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Some thoughts.
Oct. 22nd, 2013 08:11 amSo lately I've resumed playing Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and Star Ocean: The Last Hope. The former is easier for me to play whenever I want because I do own a PS2. The latter isn't quite as easy, but I've managed to get in some time over the last week or so. I've wanted to get some particular battle trophies for TLH for a while now, but none of my current play-throughs have yielded any results. There are only three ways to remedy such a thing. 1 - Delete all of my play-throughs and battle trophies. 2 - Delete my current user name and start all over again (something I didn't want to do because of my Final Fantasy XIII play-throughs; game 1 only). 3 - Set up a new user ID on the PS3.
I opted for choice #3 on this. I'm one of two people who tend to play the PS3 on a quasi-regular basis, and my stepdad occasionally gets a kick out of watching me play TLH.
Anyway, so I've started this new play-through on a new "account", and I'm working to get a few things taken care of before I leave for Lemuris. The quests are done. I have a few orders to fill yet but can't do until I reach Lemuris, but I'm getting there.
There are some things that kind of bug me about the game's start up. Mind you, I love The Last Hope. I love the graphics, but the story-telling is a little off. To trigger some of the starting events, the player has to talk to Reimi. While I get and understand that Reimi is a very central figure in Edge's life, she is not the most important person on The Calnus. That would be the captain. Why, when the ship crashes on Aeos, does it need to be Reimi to trigger the next set of events? It's just a little annoying for me because 1 - I'm not overly fond of Reimi as a character. It has nothing to do with the voice actress but everything to do with the writing. Reimi is supposed to be an intelligent and mature young woman. I don't think for a moment she would have gotten as far as she has in her short life (she's only 19, going on 20 . . . or is it 18, going on 19? I'm not sure which) if she was stupid. Of course, the characters that annoy me tend to do so because the writing is lacking. Any character can be amazing when in the hands of capable writers. Unfortunately, for the old peeps like me, games like The Last Hope are being geared more for the prepubescent boys rather than serious RPGers. Reimi, Myuria, and Meracle are nothing more than eye candy, and, in the case of Meracle, comedic relief.
Now this is my personal opinion. Don't take this as gospel. I personally feel that Star Ocean would be better served if someone else other than Square Enix and tri-Ace worked on the story boards. Enix's biggest push is for Final Fantasy. I love Final Fantasy. While I haven't played XIII-2, I love what Enix is doing with that particular series. The graphics are just absolutely amazing, and the same quality carried over into The Last Hope. I don't mind that there are three games for Final Fantasy XIII. What I do mind is that all other projects seem to be pushed to one side in favor of Final Fantasy. There are more games out there to explore, to create, than to focus solely on one franchise. And think about it: Star Ocean has four games plus one spin-off with two revamps. I'm sure I've pointed this out before. Each game is for a different system - A Fantastic Space Odyssey (Game 1) was on the Super Nintendo in Japan only, Second Story was for the PS1, Till the End of Time is for the PS2, and The Last Hope covers both the XBox 360 and the PS3 with Blue Sphere on the Gameboy and First Departure and Second Evolution on the PSP. That's technically five games over seven systems. I can't say that I blame them pushing Final Fantasy so hard, but it isn't the only game people want from them. We Star Ocean fans definitely want more Star Ocean, not less.
Also, when I first resumed playing SO4, I realized that I'm probably going to be something of an idiot and buy me a PS4 in the event of a new Star Ocean game. It really isn't economically sound for me to buy a system then pay $5 a month to play a game I'll spend somewhere between $40-$60 for, but I am in love with the graphics. Enix and tri-Ace do some amazing work.
With that, Halloween is around the corner! The Star Ocean Universe asks, if you could revamp one Star Ocean character's look for Halloween (be it from any game), who would it be and how would you revamp that character's signature look?
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Tuesday! Me? I'm trying to get my motivation going!
I opted for choice #3 on this. I'm one of two people who tend to play the PS3 on a quasi-regular basis, and my stepdad occasionally gets a kick out of watching me play TLH.
Anyway, so I've started this new play-through on a new "account", and I'm working to get a few things taken care of before I leave for Lemuris. The quests are done. I have a few orders to fill yet but can't do until I reach Lemuris, but I'm getting there.
There are some things that kind of bug me about the game's start up. Mind you, I love The Last Hope. I love the graphics, but the story-telling is a little off. To trigger some of the starting events, the player has to talk to Reimi. While I get and understand that Reimi is a very central figure in Edge's life, she is not the most important person on The Calnus. That would be the captain. Why, when the ship crashes on Aeos, does it need to be Reimi to trigger the next set of events? It's just a little annoying for me because 1 - I'm not overly fond of Reimi as a character. It has nothing to do with the voice actress but everything to do with the writing. Reimi is supposed to be an intelligent and mature young woman. I don't think for a moment she would have gotten as far as she has in her short life (she's only 19, going on 20 . . . or is it 18, going on 19? I'm not sure which) if she was stupid. Of course, the characters that annoy me tend to do so because the writing is lacking. Any character can be amazing when in the hands of capable writers. Unfortunately, for the old peeps like me, games like The Last Hope are being geared more for the prepubescent boys rather than serious RPGers. Reimi, Myuria, and Meracle are nothing more than eye candy, and, in the case of Meracle, comedic relief.
Now this is my personal opinion. Don't take this as gospel. I personally feel that Star Ocean would be better served if someone else other than Square Enix and tri-Ace worked on the story boards. Enix's biggest push is for Final Fantasy. I love Final Fantasy. While I haven't played XIII-2, I love what Enix is doing with that particular series. The graphics are just absolutely amazing, and the same quality carried over into The Last Hope. I don't mind that there are three games for Final Fantasy XIII. What I do mind is that all other projects seem to be pushed to one side in favor of Final Fantasy. There are more games out there to explore, to create, than to focus solely on one franchise. And think about it: Star Ocean has four games plus one spin-off with two revamps. I'm sure I've pointed this out before. Each game is for a different system - A Fantastic Space Odyssey (Game 1) was on the Super Nintendo in Japan only, Second Story was for the PS1, Till the End of Time is for the PS2, and The Last Hope covers both the XBox 360 and the PS3 with Blue Sphere on the Gameboy and First Departure and Second Evolution on the PSP. That's technically five games over seven systems. I can't say that I blame them pushing Final Fantasy so hard, but it isn't the only game people want from them. We Star Ocean fans definitely want more Star Ocean, not less.
Also, when I first resumed playing SO4, I realized that I'm probably going to be something of an idiot and buy me a PS4 in the event of a new Star Ocean game. It really isn't economically sound for me to buy a system then pay $5 a month to play a game I'll spend somewhere between $40-$60 for, but I am in love with the graphics. Enix and tri-Ace do some amazing work.
With that, Halloween is around the corner! The Star Ocean Universe asks, if you could revamp one Star Ocean character's look for Halloween (be it from any game), who would it be and how would you revamp that character's signature look?
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Tuesday! Me? I'm trying to get my motivation going!
