Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is not an RPG for the ages, but it is a lot of fun to play. The way the story is delivered, through awkward dialogue and drawn out cutscenes, could be a lot better. The strong points of The Last Hope, namely the combat and level progression, keep things lively and engaging and help make this one a good way to kick off your JRPG gaming for 2009.

Science Fiction is a genre that is more often in RPGs, though few Japanese made ones actually go the full whack and are a huge RPG romp through space. Enter the Star Ocean series...

For a series that has seemingly always lived in the shadow of its publisher’s older siblings, we sure are getting a lot of Star Ocean at the moment; we’ve now had three series entries on PlayStation 4 within the last 18 months. Despite its obvious qualities, the PS2 classic re-release of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time earlier this year showed us just how badly even a great can age. Thankfully, t...

All in all, the game can still be fun, but it’s just not as good as one would hope. The graphics upgrade is definitely the main focus if ever one decides to buy this title. It can still be enjoyable despite its flaws, but it’s a far cry from today’s modern JRPG’s. So if you want to, give it a shot as the price for this game is actually pretty reasonable.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is the fourth installment in a series of RPGs by developer tri-Ace and publisher Square-Enix, though it actually serves as a prequel to the entire series' timeline. Truth be told this was my first experience with the series and with developer tri-Ace, having purchased but yet to play their other 360 title Infinite Undiscovery, and I dare say it was quite a good first impr...