So Mass Effect is pretty cool. I'm enjoying it so far.
But I feel like I should post a brief review of Star Ocean 4 for anyone interested, now that I have had time to reflect upon the game. The RPG discussion thread is probably the best place for this (there are very minor spoilers contained within, reader beware):
So, I had high hopes for SO4: The Last Hope but I tried not to let my expectations alter my view of the game as a whole. I wanted to be as objective as possible with it. Since I have a huge hard on for the Star Ocean series, I expected the game to at the very least not suck. At this point, I wouldn't say it sucked - but I would say it was the worst in the series. And I think most Star Ocean fans would agree with me there.
STORY: Absolutely horrendous. One of the worst plots in any RPG I've ever played. Square-Enix had an uphill battle when writing and designing this game though, and I've tried to take that into account. As a prequel, taking place before the founding of the Terran Alliance and before humans had any foothold in space whatsoever, they had to make it feel like a Star Ocean game while at the same time having a vastly different plot from the previous ones. On every prior Star Ocean game you were stranded on an undeveloped planet for the majority of the game. In Star Ocean 4 you visit one planet after another. The end result is that the plot felt like it was a melting pot of different storylines haphazardly thrown together, as each world had it's own story with ZERO connection to any of the other planets that you visit. Not only that, but many plotlines are outright abandoned to further the main story and several massive plot-holes exist because of this. The entire story feels incredibly rushed as well. At one point in the game, you realize that an entire YEAR has gone by while they have been in space, but no prior mention of this is made during the course of the plot. It had me asking, "did the developers of the game even read the damned script?"
Just about the only redeeming quality of the story is the nostalgia factor you get when you visit a certain planet that a prior SO game took place upon, and the connections between that game and SO4 that become clear as a result of it.
CHARACTERS: If you thought many of the characters of SO3 were annoying and unlikeable, just wait till you see the characters in SO4. For those that have played SO3, Lymle is like Roger except that you are required to accept her into your party. Her voice acting is horribly annoying (along with several other characters) and it becomes grating on the ears about 20 minutes after you acquire her. She speaks in a monotonous voice, and ends every sentence with the word "kay?". This was no doubt an attempt to show her immaturity and the fact that she is analagous to an autistic savant - poor social skills but incredible expertise in Symbology. However it is very poorly done. There is next to zero character development in the game to boot. The end result is that you don't give a damn about the lives of the main characters.
ITEM CREATION: Perfected. Nuff' said. It is no longer tedious and much more user-friendly to create and modify items, weapons, and armor. Not only that, but many side quests actually require you to create items - thus familiarizing yourself with the system. In all prior games it was more of an optional thing to do. There was a possibility of failing during the creation of the item as well, causing you to lose the materials you used forever unless you restart the game. This has been eliminated in SO4.
GAMEPLAY: Incredibly fun. I'd say that the SO battle system has been perfected with this game. After 1,000 battles it still didn't seem tedious to me. You actually look forward to getting into fights. That's more than you can say about most RPG's, and since fighting is 8/10ths of what you will be doing in the game, it better be enjoyable I say. One major gripe I have is that later in the game you have to actually SWITCH DISKS when you want to go between planets. This isn't usually a problem, but when you are trying to farm items from certain locations that only regenerate after you leave a world and return to your ship it becomes hugely irritating.
SUMMARY: It was no doubt difficult to write a story for this game, while at the same time making it feel like a SO game. Instead of one main planet that you explore as in previous titles, there are about 5. This seems like a cool idea at first, except that the plot on each world is disconnected from the others and it makes it feel haphazardly thrown together. SE attempted to make the game epic and expansive, and in a sense they achieved this - but it was at the expense of a cohesive plot and extensive character development. Two things that I think are very, very important for a good RPG. The gameplay was at least very fun, and true to Star Ocean at that. It didn't feel tedious to play the game up until the very end.
I won't give it a "three out of five" star rating or anything like that. Instead I will simply compare it to previous Star Ocean titles and say that it is without a doubt the worst. Of the four main titles, I would rank them from greatest to least as:
SO2 > SO1 > SO3 > SO4.
If you hated Star Ocean 3, you will be sure to hate The Last Hope.
