What is your favorite Star Ocean moment? - Response/Endings

[star_ocean_fan]

Endings

As my fellow fans know, there are multiple endings for each playable character in the Star Ocean games. I'm not going to delve into each ending that's available and how to earn each potential one. It's something for another time, really. Rather, this is about disappointment.

You see, on my play-throughs for Till the End of Time,I've gotten the solo endings for all of the playable characters. I've even gotten the ending where Roger's still stuck in the cage because I never rescued him. (It's rather humorous, really.) I've not gotten the endings for Fayt with this character or that. The only reasons for me to aim for all of the endings is for some post-game battle trophies.

In going over the potential endings for The Last Hope and Till the End of Time, I'm rather disappointed in the endings for game three. Not that they're available but we don't get all of the potential endings. Does Luther really die at the end of the final battle? Is he in a coma somewhere instead? We know it's dangerous for him to do what he does in between the first fight and the last. Blair tells us this when she expresses her concern for her brother. But we never know if he's sent back to the 4-D realm, dead, or stuck in limbo after that final blow is delivered. (It's left up to us to figure it out if we're really wanting to know.) Heck, we don't even get to see if Blair has an ending.

I realize that it might be strange to bring up endings for non-playable characters and expressing this disappointment years after I've defeated the game. Repeatedly. Still, there are reasons for this.

1 - When going through the Urssa Lava Cave (post-game), an alternate universe Fayt fights with Luther at his side (if Fayt doesn't earn enough affinity points to gain an ending with someone else).

2 - Blair and Luther are essential to the story, even though their appearances are more than halfway through the game. Without Luther's decree and Blair's help, we don't have a game.

3 - This one is the kicker for me on this. In The Last Hope, Crowe gets an ending. Yes, the player has to earn the endings for Reimi, Arumat, and Myuria to see Crowe's ending, but he gets an ending all the same. Crowe isn't a playable character yet he gets an ending. Why? Because, though he's an NPC, he's essential to the story, and his ending leads up to the events of Fantastic Space Odyssey/First Departure.

For me, this just isn't right. I want a Luther ending. I want a Luther/Fayt ending. That, however, will be left for an entry for Game Talk. I'm not quite as done with that as I thought I was going to be.

**************************************************************************************

What is your favorite Star Ocean moment? - Response

I have two favorite moments for Star Ocean. One is for Till the End of Time. The other is for The Last Hope.

First up is Till the End of Time. Hands down, my favorite moment is when Fayt's powers manifest fully for the first time, and he takes out the Vendeeni ship raining fire, death, and destruction upon Elicoor II. It's that breaking moment of Fayt's, one where he's angry enough over the "bullying" but confused as to why anyone would want him that badly to kill thousands of people, that he just loses it.

The graphics and animation for Ethereal Blast are just stunning. I have no other words for it. They're just stunning, and I want to watch it over and over and over again.

My second favorite moment, from The Last Hope, is actually after Satanail is defeated. Edge and Faize are stumbling through the rapidly crumbling halls of the Palace of Creation until our young Eldarian friend is dangling over the side of a ledge. The only person keeping him from falling to his death is Edge, who ultimately can't save him. Edge can't even save himself, and we see the hero plummet to his death.

Now that is what we're led to believe. Edge does live, thanks to Faize somehow saving him, but for those first few moments, when a player sees it for the first time, it's like, "They killed the hero. You don't see that very often at the end of a game".

That moment where Edge is falling to his apparent death leaves open so many possibilities on what could have happened.

Those are my favorite moments so far in the Star Ocean Universe. I'm sure more will be added in the future.

**************************************************************************************

The Star Ocean Universe asks - What do you think Edge's powers are based on what you've observed in the game?