Star Ocean: The Last Hope

A post World War III nuclear warfare in Earth, has caused the planets natural resources and atmosphere to become uninhabitable, the people of earth are forced to explore space in search of a new home to keep the human race alive.  Star Ocean: The Last Hope, is a prequel to the famed Star Ocean series, known for its real-time battles, battle trophies and sci-fi gameplay.  Developer, Tri-Ace has greatly improved the combat system in The Last Hope, introducing incredible combat sequences, flawless real-time fighting gameplay and the use of bonus boards. Star Ocean: The Last Hope is also graphically stunning, and the majority of the anime styled characters keep the player engaged in the active storyline. Fans of the Star Ocean franchise and first time players will enjoy this fantastic Sci-Fi Japanese RPG. 

In Star Ocean: The Last Hope, you’ll start by playing as Edge Maverick, captain of the starship the Calnus. Throughout your quest, several companions join you on your space escapades. You’ll have the ability to strengthen the bond between these characters by spending more time with them – known as “affinity”. The ship holds a crew of eight, with two characters assigned to each room. Characters can gain positive affinity points by sharing rooms and triggering private actions. Private actions, are talk sequences that the player can trigger by chatting with a character, they usually occur inside the Calnus with the exception of a few that are available while questing. At the end of the game, gain enough affinity of a character to unlock that specific character’s ending scene and an achievement to go with it.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope, really shines in the combat system, which relies heavily on skill, attack timing and short and long range attacks. The user can come out victorious by properly building their characters and equipping them with beneficial skills like ‘Critical Hit’ and or ‘Berserk’ to boost damage and using combos and blindsides to their advantage. Players also have the option of swapping party members to better match the enemy at hand allowing them to strategize. During the game the user can also customize the ship with furnishings and create weapons and items with the ships item creation terminal or by finding items during their journey.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope, is a great game that is over 30 plus hours long and literally boost one of the best combat system of any RPG up to date. It has an entertaining story with fun characters, beautiful detailed environments, has an enjoyable crafting system, includes; side quests and battle trophies that collector fanatics and old school Star Ocean fans would enjoy.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is available on the Xbox 360 and is definitely worth checking out. Now, if we can only find a way to stop Lymle from saying ‘Kay’ at the end of each sentence