The Star Ocean series has 6 games spanning over 4 console generations and has recently had some pretty good re-releases on the PSP. These games take place far in the future, with star travel a regular occurrence. Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a prequel, starting before all these games and showing how in 2074, two rival factions on Earth nuked the planet, realizing their errors they hold a truce and then start to look to the stars for a new life. This is where you join in. We follow the story of Edge Maverick (one of the best character names ever) as he joins a small fleet of SRF ships (Space Reconnaissance Force) on their maiden voyage to a distant planet called Aeos. En-route a mysterious meteor causes fluctuations in their hyperspace jump, causing them to pull out early, thankfully they still arrive on Aeos but with a dramatic crash landing. As you get to grips with the situation you find out that the other ships have either crashed or disappeared. The planet Aeos is also not what the SRF team expected and they meet hostile resistance from the insect inhabitants. Edge then takes the battle to the field to help save the other ships with the eventual aim of getting off planet and so an epic space adventure begins.

 

 

Those who have ever played a Square Enix game will know mostly what to expect. You control Edge and run around the planet trying to find out what has happened, the play field is littered with treasures, enemies and friendly inhabitants. As is the norm, when you run into an enemy the screen will blur, sending you into a battle screen. Star Ocean takes a different approach by offering real time action rather than the turn based affairs we are used to and because of this, the game has already gone up in my estimation. I am not a huge fan of turn based RPG's and this hands on approach rules as you are shown the enemies one by one then you can charge into battle. Edge starts off with a Workman’s Blade picked up from his first encounter with the inhabitants of Aeos which you can later replace with better weaponry. This is used with the A button and repeated hits will perform combos. Edge can also have more powerful moves allocated to the trigger buttons for easy activation.

 

As you progress through the game you will meet other characters who you can team up with. They each have their own powers and abilities to utilize, Reimi uses her archery skill to attack from a distance and Fiaze can initially summon a huge pillar of earth to send enemies flying. A word of warning, you will meet a nauseatingly cute girl called Lymle, she has to be one of the most annoying game characters ever created and every time she speaks I just want to throw up. As well as direct, ranged and magic attacks each player can pull off a blindside move, with a well timed jump the action will slow down and your player will run behind the enemy defence, allowing for a critical hit. This can however be countered so you need to be wary when puling off this move. If that was not enough to dish out the pain you also have a rush move that you can unleash once charged up, this allows you a faster flurry of attacks, combine this with the trigger

buttons and a button mashing minigame will pop up involving all of your characters and a lot of sparkly lights and damage.

 

With a large roster of characters to play as team management is essential later in the game, through the inventory screen you are able to alter fighting skills, giving the AI instructions like to hold off using MP, ganging up on certain enemies or just going freestyle. Each character also has a BEAT fighting system to utilise and upgrade. The Battle Enhancement Attribute Type has three styles, BEAT B concentrates on the burst moves, BEAT S is for strike moves and BEAT N is neutral. Whilst fighting you are able to switch characters with the LB and RB buttons so if you find a character in need or want to use their specific powers a quick click is all you need to take control. The initial powers are pretty impressive but just wait until you get further into the game and get to grips with the Symbology, party organising and the hundreds of possibilities of monster jewels.

 

 

During each fight as well as the normal exp points you earn tiles on the Bonus Board, these tiles stack bonuses together earning you loads of extras like HP/MP, cash, more EXP and points to upgrade your characters moves. There are also attack bonuses that unlock when you carry out a set requirement like killing in a certain way or a certain combo, get enough of these to start earning achievements, on a side note those of you looking to max 1000 points will be putting an awful lot of time and effort, I am talking well over 200 hours and at least 3 playthroughs. This amount of items and bonuses will usually put me off but it is so well explained in game that I really started to enjoy it.

 

The baddies on offer are well varied with some impressive designs in use, the initial crab like creatures, the cave dwelling blobs with teeth, giant lizards and yeti like creatures all look great on the field and when in battle. Boss battles are exactly what you expect, very drawn out and require some tactical thinking to get them to show a weakness, this is evident even from the first boss who is a huge alien sand snail whose shell you need to break before finally lowering it's HP. Enemies also have certain elemental properties so using the opposite element will cause more damage than a standard attack. Once you get to a certain point in the game you begin to travel to other planets and the locations are very well designed from derelict ships, frozen wastes, villages and lush green lands, each is inviting as the last and really feels like you are on other worldly planets with the landscapes, plants and inhabitants.

 

Though stunning and very immersive there are a few areas that spoil the game, the camera can be a real pain at times, getting stuck or being forced into an almost first person view when you are close to walls and boundaries make it hard to navigate at times, the interact button is very twitchy, making you have to stand right in front of something and face it to register and I hate to admit it but I miss the gold like trail of Fable 2, there are too many times in Star Ocean that I had no idea where to go, the inventory screen does give vague hints but most of the time it is through exploration that you will find where to go, for example there is a point when the captain advises to come see him when ready for a quest, you go and talk to him but he just repeatedly spews out some nonsense about worker morale, little did I know I had to speak to a random guard outside which would then trigger the captain offering the quest, this was well over 30 min of aimless wandering around, any other game and I would have quit. Another similar case is when given a Fire Ring, I began the quest as instructed only to be told by Limle that I had to go back to the village to charge it, why didn't she mention this before, told you she was annoying.

 

Cheesy names and a few bits of bad programming aside Star Ocean is a great sci-fi space opera that has plenty of the classic storylines that remind me of all of the best bits of Star Trek and Star Wars. If you are willing to put in the time this game will reward you.