Star Ocean Review

07-26-16 04:16 PM

Divine Aurora is Offline

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Star Ocean.. oh boy I don't even know where to begin, to put it in a few words Star Ocean is easily one of the best games of it's genre for the SNES(Super Nintendo Entertainment System) and set the standard for RPG's to come . Given the limitations of the SNES, Star Ocean managed to exceed and go beyond what I was expecting from a top down side scrolling rpg. Star Ocean, being a true pioneer in the genre with features and movement styles Iv'e never seen in a RPG before.

The Graphics in Star Ocean, while looking like what I would compare to as gameboy advanced sprites( about 32 bit sprites) are good and clean cut . The environment/scenery in Star Ocean is visual stunning with beautiful various locations, in addition the environment is alive and not just still images for example the water at the beaches has tides(it's moving in and out) the grass flows in the breeze, animals such as birds fly around etc. My only complaint being is during cut scenes there isn't that traditional style animated cut scenes that I've come to expect from Japanese RPG based games.

The Sound and Soundtrack for Star Ocean,well for starters Star Ocean was only released in Japan (thus explains this English hack) and while the text and written dialog in the game is translated to English(not all of it is translated but the most essential parts are) that said the Dialog heard in the cut scenes is in Japanese So I give Star Ocean points for voice acting during the cut scenes but it's a shame I don't understand what they are saying. Now the Soundtrack for Star Ocean is decent it could have been better and at times it just felt kinda awkward like the music playing didn't quite match the tone and mood of the scene or action that your doing.

The story of Star Ocean,well for starters there's a lot of subplots and side stories in Star Ocean but the main Story is..in the beginning you start off in the village of Kratus on a planet called Roak. You(whatever you name yourself) along with two childhood village friends(Millie and Dorne) become unlikely hero's and are apart of the village's defense force to stop common thieves and looters. In next town over by the name of Coule, everyone in the town becomes petrified(turned to stone) by a unknown mysterious terrible disease. While looking for a cure to the disease our trio of unlikely hero's encounter two mysterious beings who belong/answer to a organization called the Earth Federation, who explains to our hero's that the disease was sent to their planet by a race of beings called the Lezonians (who by the way they are at war with), in an effort to cure the disease our hero's go with the mysterious beings in their spacecraft to save a friend that has been infected by the disease, they later find out that the only way to manufacture a cure for the disease is to find the original source of it which was sent to Roak 300 years in the past, so using the advanced technology of the mysterious beings they use a time gate to travel back 300 years to find the original source of the disease to make and manufacture a cure.

The depth of Star Ocean, while the game does have alot of side quests far to many for me to cover them all I'd rather look at the depth of Star Ocean from a different perspective like the mechanics of the game and how the game works and uses it's unique features. For example the battles in Star Ocean are not turned based they play out in real time meaning both the player and the AI player in the game are moving and attacking almost simultaneously. While in battle mode, you don't have direct control over all the movement of your players but you can choose battle strategies before/during battle and while your planning out your attack your other player will move and attack the closest enemy automatically. Star Ocean also has a feature called private actions that plays a huge role in character growth and development, and reveal backstory on the character and have various effects on the story in the game. In addition when entering any town you can choose to have every person in your party split up (don't worry they will all be in the town that you split up in) and upon finding everyone/regrouping a number of different things could happen , sometimes you might get irrelevant small talk, sometimes you might get asked a few questions by your party member and depending on your response, the party members affinity towards you will either go up or down, be worry of this and keep that in mind because depending on the affinity level of the party member, at the games end while the overall ending is the same for the main story, you'll see a slightly different ending for that particular party member.

For difficulty, Star Ocean isn't really that difficult but then again I feel as though most RPG's of it's kind aren't really made for or focused on their difficulty and tend to focus more on plot and story (which Star Ocean diffidently does), with that said Star Ocean isn't really hard at all as long as you strategise when fighting and level up occasionally thru killing the minor enemies like bunnies and thieves but don't get me wrong though they can kill you if let them gang up on you.

To me the addictiveness of Star Ocean lies in it's ability to tell a rich imaginative story that was both humorous at some parts while being able to be taken seriously at others and held the players attention throughout that was easy to follow. In addition I am very likely to replay this game to enjoy the story again and to do more of the side quests.What also made this game addicting is the feeling of urgency the game creates among the various situations and events that happen, it creates that feeling of "I got to finish this now just to see how the events unfold".

Overall Star Ocean is a genre defining RPG that is not only innovative but entertaining at its core, with a story that is humorous and when it needs to be serious, with beautiful scenery/locations. Star Ocean is imaginative with it's story telling and really sets up an illusion of a world for the player to get caught up/lost in. I'd recommend this game for anyone who enjoys adventure/action RPG's with a strong driving plot and a good story where all the events/choices in the game intertwine with the main story.

Vizzed Elite

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07-26-16 08:48 PM

Beastmode64 is Offline

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Beastmode64

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I do love this game. I have never been able to beat it. But after i play and beat Chrono trigger I am going to play this game next. This game has fluent combat and from what i played in the story it was incredible. I really enjoyed your review, the pacing was on point. Cant wait to see more! (:

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07-26-16 08:50 PM

Divine Aurora is Offline

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Divine Aurora

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Beastmode64 : Thank you for reading and commenting, I'm glad you enjoyed my review despite the layout issue lol I need a mod to disable my layout for that post but the good news is I fixed the scrolling text box in my layout so that won't happen again ^^.

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07-26-16 10:41 PM

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Eirinn

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Nice review again, man. I kind of came into it knowing it would be, but pointless pleasantries are pointless and all, but we need to say them because reasons.

This game actually looks and sounds really cool. I especially like the battle system (reminds me so much of Tales of Phantasia) and the affinity and affinity changing moments you mentioned. That was pretty advanced for it's time. It actually has me wondering if I should consider buying the new Star Ocean games even though they will be quite different I'm sure.

Another shock here was the moving environment, especially the grass waving. That blew me away, as the first game I personally remember doing that was on the PSX (Harvest Moon: Back To Nature) but even then it didn't do that during gameplay. It's pretty awesome that they pulled something that dynamic off on the SNES.

But yeah, you probably just made a developer $60 of my money. Write them and maybe they'll give you some commission on it. Lol

Nice review again, man. I kind of came into it knowing it would be, but pointless pleasantries are pointless and all, but we need to say them because reasons.

This game actually looks and sounds really cool. I especially like the battle system (reminds me so much of Tales of Phantasia) and the affinity and affinity changing moments you mentioned. That was pretty advanced for it's time. It actually has me wondering if I should consider buying the new Star Ocean games even though they will be quite different I'm sure.

Another shock here was the moving environment, especially the grass waving. That blew me away, as the first game I personally remember doing that was on the PSX (Harvest Moon: Back To Nature) but even then it didn't do that during gameplay. It's pretty awesome that they pulled something that dynamic off on the SNES.

But yeah, you probably just made a developer $60 of my money. Write them and maybe they'll give you some commission on it. Lol

Vizzed Elite

Eirinn

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