REVIEW: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Developer: tri-Ace| Publisher: Square Enix | Format: 360

Reviewer: Craig Jay GallagherWhile it’s long been one of the most impressive RPG franchises on the market Star Ocean has never been as popular when compared to the likes of Final Fantasy. Since the series first came out in 1996 it has constantly played by a different set of rules. Unlike other RPG titles at the time the battles in Star Ocean took place in real time in place of the traditional turn based comb at popular in pretty much every other RPG. The second game in the series went even further to show it’s independence when it introduced the a slew of new features including the ability to create items. It was through these small variations and new features that the franchise stood out from other RPG’s. In the years since each and every entry in the franchise has continued to stand out and impress.

With Star Ocean: The Last Hope we get not a continuation of the series but a prequel to the previous three entries. Set twenty years after the end of WWIII, the world is a desolate wasteland with mankind turning it’s gaze toward space in hopes of discovering new worlds to inhabit. You take on the role of Edge Maverick whose parents obviously named him for his future. Maverick is assigned to a ship whose mission is to find a new home for the last remnants of Earths population. As in all dystopian sci fi things don’t exactly go to plan. The ships are attacked during warp and crash land on a mysterious planet where it’s up to Edge and his childhood best friend Remim to discover what exactly is happening.

The presentation of the story is a little on the dodgy side. You will find yourself exploring a dungeon when you come upon an enemy whom you fight, beat and as a result are forced to endure a un-pausable cut scene which can last up to half an hour. The lack of save points which I will cover later make enduring these cut scenes a real pain as you may have to re-watch the same cut scenes numerous times.

As in previous games The Last Ocean introduces some new features. The Blindside system is something of genius it must be said. You can now avoid an enemy attack and get your group behind them. From here you can utilise powerful attacks which cannot be counterattacked and in most cases cause critical damage to the enemy. It’s a simple feature but one which drastically alters gameplay.

There is also the addition of a bonus board during battle on which you can accumulate various coloured gems. The pink gem for example can be gained when you defeat an enemy using only special attacks and it give you an extra 1% of healing points to all members of your party. Other gems offer various awards and by collecting them all you can access numerous rewards. As you can well imagine the addition of these gems helps raise your team levels throughout the game, making combat easier. There are other new features such as rush mode and jumping. Rush mode allows you to utilise a special move by building up your rush gauge through a variety of moves. When it’s full you can activate rush mode and doing far more damage than normally. Jumping allows you to dodge an enemy attack by jumping out of the way.

For a game as big as this the pacing is at times woeful. This can be attributed to a number of issues the most troubling being the lack of save points. There are times when you will find yourself exploring a never ending dungeon for hours on end with no sight of a save point to be found. Without the access to a save point you may find yourself losing a battle and being forced to explore the same dungeon multiple times.

At the end of the day Star Ocean: The Last Hope is bloody great fun. Yes it has it’s problems but the good far out weighs the bad. There’s enough gameplay here to keep you entertained for weeks, a number of different endings to unlock and dozens of side missions.