3 missed. Obviously, since you refuse to supply any other information than "You didn't pay attention to the second half of the game," you have no real interest in assisting anyone in understanding what you claim is the real point of the game. Given your rude, trollish behavior (namely, insulting the intelligence of anyone who bothers to interact with you), I can only assume that your refusal to give any useful hints is evidence that all you want to do is flaunt your supposed intelligence and informed status above everyone in this thread, especially considering your posts in this thread are the extent of your posting history here. It seems to me that you only bothered to create an account on this site in order to post in this thread and insult anyone who didn't share your grand, exalted view of Star Ocean 3.

Seeing as I have more worthwhile things to do with my time, this will be the last time I interact with you, considering your complete unwillingness to behave in an intelligent, reasonable manner. It would greatly improve your experience here to get off your high horse, act civilly, and actually discuss the game, which, as I'm sure you're aware, is the entire purpose of this thread. If you are not capable of that, that's your problem, and you have my pity.

.rai//