Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope

[King Lycan]

._. Why would Square realease this game on the 360..have they seen the lack luster sales of the 360 in Japan ....i was so pissed when i learned about this last week

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by King Lycan

._. Why would Square realease this game on the 360..have they seen the lack luster sales of the 360 in Japan ....i was so pissed when i learned about this last week

Because microsoft paid them a good deal of money for an exclusive release in hopes to boost sales and help capture the rpg market?

[Sciel]

I remember reading somewhere that when the title The Last Hope was announced for the xbox 360 , someone was joking about it being the last hope for m$ in the japanese rpg market (lastluster sales , etc) .

Anyways , i'm pretty sure this title will do a Tales of Symphonia and be released on the PS3 in Japan (the title is quite popular there afterall). However even if it does get released in Japan , it might still not come to NA

[the.Merines]

Does being announced for a certain console make a game an exclusive title these days? o.0

Always possible that it'll be on both or have a staggered release as Sciel suggested.

[nadare]

I think ToV is the last hope for Japan. If ToV Japan fails there is no hope for it anymore.

[Radiosity]

Well, it's set before the other games, so there won't be any references to lol4dbeings this time (they're not going to make that dumb mistake again... in theory), and to be honest the fact that this time there will actually be proper fleet battles and the like IN SPACE (you know, it's called STAR ocean and all heh) is making me look forward to this title quite a bit..... or it would be if it wasn't on Xbox. That's kinda where it all falls apart for me, I want a PS3, not a 360, and I don't feel like shelling out even more money on a console I don't want just for a couple of games.
Vesperia will be getting a PS3 release some time after the 360 so that makes me happy... but if too many more rpgs end up on the damn 360 I'll probably end up caving and buying one second hand from ebay or something, then hope like hell it doesn't redring.

[bigdave]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

Ironically, I owned a PS3 before I just recently purchased a 360, but that was only because I needed a BC system that is able to play my library of PSX/PS2 library first, a Blu-ray Disc player second, and a giant memory card being third. I certainly didn't buy the PS3 for PS3 games, lol.

lol u know that PS3 doesn't have backwards compatibility anymore right?
the only ones that even had any ability of that was the first round of systems sold the 60 gig ones. the 40 and 80 gig ones have been stripped of there compatibility.

unless u can say for sure since u have the system.

[DragoonKain3]

^
You see, I've been eyeing a PS3 for a very long time; ever since its release, in fact. Only problem was that I wasn't willing to shell out its release price, which IIRC was like 800 bucks or something like that. After what, a half a year or something, they announced the EU version, which didn't have the EE chip. That got me really really worried, as there's a good chance that sooner or later, the same model will come to NA. And hey, I was right, and the moment I heard the news, I rushed to my nearest dealer and got myself a 60 gig PS3.

So yes, I myself got the excellent 60 gig model.

(BTW, it's the 40 gig that has ZERO compatiblity. I've heard that the 80 gig is like 85% compatibility, while the 60 gig is very much close to 100%. Well, at least it plays my extensive library without a hitch )



Anyways, back on topic, while there are hopefuls of you there for PS3 releases of the 360 RPGs (SO4 included), do note that as Sciel said, just because it's released in Japan, doesn't mean it might be released in NA. S/He mentions Tales of Symphonia, but there's also Eternal Sonata whose PS3 release in NA is abysmal, according to certain sites. So unless one is well versed in moonspeak, people like me who can't are SOL unless we get a 360.

Seems to me that Bandai/Namco is very hesitant to bring out ports of their RPGs to other systems, at least to NA. So Tales of Vesperia has a very high chance to be a 360 exclusive, again at least in NA.

BTW, I'm pretty sure that it's not Vesperia that's the last bastion of RPGs for the 360 in Japan, it would be Star Ocean 4. Hey, it's called 'The Last Hope' for more than one reason, right?

And yes, I've got a stinking feeling that Kamui is right; Microsoft is paying good money for these games to come out in the 360. They might be at a loss right now, but if this keeps up, they'll really benifit in the long run.

[nadare]

ToV is bigger than SO4.

The main reason is because of SO3. I think a lot of people were turned off with that game. People are quite hesitant about SO4.

On a side note, they could remedy the "BC" problem on the 40 gig by just making an addon of it. I'm hoping Sony will make one soon >.>.

[Amray]

Indeed, I also agree that the XBox 360 is recieving many RPG's recently, and whats more is that they are actually decent ones too!! I also agree with everyones reasonings on this topic about waiting for the Japanese Market to finally win over. Let us face it, the PS3 did have a rocky start, but I am speaking of here in the UK so I do not know whether it was the same anywhere else. They were so expensive and many consumers were buying 360's. Microsofts plan to reduce the price in the 360 when the PS3 came out proved a big success it seems.

Eternal Sonata is to be released on the PlayStation 3 later this year though, because that was never an official Xbox release, nontheless, still an amazing RPG! I cannot wait to try out Star Ocean 4 too, and I am quite happy that it is to be released on the Xbox to be honest as I do not have a PlayStation 3...unfortunetly.

[rg4619]

lol u know that PS3 doesn't have backwards compatibility anymore right?
the only ones that even had any ability of that was the first round of systems sold the 60 gig ones. the 40 and 80 gig ones have been stripped of there compatibility.

PSOne compatibility remains since it's completely emulated in software.

[King Lycan]

Well at least the PS3 has White Knight Chronicles >_<

[DeotoxSlayer]

Originally Posted by King Lycan

Well at least the PS3 has White Knight Chronicles >_<

Well, I was looking forward to White Knight Chronicle more than Star Ocean 4, so I guess I cans till feel happy that White Knight Chronicle will be a PS3 exclusive.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Well the system it's on is the least of my worries, here's what they've got to do to fix the Star Ocean franchise:

- Retcon anything that happened in Star Ocean 3 after the term "Eternal Sphere" was introduced

- Fix the item system so that's it's actually necessary and fun to use like in the first 2 games.

- Get rid of that Fury, Heavy Attack/Light Attack nonesense that made the battle system almost unworkable.

- Write an actually interesting story with characters that have some personality.

- Rework the damage ratio so you aren't dying every 10 or so seconds from common enemies

- Make common enemies drop a reasonable amount of experience for the difficulty of them (looking at you adjudicators or whatever you were called)

- No MP Damage

- Hire some better voice actors for minor characters (Farlene)

- Tone down the pallete swapping on the enemies. I should not be fighting a pallette swap as a chapter end boss.

- Add a lockon function or something to the battle system ala "Tales of" that will make it easier to hit the damn enemies.

[King Lycan]

I wans't really a big fan of Star Ocean i only played star ocean 2 for the PS ...
But i wonder if Enix is working on a Valkyrie Profile 3

[DragoonKain3]

- Rework the damage ratio so you aren't dying every 10 or so seconds from common enemies

Meh, being one of those who loves difficult RPGs, I enjoyed this particular aspect of SO3. If I could choose higher level difficulty on the get go, I would.

- No MP Damage

I particularly thought that the MP damage was unique and fresh, as it adds an extra dimension to battle. If there's one thing I really REALLY hope they won't do away, it will be MP damage as long as physical skills use HP and magical skills use MP. If warrior characters risk death by spamming their Killer Moves, why not the mages as well when they spam their spells?


But yeah, I put SO3 on hiatus after the eternal sphere, which many thought is its worst part. Might pick it up sometime in the future, if only to finish the story before SO4 comes this side of the pacific.

[Sciel]

- Hire some better voice actors for minor characters (Farlene)

This is a must . Her VA was horrid.

[Amray]

Most dubbings annoy me anyway. Sometimes I wonder why they dub them so horribly. They always put on the most stupid voices to make it a more child-like atmosphere..whereas Japanese voice actors use their original and normal voices. It makes it a lot better. That is why my Eternal Sonata save file is under the Japanese language, it sounds so much better and I wish that they let people have the choice to change the dialogue more like Eternal Sonata and Lost Oddyse.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

Meh, being one of those who loves difficult RPGs, I enjoyed this particular aspect of SO3. If I could choose higher level difficulty on the get go, I would.



I particularly thought that the MP damage was unique and fresh, as it adds an extra dimension to battle. If there's one thing I really REALLY hope they won't do away, it will be MP damage as long as physical skills use HP and magical skills use MP. If warrior characters risk death by spamming their Killer Moves, why not the mages as well when they spam their spells?


But yeah, I put SO3 on hiatus after the eternal sphere, which many thought is its worst part. Might pick it up sometime in the future, if only to finish the story before SO4 comes this side of the pacific.

Both do more to make the battles extra tedious and not so much extra challenging.

Originally Posted by Amray

Most dubbings annoy me anyway. Sometimes I wonder why they dub them so horribly. They always put on the most stupid voices to make it a more child-like atmosphere..whereas Japanese voice actors use their original and normal voices. It makes it a lot better. That is why my Eternal Sonata save file is under the Japanese language, it sounds so much better and I wish that they let people have the choice to change the dialogue more like Eternal Sonata and Lost Oddyse.

Hahahaha, oh no no no, both sides of the pacific do put on voices for games and anime. Funnily enough you should mention Eternal Sonata though which Aya Hirano who is legendary for making her voice sound as child appealing as possible. I mean they even gave her her own kids show segment because of it in Moegaku *5. Rie Kugimiya's real voice is nowhere near anything you'd here from her in an anime or game and neither is Kappei Yamaguchi's for example.

The only game I think really needs to have a Japanese Language option (and therefore probably won't) is Tales of Symphonia Knights of Ratatosk. Namco Bandai has yet to actually show any sort of awareness of fans desire for something like this so it's unlikely ever to happen.

[DragoonKain3]

Actually, I would disagree making the battles tedious. For me, it's the mindless battles where you do the same thing over and over because the enemies don't pose any sort of threat to you that makes non-boss battles so boring. With the enemies able to down a character if he/she gets ganged on, remembering which way is the easier way to down the enemies, and conserving on using ones skills a bit in order not to easily die, at the very least SO3's battle system kept people on their toes. Then again, I always love a challenge, so YMMV.