Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope - Review [Star Ocean Sessions] (PS3, PS4, PC, Xbox 360) 

I am big defender of this game. Pretty much the only things I dont like about the game is Lymle and Sarah. The rest of the cast and story was enjoyable and I love the gameplay. For me I would give the game a 80-85% score mostly because I was actually engaged with the story from beginning until the end.

Definitely agree! It was a fun time and i enjoyed some parts of the story and the dynamic between the trio (Edge, Reimi, Faize) as well as the combat. The tropes, lack of save points, movie length cutscenes, and annoying dialogue can be a chore, but if you don't take it to seriously there's an enjoyable experience in there.

For me this is by far best star ocean but since we are here watching and commenting then it makes us all fans so imo no one is wrong on their fav. Good stuff nice review.

This was my first StarOcean game and I loved it.

I glad I'm not the only one that considers this their favorite in the series.

The jokes about the little girl were so funny. Nice video! I missed out on that fourth entry sadly

One major flaw in the Star Ocean 4 game is that there are some Planets/Space Stations from Disk 1 that after you finish and leave that planet to continue on with the story, they get destroyed and never can be visited again. This makes it really hard to play through the game and not realize if you haven't completed every little objective you needed to get every last treasure chest unlocked, you will miss out on getting one or two achievements. Being on the XBox 360 version, you can't help but feel that those achievement requirements were annoying as hell.

I played this game when it was originally released on the 360 and I agree. It's s great game but falls back because of some decisions like the voice acting. I remember my brother getting into my room asking to stop the healing chant spam in the final boss fight because he hated Sarah's voice. He ended up staying at my room because the fight was freaking epic and mega flashy.

I have recently been playing through till the end of time again and i can totally feel your pain about stressing over finding a save point.

I remember really liking this one too, although since story is my first priority, not as much as SO2 and SO3. Picked up the 4K version on Steam during a sale a year or so back... would love to replay some day.

I just finished this game and loved it! Not sure what happened with the voice acting. They had some pretty big name voice actors in the industry but the direction and dialogue just didn’t pay justice to those actors.

"Hey babe wakeup! Another Hell Fires RPG review just dropped!" Great video mate, personally I enjoyed the second half of the story more and thought the final boss was very unique compared to other RPGs I played. The combat is definitely my favorite out of the series. I'm really looking forward to the Divine Force seeing how they are ramping up the gameplay.

I might be in the minority here, but I take no issue with Lymle's voice actress. The portrayal was perfect for the way the character was written (which is not to say the character wasn't annoying at times.) Lymle is a very damaged little girl who experienced a lot of trauma in the years before meeting Edge and company. The trauma led to an emotional breakdown so severe that she was forced to shut down her feelings in order to keep functioning, effectively locking her level of psychological and emotional maturity at the level of a six-year-old with autism. Strangely, she is also restricted to a six-year-old physical body, though she is actually fifteen years old according to the game's lore, with a wealth of natural symbological talent that surprises everyone who witnesses it. Lymle is not normal in any respect. She struggles to communicate her emotions with others, both in her manner of speech and in her wooden doll-like expressions. Other characters don't have this same restriction in their mannerisms, so Lymle's behavior is a deliberate choice by the developers to reflect her character. They clearly went overboard with the 'Kays, but otherwise I can't bring myself to dislike Lymle due to her backstory. It is evident that she develops deep inner feelings for Faize she cannot fully express due to her condition, yet she can also sense a weakness in him that foreshadows later events. A weakness no one else can see. I thought the devs handled this brilliantly.

lol I just downloaded this game again to my ps4 It's been a long time and find myself having fun again with the item creation and battle systems. Downloading Till the end of time too, love them both!

I just got the brand new star ocean divine force for ps5 and I’m glad I watched this video because now I’m aware last hope has a remastered version I was fixing to order a ps3 copy but I want to play this game with good graphics and performance

Finally played this a few months ago and really enjoyed it. Definitely my favorite SO as well. Despite the flaws, it's one of the few sci-fi RPGs I've played that really felt like having a spaceship and freedom. I didn't even mind the cheesy voices and story. It's so clearly going for a "silver age" space opera vibe, like Lensmen or Star Wars or Macross, that the cheesy presentation felt right for the material.

I love hearing folks' opinions about Star Ocean. This is my favorite Star Ocean (no competition).

the graphics and art style look gorgeous! I have never played any SO game but it doesnt look bad in any way

I like your method of doing reviews quite a bit. :) For my part, I found this game to be worth it, especially as I was looking for this kind of game at the time I got the original version and it pretty much fulfilled that role. I liked half the cast well enough at least, but did find the plot unremarkable and the other half of the cast just felt like tagalongs that never surprised me with anything they said or did. Didn't mind the ending though, as it sort of expended on the overused 'keep moving forward' trope that's so often tacked-on as a moral for a game or anime, instead posing the idea that there's more to this process and how you grow as a person or society actually matters, not just whether you do it or not, so I have to give it some credit there. I also... kinda like the ending being so long (up to an hour if you get all possible ending scenes at once). It'd be nice if other cutscenes weren't so damn long, but once it's over I'm cool with getting to see more over an ending that's too short. XD Combat really does rock though, and one really cool feature I think was ahead of its time was the system of being able to develop a list of skills for EITHER your Blindside feature or your Rush Mode feature, letting players, in a sense, tailor the combat experience to be more action-based or more stat-strategy based, which is a bit of a long-term concern for this type of RPG since some players will want more of that skill-trigger action feel while others want to avoid it. I think continuing to use this type of split system could help any future games in this genre.

Awesome. Your video and my video are in complete agreement on this game. If SO6 can improve on SO4 without creating any new problems, it could be a smash hit.

Just subscribed i haven't played any star Ocean games this game looks interesting but idk if im to stupid to beat it lol there a lot of stuff to do i cant fight the same beast 100 times lol... great video thank you :)

Keep it going sir, want to hear your thoughts on the new one coming out this year.

I remember working at a game store when this released for 360, and being in a serious drought for a JRPG that was new and that had a fun combat system I could dig into, I decided to give it a shot. I'd previously attempted to play the third game on PS2 but didn't get very far in before I quit playing it. So this was essentially my first SO game and despite the flaws (does ANYONE actually like Lymle?) I had a good time with this game.

This is my favorite star ocean game 'kay.

I replayed the 4K version a couple of years ago for the first time since the PS3 version, and I agree with everything you had to say. I loved it so much more than I remembered from the last time I played it. Totally agree about the character tropes and voice acting bringing it down a notch. If they'd all talked like normal people it would have been so much better. Even the Japanese voice acting is pure cringe.

I like the story it’s easier to ignore the bad voice acting the more you get invested. The music really sucks you in with that sci fi vibe and the combat is dope. I have to agree the trophy hunting on this one is trash and you could beat the entire series rather than get the platinum for this one.

I really liked The Last Hope... that and Til the End of Time were my favorites after 2nd Story.

I love this game its like star trek x final fantasy

Liked the game overall, with the exception of the ludicrous name for the MC: hearing Edge Maverick either makes me roll my eyes, or my lip twitch. I switched it to the original Japanese voices to make it slightly more palatable. Meracle was my favorite character, she was my combo queen in combat. Out of combat I think she had the best side-story.

Bro the mic quality is really grading xD nice review tho

The reason I like this Game better than Till the end of time is it has Blindsiding, Rush Modes & Combos, More Side Quests & Private Actions and even if all 4 of your Teammates die in fights you can switch your characters because, in First departure, Second story & Till the end of time you couldn't do that.

Oh hey, the last Star Ocean I played. The voice direction for RPGs from this era were... Strongly hit or miss, and I think there were a lot of misses.

Miracle was my fav character from Star Ocean 4, I loved that Catgirl and her costume rocks.

IMO, For everything this game gets right, it also gets something wrong. I got the 4K remaster on PS4 when it released back in 2017. I like it enough to keep playing but not enough to 100% it. What made the first two SO games good was their open-ended natures, with their optional characters, PAs, and endings etc. It encouraged multiple playthroughs & made the player want to search the game. Last Hope feels like it actively tries to discourage multiple playthroughs with it's story length, lack of choices, super-grindy leveling, no skipable cutscenes & endgame content. I'm glad Hellfire pointed out the completionist issues that came with this game, I was worried I was in a minority. Those developers were truly maniacs!

By the way I also loved the story in this game and got emotional several times. Wasn't surprised to find out the Serah voice actor was Laura Bailey whos voiced a ton of my fave characters from games I love (like Serah from FF13-2)

Great video as always Hellfire my man. I hated this game back in 2009, purely due to the characters and dialogue. Lymle and Welch in particular were absolutely unbearable. I remember rage quitting out of sheer boredom on the Cardanion Mothership dungeon while looking for a save point and never came back. I just wish the writing was better as I think I would have otherwise really liked this game despite its other flaws.

it's a huge PITA playing this one after finishing ragnarok. Before this I played SO3 for a pretty good while, even finished all the post-game content, also liked playing SO2 a lot although it's too dated to pick up now. Don't think I'll ever do the post game for this one. Didn't enjoy the stiff combat, didn't dig the atrocious dialogue, didn't like the cliche story

"I am way to old to be stressing about finding a save point!" Amen....Amen

I just unlocked the 100% Battle Trophies achievement on Monday, after starting the game over a decade ago (now I just have to finish my Chaos playthrough for 100% completion). I can confirm, you do indeed need to be a psychopath to attempt it...

Its between this and 2nd story for my favorite

Eh, it's ok. JP voices are much better, but game overall is just about 6-7/10. Some fun can be extracted, but overall very forgettable. BUT when compared to Star Ocean 5 it’s a bloody masterpiece.

Always liked this entry, just re brought the ps3 version for 5 bucks. 😀

My opinion on the gameplay summed up in a video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-H0JXfl_4Nvg.html Spoilers Below: considering the plot of Till the End of Time, Do you think that the Apostle of Creation is a glitch, raid, or server update?

Lymle is the best character in the game and I will not hear otherwise.

Maybe I should finally give this one a go. Or maybe I should finally give the third one a go as well lol

For the voice, I simply use the jp voice anyday. Well for any other JRPG as well if possible

really great game

I wish they put this game on Switch. Been wanting to try it out since the HD version came out in 2017 but not sure if my old laptop can run it (though it runs many 7th gen games like this one just fine)

Everything Lymle says *KAY* I have.a.full blown seizure, panic attack and heart attack all in one.

Does it have dual audio? If the Eng dub is that bad, switch to Jp instead

This is hilarious talking about 100% completion rating. I think this specific game was nominated for and is my personal pick for hardest most time consuming trophy list to finish to get of all time and of any game I know. No way in hell I was platinuming this on ps3.

Great review. I agree with most of it and @ChronoDegeneration comments below. Playing on Xbox 360 and really enjoying it so far 😉

Luther "It's just a game!"

3:20 I will never understand why so many people in the JRPG community call reacting to something traumatic and not getting over it instantly as "emo". At this point it's coming across as sociopathic. 10-15 years ago I would have given it a pass because our brains weren't fully developed yet but it's getting kind of weird now.

I love this game

This game is why I prefer the Japanese voices.

Well I just bought this game and integrity and faithlessness and first departure R All for 20 bucks altogether on the PlayStation so I should get my money's worth I'm curious about the star ocean games

I pretty much agreed with everything you said, save for a comment about a character going through an "emo phase". Look, the story sucks, the cast is largely bleh aswell and while I wont say the character in question is great or anything, I think their reaction to that event is completely understandable and I think labeling it as "emo" is really strange and lacking in empathy.

I wish they release this one on Nintendo switch who’s agree with me?

This makes me miss anamnesis

I still can hear that girl saying "all by your lonesome" in my head.

I'm a completionist but those achievements tho. The only thing that keep me from playing this game is I don't wanna ruin my percentage cause I know I won't 100% this game.

Just finished replaying this gem. I swear they keep Faize nerfed to sell the gap between him and Edge. Either that or I still don't know how to build him. Also what even the FUCK is Kokabiel. Also also "Witness the quintessence of my catastrophic power!" Goes hard.

i looked it up and Lymle isnt a child, shes a teenager...15 years old. Theres NO WAY she's 15 years old and talks the way she does!

I feel like I’m the only one who loved Lymle…. Kay….

The only next generation Star Ocean game that had a lot of love and time put into its development. Every other modern Star Ocean game didn’t have the grand adventure through multiple planets that this game had. It’s freaking called Star Ocean. Why don’t they use it’s freaking title as inspiration? I don’t get these devs at times.

literrally spent 1000 hours to get 1000 achievements

I was a fan of the first 2 games- but since they've gone to 3D models the series has just flopped consistently. I put at about 20 hours into that game only to finally have to realize it isn't going to get better. But I'll always have love for the series because of the original 2.

Personally I think The Last Hope was definitely the best of the series, it was very much before it’s time!

Sometimes I think about going back to replay this game... But Lymle is so horrible that I can't bring myself to do it. I could barely make it through this video. Ughh

I dislike this game. Going an hour or more without the ability to save is simply unacceptable for me. Not only do I value my time and would be upset if I died and lost that progress, but as a busy adult with other people in my household sometimes I just need to stop what I’m doing and turn the game off. It stinks that I could be 30 minutes away from the next save point when I need to do that.

This review had me Lol'íng (especially the part with the creepy K girl). I guess I won't be buying these old star ocean games, will wait for them to show up on PS+

This is my personal favorite of the series, with flaws and all. And Reimi is my favorite character too…especially when she takes charge for … certain reasons in the story.

This is more of a gameplay oriented JRPG. I liked the aspects of the game not pertaining to the story and characters although this admittedly is a big blow for me as I love when JRPGS have strong characters and a good story considering they are lengthy and having the story and characters not be as good as they could be is disappointing. The story needed more punch to not just be run of the mill JRPG fare and the characters needed more fleshing out. It seemed too much like watching an average anime a lot of the time as it was harder to relate to the characters and feel compelled to see their journey through when they were just so blase and often just represented the base trope they initially are shown to represent. The private actions were fun to watch.

Yep I got 900 bt's and yes I am a lunatic for it

Changing targets is easy

The ending was a cliffhanger loved this game tho

I agree that the ENGLISH voice acting is terrible…. But the Japanese version is what makes this game amazing.

My favorite in the series as well. But what are you doing playing the English voice track when it's so terrible? I mean, seriously.

I loved this game but I absolutely hated everything about little brat with all my might

I've thought special K is something different 🙊

Best game in the series ❤️ 5 is my second fave and I also love 1 and 2. I hate 3 for many reasons and the Divine Force demo reminded me of it with the AP gauge being the fury gauge basically. 6 has some serious performance issues that kill the gameplay but the combat is a backstep imo from 4 and 5 . Blindsides are in 6 but worse imo

I think the older Star Ocean did better, but something about the plots in later games just don't hold up. The tropes, archetypes, and plot prediction is too much for me to bring myself to finish them. I never play them in English if I can help it because I know what to expect lol! The biggest issues is these games never stop doing the same this game made it obvious for me. Combat is never a issues, yet not even that could save it for me. Whoever is writing for this series is limited or maybe, the scifi theme just doesn't hold up well.

This game was my introduction to JRPGs and the super annoying characters made me bounce right off the genre, not coming back for years.

The sound is very bad

I double checked and I played this game for 6.4 hours before saying nope. I enjoyed the combat, but the story, characters, voice direction were all just so, soooo bad. I mean Edge Maverick? Was this written by a 14 year old.

2>3=4>1>>>>>>>5

I was considering buying this game on PSN but the clips of that little girl talking turned me right off lol

I’m replaying after a gap of about 12 years or so. Enjoy the gameplay but the voice acting is irritating (and the little girl is creepy). Still pretty early but having a good time so far.

best combat system ever made in an action rpg

K lol. Special K lmao. HAHAHAHA!! Lymle is easily the worst part of this game. I hate the small-character-for-the-audience trope if you know what I mean. People still often say that fanservice is when boobs are shown prominently on screen but they have never ever experienced this game and it shows.

not my favorite game, has a lot in it but most of is kinda... bleh. lacks the charm and heart of earlier games imo

I thought Star ocean faithlessness and integrity was the worst jrpg? 😂

You're smoking crack if you believe this SO has the best battle system in the serious.

The game was fun, but it had one of the worst cast. The game was linear and the content was lacking. Faize,Edge,Reimi and Arumat were the best. Crowe should've been playable.

This game is much better than star ocean 5 and 6 at least man , this seties is impresive because new game are always get worse lmao , i cant believe what star pcean 6 did but the combat ia one of the best horro story on mechanics , chaotic no sence and boring and braindead , what horible design battle

Idk how anyone could get into this story. The dialogue and writing was so bad.

I loved Star Ocean LAst Hope. Its my personal favorite in the series, despite how annoying that little girl character was. Star Ocean 3 was ruined by the terrible plot twist. Apparently even the devs thought it was bad, since now every Star Ocean game has to take place before that game in order to make any sense.

"Born from the tears of dragons" you say? .....🤢🤮

With the minor downsides to the item creation system in 4 its still miles better than the turd that was SO3. SO5 perfected Item Creation imo The sidequests are awesome for the SP I wouldn't really call it being psycho. If u enjoy the game or want the jewel / battle trophy you will push for it and not feel like its a chore I platinumed SO4 so guess I'm a psycho lol