Star Ocean

[diablo1903]

I have been a fan of the Star Ocean franchise for a long time. Starting WAY back in the good days of SNES.
The thing that I found really appealing was the use of the "free-range" combat system, especially in such an old game. As well as the in depth crafting system.
The Last Hope, for the 360 had its own appeals too, namely the HOURS of cinematic videos.

However, I have only played the SNES, and Xbox 360 games. And was wondering what you people thought of the games for PS1/2, and the franchise as a whole.

If you have yet to try it, i highly suggest at least the SNES version, since getting an emulator for it is rather easy.

[Ijanaak]

Well I played SO2 first and thought it was pretty fun, but I actually got annoyed with the complexity of the item system, despite that - great soundtrack, amusing battle system. Went back on an emulator and played the original a little, seemed fun enough but I didn't get deep into it. Star Ocean 3 I really loved despite some awful voice acting and annoying characters, similarly to SO2, the item system was overly complex, but I still really enjoyed the game a lot.

Haven't played The Last Hope yet, but if it comes to PS3, I'm on board to try it.

Good series, not my favorite though. That honor goes to Suikoden, heh.

[diablo1903]

The awful voice acting, and annoying characters continue into SO4. Its by FAR its worst part of the game. The crafting is less complex, but harder to access compared to the first one, and I didnt even actually use it until the end of the game. The ingame achievements make it very time consuming (In a good way), as each character has their own set of these achievements.

As an example, I have beaten the game, yet haven't even unlocked 10% of the "Battle trophies". It promotes using multiple characters, which the game has alot of it seems. And the ending differs depending on your rep with each character.

[Sien]

Great series. Outside of the aforementioned voice acting.

[Vordox]

Star Ocean 2 is something I'll always say is one of the best games ever for a RPG, on par with ShadowHearts: Covenant.

I cannot think of anything bad of it. Then again I had 4-5 savegames. >.> And saw over most endings + using guides for the "relationship" meters etc etc.

Level 255<3

[Masnailia]

Ever since earth I wanted to burn Meracle.

Fucking. Horrible. Voice. Acting.

[sethr266]

The only one I ever played was SO3 on the PS2, and I really enjoyed it, it's got an interesting combat system and plenty of hours of challenging dungeons after the credits roll. The only thing that made me sad was getting to Freya(final final boss) and realizing that she was gonna keep kicking my ass until i gained a good 100 more levels or so.