Sail The Star Ocean!
Originally released way back on the Super Famicom, Star Ocean is a gaming franchise that has endured the years and crossed many generations and consoles. Over the years, numerous more Star Ocean games have been released, all of which expand on and refine the original action-oriented role-playing game formula. The Xbox 360 is now playing host to the latest in the franchise, The Last Hope.
Combat is dealt with in real time, with your enemies actually visible upon the field of vision, with the player able to dip in and control the various characters at their disposal. The Last Hope expands upon the usual formula by allowing use of up to four characters at a time instead of three. These characters each have specific skills and attributes that can be refined to an extent by the player.
The BEAT system can be utilized to personalise your party as you see fit, with different characters tweaked to employ a different combat stance. These can include defensive, counter-attacking, aggressive and sneaky. Lveleing up will expand upon these abilities, allowing the player to link together more powerful attacks as the game progresses.
Unsuprisingly, The Last Hope is beautiful to look at. The space bound worlds are incredibly well realised and diverse, and the protaganists are typically gorgeous. utilising the same style and appearance of the Final Fantasy series, this game has the tradmark gloss that Square Enix always excel in. Gameplay is polished and works well, keeping the flow just right whilst retaining many of the traditional RPG elements you wouldn't want to lose.
Intended as a prequel, The Last Hope opens up the Star Ocean franchise for a new generation of gamers, whilst there will no doubt be the nostalgia of the earlier games flowing through this title. So look forward to June, when Star Ocean will finally sail onto the Xbox!