Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope

[IchiKyo]

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=yVHhmRQKJJM
New US Trailer

And for the Fun, Reimi 3DCG sequence done with "Metasequoia"
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=yTWyBxxMuoE
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=TpiFczPAM9Q

[Keroko]

Well, so far I must say I'm pleasantly surprised. Even though we only heard two characters talking for little more then seconds, the voice acting was anything but disappointing. I hope they'll bring out a more chatty trailer soon, to compare the animation when the characters are talking.

[Shinndou]

Now that's what I am talking about. Nice trailer, hopefully I'll get to play this in April.

[Zekori]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Well, so far I must say I'm pleasantly surprised. Even though we only heard two characters talking for little more then seconds, the voice acting was anything but disappointing. I hope they'll bring out a more chatty trailer soon, to compare the animation when the characters are talking.

Yeah, pretty much agreed. It could be worse, and thankfully it's not. (like cutting/downsizing the audio files as seen in another recent game, or dull voice acting paired a slow combat system in a certain trilogy series from a while back.)

Originally Posted by Shinndou

Now that's what I am talking about. Nice trailer, hopefully I'll get to play this in April.

The woes of waiting for the EU versions.

[kujoe]

The trailer reminds me of Mass Effect... and that's not a bad thing at all.

I'm still wondering how this new story will fit in with the story of SO3. Retcon part 3? Maybe the new game is a prequel? Or is tri-Ace simply ignoring whatever sense of continuity the series supposedly has?

[Narumi]

Originally Posted by kujoe

Maybe the new game is a prequel?

Not maybe, the new game is a prequel. It takes place before SO1.

[Zekori]

It's been speculated there's no UP3 Law existing for SO4. The law that existed for undeveloped planet interaction mentioned in the three previous SO games, the one Fate wouldn't shut up about for a while. So events may led up to that.

Of course this was a while back when there were only three characters, so not sure if any background information was released concerning it.

[TobiaSR32]

It's a prequel? But how many years before part 1 I wonder.

This might be interesting.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Zekori

Yeah, pretty much agreed. It could be worse, and thankfully it's not. (like cutting/downsizing the audio files as seen in another recent game, or dull voice acting paired a slow combat system in a certain trilogy series from a while back.)

I hope they'll reduce the amount of head-bobbing in the English version. Nothing irks me more in animation then unneeded head-bobbing when people are talking.

Originally Posted by Zekori

The woes of waiting for the EU versions.

And that's why I prefer the PS3, 'cause I can guarantee this one will be region locked as hell. -_-

<--- still has a grudge against the 360 for Vesperia, which still isn't here.

Originally Posted by Zekori

It's been speculated there's no UP3 Law existing for SO4. The law that existed for undeveloped planet interaction mentioned in the three previous SO games, the one Fate wouldn't shut up about for a while. So events may led up to that.

Of course this was a while back when there were only three characters, so not sure if any background information was released concerning it.

We might see the reason the UP3 was created in the first place in this game, it being a prequel and set in the early days of exploration and all. Apocalyptic events should be incoming.

[IchiKyo]

Famitsu had already rate Star Ocean 4 : 9-9-8-8 : 34/40

[TrueKnight]

And they rate a graphically glitched Last Remnant with a 10/10/9/9 : 38/40 ?

Last Remnant was superb in terms of gameplay but no where near perfect.

Proof that Famitsu had lost its creidibility.

[DragoonKain3]

Maybe Famitsu doesn't care about graphics but heavily emphasizes gameplay and originality? After all, they've had a history of rating games very high that while not entirely polished, shattered the mold in terms of how its played.

[TrueKnight]

Dude, Last Remnant have crappy story, superb graphics, superb gameplay but had ridiculously glicthed horrible loading times. Proof that Squeenix hasn't fully understand how to properly implement the Unreal Technology like Gears of War 2. The horribly glitched graphic loading times it self, which most likely to occur on every battles is enough to make the game no where near perfect.

Why they rate Last Remnant 38/40 while Valkyria Chronicles received a 34/40 is beyond me.

[DragoonKain3]

See thing is, if you install the game to HDD, the graphic load times become minimal. And if you're really REALLY anal about what little slowdown there was even after all that, then go down to 480 resolution, and the lag disappears completely.

So yeah, you'd have less than stellar graphics, but then again graphics doesn't affect gameplay and you've pretty much got rid of what's the biggest complaint about for the game. Which again as I said, Famitsu probably rated TLR most heavily on gameplay/originality moreso than any other factor (including graphics). After all, they just kept on raving and raving on about its battle system and didn't mention much of anything else in their review of TLR.

And yeah, I'd rate TLR at 38/40 and VC as 34/40 myself. I personally find VC overrated by critics. It has an interesting story, looks awesome and runs like a well oiled machine, but the gameplay is just a minor improvement over say, Operation Darkness, if I had to give a comparison.

[TrueKnight]

Originally Posted by "DragoonKain3"

And if you're really REALLY anal about what little slowdown there was even after all that, then go down to 480 resolution, and the lag disappears completely.

Some of us, if not most, purchase the next game console system to see improvement on the graphics combined with gameplay. So if you say do combined graphic and gameplay matters at least to me and many others? Yes. I fail to see why I should bother down scaling the graphic to 480 when my 42 inch Samsung TV runs in Full HD. This is why TLR is being bitched by reviewers from the west mostly because of the glicthed graphics.

But in terms of gameplay, then yes I have to agree with you. Last Remnant was simply superb in its own right and a pioner and definitely blows VC out of the water. I would give Last Remnant 10 solely for gamplay and 7 for VC.

[DeotoxSlayer]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

See thing is, if you install the game to HDD, the graphic load times become minimal. And if you're really REALLY anal about what little slowdown there was even after all that, then go down to 480 resolution, and the lag disappears completely.

So yeah, you'd have less than stellar graphics, but then again graphics doesn't affect gameplay and you've pretty much got rid of what's the biggest complaint about for the game. Which again as I said, Famitsu probably rated TLR most heavily on gameplay/originality moreso than any other factor (including graphics). After all, they just kept on raving and raving on about its battle system and didn't mention much of anything else in their review of TLR.

And yeah, I'd rate TLR at 38/40 and VC as 34/40 myself. I personally find VC overrated by critics. It has an interesting story, looks awesome and runs like a well oiled machine, but the gameplay is just a minor improvement over say, Operation Darkness, if I had to give a comparison.

MS released a version of the system without an Harddrive so if you rate a game higher based on how it improves after you install it on your hardrive that's BS. Telling me that I have to lower the resolution from it's native state is also BS, if it shows that much of an improvement thent he devs should have made the native resolution lower, so that's their fault and again you shouldn't rate a game higher based on that.

I agree that the battle system was very enjoyable despite the lag, but the graphics definetly weren't the main complaint. For onw thing the storyline was really bad and there were load screens everwhere heck, I saw a load screen in the middle of a cutscene. Even though last remnant was pretty good Famitsu shouldn't have give it a score that high and it's rather obvious that they only gave it a score that high because it was released by Square-Enix, they give extremely high score to all S-E games, and this game is no exception. If any other dev released this game it definetly would've gotten a lower score.

Well i'd rate VC as 38/40 and TLR as 34/40. I find that VC was perfectly rated by critic, VC was better than TLR in most ways the graphics, the story, it had no visible slowdown or lag and it's battle system was rather innovative and fun, even though it's nt as innovative as TLR's. I do however think that TLR was a little underrated I mean despite all it's problems it atleast deserved a score in the mid-high 70's.

Wow...that was an extremly long post...

[TrueKnight]

Originally Posted by DeotoxSlayer

VC was better than TLR in most ways the graphics, the story, it had no visible slowdown or lag and it's battle system was rather innovative and fun, even though it's nt as innovative as TLR's.

Please don't forget that in VC you only need around 60-70 hours to ace all the mission, maximize your equipments, getting all the secret weapons and background (this already includes new game +).

Whereas TLR will have you spending 100+ hours on the sidequests, dungeons, and grinding your stats plus equipments. This not include new game +. TLR have longer enjoyable hours. Most of us play TLR just for the gameplay, while VC for the story and eye candy graphics.

Hopefully SO 4 will have the combinations of all of them above.

[Shinndou]

Originally Posted by TrueKnight

Please don't forget that in VC you only need around 60-70 hours to ace all the mission, maximize your equipments, getting all the secret weapons and background (this already includes new game +).

Whereas TLR will have you spending 100+ hours on the sidequests, dungeons, and grinding your stats plus equipments. This not include new game +. TLR have longer enjoyable hours. Most of us play TLR just for the gameplay, while VC for the story and eye candy graphics.

Hopefully SO 4 will have the combinations of all of them above.

I pretty much share the same opinion. As much as I enjoyed VC, in terms of hours spent I am definetely spending the most on TLR. I am taking my sweet time doing all the side-quests, there's really a lot of them, and the cool thing is that a good portion of them are no piece of cake either. By the way, I don't think Last Remnant's story is that bad. Atleast I find it more interesting than White Knight Chronicles' one (that I managed to start around a week ago, damn customs held my package too long), to name an other controversial jrpg.

So far from what we've seen of SO4 I'm getting mixed vibes. Technically impressive, combat looks fast-paced, but I do hope the quality of the fights will be good, and I also hope there'll be a decent number of decent sidequests as well.

[IchiKyo]

Well, Famitsu fail since they rate FFXII : 40/40...
For a long time ago...

[Sassarai]

Originally Posted by IchiKyo

Well, Famitsu fail since they rate FFXII : 40/40...
For a long time ago...

There's a lot of people that like FF12. I think FF games appeal to a very wide range of audience so everyone is going to have different favorites/dislikes.


Famitsu lost credibility after Haze lol.