Is the Star Ocean Series Worth Playing? (Every Game Reviewed)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- Are the Star Ocean games worth playing? I review every one of them in this video. I also include their place in the chronology.
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I got Star Ocean Till The End of Time in college and I loved it. It just felt so new and different. Loved it.
i never played star ocean til the end of time fluently ( i tested the title screen and a little bit of the begining on pcsx2 on pc and it ran too slow),when i can play it and when i beat it, i will say my opinion here, i listened to cutting edge of notion a much better battle theme than star ocean second evolution battle theme
I like 3 but the pacing is abysmal it makes it a chore to go back and play the map completion mechanic doesn’t help things.
what threw me off most is that the game actually kills you if your MP is gone... Something like a literal mind break mechanic.
Ironically since every 10 HP is worth 1 MP in this game, characters with 10k+ in MP by max level end up having the most health technically if you convert all damage into MP damage.
I like SO3, but the story messed up the SO Universe.
@@rubiantary Yeah, the final parts of the story basically reshape how you see the series...
which also explains why the 3rd game is also the last one chronologically cause good luck going from there
The Last Hope is my favorite because it's the only Star Ocean game that actually lets you explore the star ocean. Most games just take place on one planet and then you go to another to fight the end boss. Last Hope you got to explore and see different worlds. Even an alternate timeline. I'll never understand the hate that game gets.
Myuria
@@aquafishsoup What's so bad about Myuria? Normally people have a lot of hate for Lymle, but I haven't heard so much about Myuria.
Awful cast. 'kay?
3 has everything for everyone. really good combat, deep crafting, hours of cinematics, and loads of content. a thousand hours of gameplay for a skilled completionist. multiple endings, optional characters, 300 battle trophies for things like killing the final boss with the starting weapon or character lvl 1 or within a time limit. i particularly like the in game rewards for map completion.
Side kick! Side kick! Is that all you gart!? Side kick! Side kick!
-The life of Fayt Leingod
Should have been called God Kick
Star Ocean 2 was one of my favorite games back on the PS1. The game has a great story, good characters, well done music, etc and there is good replayability since there are two protagonists which give a slightly different account of the story and who you can recruit. Also, you cannot recruit all the possible characters with one playthrough and this helps give replay value due to the scenes you can have with the party members.
I wish there was a psp hack version that removed the voice acting. Would love to play it.
@@BoondockRoberts The voice acting is pretty lame, I agree, but I have gotten used to it I suppose and have a sort of nostalgic feeling for it. lol. I remember my brother used to make fun of some of the worse voice effects.
@@David_Alvarez77 teaaaaaar into pieces!! teaaaaaar into pieces!! God i loved that game so much
A few quick corrections. SO3 starts with Fayt on vacation with his family, they are all earthlings from earth. Also, SO4 is on Steam, too.
1 and 2 are definitely worth playing.
Yeah
Yes
Nah. They look cheap. Star Ocean Till the End of Time is where it's at!
@@External29 nah.its all about the last hope
Star Ocean 2 was one of my favorite RPGs of all time. It felt so unique had such deep crafting and customization for its time. It really stood out during that time and the story really draws you in.
Star Ocean 2 is my entire childhood, due to its complexity and replaying dozens of times. Good times back then, when the world is still calm and comfy...
I miss SO2 era..
I'll never forget driving to ElBo during the summer of 99 to pick it up with my sister.
SO4 is probably my favorite too, most jrpgs are tropey so I don’t let that kind of stuff ruin the experience for me. The story was pretty good in my opinion and combat excellent. Graphics good for their time and have held up well. A couple of the characters were a bit tough to listen to though lol. SO2 is a close 2nd place for me, it was my first star ocean game and I remember the feeling of adventure, with all the different endings and playable characters, first game with post game secret dungeons, great story and characters, it hasn’t aged quite as well tho. I tried SO5 but just couldn’t get into it. I’ve bought SO1 and SO3 but haven’t finished them, SO1 kind of got boring for me and SO3 I just didn’t get into it as much because of battle mechanics. I plan to get back to both and beat them at some point. I’ve just started playing SO6 and so far it’s very good. The combat is amazing, the story has been really good so far and the characters interesting, so it’s got potential to be one of my favorites if it plays out well.
Teot is still one of my top 3 games of all time. Love the series.
Very excited to try out Till the End of Time and The Last Hope for their battle systems. The Tales series is hit or miss for me when it comes to combat, so I'm excited to see a similar but alternate take on it
I feel you on the Tales.. I loved Xillia's combat then got Zestiria and was like what the hell is this!? Some like Zestiria... I didn't so much, even attempted it twice.
@@nastycanadian1975 For some reason I finished Zestiria, it was probably the music. :)
I never give up hope on games I particularly dislike at first so there is a chance I will attempt to comprehend it's battle system and try another playthrough, I have done that with many of my rpgs. Some I end up liking in the end and others stay on the don't bother list... One I can mention that is a definite bury out of sight is Natural Doctrine. Lol
Trying to keep it spoiler free, but fair warning that battle trophies will take a VERY long time and multiple playthroughs if you're going after them. And that's for both games. And there's some game features that are locked behind them too.
Last Hope is much worse than Til the End of Time on this though.
@@nastycanadian1975 : Xillia is based more on the older combat formulas of Symphonia and Vesperia, while Zestiria and Berseria are more an offshoot of the Graces system. Trouble is, though people liked the feel of Graces combat (I still have issues with it), Namco kind of got into a rut with later combat systems where they kept putting out games with the same enemies, but changing up the combo rules just... to change them really, and accumulating a lot of invisible mechanics despite the games continuing to act like you just had to pay attention to the element and action.
To be fair, the games were all beatable still, but some of them felt pretty weird. I liked Xillia 2 the best before Arise came along and cleared out a lot of the junk. Oddly I still always got a good vibe from Zestiria, but I also broke the game by messing with the Fusion mechanics and blitzing bosses to death with endless mystic arte chains that ignored resistances. XD
I love this series. I'm looking forward to The Divine Force, its just not at the top of my priority list at the moment. November has a lot of much bigger releases. As for my impressions. I rank them like this.
Star Ocean 2 - This is absolutely my favorite. Its fun, its hard, the story is excellent, and you can craft a thermonuclear warhead to auto- Game Over yourself. Flawless
Star Ocean 4 - The Last Hope being the first game is hilarious to me. You get to spend more time in the Sci-fi than you do in other titles, and that gives it a very Star Trek feel.
Star Ocean 1 - Great game. Great cast. Honestly, the only thing that bothers me is that the newest version gave all the characters new splash art, but not new sprites and cutscenes. So its just bizarrely jarring.
Star Ocean 3 - I always struggled to keep my attention on this one, usually finding something more interesting to do than play Till the End of Time. But I recently decided to sit down and knock this one out. Because I love the series, and everyone says this one is the best. Conclusion? Star Ocean Till the End of Time is awful! It controls like a brick, the story is so slow and clunky, and the big plot twist does very upsetting things that trivialize the entire brand. Most of the characters are pretty good, though weirdly and stiffly acted, though that may have been a restriction based on the PS2 hardware ( I say but GoW, Kingdom Hearts, and .hack//GU were PS2 games as well, so...). Conclusion: If you love Star Ocean, skip 3.
Star Ocean 5 - HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah don't.
Star Ocean 6 - I haven't played The Divine Force yet, but the demo was fun. There are glaring issues that I attribute to budgetary restraints. But not enough to deter me from playing this once my priority list is complete. If nothing else, it looks like a good step towards getting Star Ocean back on track.
Star ocean till the end of time was my first and still my favorite game by far
2 & 3 for me, they fill my childhood with adventure...
#3 is definitely worth it.
I've played all of them but the latest I have even played the mobile game and Star Ocean till the end of time is still my favorite
I couldn't get into Star Ocean 1 on Switch after trying for a while, and based on my similar experience with the Tales games, maybe that specific style of action RPG isn't for me. The Divine Force, on the other hand, looks right up my alley. Good to know it's a standalone story.
From what I've heard, the re-releases of Star Ocean 1 don't do much to curb the effects of 'being an old famicom RPG', so if the old styles aren't your favorite, just gotta go modern. I lean toward modern and particularly liked the gameplay of Tales of Xillia (2 especially) and Arise, and Divine Force has been fantastic so far. :)
Steam has a 4k remake of Star Ocean 4, saw it for about $20 the other day.
3:42
There is now! And my heart was pounding when they announced it! The remake is so gorgeous! 😭
Also trying to wrap my head around the chronology here...
4th game, 1st game, 2nd game, 5th game, 6th game, 3rd game in chronological order... if you played the mobile game, it's 2 years after the 5th game. and Blue Sphere (a gameboy color only title) is 2 years after the 2nd game.
That would mean the timeline is Last Hope, First Departure, Second Story, Blue Sphere, Integrity and Faithlessness, Anamnesis, Divine Force, then Til the End of Time. The timeline to this series is jumping back and forth a lot.
I have all of them, enjoyed most of them. The Last Hope is my favorite.
YES!!
Star Ocean Till The End of Time was the first one I played but Star Ocean The Last Hope is my fav felt more like an actual space adventure the the others in my mind
Till the end of time was the first one I played, got stuck on the giant stomping dragon boss and stopped playing because I couldn't beat him. I actually wish they would remake this with updated gameplay mechanics & graphics.
I enjoyed all of them. I would say 2+3 are my favourites with 5 being my least fave. I am still going through 6 right now and so far i am enjoying it more than 5 at least.
I played Till the end of Time in Highschool as my first one. I loved it and its the only Star Ocean I have beaten
SO3 is my fav due to its gameplay and surprisingly high difficulty. MP deaths were interesting, but I hate how people use the plot twist to rag on the ENTIRE game. Thanks for giving SO4 some love btw. I'm so glad to hear SO6 came out well 🙏
Almost done with 6, extremely underwhelmed by half baked it is. I was super impressed , it’s my first entry into the series.
The Last Hope Is the only good HD star Ocean IMHO with actual good budget
@@olbericaegis206 thanks for that, I’m actually super intreagued by last hope. I have 3 on the back burner. Will deff knock 4 out after 3.
Star ocean till the end of time was my first ever action rpg my first in the series that I finished
The Divine Force finally managed to be on par with Second Story IMO any SO fans need to play it
...? That good? No way lol. SO2 is one of my favorite games.
@@ZenKrio It's basically a modern version of SO2 dual protagonist an all.
Woaw I'm surprised too is it that good so2 is the best game ever imao
SO2 has always been my favorite rpg since it came out. The remastered version for ps4 does exist, but only in Japanese at the moment.
Till the end of time is my favorite by far
I just hope that the next SO game be more like SO2, with optional/secret characters , and that the SO6 make enough sells to SE never forget about the series.
Erick in a previous video: Integrity and Faithlessness is NOT that bad.
Also Erick: Integrity and Faithlessness isn't worth playing.
Ok chief.
He probably started to play it again recently in preparation for The Divine Force.
End of time, I find I occasionally have a tune stuck in my head and realize it's from that. The plot twist is horrid and the final boss is annoying watching everyone stand around not stopping him from pressing a doomsday button but get past that and it's a solid experience.
I've beat last Hope five or 6 times and it never gets old. I study human conditions like depression, survivors guilt and this game nails it overall. Voice acting it stellar and combat fun
“What goes around, comes around”
Star Ocean Till the End of Time is definitely my favorite! I must have put in like 300 hours when I was in middle school. Haha!
I mean, it basically had a DLC without having to pay for it! 😌😂
Great series! There's nothing else that feels quite like the mix of fantasy and sci-fi... other games do it, but usually with characters all coming from the same era. The mix is what really makes it great, and especially the music.
The 2nd one with Claude and Rena is still the best for me in storyline and game system but also divine force got the best overall battle system by far from all of the series it looks real smooth.
Second Story is one of my favs, I still reply that one with an emulator on my phone to this day! Excited for the remake!!!
Yes, the only one i have played & beaten is the Japan only Blue Sphere on GBC
Just started playing first departure, so far so good, I brought til the end of time also. I think I’m gonna buy all of them eventually.
Here to add star ocean 2 is getting a HD-2D remake yay!
Star ocean 2, the second story actually got me interested in a show called, Iron chef. It was a cooking competition in fun city on disc 2 that got me interested in Iron chef.
2 is the best in my opinion with 3 coming close. 6 is actually really fun. It's a little easy but that's why the post game dungeons exist.
Your thumbnail made me realise they alternate the main character's hair color between blue and blond
Surprised you didn't mention the MP Death system in 3.
Star ocean till the end of time was my first and only. I loved it and still do, I play it from time to time on my PC
Star Ocean TTEOT and Star Ocean TLH are my 2 favorites of the series.
Thanks to this video I will give Lost Hope another try, as soon as I finish divine force.
Star Ocean Till the End of Time was a great game. I played it so many times. Great characters and fun to play. The Last Hope was so bad. The characters were bland, and the main character consistently over-reacted to everything to the point where I wished he could be killed off and someone else take over. I honestly don't have much hope for this new one either. I will wait a bit longer before I decide if I am going to buy it.
Star Ocean has been a hit or miss property for my. I love the PS1 and PSP games. Just found out the First Departure is on the Switch for download so that’ll be fun. I loved the PS2 one. PS3 one was kind of meh for me but I think part of that is the loss of the anime style character art.
I've played Til the end of time, then eventually played last hope. Even played a bit of Anamnesis (the mobile game) before it was shut down. I still need to play all the others in the series, especially since divine force came out and looks amazing.
Also, battle trophies will get annoying no matter the game. I'm warning people now. And you need them in last hope to hit lv255
Even before clicking - yes
... If it was just SO5 or even Blue Sphere tho, than that would be different!
i never played star ocean til the end of time fluently ( i tested the title screen and a little bit of the begining on pcsx2 on pc and it ran too slow),when i can play it and when i beat it, i will say my opinion here, i listened to cutting edge of notion a much better battle theme than star ocean second evolution battle theme
Second Story is getting a Remaster that is releasing on November
Star Ocean 3 took up hundreds of hours during my early teenage years! Haven't played any of the other games yet.
Dias will always be my all time fav anime character..
They are awesome, i wonder why games nowadays dont have great stories like the old ones
New audiences. Back then, they made a game. Like it or don't deal with it. Now they have to try and please everyone because of $$$ and as a result, the games come out like crap.
The Divine Force was a lot of fun. I'm a huge fan of The Second Story as well as Till the End of Time.
I remember playing the everlasting daylights out of First departure and Second Evolution when they came out on the PSP. Sadly I haven't been able to get into any of the other games yet. I have some fairly high expectations for the Divine Force so I hope it doesn't like it did with The last hope where I've been starting it over every few years only to get really bored fast and drop it for another few years.
You forget Anamnesis, but fine . This game closed a few years ago.
For an mobile gasha game this game is amazing .good combat and great graphic ,even today it still looking good .
RIP for SOA, somehow you can get their legacy in Soa mini game in SO 6 😅
I now own and have the ability to play all of them except Integrity & Faithlessness (unsure if I am down to drop $ on it)... Been meaning to get into it and I find the best way for me to buckle down for a series playthrough is to ensure I have all the titles accessible... As weird as that sounds..
Hopefully I enjoy it, as this is kinda right up my alley!
Absolutely. Just finished star ocean first departure a week ago within 2 days. 43 hours in two days. Switch. Have it on the psp. Wish the second one was on the switch
Star Ocean 1-4 are wonderful! Haven’t played after 4. Might try 5..
No 5 sucked
Unskippabke cutscenes
I've played almost every star ocean but the only one I've finished is Till the end of Time. I don't know why I put a lot of them down. In second story it was at the Central City. In last hope I picked it up a few times but always put it down I think at the town with the arena. I honestly think a lot of it was GAMEFAQs was a big thing and I kept worrying about doing everything 100% on my first try and it burnt me out. Another big thing was since till the end of Time was my first, well I don't want to spill the ending but it kind of made the others feel weird. But I didn't know it was the last chronologically. Also these were years ago so maybe I should try again
Til the End of Time had a pretty fancy battle system. MP death was a neat idea. I'd say it's my favorite, though The Last Hope was also pretty good.
#5 was a skip. PS4 exclusive? Nope.
I haven't checked out #6 yet, but I might eventually.
Star Ocean fo life! ❤
Star Ocean 4 The Last Hope is also on steam. I will say I did not like the characters or story Star Ocean very much but, the music and combat are very good though I also did not like the plot twist at the end of Star Ocean 3 Till The End of Time either. Star Ocean 2 The Second Story is the best in the series for me but, I have not played 1, 5, and 6 yet.
the second game is the only one I don't have (I bought all of them on Playstation and the second apparently not in north america) but I remember till the end of time and enjoyed it. Divine force so far has been fun to play and I won't call it my favorite but... it is really good once you get that groove using the chain and duma for attacks
Best girls: Myuria, Fiore and Elena. Reimi and Malkya solid.
Same List bro🤤❤
The series has its peaks and valleys, but my answer? Yes, abso-bally-lutely.
I agree.....second story not for beginner,a already fighting last boss but my level it's need leveling up again about 5-7 more love.and then I'm not already finish yet that game😪
Star Ocean Second Story R (Nintendo Switch) will be released on November 2 2023 for Nintendo's SWITCH ❤
I played 3 almost all the way through and i agree its DEFINITELY not a beginner friendly game but i feel its minigames are the big drawback to me. Still its also a HUGE game being one of the games that takes 2 discs originally for ps2 but for what its worth its a very fun game to play and theres also a vs mode. But now that second story AND first departure are on switch i just pray that end of time gets it to though i imagine itd be one of the BIGGEST games storage wise.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope is also on PC via Steam
It is for the first 2 the games after that kind of started to suck in this current 6th SO game Divine Force while it doesn't suck I still hate the Skill tree's system + being FORCED to do Welch's quests just to UNLOCK any of the 7 item creations in game I prefer IC to be similar to the first 2 games IE buy the skill books at the guild shops then spend the SP afterwards.
i'm currently playing star ocean integrity and faithlessness, and then after star ocean the divine force, 1st game i played in the series from what i remember was the ps2 game, the series is ok but the stories can be a bit slow
star ocean 2 is the best (played ps1 version, though some spell anims are waaay too long for reg battle, presuming/hoping it's fixed in remake. Do like this VA the best)
3 had some good moments, but an annoying break bug with Maria? multi hit gun flashing/flickering when multihitting yet not breaking an enemy (presumably if a remake occurs they fix this)
4 was fun combat, pretty so so story
and it seems to have fallen off a cliff since
the so2 remake looks amazing. Preordered and quite looking forward to it
I never noticed until i saw the photo for the video result that the games alternate between having a dark haired protagonist and a blond protagonist with each game.
You should do this for more series!
thanks for a great video. I really wanna try the new game, but it's a bit too expensive for me right now, so yeah, waiting for it to go on sale 👍
Go ahead and wait for it on sale. Im playing it and my honest opinion is its a game that can wait for a good discount
You forgot to mention The Last Hope remaster is also on Steam.
i played star ocean 2, but my PSX burn in pieces when i hit the battle arena in the other continent i think. I barely remember, but was rlly fun.
Square said to be vocal if we want 2 outside Japan.
Like right after going "Japan by itself is no longer enough to make money.".
:|
So yeah, go bug the shit out of them for it.
Last hope and till the end of time where my favorite 2 pretty good as well
Star Ocean The Last Hope was my first Star Ocean game & loved it, even recommended it to my sister & she enjoyed it too. Only played Integrity & Faithlessness once & have bothered since, currently playing The Divine Force & have been enjoying it so far
11 minutes? I think that's the longest "yes" in history.
The Second Story absolutely is NOT a grind fest, and rather easy to beat. I had never played an action rpg when I first played it, and literally button mashed my way to the end credits. If you want to tackle the hidden dungeon, or fight a super version of the end boss, yeah, it gets grindy and hard, otherwise you're fine.
I think the one thing missing form this is a just a breakdown of where and how to play each title. Otherwise, good list.
If you have a PS4 you can play all of them except SO2 (a Japanese version is on their PS Store weirdly enough).
I like every star ocean except 5. They are all good. Stsr Ocean 2 is my favorite. Star Ocean 4 combat is my favorite.
I never understood why people would gripe about magic interrupting combat in the first 2 star ocean games, but never mention how the blindside system stops combat too and does it much more often that spells did.
I played SO Second Story a long time ago. Never actually finished it. I was through the first disc so probably halfway through the game. Don't remember why I stopped, but when I tried to pick it up again a couple of years ago, I couldn't get back into it. I don't remember having that much problems with the controls(mostly in combat) when I played the first time, but now I did and it made me die from regular enemies and asking myself how I got through half of the game before.
Picked up SO Till The End of Time for cheap later, but never really played it, because I had mostly stopped using consoles in favor of the PC already. So many older RPGs I never played on console. Playing some of them on steam now, but for some things I might dust off the old consoles someday.
That gbc game looks epic!
My issue with Faithlessness was that it was alot of running around in the same environments. Run to this town back that town just to go back to that town.. I got bored
imo , all those games will be great if added multiplayer / co op mode in battle
Multiplayer cannot redeem The Last Hope's pathetic excuse for a story.
I easily make Last Hope more than 300 hours lol . The best boss post fight Ethereal Queen. Just think in 6 wings. She has 66 million of HP.
I am grateful that I played the star ocean 1 and 2 .. and later get the last hope 🤗
One thing I don't get about the Star Ocean (1) First Departure is why they didn't have the pre rendered backgrounds made at a higher resolution. It is supposed to use the SO2 engine but thet doesn't mean that the backgrounds should be at the same resolution since the psp is capable of better, not to mention the port yo the ps4. So now the game looks blurry when played in a modern tv monitor......
Unequivocally and totally yes. They are my favorite series.
I realise their hair color changes between Blue & Yellow on each new entry is that intentional?