The Asia/English version is officially released on February 26th (5 days earlier than the rumor, 3rd March). This has been my most anticipating game for 2009. Ordered the game on Feb 20th, the game was shipped exactly on the release date, and arrived at my home just as expected, today March the 2nd. It's a real bad news really because today is also the day I started my final year degree, meaning that I won't be able to fully enjoy the game on weekdays due to my workload. Well, since the first week is less busier than the rest of the weeks, I suppose I should try to enjoy this asmuch as possible before I started to get "real" busy by next week.
Well, I'll just give my quick impression on the game based on my 3-hours play of the game. While this entry is written, I am still at the very early part of the game, just after beating the boss at the beach, and the third party member, Faize joined the party. Awww, how I wish it's a "she" :3
My impression of the game so far: TOTAL AWESOMENESS!!! :D
Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope really live up to my expectation (unlike certain recent Square Enix title on 360 *cough*lastremnant*cough*) with great graphic and gameplay. Graphic is top-notch, I am amazed with the beauty of the fields and sceneries. Unfortunately, the game is still not SD-friendly (like Infinite Undiscovery and Last Remnant) becuase the fonts especially on game command and menus are too small and blurry to read. My eyes kinda hurt trying to figure out what was written on the menu :P
By the way, Reimi Saionji is a real hottie >///>
Gameplay: It differs than what we used to see in SO3. No weak and strong attack which are defendant on Fury gauge, but Tri-Ace improved it significantly with various battle elements. One major new feature in the gameplay is Blindside system, which is sorta like moves which allows you to sneak behind the enemies and attack him at point blank spot, granting a Critical Hit. And I totally love the system, because even against the boss it works fine. Countering Counter-Blindside (from the battle tutorial) is not that hard too. Too bad though, Rush gauge (which allows player to enter Rush mode - think of it like a weaker version of Trance in FFIX) is reset after each battle. Well does not matter much I suppose because I'm using BEAT:S style, so I rarely use Rush mode except against the boss.
And one more thing, dodging attacks in SO4 seems easier compared to others because of side-jump. Nice, because the Jump button (B) gives 3 benefits - dodging attacks, charging Rush gauge and executing Bindside.
Gaining experience was somehow easier than SO3 mainly because of the battle gauge. Well, since a Blindside attack guaranteed a critical hit, it's quite easy to fill 14 blue tiles for constant 140% extra experience (damn would be better if it can be 300% bonus like in SO3 lol). Well, I guess they compensate the inferior battle bonus (compared to SO3 which is harder once we get overlevelled) with the ease to fill the gauge.
And this isnot a Star Ocean if there is no Battle Throphies. I still remember how great the Battle Throphies back then in SO3 - simply countless of challenges to be accomplished. In SO4, however, the BT is changed into 100 Trophies for each characters. And unlike SO3, it is basically incorporated into the game, which means the BT is not saved separately than the game itself.
What else...map exploration. The game eases our burden by providing FULL map over the area, so we don't have to go to unexplored area to expand the map like we used to do in SO3.
And small thing to comment, is the battle theme. Yet again, then music is composed by my favorite composer Motoi Sakuraba :D The battle theme is nice, but I still love Cutting Edge of Notion (SO3's battle theme) much much better. Well, no other game's battle theme can beat SO3 in my book :3
Well, I'll just give my quick impression on the game based on my 3-hours play of the game. While this entry is written, I am still at the very early part of the game, just after beating the boss at the beach, and the third party member, Faize joined the party. Awww, how I wish it's a "she" :3
My impression of the game so far: TOTAL AWESOMENESS!!! :D
Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope really live up to my expectation (unlike certain recent Square Enix title on 360 *cough*lastremnant*cough*) with great graphic and gameplay. Graphic is top-notch, I am amazed with the beauty of the fields and sceneries. Unfortunately, the game is still not SD-friendly (like Infinite Undiscovery and Last Remnant) becuase the fonts especially on game command and menus are too small and blurry to read. My eyes kinda hurt trying to figure out what was written on the menu :P
By the way, Reimi Saionji is a real hottie >///>
Gameplay: It differs than what we used to see in SO3. No weak and strong attack which are defendant on Fury gauge, but Tri-Ace improved it significantly with various battle elements. One major new feature in the gameplay is Blindside system, which is sorta like moves which allows you to sneak behind the enemies and attack him at point blank spot, granting a Critical Hit. And I totally love the system, because even against the boss it works fine. Countering Counter-Blindside (from the battle tutorial) is not that hard too. Too bad though, Rush gauge (which allows player to enter Rush mode - think of it like a weaker version of Trance in FFIX) is reset after each battle. Well does not matter much I suppose because I'm using BEAT:S style, so I rarely use Rush mode except against the boss.
And one more thing, dodging attacks in SO4 seems easier compared to others because of side-jump. Nice, because the Jump button (B) gives 3 benefits - dodging attacks, charging Rush gauge and executing Bindside.
Gaining experience was somehow easier than SO3 mainly because of the battle gauge. Well, since a Blindside attack guaranteed a critical hit, it's quite easy to fill 14 blue tiles for constant 140% extra experience (damn would be better if it can be 300% bonus like in SO3 lol). Well, I guess they compensate the inferior battle bonus (compared to SO3 which is harder once we get overlevelled) with the ease to fill the gauge.
And this isnot a Star Ocean if there is no Battle Throphies. I still remember how great the Battle Throphies back then in SO3 - simply countless of challenges to be accomplished. In SO4, however, the BT is changed into 100 Trophies for each characters. And unlike SO3, it is basically incorporated into the game, which means the BT is not saved separately than the game itself.
What else...map exploration. The game eases our burden by providing FULL map over the area, so we don't have to go to unexplored area to expand the map like we used to do in SO3.
And small thing to comment, is the battle theme. Yet again, then music is composed by my favorite composer Motoi Sakuraba :D The battle theme is nice, but I still love Cutting Edge of Notion (SO3's battle theme) much much better. Well, no other game's battle theme can beat SO3 in my book :3
Tales of Grace F
Warrior Orochi 3
FFXIII-2
