Where do I start with this one. My reaction while playing it on my xbox 360 was very mixed, I enjoyed and lauded aspects of the game while loathing others. The Star Ocean was a series that mirrored the Tales series in its fast paced battles and anime designs. Let's dive into this one shall we? Plot: The game starts with exposition explaining and showing the effect World War 3 had on Earth. The amazingly named Edge Maverick (...) is chosen along with his (sigh...) childhood friend Reimi Saionji to find an appropriate environment for humans to move to. They meet and join up with aliens from other planets as they make their from planet to planet with varying technological states. Opinion: When I went into the previous installment of Star Ocean (3), I went into it with promise of being able to explore various different worlds with different states of technology and politics, instead I was horrified to find out 3/4 of the game was spent in the medieval world. This one actually delivers but falls into a very formulaic style plot with each world being like an episode of a series. It's not exactly a bad thing though, just not for everyone. 4/5 Soul
Setting and Graphics: Oh my god the graphics looks amazing even with 2016 standards. Tri-ace did an amazing job as always. The settings varies according to which world you're currently in and it really works for the game as each world feels really fleshed out and gives the feeling of being in a different time on Earth. 5/5 Soul Character(s): Okay, here's where the game hits a wall for me. The character designs look very very very very weird! Look at them, they look like a horrible Frankenstein monster of western and anime influences. The little Loli, Lymle scared the hell out of me and they all have dead eyes. The characters all unfortunately give nothing outside their anime/jrpg archetypes, like the brave but headstrong leader, the childhood friend, the deadpan loli. I was thoroughly unimpressed. Also I only played the Xbox 360 version of the game so I was not given the ability to change to the Japanese audio and let me just say, the English voice acting is atrocious. 2/5 Soul
Gameplay: The battles is where this game shines. It has a very fast-paced ala Tales series battle. Introduced in this series is the Bonus Board and the ability to avoid an attack and move behind an enemy to blindside it. The battle is fluid and action packed, and does not get old even during character grinds. The pacing of the gameplay is very odd, one minute you have a 3 hour dungeon only to finish it with a 45 minute cutscene. At least it's done beautifully as long as you glaze over Lymle's dead soulless eyes. 5/5 Soul Overall: I liked Star Ocean 4: The last Hope despite it's very questionable character designs. I played it all the way to the end and enjoyed a lot of it. All in all a very solid Jrpg and I can't wait for Star Ocean 5! 4/5 Soul
Back in the heyday of the PS1 and PS2 Era of Jrpgs, not many could match the Tales series' openings, that is, with the exception of Wild Arms. An Rpg set in the fictional world of Filgaia, each game has a heavy Wild West theme, with cowboys and guns being intricate to the plot and gameplay. Wild Arms 3's opening captures it very well with the song having a very western sound. This was also the 1st and only game in the series to have the song re-recorded with English vocals. Number 4: Tales of the Abyss
Tales of the Abyss is no where close to my favorite in the series but damn it if it doesn't have a close to perfect opening. If it was shown to most anime fans, it would be mistaken for a really good anime opening. The song is KARMA by Bump of Chicken and it's amazing! It showcases the characters and setting perfectly with the visual and movement matching the tempo of the song. Thumbs up! Number 3: Chrono Trigger
The Playstation 1 port of Chrono Trigger added little outside of the amazing opening! Which was fine because the game was near perfect to begin with. The opening has the feeling of a massive adventure and shows off the fighting style and to a lesser point, the personality of the characters. Number 2: Tales of Graces f
In my opinion, the best Opening for a Tales game, by the best game in the Tales series. Sung by the amazing BoA, they managed to get her to re-record her smash hit 'White Wishes' (used in the Japanese vers.) in English and it sounds amazing. The visuals are mostly a mix of fighting scenes and scenes from the game. They start the opening with quick glimpse into each character's personality. It is an amazing opening.
Honorable Mention : Thousand Arms
Number 1: Wild Arms 2 The 2nd Ignition
Arguably the best game in the Wild Arms series, it also plays host to the best Opening in Jrpg EVER! It is perfect in the context of showing off the setting and characters via compelling visuals and theme appropriate music. There's not much I can say that playing the youtube video I've hotlinked doesn't. It is perfect.
Beyond the beyond was the first ever RPG I played and left me confused as a kid. What genre was this and why did the opening music make me feel like I was about to embark on a massive adventure? I decided to replay it for this review and expected epicness and nostalgia instead it's pretty meh in terms of Jrpgs even compared to the games on the SNES at the time. It breaks no new ground in terms of characters, storyline and gameplay and basically plays like a poor man's Dragon Quest. There will be leeway in terms of scoring because it was the first ever RPG released in America and was released at the start of the Playstation era, back when the system's true potential has not yet been reached. Plot: Unnamed silent protagonist lives in a quiet town with his adoptive parents and sister. He trains with his father who is a knight for the Kingdom once a month. One night, his adoptive brother comes home to warn them about enemies that have taken over the castle and captured the prince. Together with Annie (his adoptive sister) and Percy (the brother), they leave the quiet town to check on protagonist's father and accidentally saves and travels with the kidnapped Prince. Opinion: The plot is your typical run of the mill fantasy Jrpg. It never strays too far from the norm and not much I can comment about other than the story feels very traditional but that's not necessarily a bad thing, just very niche. 3/5 Soul Setting and Graphics: The setting is medieval with lots of forest and caves and wooden houses. Typical for a Jrpg during that time period. The graphics are honestly butt ugly, it looks like a slightly better version of a SNES Rpg and one could mistake it for a port. Not that SNES games are ugly but games are also judged on the capabilities of the system they came out on. Of course this game came out at the start of the Playstation 1's life and you could make the argument that they did not know the full capabilities of the Playstation 1. 2/5 Soul Gameplay: The game plays a lot like Dragon Quest in it's interface and interaction with people and objects, it is all done via a menu or the triangle button. Each character has a role and there are no customization which is normal for early Jrpgs. Also this game is littered with FUCKING random encounters! Can u imagine doing a somewhat complicated puzzle with random encounters occurring every two steps??!! It was a nightmare! The battle is turned based and has a Legend of Dragoon style 'hit the button at the right time' system but other than that there not much to note about it. 1/5 Soul Characters: There are five slots in the party and two of them tend to be revolving doors for short term party members. In the other 3 slots there is silent protagonist who has no personalty to speak of, Annie and Edward the prince. Annie: Bullheaded and stubborn, I quite like Annie. She thirsts for adventure and defies her conservative parents to be able to play with the big boys. Unfortunately, she falls into the typical adoptive sister stereotype that won't stop obsessing and in turn having romantic feelings for her silent brother...gross. Edward: Boring. Overall: Boring, ugly and with a stupidly broken random encounter meter, I cannot give this game higher than 1/5 Soul I thought this review would be filled with nostalgia-filled scores and comments seeing as how this was the game that started my RPG obsession but I can't do it without feeling dirty after.
