I pre-order the game and it arrived at my home right on the first day of my third year. How difficult it is to manage time to play the game and staying focus on uni workload, especially practicals @.@ It took me about 2 weeks to finished the game, and further few weeks to complete post-game dungeon, including beating the infamous Gabriel Celeste and Ethereal Queen ;D
I guess this would be pretty much the continuation of my impression to this game from this entry.
Gameplay (9.5/10)
Definitely the awesomest aspect of SO4, as one would aspect. And it never failed to disappoint me in any way to be honest. The battle system is much better than SO3. As summarised by my previous first impression, the introduction of BEAT system and chain combos made the gameplay attractive to the eyes, added with excellent graphic to make it even more spectacular. While BEAT:S are fairly useful early in the game, in the long run, having BEAT:B is more beneficial mainly because of the extra bonus HP, as well as allowing us to be in Rush mode much longer.
Battle Throphies. While seeing them returned in SO4 is a great pleasure, however completing all of them are not so rewarding. I mean, extra battle voice at 30%, remove level cap at 50%, another extra battle voice at 75% and 3 extra CP at 100& completion? Not even extra costume like in SO3? You disappoint me, Tri-Ace. Seriously the only point to get 100% BT is 1) to get your character to level 255, and 2) to get the achievements. But then some of the BT are really hard to get and some even require tedious grinding...
Story (7/10)
Average and a bit typical at best. But I can't complain much on this, since even SO3 plot went downhill in the 2nd disc. Typical of Tri-Ace I guess, they seem to excel a lot when it comes to gameplay, but failed make the story to be consistently exciting throughout.
Characters: The most disappointing aspect of SO4. Really, really disappointing. Forget the awesomeness of Reimi and how badass Arumat is. Edge Maverick, while is a dedicated leader with positive thinking, at one point become a weak hearted loser, even worse than Capell in Infinite Undiscovery. Sure it's part of the story, but I just can't accept someone with his kind of attitude. Lyme's English voice is EXTREMELY TERRIBLE that I feel like killing her whenever she opens her mouth ('mkay). Sarah is a retarded klutz. Miracle is a failed product of anime-esque nekomimi. Myuria is slightly okay, I guess. Bacchuss is...uh no comment. Faize looks too girly.
But despite that, I can't argue about everyone's combat ability, which is far more valuable than their personalities. Sarah is definitely the best healer and worth putting in the party, especially in post game dungeon where most enemies can easily kill ur characters. Miracle is totally kickass with her rapid combos, especially at higher level. Arguably one of the best melee character in the game. Think of her like a super speedy Cliff Fittir of SO3 (well she did learn things like Claw of Fury and Max Shockwave XD). Bacchus are very good in stunlocking enemies. Arumat, with his final skill Dragon Roar can easily face all enemies singlehandedly. Reimi tops everyone with her long range attacks.
Music: Overall nice soundtracks, but still not as great as SO3 in my opinion, considering it is the same Motoi Sakuraba who composed the great BGM and themes in SO3. I don't think there is a single battle theme that matched the awesomeness of Cutting The Edge of Notion and The Divine Spirit of Language. The only notable music, for me is Incarnation of Devil, which is of course the battle theme of Ethereal Queen. While the field BGM are still good, they are not quite as memorable as SO3, at least to my point of view. Mind you I love most of the town's theme in SO3.
...............................
TL;DR: unfortunately, overall SO4 failed to live up to my expectation after I explored the whole content of the game, and after all the hype going on for this game. Yes, the gameplay is totally awesome, arguably one of the best jrpg gameplay system in 360 (as great as Vesperia, although Vesperia is far too broken) with a lot of new features for the players to experience. Sadly most of the characters utterly failed with miserable voice acting and personality, with the exception of Reimi and probably Arumat. Great music arrangement, but not as awesome as the music in SO3. Lot's of sidequests and Battle Throphies offered, with post-game dungeons taking you to a whole new level of Star Ocean exploration.
Worth buying? Yes, for it's gameplay and sidequests, for action real time jrpg fan, and Star Ocean fan. But if you seek for stories and awesome characters as in Tales of Vesperia, then SO4 will most likely disappoint you.
images sauce: Gamefaqs
I guess this would be pretty much the continuation of my impression to this game from this entry.
Gameplay (9.5/10)
Definitely the awesomest aspect of SO4, as one would aspect. And it never failed to disappoint me in any way to be honest. The battle system is much better than SO3. As summarised by my previous first impression, the introduction of BEAT system and chain combos made the gameplay attractive to the eyes, added with excellent graphic to make it even more spectacular. While BEAT:S are fairly useful early in the game, in the long run, having BEAT:B is more beneficial mainly because of the extra bonus HP, as well as allowing us to be in Rush mode much longer.
Battle Throphies. While seeing them returned in SO4 is a great pleasure, however completing all of them are not so rewarding. I mean, extra battle voice at 30%, remove level cap at 50%, another extra battle voice at 75% and 3 extra CP at 100& completion? Not even extra costume like in SO3? You disappoint me, Tri-Ace. Seriously the only point to get 100% BT is 1) to get your character to level 255, and 2) to get the achievements. But then some of the BT are really hard to get and some even require tedious grinding...
Story (7/10)
Average and a bit typical at best. But I can't complain much on this, since even SO3 plot went downhill in the 2nd disc. Typical of Tri-Ace I guess, they seem to excel a lot when it comes to gameplay, but failed make the story to be consistently exciting throughout.
A.D 2064...Planet Earth was on the brink of destruction as clashes between the World Republic Federation and the various nations that opposed it sparked the outbreak of World War III. Weapons of mass destruction, deployed with complete impunity razed the land in the blink of an eye. The dire situation forced the two opposing factions to negotiate a cease-fire and an agreement was quickly reached, but although the war may have ended, its effects remained. With the deteriorating environment, Earth's population was drastically reduced and those who survived lived a confined existence trapped in underground cities. Eventually countries joined together to form the Greater United Nations and turned their eyes skyward, to space. With the establishment of the USTA, the Universal Science and Technology Administration, man began to seek new worlds beyond the stars.And their space exploration turned into an unsettling journey as they discover the existence of unidentified celestial object (Gregory, Missing Procedure..) that pose threats to the universe - and they feel it's their job to stop it. Edge and the crew of Calnus went from one planet to another, initially from a discovery mission changed into a mission to save the world.
AD 2087...The first year of the spacedate (SD) calendar. Thanks to the success of Professor Trillas Bachstein's warp drive experiments, mankind's dream of a spacebourne existence has inched closer to reality and the USTA secretly began to implement its SRF project, the Space Reconnaissance Force. Now it is SD 0010, and the first official SRF mission and your adventure has begun.
Characters: The most disappointing aspect of SO4. Really, really disappointing. Forget the awesomeness of Reimi and how badass Arumat is. Edge Maverick, while is a dedicated leader with positive thinking, at one point become a weak hearted loser, even worse than Capell in Infinite Undiscovery. Sure it's part of the story, but I just can't accept someone with his kind of attitude. Lyme's English voice is EXTREMELY TERRIBLE that I feel like killing her whenever she opens her mouth ('mkay). Sarah is a retarded klutz. Miracle is a failed product of anime-esque nekomimi. Myuria is slightly okay, I guess. Bacchuss is...uh no comment. Faize looks too girly.
But despite that, I can't argue about everyone's combat ability, which is far more valuable than their personalities. Sarah is definitely the best healer and worth putting in the party, especially in post game dungeon where most enemies can easily kill ur characters. Miracle is totally kickass with her rapid combos, especially at higher level. Arguably one of the best melee character in the game. Think of her like a super speedy Cliff Fittir of SO3 (well she did learn things like Claw of Fury and Max Shockwave XD). Bacchus are very good in stunlocking enemies. Arumat, with his final skill Dragon Roar can easily face all enemies singlehandedly. Reimi tops everyone with her long range attacks.
Music: Overall nice soundtracks, but still not as great as SO3 in my opinion, considering it is the same Motoi Sakuraba who composed the great BGM and themes in SO3. I don't think there is a single battle theme that matched the awesomeness of Cutting The Edge of Notion and The Divine Spirit of Language. The only notable music, for me is Incarnation of Devil, which is of course the battle theme of Ethereal Queen. While the field BGM are still good, they are not quite as memorable as SO3, at least to my point of view. Mind you I love most of the town's theme in SO3.
...............................
TL;DR: unfortunately, overall SO4 failed to live up to my expectation after I explored the whole content of the game, and after all the hype going on for this game. Yes, the gameplay is totally awesome, arguably one of the best jrpg gameplay system in 360 (as great as Vesperia, although Vesperia is far too broken) with a lot of new features for the players to experience. Sadly most of the characters utterly failed with miserable voice acting and personality, with the exception of Reimi and probably Arumat. Great music arrangement, but not as awesome as the music in SO3. Lot's of sidequests and Battle Throphies offered, with post-game dungeons taking you to a whole new level of Star Ocean exploration.
Worth buying? Yes, for it's gameplay and sidequests, for action real time jrpg fan, and Star Ocean fan. But if you seek for stories and awesome characters as in Tales of Vesperia, then SO4 will most likely disappoint you.
images sauce: Gamefaqs
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