Star Ocean: The Last Hope
There’s something akin to the buzz surrounding JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movie for this Xbox 360 role-playing game. So we’ve spent several hours accompanying Edge Maverick and his crew to learn more about why.
As one of the three top-selling Xbox 360 games in Japan, “Star Ocean: The Last Hope” promises broader appeal than previous Square Enix RPGs on these shores. Production values are through the roof, and it’s understandable that fans of the series since its Super NES debut of 1996 have been going gaga. The opening scenes depicting Space Reconnaissance Force ships engaging warp drive in search of new hope beyond our galaxy are utterly riveting and movie-like in direction. It’s apparent from the very beginning that The Last Hope, a prequel to the original adventure, has soul.
The last most impressive instalment of the Star Ocean series, “Till the End of Time”, appeared on PlayStation 2 in 2004 across Europe. Although depicted in state-of-the-art 3D, the impact was not nearly as great as technology has allowed on Xbox 360. And this has enabled The Last Hope’s producers to indulge its protagonists in some meaningful dialogue and convey a sense of what is ticking beneath their immaculate doll-like appearance.
Really our heroes are just kids performing an adult’s role, mankind’s final bid at a future in the aftermath of World War III. Starship pilots Edge Maverick and Reimi Saionji find it hard to leave their childhood relationship behind as the iconic “Calnus” vessel departs its lunar launch pad and you’ll share Maverick’s thrill of being such a young pioneer. Of course this dream come true soon becomes a nightmare when the Calnus and five other Starships encounter difficulties while navigating a wormhole.
When the adventure gets properly underway you’ll be made acutely aware that Star Ocean is, after all, a heavily action-oriented RPG. We spent almost an hour in the Calnus ship’s onboard battle simulator perfecting our Blindside attacks and learning all about the BEAT system that governs each character’s fighting strategy. Other bonuses are awarded for performance during battle such as critical attacks and eliminating several enemies all at once. These are then banked as multiplier chips, enhancing the amount of EXP to level up or FOL to spend on equipment.
The celebrated real-time battle system is a double-edge sword for Star Ocean. For us the timing of Blindside manoeuvres, where your character dodges an incoming attack to land an acrobatic combo, hasn’t become the slightest bit boring. However the many encounters in which you’ll have chance to perfect this and the likes of explosive Rush attacks can play havoc with your nerves. Really, the battle system in Star Ocean: The Last Hope successfully enables a party of heroes to get stuck in all at once and for you to feel like the grand conductor like never before. The downside is that players unused to such heavy-going confrontations might find this a shock to the system. We’ve found the battles to be enormously satisfying however.
Another in-depth gameplay feature to eat up your time is the ability to mine and harvest raw materials for item creation, greatly enhancing weapons and armour. And so inside what would otherwise be a fairly rigidly structured RPG there is the sense of freedom to impress your personal style upon the game. And having the Calnus as your ultrasonic taxi ride between planets only adds to the epic vibe of Star Ocean: The Last Hope.
We’ll sign off for now, as the review is due around this time next month. But before going we want to return again to our point about the dialogue between characters and the sensitivity of the relationships. There is a comic-book quality to the whole experience by design, but what’s proving most infectious about The Last Hope is that you really feel as though this is an important journey. And the last time we experienced a similar sensation was in Final Fantasy VII, so long may it continue…
