Second Story had EVERYTHING we loved: memorable characters with development, long but entrancing story, multiple endings, a super dungeon, a last boss that could have its difficulty boosted insanely, great music, great graphics, humor.
Second Story is by far my favorite of the series as well. Aside from Dual Protagonists you have a HUGE cast of characters to choose from in order to create your ideal party and each of them has their own backstory and fleshed out character. One of my favorite couple endings involved Precis and Ashton. I've only beaten the game once but what a ride it was.
@@WiiSage try the reloading when making those exp bar's cheat hack that allowed you to duplicate exp and make tons of it to speed level a character or spend ages and do all your characters lol
@@WiiSage Its not really a hack it was left in game but they didn't realise players could re load up their save until they get duplicate exp bars through copy skill, part of the gameplay itself, i remember long time ago it took me hours upon hours to make enough to max one character's level out. That was enough to battle through enemies with ease to help the others level faster lol
Man, Star Ocean 2 was life for me. Every game after 2 have been kinda a disappointment for me. I would really love to see this franchise come back to the high standard it set.
I believe I have a save file with over 300 hours on it for star ocean 2. I spent days grinding in the final secret dungeon and the battle area just to see what max level was.
@@SolMrBadGuy I would say other wise. I played star ocean the second story earlier in the year and the game is still amazing. I will say it was much shorter then I remembered it being.
Still remember playing Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile on the same year. it's so surprising that, 20 years later, these games are still top of the list RPG quality games.
I'll be the one and say Star Ocean til the End of time remains one of my favorite games of all time. It was very long and extensive and the battle trophies were no joke, but the story and development of characters really moved me.
it did me too until the end of the game, then it was the end of time for me, pun intended that storyline end I didn't like the direction it went but rest of game is great.
The first Star Ocean game I've ever played was "Star Ocean Till End Of Time" its hands down one of the best jrpg games that I have ever played. I haven't touched that game in years and maybe it's the nostalgia, but I still love that game and hold in high regard. P.S. I used all caps in the title of the game because it deserves to have captions!
@@daemonisedone4256 Yeah I love SO3 but it's easy to see where it goes wrong in the plot. The game was great up until the point they shifted from Vendeeni to Executioners, had they just kept on the plot of the Vendeeni as the main baddies then threw in an end-game plot twist that the Aldian Empire was manipulating everything behind the scenes at the end, Federation liberates Vendeen, they join the Fed, roll credits. Room for more games and continual expansion.
@@daemonisedone4256 you could also kill enemies this way though it wasn't only a detriment to you. Fait could easily kill the solider outside aerygliph or w.e with fire sword by eating all their mana and power lvl. Then the porcupines near dragon with ice. System also made Maria at absolute tank synth mana on her along side the other op post game stuff give convert hp dmg to mp and she's neigh unkillable unless ur afk.
Your content is always top notch... Getting better and better each video.. I appreciate the Easter egg at the end and putting the games in chronological order for us. Star Ocean is a series that I own every title for, but have never jumped into the series yet..
My top 5 1. Star Ocean 2nd Evolution 2. Star Ocean First Departure 3. Star Ocean Til the End of Time 4. Star Ocean the Last Hope 5. Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness
For me it is: 5. SO5 4. SO1 3. SO2 2. SO4 1. SO3 SO3 Director Cut is actually one of the best JRPGs i have ever played, it's in my top 3 for sure, i loved every second of it every time i replayed it. Amazing cast, great story, superior combat, lot of content
Absolutely, i thought it was very well done and changed pretty much the whole SO universe which yeah, lot of people had problems coping with Also, there’s Cliff :D
@@darkfyraproductions7958 Yes, Director's Cut was the only version released in the west, i have the PSN version so i can confirm it. Enjoy, it is truly a masterpiece
Agree 100% with the order. Star Ocean 2 is not just the best SO game, but also one of my favorite JRPGs ever. Ashton & Opera are a couple of the most fun characters in battle of any game IMO.
Buck Roger yeah I’ve beaten it multiple times and used each in different playthroughs and love both. Never really used Bowman, though. Guess I need to revisit SO2!
@@brndn31107 you only got bowman if you played as Claude. Hopefully one day tri ace will be giving the chance to make another star ocean game on the level of the second story.
Awesome video man! I really love the Star Ocean series. There is something about this JRPG series that has a charm to it. I have not played SO1 nor SO2 due to the rarity of those games but I have played the rest. Here's my list 1. Star Ocean 4 2. Star Ocean 3 3. Star Ocean 5 I was torn between SO3 and SO4. Maria and Reimi are my two favorite female protagonists in those games and the combat in both games are good in their own respect. But there is something about S04's story that really stuck to me. I love the setting and the different planet exploration in SO4 as well. The plot in SO3 didn't bother me like most people, but my biggest problem is the character development seemed to completely stop in that game after a certain point in the story. Thanks again for your honest review and here's hoping the series continues to strive with Star Ocean 6 hopefully in the near future.
SO: Second Evolution was my first Star Ocean game, which in some ways ruined the rest of the games for me. LOL. I loved it so much that after I completed both sides of the game, I bought an official guide to find all of the tiny things that I hadn't found myself. That extra dungeon in the remake is wonderful as well.
This was my experience with Star Ocean 3. It was quite a ride: 1. Too slow. Too much yapping. Not enough action. 2. Things are finally moving. This game seems pretty cool. 3. A new planet to check out. 4. OK. Am I done here? When do I move on? 5. Am I EVER going to get off this $*^&ing planet?? 6. Okay. things are finally getting interesting. 7. WOW!! This is COOL! I can't wait to see what happens next! 8. WTF?????
"If we're going to leave here, we might as well leave with that hot chick over there!" - Cliff Fittir "I appreciate you calling me 'hot', though 'chick' I could live without." - Nel Zelpher "Hey, she heard us." - Fayt Leingod "Scarrry!" - Cliff
I missed like half the ending. A church group came knocking at my door so I talked to them for a bit then went back to see the ending was still playing. Wouldn't mind if star ocean 6 takes place some time after 3.
I am wondering how they would make a solid sequel to star ocean 3. Since in part 3 you defeat the big bad 4th dimensional ruler or boss, which was pretty much like the creator of the entire star ocean universe after all those years.
@@TheMixedPlateFrequency the plot twist is just the usual JRPG twists about killing the Gods/Creator but with the sci-fi flavor as opposed to fantasy and religion. Going forward just like any jrpg before it after defeating the creators/gods the people just regained their independence.
I saw Star Ocean 2 at a pawn shop back in 2002. A purchase I will never regret, that game was fantastic, the best star ocean of all. Ashton was the best character out of already amazing characters, the music was incomparable to many other RPG songs. That game was fantastic, the only bad thing was it wasn't longer.
Or at least make "Till The End of Time" longer with exploration of Greeton and a journey to Roak after you defeat the final boss. If there is a sequel to "Till The End of Time", the game would be set in Roak or Expel where human colonists are starting a new life after the Creator and the Executioners destroyed their home world, Earth. That would be similar to the Eldarian survivors whom abandoned their advanced technology, colonize Lemuris, and start a new life after the Missing Procedure destroyed their home world, Eldar, in "The Last Hope". It would make the game sound similar to Phantasy Star II when the Parmanians were forced to leave their planet after the humans destroyed it, colonize other worlds in the Algol System like Motavia and Dezolis, or some of them colonized other star systems.
@@NotCharAznable Depends on how you perceive the ending, I imagine that each characters individual ending is probably canon. The Fayt-Sophia ending where they meet with Ryoko on Expel would be plausably canon as well, its their most likely eventual paths. I was thinking since the Eternal Sphere/3rd Dimension broke free from the influence of the 4th Dimensionals, it doesn't eliminate the possibility of dimensional interlopers. Im sure Luther wasn't the only one who would be concerned with the threat of being attacked anywhere at any given moment. The populace would quickly be swept by fear once word got out that major security figures, Sphere executives and the President/CEO of Sphere were critically injured and/or killed. It wouldnt be a stretch to imagine there would be some Eternal Sphere developers that shared the same outlook and made some type of device to reconnect the two dimensions and go after Fayt, Maria, and Sophia along with the other members of the party. Not to mention the possibility of going back to Elicoor II to explore Greeton or other locations, potential new planets would be cool too, a temporary treaty with the Vendeeni and a short trip to Vendeen might be pretty cool. Given their dictonary entry said they evolved from shark-type creatures, they probably have a hyper advanced Atlantean society. One thing that Star Ocean always excelled at was creating beautiful environments, that combined with the storytelling created a magic that still hasnt been beaten to this day in my opinion. Star Ocean 3 has plenty of potential for a sequel, if Star Ocean 2 got a sequel, I dont see why 3 couldnt as well.
Star Ocean is one of those series that deserves more attention. And I really hope they'll manage to find a way past the timeline of Till the End of Time (which is one of my TOP 5 games of all time) and stop making prequels only.
@@decusq seriously. That 4D bullshit was disrespectful to the events of SO1 and 2. It pretty much negated all of the significance, and it made it impossible for me to get back into any sequel. Can't suspend my disbelief enough after that game. Omit it. It's a terrible, terrible story.
@@decusq yeah i'd scrap it from the canon> i'd like see a direct sequel from SO2 and not like SO3 but basically something that's like 10 or so years after SO2 so that we still see most if not all of SO2's casts and maybe SO1's too.
Only played 3, 4 and 5 but my order is 4, 3, 5. Enjoyed 4 so much I platted it twice. 3 has an amazing twist and Maria is pretty nice. 5 was kinda meh but I didn't hate it like everyone else in the world. Could've been longer as well.
I never saw Second Story, I like those graphics and the background too, and your video is another video that states how good that game is, so now I am intrigued by it. Time to do some research, thank you.
@@stephentrader9142 yeah the dungeon is horrifying, i still have nightmares about it. And that small little girl is annoying as hell. But I really do miss the gameplay
My favorite is Star Ocean 3 but not for the reason you think. This game has a whole bunch of cheesy and awkward moments that it wants you take seriously but it just comes off as hilarious. My favorite moment is when this serious moment happens where someone dies, and so our heroes fight the muderer to avenge they're death. And I kid you not, there's this groovy techno song that plays during the fight that has lyrics that go "WORK THAT BODY! WORK THAT BODY! MAKE SURE YOU DON'T HURT NOBODY!" By the way the composer to the Star Ocean series is the same one who composed for all Tales games and the Dark Souls games. I guess he was a really big fan of space jam. But yeah, I love Star Ocean 3 mostly because it's unintentionally hilarious. EDIT: The song is called Bitter Dance. Just it look up alongside Star Ocean 3 ost. Do not look at the comment section tho because you will be spoiled!
@@ErickLandonRPG I know! It's hilariously amazing! It was apparently a lyric from the Space Jam theme. The one that goes "COME ON AND SLAM, AND WELCOME TO THE JAM!" I love Star Ocean 3.
Lmfaoooo star ocean 3 is definitely in my top 5 favorites, I’ve replayed it several times throughout the years. But I know exactly what you mean! Lol and the emotional reaction times are delayed and have a lag and it makes me roll my eyes and chuckle every time. How many times does Fayt say “No!.... NOOOOO” lmao
In the English dub, some of the enemies say funny things. Like that fat merchant looking one you find in the first two planets. He would go "AHHH MY MONEY MY MONEY AAAAAAAAAAAH" and says so repeatedly while breaking the quote when tripping itself.
Star Ocean Till the End of Time was my first Star Ocean game. Till now, it's still one of the best JRPGs I have played in my life. I played this several times till I remember the exact plot sequence happened in Disc 1. But only once I reached the ending. I really love the song and soundtracks used in this game.
For me. 1.2nd story - hands down the best and I still play this one from time to time. 2.till the end of time - Pretty solid game but still not as good as 2nd story. 3.first departure - Story and chars is a bit forgettable for me but still an ok game overall. 4.last hope - I have a love and hate relationship with this game. An ok game but doesn't really have the charm of past star oceans. 5.integrity and faithlessness - what an incomplete mess and stinker this game was.
2nd story is one of my top 10 games of all time, me and my brother rented it and i watched my brother play, and when he went to bed i stayed up all night playing it, for a week. i tried playing the ps2 one but i couldn't figure out the stupid bonus exp meter so i said fuck it, i gave it a go. the ps3 one i couldn't even start the game i couldn't figure out how to leave the beach so fuck that game
The Second Story on the PS1 is also my most favorite Star Ocean game. The Skill system and combat I love. As for Till the End of Time Square-Enix only released the Director's Cut in The West because the original game was such a mess. The only thing that turned me off on part III is the MP kills. It is the first game with Battle Trophies Part IV is a good, if flawed game. The Blindsides really makes that game shine. This game is brutal for completionists because getting all of the Battle Trophies require mutiple playthroughs. Part V is mediocre; the worst of the worst of the series but by no means a bad game. I agree with all your points about that game. I have not played part I because I don't have a PSP with a UMD drive. Item crafting is an intregal part of the franchise and most games pulled it off well, with Part V being the laziest.
star ocean the second is one of my favorites , so many good memories , such a deep game with so many features most game could not handle, relationship , you action changing game scenes , you can make the ending you want , also gave me one character i will never forget , Ashton Anchors , god how i loved to play as him , so many good skills , scenes and all.
Star Ocean - The Last Hope is my favorite Star Ocean game in the series, i love this game and combat gameplay is só GREAT brother! No masterpiece game but this game is a best jrpgs ever made!
Playing blue sphere is a motivation to learn Japanese tbh. Also I don't think Blue Sphere is a spinoff since it's a direct sequel to Star Ocean 2. At least I thought it was canon
Love this series. I only played 2nd story which is one of my favorite jrpg ever; and first departure which is kinda similar. What I really love about 2nd story is that there is "item creation" and also the fair was a really neat place to visit and have fun.
Maybe it's because one is a harbinger of death with energy beam every1 used and the other ones playing Naruto and kinda sucked in comparison. That's how it was for me.
My brother was so obsessed with Star Ocean 2 growing up that he would actually only do some playthroughs by only playing them during the time of the day/night that were equivalent to the game.
Very cool list! I liked how you included the timeline. Nice touch! To be honest, I've only play 2nd Story but loved it a ton! I bought Til The End of Time but never had time. Been eyeballing the first one on the Nintendo Switch eShop though!
This made the game more confusing than anything. It's nice from the developers to try a more "realistic" approach but if this has a negative impact on the gameplay this is useless.
I've only played 3,4 and 5 but I really love 3 and 4. Never really had an issue with the twist in 3, and the post game content is amazing. I've beat each of them around 6 times. Nel over Maria any day lol
As someone who is an avid collector of SO2 and considers it her favorite video game of all time, thanks! I get a lot of hate for my list, as I can't stand pretty much anything about 3. :( I've tried over and over again to love that game since first day release in the US. But personally I would put it as 2, 1, 4, 5, and 3. Also, SO3 only had one release in the states and it is the director's cut. :) And since you haven't played SO2:SE on PSP, I would say if you can get the original play it instead. The remake is good if you have no other way to play, can stick through the nerfed basic attack preventing attack spamming, prefer newer/cutscene voice acting, like the new Square "cool guy" terms, and some mild spell censorship... it also is worth playing once just because Dias Flac gets some PAs and Welch was added. SO1 I could go either way, but the remake gives you an extra character and plays closer to SO2:SE while SO1 on SNES is almost identical to Tales of Phantasia (SNES) or Tales of Destiny (PS1).
my favorite games of all time around this time period were Star Ocean the second story, Saga Frontier, Suikoden 2, Xenogears, Front Mission 3, Wild Arms
ITS ONE OF MY FAVOURITES TOO BUT I THINK SUIKODEN 2 WOULD BE MY VERY FAVOURITE. WHEN I PLAYED STAR OCEAN 2, I PLAYED IT ON MY PSX AND IF MY MEMORY IS CORRECT THE DISC WAS A COPIED ONE AND I HAD TO GET MY PSX CHIPPED. IM NOW 67 SO I AM OLD. MY PSX DIDNT WORK ANYMORE, LONG STORY CUT SHORT AND IVE STILL GOT MY PS2 AND SOME OTHER CONSOLES BUT NOT A PSX ANYMORE. I WISH I STILL COULD PLAY STAR OCEAN 2. I DOUBT IT WOULD WORK ON MY PS2 AS ITS PAL AND NOT NTSC. I REMEMBER THE GAME BEING A REALLY GOOD GAME, BUT VERY HARD TO PLAY. I FOUND I HAD TO KEEP LEVELLING UP TO KILL ENEMIES. I DONT MIND DOING THAT. AND I RECALL A SECTION IN THE LATER PART OF THE GAME WHERE THERE WAS SOME PUZZLE AND YOU HAD TO BE ON SQUARES OF SOME SORT. NOW THAT PUZZLE WAS SO HARD AND I HAD TO GET SOME HELP WITH IT, OTHER WISE I WOULDNT HAVE GOTTEN THROUGH IT. BUT OVER ALL IT WAS A REALLY GOOD GAME.
i loved star ocean 2 i remember breaking it due to some private actions in which you could steal from people and get some items WAAAY before your supposed to and use the camera to copy a gem that levels you up so you can level up to lvl 100 really early in the game and crush most of the game and be way over leveled even in the end game and even beat the arena fight you are supposed to lose (it still counts as a lose though LOL)
The Super Famicom version of Star Ocean has better art design and music than the remake IMO. Plus the original game kinda made you sympathize with the villain more, the remake just made him pure evil.
I've played and beat 3 & 4. For 3, loved Nel, Abel and especially Maria (once you get her Energy Burst skill. 😜), and 4 because of the sidestep mechanic, the bonus gauge, Arumat and of course Myuria. 😍 Currently playing 2 for my PS1 emulator on my Android phone.
Till the End of Time was the first JRPG I ever finished, I was just so enthralled with it I couldn't stop playing it. So, here we go: 5- Integrity, 4- Second Story, 3- First Departure R, 2- The Last Hope, 1- Till the End of Time. Currently Playing Last Hope again on PC and First Departure R for my second run on Switch.
My advice to those that want to get into Star Ocean, do not take the story seriously like you would a Tales game. If you've ever played Kingdom Hearts and know how ridiculous and almost stupid the story is (I'm not talking about it's convolutedness by the way), Star Ocean will feel right at home. One more thing, with every Star Ocean game, TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CREATION SYSTEM!!! You will make the game a lot harder if you don't! I reccomend looking up guides for creating all the necessary items you need. Hell you'll probably only be able to get the best weapons and armor in the game you're playing only by creating and synthesizing.
@Rudy Straight I know, but if you don't do it, it's gonna make it harder on you. It ends up feeling like a chore. I remember it was really bad in Star Ocean 3 where someone actually made a website program that's made to help people calculate what options they should put in for the creation system. I'm not joking. A FAN had to create a program to help others get through a game mechanic that is so obnoxiously complicated.
Ill go by combat enjoyment for me and that is 1. SO2 2. SO5 3. SO1 4. SO4 5. SO3 the reason SO3 is bottom is because of the knockdown immunity the game had that interrupted attack chains. there were several Techs that were more of a hindrance compared to other simple skills.
Star ocean 1: Never played it unfortunately. star ocean 2: Definitely one of the best in the series. Wish I can play it again. The combat and private actions were cool. star ocean 3: Pretty fun game play, despite it's criticisms it's a really good game. Decent voice acting. star ocean 4: terrible voice acting turned a lot of people off, so make sure to play international not xbox. again fun gameplay. star ocean 5: Glad I never bothered to try it. From what I'm seeing, it's a rushed pos. Hopefully they can redeem themselves.
Koro let me help you out brother Star ocean 1: Like he said great elements as a beginning to the franchise. Some repeating dynamics especially with the special skills. But the PA factors weren't bad at all. Star ocean 2: Same as the first, great character development in my opinion. Not many repeating elements but I wish the special skills had more diversity to them. The pa's are good as well. The special dungeon though didn't offer many options for the characters to grow besides swordsmans really so that kinda sucked but still love the game Star ocean 3: Probably my favorite out of them all. Long story, great character development, pa's are really good with some good humor. Special skills kick ass. Star ocean 4(international); Not my favorite but not the least favorite either. Character development was meh at least from a fan stand point. Pa's weren't the best either. Game play and special skills I did like though, unique skills for every character. Not as long as 3 but decent game play time. Star ocean 5: 😭😭😭. Not what I expected from the series at all. Characters were just not enthusiastic at all so far as development, it was also really short compared to the others. But I did love the game play element; so far as entering with all characters and how fluid it was to engage in battle. But the PA and special skills I thought needed a lot of work. Skills kind of repeated from the other games and I like to see individuality. Some good elements but just not what I thought I'd see from the franchise at all. I expected much much better but I can't say it's awful just not as great as any of us as fans would think As a die hard fan I think introductions of elements of each of the games is essential. Character development, pa's and skill development from 1 and 2. Story length, game play, and special skills from 3 and 4. And the game play fluidity and ability to fight with all characters from 5. Then add maybe some newer elements like graphics and then you would have a really fantastic star ocean game.
I would have to say Star Ocean Till The End of Time for me. I'm actually replaying this one right now. It's one of the games I never truly finished playing the bonus dungeon due to the fact that my fat ps2 kept hanging from the intense gameplay I made it go through. I'm playing it on pc now instead with upscaled graphics. So worth it like a remastered new Star Ocean game now. Truth is pretty much from earliest to last games would be around where I would place the rankings in order.
SOTEOT is actually available on PS4 now as well, where I completed it on finally(I kinda benched it for years). Totally agree with Maria being a top favorite, clearly should have been her as the protag but ehh, being second protag is fine too. The game can crash every now and then (only saw it happen once out of like 90 hours) but I think even then its not that bad. I think the original PS2 NA release had the same problem. Loved the postgame stuff!
I’m pretty sure the ps2 version never crashed. I had over 200 hours on it back in the day, and never had issues with the game. However, that might of just been me being lucky.
@@Evil_Chronic Yea, the original Japanese version was reallly bad, but the NA one was mostly fixed, it was rare at least from what I was reading, even the PS4 one for me anyway only crashed like once in 90 hours which was fine, I only lost like 30 minutes which was annoying but not a deal breaker or anything. Some people have horror stories on PS4 though, or they're just complaining alot, lol. Impressed on the 200 hours! That postgame content really was a blast!
Brendan Goodell I haven’t played it on the PS4 yet. I have it, just other games have taken my time. Also was hoping it would be fixed by the time I wanted to play it. And yeah the post game is what caused me to dump so much time in it. Getting the the perfect gear from removing the crappy abilities off the best gear, and then merging them with that one broken accessory plus the +1000 Atk crystals. Was fun.
SO3 is my favorite jrpg game of all time. I like 1 and 2, but love the story and the twist in 3. I really wasn’t a fan of 4 and 5. And yes María is bae.
The twist was, in my opinion, one of the worst offenders of bad story, in all of literature. It completely made the first two games and the universe destroying threats irrelevant, as it was only part of an MMO, it also made it so that future installments of the series could not take place after the game, hence all the subsequent have taken place before it.
@@Piisuke I think people who werr introduced to the series through playing SO3, have no problem with the plot twist. But those who played 1 and 2 first hate SO3 for the plot twist.
Erick they just brought back the Star Ocean event in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. LOL I actually downloaded the Star Ocean Anamnesis for mobile. its ok.
Till the end of time was the first I ever played in the series and I still play it to this day, it will always be the top spot for me. This game also had one of my favorite cinematics of Fayt first using Ethereal Blast to destroy the Vendeeni. First Departure R is second for me, I enjoyed the characters and the game play though I've only beat it once. I'm sure there is still a ton I have to discover in this game. I'm probably one of the few that actually did enjoy Integrity and faithlessness, the game wasn't bad it just felt really short and I would have preferred to be able to control Relia. I liked the characters and the gameplay itself brought back memories of Till the end of time, which probably also influences my bias. The addition of roles felt nice and could pave the way for an improved version for future games. I always felt like tactics in the previous games didn't do a whole lot and the SO series could use something like gambits from FFXII and for me at least roles felt nice. Last Hope was fun but I was super annoyed by Edges character. Blindsides were fun to an extent but I felt like they were too important, you had to blindside EVERYTHING. The other characters were decent but aside from Myuria and Arumat everyone felt like they had over childish personalities. Sadly I have yet to play Second Story/ evolution but I do have it on my list to play someday but both the PS1 and PSP versions are close to 200 USD and honestly I would prefer not to play it on the PSP. If I could find a good deal or if this game was ever released on PSN I would absolutely buy it and from what I've researched it sounds like most people enjoyed this game the most so I can see my order shifting, though I can't see anything replacing Till the end of time for me if not just for personal reasons.
I’m eagerly and anxiously awaiting the 2022 Star Ocean game! With Atelier Sophie 2 and FFXVI releasing that year as well, 2022 looks like it’s gonna be a great year for JRPGs :)
I had an N64 so I was happy with Zelda, and all the wrestling games. My friend had a playstation, a and I seen the glory of MGS, and Resident Evil. Then I seen him playing FFVll, and Legend of Dragoon, but it was Star Ocean that got me into Jrpgs
This series is among the best Japan ever produced. I'm always sad everytime I'm reminded that the series had basically concluded it's epic story (not killed by it's makers like so many others out there), but I get it, every proper story has to end someday. At least it's a proper, good ending, so no complaints there. Man I miss Precis' antics.
Played through Star Ocean 2 with both claude and rena. Probably put 250hrs into this game. I just loved everything about it. Except casting spells in battle took forever.
As a big star ocean fan I have to say your list is spot on. I also liked star ocean 5 but sadly the game was way way to short. My biggest complaint about star ocean 5 is that you can really tell that the game pretty much got the plug pulled on it. I actually hated star ocean 3 at first because of how much the battle system was changed. Got so mad that I stopped playing the game for like 2 months. But by the time I got halfway through the game I was super strong from endless hours of level grinding. Star ocean 2 is one of my all time favorite rpgs and games.
In Till the end of Time I played through the whole game without realizing there was a way to mute the voices in battles. I heard the protagonist scream "Sidekick!" about 487,000 times before the credits rolled. Was blown away when I realized I could turn those voices off. Played the game through twice more after that.
Cool video. I'll admit, the only Star Ocean game I've played and finished is Star Ocean: The Last Hope. While it had its flaws, it was a decent game. I hope I can play the other titles someday.
Second Story had EVERYTHING we loved: memorable characters with development, long but entrancing story, multiple endings, a super dungeon, a last boss that could have its difficulty boosted insanely, great music, great graphics, humor.
Second Story is by far my favorite of the series as well. Aside from Dual Protagonists you have a HUGE cast of characters to choose from in order to create your ideal party and each of them has their own backstory and fleshed out character. One of my favorite couple endings involved Precis and Ashton. I've only beaten the game once but what a ride it was.
Star Ocean: The Second Story is my favorite game of all time! I think you did a good job rating the games.
same, i even did a run when i pickpocket every npc in the game, lots of reloading lol
@@WiiSage try the reloading when making those exp bar's cheat hack that allowed you to duplicate exp and make tons of it to speed level a character or spend ages and do all your characters lol
@@DeusVlad-qg5ni i dont use hacks
@@WiiSage Its not really a hack it was left in game but they didn't realise players could re load up their save until they get duplicate exp bars through copy skill, part of the gameplay itself, i remember long time ago it took me hours upon hours to make enough to max one character's level out. That was enough to battle through enemies with ease to help the others level faster lol
@@DeusVlad-qg5ni huh, i never knew this, may have to see how its actually done
Man, Star Ocean 2 was life for me. Every game after 2 have been kinda a disappointment for me. I would really love to see this franchise come back to the high standard it set.
I believe I have a save file with over 300 hours on it for star ocean 2. I spent days grinding in the final secret dungeon and the battle area just to see what max level was.
Agree big time :)
@@buckroger6456 my disc crashes in the final (hidden) dungeon so I've never got to the final hidden boss.
Its just nostalgia, 2 is not as great as people think it is. 4 and 3 are better in every way.
@@SolMrBadGuy I would say other wise. I played star ocean the second story earlier in the year and the game is still amazing. I will say it was much shorter then I remembered it being.
Still remember playing Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile on the same year. it's so surprising that, 20 years later, these games are still top of the list RPG quality games.
Agree bro 👍👍
damn son.... now 2022 they both release divine force and elysium at the same year too...
I'll be the one and say Star Ocean til the End of time remains one of my favorite games of all time. It was very long and extensive and the battle trophies were no joke, but the story and development of characters really moved me.
it did me too until the end of the game, then it was the end of time for me, pun intended that storyline end I didn't like the direction it went but rest of game is great.
Till the end of Time WAS the best one!!
Plus Sophia is best waifu
agreed
@@CreamerOfTheDairySquad grow up
The first Star Ocean game I've ever played was "Star Ocean Till End Of Time" its hands down one of the best jrpg games that I have ever played. I haven't touched that game in years and maybe it's the nostalgia, but I still love that game and hold in high regard.
P.S. I used all caps in the title of the game because it deserves to have captions!
i found it to be good up till the matrix reveal but i also have to say the battle mechanics were terrible considering they linked magic to dying.
@@daemonisedone4256 The plot twist wasn't that bad, though. It emphasized the point of "I think, therefore I am."
@@austinchery the plot twist was a big letdown and questioned my reasoning for playing the game.
@@daemonisedone4256 Yeah I love SO3 but it's easy to see where it goes wrong in the plot. The game was great up until the point they shifted from Vendeeni to Executioners, had they just kept on the plot of the Vendeeni as the main baddies then threw in an end-game plot twist that the Aldian Empire was manipulating everything behind the scenes at the end, Federation liberates Vendeen, they join the Fed, roll credits. Room for more games and continual expansion.
@@daemonisedone4256 you could also kill enemies this way though it wasn't only a detriment to you. Fait could easily kill the solider outside aerygliph or w.e with fire sword by eating all their mana and power lvl. Then the porcupines near dragon with ice. System also made Maria at absolute tank synth mana on her along side the other op post game stuff give convert hp dmg to mp and she's neigh unkillable unless ur afk.
Your content is always top notch... Getting better and better each video.. I appreciate the Easter egg at the end and putting the games in chronological order for us. Star Ocean is a series that I own every title for, but have never jumped into the series yet..
Thank you very much.
Till the end of time is my number 1. It is one of my top 5 favorite games ever. I spent so much time in it and the story qas absolutely captivating.
I've actually never played a Star Ocean game and tbh I was on the fence but I'm definitely gonna grab 3 of the games! Thanks for the video!
SO4 has one of the most addicting gameplay I've ever played... Even tho the story is silly I loved it
The story wasn't silly.
It was torturous.
@@stuflames4769 .... all I can remember from SO4 was *KAY?* (rolls around the floor in pain after uttering the word)
Still waiting for The Second Story to be remastered and released on the psn store... still waiting.
Has been already, in Japan.
Meanwhile thousands of people having a great time on ePSXe finishing that game again. Good job dude.
@@m4rcin847 Yeah so? I can play it on my phone if I want too but I prefer my PS4 soon to be PS5. Who the hell are you to tell me otherwise?
@@paskwawi2007 Keep waiting for your dear PSN then. Stupid fanboys...
I just want a port idc about remastered
My top 5
1. Star Ocean 2nd Evolution
2. Star Ocean First Departure
3. Star Ocean Til the End of Time
4. Star Ocean the Last Hope
5. Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness
I'd switch Last Hope and TTEOT. I mean the Meta plot was just stupid and almost ruined the series for me. Last Hope at least had space travel in it.
Second Story is in my top five RPGs of all time.
With reason.
For me it is:
5. SO5
4. SO1
3. SO2
2. SO4
1. SO3
SO3 Director Cut is actually one of the best JRPGs i have ever played, it's in my top 3 for sure, i loved every second of it every time i replayed it. Amazing cast, great story, superior combat, lot of content
Yeah, you either love the amazing story and the plot twist in 3 or you loathe it, lol. It’s my favorite jrpg as well.
Absolutely, i thought it was very well done and changed pretty much the whole SO universe which yeah, lot of people had problems coping with
Also, there’s Cliff :D
@@darkfyraproductions7958 Yes, Director's Cut was the only version released in the west, i have the PSN version so i can confirm it.
Enjoy, it is truly a masterpiece
Second story is better ..
I think you got the ranking exactly right. Absolutely.
Star Ocean 2 definitely the best... they got a version of the first departure coming to switch...great video 👌
Agree 100% with the order. Star Ocean 2 is not just the best SO game, but also one of my favorite JRPGs ever. Ashton & Opera are a couple of the most fun characters in battle of any game IMO.
You had to pick 1 over the other. I always liked bowman for battle his explosion pills would wreck dudes.
Buck Roger yeah I’ve beaten it multiple times and used each in different playthroughs and love both. Never really used Bowman, though. Guess I need to revisit SO2!
@@brndn31107 you only got bowman if you played as Claude.
Hopefully one day tri ace will be giving the chance to make another star ocean game on the level of the second story.
Awesome video man! I really love the Star Ocean series. There is something about this JRPG series that has a charm to it. I have not played SO1 nor SO2 due to the rarity of those games but I have played the rest. Here's my list
1. Star Ocean 4
2. Star Ocean 3
3. Star Ocean 5
I was torn between SO3 and SO4. Maria and Reimi are my two favorite female protagonists in those games and the combat in both games are good in their own respect. But there is something about S04's story that really stuck to me. I love the setting and the different planet exploration in SO4 as well. The plot in SO3 didn't bother me like most people, but my biggest problem is the character development seemed to completely stop in that game after a certain point in the story.
Thanks again for your honest review and here's hoping the series continues to strive with Star Ocean 6 hopefully in the near future.
SO: Second Evolution was my first Star Ocean game, which in some ways ruined the rest of the games for me. LOL. I loved it so much that after I completed both sides of the game, I bought an official guide to find all of the tiny things that I hadn't found myself. That extra dungeon in the remake is wonderful as well.
This was my experience with Star Ocean 3. It was quite a ride:
1. Too slow. Too much yapping. Not enough action.
2. Things are finally moving. This game seems pretty cool.
3. A new planet to check out.
4. OK. Am I done here? When do I move on?
5. Am I EVER going to get off this $*^&ing planet??
6. Okay. things are finally getting interesting.
7. WOW!! This is COOL! I can't wait to see what happens next!
8. WTF?????
Data should behave as such!
"If we're going to leave here, we might as well leave with that hot chick over there!"
- Cliff Fittir
"I appreciate you calling me 'hot', though 'chick' I could live without."
- Nel Zelpher
"Hey, she heard us."
- Fayt Leingod
"Scarrry!"
- Cliff
Yeah, I pretty much agree also, some of the characters never introduce themselves to them.
that 211 floor building in SO3... SO3 was the only one I beat in depth. Tales of hearts R felt like playing one of the SO, because of the free run.
Man the ending of SO3 blew my mind still does this many years later =) thx Ba Eric
I missed like half the ending. A church group came knocking at my door so I talked to them for a bit then went back to see the ending was still playing. Wouldn't mind if star ocean 6 takes place some time after 3.
I am wondering how they would make a solid sequel to star ocean 3. Since in part 3 you defeat the big bad 4th dimensional ruler or boss, which was pretty much like the creator of the entire star ocean universe after all those years.
@@TheMixedPlateFrequency the plot twist is just the usual JRPG twists about killing the Gods/Creator but with the sci-fi flavor as opposed to fantasy and religion. Going forward just like any jrpg before it after defeating the creators/gods the people just regained their independence.
This channel is EXTREMELY underrated
If only there was top 5 Valkyrie Profile Games.... :(
4 so far... Almost there, hahaha.
@@Humant top 5 tri ace games
@Old Liquid 2 prob best and 3 worst
The first would probably still be the best. My favorite party was Lenneth, Arngrim, Suo, and Jelanda
@@Humant Radiata Stories is an amazing game!
Dope list! Personally international and till the end of time are my favorites! Till The End of Time was basically my childhood!
I saw Star Ocean 2 at a pawn shop back in 2002. A purchase I will never regret, that game was fantastic, the best star ocean of all. Ashton was the best character out of already amazing characters, the music was incomparable to many other RPG songs. That game was fantastic, the only bad thing was it wasn't longer.
I would love them to create a direct sequel to Till the End of Time.
Or at least make "Till The End of Time" longer with exploration of Greeton and a journey to Roak after you defeat the final boss.
If there is a sequel to "Till The End of Time", the game would be set in Roak or Expel where human colonists are starting a new life after the Creator and the Executioners destroyed their home world, Earth.
That would be similar to the Eldarian survivors whom abandoned their advanced technology, colonize Lemuris, and start a new life after the Missing Procedure destroyed their home world, Eldar, in "The Last Hope".
It would make the game sound similar to Phantasy Star II when the Parmanians were forced to leave their planet after the humans destroyed it, colonize other worlds in the Algol System like Motavia and Dezolis, or some of them colonized other star systems.
Would be interesting taking into consideration how everyone is just an RPG character for 4D beings
@@HalifaxHercules yea I was always upset they did nothing with greeton.. they just need to add a dlc or something Lol
It wouldn’t make sense lol
@@NotCharAznable Depends on how you perceive the ending, I imagine that each characters individual ending is probably canon. The Fayt-Sophia ending where they meet with Ryoko on Expel would be plausably canon as well, its their most likely eventual paths. I was thinking since the Eternal Sphere/3rd Dimension broke free from the influence of the 4th Dimensionals, it doesn't eliminate the possibility of dimensional interlopers. Im sure Luther wasn't the only one who would be concerned with the threat of being attacked anywhere at any given moment. The populace would quickly be swept by fear once word got out that major security figures, Sphere executives and the President/CEO of Sphere were critically injured and/or killed. It wouldnt be a stretch to imagine there would be some Eternal Sphere developers that shared the same outlook and made some type of device to reconnect the two dimensions and go after Fayt, Maria, and Sophia along with the other members of the party. Not to mention the possibility of going back to Elicoor II to explore Greeton or other locations, potential new planets would be cool too, a temporary treaty with the Vendeeni and a short trip to Vendeen might be pretty cool. Given their dictonary entry said they evolved from shark-type creatures, they probably have a hyper advanced Atlantean society. One thing that Star Ocean always excelled at was creating beautiful environments, that combined with the storytelling created a magic that still hasnt been beaten to this day in my opinion. Star Ocean 3 has plenty of potential for a sequel, if Star Ocean 2 got a sequel, I dont see why 3 couldnt as well.
Agree with the ordering. Also, music in SO2 is some of the best VG music of all time.
I've really been digging your channel
Cool, glad you like it!
one of my favorite series! Second Evolution for PS1 is one of the first games I played on that system along with FFVII. Thanks for making this vid!
No problem, glad you liked it.
Star Ocean is one of those series that deserves more attention. And I really hope they'll manage to find a way past the timeline of Till the End of Time (which is one of my TOP 5 games of all time) and stop making prequels only.
They should just OMIT Till the End of Time from the Timeline Entirely, the META plot nearly destroyed the series.
@@decusq seriously. That 4D bullshit was disrespectful to the events of SO1 and 2. It pretty much negated all of the significance, and it made it impossible for me to get back into any sequel.
Can't suspend my disbelief enough after that game. Omit it.
It's a terrible, terrible story.
@@decusq yeah i'd scrap it from the canon>
i'd like see a direct sequel from SO2 and not like SO3 but basically something that's like 10 or so years after SO2 so that we still see most if not all of SO2's casts and maybe SO1's too.
@@Clavitz1 blue sphere is what you are talking about its a direct sequel to 2.
@@daemonisedone4256 oh I know about that but it wasn't on the level of the main games. that's what i was referring to.
but good point out :)
Only played 3, 4 and 5 but my order is 4, 3, 5. Enjoyed 4 so much I platted it twice. 3 has an amazing twist and Maria is pretty nice. 5 was kinda meh but I didn't hate it like everyone else in the world. Could've been longer as well.
Can't bring myself to hate SO5 either. Decent game. 7 out of 10 I'd say.
I never saw Second Story, I like those graphics and the background too, and your video is another video that states how good that game is, so now I am intrigued by it. Time to do some research, thank you.
Thanks for this, and for including the chronological order at the end!
Despite all the criticisms i love SO4. Personally the most satisfying combat system ive ever experienced.
Hated the character designs and dungeon length in 4
@@stephentrader9142 yeah the dungeon is horrifying, i still have nightmares about it. And that small little girl is annoying as hell. But I really do miss the gameplay
esa es la mejor aunque pongan la 2 y la 3 por alante
I agree with your order this time. I might put 1 above 4, but I'm not mad at the list as is at all. Agreed :)
"Ready Gyoro?"
"Ready Ururun?"
That is all.
"uses triace skill" OOO THE ALLMIGHTY TRIACE!
My favorite is Star Ocean 3 but not for the reason you think. This game has a whole bunch of cheesy and awkward moments that it wants you take seriously but it just comes off as hilarious. My favorite moment is when this serious moment happens where someone dies, and so our heroes fight the muderer to avenge they're death. And I kid you not, there's this groovy techno song that plays during the fight that has lyrics that go "WORK THAT BODY! WORK THAT BODY! MAKE SURE YOU DON'T HURT NOBODY!" By the way the composer to the Star Ocean series is the same one who composed for all Tales games and the Dark Souls games. I guess he was a really big fan of space jam. But yeah, I love Star Ocean 3 mostly because it's unintentionally hilarious.
EDIT: The song is called Bitter Dance. Just it look up alongside Star Ocean 3 ost. Do not look at the comment section tho because you will be spoiled!
Whaaaaat? That song is from PERSONA 3, WTF??
@@ErickLandonRPG I know! It's hilariously amazing! It was apparently a lyric from the Space Jam theme. The one that goes "COME ON AND SLAM, AND WELCOME TO THE JAM!" I love Star Ocean 3.
Lmfaoooo star ocean 3 is definitely in my top 5 favorites, I’ve replayed it several times throughout the years. But I know exactly what you mean! Lol and the emotional reaction times are delayed and have a lag and it makes me roll my eyes and chuckle every time. How many times does Fayt say “No!.... NOOOOO” lmao
@@edgarmorales9950 Yeah, the lyrics to that song has been in multiple pieces
In the English dub, some of the enemies say funny things. Like that fat merchant looking one you find in the first two planets. He would go "AHHH MY MONEY MY MONEY AAAAAAAAAAAH" and says so repeatedly while breaking the quote when tripping itself.
Came here after Star Ocean 6 was announced. Man I'm so excited to hop back into this universe!
as the second story started, i got a shiver, i loved it so much, i need to play it soon again!!
Star Ocean Till the End of Time was my first Star Ocean game.
Till now, it's still one of the best JRPGs I have played in my life. I played this several times till I remember the exact plot sequence happened in Disc 1. But only once I reached the ending. I really love the song and soundtracks used in this game.
Star ocean 3 would be mid if it wasn't for motoi sakuraba
Tried playing it again and it just wasn't hitting like it did before
For me.
1.2nd story - hands down the best and I still play this one from time to time.
2.till the end of time - Pretty solid game but still not as good as 2nd story.
3.first departure - Story and chars is a bit forgettable for me but still an ok game overall.
4.last hope - I have a love and hate relationship with this game. An ok game but doesn't really have the charm of past star oceans.
5.integrity and faithlessness - what an incomplete mess and stinker this game was.
2nd story is one of my top 10 games of all time, me and my brother rented it and i watched my brother play, and when he went to bed i stayed up all night playing it, for a week. i tried playing the ps2 one but i couldn't figure out the stupid bonus exp meter so i said fuck it, i gave it a go. the ps3 one i couldn't even start the game i couldn't figure out how to leave the beach so fuck that game
Is anyone gonna play Star ocean first departure R?
Me!
you know it! Cant wait to finally beat this game
Is this the first game?
@@jasondp3546 remake of the remake of the first one
Pirena92 is this game any good! Does not seem like they did anything to the graphics
The Second Story on the PS1 is also my most favorite Star Ocean game. The Skill system and combat I love.
As for Till the End of Time Square-Enix only released the Director's Cut in The West because the original game was such a mess. The only thing that turned me off on part III is the MP kills. It is the first game with Battle Trophies
Part IV is a good, if flawed game. The Blindsides really makes that game shine. This game is brutal for completionists because getting all of the Battle Trophies require mutiple playthroughs.
Part V is mediocre; the worst of the worst of the series but by no means a bad game. I agree with all your points about that game.
I have not played part I because I don't have a PSP with a UMD drive.
Item crafting is an intregal part of the franchise and most games pulled it off well, with Part V being the laziest.
Star Ocean: The Second Story was so good. Brings back memories just watching this.
star ocean the second is one of my favorites , so many good memories , such a deep game with so many features most game could not handle, relationship , you action changing game scenes , you can make the ending you want , also gave me one character i will never forget , Ashton Anchors , god how i loved to play as him , so many good skills , scenes and all.
Star Ocean - The Last Hope is my favorite Star Ocean game in the series, i love this game and combat gameplay is só GREAT brother! No masterpiece game but this game is a best jrpgs ever made!
No.
It's evil.
The characters are spiritual death, incarnate.
I played The Second Story multiple times. Now I'm playing the Second Evolution for the first time and it's really good. I surely recommend it.
Playing blue sphere is a motivation to learn Japanese tbh. Also I don't think Blue Sphere is a spinoff since it's a direct sequel to Star Ocean 2. At least I thought it was canon
I think I have beaten 2nd story 3 times. Love the ending music btw. What a great game. So much nostalgia
Another great video!! Just found your channel recently and really enjoy your content! Keep up the great work!!
Thanks, man!!
Love this series. I only played 2nd story which is one of my favorite jrpg ever; and first departure which is kinda similar. What I really love about 2nd story is that there is "item creation" and also the fair was a really neat place to visit and have fun.
Good list....I'm playing Star Ocean Second Evolution right now.....
I held my breath until i heard what is number 2. Definitely so2 is the best so
Star Ocean 2nd Story... 10/10 JRPG fans
You liked Maria Traydor, I was CRAZY for Nel Zelpher
Nel is underrated in my opinion
You are a man of culture.
Maybe it's because one is a harbinger of death with energy beam every1 used and the other ones playing Naruto and kinda sucked in comparison. That's how it was for me.
My brother was so obsessed with Star Ocean 2 growing up that he would actually only do some playthroughs by only playing them during the time of the day/night that were equivalent to the game.
Very cool list! I liked how you included the timeline. Nice touch!
To be honest, I've only play 2nd Story but loved it a ton! I bought Til The End of Time but never had time. Been eyeballing the first one on the Nintendo Switch eShop though!
I liked how the whole party battled in S.O. 5 instead of swapping characters in and out.
This made the game more confusing than anything. It's nice from the developers to try a more "realistic" approach but if this has a negative impact on the gameplay this is useless.
The game still lacked originality, especially when it used music similar to "Till The End of Time" and "The Last Hope".
i know its the most hated but faithfulness and integrity is my most favorite
great video man, hope you had a great holiday season and so cool to see your subs at 11K!!!!
Thank you.
I've only played 3,4 and 5 but I really love 3 and 4. Never really had an issue with the twist in 3, and the post game content is amazing. I've beat each of them around 6 times. Nel over Maria any day lol
I like your voice. Sounds so happy
I totally agree with these ranks, especially #1 was my fav.
I knew you'd make the right decision and put The Second Story first.
As someone who is an avid collector of SO2 and considers it her favorite video game of all time, thanks!
I get a lot of hate for my list, as I can't stand pretty much anything about 3. :( I've tried over and over again to love that game since first day release in the US. But personally I would put it as 2, 1, 4, 5, and 3.
Also, SO3 only had one release in the states and it is the director's cut. :) And since you haven't played SO2:SE on PSP, I would say if you can get the original play it instead. The remake is good if you have no other way to play, can stick through the nerfed basic attack preventing attack spamming, prefer newer/cutscene voice acting, like the new Square "cool guy" terms, and some mild spell censorship... it also is worth playing once just because Dias Flac gets some PAs and Welch was added. SO1 I could go either way, but the remake gives you an extra character and plays closer to SO2:SE while SO1 on SNES is almost identical to Tales of Phantasia (SNES) or Tales of Destiny (PS1).
my favorite games of all time around this time period were Star Ocean the second story, Saga Frontier, Suikoden 2, Xenogears, Front Mission 3, Wild Arms
The big twist in SOTET was an absolute mindfuck for me. And it became my favorite.
Star Ocean the second story, is my favorite game of all time.
ITS ONE OF MY FAVOURITES TOO BUT I THINK SUIKODEN 2 WOULD BE MY VERY FAVOURITE. WHEN I PLAYED STAR OCEAN 2, I PLAYED IT ON MY PSX AND IF MY MEMORY IS CORRECT THE DISC WAS A COPIED ONE AND I HAD TO GET MY PSX CHIPPED. IM NOW 67 SO I AM OLD. MY PSX DIDNT WORK ANYMORE, LONG STORY CUT SHORT AND IVE STILL GOT MY PS2 AND SOME OTHER CONSOLES BUT NOT A PSX ANYMORE. I WISH I STILL COULD PLAY STAR OCEAN 2. I DOUBT IT WOULD WORK ON MY PS2 AS ITS PAL AND NOT NTSC. I REMEMBER THE GAME BEING A REALLY GOOD GAME, BUT VERY HARD TO PLAY. I FOUND I HAD TO KEEP LEVELLING UP TO KILL ENEMIES. I DONT MIND DOING THAT. AND I RECALL A SECTION IN THE LATER PART OF THE GAME WHERE THERE WAS SOME PUZZLE AND YOU HAD TO BE ON SQUARES OF SOME SORT. NOW THAT PUZZLE WAS SO HARD AND I HAD TO GET SOME HELP WITH IT, OTHER WISE I WOULDNT HAVE GOTTEN THROUGH IT. BUT OVER ALL IT WAS A REALLY GOOD GAME.
i loved star ocean 2 i remember breaking it due to some private actions in which you could steal from people and get some items WAAAY before your supposed to and use the camera to copy a gem that levels you up so you can level up to lvl 100 really early in the game and crush most of the game and be way over leveled even in the end game and even beat the arena fight you are supposed to lose (it still counts as a lose though LOL)
i havent played 5,but the order is very accurate.the 2nd one is the best.
The Super Famicom version of Star Ocean has better art design and music than the remake IMO. Plus the original game kinda made you sympathize with the villain more, the remake just made him pure evil.
I played Star Ocean 2 all the way through with both main characters. The cooking battle in fun city is what introduced me to the original Iron Chef.
The last hope is the beeeest!!!
That's one of the worst
The gameplay is fantastic. The story is actual hell.
I've played and beat 3 & 4. For 3, loved Nel, Abel and especially Maria (once you get her Energy Burst skill. 😜), and 4 because of the sidestep mechanic, the bonus gauge, Arumat and of course Myuria. 😍 Currently playing 2 for my PS1 emulator on my Android phone.
Thanks for the timelines man, that’s always cool to see.
Till the End of Time was the first JRPG I ever finished, I was just so enthralled with it I couldn't stop playing it.
So, here we go:
5- Integrity, 4- Second Story, 3- First Departure R, 2- The Last Hope, 1- Till the End of Time.
Currently Playing Last Hope again on PC and First Departure R for my second run on Switch.
My advice to those that want to get into Star Ocean, do not take the story seriously like you would a Tales game. If you've ever played Kingdom Hearts and know how ridiculous and almost stupid the story is (I'm not talking about it's convolutedness by the way), Star Ocean will feel right at home.
One more thing, with every Star Ocean game, TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CREATION SYSTEM!!! You will make the game a lot harder if you don't! I reccomend looking up guides for creating all the necessary items you need. Hell you'll probably only be able to get the best weapons and armor in the game you're playing only by creating and synthesizing.
I don't really take story in a Tales game seriously anyways.
@Rudy Straight I know, but if you don't do it, it's gonna make it harder on you. It ends up feeling like a chore. I remember it was really bad in Star Ocean 3 where someone actually made a website program that's made to help people calculate what options they should put in for the creation system. I'm not joking. A FAN had to create a program to help others get through a game mechanic that is so obnoxiously complicated.
How can you say that KH has a ridicolous story dude..?
Ill go by combat enjoyment for me and that is
1. SO2
2. SO5
3. SO1
4. SO4
5. SO3
the reason SO3 is bottom is because of the knockdown immunity the game had that interrupted attack chains. there were several Techs that were more of a hindrance compared to other simple skills.
Star Ocean: The Second Story...incredible. So much love!
Star ocean 1: Never played it unfortunately.
star ocean 2: Definitely one of the best in the series. Wish I can play it again. The combat and private actions were cool.
star ocean 3: Pretty fun game play, despite it's criticisms it's a really good game. Decent voice acting.
star ocean 4: terrible voice acting turned a lot of people off, so make sure to play international not xbox. again fun gameplay.
star ocean 5: Glad I never bothered to try it. From what I'm seeing, it's a rushed pos. Hopefully they can redeem themselves.
Koro let me help you out brother
Star ocean 1: Like he said great elements as a beginning to the franchise. Some repeating dynamics especially with the special skills. But the PA factors weren't bad at all.
Star ocean 2: Same as the first, great character development in my opinion. Not many repeating elements but I wish the special skills had more diversity to them. The pa's are good as well. The special dungeon though didn't offer many options for the characters to grow besides swordsmans really so that kinda sucked but still love the game
Star ocean 3: Probably my favorite out of them all. Long story, great character development, pa's are really good with some good humor. Special skills kick ass.
Star ocean 4(international); Not my favorite but not the least favorite either. Character development was meh at least from a fan stand point. Pa's weren't the best either. Game play and special skills I did like though, unique skills for every character. Not as long as 3 but decent game play time.
Star ocean 5: 😭😭😭. Not what I expected from the series at all. Characters were just not enthusiastic at all so far as development, it was also really short compared to the others. But I did love the game play element; so far as entering with all characters and how fluid it was to engage in battle. But the PA and special skills I thought needed a lot of work. Skills kind of repeated from the other games and I like to see individuality. Some good elements but just not what I thought I'd see from the franchise at all. I expected much much better but I can't say it's awful just not as great as any of us as fans would think
As a die hard fan I think introductions of elements of each of the games is essential. Character development, pa's and skill development from 1 and 2. Story length, game play, and special skills from 3 and 4. And the game play fluidity and ability to fight with all characters from 5. Then add maybe some newer elements like graphics and then you would have a really fantastic star ocean game.
I would have to say Star Ocean Till The End of Time for me. I'm actually replaying this one right now. It's one of the games I never truly finished playing the bonus dungeon due to the fact that my fat ps2 kept hanging from the intense gameplay I made it go through. I'm playing it on pc now instead with upscaled graphics. So worth it like a remastered new Star Ocean game now. Truth is pretty much from earliest to last games would be around where I would place the rankings in order.
I know that I have said it before, but that intro music is epic!
SOTEOT is actually available on PS4 now as well, where I completed it on finally(I kinda benched it for years). Totally agree with Maria being a top favorite, clearly should have been her as the protag but ehh, being second protag is fine too. The game can crash every now and then (only saw it happen once out of like 90 hours) but I think even then its not that bad. I think the original PS2 NA release had the same problem. Loved the postgame stuff!
I’m pretty sure the ps2 version never crashed. I had over 200 hours on it back in the day, and never had issues with the game. However, that might of just been me being lucky.
@@Evil_Chronic Yea, the original Japanese version was reallly bad, but the NA one was mostly fixed, it was rare at least from what I was reading, even the PS4 one for me anyway only crashed like once in 90 hours which was fine, I only lost like 30 minutes which was annoying but not a deal breaker or anything. Some people have horror stories on PS4 though, or they're just complaining alot, lol. Impressed on the 200 hours! That postgame content really was a blast!
No Star Ocean fucks up at the final boss like SO5. That fucking glitch almost killed the game for me.
Brendan Goodell I haven’t played it on the PS4 yet. I have it, just other games have taken my time. Also was hoping it would be fixed by the time I wanted to play it. And yeah the post game is what caused me to dump so much time in it. Getting the the perfect gear from removing the crappy abilities off the best gear, and then merging them with that one broken accessory plus the +1000 Atk crystals. Was fun.
SO3 is my favorite jrpg game of all time. I like 1 and 2, but love the story and the twist in 3. I really wasn’t a fan of 4 and 5. And yes María is bae.
i hated the twist in 3
The twist was, in my opinion, one of the worst offenders of bad story, in all of literature. It completely made the first two games and the universe destroying threats irrelevant, as it was only part of an MMO, it also made it so that future installments of the series could not take place after the game, hence all the subsequent have taken place before it.
Star ocean 3 was best for me too hands down a killer game next to radiata stories
@@Piisuke I think people who werr introduced to the series through playing SO3, have no problem with the plot twist. But those who played 1 and 2 first hate SO3 for the plot twist.
Erick they just brought back the Star Ocean event in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. LOL
I actually downloaded the Star Ocean Anamnesis for mobile. its ok.
This list is 100% accurate and I am very happy to have seen it!
Till the end of time was the first I ever played in the series and I still play it to this day, it will always be the top spot for me. This game also had one of my favorite cinematics of Fayt first using Ethereal Blast to destroy the Vendeeni.
First Departure R is second for me, I enjoyed the characters and the game play though I've only beat it once. I'm sure there is still a ton I have to discover in this game.
I'm probably one of the few that actually did enjoy Integrity and faithlessness, the game wasn't bad it just felt really short and I would have preferred to be able to control Relia. I liked the characters and the gameplay itself brought back memories of Till the end of time, which probably also influences my bias. The addition of roles felt nice and could pave the way for an improved version for future games. I always felt like tactics in the previous games didn't do a whole lot and the SO series could use something like gambits from FFXII and for me at least roles felt nice.
Last Hope was fun but I was super annoyed by Edges character. Blindsides were fun to an extent but I felt like they were too important, you had to blindside EVERYTHING. The other characters were decent but aside from Myuria and Arumat everyone felt like they had over childish personalities.
Sadly I have yet to play Second Story/ evolution but I do have it on my list to play someday but both the PS1 and PSP versions are close to 200 USD and honestly I would prefer not to play it on the PSP. If I could find a good deal or if this game was ever released on PSN I would absolutely buy it and from what I've researched it sounds like most people enjoyed this game the most so I can see my order shifting, though I can't see anything replacing Till the end of time for me if not just for personal reasons.
almost agree with ur list. i liked star ocean 5 more than last hope but thats me. great review man
I just realized upon watching your video a second time, you sound just like Pedro Pascal !! Big fan of him
I’m eagerly and anxiously awaiting the 2022 Star Ocean game! With Atelier Sophie 2 and FFXVI releasing that year as well, 2022 looks like it’s gonna be a great year for JRPGs :)
Great video. Looking forward to start this series
Thanks.
I had an N64 so I was happy with Zelda, and all the wrestling games. My friend had a playstation, a and I seen the glory of MGS, and Resident Evil. Then I seen him playing FFVll, and Legend of Dragoon, but it was Star Ocean that got me into Jrpgs
This series is among the best Japan ever produced. I'm always sad everytime I'm reminded that the series had basically concluded it's epic story (not killed by it's makers like so many others out there), but I get it, every proper story has to end someday. At least it's a proper, good ending, so no complaints there.
Man I miss Precis' antics.
Played through Star Ocean 2 with both claude and rena. Probably put 250hrs into this game. I just loved everything about it. Except casting spells in battle took forever.
As a big star ocean fan I have to say your list is spot on. I also liked star ocean 5 but sadly the game was way way to short. My biggest complaint about star ocean 5 is that you can really tell that the game pretty much got the plug pulled on it.
I actually hated star ocean 3 at first because of how much the battle system was changed. Got so mad that I stopped playing the game for like 2 months. But by the time I got halfway through the game I was super strong from endless hours of level grinding.
Star ocean 2 is one of my all time favorite rpgs and games.
Star Ocean series in a nutshell...A scifi JRPG...until you get marooned on a planet with medievil tech.
Wait, that happens in more one game? That happened twice in til the end of time.
to me that's the best trait of the series, a full scjfi jrpg would be boring, just my opinion
Isn't that like Phantasy Star?
In Till the end of Time I played through the whole game without realizing there was a way to mute the voices in battles. I heard the protagonist scream "Sidekick!" about 487,000 times before the credits rolled.
Was blown away when I realized I could turn those voices off. Played the game through twice more after that.
Cool video. I'll admit, the only Star Ocean game I've played and finished is Star Ocean: The Last Hope. While it had its flaws, it was a decent game. I hope I can play the other titles someday.