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What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)

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Lennis:
I am currently playing through the Star Ocean series.  I beat Second Story many years back, when the PS1 was in its heyday, but had neglected the series since then.  With the recent announcement of Star Ocean: The Divine Force, I decided the time had finally come to play through 'Till the End of Time, The Last Hope, and Integrity and Faithlessness to get caught up with the series and the underlying lore of its universe.

To avoid spoilers for those who haven't played these games, I'll just say that 'Till the End of Time has a rather... interesting plot twist that casts the entire series in a strange light that generates controversy to the present day.  I also found Star Ocean 3, as it's otherwise known, to be remarkably unfriendly to the player in the way the game is structured.  Most aspects of the game, outside of the excellent combat, seem almost tailor made to frustrate the player and waste his or her time.  There are no quick travel options from region to region, and the crafting system is an RNG nightmare that practically demands a strategy guide to make any meaningful progress.  As a whole package, I liked the game more than I disliked it, but 230 hours of investment made me painfully aware of the PS2 game's shortcomings and questionable design choices.

The Last Hope really upped the presentation values, as you would expect from a PS3 generation game, and the combat was perhaps even better than in Star Ocean 3.  I also liked the fact that TLH was more grounded in science fiction, and didn't just rehash the spaceman crash lands on primitive world and saves the day trope.  Unfortunately, avoiding that trope didn't prevent the game from taking other tropes into overdrive and creating some truly cringe-inducing moments with its colorful cast of characters.  More than once I questioned how the MC ever became a military officer after the way he dealt with a certain mid-game crisis, to say nothing about how the game's main healer (which you get very late in the story) is written to be as air-headed as possible.  I like lighthearted moments as well as the next guy, but this girl is little more than a trope on two legs, she is so dumb.  The story was a bit hit and miss, starting strong, straying into some existential issues in the mid-game that are never adequately explained, and then evolving into almost predictable metaphysical preaching at a blistering pace near the game's end.  The ending itself is pretty strong, but I felt the whole narrative to be a bit disjointed.  The Last Hope is a decent enough game, but not something I would consider top-tier among JRPGs.  I spent roughly a hundred hours on it.

Integrity and Faithlessness (PS4) is considered by many to be the worst game in the Star Ocean series, and I was always curious as to why it got such bad word of mouth among fans.  Having just started the game, being about fifteen hours in, I'm kind of getting an inkling.  The combat feels like it has taken a step down from the often glorious carnage we saw in The Last Hope, and you generally feel less formidable than the previous casts of characters.  More ominously, the story starts slow, and the characters are presented in a less cinematic way than in the previous two games.  Though it's still early, I'm much less emotionally invested in this group of characters than I was with the previous group at the same point of the story.  Never a good sign.  I'm also wary of the crafting system.  You can increase your skill easily enough, but you never seem to be able to find the materials you need to make even low-level equipment, let alone things that make you feel like you have gear suitable to your level.  You gain levels fast in this game, and that is because enemies seem to scale to your level of strength, sometimes banishing a particular enemy you need for material drops in favor of something that can last more than five seconds against you.  Maybe the overall experience will get better, but the early signs are not promising.

Anyone else have an opinion on the Star Ocean series of games?

Boo the Gentleman Caller:

--- Quote ---I am currently playing through the Star Ocean series.  I beat Second Story many years back, when the PS1 was in its heyday ...
--- End quote ---

Great series! I did the same. Caught SO2 when it was released for the PS1, then went and played SO1 (hacked ROM translation) on an emulator. Played 'Till the End of Time on day one, then the SO1 and SO2 re-releases when they came to the PSP. I didn't play SO4 until a few years ago and have yet to play SO5.


--- Quote ---I'll just say that 'Till the End of Time has a rather... interesting plot twist that casts the entire series in a strange light that generates controversy to the present day.
--- End quote ---


I have such a love-hate relationship with SO3, for all the reasons you mentioned.

The plot was great until about 2/3 and then divetails into some weird territory -- especially the spoiler you mentioned -- and I both admire their guts to go so existentially depressing, but also hate it, as it somehow cheapens the entire series for me. I think this could easily be redeemed with a new game further in the timeline after that, showing perhaps more about the 3D versus 4D realities and ultimately rectifying the controversy without taking it back.


--- Quote ---I also found Star Ocean 3, as it's otherwise known, to be remarkably unfriendly to the player in the way the game is structured.  Most aspects of the game, outside of the excellent combat, seem almost tailor made to frustrate the player and waste his or her time.  There are no quick travel options from region to region, and the crafting system is an RNG nightmare that practically demands a strategy guide to make any meaningful progress.
--- End quote ---

Yes yes yes yes yes! The combat felt good, but the whole '0 MP = game over' and crafting system was probably the weakest of the entire series. So frustrating.

SO3 also had some really bad difficulty spikes. At least for me. I got really discouraged and had to put the game down for a while more than once.

I literally don't think I could play SO3 again for all of the reasons you've mentioned. There are much better games waiting to be played out there.


--- Quote ---The Last Hope really upped the presentation values, as you would expect from a PS3 generation game, and the combat was perhaps even better than in Star Ocean 3.  I also liked the fact that TLH was more grounded in science fiction, and didn't just rehash the spaceman crash lands on primitive world and saves the day trope.  Unfortunately, avoiding that trope didn't prevent the game from taking other tropes into overdrive and creating some truly cringe-inducing moments with its colorful cast of characters.
--- End quote ---

Yes yes yes yes yes! Great worldbuilding and character design (although I thought the time travel / parallel universe was sort of cheap), but the hard lean into anime tropes were pretty abysmal. Welch is an abomination in this game, and some of the voice acting just thrust me out of and away from the story rather than pull me. All in all it was a good game, but man, they made some really weird choices when they put this one together.

Like SO3, I also don't think I'd be interested to play it again.


--- Quote ---Integrity and Faithlessness (PS4) is considered by many to be the worst game in the Star Ocean series ...
--- End quote ---

I haven't played SO4 and would love to, but I stopped the console wars with the PS3, so I no longer play unless it's on Switch of PC. I've heard the same complaints, though. I hope SO5 ends up on the PC; if so, I'll definitely be playing it.

Did you play Star Ocean: Anamnesis? I did for a while out of respect for the series, but ultimately got frustrated and quit -- gacha games are not for me.

Lennis:

--- Quote ---Did you play Star Ocean: Anamnesis? I did for a while out of respect for the series, but ultimately got frustrated and quit -- gacha games are not for me.
--- End quote ---

I only just heard of Anamnesis the other day.  Gacha games don't interest me in the least.  I already spend too much time and money on the few MMOs I'm invested in.


--- Quote ---I haven't played SO4 and would love to, but I stopped the console wars with the PS3, so I no longer play unless it's on Switch or PC. I've heard the same complaints, though. I hope SO5 ends up on the PC; if so, I'll definitely be playing it.
--- End quote ---

It's actually Star Ocean 6, not 5.  Five was Integrity and Faithlessness.  Yes it is coming to Steam, as well as PS5, PS4, and XBox.  October 27th is the release date.  I can understand not wanting to have the higher-end consoles if you already have a decent computer that will get most of the console games eventually.  The drawback is that the games are often not optimized for PC on release and cause numerous crashes before patches come out.  I don't have the patience to fix broken games with my limited programming knowledge, and I prefer consoles for action-based games anyway.  Much better controllers.

As for Integrity and Faithlessness, you really aren't missing much.  I finished it yesterday and the experience was disappointing to say the least.  It was inferior to The Last Hope in almost every way, and it was obvious the game was made on a shoestring budget on account of Square-Enix having other priorities for their development dollars.  (A sadly familiar tale, isn't it?)  The story in particular was a letdown, both in the core plot and in the boring way it was presented.  It's a shame, because the characters had an interesting visual design that felt (mostly) more grounded than the cast from The Last Hope.  If you need to catch up with Star Ocean lore, just look for YouTube playthroughs on the game.  It's unlikely SO5 will ever get a PC release unless it's part of a compilation.

Redline57:
I finished Terranigma (or Terrigama as its sometimes called) a month or so ago.

I understand this was never released in America. Knowing nothing about it, I was told after I beat it that it was like 2 of 3 in a series. The ending was open ended, and it didnt start as a typical RPG, it started with another world, which was different but also cool, but again very very different. I can see how some people didnt vote for it to get sold in America, but had some extremely unique and to this day, still rare and original things about it. The physical gameplay was somehow lacking with the moves, so its an action game like Zelda far more than an RPG like Chrono Trigger. It has its flaws, and they are big ones, but they make it memorable. Difficulty was I'm sure pretty high for its time, making it tricky by modern standards, but aggrivating if you were a novice in the 90s, especially if you didn't have the internet to help you. Its best feature was the soundtrack, different, but on par with Chrono Trigger at times, yes its that good. The oddball stuff was it references...the whole world. but not entirely right. You have the basic continents, labeled Australia and North America and such. Some cities are analogous like when you go to South America and end up in Rio (called Carnival I believe) and yet in America you have a destiniation simply called Colorado.

The other interesting plot point is how in many games you collect items to get a special one, in this game you travel around the world and the actual goal is promoting global free-trade via your learned knowledge of economics and capitalism. Interesting plot for a 90s game huh? at one point you meet someone studying a new thing called Electricity, the man's name is "Eddy", a reference to Eddy lines (if your not in the electrical field, just look it up). And another time you help the invention of the camera, go to other cities and take pictures and spread em around to encourage vacationing. As a result, cities actually grow, buildings get bigger, like you go back to an old city, but on the map now its two buildings instead of one, and when you walk in, the entire city map is twice the size and nothing is in the same place.

Very different and unusual game, but I liked it.

Boo the Gentleman Caller:
Terranigma is one of the GOATs. Along with Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger.

I thought it was a complete package: the graphics, soundtrack, and especially the plot (which was dark and more mature than most of it's contemporaries). It was the first video game to make me really emotional, as I actually cried during the end credits.

Glad you got to experience this one, Redline! What's next for you?

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