Star Ocean: The Last Hope [Xbox 360]

Posted August 30, 2009 by BBlank in Featured, Featured Home, Game Blog, Reviews, Xbox 360.

Reviewed On The Xbox 360

It’s hard to believe, looking at the Xbox 360’s line up, that once the console was suffering from a lack of JRPGs. In the past year or so it has seen a huge surge in titles: Blue Dragon, Enchanted Arms, Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata and The Last Remnant to name but a few. Now we have the latest in a diverse range of JRPGs, with Star Ocean: The Last Hope.

The title is Square Enix’s latest offering, following on from the appalling Infinite Undiscovery and the mediocre The Last Remnant. It’s understandable to be somewhat precautious with The Last Hope, but after a huge seventy hours with the title, it’s safe to say, right off the bat, Star Ocean: The Last Hope is one of the most refreshing JRPGs on Microsoft’s system.

If you’re coming new to the franchise of Star Ocean then you’ll be happy to hear this game won’t be shutting any doors on you, as the title works as a prequel to the other titles in the series. However for those well acquainted with the series thus far will no doubt notice all the little nods towards the other titles.

The Last Hope tells the tale of a young space cadet, named Edge Maverick. He sets out on an adventure to find humanity a new earth, after the previous one had succumbed to WWIII. As you can probably guess, not all goes to plan, and his ship, along with the others that travelled with him, crash land on a distant and unfamiliar planet.

It’s here your adventure begins, and what you’ll notice right from the start is how beautiful this game looks. Levels are huge, vibrant and wonderfully detailed. Animations are smooth, and the creatures and worlds are all gracefully designed.

Each world is distinctively different, full of interesting characters and locations. RPG veterans will pick up on the Phantasy Star influenced style the game gives off in a few of the areas, and it’s those sections where the game really shines. Many parts go a long way to replicate both the feeling of space travel and a futuristic civilization.

Sadly, and somewhat ironically, not all of the game feels like a space exploration title. There are long stretches in worlds that come across as the same old, medieval RPG landscape, and it just feels like you’ve seen it all before. It seems odd that a lot was put into making a variety of worlds when over half of them feel like the same thing every other RPG offers. Because of this, the unique flare of being a space RPG is lost at times.

The Last Hope does go a long way to offering something new though with its battle system. The game is based around real time battles, you’ll see the enemies walking around the worlds, and you’ll engage with them directly to trigger battles.

While this is nothing new to the JRPG genre, the battles themselves are quite unique. Throughout the game you’ll be given a multitude of characters, four of which you can control in battle at any given time, as long as the story line permits. You can run freely, attack freely and switch between characters at any time.

The combat is so fast and smooth that not once did it ever feel like a grind, which for a JRPG is probably the biggest achievement one can accomplish. There is also the battle board system; accomplish a certain requirement, such as finishing two enemies at once, and a point will be added to the board. At the end of each battle these points add to whatever you take away from the battle, such as XP bonus, money bonus and so forth.

This system adds a lot of depth and strategy to the already exciting battle system and keeps the whole ordeal fresh from start to finish, which, with a seventy hour game, is no short accomplishment. There is, like always, a very strong story element running throughout the title, which will come as no surprise to anyone, but unfortunately it’s a bit hit and miss.

Like the worlds and locations, the story will often shine with moments of brilliance and originality; it’s well paced, very engaging and terrifically epic. Sadly the whole thing is bogged down by just-plain, stereotypical characters. There’s a half-cat, half-girl character, a big strong guy, an awkward love interest, an arrogant girl trying to prove herself, a bastard-guy that doesn’t want to help but does anyway, and the list goes on.

It’s a shame because they are all interesting, funny, well written and designed characters. But as the story twists and turns, it just takes away from the epic feeling of the whole ordeal, as the people going through it feel so copied and pasted.

By the game’s climax you’ll have a huge roster of characters to choose from, and each of them is given a strong back-story and introduction. In fact the story does a great job of giving each of them a lot of screen time, and fleshes out their personalities from the moment they’re introduced till you eventually take down the inevitable end game boss.

Ultimately The Last Hope is just held down by sticking too closely to what has come before. The title offers a lot of originality but as much as the game is unique there’s an equal amount that feels like every other JRPG. However, there’s a lot to love here, a huge amount to love, in fact, but so much is bogged down in stereotypes and tried and true JRPG conventions (what other genre has such a shockingly severe lack of save points?) that it doesn’t shine as strongly as it should.

Tagged as EDGE, JRPG, RPG, Star Ocean, The Last Hope