amazing, well worth the money (Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Xbox 360))

Member Name: liltman

Product:	Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Xbox 360)
Date:	30/06/09 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Massive, so much to do, really fun battle system.

Disadvantages: annoying changing discs when you go back to an older town

I have being waiting years for this game as I am a huge Star Ocean Fan. So here goes my very long review...lol

** The game/story **

The game is a prequal to the very first Star Ocean game however it's not got anything special to make it seem like a sequal, you could actually class it as a separate game. The story is ok but not as good as I thought it was going to be, don't get me wrong I still liked it but when I heard it was a prequal I thought it would have more to do with the first one, it basically just has some people in who might be ancestors to a character in the first game but it never really confirms this however I have only completed the game once and again I believe there is multiple endings to the game.

** The battle system **

The battle system, like in most Star Ocean games, mainly Star Ocean 3, was the one I loved for fighting before this one! This one is like that but more advanced and more to do, I love it but I do sometimes get nostalgic about the other one.

The battle is action-rpg style, in order to fight you have to run into the enemy. If you run into them head on, it will be a normal fight, if you run into them from behind it will be a preemtive strike, if they run into you and you have your back to them, it will be a surprise attack. You can run about freely in the battle button bashing and combining skills together to perform combos which can be chained together much like in star ocean 3, each time you chain them together you get something called a cancel bonus, this makes the next skill in the chain stronger than usual. You do this by combining skills together with the left and right triggers, at first you can only have one skill assigned to the triggers but at later points in the game you can have 6 in total (3 on each trigger). The only thing I dislike about the battle is how hard it is to target a certain enemy when doing attacks, there is no targetting system except when using items and magic. In order to pick a target for attacks you have to get close to them and hit them it can be a pain in the butt to pick the enemy you want but once you have it you can lock on to it.

** Battle Technique: Blindslides **

There is also another new feature to the game, called blindslides. This is if you have played World Of Warcraft, very much like the rogue skill shadowstep. You need to charge this skill up in order to pull it off, but it is very easy to do once you know how. You charge by holding down the jump button and then flicking the left analog stick (analog stick, is that right, is it called that on the x360? lol anyways...) you will then see the game go in slow mode (which looks awesome :D) and then attempt to jump behind the enemy in order to attack them (you perform a critical attack when you do a blindslide, which causes more damage and if you kill the enemy with a critical you will gain a EXP gem for your bonus gauge, more on this below). Later enemies can counter your blindslides, which is a pain in the butt when this happens as it breaks your bonus gauge, if you time it right you can still pull off a blindslide to enemies that can counter them, you just have to wait for them to start their attack animation and hope you jump behind them without getting hit.

** Rush Gauge **

Another new feature, much like in Star Ocean 3, there is a guage but not a fury gauge (though you can still have that skill later). This guage goes up as you do damage and receive it. It also goes up when you charge for blindslides. You can enter rush mode which has certain benefits, such as stat boosts, and increased speed + more crit chance. You can also enter rush combo mode to unleash massive amounts of damage by pressing the buttons that appear on screen (this can save your back many times later in the game).

** Beat System **

This is also a new feature, there are 3 types, strike, normal and burst. Strike is more for melee fighters and pulling off blindslides, it provides stat boosts to attack and gives great blindslide bonuses when your rank increases such as freezing near by enemies when pulling off a blindslide.

The normal rank allows for increased stats in ALL STATS but you do not gain any bonuses.

Burst mode is more for ranged people and casters/healers. I tend to find the rush gauge goes up a lot quicker and it lasts a lot longer, I usually have all my people on burst and Edge (the main character) on strike, I have 2 casters and a ranged character and then Edge. Burst mode gives a huge increase to HP and a few other stats. It's not really for pulling off blindslides, you will find that really pointless to do if you want blindslides use strike.

** Using Items **

To heal and recover from status ailments or to simply use items you open a menu and the game halts while you look (thank god, because there is so many items available lol). Much like a traditional RPG you then just click the item you want to use and off you go.

** Magic! - Good old symbology! **

There is also magic in the game which is called symbology much like in Star Ocean 3 but with a slightly different system to level the magic up. You collect SP (skill points) which can be used to boost your skills, each time you boost a skill the cost upgrading that skill will rise. There are many ways to get SP, you can gain party SP very easily via mining, gathering herbs, opening chests etc and this provides some exp too which will apply to all characters in your party not just the active ones. There is also another way which will be talked about in the below section.

** Bonus Gauge! **

Yes it is back! and this time it is slightly different. I found it much easier to keep the bonus gauge in this one, which is good but I did miss how angry I got in Star Ocean 3 when I would work to build my bonus then lose it, in this one it did not annoy me so much when I lost it. There are 4 different gems that you can get in order to give a boost to one of the following:
1. Increased EXP (levels you up and makes you stronger) after battles.
2. Increased Fol (money) after battles.
3. Recover HP/MP after battles. (restores your hit points and mana, hit points are your life, mana is used for magic and skills).
4. SP (skill points). SP is not gained from battles, you gaini it when you level up from EXP however if you have a green gem (SP gem) you will gain 1SP for every SP gem you have for every battle, so say if you have 5 green gems you will gain 5 party SP every fight, if you fight enemies weak that die in one hit you could still get 5SP for that fight resulting in easy SP (don't do this on your first play or it will make the game too easy).

In order to get each gem you have to do a certain thing in battle and out of battle for one gem, here is how you get them:
1. Increased EXP - in order to add these gems to the bonus gauge you need to make sure the killing blow is a critical, you can do this via blindslides, equipment with +crit will help here and the skill called critical that will increase your crit chance will be of a big help too.
2. Increased FOL (money) - in order to add these gems to the bonus board you need to kill multiple enemies at once.
3. Recover HP/MP - this one is very easy, you simply need to kill the enemy using only skills.
4. SP (skill points) - the not so easy one (depending on the area). This one you need to be on the field and you need to have 2 enemies or more close to each other before you enter the battle, if you succeed when you are in a fight, the moment you defeat the enemies, you will get ambushed by the other enemies and this will provide you with a SP gem.

** Ok battle system and story aside, onto the extras! **

My god there is way too much to do and I love it haha. I have being playing the game for 100hours and have just beaten the first secret dungeon which seemed quite big but I have just found out there is another dungeon, the proper secret dungeon if you like, consider this small one as the test dungeon needed to unlock the real challenge. Even in this small dungeon the end boss is way harder than the main games last boss, I got to him not realizing how hard he would be and hadn't saved my game, only one of my characters could damage him as you have to use skills or weapons without an element as he is immune to all elements, obviously I did not know this then so I got my butt handed to me on a plate. I prepared and went back to fight him last night and kicked his butt, now I am about to go see what the real challenge is like...

** The Real Challenge **

Now I have not being in here yet, but there is a wondering dungeon, the games secret hardcore dungeon. This dungeon is supposedly huge with randomly generated floors, meaning each time you enter it will be different, the games high end treasures and monsters are in here. Fans of Star Ocean 3 will remmember the Ethereal Queen, wel she is back and no doubt as hard or harder than in Star Ocean 3 (I never actually thought her in that one but would like to one day and she looked extremely hard).

This dungeon has several requirements, you will be asked to do certain things like collect certain items in order to progress, every 2 floors there is a boss battle (just entered the dungeon, there is an infinite amount of floors, it just repeats after 20 floors, you can repeat the same bosses ever 2 floors from then on, so from floor 20 it is repeating the same stuff to get items, experience money and to just have fun). There is also no save points in this dungeon at all and if you leave you will have to start all over again, the items for the task will dissapear from your inventory if you leave the dungeon. I can not say much more about what you can do in here as I have not gone in yet but will be very soon and may update this article when I have completed it...or died lol.

** Even more side stuff **

Yes there is even more, there is quests throughout the game (there are quite a lot as well! It makes me feel like it should/was an online game at some point lol). Quests give you exp and items, I have not done that many myself this time and if I have it has pretty much happened without realizing, just happened as I progressed the game, as some of the quests are very easy, just kill certain number of mobs, collect this, make this (more on this in a second) etc.

There are orders that shops place, you can deliver these orders (once you have the needed items). This is not all that special but still something I did not expect from the game so I was quite pleased with, you can take certain items to the shop (they request it) and when you have they reward you in fol (money) and experience, and if I remember correctly party SP too.

** Are you ready to fight fight fight!? **

Oh yes the Colliseum is back again! This time much more challenging, the enemies seemed to have shed loads of HP and made the battles rather long however I think the reason for this was I was under equipped I had not upgraded my equipment for a very long time. You can move up in ranks until you become number 1. There are several modes you can play such as Solo, Team, Survival. Solo you fight alone and try to be the best. Team you can use all your party to try and become the top rank. Survival is all your party but it is like a mixture of tough enemies and easy enemies and you play up to 10 rounds, each round you progress and gain more battle points the more you do but if you choose to continue and lose the battle then you lose everything you have gained so far.

** Item Creation **

Yes it is back but this time much simpler to understand and not so annoying...
You can make many items again...and some of them are really useful and some of them like in previous game are just not!
Certain quests will also require you to make items.

To make an item you need to invent the recipe first by selecting 3 of your party people and putting them in the 3 empty slots, you pick which people based on what item you want to make, each character has a different skill level in each profession. For example Edge is good at crafting. Once the recipes have being created you can then see what materials you need in order to make it. If you have them you can simple create the item.

** Battle Trophies - Yes they are back ! :D woo hoo! **

Oh boy, they are back, and there are tons of them! Forget Star Ocean 3 having battle trophies for everyone, Star Ocean 4 has battle trophies for each character! there are absolutely loads and this time it actually feels worth it to collect them. If you collect them you unlock things, the first unlock is a new voice collection (not that impressive) but the 2nd unlock is a level cap removal (this is cool, gives you a reason to collect battle trophies and another reason is for achievements, if you are an achievement driven maniac then this is something you will like, it will take a lot of time to get all battle trophies so be warned).

** Achievements: **

To be honest, I thought they would of somehow made the battle trophies the achievements but no we got battle trohpies and achievements! haha. There are 50 Achievements to unlock in the game, some of them secret and some of them easy to get, however a lot of them are hard to get or long winded, I currently have around 18 unlocked but I still have a lot to do on the game! 100 hours playing and I still have a lot to do...haha it doesn't get any better than this.

** Conclusion: **

Wow this has got to be my biggest review ever, I love these games very much, and although I was hoping for a bit more in the story I would still recommend you buy this game no matter if you are into these types of games or not, it can be very fun.

Summary: Amazing game, worth every penny with so much to do you will be playing it for years