Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time - Review [Is this the best in the series?] (PS2, PS4) 

Also, if anyone is playing this: In the first dungeon you go too after you get Nel, the one underground, fight the skeletons over and over until they drop three regeneration symbols. Give those to each party member and it will be difficult as hell for anyone to kill them with MP. It just keeps regenerating.

I respect your right to be wrong.

'I'll say this and die on a hill: This game features some of Motoi Sakuraba's best work. A lot of his music tends to sound the same after a while, and in some ways this does too. But this, Baiten Kaitos and Eternal Sonata are something special. I remember trying Second Story on the PS1, but due to its lack of voice acting and punishing dungeons - plus that rogue vehicle boss I couldn't pass in my younger days, So 3 is the first I completed. Played it twice, and each time, I'm not really sure how I feel about the plot twist. I think I like it more than I did when I first played it.

This was my first Star Ocean and I absolutely loved it. One of my all time favorite RPG games.

Star Ocean 3 is legit my FAVORITE jRPG of all time. I'll hear you out but I will also spill my story with the game. So firstly, I'm agree with you on a couple of things. The voice acting and sound design is rather inconsistent with was unfortunate for a game with a pretty amazing story. I really liked the characters. They were very 2000s anime mixed with a space opera which is my favorite genre of fiction in general. And yeah the constant revive dance during combat got old at some point. Though if you grind pass that point of difficulty, combat becomes laughably easy until the post-game dungeon. Also the map completion thing was annoying and just needed a small improvement to make it better. I believe Star Ocean games are completely designed for you to get a little lost in. A big theme is being a fish out of water. The lack of quality of life and the need to struggle through it, actually made the adventure. There's a lot of backtracking because it's not a corridor. There are parts of worlds that our party is learning and navigating. I honestly felt that the longer I played, the easier it was for me to bolt from place to place. Lol I'm thankful that there weren't random encounters in SOTET. 😅 I will admit that there was a lot of grinding in that game. But I personally really enjoyed it. I got into the flow state with the combat system and could take on pretty hard enemies with relative ease due to certain character+ability/spell combos make for big damage. I loved the weird growth system for leveling party members that allowed us to determine the skills each character learned. I ended up with an extremely strong core of Fayt, Sophia, and Maria. Which felt fitting for the story... they really are extremely strong at high levels. I feel the story beats actually matched character strength. And I absolutely loved the twisted. Everything up to that point as well. The end of disk 1 is so good. The trifling wars of two nations are philosophically laid to rest by a threat beyond the stars. That is peak sci-fi! Fayt freaking out and unlocking his power. Gives me chills. The Creation, Destruction, Manipulation concepts. The imagery of their powers (like when Fayt used his power) and the name of the finally boss. A small pseudo-christian allegory and I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. I really enjoyed each of the different settings. The return to Styx was cool. 4D Space was cool. There's also a hidden PVP feature you can unlock. It allowed you to pit party members against each other in 1v1. It's multiplayer versus that is awkwardly hidden behind an optional dungeon with an item in a chest than you then have to give to the right npc. It's a cool feature nonetheless. (oof, this was a lot, but what can I say, I played SOTET for many many many hours. I believe my game time was like 400+ hours.)

Ouch you pretty much get only SO3 lovers in the comments. I am no exception ^^ You pretty much know about all it’s shortcomings, but you still love it.

It’s one of my favourite games ever, and despite completely agreeing with all your critiques for the other games - I struggle to feel on the same page with what you said here! Maybe I’ve got really strong rose tinted glasses, or more of it is about preference than I realise. I’m still very glad you found entertainment in the massive plot twist! Most people dismiss it as trying to copy the matrix popularity at the time, but it was so bold and literally game changing. I adored it!

The games design is fairly well done IMO where one design decision leads to another. Battle Skills using HP/MP means you have to monitor your HP/MP and actually use items to heal as opposed to most RPGs where you end up hoarding hundreds of items and never use them. Constantly having to use healing items means that your stock should almost never be full meaning the maps littered with treasure chest full of berries are actually useful as you'll be in constant need of them. The inventory being limited to 20 units of each means that you'll have to delve into item creation (cooking and compounding) if you want more healing sources, as healing with symbology is risky due to the cast time. Item creation allows you to make your characters stronger and less death prone via synthesis, which a casual player might've ignored completely if they could hoard hundreds of berries. I will admit that the AI is atrocious. Unless set to never use battle skills they will spam them non-stop effectively draining their HP/MP. Though probably unintentional it does lead to the need for item usage, which encourages you to use your items again and not hoard them.

I fell in love with and beat this game in it's entirety as a 14 year old, 20 years ago. Seems like a skill issue 🤣 great video btw.

Haha! Always enjoy the reviews, and this is one of the most interesting. Dunno really, it's been years since I played, but remember it as good as SO2 or even my favorite back then. The plot twist floored and took me aback, and faced a decision whether to hate or love it... and ultimately went with the latter. I also got into the achievements and endgame stuff like never before, so it couldn't have been THAT awkward to play. Although I do remember messing around in the simulator at the beginning of the game for hours to master some of the moves.

I accept your opinion. it does not change SO3 being one of my favorites even in the slightest but it was quite interesting.

i remember playing this game sitting in my living room without any stress or pressure to make money to support myself. Just sit there, enjoy the game while reading the walkthrough guidebook. Good old time

Hey Hellfire. As far as loving this game, and wondering if there is something wrong with your perspective, I got SO3 when it first came out on the PS2, and I have a feeling you may have played it for the first time recently. Many new systems have been added in games over the past 14+ years since this was released, so its easier to see its faults compared to more complex and deep games that have come since. But as far as this game goes, it was a wonderful follow up to one of the best RPGs ever in Star Ocean Second Story. And I for one, wasnt offended by the plot twist at the end. I thought it was a bold decision and respect the story tellers for going that way. Anyways, the game is still one of my favs and its story telling and music are some of the best in the series. The combat was also simple but addictive, and the battle trophies... This was PS2 before xbox made achievements with 360. Super addictive.

I love this game. It was my second Star Ocean title. Got it on a Christmas one year. My favorite feature will always be Battle Trophies for the alternate costumes though. It's a much more tangible reward than the "rewards" they gave you in The Last Hope. I'll also add I didn't find it very hard to level up characters. At least, after a point. The arenas has this fight called "The Bloody Knights" or whatever. Anyway, it's probably not the most optimal way to level up but I found it was a decently quick, albeit still grindy, way to hit level 120 or so. Just use Maria to train them all into a corner and MP kill them. With good chain bonuses the exp yield is good.

When I played the games originally, I liked SO2 the most, but then the more I've replayed the games, the more I like SO3. It has plenty of issues, but I still find it's story and music draw me in more than the previous games in the series. I haven't played the 4th and 5th games yet, so who knows what I would think of those.

SO3 is my favorite in the series, but I appreciate and enjoyed your video review. I can't say I disagree with most of the points brought up, those are all flaws, but those flaws just didn't bother me that much. I liked the story and characters a lot though. I will say though I don't think you understood the battle system quite enough. You can really use the MP kills to your advantage. It makes bosses and enemies easier if you tailor your strategy to get MP kills, in reality it results in LESS deaths because you can kill bosses sooner going for MP kills. I don't think dying by MP is a bad design choice, I think your expectations are just at one place because it doesn't happen in other JRPGs, and you didn't adjust your playstyle in this game to respond to the system in place. (As many others who dont like the MP kill system) It adds a lot of depth and stategy to the game IMO. Also I dont know why you had trouble stringing together combos, it's just about timing and choosing the right ability. I thought they flowed well. The stuff you said about fast travel, only getting berries in treasure chests, the PAINFUL backtracking, being STUCK with characters you dont want because you didn't use a guide, the map % completion, inconsistent story, the sound volume, and all the other QOL stuff are indeed real issues. The one point we agree on the most is appreciating that they went bold and to try something different with that -TWIST- I enjoyed your review and love hearing your thoughts, highly entertaining and funny!

So3 is my favorite one out of 5 game. I can understand there problems in game but I like main character and others that why I love this game

It's rough but the game is in how you deal with it. I might be alone but I got to like lvl 215 and loved every 300 hrs of it over a year. that gameplay loop is something special

SO3 is the best in the series hands down. I kinda get it how many people would like to pit it with SO2, which is another superb game, but it does pale in many ways especially combat.

I think you can tell what the items do at 8:45 by pressing square. It swaps an arty style description, to pure numbers and effects.

This was my first star ocean I've ever played and like you I bought it when it came out as well. I 100% agree with most of the things you've said. Combat wise it's such a pain. but I love the soundtrack soo much and the story. The map exploration I didn't mind cause when I was playing alot of jrpg's I was a map completionest. But overall I definitely respect your opinion.

This was my favorite Star Ocean overall.

Best Star Ocean in recent memory

This is one of the first games I ever played. Ah good times. I never finished it though

If there's one hill i will die on in regards to SO3 it's the mp depleted death. This was an excellent feature imho. Trying to cheese game with beefy, hard to kill Cliff? Nope. Enemies that focus on dealing MP damage kill him easy (he had really low mp pool). Suddenly otherwise squishy Maria Traydor can be a very tanky choice, because her MP pool is quite high. Stuff like this made you really think about team composition as well as skills you'd use. Scenario above could also apply to enemies. Some were much easier to kill by attacking their MP rather than HP. If you were prepared for that, you had much easier time in battles.

No Hell Fire, you are wrong! Star Ocean 3 is an amazing game! 😄 This is my favorite Star Ocean game & although I understand & agree some of your complaints, I love this game for numerous things. The evolution from 2 to 3 in graphics, story (yes including the plot twist), battle system if you're know what your doing, Sakuraba's best Star Ocean OST in my opinion, etc. So it's unfortunate you didn't like it, but hey, at least you tried.

What a contrast. I loved this game and it is likely the game I replayed the most other than FFX lol

i absolutely love that theres still a super strong SO3 community. i had no clue there were sooooo many fans out there by reading the comments. all these years later, i still have the memory card and the game. Anyone know how to play the game on PC?

I felt that the bonus battle gauge was breaking more often on the PS4 version than on the PS2. But your criticism is fair, though I felt that the battle system and story overshadow the negative aspects of the game. It's my favorite with Star Ocean 2.

Star Ocean The Second Story/Second Evolution is still my favorite (and a lot of other Star Ocean fans would agree). I feel like a lot of people tend to put Till the End of Time on a pedestal purely because it was the first one they played back in the day, so it gets the nostalgia goggles treatment.

Yeah no disagreed on gameplay, gameplay is amazing in star ocean 3 *and this is coming from someone who usually hates action rpgs outside of some preferring turn based* and star ocean 3 doesn't encourage braindead skill spamming like in star ocean 4 *especially considering the stun/guard system which you didn't bring up and in star ocean 4 you are literally just abusing blindside for the whole game* I played with custom controls not on default and it felt alot better plus you can mostly keep the bonus gauge easily if you switch to another character b4 getting hit *and if you do lose it, its not really a big deal considering its fast to get it back with cancel bonus* And its not good to rely on AI party members *mostly in mid/late game* you can make them work and level up the attack/defense status skills but you are basically supposed to switch between 2 characters and really only have 1 set on auto AI Mp kill isn't a issue, and hell its something you can actually abuse with fayt via blazing sword on alot of the early bosses in disk 1 killing them fast I don't think you are valid at all when you were talking about gameplay unlike other areas like story, for star oceans first 3d game with a new distinct battle system following 1/2 *which were tales lite* you cannot tell me they did a bad job

I'm not sure when you first played this, but it does seem like it might be you. I have a hard time finishing Star Ocean games for one reason or other, but I've never had a huge issue with the combat or items. You said you ran out of items easily then complained about getting berries all the time lol! The combat was the enjoyable part from me and certain plot points like the...Executioners being revealed. Massive.

anyone else max all characters to LV 255? haha. you could do the 300% xp thing at Sphere 211. i forget which floor but certain enemy gave you the most XP out of any other in the game. i remember fighting Freya at max level, STILL giving a hard time. even with Marias Pulse blast. best move in the game IMO. then i found out about the 30% defense/attack x8 stack where you're basically invincible and kill Freya in minutes. i dumped so many hours in this game, i might just start a new game on my PS2 and grind. bringing back those memories as a kid, playing in bed, heart pounding due to a gruesome battle. i miss those days

I disagree. It’s my favorite in the series. Favorite story, favorite cast, and most importantly favorite systems. There also was the culture aspect, when the fandom says it was it’s best. So many people worked together to create so many resources for the game and help each other out. Your issues are minor to me. Yes the game has a lot of flaws but what it does right it does so right for me. It still remains one of my favorite RPGs today.

So, maybe I played an updated version, but the shop menu had a button - I think select - that showed you what the items did. Also, I had literally no problem with any of the issues you complained about in combat. I had a controller that got soda on it and it was the only time the button sensitivity gave me an issue. I played enough football games to feel out a soft versus hard press. Even the AI ability increased with skill points. You could command individual characters to focus on different things. You could change how their counters effected enemies, you could have them target MP, and I never had any issues with the camera angles because I memorized how enemies fought and watched their locations on the battle screen mini map. Building combos amidst regular and heavy skills was fun. THE SYMBOLOGY is always a blast. Even early on, I built a chain and got triple experience then blew away enemies - Do you know how exciting it is to be at a chain over 100 and about to get hit but switching to another character in the nick of time so you don't lose a chain? I rarely died with any character by planning well. Hell, Adray and Sophia resurrect people automatically. Even if they did die, the game has an angered state that powers up people BASED OFF THIER IN GAME AFFECTIONS TOWARD ONE ANOTHER THAT YOU EFFECT, HOW COOL IS THAT? Early on, Albel would drop and no one cared, but Nel would drop and Fayt or Cliff would cry out and start pummeling enemies. After the intense enemy surge the battles get seriously scary and that was fun as hell. The writing was actually lovely. The voice acting was good or bad but all suffered from the time delay. If you know anime and pay attention, every damn actor is an anime voice actor outside of a few. I literally mean no offense but I have found that when people don't like games like this, they lack patience.

SO3's one of those games that I really despised at first (I was playing Tales of at the time so it shaped my tastes a bit) and grew to be my favorite RPG the more I play it. The battle system and amount of things there are to do in this game that are actually worthwhile are the biggest things for me but I also just like the exploration in it. Exploration's one of those things that I feel doesn't get a whole lot of attention in modern RPG's so whenever I come back to this game, it's always a nice trip for me. Never really cared much for the story (although, the older I get, the more the plot twist appeals to me) but that also might be because I saw several variations of it in anime and rpg's beforehand and this game plays it incredibly straight by comparison to them.

Legendary game! The post game super dungeons are a hardcore experience we don't get much of in modern RPGs. Thinking of getting it on PSN now that it's available.

SO3 voice work and audio mix is the result of the Awefull english dub. Thankfully i played this game in an undub version. The voice work volume is fine in that one. The dongeon lenght is a true problem , but now that i've played SO4 , i appreciate SO3 A LOT MORE. you do need some early grinding to be fine later but once you can chain cancel , the battle system is better so i never had that "death problem" you got with new characters Overall , if SO3 is not one of the best , it is At least second place.

Albel's dialougue is probably one of my favourite pieces of this game.... MAGGOT! lol

I love this game. I did a few tricks to help the battle. I upgrade the IA of my allies to be more efficient in battles. That's how I learned how to do some combo to increase the damage. In the game, you can upgrade their offensive IA and their defensive IA which is called Offense and Defense. (I thought it increased damaged and protection, but not, it upgrades the allies IA.)

This kinda hurts to watch as this is my favorite video game of all time. Really good review

This sounds like a grade A candidate for a remake at some point, as it seems like a ton of quality of life and presentation points make up the main issues with it. The only big roadblock I can see is that story twist at the end, which I've only heard of, but I know it changes things for the whole series because of what it does. Reintroducing that same idea through a remake could bother a lot of people, but also changing or recontextualizing it to keep the reveal from being too problematic for the immersiveness of the other games might upset a lot of people who liked the impact of it in the first place. Then again, maybe clarifying the context would help it be less disruptive to the other games.

The only things I really hated about this game was mp death and trying to 100% maps, other than that I really liked this game especially the post game stuff

I liked the game, but more importantly Nel was a hottie

The game was hard but that made it fun. The final attacks were insane. Maxxxx shockwave!

I definitely don’t share your overall opinion of the game (I like it a lot and it’s my favorite and in my opinion the best in the series) but I think some of your criticisms- forced backtracking, needing a guide to make sense of alchemy- are valid. We’re both adults and I can still appreciate an opinion that differs from my own. I appreciate you taking the time to do this review even if we don’t agree on the final score.

I loved this game as a teen ^^ still adore it as an adult. The protagonists, the optional characters ( Hey edgelord Albel really grew on me : p he silly ) Cool character designs overall, super charming! As a kid I had no problem with the issues you noted, even it's hard to deny they exist. But un-optimized stuff, that seems to be a Tri-Ace Star Ocean problem in general. I feel like they dont' have enough play testers... if any at all... still, it's my personal favourite Star Ocean I'd say.

Hands down one of my favorite games. The only set backs were no four man team, 15cp ponts,costume locked by some of the hardest battle trophies. Roger and Adray were bad characters. There was no boss after Freya. Loved it.🤧❤

Idk why tbis one gets so much hate. You can put 100 + Hrs into this EASY. THIS ANd second story are epic imo

One of the best games at that ERA so ya I think is YOU, most people enjoy it, I min/max and is the game I sunk most time to date.

7:55 ...Umm, yes. I think you may be the problem. I never really had any of the issues with combat that you claimed to have. Especially since I could typically keep a 3x exp bonus for dozens of fights in a row (generally I had to stop paying attention to lose it). The key to easy combat is Cliff and his power attack (the uppercut) which would generally place a stun on enemies and you could just keep juggling them and they would never be able to crit you to break the bonus bar. I do feel your frustration on the map exploration, but I never cared about that so it was kinda a moot point for me. But I DO agree 100% that the chests and all the darn berries felt worthless and not worth the trouble of gathering. And as the game went on and you got access to synthesis, you could really cheese the weapons with some amazing damage bonuses to make attacks VERY OP. So the game's combat had a "trick" to it that made it ridiculously easy (the Cliff juggle), and eventually synthesis made all the characters super strong, and once you had Cliff, Nell and Fayt, you really didn't need anyone else... But that story though? COMPLETELY worth a play... Was it perfect? No. But it was far better than ANY Star Ocean story before or since...

It’s rough around the edges, but that gives this game such a unique charm, and the mid level voice acting just adds to the whole space opera aesthetic. I sound like a fanboy, and I literally am one

No Hellfire, you are wrong - Star Ocean 3 is an amazing game! lol

8:55 if you press square on those items before you buy them their alternate stats screen pops up, you don't need to buy items to see what they do. As for the combat A.I and camera angles, those can all be adjusted, though Star Ocean is kind of a mess of menu screens. Most characters A.I battle actions are set to aggressive styles, but they can be manually swapped outside of combat, you can have Sophia stay away from enemies, focus on casting and healing, even setting HP thresholds so healing doesn't happen until you are at 30% or less HP. Starting positions can really affect battle outcomes too, and the camera settings can drastically change your field of view.

This was prbly the last game I remember playing with a physical guide that came with it. That turned out to be very important cause I would not have known about orichalcum.

Answering your question at the end of the combat section about if this was just you, tbh the combat was kinda akin to watching the polygon doom review. You want to be stringing all your attacks together seamlessly and swapping between characters to do so while you wait for the fury to recover. Additionally, as you use hp to use your skills and are taking damaging, therefore HP being an issue, the obvious answer to this is to just have a healer in the team (e.g. Sophia) healing the team to keep everyone topped up. Dying shouldnt be something that happens very often until you get to the super bosses later on and the odd boss here and there. With unlocking the map, you get a reward for doing 1 (5% movement speed I believe), then I dont think it is worth doing unless you do all of the maps, therefore making it just a completionist thing and otherwise not really having any value and most people wouldnt do more than a couple. Its not something you should be doing and you dont get rewarded for doing more than 1 so surprised you kept doing it. Also having to backtrack in long dungeons to go buy items shouldnt be a thing. You shouldnt be taking so much damage that you run out of healing items and have to go restock. You're not meant to have to run back. But this was probably because you didnt figure out it might be a good idea to have a healer on the team. In terms of not levelling up new characters, XP for levelling, like most games, is exponential and so you can gain levels very quickly and as you said, they are underlevelled and so will die if hit. Again the obvious answer for this is to fight monsters that you can kill with two people, and then just at the start of the fight control the low level character, run them to the far corner of the map, turn off their AI so they stand still, then just swap back to your other two, kill the enemies, and level up. Within a few fights your low leveller is like 50-60% the level of the other two, and can pull their own weight and can be used normally, even if they are less powerful for the moment until they catch up. Fair enough if you werent too fussed with the game, and you made some valid points about the voice acting and things like that, but it does look and sound as though a major skill issue meant you werent able to play the game properly at all. I'm struggling to even picture playing the game without a healer, using all your items, then running 20 mins back to town to buy items (which shouldnt be a thing) and then running back and completing the dungeon and not thinking I must be doing something very, very wrong.

I adore this game but your criticisms are definitely very valid and frustrating. It's mostly my nostalgia goggles that make me look past that stuff. I actually prefer the fixed camera.

Is the final boss luther possibly edge maverick in The Last Hope? Is it possible Edge Maverick is an avatar Luther uses in the "Eternal Sphere" They look almost the same.

SO3 was my first Star Ocean, and it's still my favourite by far. Some spots in the story aren't very special, and it has its occasional dumb moments. But I never really understood a lot of the complaints about the HP price for some abilities or MP KO. Mostly since once I realised that you *could* be KOed by running out of MP, it was a really easy problem to avoid. But it was also a really easy mechanic to exploit since some tough bosses/enemies have huge HP pools but tiny MP pools - and you can KO enemies by draining their MP, too. I also thought the battle system is fine. It's not the best but it's far from the worst. And yeah, like another reply said you can change and upgrade your party's battle tactics so they act a little smarter. I think the Offensive and Defensive traits behave like Judgment in Star Ocean 5. If I remember right you can also turn spells on and off, so for example if you want Sophia to purely heal you can disable her attack spells. The shop thing sucks a little bit, though. I think this was an oversight more than a choice. Like the game actually has a prompt to cycle item information, and at some point they just forgot to have a 3rd panel that describes consumable item effects. But yeah most of the things complained about in this video were inconsequential inconveniences to my personal experience. SO3 isn't like a Dragon Quest XI situation, where the game is actively trying to waste your time in small quantities every given opportunity. I think Star Ocean 3 just suffered from the developers trying to build a AAA product on an A or AA budget, and either having to make some sacrifices or getting overwhelmed by biting off more than they could chew and some minor stuff just being forgotten.

This is one of my fav rpg of all time, I loved this game and the twist that everyone hated is so meta now I loved SO2 and it is also one of my favs of all time but I just gravitate to 3 more. I just played it again after about 15 years like 3 months ago and I was like damn I still love this sh8t lol

I'm playing SO3 right now for the first time in 18 years. It's taken a while for me to get back into the hang of combat, but it's fine. A couple things... I don't believe new characters start at 1. I just got Adray temporarily and Maria permanently and both start just slightly below what Fayt, Cliff, and Nel are at right now (low 20s). I see someone else mentioned the Triangle button thing for reviewing items in shops, but you are right that the game doesn't tell you that option is available (so that's a bad design choice). I disagree about the characters, at least for one. Nel is my favorite Star Ocean character. She is surprisingly complex. Plus, she kicks ass. Also, not sure about the whole characters dying a lot thing. The AI isn't the best but it's not horrible. I'm 25 hours in (just got Maria), and I've used maybe 10 resurrection items the whole game so far, and some of that was bad management by me. Managing the skill setup, tactics, and Skill Point upgrades for your preferred AI characters is critical. I choose to control Nel all the time because I want to control healing and she's better from "back row," so to speak, where I can see the battle develop more. But, no matter what, it's fair to not like this game. It's not for everyone, and in many ways it's a big departure from SO1 and SO2, a lot of them bad ways (in my opinion). SO2 is still the standard for the series as far as I'm concerned. Cool that you're going through each game leading up to SO6 coming out. I am, too, sort of. I played SO2 last year, SO1 a few months ago, now SO3, then I'll play SO4. I'm skipping SO5. By the time I'm done with SO4 it'll likely be months after SO6 comes out. Heck, it might release before I finish SO3 if I decide I want to do most of the post-game content!

I played this game way back in the day and loved it and just hearing that epic opening theme makes me want to boot it up again. The combat is probably the weakest part of the game for me as well though. That said I never really found it massively difficult on normal difficulty. It's a bit more methodical than modern action rpgs and you have to think about what your doing a lot of the time but I found most of it quite manageable. The game also has pseudo-achievements built in that unlock bonus content like different outfits or difficulties. One of this is the be the end boss of the entire game at lvl 1. That's right! Go through the entire game with a group of character than have never level up then kill the Final boss with them. And it's totally doable, I have done it myself. It's not even the hardest achievement in the game by far. So there is definitely a lot of leeway in how you win fights that can make the battles a lot easier if you know what your doing. But the game is a rather grindy and the combat, while manageable isn't the tightest or easiest to grasp all the nuances. Still, I love the game story and characters, the twist never bothered me, and the amount of stuff to do is immense. Over all its one of the best RPGs of the era. Also not sure why you had so much trouble w/ your companions dying, mine seemed to fair pretty well, perhaps you should look at their AI settings a bit more.

This is my favorite game in the franchise, but most of your criticisms are 100% fair. I will say that the grinding was actually pretty trivial if you can find encounters with elementally weak monsters. I found a late game spot with golems weak to ice and just built up my exp bonus to max and switched to a ranged character to avoid crits and raked in the exp. I beat the game really close to level 100, which trivializes the final story bosses.

Im glad you made this vid man. When i got my ps3 to pass the quarantine i bought SO4 TLH first thing. Then i snagged SO3 TEOT but never got lucky finding a ps2 near by for sale. Loved The Last Hope. Will b trying to beat Gabriel this winter and max my party for the final secret dungeon. Based on your honest video here, Last Hope is better than End of Time. Plot twist aside. There is a point like that in Last Hope but its an easier grain of salt to swallow. End of Time shouldve been more like a Jurassic Park disaster than what it was bcoz from the full game playthrough i watched it kinda really fell flat there. It was beyond outside the box thinking yea but it needed to be better in delivery. Anyway, looking forward to your SO4 review. Imo, most of the budget went into the graphics, music, gameplay. If they had a little bigger budget, it couldve been extremely well done, you will see how much potential it has. Lemuris, a fckn planet with only 2 shabby towns ( T_T)＼(^-^ ) for one. A whole frighin planet, no secrets, no hidden. One bridge was burned down near Triom which i think was gonna be another area but was cut from the game due to budget constraints. So much lost potential. Oh well

I love the art style of this game and of the first snes original one.

this take is on fire and no firemen are anywhere. man is farming the comment section

These are fair criticisms. Map completion was so infuriating and crafting was so confusing. I personally found the battle system really easy and enjoyable, loved the cast of characters and the story. I did think it was the greatest in the franchise until Divine Force came out, now it's the second best for me. For all its flaws only the suikoden games on the ps2 and wild arms 3 are on par with it. Thanks for giving it a fair review.

I love it, but i agree with all your opinions. Altho the negatives dont bother me as much as they bother u

Ranked in top 5 of my RPGs. Alongside FFVII, Suikoden 2, Vandal Hearts(tactical), & Valkyrie Profile

For all 6 series, this one is the best. Because 1. the flow is logical (except for the last part of the game in the whatever world.The gameplay and reaction when they first crash on undevelop planet was to the point. The prequel to the crash was also good.The other entries of star ocean was lack of luster.If any i would say . starocean 3 rank highest then only star ocean 2

I played the shit out of this game. I thought it was great. I usually like turn based games but getting into Grandia games this just got better and better I hit about 80 hours on this game and didn’t even hit all the extra stuff. It’s good. Play it trust me I’m not extremely picky about JRPG’s

I bet everyone can hear this voice in their heads. "May the grace of Apris be with you!" - Farleen

way better than SO4

I never had any issues with members dying.

I dont agree with your design choices.Fast travel is one of the biggest killers of immersion in games.Its one if those things we think we want but we dont.Having vehicles and way to traverse the world is fantastic but picking a marker on a map and magically teleported there is incredibly unimmersive.The skill hp/mp requirement killing you when reaches 0 could be a concept of over exhertion.Think of it like Goku using a kaio ken stronger than he can.Actually Tenshihan died in the battle against Nappa cause he ran out of ki.I think this game have a style to it not found anywhere else

I liked your review and have to say, I LOVED this game when it came out on PS2. I remember buying the physical guide and REALLY going all in with this game. I used the guide to craft some of the most game breaking weapons. I agreed with all your criticisms. It was nice hearing someone mentioning the damn berries in the chests and lack of fast travel. Not to mention the mapping nonsense. Also, your spot on with my frustrations with the buildings lacking any name but a triangle. What I didn't like about the battling in particular was getting stun locked. I get PTSD thinking about getting shot by laser guns. I tried playing the new PS4 version lately, but unfortunately my nastolgia goggles just weren't strong enough and I caught on to the massive tedium this game puts me through. I personally didn't like the twist. I believe it cheapens the plot of the other games.

I think you are nitpicking but hey it's your opinion!!

The combat seems fine to me. Did you play the game on Galaxy? You should stick to Earth/Easy until you're more acclimated to the game. There's no shame in that. As for getting better at the game, there are some hidden mechanics you can (and should) read about. Aside from that, you just need to play the game and get more experience (so you can "level up." Get it?). Of course, if you don't feel the thirst to learn more about the game, then, hey, so be it. Using Ori weapons, though, is something I don't recommend. It just completely annihilates the game. Just customize your weapons with Blue and Red Talismans and Rings of Mental Power. That gives you a far more reasonable boost. And don't forget to use No Guard. (I have to stop now, otherwise this will turn into an essay.)

About the camera, you can change It. It doesnt have to be so annoying

You can press Triangle in the shop menu to see what factors the item has (or Circle - depends on your button settings).

Good review, after completing Star Ocean The Divine Force (loved it), I decided to go back to SO3. Like you I played through it in 2005, I thought it was a classic though that twist had my scratching my head. The voice acting actually holds up well, the plot (barring the twist) was great. I whole heartedly agree with all your points about the combat, especially after playing SO4 and SO6. Clunky camera, poor AI, you forgot to mention you can't hit an enemy after you knock it down. 0 MP deaths I thought made the game artificially more difficult. I also agree with your points on the game design, why try to explore dungeons and towns when all you find are berries (which are dirt cheap at the shops)? I am at Kirlsa Caverns in my current playthrough (I also tried in 2017 to play through it on the PS4, but stopped at the Kirlsa Training Grounds) and think I am just going to play SO1, 2, and 4. I wanted to enjoy the game as I did back in 2005, but it just has not aged very well, it is in dire need of a current gen makeover.

Haven't watched it but I imagine he called it bad and thinks 2 is super amazing~wow~. Typical. Leveling up in this game is a complete joke and it's the easiest game in the series to do it in. You can travel far out of your way during several parts of the story and find things you aren't supposed to have yet and beat higher level enemies. I love this kind of shit. Skill have great audio and visual feedback where in the first 2, they were just noise. The devs got the cadence, sound effects, and visuals just right for a lot of the skills. Using HP to attack isn't a problem because it's such a non-issue. But it did mean you couldn't go without healing the whole time. But Nel starts with Heal and is pretty decent at it and you can get another Heal book pretty early into the game. As for MP death, it is only ever to the players benefit. I swear people only complain about it because of the concept but don't look at it in practice. I can count on one hand how many times a character has died from MP Death over the MANY hours I have put into 3. Also, characters in 3 have personality. They are tropey but everyone does a LITTLE something. Celine and Ashton are useless. They get one moment.

You can definitely look at a description of items before you buy them in shops, its just triangle IIRC. Also, you're never forced to 100% complete a map hahahaha there not much gained from it either so to me thats nothing that should be stressed over. I love this game hahaha not saying its perfect, but I dont get why it gets so much hate. Lots of postgame too.

I hope we get till the end of time r someday.

Star Ocean Till the End of Time has a lot of issue that I complain about myself. Sadly, a lot of the things that you harp on are things that can be fixed, you apparently just didn't learn how to. Pressing square in shops shows what items do before you buy, the items from clearing maps are either 1 or the other and you only need 1 of the good ones because they don't stack, so the rest are just money, no need to collect them, and you can control the camera in battle to name a few things. I complain about tons in the game too, but you should come at it with a current day mindset. It doesn't have fast travel and few games did at the time. It doesn't bother me as much because the backtracking isn't too bad for me. i hated the back tracking a lot more in SO1 because of random battles. Anyway, you get a like for the work on the video, but I still disagree with your opinion on the game

As a 12 year old kid playing this game when it first came out, it was not fun and felt like a big waste of time. Expected Tales of Symphonia vibes but in space. However, it was a massive chore to play this game. I remember you had to speak to some random NPC to receive a tool to breakdown walls to proceed. Thinking back makes me upset again LOL Somewhat glad that I wasn’t the only one thinking it does not respect your time

The later game and post game get difficult i defeated Freya though. The only part i didn't finish was the 101 level dungeon got to about floor 80 or so.

He'll fire games I still think starocean3 is best one of 6 but I can understand your opinion. U are not toxic about it

Yeah, I started playing these a couple years ago, and basically enjoyed SO1 and 2, but I gave up on SO3 midway through. All the problems you mentioned just got to me. Never did complete it, and it was a long time before I tried SO4. (Which, fortunately, I enjoyed more.)

I do like this game quite a bit , the main game is a great journey. And I absolutely love the post game !!

The game itself is very good but the story was all over the place

I thought about replaying this...thanks for reminding me about the annoyances. The moves taking HP and back tracking made me so angry.

And unlike the other games it is pennies to pick up. For now.

I agree with most of your review. Excellent job. Thanks for reviewing this series. I know you just described your experience, and that's fine, but I don't think you made an objective argument about the combat. Unresponive buttons: I didn't have this problem. I even recently replayed the game on PS4 and didn't feel like it was unresponsive. Is it possible that you were pressing the button at the end of attack animations that can't combo into special moves? I don't know. MP death: We may not LIKE it, but why is it a bad design choice? The bonus gauge breaks easily: Yeah, it does. Because it's REALLY powerful. I mean you can get 3x experience from it! And that would take care of your slow leveling up problem too. But it's a great review. TOTALLY agree about the treasure chest contents.

Wow so much complain .. the battlesystem is the best ever ... you can mp kill enemies too... of course you have to seek an opening into the battle or it would just be stupid buttonmashing like tekken or streetfighter. Spend HP/MP and fury in a fight is necessary to not exploit the game. The buttons on my ps2 always respond so maybe it is the ps4 port or you have to check your set up. The invention is try and error at the start but if you know what you want it is easy or if it takes too long try out an calculator. Star Ocean 3 is brave in many situations and this pays out for them. Great game, nice story and with skill, patients and some try-outs here and there it is awesome. But i figured it out that many players do not want this. They want straight up games with pseudo-open world feel. And if you wanna complain about the game try 4D difficulty .. this feels unfair sometimes. But you need ALOT of battle trophies for that.

Dude your opening alone speaks to my soul. I played this game last year and it was so frustrating to play.

I pretty much agree on most of your criticisms. As for the shop not allowing you to see what your items do, I found out you have to select the item, then press the triangle button and it shows you what it does. The game doesn't make that clear. I had to figure it out. I'm currently playing SO 3 now and I'm the same as you. I bought SO3 back when it first came out, after I graduated HS. I didn't think it was as good as SO2 (which is the best SO imo), but I recently went back to my copy and started playing again. But there are many frustrating design choices with this game, but it's not bad.

Definitely not my favorite for many of the reasons you mention, but I would personally add the Shrine of Kaddan to my list. Every time I had to go to that place, I wanted to quit.

I think the most annoying thing about this game is that you get most of your characters surprisingly late into the game, and leveling is so slow that it makes it a chore grinding out and setting up the characters you actually want to use. I swear the enemies start doing more critical hits as soon as you finally fill up the XP bonus bar.

When this game came out I loved it, thought it was perfect, when it was released on ps4 I bought it and just could not get through it due to pretty much everything you said in the video lol