One of the things that I really enjoyed about the game that I realized towards the end was that this game rewards players who engage with it. For example, if you take the time to do the side quests you unlock the crafting and more side quests, and the private interactions can upgrade your characters, and there's actually lots to do out on most of the maps even if it's just revisiting them to gather DUMA points but if you're not someone who cares to revisit areas, scour over nooks and crannies, you could easily focus on the main story and miss a lot of good stuff.
I did all the side missions, but I skipped a lot of private interactions bc I wanted the ray x laeticia ending and didn't want to screw it up by accidentally getting the other characters affection levels up.
Lol, wow, I've never played a game and didn't 100% it, so the idea of just playing the main story is just so foreign to me, that would be like watching a TV series and skipping every other episode, IMO if you don't get 100% then your opinion on the game should be valued far less than someone who did
Like every Star Ocean fan, I am eternally bound to buy every game tri-ace releases, deperately hoping they will one day be able to re-capture the magic of Star Ocean 2.
Unfortunately SO2 had horrible gameplay, yes the story was good but if the combat sucks then I just feel like I'm wasting my time, hopefully the remake will fix the combat system
@@mathewhosier9739 I would disagree on the gameplay part, it had simple but enjoyable gameplay to me. Definitely an area that could use some expansion.
I never realized people didnt like Last Hope. I loved it and still replay it. The voice acting makes me laugh so hard it makes it worth playing. I guess ill pick up divine force
Yeah it was the english va who make me didnt like it. When they 1st time release on x360 only eng dub available so it worst, now you can change it make different much
I agree with on Star Ocean Divine Force. I got this game for Christmas of 2022 all by with God of War Ragnarok. But as soon as I popped the disc into my PS5 and installed the game, I ended up regretting adding the game to my Holiday Wishlist. Here’s a list of things wrong with this game 1. The Opening was horrible. It’s just trying way too hard to be edgy and metal and it ends up being cringe. 2. The graphics are outdated. This game would have made some sort of impact for the PS3. 3. The gameplay is mediocre. I’m just hacking and slashing without any interesting strategy. 4. The characters are all forgettable. They’re all cookie cutter anime stereotypes. Elena and Nina are kinda interesting because they look attractive. 5. The level system is bad. Half of the time I don’t feel like I’m getting any stronger at all. 6. The soundtrack is forgettable. It’s just generic rpg music after another. 7. The locations are very engaging. There’s not point of interest or any thing to do for side activities. 8. The story is forgettable. It’s just the main characters fighting against the evil empire and the emperor takes on a final form. 9. The two main characters are forgettable. Raymond is your typical badass anime hero with a sword while the Princess character goes through a lot of cliched character traits like, being a strong fighter and being married off to an asshole. 10. Difficulty spikes all over the f**king place. The enemies were piss easy to kill while most of the boss fights just kept on kicking my ass. There was that one military asshole who kept killing me over and over again. I just gave up playing the game all together I had a way more fun time with God of War Ragnarok, and Legend of Dragoon, Ys 8 and 9, Hogwarts Legacy, Final Fantasy 16 and Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Those games were fun to play and most of them didn’t bore me with mediocre stories and piss me off with difficulty spikes that just goes all over the place
I bought this game expecting a "PS2 JRPG" and I wasn't disappointed that's what I got. Simple story, diverse characters (Ray looking generic af tho), and looked great artistically with the multiple environments. It was a blast to play + I'm a min/max player so I spent 6 hours of pure crafting just to create accessories that level up my characters to max in a few minutes so the difficulty spike never occured since I was too OP. Glad I got it on sale for $42 and was well worth it for what I wanted out of it
This game was a lot of fun. Aside from that Ray looked so goofy to me, like his head wasn't the right size for his body or something. He's all hair and biceps.
@@medalgearsalad1419 it has some cringe moments but not as many as i expected, it takes time for story and all combat elements to unveil but after they do it's a really fun ride (minus the extremely dumb companion ai that keeps on dying)
If they were going to try and duplicate the Tales series combat, they needed to at LEAST meet the level set, if not pass it. The story and characters are interesting enough, but the combat and broad, open, boring maps....I just couldn't play it.
Other reviews make me sad, and not for the standard cliche reasons: "They are so close to being good". That isn't really the case, rather it makes me frustrated because despite the fact other reviews are moving towards being Ian tier reviews, the problems that I have with these other reviews are completely related to one factor: they are not the amazing and incomparable Ianbits. I'm actually pretty astounded at how godly these reviews are: their critical variety, script quality, and overall attention to detail. Thank you, from your friendly Whale friend
That crafting system reminds me of the invention systems for previous games. Seems they never really locked down where the problems were. I remember buying the hint guide for Till The End Of Time, and encountering one of the biggest copes I've ever seen a dev put out. The problem was there was an enemy boss about halfway into the game that was considered "where the real fight starts". It was easily 1000 times more powerful than anything you'd fought until then. The official hint guide solution: Be the first person on the planet to have invented a ridiculously powerful permanent power up item that takes craploads of crafting stuff you can't get yet and is the product of a lucky random craft at something stupid like a 2% chance each attempt. Chances were the player had never even heard of that thing to know it was even a possible option, and worse, if you took too long some other NPC owned the patent to it's creation because there was an invention arms race built into the game where you had to craft things as soon as possible if you wanted the right to make them. But if you knew it even existed and somehow made a ton of them, it not only made the boss easy to kill, but the entire rest of the game became a cakewalk... and that was what they *wanted* you to do. :(
@@Ianbits When the hint guide itself has to preface it's solution with "It may feel like cheating, but..." you know that they know that they screwed up. Which makes it even more frustrating because you'd expect them to learn something from that for the next iteration.
I don't know why fans or anyone shit on the "last hope" it was a good rpg even one of my best one it was the one that got my curiosity on the star ocean franchise and compare to the "the divine force" it is way better I mean the combat and the character design is way much appealing and better looking then any of the star ocean games.
To me, it just seems Tri-Ace is trying to sell the Star Ocean games as AAA titles but they lack the budget and resources to truly give the games the polish and depth they need. I would have much prefered them taking the route of the Octopath Traveler, and made a modern Star Ocean game with the retro graphic style of Star Ocean 1 and 2. And please... give me a Star Ocean game in an actual sci-fi setting for once. Do we really need each game to have a sword-wielding protagonist stranded on a underdeveloped planet every time?
the last hope was so fun but its voice acting was indeed criminally bad, i did an entire playthrough with no sound. i liked integrity and faithlessness also. till the end of time is my favorite, crafting, skills, and the combat system were so good.
Finished in 50 hours somehow got Malkya ending while I never really add or interacts with her lol Story wise kinda meh.. but one thing that really gets me is the practically zero budget for the FMV/cutscene segment! Like some scene that supposed to be grand was literally empty with only the main cast.. like it doesnt hurt them to put at some few NPCs to populate the scene Yea I cant even comment on the "space" aspect, the space battles at most only last for few seconds and one scene was literally shown on a dotted line pic on the monitor The Menook space battle was only shown with characters talking to each other, you cant even see the damn battle!
it was unfortunate you couldn't engage with the environment and interact with objects around the world like in Till the End of Time. and everyone just wants to duel.
Bruh, I didn't even know until today that this game existed. I saw the title mentioned in a Reddit post that was dumping on Kotaku for being shit and thought I'd look it up. I haven't played a Star Ocean title since Til the End of Time, I'm excited to give it a try when I'm not working. Good video, too. I can see the game has issues, but I came to see the general aesthetic and I think I'll enjoy it.
I'm not sure if the game explains this at the beginning or not cause it's been a while but with blindsides they tend to only work if an enemy is specifically targeting you with an attack and, in the case of bigger enemies, only works on certain moves that they do. For instance, the optional sandman boss that you can fight at the beginning can be blindsided when he starts to do either his inhale move or the one where he punches the ground and a fist emerges underneath you, I can't remember which. Pretty much every boss or bigger enemy in the game operates like this and later on in the game, you start getting to the point where some fights end off the first blindside alone because of how stupid high the damage benefit is. It's a pretty cool system and I honestly prefer it to 4's version of it.
I started this game recently and I'm having a good time! I'm enjoying it more than 4, but less than 1 and 2. Haven't played 3 or 5. But man, you are dead on in your criticisms. I think on balance it's a good and fun game for me, but it could be better. Also...text size wtffff
Resonance of fate was actually pretty interesting, but the battle system never developed into anything more interesting than "use machine guns to build up all their scratch damage and pop them with a pistol".
I really wish the story was more fromt and center in that game too, it's really weird how much lore is written for that game when almost none of it is actually implemented in an understandable way
I tried this after finishing Hogwarts legacy and Elden ring before that,big mistake.Really cheap feeling and shallow and I pushed on for a wasted twenty hours but it’s got so many things that annoyed me like the terrible character models and reused city scapes and bland fight mechanics and basic graphics it’s like a ps3 game in higher resolution.
Quite agree the worst two companions in fights are Elena and Marielle who use up all your health restoration supplies because they are to weak in combat and a close third is albaird as although he is moderately powerful in combat he two takes damage two quickly and quite often wanders off in the wrong direction straight into more trouble than he can handle especially in the cottorinth mountain pass where he walks into the poison areas instead of following you higher up on the ridge
Regarding the character designs and costumes, let me offer you my tidbits: Laeticia's costume and Mierielle's? Tremendously impractical. How do either of them go to the damn bathroom wearing those?? At least everyone elses' is more... practical and occasionally mesh well with the setting. One thing I love about Laeticia is that she's a break from Millie and Rena and even Sophia or Reimi. Like how the first female who joins you has to be a Heal Caster or a Caster of some alignment. Laeticia's a dual wielder with a pair of swords, and her moves have moxy and flourish, and serve as a nice compliment to Raymond and his big 2 handed broadsword.
I recently beat SO6, and just yesterday completed SO5, and I can say that while 5 has it's problems, it is a better game (in almost every sense) that 6. There are obvious issues with the design of 5 which I attribute to the changing console generation when it was released. But 6 is so bad that it is scary that it even got made in the first place. Plus, regarding the final boss of 6 (no spoilers!), I HATE that they effectively remove your ability to blindside because the boss has an automatic-uncounterable attack that knocks you out of it. Resulting in you losing AP (dumbest idea ever) and taking needless damage. Up to this point no bosses have this protection, sure you don't actually benefit from Blindsiding them, but a least you can reposition. In comparison, 5's failures are diverging from JRPG norms, like having textbox's in conversations (5 has none), making every single conversation unskippable.
@@mathewhosier9739 I'm the opposite. I appreciate a good story over pretty much everything else. If it doesn't have a story, I'm generally not interested in a bunch of game mechanics alone.
@@GodsMercenary I've been reading my whole life, but it's a completely different medium, games are about gameplay........duh, it's kinda in the name, books, movies and TV shows should be focusing on story and characters but games are completely different, gameplay should always be the main focus regardless of genre, we are here to play games, not watch them
@@mrspaceman2764 we are talking about games, of course gameplay should be the main focus, I mean games....gameplay..it's kinda in the name, you want a story go read a book or watch a movie or TV show, I'm here to play games not watch them, that would be like valuing action and CGI over story and characters in movies, yes its part of it but it should never be the main focus, I mean I love JRPGs but both JRPGs and visual novels are very niche genres with low sales numbers, and the JRPGs with the highest sales numbers are always gameplay focused titles, yes they have stories but never at the cost of gameplay or fun factor, even Far Cry with their stories are always gameplay focused like most games, that's why with RPGs i always focus on combat, progression and exploration because those are the 3 elements where 90% of the fun and addiction is had
@@mathewhosier9739 Sounds like you know what you like and I think that's great! But... If I had to make a point to illustrate my perspective.. Look at the Mass Effect series. The first 3 couldn't be more shallow in gameplay. Lame RPG progression, bad 3rd person combat. But SOMEHOW those are some of the most loved and successful games of all time. Then Andromeda comes out.. I think we all understand each other now.
I was really disappointed with this game . If you replay star ocean 1 and 2 and star ocean end of time you can tell how bad the last three games were. I am playing start ocean end of time on ps2 for the first time and it blows away the next gen star ocean games.
So this game is the only Star Ocean game I actually like and the most fun I've had with a console JRPG in more than a decade...but MAN do I appreciate a more critical review! Nothing you said was wrong, it just didn't bother me. The fact that they basically ran out of money while working on the game shows and drags it down a lot, but the characters were likeable, the combat was fast and fun, and I got into the story...or the sub-story anyway. Also I love goofy overdesigned characters so I loved the cast here. I swear though, most reviews are very positive but lack much substance to them and yet I feel like I can't find anyone particularly passionate about this game and plenty who just plain dislike it but not for any tangible reason.
@@RoxasOrganizationXIII i beat it recently. I definitely recommend it! it has its flaws sure, but i think it was a great game. if you are a fan of the series in any way I think you'd like this title. the combat and leveling up/playing with the different characters is fun, I thought the world was interesting and the story kept me interested. its more fast paced then previous titles, you move/run around in the world quickly and battles occur instantly. Just a solid RPG in my opinion. it does get cutscene heavy especially the later half of the game, but if you like story and dialogue of that nature thats not a complaint. most complaints ive heard were technical issues like framerate/texture issues in towns and stuff like that, or art style which I think is conpletely just a matter of preference. if its on sale and catches your interest what have you got to lose from trying it.
I think the story was pretty good both from the over-all story and the characters you really got invested into them and they had their own quirks. I would say it was a 8/10 game since the combat system could have been improved and the back half of the game was a little bloated probably could have shaved off 15 hours or so somewhere and condensed it down a bit i can see how alot of people gave up on the game before the story started to pick up. Maybe star ocean 5 left a bad taste in alot of the fans and people were judging it unfairly at the start so hopefully star ocean 7 gets a better reception now.
I just finished the divine force, ive tried many star ocean games and i could never finish them. I finally decided to beat this one and i think this series aint for me. This game just left me angry.
just finished star ocean last hope, for making a 4-1-2-3 run. i wondered if i could add divine force in it, but i think i'll pass, one very meh SO game is enough in a run ^^'
7:08 I know this was a haha joke. But honestly... ME!?... I like taking a break and being on the side just to heal or buff someone in an RPG, it's relaxing in a way and makes me feel valuable. This joke was like if somebody said who likes playing the healer role in overwatch. If you really said that out loud you didn't do a funny, people will actually think you're narrow-minded and dumb
I just got finished replaying the entire Star Ocean series, and this was my first time playing SO6. I have to say, my thoughts on which games were good and which ones I didn't enjoy changed since I played all these games as they released originally. Naturally Star Ocean 2 was still the best game in the series. But this time around I really didn't like Star Ocean 3 at all. It was worse than I remembered, the combat was far more stiff and awkward and the one thing I hated about the game, the story, was still just as bad this time around too. But Star Ocean 6 I honestly really liked... or maybe it just felt so much better than SO5 did. As for Star Ocean 4? Well, I played it in Japanese this time and I really enjoyed the entire game. Also, I spent about 80% of my playthrough playing as just Nina. I thought her play style was so different and interesting, I found it fun and sometimes really funny to play as Nina as she can drop unlimited little DoT zones around the battlefield that last a long time, I just stacked those little DoT zones ontop of bosses and it stunlocked and melted their HP. It was really funny. Yeah, I would always laugh at how the magic caster of this game is the tallest most buff super jacked old man with white hair and baby smooth skin.
People hate 3 because it takes time and patience to understand and enjoy. The combat system expects the player to use all 3 members to chain and combo. Every move has a purpose either for mobility, speed, damage, or sustain. It is a game of high risk high reward but sadly, people are more inclined to a more casual system nowadays.
@@FuIIDiveVR definitely a difficult learning curve with the mp damage aspect was able to beat it but doing post game stuff i skipped as i had to learn more and i had other stuff to beat
Just beat it it was a 7/10 just good nothing too outstanding and also not that awful as other games i have played within past 12 months. I will forget about it pretty quick. Last 20% of the game was so tiresome and boring to play that i just installed 1hit kill cheat to make it end right before Palworld release. Combat/sad theme will be forever drilled into my memory. I wish ai would be better since they were just dreadful in a boss fights.
I found about 60% of your criticism can also be applied to most RPG's of this genre. The other 40% is pretty nitpicky. I loved the game obviously and noticed that you also had a lot of nice things to say about the game. So I'm surprised you didn't like it more.
This might be the first negative thing I’ve seen about this game. Not that it’s perfect but everyone was just so happy that it’s good I haven’t seen anyone who thought otherwise
I decided to buy the game after I saw elena in a cutscene. Fan Service is rare these days. Nowadays they want all the women characters to look like dudes.
I played the ps3 version of the last hope and it was the only jrpg which i played 2 times through in a row back to back. with japanese voicelines of course my second playthrough was even longer than my first playthrough and even completed the hidden post game dungeon. HAve tbh its my favourite till now. then i played the ps 1 star ocean game, was good. then i played 5 which i hated so much! still unsure on this installment.
tbh i rather have star ocean 3 HD 4K remastered.. i try this game, the story and gameplay mechanic is not as good as star ocean 4.. i hope tri ace make a good storytelling jrpg like RADIATA STORIES or Valkyrie Profile.
I enjoyed it more than smt5. Felt like a 6.-7/10? Serviceable. I really just hope if they ever make a sequel they get rid of the tales of beseria combat engine, good goddess is it awful that you can’t use normal attacks as well as special attacks.
It just need a go to a different play style like Final fantasy did. Also a good story will make it much more better. Just look at Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and 3. I hate the battle system but the story is good along with all the graphics and stuff.
@@PrettyGuardian agreed. After awhile of me still playing I got use and got over the AP system as you can make it less annoying as you progress. Glad I continued
It's not complicated, why do so many jrpg gamers struggle with the simplest action rpgs, do a blindside or get a critical hit and your ap goes up, did you even read the tutorials?
Dude you need to check out Integrity and Faithlessness. I also disliked the ps2/era star ocean games but IF was really good and a refreshment to the franchise, it was just a bad time in gaming at the release and released few months before FFXV
Completely disagree, and I'm not the only one, most YT reviews I've seen are praising the game, either your expectations are unreasonably and unrealistically high or your being negative for views and ad revenue, I think it's pretty clear SO6 has the best combat system, best progression and best exploration in the series, in terms of gameplay this is the best game in the franchise, yes the story, characters and world are all a little cheesy but they always have been that way in SO, like most gamers I value gameplay and mechanics above all else, if you want an epic story with deep characters go read a book or watch a movie or TV show, I'm here to play games, not watch them, gameplay should always be the main focus of any game, especially RPGs, it's kind of in the name
@medalgearsalad1419 somewhat, but not distractingly cheesy at least for me. I think some personalities are a little jarring at first, but then sort of settle into their roles and don't seem out of place. The characters don't have interchangeable personalities, which is good, but I wish they were toned down just one notch.
Animations: *characters moths moves like Muppets* "mep mep mep" Animations: *Characters faces show little to no emotion like they're manicans* Animations: *Characters movements are way to over-dramatic for the dialog, probably to make up for the lack of facial expressions* I'll give the game this, it has an interesting storyline, it's not bad. It has visually pleasing graphics and environments, and the combat is bad either. But I can't get over the characters looking lifeless in the facial expressions department while also being way too over enthusiastic for simple dialog. I don't like the game, even if it has good aspects to it. The horrible character animations and lack of life in their faces take me right out of the immersion. When a girl (that Dr apprentice girl or whatever her name is)waves her arms wildly just for a simple phrase that isn't that dramatic of a sentence , I can't help but think she's a nutcase.
Star Ocean The Last Hope was hot garbage and it has made me really hesitant to buy this game. Is Star Ocean Til The End Of Time any good? The art style has a certain charm to it from what I’ve seen of it. Wish they kept it for the later games. I didn’t like the uncanny doll look.
SO3 was pretty great for its time in my opinion but having tried it again recently the gameplay doesn't hold up well. Very limiting for an action RPG. Worth a shot if you wanna just try the story, I believe it's available on PS4 as just a straight port of the PS2 version
@@Ianbits SO3 was my first SO game and my fav. SO6 is definitely up there though. I agree with like everything in this review man! I actually like SO3's crafting system better thou. I feel like alot of games just resort to Rng as a crafting crutch. Where SO3 had RNG but you could sort of pin point what you were going for by using certain crafter npcs... idk i hear alot of ppl hate SO3 crafting for some reason. Awesome vid though man lets hope there are more Star Oceans and Square increases their budget... and we dont get another Lymle 😑
I'm not a fan of the art style of the Star Ocean games that came out after Til The End of Time. I think that was one of the ways that they struggled in adapting their older art style to the modern expectations of 3D/HD graphics. Divine Force wasn't as bad because they went more realistic than they had in Integrity and Faithlessness but it definitely lacks both in fidelity and aesthetics compared to modern JRPGs like Tales of Arise or Elden Ring.
@@PrettyGuardian thats a good point, i actually didnt really think much about the art style and how that impacted my view on the games after Till the End of Time.
I loved this game and Last Hope was fun too
One of the things that I really enjoyed about the game that I realized towards the end was that this game rewards players who engage with it. For example, if you take the time to do the side quests you unlock the crafting and more side quests, and the private interactions can upgrade your characters, and there's actually lots to do out on most of the maps even if it's just revisiting them to gather DUMA points but if you're not someone who cares to revisit areas, scour over nooks and crannies, you could easily focus on the main story and miss a lot of good stuff.
Umm so like every other game in existence?
I did all the side missions, but I skipped a lot of private interactions bc I wanted the ray x laeticia ending and didn't want to screw it up by accidentally getting the other characters affection levels up.
Lol, wow, I've never played a game and didn't 100% it, so the idea of just playing the main story is just so foreign to me, that would be like watching a TV series and skipping every other episode, IMO if you don't get 100% then your opinion on the game should be valued far less than someone who did
Like every Star Ocean fan, I am eternally bound to buy every game tri-ace releases, deperately hoping they will one day be able to re-capture the magic of Star Ocean 2.
Unfortunately SO2 had horrible gameplay, yes the story was good but if the combat sucks then I just feel like I'm wasting my time, hopefully the remake will fix the combat system
@@mathewhosier9739 I would disagree on the gameplay part, it had simple but enjoyable gameplay to me. Definitely an area that could use some expansion.
It is our blessing and our curse
@@mathewhosier9739yea that game was just janky and the constant pauses for magic make it worse
@@mathewhosier9739 i played star ocean 2 R and the combat was uninteresting.i refunded the game because i did not like the combat at all.
I never realized people didnt like Last Hope. I loved it and still replay it. The voice acting makes me laugh so hard it makes it worth playing. I guess ill pick up divine force
yea, the voice acting was terrible but i just switched to japanese which was fine for me.
I actually sort of liked the english voice acting. It had some charm to it.
Yeah it was the english va who make me didnt like it. When they 1st time release on x360 only eng dub available so it worst, now you can change it make different much
because it's a good game.
I agree with on Star Ocean Divine Force. I got this game for Christmas of 2022 all by with God of War Ragnarok. But as soon as I popped the disc into my PS5 and installed the game, I ended up regretting adding the game to my Holiday Wishlist. Here’s a list of things wrong with this game
1. The Opening was horrible. It’s just trying way too hard to be edgy and metal and it ends up being cringe.
2. The graphics are outdated. This game would have made some sort of impact for the PS3.
3. The gameplay is mediocre. I’m just hacking and slashing without any interesting strategy.
4. The characters are all forgettable. They’re all cookie cutter anime stereotypes. Elena and Nina are kinda interesting because they look attractive.
5. The level system is bad. Half of the time I don’t feel like I’m getting any stronger at all.
6. The soundtrack is forgettable. It’s just generic rpg music after another.
7. The locations are very engaging. There’s not point of interest or any thing to do for side activities.
8. The story is forgettable. It’s just the main characters fighting against the evil empire and the emperor takes on a final form.
9. The two main characters are forgettable. Raymond is your typical badass anime hero with a sword while the Princess character goes through a lot of cliched character traits like, being a strong fighter and being married off to an asshole.
10. Difficulty spikes all over the f**king place. The enemies were piss easy to kill while most of the boss fights just kept on kicking my ass. There was that one military asshole who kept killing me over and over again. I just gave up playing the game all together
I had a way more fun time with God of War Ragnarok, and Legend of Dragoon, Ys 8 and 9, Hogwarts Legacy, Final Fantasy 16 and Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Those games were fun to play and most of them didn’t bore me with mediocre stories and piss me off with difficulty spikes that just goes all over the place
I bought this game expecting a "PS2 JRPG" and I wasn't disappointed that's what I got. Simple story, diverse characters (Ray looking generic af tho), and looked great artistically with the multiple environments. It was a blast to play + I'm a min/max player so I spent 6 hours of pure crafting just to create accessories that level up my characters to max in a few minutes so the difficulty spike never occured since I was too OP. Glad I got it on sale for $42 and was well worth it for what I wanted out of it
This game was a lot of fun. Aside from that Ray looked so goofy to me, like his head wasn't the right size for his body or something. He's all hair and biceps.
Does this game have a lot of anime cringe moments? That's what stops me from buying jrpgs.
@@medalgearsalad1419 it has some cringe moments but not as many as i expected, it takes time for story and all combat elements to unveil but after they do it's a really fun ride (minus the extremely dumb companion ai that keeps on dying)
If they were going to try and duplicate the Tales series combat, they needed to at LEAST meet the level set, if not pass it. The story and characters are interesting enough, but the combat and broad, open, boring maps....I just couldn't play it.
Other reviews make me sad, and not for the standard cliche reasons: "They are so close to being good". That isn't really the case, rather it makes me frustrated because despite the fact other reviews are moving towards being Ian tier reviews, the problems that I have with these other reviews are completely related to one factor: they are not the amazing and incomparable Ianbits.
I'm actually pretty astounded at how godly these reviews are: their critical variety, script quality, and overall attention to detail.
Thank you, from your friendly Whale friend
Star Ocean: 2nd Story is still one of my favorite games.
It was meh, yea the story was good but I had to force myself to slog through the ancient gameplay, it just wasn't all that fun to me
@@mathewhosier9739 Maybe remake going to have more modern gameplay
That crafting system reminds me of the invention systems for previous games. Seems they never really locked down where the problems were.
I remember buying the hint guide for Till The End Of Time, and encountering one of the biggest copes I've ever seen a dev put out.
The problem was there was an enemy boss about halfway into the game that was considered "where the real fight starts". It was easily 1000 times more powerful than anything you'd fought until then.
The official hint guide solution: Be the first person on the planet to have invented a ridiculously powerful permanent power up item that takes craploads of crafting stuff you can't get yet and is the product of a lucky random craft at something stupid like a 2% chance each attempt.
Chances were the player had never even heard of that thing to know it was even a possible option, and worse, if you took too long some other NPC owned the patent to it's creation because there was an invention arms race built into the game where you had to craft things as soon as possible if you wanted the right to make them.
But if you knew it even existed and somehow made a ton of them, it not only made the boss easy to kill, but the entire rest of the game became a cakewalk... and that was what they *wanted* you to do. :(
Yeah it's frustrating. They spend a ton of time on the system itself and then no time at all on the implementation
@@Ianbits When the hint guide itself has to preface it's solution with "It may feel like cheating, but..." you know that they know that they screwed up. Which makes it even more frustrating because you'd expect them to learn something from that for the next iteration.
I don't know why fans or anyone shit on the "last hope" it was a good rpg even one of my best one it was the one that got my curiosity on the star ocean franchise and compare to the "the divine force" it is way better I mean the combat and the character design is way much appealing and better looking then any of the star ocean games.
To me, it just seems Tri-Ace is trying to sell the Star Ocean games as AAA titles but they lack the budget and resources to truly give the games the polish and depth they need.
I would have much prefered them taking the route of the Octopath Traveler, and made a modern Star Ocean game with the retro graphic style of Star Ocean 1 and 2.
And please... give me a Star Ocean game in an actual sci-fi setting for once. Do we really need each game to have a sword-wielding protagonist stranded on a underdeveloped planet every time?
SO4 had a sci-fi setting…
the last hope was so fun but its voice acting was indeed criminally bad, i did an entire playthrough with no sound. i liked integrity and faithlessness also. till the end of time is my favorite, crafting, skills, and the combat system were so good.
Finished in 50 hours somehow got Malkya ending while I never really add or interacts with her lol
Story wise kinda meh.. but one thing that really gets me is the practically zero budget for the FMV/cutscene segment!
Like some scene that supposed to be grand was literally empty with only the main cast.. like it doesnt hurt them to put at some few NPCs to populate the scene
Yea I cant even comment on the "space" aspect, the space battles at most only last for few seconds and one scene was literally shown on a dotted line pic on the monitor
The Menook space battle was only shown with characters talking to each other, you cant even see the damn battle!
it was unfortunate you couldn't engage with the environment and interact with objects around the world like in Till the End of Time. and everyone just wants to duel.
Bruh, I didn't even know until today that this game existed. I saw the title mentioned in a Reddit post that was dumping on Kotaku for being shit and thought I'd look it up. I haven't played a Star Ocean title since Til the End of Time, I'm excited to give it a try when I'm not working.
Good video, too. I can see the game has issues, but I came to see the general aesthetic and I think I'll enjoy it.
I hope you enjoy it! It's definitely the best Star Ocean since SO3 even with its issues.
I'm sorry but with this game being covered by every major jrpg YTuber, you must live under a rock, I knew about this game in 2021
@@mathewhosier9739 good for you man 👍
I don’t watch jrpg TH-camrs
I got so frustrated with this janky game! World building is trash. Combat is terrible.
I'm not sure if the game explains this at the beginning or not cause it's been a while but with blindsides they tend to only work if an enemy is specifically targeting you with an attack and, in the case of bigger enemies, only works on certain moves that they do. For instance, the optional sandman boss that you can fight at the beginning can be blindsided when he starts to do either his inhale move or the one where he punches the ground and a fist emerges underneath you, I can't remember which. Pretty much every boss or bigger enemy in the game operates like this and later on in the game, you start getting to the point where some fights end off the first blindside alone because of how stupid high the damage benefit is. It's a pretty cool system and I honestly prefer it to 4's version of it.
I started this game recently and I'm having a good time! I'm enjoying it more than 4, but less than 1 and 2. Haven't played 3 or 5. But man, you are dead on in your criticisms.
I think on balance it's a good and fun game for me, but it could be better.
Also...text size wtffff
Resonance of fate was actually pretty interesting, but the battle system never developed into anything more interesting than "use machine guns to build up all their scratch damage and pop them with a pistol".
I really wish the story was more fromt and center in that game too, it's really weird how much lore is written for that game when almost none of it is actually implemented in an understandable way
Makes sense you have a sound opinion cuz you are Falcom fan. Thank you.
I tried this after finishing Hogwarts legacy and Elden ring before that,big mistake.Really cheap feeling and shallow and I pushed on for a wasted twenty hours but it’s got so many things that annoyed me like the terrible character models and reused city scapes and bland fight mechanics and basic graphics it’s like a ps3 game in higher resolution.
"Who the fuck wants to play as a healer?"
Quite agree the worst two companions in fights are Elena and Marielle who use up all your health restoration supplies because they are to weak in combat and a close third is albaird as although he is moderately powerful in combat he two takes damage two quickly and quite often wanders off in the wrong direction straight into more trouble than he can handle especially in the cottorinth mountain pass where he walks into the poison areas instead of following you higher up on the ridge
Regarding the character designs and costumes, let me offer you my tidbits:
Laeticia's costume and Mierielle's? Tremendously impractical. How do either of them go to the damn bathroom wearing those?? At least everyone elses' is more... practical and occasionally mesh well with the setting.
One thing I love about Laeticia is that she's a break from Millie and Rena and even Sophia or Reimi. Like how the first female who joins you has to be a Heal Caster or a Caster of some alignment. Laeticia's a dual wielder with a pair of swords, and her moves have moxy and flourish, and serve as a nice compliment to Raymond and his big 2 handed broadsword.
For me this game was boring so much, generic rpg. Uninstalled because the game mechanic just so boring.
I recently beat SO6, and just yesterday completed SO5, and I can say that while 5 has it's problems, it is a better game (in almost every sense) that 6. There are obvious issues with the design of 5 which I attribute to the changing console generation when it was released. But 6 is so bad that it is scary that it even got made in the first place.
Plus, regarding the final boss of 6 (no spoilers!), I HATE that they effectively remove your ability to blindside because the boss has an automatic-uncounterable attack that knocks you out of it. Resulting in you losing AP (dumbest idea ever) and taking needless damage. Up to this point no bosses have this protection, sure you don't actually benefit from Blindsiding them, but a least you can reposition.
In comparison, 5's failures are diverging from JRPG norms, like having textbox's in conversations (5 has none), making every single conversation unskippable.
I really dug this game. People need to reset their expectations for games like Final Fantasy and Star Ocean. I like 4 a lot too though so...
Agreed, thought 4 and 6 are the two best games in the series but I also value gameplay over story, ya know like most normal gamers
@@mathewhosier9739 I'm the opposite. I appreciate a good story over pretty much everything else. If it doesn't have a story, I'm generally not interested in a bunch of game mechanics alone.
@@GodsMercenary I've been reading my whole life, but it's a completely different medium, games are about gameplay........duh, it's kinda in the name, books, movies and TV shows should be focusing on story and characters but games are completely different, gameplay should always be the main focus regardless of genre, we are here to play games, not watch them
@@mrspaceman2764 we are talking about games, of course gameplay should be the main focus, I mean games....gameplay..it's kinda in the name, you want a story go read a book or watch a movie or TV show, I'm here to play games not watch them, that would be like valuing action and CGI over story and characters in movies, yes its part of it but it should never be the main focus, I mean I love JRPGs but both JRPGs and visual novels are very niche genres with low sales numbers, and the JRPGs with the highest sales numbers are always gameplay focused titles, yes they have stories but never at the cost of gameplay or fun factor, even Far Cry with their stories are always gameplay focused like most games, that's why with RPGs i always focus on combat, progression and exploration because those are the 3 elements where 90% of the fun and addiction is had
@@mathewhosier9739 Sounds like you know what you like and I think that's great! But... If I had to make a point to illustrate my perspective.. Look at the Mass Effect series. The first 3 couldn't be more shallow in gameplay. Lame RPG progression, bad 3rd person combat. But SOMEHOW those are some of the most loved and successful games of all time. Then Andromeda comes out.. I think we all understand each other now.
Second story was awesome played that alot.
It was pretty meh tbh, the gameplay just hadn't aged very well, I found it boring
@@mathewhosier9739 definitely was not thats just your bad experience.
@@Jack-nj9pi I like second story r a lot, but the original just feels dated
Funny how a "budget game" applies to the development budget, not what the user pays as it's the same as any other game.
I was really disappointed with this game . If you replay star ocean 1 and 2 and star ocean end of time you can tell how bad the last three games were. I am playing start ocean end of time on ps2 for the first time and it blows away the next gen star ocean games.
So this game is the only Star Ocean game I actually like and the most fun I've had with a console JRPG in more than a decade...but MAN do I appreciate a more critical review! Nothing you said was wrong, it just didn't bother me. The fact that they basically ran out of money while working on the game shows and drags it down a lot, but the characters were likeable, the combat was fast and fun, and I got into the story...or the sub-story anyway. Also I love goofy overdesigned characters so I loved the cast here.
I swear though, most reviews are very positive but lack much substance to them and yet I feel like I can't find anyone particularly passionate about this game and plenty who just plain dislike it but not for any tangible reason.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the game as well. It was tough not enjoying the game as a fan of the franchise but I understand why plenty of people do.
You could say the divine force is the series' last hope. Geddit?
Did you just turn 10? Your more cheesy than the characters in this game
I mean i got it for 10 bucks brand spanking new for ps5 from the gamestop sale. Could not honestly say ive been disappointed
same, but for xbox. currently enjoying it a lot
@@EllipsesMusiccdo you finished it?. ive been thinking a while, its on sales.
@@RoxasOrganizationXIII i beat it recently. I definitely recommend it! it has its flaws sure, but i think it was a great game. if you are a fan of the series in any way I think you'd like this title.
the combat and leveling up/playing with the different characters is fun, I thought the world was interesting and the story kept me interested. its more fast paced then previous titles, you move/run around in the world quickly and battles occur instantly. Just a solid RPG in my opinion. it does get cutscene heavy especially the later half of the game, but if you like story and dialogue of that nature thats not a complaint. most complaints ive heard were technical issues like framerate/texture issues in towns and stuff like that, or art style which I think is conpletely just a matter of preference.
if its on sale and catches your interest what have you got to lose from trying it.
Why did I watch this?!? I had already erased Lymle from my memory and now shes back!!! Kay!
i apologize for the horrors i have made you relive
Lip sinking spot on you're wrong about that
I think the story was pretty good both from the over-all story and the characters you really got invested into them and they had their own quirks. I would say it was a 8/10 game since the combat system could have been improved and the back half of the game was a little bloated probably could have shaved off 15 hours or so somewhere and condensed it down a bit i can see how alot of people gave up on the game before the story started to pick up. Maybe star ocean 5 left a bad taste in alot of the fans and people were judging it unfairly at the start so hopefully star ocean 7 gets a better reception now.
I just finished the divine force, ive tried many star ocean games and i could never finish them. I finally decided to beat this one and i think this series aint for me.
This game just left me angry.
just finished star ocean last hope, for making a 4-1-2-3 run. i wondered if i could add divine force in it, but i think i'll pass, one very meh SO game is enough in a run ^^'
In star ocean the divine force i just got my characters to 255 at 93 hour's.
7:08 I know this was a haha joke. But honestly... ME!?... I like taking a break and being on the side just to heal or buff someone in an RPG, it's relaxing in a way and makes me feel valuable. This joke was like if somebody said who likes playing the healer role in overwatch. If you really said that out loud you didn't do a funny, people will actually think you're narrow-minded and dumb
Yeah I don't mind playing a healer in MMOs and I usually played as one in Xenoblade as well. Just awkward to play in action games
I just got finished replaying the entire Star Ocean series, and this was my first time playing SO6. I have to say, my thoughts on which games were good and which ones I didn't enjoy changed since I played all these games as they released originally. Naturally Star Ocean 2 was still the best game in the series. But this time around I really didn't like Star Ocean 3 at all. It was worse than I remembered, the combat was far more stiff and awkward and the one thing I hated about the game, the story, was still just as bad this time around too. But Star Ocean 6 I honestly really liked... or maybe it just felt so much better than SO5 did. As for Star Ocean 4? Well, I played it in Japanese this time and I really enjoyed the entire game.
Also, I spent about 80% of my playthrough playing as just Nina. I thought her play style was so different and interesting, I found it fun and sometimes really funny to play as Nina as she can drop unlimited little DoT zones around the battlefield that last a long time, I just stacked those little DoT zones ontop of bosses and it stunlocked and melted their HP. It was really funny.
Yeah, I would always laugh at how the magic caster of this game is the tallest most buff super jacked old man with white hair and baby smooth skin.
People hate 3 because it takes time and patience to understand and enjoy. The combat system expects the player to use all 3 members to chain and combo. Every move has a purpose either for mobility, speed, damage, or sustain. It is a game of high risk high reward but sadly, people are more inclined to a more casual system nowadays.
@@FuIIDiveVR definitely a difficult learning curve with the mp damage aspect was able to beat it but doing post game stuff i skipped as i had to learn more and i had other stuff to beat
Just beat it it was a 7/10 just good nothing too outstanding and also not that awful as other games i have played within past 12 months. I will forget about it pretty quick. Last 20% of the game was so tiresome and boring to play that i just installed 1hit kill cheat to make it end right before Palworld release. Combat/sad theme will be forever drilled into my memory. I wish ai would be better since they were just dreadful in a boss fights.
I found about 60% of your criticism can also be applied to most RPG's of this genre. The other 40% is pretty nitpicky. I loved the game obviously and noticed that you also had a lot of nice things to say about the game. So I'm surprised you didn't like it more.
This might be the first negative thing I’ve seen about this game. Not that it’s perfect but everyone was just so happy that it’s good I haven’t seen anyone who thought otherwise
I decided to buy the game after I saw elena in a cutscene. Fan Service is rare these days. Nowadays they want all the women characters to look like dudes.
Man just watch some haentie.
Bro is so untouched. Lol
You and 19 people have never talked to a female before lol.
@@tbspromotions My girlfriend would rather stare at pretty girls in ganes too js
He is a good boy tho. I want to play that game now Fuck divine force.
I played the ps3 version of the last hope and it was the only jrpg which i played 2 times through in a row back to back. with japanese voicelines of course
my second playthrough was even longer than my first playthrough and even completed the hidden post game dungeon. HAve tbh its my favourite till now.
then i played the ps 1 star ocean game, was good.
then i played 5 which i hated so much!
still unsure on this installment.
tbh i rather have star ocean 3 HD 4K remastered..
i try this game, the story and gameplay mechanic is not as good as star ocean 4.. i hope tri ace make a good storytelling jrpg like RADIATA STORIES or Valkyrie Profile.
I enjoyed it more than smt5. Felt like a 6.-7/10? Serviceable. I really just hope if they ever make a sequel they get rid of the tales of beseria combat engine, good goddess is it awful that you can’t use normal attacks as well as special attacks.
It just need a go to a different play style like Final fantasy did. Also a good story will make it much more better.
Just look at Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and 3. I hate the battle system but the story is good along with all the graphics and stuff.
Your first mistake.. playing with English voices lol
One of things that threw me off with this game is the AP system. Shit was killing me 🤦🏽♂️
To me it felt very reminiscent to the action gauges of other JRPGs like Tales of Arise, Elden Ring, or even some of the other Star Ocean games.
@@PrettyGuardian agreed. After awhile of me still playing I got use and got over the AP system as you can make it less annoying as you progress. Glad I continued
It's not complicated, why do so many jrpg gamers struggle with the simplest action rpgs, do a blindside or get a critical hit and your ap goes up, did you even read the tutorials?
12:31 funniest part
Battle system is one of the worst in the serious. Don't understand what's wrong with imitating the 2D style.
Japanese develoeprs always undermine their own games.
Dude you need to check out Integrity and Faithlessness. I also disliked the ps2/era star ocean games but IF was really good and a refreshment to the franchise, it was just a bad time in gaming at the release and released few months before FFXV
I redownloaded it it after Second Story remaster, might try it again
😂😂😂 the title sht man 😂😂😂😂
Completely disagree, and I'm not the only one, most YT reviews I've seen are praising the game, either your expectations are unreasonably and unrealistically high or your being negative for views and ad revenue, I think it's pretty clear SO6 has the best combat system, best progression and best exploration in the series, in terms of gameplay this is the best game in the franchise, yes the story, characters and world are all a little cheesy but they always have been that way in SO, like most gamers I value gameplay and mechanics above all else, if you want an epic story with deep characters go read a book or watch a movie or TV show, I'm here to play games, not watch them, gameplay should always be the main focus of any game, especially RPGs, it's kind of in the name
How cheesy are the characters? I'm not into anime characters or tropes.
@medalgearsalad1419 somewhat, but not distractingly cheesy at least for me. I think some personalities are a little jarring at first, but then sort of settle into their roles and don't seem out of place. The characters don't have interchangeable personalities, which is good, but I wish they were toned down just one notch.
Animations: *characters moths moves like Muppets* "mep mep mep"
Animations: *Characters faces show little to no emotion like they're manicans*
Animations: *Characters movements are way to over-dramatic for the dialog, probably to make up for the lack of facial expressions*
I'll give the game this, it has an interesting storyline, it's not bad. It has visually pleasing graphics and environments, and the combat is bad either.
But I can't get over the characters looking lifeless in the facial expressions department while also being way too over enthusiastic for simple dialog. I don't like the game, even if it has good aspects to it. The horrible character animations and lack of life in their faces take me right out of the immersion. When a girl (that Dr apprentice girl or whatever her name is)waves her arms wildly just for a simple phrase that isn't that dramatic of a sentence , I can't help but think she's a nutcase.
Laeticias english voice actress is so bad lol
Just let the series die. Anamnesis is the best Star Ocean of XXI century, which is really sad.
They can remake 3 with a big budget and redeem themselves.
Star Ocean The Last Hope was hot garbage and it has made me really hesitant to buy this game. Is Star Ocean Til The End Of Time any good? The art style has a certain charm to it from what I’ve seen of it. Wish they kept it for the later games. I didn’t like the uncanny doll look.
SO3 was pretty great for its time in my opinion but having tried it again recently the gameplay doesn't hold up well. Very limiting for an action RPG. Worth a shot if you wanna just try the story, I believe it's available on PS4 as just a straight port of the PS2 version
@@Ianbits SO3 was my first SO game and my fav. SO6 is definitely up there though. I agree with like everything in this review man! I actually like SO3's crafting system better thou. I feel like alot of games just resort to Rng as a crafting crutch. Where SO3 had RNG but you could sort of pin point what you were going for by using certain crafter npcs... idk i hear alot of ppl hate SO3 crafting for some reason. Awesome vid though man lets hope there are more Star Oceans and Square increases their budget... and we dont get another Lymle 😑
I'm not a fan of the art style of the Star Ocean games that came out after Til The End of Time. I think that was one of the ways that they struggled in adapting their older art style to the modern expectations of 3D/HD graphics. Divine Force wasn't as bad because they went more realistic than they had in Integrity and Faithlessness but it definitely lacks both in fidelity and aesthetics compared to modern JRPGs like Tales of Arise or Elden Ring.
@@PrettyGuardian thats a good point, i actually didnt really think much about the art style and how that impacted my view on the games after Till the End of Time.
Dive into Till the End of Time Joker. it's worth it.