Star Ocean is your classic Japanese RPG series; long running, spanning several console generations and across all the big platforms, which now includes the 360 in this exclusive title. It’s just possible that Star Ocean is the perfect recipe for an RPG, bringing together many of the best aspects of every series we’ve known and loved. The development team at tri-Ace is made up of Namco’s Tales of Phantasia design team, which left to set up the new development studio. The team is massive sci-fi, (and in particular Star Trek) fans and has created a series that combines the typical fantasy environments with space-faring advanced civilisations. The battle system combines real time fighting with a wide variety of special moves, spells and techniques, and the series boasts one of the most expansive and robust customisation systems of any role-playing game. All this and it has a pick-up-and-playability that any newcomer to the genre could cope with. Oh, and let's not forget the kooky, big-eyed manga characters you’ll get to play as.
If there is any reason why Star Ocean hasn’t managed to become the most famous and popular JRPG series of all time it’s the lack of prolificacy. While the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises have an impressive canon of work this is only Star Ocean’s fourth outing, with the original game appearing on Western shores for the first time just a few months ago. The Last Hope rather helpfully takes place before the plotlines of all the other games, so newcomers need not fear being lost in the story… and what a story it is.
The opening scene shows humanity’s greatest mistake occurring in 2064. With the planet decimated by a nuclear holocaust, mankind seeks a new home on another planet. Veterans of the series will know what comes next: off into space, crash land, explore forest planet, get into a fight with some giant spiders, and so on. All Star Ocean games open like this, and the fact that this title is no different tells us a lot. In a time where Japanese developers are desperately trying to get a handle on the needs of the Western gamer, Star Ocean sticks to its traditions because this series was never obscure or particularly Eastern in the first place. All enemies appear on the screen, with no random battles to deal with. You can jump straight in and slash away but – as was the case with tri-Ace’s last title, Infinite Undiscovery – holding back and pacing yourself is sometimes the better strategy.
Our hero is Edge Maverick. After swiping the award from the hands of Rogue Galaxy’s Jaster Rogue for most stupid RPG hero moniker, he gets on with saving humanity alongside soppy gal pal Reimi. Of course, they pick up a rag tag group of weirdoes, including alien folk with giant elven ears and a tiny creepy child with big pigtails. You can have four characters in battle; while controlling one, the others will follow one of a choice of AI commands but you can switch between characters at any point. This means that your main character’s death doesn’t trigger Game Over, and as long as someone is still standing the fight goes on. You can blindside enemies with timed attacks using the B button, pressing X when your Rush meter is full will put you in a heightened attack posture and the trigger buttons unleash some wicked combos that can be chained together. Battling is intuitive and never dull but it’s also pretty hard and currently it seems too easy to lose control against even the weakest of enemies and have your party decimated in under a minute.
Outside of battle the game boasts a massive universe to explore, with each newly-discovered environment more detailed and exquisite than the last. Walking through powdery snow on an uncharted planet in the crisp sunny morning air, we were stunned by the atmosphere rendered in a game already packed with so many other pleasures. The stand-out feature of The Last Hope, though, is the complex and well-balanced customisation system, where characters can be kitted out with a variety of weapons, armour and abilities. You’ll also be able to forge items through metalwork, cooking, artistry, mining, harvesting and a bunch of other skills. Additionally, the combination of characters used to create these items will produce different results based on their skill and personality.
Our time with The Last Hope revealed a strong sequel to the series, which has the confidence to stick to what it knows best while bringing a new level of graphical beauty, accessible battle and skill systems. There are a few sticking points with character control and collision detection out in the field, but we’d expect to see these ironed out – along with smoother loading transitions from one area to another – by the time the game hits shelves this spring. Japanese RPG developers are currently in turmoil due to ailing sales, and special efforts to appeal to the West are floundering with misjudged titles like Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant. The plot of Star Ocean: The Last Hope may be the perfect analogy for a dying industry looking to new and fertile lands to find a viable home. We suspect the story will have a happy ending in-game, naturally, and with stunning titles like this around maybe JRPGs will have a happy ending too.
The fourth game in this series and the fi rst to be released on the 360, it takes a sure-footed approach and relies on the experience and calibre of its development team. tri-Ace has brought us a strong and complex RPG tale with a clearly defi ned and intuitive battle system that anyone can get to grips with. As a result, The Last Hope could prove a master class in how to bring this genre of game to the West without shaking the foundations.
