I respect your review. This game got me back into gaming. I put in over 200 hrs into my first playthrough. I loved the action RPG aspect which lead me to the Tales of series. Even though Tales of games are my favorite now, SO3 will always hold a special place in my heart, and in my top 5 JRPG's of all time.
Each person has different prospective. I played all star oceans and 3 is by far the most that I loved. The story from start to the plot twist i enjoyed alot and after the plot twist it was a different experience and made it my favorite of all time. It was very unique and memorable. The gameplay was fast and action paced but also required strategy due to the fury system. Also the attacks were flashy but didn't end up as lights all over the field when battling like SO4 ended up being like. The music is by far the best of motoi. The settings like the beautiful aquaria's capital and the scary and weird of planet styx are examples of how varied the settings are. Anyways SO3 is one of my all time favorite games. If one wants to enjoy it, they need to do so without comparing it the series but as an alone game separate from the series and they will find a Gem. have fun
Great review! Very thorough. I loved this game back in the day but I agree that it was unbearably long. I never did finish it so I hope to revisit this title soon. Thanks for taking the time to do this retrospective. Liked and subbed!
Really liked your Star Ocean retrospective series so far. This game is nostalgic for me, it's the first Star Ocean game I played. But after playing the others The Last Hope has become my personal favourite. Can't wait to check out more videos on your channel.
Great stuff Darren! I had actually heard nothing but good things about this game - so it's great to get your honest review. Definitely a series that I need to explore more of. Really looking forward to the next video. Keep it up bud!
I am 33 years old, have been playing RPGs since the first one released for playstation (wish I had known they existed during my Nintendo days) that being said I've played through the Star Ocean series (including psp games) and put hundreds of hours into this series as I have with my other fav series (FF, BoF, Xenogears etc) and SO3 is def amongst the best I have played. While to date no Star Ocean has topped the flawlessness of Star Ocean 2 which to this date I have played at least a dozen times (really really really like that game) I can't say that Star Ocean 3 was that far behind. The battle system is hands down the best in the series, I literally JUST finished beating star ocean the last hope today for the first time and it felt like I had to force myself to play through it and the battle system just isn't as smooth and engaging as SO3 i could battle for DAYS (and i actually have) in SO3 and the plot twist was fucking MIND BLOWING! Complaining about this huge reveal it's akin to saying Darth Vader shouldn't have been Luke's father "Omg! Such BS from George Lucas" amirite? If you didn't see it coming...and after being such a huge fan of SO2 i sure as hell did not see THAT coming. I was impressed beyond words with the risk the BALLS it took to go there. Just stop and think about that for a minute, do we want games that take risks? Story telling that can genuinely surprise you wether you like the reveal or not? Of course we do! If you complain about this then you are a lame duck that abhors change and wants the kind of story that you can predict from a mile away. Star Ocean 2 had big plot twists too! The game starts so simple yet gets sooo epic and we all love it for it, but it takes minor risks with the story telling nothing there isn't something we havent seen before in another game. Star Ocean 3 literally went where no rpg game has gone before and if you are familiar with the series or even paid attention throughout the game than you can totally see how this is all entirely feasible and makes sense. Do we hate the Matrix? Because it's basically the same concept
Nice video. Really enjoyed it Till the end of time is still the best game I have ever played in my opinion. I dont know what it is about it, but it was probably one of the only games I thoroughly enjoyed since FF7. Wayy back when i played it the first time, when i first found out about the plot twist I believe that I started becoming more engaged in the story than ever before lol The concept that the game portray was something I never even thought of back then and it blew my mindddd
TheGamingPilgrimage, no problem, always glad to leave feedback. Also,@baramos123 I have to agree with you. Wild Arms is sadly forgotten it seems at times, as well of Breath of Fire. Would be cool to see retrospectives of those games. Fire Emblem would be cool too.
I do think this is the best game of the series and I also loved the plot, all of it. The battle system is maybe the best I´ve ever seen (with Baten kaitos maybe), the OST is awesome and I didn't get bored because of its length, I enjoyed every hour before and after beating the game. You didn't talk about the dungeons after beating the game and the tough battles there, which can really be a challenge
i played this game till the 4D space difficulty... and the whole game till the last boss took me around 600h (76% of battle trophies)... it is by far my fav. RPG followed by FF8 on the 2nd place. yes the story is a bit flat but the inventionsystem is awesome and the battles are incredible. i think the mechanic of a game is more important than the story... thats why hack'n'slay or beat'em up games are famous...
It is easily my fav Star Ocean game,and one of the fav jRPGs of all time (apart from Xenosaga). If it comes to the story and plot twist-I'm on it. I t blew my mind and still to this day I think it is one of the most surprising plots in jRPGs. Spent over 1000hours and still don't have all BT's :D my only complaint is VA and Roger as a character. Anyway, SO3 I coming to PS4 as a part of HD classics,so fingers crossed for EU/NA localisation.
Star Ocean 3 was the first game of the series I played and, after playing to 100% completion of every single game in the series, it stands as my favorite. Star Ocean 3's story and overall narrative can not compare at all to the previous installments, but it's combat system and gameplay far outmatch Star Ocean 1 and Star Ocean 2, and are some of the best battle mechanics I've ever seen in any game to date. I will admit that I miss the skill system from 1 and 2, but to people who knew what they were doing, you could easily break the game in a few hours with the skill system, making the entire experience a joke. And most of the combat in 1 and 2 are purely button mashing. While it was interesting how you could manipulate the game with the skill system, such as creating powerful items, stealing unique items from NPCs, or summoning the secret final boss in the game any time you wanted, I don't think it would have made sense in star ocean 3, which is why it was left out. In star Ocean 3, the combat system was no longer a button masher, but instead focused on combos, strategy, and movement. If you just went in spamming x or o, you could easily get through the first 1/3 of the game but you would get your ass handed to you for the rest of the game. Being able to block with the fury gauge, chain skills together for increased damage and risk, being able to hp and mp kill, and control all 3 of your members to different degrees gave the game a stupendous amount of depth, and the better you were the funner the game got. Additionally, while Star Ocean 3 lacked the skill point system of 1 and 2, its item creation far outshined its predecessors, giving you significantly more versatility and freedom. And similar to 1 and 2, if you knew what you were doing, you could easily break the main game with refinement and synthesis. I also didn't find the "plot twist" bad. I rather liked it. They hinted towards it several times before the scene anyways, so it wasn't a deus ex machina like people claim, and the concept was similar to *spoiler* the matrix *end spoiler*. A lot of the cutscenes were just horrible though. I can't defend those. Coupled with the long and awkward animations and the horrendous voice acting of many characters, a lot of the scenes near the end were just unbearable. I felt the voice acting was decent in the beginning, but slowly got worse as the story continued. Fortunately for me, however, I've never really cared for story that much in games, so the faults of the game's narrative don't bother me at all.
I wanted to like this, but i got stuck because i couldn't buy any more healing potions because the stores ran out of the materials to make them. I really didn't understand the crafting and merchant system, and i couldn't find any other way to heal during battle. I got to a medieval themed planet, with short gnomish inhabitants, but the enemies were too tough to handle without any healing potions...
i believe this game is one of the best rpg's ever....and this game was the reason i gotten into rpg's...yes this game is long ass hell with 20-30 minute cut scenes and it had nearly zero replay-ability but i loved every hour
I think the big plot twist isn't what most people say, there seems to be a lot of hints in the indexes, the environment, and some some dialogue that indicate that it actually isn't even true, but that a certain final boss was a prolific liar and that everyone around him didn't understand the lie. I think that there's tons more potential stories that are very interesting that can be set in this series, tri-ace just needs to actually make an attempt instead of this prequel crap.
I actually thought the twist at the end was kinda cool. I guess looking back at it, it's a bit silly, but I didn't see it coming at ALL when I first played. I was pretty shocked.
I actually really like this game. After playing Final Fantasy 7,8,9,10 I gave Star ocean a chance. I was browsing through games to buy and came upon Star Ocean. I seen that it was made by square enix. So I thought I would give it a try. I will agree with you the beginning is dragging but once you get past all that the game becomes really fun. I also love the battle system in this game. It kind of makes me wanna see it again in new upcoming games. It wasn't hard for me at all to transition from motionless battle to moving around and using each character at your will. I also love the setup of the skills you can use. As long as you can remember what skills you put for what. It's a walk in the park. So for you to say that is difficult. Is very surprising to me. I don't play a lot of games and I was easily able to figure out this one. I played FF12 thinking the battle system would be the same way maybe But as soon as I found it was not. I was skeptical. I played through as much as I could bear with 12 but couldn't handle the frustration of the game. So I quit 12. But as I was saying I really love this game.
This was my very first RPG, I picked it up solely because of the Boxart❤ I love this game to death, I am surprised you didn’t comment on the fact that the audio balancing is god-awful in places and there are hardly any audio settings that matter, I don’t know what you were talking about when you said that some of the voice acting is grating- I guess this game is just too endearing and nostalgic for me to notice flaws like that, there is only one character in the entire game that had it a voice that I could not believe but now I can’t imagine her with any other voice❤ it’s like they forced one of the voice actors. They already had doing someone else to do another voice because they didn’t want to hire someone else.😂 I haven’t played the first two games either
You know, while I was playing the game, I had a feeling that it was not complete. A good example is the region of Greeton, which you can never access. I think there were more inaccessible places, but it was probably due to the size of content, which in the end was loaded into 2 dvds.
Star ocean 3 is my favorite RPG all time. I lost the plot twist it’s so meta now. I love the characters, the special moves are amazing too. Breaking the game and the customization is amazing. I have put over 250 hours into it multiple times the post game dungeons are awesome too I love star ocean 2 but 3 for me is where it is at.
This is my first Star Ocean game and I totally scour the whole place having 600+ hours of play but I'm sad that I didn't have the save game anymore since the PS2 was my brother's and it was sold by his Ex. I was kinda disappointed on "The Matrix" game and that with SO3 plot twist... (man) was that what I wanted a story to go? Man I was so deeply touch when the group finally went to the "other side" (did I just spoiled that for you guys who haven't played it yet? Sorry) all the pain and suffering they went through and some kid explained everything to you like "hey! your that guy! this is cool! wanna know more? come to my house, sit back, sip a tea and I'll tell you everything" it's just nuts for me. The next time I tried a Star Ocean game was on PS3 and boy I don't ever recall everything in that game (seriously if I play it through and even watching youtube videos about it, it's just so immemorable to me). So earlier this year I started Star Ocean on an emulator to scale the game to 4K resolution (not the best but at least no jagged edges ^_^) and man did I forgot about stamina haha (that era of gameshark/codebreaker stuff back in the day HA!!! no wonder I didn't remember me having this much stamina managing playing this game and now plays like a new game to me hehehe). I just loved farming and doing item creation on this game this alone skyrocket my gameplay hours to the roof I was addicted (then the PS2 was gone -_-). Thank you for this review. Hope you make more contents about past games we love back in the day. Keep up the good work!
There are 2 more things that dragged the pacing of the game down: crafting and map completion. Crafting requires recruiting artisans that the game gives no clue where they are, and they are bound to guilds of specific cities. You can swap them between guilds but in order to craft with them, you have to go to that city specifically, which takes up to 10 minutes to do because there's no world map. Map completion takes a deceptively long time. It's not enough that you have to reveal the visible parts of the maps, some off-the-bound of the traversable zone has visibility too, so you have to always run near the edges of the maps to get some extra fractions of percent to get 100% map completion. Sometimes there's a corner that you may miss when you've reached 99.7% completion, and finding that last nook and cranny is a pain.
The only downside about Star Ocean 3(for me at least), was getting a "KO" if my MP reached 0. Hated that game design choice........................and I liked it at the same time.........go figure lol. Good review!
the first and really, the only game i played in the series. I love sci-fi and spent hours reading the explanations on the communicator. I loved the plot twist it was just so crazy and replaying the game i think it hints to it loads in really little ways like how the main character loves to play in the simulator. Then it turns out a kid in the 4th dimension loves playing on his "sim" game as a WW2 pilot and stuff. Absolutely great game!
Played this game accidentally as it was bought as a present because it has the square logo on it, they thought it was an FF related game. Just bought it again on the PS4 and it is actually just as good as I remember. I've never played the other star ocean games so I have no way to compare but this game as a standalone playthrough is excellent. The only criticism I can agree with is the higher pitched voice acting. Everything else, even the plot twist, as a 15 year old this did blow my mind.
Another great review as always Darren! The combat in this one looks particularly good so I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for it :p can't wait for the next one!
I'm so disappointed in young me. I played this game and loved it when I was a kid. I remember I had to find this area to move on to the next disc and for the life of me I couldn't find it after looking for hours and hours and eventually just gave up and never picked it up ever again. Totally Forgot it even existed until right now and that was over a decade ago.
You nailed it with this review. As a huge SO fan, the plot twist killed it for me. I really enjoyed it up until that point, however. I don't remember being annoyed by the voice acting. Still think Second Story has the best soundtrack.
Did you play the Shadow Hearts series or the predecessor Koudelka? Awesome games in my opinion, would love to hear you talk about them. Also, just have to say that this channel is awesome, I love your reviews can't wait for more!
For me this is the best created story in a game. While playing you will feel the story.. what mostly affected me is when they knew that they where only a computer simulation or program i nearly got tears that time.
Yeah its hard to deny that story didn't take a dive off a cliff, but I found the gameplay was enjoyable enough to carry me through the rest of the game. It also had some really solid post game content with the bonus dungeons and bosses, which was kind of rare thing for console games at the time beyond a new game plus.
I found this channel through retroware tv, and I have to say that i love your reviews, sir. Any ideas on what retrospective you'll do after Star Ocean? I think Ys would be interesting, or the "Xeno" series of games. Keep up the awesome work.
I have all of the US releases of this series; however, this was the only one I have finished. I remember enjoying it, but thought it was incredibly difficult, even on normal difficulty. I remember beating it and not attempting the post-game content. I also did not the twist on the origin of the Star Ocean universe.
This is the best game in the series in my opinion, with second story being a close second. I also don't like THAT story twist, but aside from that it's an amazing game, one of my top 20 favorite games of all time
This was the first one i played and i loved the hell out of it! Its last parts hit me really hard l..... danm
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I really love this review but I'd make for better viewing if you take a small pause between paragraphs. It feels like you're rushing through your review a bit.
I'm absolutely loving your videos man! Working my way through Star Ocean 3 right now! Can't quite decide whether I like it or not. Have you ever thought about doing a retrospective for Final Fantasy or Shin Megami Tensei?
Not a horrible game, but a disappointing experience after playing The Second Story. Perhaps if this was my first entry in the series, I would have enjoyed it more, although the twist still would of annoyed me as it kind of invalidates the urgency and importance of the other entries in the series.
I value the characters and their interactions with each other more than anything in a JRPG. Will this game appeal to someone who enjoys Tales and Fire Emblem for the same reasons? Will there be a lot of depth to explore in the characters?
the characters have a bit of depth, nothing to far out of their shells though. but the twist god the twist sucks, and when it happens you will know XD. the gameplay is amazing though
I have not played this game but I know the plot twist. I _have_ played Metal Gear Solid 2, which had a likewise 'postmodern' plot twist, which, while, not comprehended at the time, has now solidified it as the best in the mind of fans, critics, and even academics (there is extensive analysis of MGS2). In short, the game is a masterpiece, and while it was never 'hated', now the dislike of the narrative is pretty much nonexistent and it is recognised as the greatest postmodern game, far above BioShock and Specs Ops: The Line and even philosophically ahead of its time, predicting the effect now known as 'The Filter Bubble' (a great book by Eli Pariser, by the way). So perhaps the plot twist here was actually very intelligent, and people expecting a bog-standard JRPG story ought to be positively surprised? Or maybe it's making a greater point of some variety? Again, I haven't played this game but I wonder if it's been misinterpreted as MGS2 originally was.
I agree about the plot twist. This was the first Star Ocean I played, and I could not bring myself to do another one after it. The game effectively goes "that 20 hours you just spent on that planet...were POINTLESS!!!" This peeved me off, and then if that wasn't enough the game goes all Matrix on you with the stupid 4D beings plot twist (which I won't talk much more about because of spoilers). The games was fine is most other areas, but for me this plot has gone down as one of worst JRPG plots Iv'e ever experienced, and in a JRPG the plot is a really big part of the game for me. A friend gave me the fourth game for free (he just got tired of it), and I did like this games battle system well enough so I'll probably try it at some point.
I haven't played 1 & 2 but I really really enjoyed Star Ocean 3. The voice acting was great (Albel voiced by Crispin Freeman), the battle system very fluid, the storyline was slow in the first half of Disc 1 but from the second half it gets better, the graphics are on point for a ps2 title. Collecting battle trophies is like having xbox's achievements on playstation, also I don't know why people say that the plot twist ruined the game personally it had such a huge impact on me. You should have also mentioned the post-game content which makes it very entertaining for someone who has finished the main story. There are of course flaws such as the terrible "loading data from disc" and one I've encountered that corrupts the save file unable to load, but I've learned to outsmart them. P.S: Now seeing Star Ocean 4 videos I can say I find the voice acting in it VERY annoying and I couldn't get affection for any of the characters, the game tried so hard to be "anime" it doesn't fit well for a game.
I honestly like this title in the series. I had it years ago and made it to the 2nd disc I believe and then sold it. (I dunno why...I guess I was a different beast back then lol.) And probably a year ago I got it again, made it to that stupid turtle race thingy ma bob through the tunnels, and gave up on it for the time being because an FAQ I was following wasn't helping any.. I dunno how I managed to get through it the first time when I had the game.
The plot twist wasn't even that bad. If you actually read the codex stuff in the game it could be said that it isn't even true. IDK why Tri-Ace thinks they can't write themselves out of it when Yoko Taro writes his fantasy series into a sci-fi series, it just takes a little bit of creativity.
I really like your reviews. You manage to adress both negative and positive aspects, which is something most other reviewers seem to be incapable of doing. SPOILER ALERT! THIS COMMENT ADRESSES A PLOT HOLE! I don't quite know what to think of So3 though. While I did enjoy playing it for the most part, I was really disappointed about the game looking not just relatively bad for a PS2 game but also kind of unfinished. There are so many things that just don't make real sense and which never were explained. For example: Why did Ameena look like Sophia? I expected some really crazy explanation, but was let down. Here's another one: Why did Luther not possess absolute power over the 3D universe? Personally, I believe he was not the creator. There is a theory that states Luther found the 3D universe by means of advanced technology and interfered with it rather than creating it, which would make much more sense. The whole point why Luther attacked the 3D universe was that he was scared of eventually being attacked and overpowered by it. However, if he were the creator, he could just erase symbology altogether, which he didn't. But then again, that's just a fan theory. The gameplay and the music were great though. But the AAAs were a real pain in the ass :D
So the reveal trailer for Star Ocean 5 really hyped me for this game's storyline. I knew all along that there is a plot twist that can ruin the game for the player... And some interviewer just spoiled it to me. I hate him.
I never played any of the star ocean games. It seems the latest entries are some of the worst in the series (integrity and faithlessness, the last hope). I'm looking to see how far back I have to go to find a good one. Maybe this is the one? Or should I go back even further to The Second Story?
I absolutely adore this game and it joins Grandia 2, Tales of Symphonia, Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy 9 as my favorite RPGS of all time. Granted, I agree with you about the halfway point and the plot twist is a little too ambitious and the game does drag on once the plot twist is revealed. I still love it though because the gameplay, the soundtrack, and the side quests keep it fun. Some of the characters are entertaining but I think three to four characters could have been done without. You're right about the extremity of the dungeons. The worst one is that shrine after you get past the desert. HATED IIIITTTT
For the most part, I agree with you through and through.. flaws and all. I may have grown up playing this game, spending limitless amounts of hours and just enjoying the game with it's battle mechanics. I can agree that Tri-Ace is not very good at story telling when it comes to 3 and 4. I love the lure for SO3, that dives many many many information about anything you need to know. I won't lie, I enjoyed the story for the most part, but I felt that the characters lacked the interactions with one another. It this game had a better narrative and slightly better plot setups I could argue that it would be much better.
Ys or Xenogears/saga would be good some good ones to check out as megamanfan1500 suggested. Personally I would like to see something like Breath of Fire or the Wild Arms series as I never see them covered much that being said Dragon Quest or the Mana series would also be good choices in my book. Keep up the good work.
I really love this game the plot twist did shock me I mean yeah it kind of ruined a few things in the serious but even after the plot twist the game is still epic even up until the final battle.
I absolutely loved this game. I got this and Tales of Symphonia around the same time and I couldn't stop playing either of them. I must be one of the few that enjoyed the plot twist just because it was so unexpected and the crafting system more than made up for the lack of the skills system, I'm shocked you never mentioned it because if you play the game right you'll be crafting a lot. The ending was terrible though.
SOTET is my favorite game of the series due to it actually exploring the universe part of the game. It definitely feels like a Star Trek like jrpg because the story takes place within much of the Star Ocean. I like the UP3 dynamic and it actually makes you wonder if there are worlds with developing civilization on them that are either more or less advanced than our own. I never liked how the first two games confined the story to one planet. I did like where the story went for philosophical and theoretical reasons. But my most hated aspect of this game are the fucking dungeons! Good GOD! I hated that many of them took anywhere between two to three hours to complete. On some nights, that's my entire allowed playtime. The nagging map completion percentage didn't help either. I think it only extended dungeon exploration when dungeons were already long and drawn out in the first place. I would recommend a guide for anyone who hasn't played this game so you can skip all the useless treasure and seek out only the useful treasure. I love this game, but it's not something that will encourage you to play it more than maybe once a decade. I've had this game for 11 years now and only played it through twice.
100% agree with that the plot twist ruined the story for me. I was enjoying it and got invested in the characters up until that point. This was my 1st (and only) SO, it didn't encourage me to play the previous ones.
I didn't know it had a verses mode. Wikipedia says it's only the 'Directors cut' which had it, supposedly the PS4 includes the directors cut content but I can't confirm that. Sorry.
I often wonder why developers feel they are doing us a favor giving us super long games. Make more end-game/side content. If we like your game, we'll do it all. If we don't like it, we'll move on and you still get our $60.
I really like this game but would agree with you that it's pacing is off but one thing I hated about this game is that you can die by have 0 mp wtf your mp never really reaches that high and alot of enemies use mp draining attacks following up with you using your skills that can use hp or mp so you'd be dead pretty quickly in some dungeons with that mechanic glad they didn't carry that over good review by the way
a huge issue both this game and 4 has are cutscenes that go on way to long and have very poor paceing. i remember i started to stop caring during the sequence of scenes right before you meet nell as it was takeing way to long.
I for one didn't enjoy this game, I sold it back to a store before I could finish it, but I can also see why some might enjoy it, just not my cup of tea.
The game is quite addictive in its overhauled battle system. It no longer a button masher but instead a button holder. i respect that. The story is definitely not as interesting as the second one IMO. And the Character wasn't as interesting for me. Although now they seemed to be a bit better than few extra lines here and there, it still lacking somewhat. My main problem with the series starts from this one. The character is very very generic Anime type. You get the klutz, love-hate person, Cool silent, etc. Even though the previous title do have this traits as well, but since they aren't as lengthy with their talks, It manage to hide it from me. Overall I found the long cutscene as a distraction from their key strength (battle system) and unfortunately they aren't as good as MGS which make it heavily critizised.
I respect your review. This game got me back into gaming. I put in over 200 hrs into my first playthrough. I loved the action RPG aspect which lead me to the Tales of series. Even though Tales of games are my favorite now, SO3 will always hold a special place in my heart, and in my top 5 JRPG's of all time.
Agreed man
you got your money out of this game..
Each person has different prospective. I played all star oceans and 3 is by far the most that I loved. The story from start to the plot twist i enjoyed alot and after the plot twist it was a different experience and made it my favorite of all time. It was very unique and memorable. The gameplay was fast and action paced but also required strategy due to the fury system. Also the attacks were flashy but didn't end up as lights all over the field when battling like SO4 ended up being like. The music is by far the best of motoi. The settings like the beautiful aquaria's capital and the scary and weird of planet styx are examples of how varied the settings are. Anyways SO3 is one of my all time favorite games. If one wants to enjoy it, they need to do so without comparing it the series but as an alone game separate from the series and they will find a Gem.
have fun
Agreed!
Second one is amazing in its own right. I loved "3". :p
Underrated Channel, man you need more views so glad to help out.
Great review! Very thorough. I loved this game back in the day but I agree that it was unbearably long. I never did finish it so I hope to revisit this title soon. Thanks for taking the time to do this retrospective. Liked and subbed!
Really liked your Star Ocean retrospective series so far. This game is nostalgic for me, it's the first Star Ocean game I played. But after playing the others The Last Hope has become my personal favourite. Can't wait to check out more videos on your channel.
Great stuff Darren! I had actually heard nothing but good things about this game - so it's great to get your honest review. Definitely a series that I need to explore more of. Really looking forward to the next video. Keep it up bud!
damn i'm glad that i've found this channel.. very informative and well written !
Interesting.... just about every one of your criticisms is a plus for me! haha.
I am 33 years old, have been playing RPGs since the first one released for playstation (wish I had known they existed during my Nintendo days) that being said I've played through the Star Ocean series (including psp games) and put hundreds of hours into this series as I have with my other fav series (FF, BoF, Xenogears etc) and SO3 is def amongst the best I have played. While to date no Star Ocean has topped the flawlessness of Star Ocean 2 which to this date I have played at least a dozen times (really really really like that game) I can't say that Star Ocean 3 was that far behind. The battle system is hands down the best in the series, I literally JUST finished beating star ocean the last hope today for the first time and it felt like I had to force myself to play through it and the battle system just isn't as smooth and engaging as SO3 i could battle for DAYS (and i actually have) in SO3 and the plot twist was fucking MIND BLOWING! Complaining about this huge reveal it's akin to saying Darth Vader shouldn't have been Luke's father "Omg! Such BS from George Lucas" amirite? If you didn't see it coming...and after being such a huge fan of SO2 i sure as hell did not see THAT coming. I was impressed beyond words with the risk the BALLS it took to go there. Just stop and think about that for a minute, do we want games that take risks? Story telling that can genuinely surprise you wether you like the reveal or not? Of course we do! If you complain about this then you are a lame duck that abhors change and wants the kind of story that you can predict from a mile away. Star Ocean 2 had big plot twists too! The game starts so simple yet gets sooo epic and we all love it for it, but it takes minor risks with the story telling nothing there isn't something we havent seen before in another game. Star Ocean 3 literally went where no rpg game has gone before and if you are familiar with the series or even paid attention throughout the game than you can totally see how this is all entirely feasible and makes sense. Do we hate the Matrix? Because it's basically the same concept
Nice video. Really enjoyed it
Till the end of time is still the best game I have ever played in my opinion.
I dont know what it is about it, but it was probably one of the only games I thoroughly enjoyed since FF7.
Wayy back when i played it the first time, when i first found out about the plot twist I believe that I started becoming more engaged in the story than ever before lol
The concept that the game portray was something I never even thought of back then and it blew my mindddd
TheGamingPilgrimage, no problem, always glad to leave feedback. Also,@baramos123 I have to agree with you. Wild Arms is sadly forgotten it seems at times, as well of Breath of Fire. Would be cool to see retrospectives of those games. Fire Emblem would be cool too.
I do think this is the best game of the series and I also loved the plot, all of it. The battle system is maybe the best I´ve ever seen (with Baten kaitos maybe), the OST is awesome and I didn't get bored because of its length, I enjoyed every hour before and after beating the game. You didn't talk about the dungeons after beating the game and the tough battles there, which can really be a challenge
My main problem with Star Ocean 3, MP deaths. Dying because your MP hits zero was just freaking stupid in my opinion.
it’s a god awful game mechanic, but disregarding this, the combat is freaking incredible.
i played this game till the 4D space difficulty... and the whole game till the last boss took me around 600h (76% of battle trophies)... it is by far my fav. RPG followed by FF8 on the 2nd place. yes the story is a bit flat but the inventionsystem is awesome and the battles are incredible. i think the mechanic of a game is more important than the story... thats why hack'n'slay or beat'em up games are famous...
It is easily my fav Star Ocean game,and one of the fav jRPGs of all time (apart from Xenosaga). If it comes to the story and plot twist-I'm on it. I t blew my mind and still to this day I think it is one of the most surprising plots in jRPGs. Spent over 1000hours and still don't have all BT's :D my only complaint is VA and Roger as a character. Anyway, SO3 I coming to PS4 as a part of HD classics,so fingers crossed for EU/NA localisation.
S. Sz. It's on sale right now on EU store - only 16 bucks. :-)
Ehhh. Hack and Slash/Beat em Up games may be famous, but unfortunately aren't done many times unlike, say, your average turn based JRPGs.
Yea, i never liked turn based gameplay.
One of the Best game I've played on the ps2
Star Ocean 3 was the first game of the series I played and, after playing to 100% completion of every single game in the series, it stands as my favorite.
Star Ocean 3's story and overall narrative can not compare at all to the previous installments, but it's combat system and gameplay far outmatch Star Ocean 1 and Star Ocean 2, and are some of the best battle mechanics I've ever seen in any game to date.
I will admit that I miss the skill system from 1 and 2, but to people who knew what they were doing, you could easily break the game in a few hours with the skill system, making the entire experience a joke. And most of the combat in 1 and 2 are purely button mashing. While it was interesting how you could manipulate the game with the skill system, such as creating powerful items, stealing unique items from NPCs, or summoning the secret final boss in the game any time you wanted, I don't think it would have made sense in star ocean 3, which is why it was left out.
In star Ocean 3, the combat system was no longer a button masher, but instead focused on combos, strategy, and movement. If you just went in spamming x or o, you could easily get through the first 1/3 of the game but you would get your ass handed to you for the rest of the game. Being able to block with the fury gauge, chain skills together for increased damage and risk, being able to hp and mp kill, and control all 3 of your members to different degrees gave the game a stupendous amount of depth, and the better you were the funner the game got.
Additionally, while Star Ocean 3 lacked the skill point system of 1 and 2, its item creation far outshined its predecessors, giving you significantly more versatility and freedom. And similar to 1 and 2, if you knew what you were doing, you could easily break the main game with refinement and synthesis.
I also didn't find the "plot twist" bad. I rather liked it. They hinted towards it several times before the scene anyways, so it wasn't a deus ex machina like people claim, and the concept was similar to *spoiler* the matrix *end spoiler*.
A lot of the cutscenes were just horrible though. I can't defend those. Coupled with the long and awkward animations and the horrendous voice acting of many characters, a lot of the scenes near the end were just unbearable. I felt the voice acting was decent in the beginning, but slowly got worse as the story continued. Fortunately for me, however, I've never really cared for story that much in games, so the faults of the game's narrative don't bother me at all.
i really like this game,i don't understand why its so widely disliked oh well everyone's entitled to there opinion
I wanted to like this, but i got stuck because i couldn't buy any more healing potions because the stores ran out of the materials to make them. I really didn't understand the crafting and merchant system, and i couldn't find any other way to heal during battle. I got to a medieval themed planet, with short gnomish inhabitants, but the enemies were too tough to handle without any healing potions...
i believe this game is one of the best rpg's ever....and this game was the reason i gotten into rpg's...yes this game is long ass hell with 20-30 minute cut scenes and it had nearly zero replay-ability but i loved every hour
I'm surprised you didn't mention the end game unlock which turns the game into a fighting game with all the playable characters.
I think the big plot twist isn't what most people say, there seems to be a lot of hints in the indexes, the environment, and some some dialogue that indicate that it actually isn't even true, but that a certain final boss was a prolific liar and that everyone around him didn't understand the lie. I think that there's tons more potential stories that are very interesting that can be set in this series, tri-ace just needs to actually make an attempt instead of this prequel crap.
I actually thought the twist at the end was kinda cool. I guess looking back at it, it's a bit silly, but I didn't see it coming at ALL when I first played. I was pretty shocked.
How about Valkyrie Profile? :D
I actually really like this game. After playing Final Fantasy 7,8,9,10 I gave Star ocean a chance. I was browsing through games to buy and came upon Star Ocean. I seen that it was made by square enix. So I thought I would give it a try. I will agree with you the beginning is dragging but once you get past all that the game becomes really fun. I also love the battle system in this game. It kind of makes me wanna see it again in new upcoming games. It wasn't hard for me at all to transition from motionless battle to moving around and using each character at your will. I also love the setup of the skills you can use. As long as you can remember what skills you put for what. It's a walk in the park. So for you to say that is difficult. Is very surprising to me. I don't play a lot of games and I was easily able to figure out this one. I played FF12 thinking the battle system would be the same way maybe But as soon as I found it was not. I was skeptical. I played through as much as I could bear with 12 but couldn't handle the frustration of the game. So I quit 12. But as I was saying I really love this game.
This was my very first RPG, I picked it up solely because of the Boxart❤ I love this game to death, I am surprised you didn’t comment on the fact that the audio balancing is god-awful in places and there are hardly any audio settings that matter, I don’t know what you were talking about when you said that some of the voice acting is grating- I guess this game is just too endearing and nostalgic for me to notice flaws like that, there is only one character in the entire game that had it a voice that I could not believe but now I can’t imagine her with any other voice❤ it’s like they forced one of the voice actors. They already had doing someone else to do another voice because they didn’t want to hire someone else.😂
I haven’t played the first two games either
I personally loved the plot twist of this game
You should do a retrospective on the Xenogears/Xenosaga series.
NO BODY CARES ABOUT THOSE FOOLISH GAMES!
@@awakenedsoul2638 Speak for yourself
@@technomage6736
Like I said nobody cares about those games.
@@awakenedsoul2638 lol well worded argument
@@PringePie
ha ha
This was my first game in the Star ocean series when was about nine 8 and i fucking loved it! :)
You know, while I was playing the game, I had a feeling that it was not complete. A good example is the region of Greeton, which you can never access. I think there were more inaccessible places, but it was probably due to the size of content, which in the end was loaded into 2 dvds.
Star ocean 3 is my favorite RPG all time. I lost the plot twist it’s so meta now. I love the characters, the special moves are amazing too. Breaking the game and the customization is amazing. I have put over 250 hours into it multiple times the post game dungeons are awesome too I love star ocean 2 but 3 for me is where it is at.
This is my first Star Ocean game and I totally scour the whole place having 600+ hours of play but I'm sad that I didn't have the save game anymore since the PS2 was my brother's and it was sold by his Ex. I was kinda disappointed on "The Matrix" game and that with SO3 plot twist... (man) was that what I wanted a story to go? Man I was so deeply touch when the group finally went to the "other side" (did I just spoiled that for you guys who haven't played it yet? Sorry) all the pain and suffering they went through and some kid explained everything to you like "hey! your that guy! this is cool! wanna know more? come to my house, sit back, sip a tea and I'll tell you everything" it's just nuts for me. The next time I tried a Star Ocean game was on PS3 and boy I don't ever recall everything in that game (seriously if I play it through and even watching youtube videos about it, it's just so immemorable to me). So earlier this year I started Star Ocean on an emulator to scale the game to 4K resolution (not the best but at least no jagged edges ^_^) and man did I forgot about stamina haha (that era of gameshark/codebreaker stuff back in the day HA!!! no wonder I didn't remember me having this much stamina managing playing this game and now plays like a new game to me hehehe). I just loved farming and doing item creation on this game this alone skyrocket my gameplay hours to the roof I was addicted (then the PS2 was gone -_-). Thank you for this review. Hope you make more contents about past games we love back in the day. Keep up the good work!
There are 2 more things that dragged the pacing of the game down: crafting and map completion.
Crafting requires recruiting artisans that the game gives no clue where they are, and they are bound to guilds of specific cities. You can swap them between guilds but in order to craft with them, you have to go to that city specifically, which takes up to 10 minutes to do because there's no world map.
Map completion takes a deceptively long time. It's not enough that you have to reveal the visible parts of the maps, some off-the-bound of the traversable zone has visibility too, so you have to always run near the edges of the maps to get some extra fractions of percent to get 100% map completion. Sometimes there's a corner that you may miss when you've reached 99.7% completion, and finding that last nook and cranny is a pain.
big plot twist: youre just a computer simulation
not trolling
The only downside about Star Ocean 3(for me at least), was getting a "KO" if my MP reached 0. Hated that game design choice........................and I liked it at the same time.........go figure lol.
Good review!
the first and really, the only game i played in the series. I love sci-fi and spent hours reading the explanations on the communicator. I loved the plot twist it was just so crazy and replaying the game i think it hints to it loads in really little ways like how the main character loves to play in the simulator. Then it turns out a kid in the 4th dimension loves playing on his "sim" game as a WW2 pilot and stuff. Absolutely great game!
Played this game accidentally as it was bought as a present because it has the square logo on it, they thought it was an FF related game. Just bought it again on the PS4 and it is actually just as good as I remember. I've never played the other star ocean games so I have no way to compare but this game as a standalone playthrough is excellent. The only criticism I can agree with is the higher pitched voice acting. Everything else, even the plot twist, as a 15 year old this did blow my mind.
Another great review as always Darren! The combat in this one looks particularly good so I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for it :p can't wait for the next one!
I'm so disappointed in young me. I played this game and loved it when I was a kid. I remember I had to find this area to move on to the next disc and for the life of me I couldn't find it after looking for hours and hours and eventually just gave up and never picked it up ever again. Totally Forgot it even existed until right now and that was over a decade ago.
till the end of time >>>>.>>>>>>>>>Last hope.
tilll the end of time is still mediocre at best.
@@megamike15 hahahahaha Last hope was garbage.
@Shaman Xeed Yaw.
@@raulrojas9253 none of the star ocean games after 2 are any good.
Great job but I have a question what party member is the one you don't like?
You nailed it with this review. As a huge SO fan, the plot twist killed it for me. I really enjoyed it up until that point, however. I don't remember being annoyed by the voice acting. Still think Second Story has the best soundtrack.
Did you play the Shadow Hearts series or the predecessor Koudelka? Awesome games in my opinion, would love to hear you talk about them. Also, just have to say that this channel is awesome, I love your reviews can't wait for more!
Thanks! I actually haven't played any of the Shadow Hearts games yet but I plan to this summer.
For me this is the best created story in a game. While playing you will feel the story.. what mostly affected me is when they knew that they where only a computer simulation or program i nearly got tears that time.
Chrono trigger would like to know your location.
Yeah its hard to deny that story didn't take a dive off a cliff, but I found the gameplay was enjoyable enough to carry me through the rest of the game. It also had some really solid post game content with the bonus dungeons and bosses, which was kind of rare thing for console games at the time beyond a new game plus.
I found this channel through retroware tv, and I have to say that i love your reviews, sir. Any ideas on what retrospective you'll do after Star Ocean? I think Ys would be interesting, or the "Xeno" series of games. Keep up the awesome work.
Hey thanks, means a lot to hear that! I am open to doing any series for the next retrospective and I am also I fan of both the Ys and Xeno series.
I have all of the US releases of this series; however, this was the only one I have finished. I remember enjoying it, but thought it was incredibly difficult, even on normal difficulty. I remember beating it and not attempting the post-game content. I also did not the twist on the origin of the Star Ocean universe.
This is the best game in the series in my opinion, with second story being a close second. I also don't like THAT story twist, but aside from that it's an amazing game, one of my top 20 favorite games of all time
1 word, "MATRIX".
This game made me question reality as a 13 year old. In 2021 I worry this game was a 4th wall breaking piece of our simulation
This was the first one i played and i loved the hell out of it! Its last parts hit me really hard l..... danm
I really love this review but I'd make for better viewing if you take a small pause between paragraphs. It feels like you're rushing through your review a bit.
This game can now be downloaded on PSN
SO3 was my first StarOcean. in my fav. i wish they would put all the games on steam.. but i played them all 70 times over.. 100%
This one is the best Star Ocean in my view aswell. The ps1 I enjoyed aswell
I'm absolutely loving your videos man! Working my way through Star Ocean 3 right now! Can't quite decide whether I like it or not. Have you ever thought about doing a retrospective for Final Fantasy or Shin Megami Tensei?
does anyone know if this is for PS3 also has like a digital download or something
Not a horrible game, but a disappointing experience after playing The Second Story. Perhaps if this was my first entry in the series, I would have enjoyed it more, although the twist still would of annoyed me as it kind of invalidates the urgency and importance of the other entries in the series.
I value the characters and their interactions with each other more than anything in a JRPG. Will this game appeal to someone who enjoys Tales and Fire Emblem for the same reasons? Will there be a lot of depth to explore in the characters?
the characters have a bit of depth, nothing to far out of their shells though. but the twist god the twist sucks, and when it happens you will know XD. the gameplay is amazing though
Giga Man tales and this game have same creators if you like tales, you like this too
One of my favorite game of all time.
I have not played this game but I know the plot twist.
I _have_ played Metal Gear Solid 2, which had a likewise 'postmodern' plot twist, which, while, not comprehended at the time, has now solidified it as the best in the mind of fans, critics, and even academics (there is extensive analysis of MGS2). In short, the game is a masterpiece, and while it was never 'hated', now the dislike of the narrative is pretty much nonexistent and it is recognised as the greatest postmodern game, far above BioShock and Specs Ops: The Line and even philosophically ahead of its time, predicting the effect now known as 'The Filter Bubble' (a great book by Eli Pariser, by the way).
So perhaps the plot twist here was actually very intelligent, and people expecting a bog-standard JRPG story ought to be positively surprised? Or maybe it's making a greater point of some variety? Again, I haven't played this game but I wonder if it's been misinterpreted as MGS2 originally was.
+johnanth nah man, ppl didnt like it cos you play as that lady-boy raiden
people didnt hate the game people hated raiden.
May the Grace of Apris be with you... :P
I hope you continually cater only to RPGs. Subscribed!
I agree about the plot twist. This was the first Star Ocean I played, and I could not bring myself to do another one after it. The game effectively goes "that 20 hours you just spent on that planet...were POINTLESS!!!" This peeved me off, and then if that wasn't enough the game goes all Matrix on you with the stupid 4D beings plot twist (which I won't talk much more about because of spoilers). The games was fine is most other areas, but for me this plot has gone down as one of worst JRPG plots Iv'e ever experienced, and in a JRPG the plot is a really big part of the game for me. A friend gave me the fourth game for free (he just got tired of it), and I did like this games battle system well enough so I'll probably try it at some point.
So you didn't get to Gabriel Celeste? I sank over 200 hours into this game back in the day lol.
I'm gonna buy this right now as my first star ocean game, see how i'll like it. Seems very love it or hate it.
i actually really liked the plot twist in the second half of the game but i never played the previous games so that could have played a part
I need this remastered
D Flash You got it! It's on sale on EU psn for 16 bucks, maybe also in the US.
(In Shenron voice)
*Your Wish Has Been Granted.*
I haven't played 1 & 2 but I really really enjoyed Star Ocean 3. The voice acting was great (Albel voiced by Crispin Freeman), the battle system very fluid, the storyline was slow in the first half of Disc 1 but from the second half it gets better, the graphics are on point for a ps2 title.
Collecting battle trophies is like having xbox's achievements on playstation, also I don't know why people say that the plot twist ruined the game personally it had such a huge impact on me. You should have also mentioned the post-game content which makes it very entertaining for someone who has finished the main story. There are of course flaws such as the terrible "loading data from disc" and one I've encountered that corrupts the save file unable to load, but I've learned to outsmart them.
P.S: Now seeing Star Ocean 4 videos I can say I find the voice acting in it VERY annoying and I couldn't get affection for any of the characters, the game tried so hard to be "anime" it doesn't fit well for a game.
I honestly like this title in the series. I had it years ago and made it to the 2nd disc I believe and then sold it. (I dunno why...I guess I was a different beast back then lol.) And probably a year ago I got it again, made it to that stupid turtle race thingy ma bob through the tunnels, and gave up on it for the time being because an FAQ I was following wasn't helping any.. I dunno how I managed to get through it the first time when I had the game.
The plot twist wasn't even that bad. If you actually read the codex stuff in the game it could be said that it isn't even true. IDK why Tri-Ace thinks they can't write themselves out of it when Yoko Taro writes his fantasy series into a sci-fi series, it just takes a little bit of creativity.
I really like your reviews. You manage to adress both negative and positive aspects, which is something most other reviewers seem to be incapable of doing.
SPOILER ALERT! THIS COMMENT ADRESSES A PLOT HOLE!
I don't quite know what to think of So3 though. While I did enjoy playing it for the most part, I was really disappointed about the game looking not just relatively bad for a PS2 game but also kind of unfinished. There are so many things that just don't make real sense and which never were explained. For example: Why did Ameena look like Sophia? I expected some really crazy explanation, but was let down. Here's another one: Why did Luther not possess absolute power over the 3D universe? Personally, I believe he was not the creator. There is a theory that states Luther found the 3D universe by means of advanced technology and interfered with it rather than creating it, which would make much more sense. The whole point why Luther attacked the 3D universe was that he was scared of eventually being attacked and overpowered by it. However, if he were the creator, he could just erase symbology altogether, which he didn't. But then again, that's just a fan theory.
The gameplay and the music were great though. But the AAAs were a real pain in the ass :D
got the game and loving it ^^ it's that good. recording and will not be skipping the cutscences
So the reveal trailer for Star Ocean 5 really hyped me for this game's storyline. I knew all along that there is a plot twist that can ruin the game for the player... And some interviewer just spoiled it to me. I hate him.
"GLORY TO AIRYGLLLYYYYPH"!!!
I never played any of the star ocean games. It seems the latest entries are some of the worst in the series (integrity and faithlessness, the last hope). I'm looking to see how far back I have to go to find a good one. Maybe this is the one? Or should I go back even further to The Second Story?
I loved this game. it needs to be remastered! :)
best videogame till the end of time
I thought Star ocean 3 was my favorite It was pretty awesome and I played it 250+ hours lol
I absolutely adore this game and it joins Grandia 2, Tales of Symphonia, Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy 9 as my favorite RPGS of all time. Granted, I agree with you about the halfway point and the plot twist is a little too ambitious and the game does drag on once the plot twist is revealed. I still love it though because the gameplay, the soundtrack, and the side quests keep it fun. Some of the characters are entertaining but I think three to four characters could have been done without. You're right about the extremity of the dungeons. The worst one is that shrine after you get past the desert. HATED IIIITTTT
For the most part, I agree with you through and through.. flaws and all. I may have grown up playing this game, spending limitless amounts of hours and just enjoying the game with it's battle mechanics. I can agree that Tri-Ace is not very good at story telling when it comes to 3 and 4. I love the lure for SO3, that dives many many many information about anything you need to know. I won't lie, I enjoyed the story for the most part, but I felt that the characters lacked the interactions with one another. It this game had a better narrative and slightly better plot setups I could argue that it would be much better.
I agree that it is a tad too long, but it is still one of my favorites, even with the "plot twist" that pissed me off as well.
Ys or Xenogears/saga would be good some good ones to check out as megamanfan1500 suggested. Personally I would like to see something like Breath of Fire or the Wild Arms series as I never see them covered much that being said Dragon Quest or the Mana series would also be good choices in my book. Keep up the good work.
Yeah, I'd like to see Breath of Fire and Wild Arms as well.
Maybe Atelier and Baten Kaitos too.
I got my copy for 6 bucks! about to play it for the first time... lets see if I like it
Michael Perez you will man
That reveal though. I still remember how jarring that was years ago.
I heard it was being remastered for PS4 is that true/done?
Its not remastered, but its ported as a PS2 classic
It’s true
Quark? Really? Curd cheese? Strange name for a unit...
I really love this game the plot twist did shock me I mean yeah it kind of ruined a few things in the serious but even after the plot twist the game is still epic even up until the final battle.
I absolutely loved this game. I got this and Tales of Symphonia around the same time and I couldn't stop playing either of them. I must be one of the few that enjoyed the plot twist just because it was so unexpected and the crafting system more than made up for the lack of the skills system, I'm shocked you never mentioned it because if you play the game right you'll be crafting a lot. The ending was terrible though.
Are you ever going to make a Xeno retrospective? Xenogears is my favourite game of all time.
SOTET is my favorite game of the series due to it actually exploring the universe part of the game. It definitely feels like a Star Trek like jrpg because the story takes place within much of the Star Ocean. I like the UP3 dynamic and it actually makes you wonder if there are worlds with developing civilization on them that are either more or less advanced than our own. I never liked how the first two games confined the story to one planet. I did like where the story went for philosophical and theoretical reasons. But my most hated aspect of this game are the fucking dungeons! Good GOD! I hated that many of them took anywhere between two to three hours to complete. On some nights, that's my entire allowed playtime. The nagging map completion percentage didn't help either. I think it only extended dungeon exploration when dungeons were already long and drawn out in the first place. I would recommend a guide for anyone who hasn't played this game so you can skip all the useless treasure and seek out only the useful treasure. I love this game, but it's not something that will encourage you to play it more than maybe once a decade. I've had this game for 11 years now and only played it through twice.
100% agree with that the plot twist ruined the story for me. I was enjoying it and got invested in the characters up until that point. This was my 1st (and only) SO, it didn't encourage me to play the previous ones.
Hkuba Sorry to ask but do you know if the ps4 version still has the 2 player versus mode in the game?
I didn't know it had a verses mode. Wikipedia says it's only the 'Directors cut' which had it, supposedly the PS4 includes the directors cut content but I can't confirm that. Sorry.
Hkuba The first two are better,yet the plot twist not only ruined this game but the franchise because of the Star Ocean games have a timeline.
Ugh, that twist. Supreme candidate for worst JRPG twist of all times, though FF8's freaking orphanage breathes down its proverbial neck.
Jonathan BarSela Both games are even when it comes to the storyline and characters being a mess.
I favor Star Ocean the Second Story over this one. I can agree with you on some of your points.
I often wonder why developers feel they are doing us a favor giving us super long games. Make more end-game/side content. If we like your game, we'll do it all. If we don't like it, we'll move on and you still get our $60.
I really like this game but would agree with you that it's pacing is off but one thing I hated about this game is that you can die by have 0 mp wtf your mp never really reaches that high and alot of enemies use mp draining attacks following up with you using your skills that can use hp or mp so you'd be dead pretty quickly in some dungeons with that mechanic glad they didn't carry that over good review by the way
Fuck the haters. The plot twist was my favorite of all time.
My 13 yo mind was fucking blown.
a huge issue both this game and 4 has are cutscenes that go on way to long and have very poor paceing. i remember i started to stop caring during the sequence of scenes right before you meet nell as it was takeing way to long.
I for one didn't enjoy this game, I sold it back to a store before I could finish it, but I can also see why some might enjoy it, just not my cup of tea.
The game is quite addictive in its overhauled battle system. It no longer a button masher but instead a button holder. i respect that. The story is definitely not as interesting as the second one IMO. And the Character wasn't as interesting for me. Although now they seemed to be a bit better than few extra lines here and there, it still lacking somewhat.
My main problem with the series starts from this one. The character is very very generic Anime type. You get the klutz, love-hate person, Cool silent, etc. Even though the previous title do have this traits as well, but since they aren't as lengthy with their talks, It manage to hide it from me.
Overall I found the long cutscene as a distraction from their key strength (battle system) and unfortunately they aren't as good as MGS which make it heavily critizised.
Some of the information here about gameplay is wrong.