Star Ocean series

[Gabriel]

I recently saw the trailers for the Xbox 360 Star Ocean game. I definitely thought it looked cool, so I wanted to learn if it was worth getting. I discovered it would use the same general combat engine as the PS2 game, so I borrowed the PS2 game from a friend and tried it out.

 

...

 

That was 4 hours of my life I'll never get back. I have to say it was one of the most unpleasant RPG experiences I've ever had as a fan of the genre. The worst part is, because of how crappy the combat tutorial was, I still have no idea what the combat system of the game is like.

 

I understand Star Ocean is a long running series. I recall a PS1 game and I've seen a PSP game while browsing Amazon. My question is, do they tend to follow the same general formula?

 

There were two main things I hated about the PS2 game. The first was the sheer volume of cutscenes. I played 4 hours and I spent 3 and a half of that in cutscenes. I don't mind cutscenes. I liked Xenosaga, after all. It's just that Star Ocean was ludicrously excessive. Often a cutscene would end only to prompt a meaningless walk to the next cutscene with nothing possible in between. What was worse was how stupid and poorly done they were. Some of the voice actors were competent, but others made the cast of Chaos Wars sound good. I can't think of anything in those cutscenes which couldn't have been done much better by a single opening movie lasting 2 minutes and maybe a couple of lines of exposition by NPCs here and there. They just lasted FOREVER and said NOTHING.

 

The second thing I hated was that it didn't even try to apply a thin coat of sci-fi paint to the actual game. I immediately found myself in an elf village, and soon thereafter found myself in a generic fantasy knights/dragons/magic situation. My character had the same worthless newbie sword which every generic fantasy adventurer has had ever since the name Dragon Warrior became synonymous with generic fantasy. Rip all the useless cutscenes out and there wasn't even a glimmer of anything futuristic or interstellar about the game. If I recall, the PS1 Star Ocean was much the same way (thus why I've avoided this series).

 

So, I'm wanting to know if these two traits are signatures of the series. If so, I can safely skip the 360 sequel. Is the storytelling in this series always so poorly done? Do all the games trick you with the sci-fi label only to trade it for the most bland and uninteresting fantasy locales possible?

[Royalshin]

Lets get some things things straight. Star Ocean is probably the last good chunck of any RPG series you will ever see new on the face of this planet. The only thing that is anything near better is "Shin Megami Ten" series. Keep in mind this company is hanging in the balance and they want to make the game as intresting as possible. When looking at any RPG series nowadays I would compare it to the atmosphere of animation since the primary goal of past 2d game creators was to achieve a look of a fighter games. The combat system from the break down is basically Street Fighter style gameplay.

 

Just to keep you up to date. Tri-Ace has been around for a very long time and Star Ocean is there flagship series. It continues from the original "Tales Of Phantasia" series. The whole point of this creation is to be the best as possible while bieng different as possible. The atmosphere of "Star Ocean" is basically what would occur if you took the "Star Treck Next Generation" away team* and stuck them in world of Ancient times* . However to the "Star Treck:TNG" these are called undeveloped worlds. The enemies of the "SO" series is that of a Space Fantasy world like "Dune" or the Star Treck Universe.

 

About the catergory of the series. Star Ocean is more of a drama or B-Movie kinda situation. It is your basic Y's, Phantasy Star, generic kinda situation and should be put on the same level of the two.

 

Star Ocean is not the following

 

Sci-fi- is really unexplained Drama. Everything in Star Ocean has a explaination.

Horror- is just present day paranorma my favorite gere or young adult

Rommance - is just pornography or AV stars for girls.

DAD- basic dungeon cake walk but is primarily western based

 

What's up with Xenosaga?

 

Xenosaga is really Xenogears ( unless I am missing something ) and is now considered to be a franchised, which is very bad for any undeveloped series. The original game takes place in a war torn world. In this case a world like Zillion, Reign the Conquer, or Fire Emble. This game falls directly into the strategic Anime catergory.

 

The game machinics like Special effects, lighting, and various appears to be completly false in terms of animation or real in terms of logic. Basically this game one the first of a long line to use scientifically proven logic. Unlike previous games on the SNES, PCE, Saturn or PSX that used logic based on animation. I could only assume this is the reason why you turned off by the game as I am.

 

About voices in Videogames

 

The problem with RPG games is that they have allways been tied to animation or a Charlie Chaplin Film like state. Now with voices people aren't able to use there imaginations to make up there own langauge for the characters. By the appearance and actions of the characters you could obviously guess there voices also.

 

About western voices in Videogames

 

Since we are immuned to western speaking voices. we can fully understand the emotions that flow from them. However since

these RPG games was built for Japanese auidiences in mind we could never feel the emotion of that culture since we never lived there our selves . The voices is never ever fully translated and in most cases never ever taken seriously.

 

It is like my favorite drama at the moment. It was originally made in english and thus the characters sound normal but in another language you would obviously see the differnce and be turned off by the acting. The same goes for any dubbed work and therefore you need the original.

 

So how should you feel about the new Star Ocean game on the 360?

 

Well personally you shouldn't feel anything at all. This game is a continuing series and you need to play the previous games to get a feel of the series. Meaning right now get your favorite emulators or go buy......

 

Any other RPG made by Wolfteam,

 

Any other game made by Telegames after Wolfteam's previous games.

 

Tale Of Phantasia...SNES

Star Ocean...SNES

Star Ocean 2...PSX

Hell even watch the Anime of Star Ocean 2. Which is way better then the game itself.

Star Ocean:Blue Sphere....GBC

Star Ocean 3

 

 

however do not play any Tales games made by Namco since they are all Tales Of Phantaisa wannaabbee....Clones.

Keep in mind that Tri-Ace is still young and is still in development in camparision to Sqaure, Enix, Namco, Atlus or any other well known RPG producer.

 

As of this date Star Ocean on the SNES is the best newest RPG ever made to this date with Tales Of Phantasia running along side it. The only thing that might be better is the Y's, Digital Devil, Mother, Phantasy Star, and Dragon Quest series with Final Fantasy hanging off the edge.

Edited January 7, 2009 by Royalshin

[108 Stars]

Star Ocean is a fine RPG-series, though usually a level below the likes of FF and DQ. Personally I enjoyed all 3 parts so far, with none of them being perfect. But if you really did not like what you experienced in SO 3, avoid SO 4. Because so far every Star Ocean indeed has been the very same formula. Hell, even the Sci-Fi the title promises was so far reduced to a small portion in every single part of the series; you´d imagine cruising the endless galaxies from the title, but usually you spend most of the time on underdeveloped planets. Some love it, some hate it; but so far no SO game has made major changes from the last one.

Edited January 7, 2009 by 108 Stars

[Royalshin]

Well that is the thing about Star Ocean it is Tri-Ace's flagship title. It is the representation of the formation of Tri-Ace comming together in this case.

 

There is nothing Sci-Fi about Star Ocean. Think of Space like being a gigantic Hyrule but you do cruise around but why would need to when you can go hyper drive in your Enterprise. Think of Drama and regular Role Playing you would see on a stage and going into space is like going on the Nautlis or Red October in the sea but there is no war.

 

Whatever you do. Do not put Star Ocean in the same boat as the Xeno series.

 

level below the likes of FF and DQ.

 

Really?

 

FF Sqauresoft while known for FF7 got devoured into Enix.

 

Dragon Quest while being very innovative ( untapped potential and open ) in my own opinion the reason for this games triumpt was the Art Style of you know who that projected the feeling of the over all game. Without the AT attitude being applied to the series it would have flopped on rentry. The Star Ocean series is way more bigger in comparison to Dragon Quest while maintaining regular day to day actions without being one sided.

[108 Stars]

Tri-Ace are to blame themselves that people do expect Sci-Fi from Star Ocean; the title, and the initial setting as well as the stuff shown in trailers are meant to lead people to expect Sci-Fi; but in the end it is not what it promises. That´s not the players´ fault, but the fault of Tri-Ace for misleading them time and again. Put a bit of Sci-Fi in the beginning and the end, and in the middle it is the same old fantasy. And that is one of SO´s biggest weak points too: while the Sci-Fi settings are pretty uncommon in JRPGs, the fantasy found in SO is very clichee; SO would be a greater series if they focused the storylines more on the detailed Sci-Fi setting they have created and that you can even read so many details about in the in-game encyclopedia of SO 3, instead of using small, unoriginal fantasy worlds play the main role for most of the game.

 

And that is one reason why it is below FF or DQ to this day; it is SO that has untapped potential lying in the detailed Sci-Fi background; but by placing most of the story in enviroments where that detailed intergalactic world plays no role, they waste the potential.

The dramaturgy is not up to Final Fantasy VI - X; sometimes it has highlights, but then again it drops very low. The audio-visual side is just not on the same level either.

 

DQ on the other hand....well, it is the least innovative RPG series so far. Very traditional and oldfashioned in gameplay, rather simple story....and indeed the Akira Toriyama-style is a great strength for it. Again a thing where SO falls behind; the strong Sci-Fi designs are not used enough, and the fantasy designs in SO are nothing special. DQ does that one Toriyama-fantasy style only, and it does it good; same should be done with SO...it´s best parts are the Sci-Fi parts, so they should focus more on that.

[Gabriel]

Well, unless anyone else chimes in, it looks like the flaws of the game are signatures of the series, which is what I was afraid of. I can mark the 360 installment off my want list.

[Tempest]

It's not a bad series, but there are soooo many other good RPGs out there to play before these.

 

Tempest

[Royalshin]

let me try to make things simplier to why Tri-Ace Star Ocean is and will allways be a good chioce.

 

Present Day Paranorma. Where you take a present day world and anything can occur kind like the following

 

 

You don't get this with other RPG series. The last real 2d RPG to give you Present Day Paranorma bliss in a world that has been locked off from Manga readers everywhere. The only other series to do this is the official Star Treck RPG that bores you with mumbo jumbo missions in space and ever so predicted a commercial outcomes.

 

If your not mature enough to grasp the concept of flying zillions of miles in space, only to find a remote planet where nobody knows what electricity is and the whole entire objective flies off topic leaving your wallet feeling empty then you need alot of growning up to do.

 

Then again you can go back to getting armor, powering up spells, and running around in machines that has the same predictable actions as the last game, or game next to it.

[nester]

I always thought the series was alright. I enjoyed the one for playstation but thought it was a little annoying at time. I had no idea people took them so seriously!

[108 Stars]

If your not mature enough to grasp the concept of flying zillions of miles in space, only to find a remote planet where nobody knows what electricity is and the whole entire objective flies off topic leaving your wallet feeling empty then you need alot of growning up to do.

 

Oh, please.....you are really using a strange argumentation. This has nothing to do with "grasping" that concept, but with how this makes SO as unoriginal as any other RPG in the end, or even less; because at least some other RPGs have more detailed fantasy-worlds as settings than those little "without-electricity"-planets SO has to offer. One of SO´s weaknesses still remains not using the futuristic (NOT present-day) setting decently but always falling back to the middle-age-stuff again and not even doing that part well.

 

SO is nice, and would be even better with less fantasy mixed into it. Fantasy is not what SO promises and does good. So please, accept that many people do not share your view on it´s greatness and are a bit more critical about it; I am yet waiting for a real, understandable argumentation from you why SO is the greatest piece of RPG today.

[Royalshin]

strange argumentation

 

Exactly. That is what I am talking about. Present Day Paranorma the gere that everybody pushes over while the Japanese flurishes in it. Which is known in B-movies, Soap Operas, Romance Novels, Pulp Novels mostly.

 

makes SO as unoriginal as any other RPG in the end

 

The whole point of SO is to do everything that every other RPG has not done before. Can you point out somethings in Star Ocean that is unoriginal but is not unavoidable? Also take into consideration that Tales Of Phantasia is the exact same game but did everything possible that every RPG did before but with a twist.

 

Also you have to be usted to playing RPG games as I have. I am at a point where Role Playing Games means Representive Program Game. More importantly it is not my favorite gere any longer. I could only assume you meant Japanese Turn based RPG which is mostly in the world of Pangea setting type atmosphere. These RPG series tends to falls into Y's Green Green RPG type series.

 

more detailed fantasy-worlds

 

They are a young company. 3d is a new thing to them. Also there primary function is 2d. They operate on the same base line of a late SNES company did. Also there is a couple of free mmorpg series out by them right now.

 

One of SO´s weaknesses still remains not using the futuristic (NOT present-day) setting decently but always falling back to the middle-age-stuff again and not even doing that part well.

 

That is your problem not there's and your also confusing gere's. Take DUNE for example ( go look up Dune the series that changed everything ) the other Star Wars or even Star Wars. They live in a world where you can arrive in any kind of setting no matter where they went.

 

Take "The Wizard Of Oz" for example. She goes from Black and white farm Americana to the colorfull world of Oz. There is various things from her world along with things that is in Oz. Look at the Wizard's place that is filled with gizmo's and gadgets for everybody but you would probably say " There is nothng techonological about a Heart for Tin-Man, a Degree for Scarecrow, or badge that gives corage to Lion. However guess what Oz exsist in the same world as Americana Heartland where Dorathy comes from.

 

Then "Space Balls" . The big chase scene with Ronald McDonald, a cheif, and some other common figures ploping out of nowhere. Then Dark Helmet playing dolls, Lonestars camper, and the frog Alien bit.

 

Even take "Alien" the series ( not the last movie ) . Where they talked about common coversations people have everyday. Or how Ripley is ersasist against robots. When the Alien attacked the only other female crew member that hinted at rape. Even the attitude of each crew member and there reactions being false or real. This is part of Present Day Paranorma.

 

Look at Phantasy Star and how you spend hours at end in dungeons, forests, and castles. You don't like Phantasy Star also?

 

Also Hey guess what? In the future when were cruising around space there still will be houses, forests, magic, sweat shops, and anything that exsisted previously. Just look at that Liger that gives us an example of cave man times.

 

There is nothing middle age about Star Ocean also. The thing is if the America went back to living without electricity we would go back to the western era. If it was Japan did it they would just go back to fueduel times in which there society stopped progressing since colonial times. The Logically thing I could say in any responce here is that Japan is still in this middle ages

you describe this game to be in.

Edited January 10, 2009 by Royalshin

[108 Stars]

Look, the company is not that young; it is over 10 years old now. The point is you defend that they are cheating on the the setting. There is no denying SO regularely advertises the game with the sci-Fi setting; it´s what makes the big impression in the trailers, intro movies and on boxes. That in combination with it´s name is meant to let people believe SO is of the SciFi genre. And that attracts people, because SciFi is rare in JRPGs.

Now, I see your point of Dune or Star Wars or Star Trek also having this mixture, and the exploration of underdeveloped planets; point is, in those series expect maybe for Dune these parts make up less than 50% of the stories; in SO, the medieval settings make up almost the entire games, with SciFi usually being reduced to a small portion in the beginning and the end, and maybe a few cutscenes in-between. The vast majority of the experiences you have in SO are set in fairly unoriginal fantasy-worlds. The SciFi is what makes SO different from other RPGs. It is SO´s greatest potential to be different from the masses of other fantasy-JRPGs, yet this potential is wasted.

While they have in-depth-sciences, history, and cultural information about the sci-Fi- world the characters originally come from, these are hardly ever used in the story. The detailed setting is wasted for most of the game, it is of no importance. On the other side, the fantasy-worlds visited do not nearly have the same detailed background and culture; they are usually below average in their detail, just relying on the standards introduced through many JRPGs in the last 23 years since DQ I.

 

Now, as I said in the beginning, I like SO; but you appear here and suggest people SO as the ultimate JRPG it seems, without even aknowledging it´s weakpoints; instead you talk about people not being mature enough to grasp that concept of visiting underdeveloped planets. You fail to see that these underdeveloped planets are no different from the worlds in other JRPG, while the game advertises with it´s original SciFi. That is a major flaw that leads to so many people being disappointed with SO; they expect fresh SciFi, but get rather lame fantasy 80% of the time. Don´t blame the players for that; blame Tri-Ace who do not keep their promises. You must not turn a blind eye to a game´s flaws, no matter if you like it or not.

[Royalshin]

10 year old is a very young age for anything. For the love of the ritious the main programmer of the original WolfTeam was 16 years of age.

 

Cheating the setting? .....Get real . Like I breifly said the whole idea is that space is no differnt then the Ocean, and people of this Ocean is no differnt at all. Again being the obvious mature player of RPG series here.

 

Star Ocean did everything any RPG has never done before period.

 

About Sci-fi. There is no gere. They just say that not to look like a bunch of flowery sisi actors. Sci-fi is basic Drama and there is nothing special about drama asides it is a unscripted stage where anything could occur.

 

The reason it attracted me was that I wanted to kick some Gabriel/Dhoas/Goblin Prince/ behind. The series is grand and good. There is nothing wrong with it. There is alot of space themed series from Japan many of being my favorites. The thing is Japanese artists treat there animations, ficiton, manga, and videogames like everything is normal. Take Lum Chan being the devils daughter from Space.

 

Star Wars is a movie series. The first one they came from a desert former slave planet ( simular to planet Iracus ). They go into a bar in town with all kinds of space thingamajig people. Then they head to the hanger. They had the same thing in Lunar but it was Post apocolyptic. In fact the world of the original SO is post apocolyptic. They crash landed and the three kingdoms formed an alliance. All magic is withdrawn from a parja also.

 

Star Treck is a TV series. It is the series this game follows as a prodigy. Blah blah blah they go down to the planet and allway s end up in situation where they need to use there heads. Like black sludge monster, or when Picard spoke with his mother and she was just a memory, or when Data went down to such undeveloped world and was deemed a Warlock.

 

 

There is nothing medevil about Star Ocean.

You need to think

 

Ancient time

Space Fantasy

Future Perfect

With a dash of Present Day Paranorma

 

 

In Star Treck from time to time they use other weapons, Like the Cross bow. Cless or whoever tends to be the average figther and thus Sword master, your best freind who is natural a long range user, There is a summoner ( which is pretty universal ), a healer ( basically a nurse or nun ),

and some other wacky characters like a

 

Half Elf, Witch, who is a real slut

A Tatoo Master who has Tatoo's down there

Another Sword weilding character who wants to be the hero

A character who is the decendents of past characters.

A loud mouth Girl

A big tuff guy

A old tuff guy who just happens to be related to the big guy.

A Angel

A wondering spirit

A mechical Genius

A mechical Geniusophile

A stwreatus

A couple who both happens to have three eyes ( hint 3y3 )

And so many more characters including a guy with a pair of Dragons on his shoulders.

 

Unoriginal. You gotta be kidding me. Have you ever seen a forest so fricking sureal? With the works and even wild animals.

The City of time that happens to be NY.

The Lake on Yrmir

What about Slyphs level where they would die just by dissapearing out of reality

The various workshops and labs.

Even the end chase scene of the Time Lab.

The gateway to Hell which is really the world of Mythical Beings.

About Castle OF the Dhoas?

 

What potential? you mean walk around boring facilities all day long, and have lame cut scenes with the city being fulled with people....PLEASE Or how about a train like in Final Fantasy series but then agian maybe it could be a ghost spaceship train.

 

So what if the bio is not used. It is just there to get people intrested in the characters and understand them more. Have you ever played something called SNATCHER???? You really need to play some SNATCHER.

 

The detailed setting is wasted for most of the game

,

 

Now you just plain nuts. Star Ocean was the first game where I would walk around for hours in a lush enviorment and not move onto a zoom out map. The whole point is to make the Turn-based exprience more realistic.

 

visited do not nearly have the same detailed background and culture

 

Those towns or whatever you call it is just towns ( you have to be more specific ). Look Dragon Quest is not the first RPG of anything or the best of anything nore is it trying to be. Enix survived by producing smaller companies RPG's ( like SO for example ). Dragon Quest while having the same popularity as Gundam is highly undeveloped period and is what keeps it intresting. Hey guess what? Star Ocean is just as sought after as Dragon Quest. Also to hell with DQ there is Y's, Phantasy Star, Digital Devil, and even Star Ocean that is far more developed. Heck there is even Dragon Slayer ( and the animtion one also ), Dungeon Master, and even Drakken. Guess what also the first RPG was a board game with Project A-ko and some sorta sock being used along with a thumb pin. There is a whole vastness of differnces and Star Ocean is one the most popular stars one the rise.

 

23 years? give me a break people have been playing RPG games for as long as there has been play pretend. 1985 was never the first of RPG series only the popularity of DAD. Also there was many RPG games in the Arcades also. In fact in USA it began with 1970's cults, Hippies, space freaks, bibleobes, and Satan worshipping, along with magic propaganda linked to many things that could have triggered it.

 

 

SO as the ultimate JRPG it seems,

 

J-RPG I think not. That is whole seperate gere. A RPG is a RPG and that is all. The truth is most western RPG series falls into the board game beatdown of DAD. They go for the realistic look not even trying representation. Then the problem is nobody

wants to sit around the camp fire playing a game reading instructions falling a sleep. About RPG games from japan...most of them gets to the point.

 

People in the west don't nuture there stuff like babies. They treat it like a product. People in Japan would give there lives for there work. In fact people do die from there work over there. Over here they market videogames like a commodity. Star Ocean is on a universal level and there is nothing I could think of. However if you like facilities then play the GBC game.

 

You fail to see that these underdeveloped planets are no different from the worlds in other JRPG,

 

It is like Star Treck. They go to planets that needs there help or is of major concern. These worlds just happen to be that way. In other games or most games if not all games a town, city, village, house, or whatever is what it is. I have a devilman RPG where you wander the world like Fist of the North Star. Hell there pretty much the same thing being in a post apoclyptic state but then agian there is differnt attitudes. Like in FOTNS the town is barren with lots of tuff enemies but in DMRPG the towns are full of survivors.

 

Hey guess what they have places like that in Japan. Big wide spaces with no signs of life. That land is owned by regular households who is paying into there grandchildrens lives. People think hey why is there series allways filled with forests. Hey guess what that is part of there culture.

 

Nobody is blaming anybody also. You just don't want to accept how anything so peacfull as a stroll threw a forest could relate to zooming around the universe. Tri-Ace is not making any promises you just need to accept it for what it is. Something you don't understand.