Star Ocean: The Last Hope Review
So I just finished SO4. At the beginning I thought it was horrendously boring and I was doing all I could to slog through it and get my $50's worth. It took some time, but I eventually grew to like it. I think it definitely helped that the easy mode was so easy. SO3 had a rather difficult easy mode in my opinion. I've never played SO1 or SO2, but I SO3 was actually my first real video game (if we're not counting Pokemon) and I really liked it. Anyway, back to SO4:
Plot: 7/10
I thought it was a little bland at first. There didn't appear to be much of a steady plot until maybe disc 2. It turned out to be pretty interesting though, especially with the plot twist at the end. And the fact that the ending was not nearly as confusing as SO3's ending really helped haha.
Battle: 10/10
I'm not really sure what to say here. The battles were a lot of fun and they weren't too hard either. The only problem I really had with the battle system was when you tried to cast a spell/use an item on a party member, it was sometimes a little difficult to tell who the arrow was pointing at. That may have had something to do with the fact that I have a lousy SDTV, though? It's ancient. I don't know, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the problem.
Other gameplay(?): 6/10
The cutscenes. Oh god, the cutscenes. I used to absolutely love cutscenes. In this game, I got pretty tired of them after the 50th cutscene or so. I have never, ever seen so many. Oh well, at least they were pretty. And using cutscenes did seem to be the best way to move the plot forward in those areas in which they were used, I guess.
Graphics: 10/10
The graphics were really good. Some things looked a little funky on my ancient TV, but overall it still looked pretty impressive. When I first played SO3, I thought the graphics there were the best thing ever. Looking back... wow, SO4's quite an improvement in the graphics department! But I was a little bummed about the whole anime/CG swap thing. That was a little unnecessary and sometimes the CG faces looked a little ridiculous. For example, Edge's face when he says "That's the women's bathroom..." makes him look like he's in dire pain. It's a little... odd.
Characters: 7/10
Edge: what kind of a name is "Edge Maverick"!? Though I'm probably a little biased. I have to admit "maverick" has taken on some unfortunate connotations for me since the '08 elections. I can't help but think of Palin whenever I see that, now. Anyway, I thought he was a extremely obnoxious at first. The angsting over the pseudo-Earth did not help my opinion of him. In the end I kind of liked him, though. Not sure what changed my opinion.
Reimi: okay, Laura Bailey was her VA so I was determined not to dislike her. And I didn't. I actually liked her quite a bit. Her ponytail sometimes looked like a tail, though--like it was moving on its own. That was a little strange, but pretty amusing.
Faize: favorite character. I usually prefer female characters with his character type, but it doesn't really matter. Faize was very likable the entire time. He seemed to be the most three dimensional of the characters.
Lymle: I despised Lymle at first. I thought she was completely obnoxious and her voice just irritated me. She grew on me though, and by the end she was one of my favorite characters.
Bacchus: Bacchus is adorable. And that scene with Edge, Welch, and him was hilarious.
Myuria: I thought I'd like Myuria a little more than I did, but I still really liked her. She was interesting.
Meracle: completely obnoxious. I never changed my mind about her. Her ending almost changed my mind, but not quite. I'm not very fond of the whole cat-girl trope, but that aside she was just... irritating. The voice acting for her really did me in, I think.
Sarah: I thought I would dislike her, but I didn't. She was kind of funny, and the glasses were definitely a plus /shallow. The voice acting seemed just a little sub-par, but it was still suitable.
Arumat: I could not stop calling him "Albel" the entire time. I liked Albel, though, so that's not really a bad thing. Arumat was pretty all right.
Welch: second favorite character. She was by far the funniest character and she added quite a bit of humor to the game. I loved all of her cutscenes and, since Laura Bailey was her VA, the voice acting for her too, of course.
Overall rating: 7/10
Pairings I like in this game--mostly in order:
1. Faize/Lymle--best pairing in SO by far. Their ending was kind of sad and extremely adorable.
2. Arumat/Edge--the cutscene with them and Meracle in the storage room was hilarious.
3. Eleyna/Meracle--I couldn't help liking it after Meracle's ending.
4. Myuria/Reimi--I thought it was kind of interesting--Myuria's questionable comment about girls needing to get hands on each other or whatever made me laugh a lot more than it should have. I didn't think there would be any [even misconstrued] basis for Myuria/Reimi.
Plot: 7/10
I thought it was a little bland at first. There didn't appear to be much of a steady plot until maybe disc 2. It turned out to be pretty interesting though, especially with the plot twist at the end. And the fact that the ending was not nearly as confusing as SO3's ending really helped haha.
Battle: 10/10
I'm not really sure what to say here. The battles were a lot of fun and they weren't too hard either. The only problem I really had with the battle system was when you tried to cast a spell/use an item on a party member, it was sometimes a little difficult to tell who the arrow was pointing at. That may have had something to do with the fact that I have a lousy SDTV, though? It's ancient. I don't know, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the problem.
Other gameplay(?): 6/10
The cutscenes. Oh god, the cutscenes. I used to absolutely love cutscenes. In this game, I got pretty tired of them after the 50th cutscene or so. I have never, ever seen so many. Oh well, at least they were pretty. And using cutscenes did seem to be the best way to move the plot forward in those areas in which they were used, I guess.
Graphics: 10/10
The graphics were really good. Some things looked a little funky on my ancient TV, but overall it still looked pretty impressive. When I first played SO3, I thought the graphics there were the best thing ever. Looking back... wow, SO4's quite an improvement in the graphics department! But I was a little bummed about the whole anime/CG swap thing. That was a little unnecessary and sometimes the CG faces looked a little ridiculous. For example, Edge's face when he says "That's the women's bathroom..." makes him look like he's in dire pain. It's a little... odd.
Characters: 7/10
Edge: what kind of a name is "Edge Maverick"!? Though I'm probably a little biased. I have to admit "maverick" has taken on some unfortunate connotations for me since the '08 elections. I can't help but think of Palin whenever I see that, now. Anyway, I thought he was a extremely obnoxious at first. The angsting over the pseudo-Earth did not help my opinion of him. In the end I kind of liked him, though. Not sure what changed my opinion.
Reimi: okay, Laura Bailey was her VA so I was determined not to dislike her. And I didn't. I actually liked her quite a bit. Her ponytail sometimes looked like a tail, though--like it was moving on its own. That was a little strange, but pretty amusing.
Faize: favorite character. I usually prefer female characters with his character type, but it doesn't really matter. Faize was very likable the entire time. He seemed to be the most three dimensional of the characters.
Lymle: I despised Lymle at first. I thought she was completely obnoxious and her voice just irritated me. She grew on me though, and by the end she was one of my favorite characters.
Bacchus: Bacchus is adorable. And that scene with Edge, Welch, and him was hilarious.
Myuria: I thought I'd like Myuria a little more than I did, but I still really liked her. She was interesting.
Meracle: completely obnoxious. I never changed my mind about her. Her ending almost changed my mind, but not quite. I'm not very fond of the whole cat-girl trope, but that aside she was just... irritating. The voice acting for her really did me in, I think.
Sarah: I thought I would dislike her, but I didn't. She was kind of funny, and the glasses were definitely a plus /shallow. The voice acting seemed just a little sub-par, but it was still suitable.
Arumat: I could not stop calling him "Albel" the entire time. I liked Albel, though, so that's not really a bad thing. Arumat was pretty all right.
Welch: second favorite character. She was by far the funniest character and she added quite a bit of humor to the game. I loved all of her cutscenes and, since Laura Bailey was her VA, the voice acting for her too, of course.
Overall rating: 7/10
Pairings I like in this game--mostly in order:
1. Faize/Lymle--best pairing in SO by far. Their ending was kind of sad and extremely adorable.
2. Arumat/Edge--the cutscene with them and Meracle in the storage room was hilarious.
3. Eleyna/Meracle--I couldn't help liking it after Meracle's ending.
4. Myuria/Reimi--I thought it was kind of interesting--Myuria's questionable comment about girls needing to get hands on each other or whatever made me laugh a lot more than it should have. I didn't think there would be any [even misconstrued] basis for Myuria/Reimi.