Star Ocean IV - The Last Hope - Gen. Discussion & Info

@ Dastly, I'm glad you're enjoying Eternal Sonata! I enjoyed it a LOT. I think it's gotten a lot of unfair bashing and criticism :( I bought it for both 360 and PS3. I liked how they told a type of story that isn't usally told and they did a good job. I hope maybe they will do a "sequel" if you will, focusing on a different composer. To those who haven't played it and have no clue about the game you'll understand why I phrased it like that when you do.

On the topic of Star Ocean 4, I have it pre-ordered and very much looking forward to it. This is the last 360 game I can think of that my 360 needs to hold up through to the end of for me.

Can I ask a question? if no one knows, or can't answer due to NDAs it's ok and the answer certainly isn't a deal breaker but would be very nice if the answer was "Yes".

Is there a song in Star Ocean 4 like the MISIA song in SO3? I think it's a beautiful song and yes it did make me cry. I was hoping ever since I first heard it in SO3 that they would do another song like it in the next SO game.
 
I'm not aware of any announcements of a "theme song" like the MISIA one from SO3. The Japanese Site makes no mention of it, anyway. There's three days untill the game's release, so I'm sure if there is, they'll announce it soon.

Ura-
 
If I actually end up really enjoying the game, I'll more than likely get 900 gamerscore. Beyond that will be iffy though considering battle trophies are a bitch if they're anything like Star Ocean 3.
 
Saw a bunch of the Live feed, cutscene fever and towns seem huge. Combat seems pretty decent.

Oh and you ride a giant pink bunny sometimes. WTF? lol
 
[quote name='cmart05']what are "Battle trophies"? I've never played any Star Ocean.[/QUOTE]

Combat achievements, basically. SO3 had about 300 of them which ranged from relatively simple (reach level 10) to absurd (50,000 battles, beat optional bosses using only the main character with his starting weapon, etc.). None are strictly impossible but the time commitment involved in doing all of them is staggering.

There's also my personal favorite: 1 million controller inputs.
 
[quote name='Monsta Mack']Saw a bunch of the Live feed, cutscene fever and towns seem huge. Combat seems pretty decent.

Oh and you ride a giant pink bunny sometimes. WTF? lol[/quote]

Yep, it's an awesome skill. They had bunny races in Star Ocean 2 and you could call on the bunny to ride around then too. Don't recall in Star Ocean 3, but I'm sure they were there and I don't remember calling any bunnies in the Star Ocean PSP remake, but I think only one person could call them in that game?

I think the voice in Star Ocean 2 said "Come're bunny!" when you called him. Which was awesome.
 
[quote name='Magus8472']Combat achievements, basically. SO3 had about 300 of them which ranged from relatively simple (reach level 10) to absurd (50,000 battles, beat optional bosses using only the main character with his starting weapon, etc.). None are strictly impossible but the time commitment involved in doing all of them is staggering.

There's also my personal favorite: 1 million controller inputs.[/quote]


Christ almighty and I thought some of the Tales achievements were crazy hahha
 
HD RPGs have the worst achievments possible, its like they write them at the very last second.

BTW, some fun stats!!!

This game runs at:

1248x702 with no AA on the normal map (running around)

and

882x496 with no AA during battles.

Awesome. So awesome.
 
Awesome, if later in the game you want to go back to older planets to do side quests, get new weapons/items, explore, you will be forced to swap discs to whichever disc the planet you want is on. Classy.
 
[quote name='Chacrana']Dunno if it was posted, but IGN's review is up: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/955/955258p1.html

Gave it an 8.0

I'll wait for the other reviews, since a lot of complaints were levelled at JRPGs in general rather than SO3.[/quote]

Game Informer gave it a 70 out of 100

70
Game Informer
The Last Hope is plagued by a number of problems, but if you can invest the time needed for this game to blossom (that's a big if), the combat system and mysterious plot reward you well for your time. [Mar 2009, p.90]
Click to expand...
 
I'm sure the game itself is most likely good but all this shit I hear coming out about it like Beyond3D saying it's 510p in actual res. Also this switch discs shit is irritating as well. This only makes me happier I've decided to wait for it to release on the PS3.
Obviously the disc problem won't exist there with BR and I'm hoping the extra time EnixSquare has with it will get the res. bumped up to 720p. If the exclusivity agreement with Bioshock is close at all to the one with SO4 which I doubt at the least for here. It may not be the same case for Japan. Regardless I think the devs. will really have time to bump it up for the PS3 version. Hopefully part of the game's audio will be made uncompressed as well. Given I didn't like SO3's dub terribly and don't in general, I'll be importing this unless the PS3 version includes both tracks.
edit: I'm curious about the switch discs bit. Can the whole game area not fit on one DVD9 or are the FMV's making it an issue?
 
Has IO or TLR hit the PS3 yet? I'm sure if SO4 gets released on the PS3 it will follow those.

Remember, Bioshock going wide was due to the amount of money they made which provided the funding they needed to convert it. If this one doesn't sell well I doubt for a conversion.
 
[quote name='WormFOODx']Has IO or TLR hit the PS3 yet? I'm sure if SO4 gets released on the PS3 it will follow those.

Remember, Bioshock going wide was due to the amount of money they made which provided the funding they needed to convert it. If this one doesn't sell well I doubt for a conversion.[/QUOTE]

Given the pitiful amount of 360's in Japan it WILL come to the PS3, just not to the U.S. necessarily. I will be importing after impressions of it on the PS3. If they haven't fixed the res. problem I might wait a bit unless a shitload of content has been added.
 
I still have my sealed copy of TLR in case this one blows it out of the water (which it prob won't). Is it just me or has Square Enix been slacking this gen? Mistwalker is the new Square.
 
[quote name='Poor2More']Its Star Ocean nuff said...I got it reserved and cant wait[/quote]

No, not nuff said. You still have to switch discs to go revisit some planets. That's god damn ridiculous. Lost Odyssey never did that and it was 4 discs long...
 
[quote name='silent h3ro']IGN gave it an 80? That's pretty low by their standards. Either way I'll wait until this game is sub $30, maybe $40 before buying it.[/quote]

8.0 they gave it. They gave Tales of Vesperia 8.2 and Lost Odyssey 8.2 also... both great games. For me IGN is usually on the right track.
 
[quote name='DarkRider23']No, not nuff said. You still have to switch discs to go revisit some planets. That's god damn ridiculous. Lost Odyssey never did that and it was 4 discs long...[/quote]God forbid you should get off your ass and change discs. It's not that bad. Can't you install the game to the hdd anyways?
 
[quote name='silent h3ro']God forbid you should get off your ass and change discs. It's not that bad. Can't you install the game to the hdd anyways?[/quote]

Ding Ding....you are correct, I dont understand why folks are complaining about this
 
From what I recall of Lost Odyssey you can only install one at a time.

Or, that is to say, you have to install every disc independently. And still have to change discs regardless.
 
[quote name='Magus8472']From what I recall of Lost Odyssey you can only install one at a time.

Or, that is to say, you have to install every disc independently. And still have to change discs regardless.[/QUOTE]

Correct, however when you are near "end game" Disc 4 has everything on it so you can visit every place and grind/do whatever quest you want and not have to switch the Disc.

I think that Disc switching is ridiculous to.

After watching the Videos I'm either gonna wait for the price drop or just put my money on ToV. IU and Last Remanant all had sales for $40 within a month if I'm still willing to get this game.
 
We can go on and on about the disk switching but it doesn't change the fact that people are still interested. SE used to be a stellar company when it came to utilizing the technology but that was because they had dev kits and worked to push the system they were developing on before the system came out (PS1, PS2). This just isn't the case with the Xbox. Forgetting Final Fantasy Online (was a PC title too so it must have been easy to port) they were late jumping on the Xbox bandwagon. It is most likely an Xbox limitation, but since IU hasn't been ported to the PS3 I'm not holding my breath on this one either.

I will wait and see how often I will be switching disks. Now that I know about it I will plan for it in my playing. It doesn't have to be a big deal if I can plan for it. I for one will rent it but the videos look fantastic, regardless of people complaining about the resolution. What is with that anyway? When have us JRPGers been so concerned with resolutions and so on? I play Disgaea 3 and really don't mind that it looks like a PS2 game.

I always thought us JRPG fans were more interested in the story and leveling/character mechanics than graphics, technical limitations and technology in general. Isn't that why we still buy games on the PS2? (Persona 4)

I'm renting first. Most likely buying.
 
[quote name='WormFOODx']

I always thought us JRPG fans were more interested in the story and leveling/character mechanics than graphics, technical limitations and technology in general. Isn't that why we still buy games on the PS2? (Persona 4)

[/quote]



Look at where you are. Who on this site does not whine about such things?
 
[quote name='WormFOODx']
I always thought us JRPG fans were more interested in the story and leveling/character mechanics than graphics, technical limitations and technology in general. Isn't that why we still buy games on the PS2? (Persona 4)

I'm renting first. Most likely buying.[/QUOTE]

Ummm depending on the series graphics can be a staple of said RPG. "Final Fantasy" is one of the BIGGEST examples of this.
While I enjoy Atlus's 3D itinerations of SMT I'd love them even more in HD. The art style begs to be seen in HD as opposed to an UGLY pitbull artwise like Halo or other dully designed FPS's in terms of art. I would pay $60 for a domestic copy of SMT in 3D NATIVE HD.
As for the disc switching issue it really depends on the reference point. If this is not FMV's mainly taking up the disc space and is EnixSquare utilizing HD textures and such for the environments and characters then I'd argue it is definitely a problem and shows DVD limitation. This is especially considered significant since we're talking about J-RPG's, a genre unlike the sandbox. I'm saying this if it's the situation above and NOT FMV's. If it IS the situation(game areas) then it's a problem if one of the least demanding genre's for multi-discs is having to find a workaround like this.
 
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[quote name='silent h3ro']God forbid you should get off your ass and change discs. It's not that bad. Can't you install the game to the hdd anyways?[/quote]

You can, but you'll still have to switch the disc to play that certain disc.

[quote name='Monsta Mack']Correct, however when you are near "end game" Disc 4 has everything on it so you can visit every place and grind/do whatever quest you want and not have to switch the Disc.

I think that Disc switching is ridiculous to.

After watching the Videos I'm either gonna wait for the price drop or just put my money on ToV. IU and Last Remanant all had sales for $40 within a month if I'm still willing to get this game.[/quote]

Lost Odyssey could pull off using one disc to visit everywhere, so why can't Star Ocean? I didn't really mind switching the discs 3 times to finish up Lost Odyssey, but if I had to switch discs to go back and visit some earlier towns, then that would be stupid. I would have spent about thirty minutes each sitting just switching discs.
 
[quote name='DarkRider23']You can, but you'll still have to switch the disc to play that certain disc. [/quote]I did not know that. That would defeat the whole purpose imo. I wouldn't even care about a couple of seconds saved off loads.
 
[quote name='silent h3ro']I did not know that. That would defeat the whole purpose imo. I wouldn't even care about a couple of seconds saved off loads.[/quote]

Hey, I hope it's not like that. I'm not even 100% sure if it's like that, but that's what a lot of people have been telling me. If it's like Lost Odyssey where you can go back and visit every place when you are on the last disc, it'll be cool. If not, then it is going to be a major pain in the ass.
 
It's not a big deal really, but it is kind of annoying they didn't tweak that out so you didn't have to switch.
 
[quote name='DarkRider23']Lost Odyssey could pull off using one disc to visit everywhere, so why can't Star Ocean? I didn't really mind switching the discs 3 times to finish up Lost Odyssey, but if I had to switch discs to go back and visit some earlier towns, then that would be stupid. I would have spent about thirty minutes each sitting just switching discs.[/quote]

Lets just hope it means that there's enough diverse content in the game that it wasn't able to fit on a single disk. Though I'm sure that it isn't true, but one can wish. :p

This won't be a big deal to me personally unless I'm forced to change disks every 15 minutes because of side quests or getting materials and such to create items and what not.
 
[quote name='Draekon']
This won't be a big deal to me personally unless I'm forced to change disks every 15 minutes because of side quests or getting materials and such to create items and what not.[/quote]


Exactly. Though I can't see this being an issue or IGN would've really spanked them for this in the review.
 
Actually in the IGN review, it seemed like the person reviewing never really backtracked in the game. I think he said there was minimal backtracking required in the 40 hours or so that he actually played. So he probably didn't bother going back to get materials/weps or whatever. I'll probably pick this up when it's a lot cheaper. Right now it's too long for me...especially since the save system is so crappy in that you can apparently only save at specific points in the game. On another note, the achievements are some of the most boring ones around...there's no way I'd go for them if I had to constantly backtrack and insert a cd in every town...
 
[quote name='Poor2More']You get a Soundtrack for SO4 when preordering, contains 12 songs I believe[/quote]

I believe I saw that too, for the Japanese version.

[quote name='nnthomas']IU was designed by like third-tier Tri-Ace... SO4 has the big guns. It should be a much better product.[/quote]
Despite being a raving tri-Ace fan, I can't stand the tri-Ace dev team that worked on IU. The Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile teams do fantastic work IMO. I don't like that Squeenix's recent flops will hurt them more than anything they're actually responsible for.

[quote name='Sarang01']As for the disc switching issue it really depends on the reference point. If this is not FMV's mainly taking up the disc space and is EnixSquare utilizing HD textures and such for the environments and characters then I'd argue it is definitely a problem and shows DVD limitation. This is especially considered significant since we're talking about J-RPG's, a genre unlike the sandbox. I'm saying this if it's the situation above and NOT FMV's. If it IS the situation(game areas) then it's a problem if one of the least demanding genre's for multi-discs is having to find a workaround like this.[/quote]
I still don't understand why MS made it so you have to switch discs for multi-disc games once you install it to the HDD. They should have done what so many PC games do and use disc 1 as a gameplay disc.
 
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141k first day sales in Japan for this game.
Tops the 105k TLR did in It's first WEEK.
WKC did 207k in It's first week for the PS3, which this probably won't surpass but It's pretty damn big.
 
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