Star ocean the last hope international review
There’s a lot of problems with Star Ocean: The Last Hope, but at the very least the combat system does have some redeeming qualities. At the very least there’s a good deal of variety when it comes to the worlds that are explored, but their tales never become interesting or long enough to keep you immersed. It’s one thing being the savior of the universe at that age, which is kind of silly in its own right, but it’s another being selected by humanity to take up that responsibility. This is the first time Humans are going out to explore the stars and yet they send a group of teens it just doesn’t seem plausible and that’s reflected in the events of the story. I know anime and Japanese RPGs in general love to put youngsters in the forefront of change in their stories, but you can tell just how mentally and emotionally unfit someone at the age of twenty is when it comes to dealing with incredibly sensitive issues. The protagonist is barely out of high school and yet he’s captaining a voyage mission across the galaxy along with a childhood friend who is even younger. At the same time, this also highlights a major issue I have with the game: the age of the characters.
It results in some catastrophic results that ends up with civilizations completely wiped out. This is humanity’s first steps outside of their comfort zone and such, The Last Hope shows the frequent mistakes that are made while dealing with not only intergalactic politics, but primitive lifeforms and even time travel. You play as Edge Maverick, a poorly-named character, as he joins the crew of one of the Space Reconnaissance Force (SRF) in their mission. The Last Hope is the prequel to all Star Ocean titles where humanity has come together after World War III to work for the better good and that means venturing into the stars to find new homes for the people of Earth. Now for the actual plot: it’s tremendously bad. Thank the merciful Square Enix that they included the Japanese voiceovers just as they did in the International Version’s release for PlayStation 3, otherwise this would be one excruciating adventure. There is nothing remarkable about any of them and it doesn’t help that most have some of the worst, most ear-piercing English voice acting you’ll ever hear, kay. You have the overly-emotional protagonist, the damsel in distress (and childhood friend to the protagonist) heroine, the child that really shouldn’t be going on any of these dangerous adventures, the reserved veteran, the stoic giant, the plucky youngster and so forth. Outside of a handful of characters, the vast majority of the cast is unbearable and fairly boilerplate. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for The Last Hope. The Second Story remains one of my personal favorite games not only due to the highly engaging combat system, but a satisfying plot with a plethora of fascinating characters. While I have my personal gripes with the major plot twist in Till the End of Time, it still managed to tell an incredibly compelling story throughout. Let’s start off with the most disappointing aspects of The Last Hope: the story. After so many years since its debut, has Edge Maverick’s journey aged well or has Star Ocean become stagnate?
#Star ocean the last hope international review Pc
Till the End of Time was purely a PlayStation 2 Classic with little done to it, but The Last Hope has not only gotten a visual upgrade, but also ported to PC as well. While we’re still waiting for the PlayStation 4 localization of one of the best JRPGs ever (Star Ocean: The Second Story), we have gotten two re-releases this year alone. Their latest entry last year, Integrity and Faithlessness, was met with a less than ideal reception, so Square Enix has gone back to the well to bring back some of their better games in their collection. Regardless, this was a big shift for the Star Ocean franchise while it started off as a Nintendo release, it ended up being well known for its PlayStation releases. Eternal Sonata, Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Blue Dragon and Star Ocean: The Last Hope, all exclusive, at least at the time. Not only were they able to secure a good chunk of the market share, but they were getting Japanese RPGs left and right. The first five years of the Xbox 360’s life cycle were some of the best for Microsoft.