@@1010otep Yeah, I was gonna say that any review it Persona 5, regardless of length or whether for or against, had better spend at least 30 seconds gushing about the UI and menues.
SO3 was my favorite one for the story and the most unique EX dungeons out of the series, though the story did set the bar pretty high. You have to know alot more about the mechanics to play that one so it isn't just a grindfest, but it's good.
@Naro I HAVE THIS GAME HERE. I DIDNT EVEN KNOW I HAD IT. I PLAY GOOD GAMES OVER AND OVER MANY TIMES. BUT I WROTE A LITTLE NOTE FOR MYSELF ON THIS GAME STAR OCEAN TILL THE END OF TIME AND THIS IS WHAT I WROTE AFTER I HAD PLAYED IT "NOT ENOUGH COLOUR, NOT ENOUGH SAVE POINTS, VERY ANNOYING AND TIME CONSUMING RIDICULOUSLY HARDAND NEEDS FAQS A LOT. MY PROBLEM IS I DONT LIKE GAMES WHICH ARENT VERY COLOURFUL. I ALSO DONT LIKE GAMES WITH TINY WEE PRINT SO I DONT BOTHER WITH THE PS4 GAMES NOW. I WASTED MY MONEY WITH THOSE. I DONT LIKE TO SOUND LIKE A BIG WHINGER THOUGH AND THERE ARE A LOT OF GAMES I DO LIKE AND ONE OF THEM IS STAR OCEAN 2. I HAD IT AS A COPIED GAME WHICH I PLAYED ON MY PSX BUT IT BROKE AND I DONT HAVE IT ANYMORE. I JUST WISH MY PS2 COULD TAKE NTSC AND COPIED GAMES. I WOULD LOOK TO FIND MY COPIED VERSION OF STAR OCEAN 2, IT WAS A GREAT GAME. I ALSO LOVE SUIKODEN 2, THAT IS ONE OF MY VERY FAVOURITES. IM AN OLD GAMER ALSO. I STARTED PLAYING GAMES WHEN I WAS JUST 16 AND THAT WAS BACK IN 1968
SO2 is my absolute, unparalleled game of all time. When I first played it on rental, I kept it for so long I ran up an overdue bill that cost as much as the game did itself! Because of a very limited PAL print run, it was rarer than rocking horse shit to find 2nd hand. I had to pay £40 for a used copy that a shop had reserved for me after it was traded in at another of their branches.
@@faytleingod3807 They made it 1 less character you can use in a fight. When close combat characters use skills their HP drains instead of their Magic Points. The game have issues when trying magic or any skill the game will say loading data from disc until it never loads. How come you can say and the poster than Star Ocean Till The End of Time is the best?
I hated playing Fayt till I figured out his four hit combo, then I loved it. Knock them in the air, cool air kick, then a double stabby on their way down. Had fun with that
My favorite part about that game was the battles and battle customization. The story needed so much work and the maps... I wanted so much more out of it, but the seamless battle engagement was a huge plus for me, especially when compared to TLH.
Yea, SO2 is just on another level. I love SO3 too, but SO2 isn't just one of the best star ocean games it's one of the best games of all time. Anyway, if you're a fan of SO2 I recommend watching the anime, it's called star ocean ex if I recall, it only covers about half of the story but its pretty decent.
Star Ocean 3 will always be my favorite SO game. It was the first game I played in the series, so I may be a little biast, but I really loved the characters, music, and gameplay. Cutting Edge of Notion was a great battle theme and the quotes the characters said in battle were funny too. I loved spamming dimension door and sidekick with Fayt lol. The story was all over the place, but it was overall a pretty memorable and fun experience.
It was the first game I played in the series as well, so far i've played SO3, SO4 and SO1. Alot of people said SO5 is trash but i'm still gonna try it out since i've already played most of the games
Completely agree with you, Star Ocean till the end of time is by far the best, and the worst is Star Ocean 5, they tried to innovate but it didn't feel like a star ocean
Aye the sound track slaps for Star Ocean 3, I have a couple songs in my list of guitar music in fact. The story was fantastic right up till the very end, but on the whole there was a lot to love.
Great video dude. You inspired me to do a video like yours. I’m currently playing star ocean first departure R as I got a review code sent to me. I couldn’t get into the first star ocean first departure remaster like yourself at first, but now I’m enjoying it a lot.
Hey, man, I've been watching you for years! Thanks for leaving your thoughts. I haven't play much of First Departure R yet, but it looked good on the big screen. Hoping it changes my mind and paves the way for Second Evolution R.
Everyone freaked out with how bad the story was in Star Ocean the Last Hope. I actually liked it a lot. The writers took a huge chance by letting the heroes go through that doorway in space... if you know what I mean. What a crazy shift in storytelling.
I don't know either why they say the plot is that bad and the characters too shallow, in my opinion, is a good game, not a master piece of course but suffered because of Star Ocean till the end of time (the best in the saga) set the bar really high, just my opinion...
SO3’s battle system is amazing. Fayt is excellent. He has he highest defence stats and you can easily max it out to above 5000 where he is immune to all boss damage (except spells) on Galaxy and Universe, yes, including Lenneth and Freya. Put the stun skill on his attacks and let the AI whale on the boss. Point being you don’t use him for damage, more to distract the bosses. AI Maria solos the boss for you. Then you control Sophia and hide in a corner and spam Explosion for stun locking. Amazingly it still works quite well on 4D and gets those no damage trophies easily.
I'll give you Fayt's high def for no damage. The battle system would've been amazing, but I experienced characters locking in place and doing nothing until I switched to them and forced them to move. I used Sophia (she's not smart enough to heal or heal on time), Maria, and Cliff for his max Shockwave weak to strong exploit.
The AI doesn’t get competent until you max out their offence and defence AI skills. Its a design decision that they make you unlock the AI competency instead of giving it to you at the start. They do silly things like make Fayt or Maria sidestep to a corner and cast magic, hence you have to seal all offensive magic. There are a few quirks with the AI that you gotta work around but hey this happens with any game where AI is involved. The AI is not competent with staying in long range consistently. That’s why anyone but Maria can’t have a long range build controlled by the AI. Eg, Cliff with Max Shockwave on both of his long range skills. That’s because the AI will always cancel off of light attack, and Maria is the only one with a long range capable light attack, therefore you’ll see Cliff run in to do a light attack and just get stuck in short range. Nel’s AI is also horrible. Don’t think the AI can use Peppita’s counters properly. But apart from that, and a very few caveat, this game has the best AI I’ve seen. SO2’s AI can be bad too. I’ve seen mages do nothing in the back except get smacked by snail speed firebolts cast by the enemy.
Sounds like we had different experiences. I'd say Rena's AI in SO2 was so good it was broken. She was so on top of her healing game that it was almost impossible to lose the game. Probably why in SO3 we see that healing no longer stops the action and there is even a pause before the healing spell actually hits your party. I prefer the AI in 5 out of all the games. The role system was a lot of fun to play with and get the characters to do or not do certain tings. Of course, that system isn't perfect either, but I liked it best. Even SO4 didn't have a lot of issues, but I still feel like you still need to control Sarah or Myuria during tough fights, because they just done heal fast enough.
I think Rena’s AI was due to her skill set and having a unique healer AI setting. For example, while Noel gets healing spells his AI settings are the same as Leon and Celine, there’s no way to prioritise healing spells, hence Noel can never replace Rena as his AI just isn’t equipped to handle being a healer. Same with SO1 with Millie being Rena and Ioshua and super secret character having Noel’s AI. SO2’s AI is also affection based. I’ve had Rena not reviving someone simply cuz she doesn’t like him. SO3 is quite unique in that you’re without a mage for 80% of the game so you learn to deal with it. Then by postgame mitigation is more effective (MP switch + MP regen) and items are more effective. Sophia is much more effective as an offensive caster than a healer, plus her best heal Fairy Light has a huge delay. Adray is...... not much good with anything really.
I recall Star Ocean: Till the End of Time being one of the very first transactions I did by myself, without my parents' involvement. I really should go back and finish it. Nine year old me just didn't have the focus for a long RPG.
The game blew me away back then. All of the different skills like cooking. I remember grinding for HOURS early on in the game to get enough money to buy the pickpocket gloves. Then I would go around and rob EVERYONE, including my own party members during private actions. So fun.
Star Ocean: Second Story and Tales of Destiny both made me think turn based RPGs were dead. In the last decade or so, I've gone back and enjoyed both types of games a lot, but for many years I only wanted to play action RPGs.
Star Ocean: Second Story was my second rpg that I played, right behind final fantasy IV, and jesus do I remember spending hours into it. I still remember the first time I beat it, I got the Claude/Ashton ending because I used those two all the time. The combat style always intrigued me and kept me going, and I love the fact that in this series as a whole had a unique mechanic that, if their affection/friendship was high enough with a party member that just got KOed, they would yell out to them and get angry for a decent duration of the fight. Plus, Motoi Sakuraba's music is just so good to listen to.
Honestly Starocean 3 is my pick, great story (aside from its ending ) great characters and fantastic music. I feel like you were overly harsh on the combat system , while a bit clunky at times especially in the early game. But later when people get more moves it really hits its stride. Most people didn’t play around the party menu, you can set designated healers and combat style for the team. You do micro the other characters around a bit them around a bit but it’s to setup combos and spells to stagger enemies. But to your point I didn’t main Fayte myself I usually used Albel. His more aggressive move set was more my style and super handy for super bosses.
Kinda expected so3 to be lower because of its plot twist that affects the entire series and the fact that it had an unreasonably complicated crafting system
I remember liking the plot twist. However, you are right in that the crafting was/is complicated. I think I had to use the strategy guide to figure it out back then.
Yeah, 3 and 4 are adversive of each other, where one succeeds the other fails. Best combat? 4 Best story? 3 Strongest (imo) protagonist? 4 Worst protagonist? 3 Best IC? 4 Worst IC? 3 Only common denominator between them is that they both have a kickass post game.
I agree on all of your points, except I probably like Fayt as a character a smidge better than Edge. If you're talking about who is the better fighter? I agree, it's Edge.
@@BrockShake Character discussion for them is pretty interesting. I personally believe that Edge struggling with his mistake and coming to terms with it on Roak was super compelling. No other protagonist goes through something nearly as meaningful, nor do they change as a result of it. Fayt has VERY interesting quirks that make him unique (tough guy attitude, actually intelligent unlike most protagonists, etc) but he remains static until the end where they do the same song and dance as every other game. (And I do mean every single other game) They fight some jackass with a God complex, give a big anime speech about something relating to the core themes of that game, beat the bad man, and the story ends. The key difference imo is that Edge actually earned the right to give his speech because nobody else His idealogical conflict with Faize is exactly the kind of thing that more Star Ocean games need to try. I adore Star Ocean as a series (hell 3 is actually my favorite and first rpg ever so I definitely like Fayt) but characters almost never become anything more than simply likable or tolerable. At best you have a favorite and at worst you have....well Roger......or Lymle.....or Sarah....*shudders*
On my first playthrough, I switched to Nel as soon as I could, then Albel when Nel wasn't strong enough for that palm strike spamming. When I did play Fayt, I tried to use Air Raid and Ethereal Blast instead of actually good moves like Side Kick. On later playthroughs I did figure this out, but by that time I had also learned that the true master at annihilating enemies is Maria, because I had learned strats for quick kill BTs on Ethereal Queen. So if you just want the combat to be over faster, Maria at point blank it is.
Plenty of strong characters in 3. Cliff's hammer of might or Nel's FG just cleans everything when you get it, or almost anything you can slot on Maria. Still, if you ask any random person who playeed SO3 what they remember about the combat, I'm pretty sure you'll hear sidekick as one of the most frequent answer.
I always felt Fayt was completely broken. Maybe i didnt spend enough time with the other characters but i felt like his system was pretty darn nutty. Side kick- Dimension Door lets you evade damn near everything in the game and clears the field of small fry while dealing plenty of meaty damage to everything that isnt already dead.
I have not played First Departure or First Departure R yet (probably will after I finish CS3) but here's my ranking: 5 - SO5 - way too bereft of content, mediocre story, barely any cutscenes (a great big space battle is happening yet we only get to read text about what's going on while the view is centered on the spaceship's deck) forgettable characters aside from the drill-haired girl, and combat that devolved into screen-filling particle effects with way too much going on. 4 - SO3 - thought the combat was a bit clunky and slow paced, with terrible AI. Lots of useless party members, party members starting at level 1 when you were 60% through the game. Hated the MP death, hated the neutering of the skills and private action systems, and the game desperately needed a fast-travel. The main plot twist was strange but at least memorable. 3 - SO4 - loved the combat, and the fact there was actually some bit of planet-hopping. Expansive worlds to explore, great graphics for the time. The voice acting was horrible as well as some of the character designs, but this game gets farrrrrr too much hate. 2 - SO1 (SFC) - my intro to the series, it's got some stunning pixel art, probably the best soundtrack in the series, and laid the groundwork for a lot of the innovative systems the SO series uses. That says, it's got a bit too much backtracking and feels pretty rushed towards the end. 1 - SO2 - absolutely incredible game, probably everyone reading this comments section knows why
I'd pick Star Ocean: The Last Hope as my absolute favourite though admittedly I haven't played Second Story. SO4 was just everything I wanted in a JRPG and more.
The story makes me groan a lot of times, but I seriously enjoyed this game. It's battle system in my opinion is my favorite bar none! That being said, there's a great simplicity in The Second Story. I hope we get a Second Evolution R. I've been wanting to replay TSS but keep imagining R would come out right as I got into it. 🤣
I bought star ocean last hope a few weeks ago just to build up my 360 collection. Hopefully I’ll like it. I’ve never played any game of this series. Great video, a no nonsense 1 minute critique is refreshing. 👍
I have replayed Till The End of Time almost six times in my life and I still get that nostalgic high every time I revisit every two years or so. I bought it for the ps2 twice, downloaded it on the PS4, and with the release of First Departure for the switch, I have a good feeling they’re going to release the Star Ocean series on the switch remastered! Now, WHERE IS THE REMASTER FOR BATEN KAITOS NINTENDO!?
@@zemenerrichey1980 Oh thanks, you too! ;) did a few quests and item farms today.. about to attempt remaining alternate endings with some emotional destabilizer / love potion shenanigans. been flipping between standard completion file and universe playthrough atm.. so still got a full playthrough and more grinding ahead. I enjoy the mechanics in this game though so it's cool (very tempting to start SO4 but who knows what could happen if I don't properly 'finish' with this one first.. XD)
@@RodniDemental I got a ton done in SO4 trophies but still not even close. Not sure I'll go for that Platinum but it would definitely be impressive to have. I've heard people talk about how grinding trophies aren't worth the time and are meaningless since all you have to do is grind it out, but the ability to tolerate and actually go through with a grind a very impressive and valuable skill. The patience and discipline required are the mark of a powerful mind.
"fayt attacks are too slow, you get much better fighters" Fayt: *has the fastest running speed, side kick into Air Raid, Side Kick into Ethereal Blast, Side Kick into Side Kick into Side kick into Side kick*
Ethereal Blast is nice, but has a windup and (if I remember correctly) is only so-so if the enemy moves. Meanwhile, with bonus canceling Max Shockwave can murder things. You can turn your weak hits into strong hits (and it's fast). You can also train Cliff to do this. Not saying you're wrong. We all have preferences. Fayt is just a party member I opt not to use, possibly because you are limited to 3 in SO3.
Great video. Star Ocean the Second Story is my favorite. I agree with you about the first departure. It's an okay game but it just doesn't feel right by using the engine of the second story. I really hope they bring the second evolution remaster over to the PS4. I'd buy it immediately.
@@BrockShake Well, SO2 is my all time favorite game. First Departure has the same combat system and the game is connected to SO2. Being able to play with Claude's parents is kinda cool! The story is a bit underwhelming but still a nice prequel.
@@KiwiDimi sound logic. I do like the combat system. I also loved Ronyx. He is such a cool character. I also liked that Roddick isn't really the main character, it's just sort of from his point of view (if that makes sense?). However, I found the game to be too easy and lacks replay value. I'm sure it didn't help that I played it last in the series and probably expected it to be like the other games. Who knows. Just my opinion.
I do actually have it on PS4. I got it back when it came out, but it only mildly improved my enjoyment. I at least did all of the side quests. I still have to go back through it one day to recruit the different characters.
Whenever people tell me to name drop one of the best stories that I had ever encountered, I always made sure to talk about SO3. They'd normally be confused because they'd be expecting a novel title etc. But man SO3 really has such a great story and content, I remember when I've run out of things to do on the game and I ended up reading all the sci-fi jargon in the in-game encyclopedia.
Indeed. Game has tonsss of terms and such. Takes so long to read em all, in a good way. They put so much details into the story and world building itself to even explain each miniscule terms albeit confusing sometimes. The twist kinda hit and miss with fans, some loved it some hated it.
I think I have to agree about Second Story being the best. It had its issues but it had the best combination of characters and story with acceptable and fairly fun combat, with unique things like special attacks that evolve as you use them. The worst for me is...probably Integrity and Faithlessness. That or the Third. The Third would be one of my favorites but that twist is SO stupid and so destructive to the entire series that it sours me on the whole thing. But Integrity...I WANTED to love. Being able to use all of your characters in combat at the same time is amazing but the fact that they ripped so much straight from the Third in so far as animations go turned me off hardcore, since 3 had my least favorite attack animations for a main character of any of the games ((Bizarrely even taking into consideration the two earliest titles.)) And it just...bored me. Say what you will about 4 but I was never bored with it.
I agree 100% with your list ASIDE from the fact that till the end of time had the best story. Second story had THE best story of every star ocean entry, period imo lol
I might have misspoke, but I believe my intention was to convey that (between SO3 vs. SO4) SO3 had the better story, but SO4 had better gameplay. Just my opinion. Of course, I agree that SO2 is on top. The game had the benefit of using text, so the story could be in depth. Back then, full voice acting kind of held games back because of storage limits.
The Second Story is absolutely the best. I would love a Remaster/Remake of it in the future. Till the end of time would have to be my second favorite purely because of those story twist. 3rd would be The last hope, Then The first departure and last would be Faithlessness...
@@DragonKingZero Second Evolution Is more of a remaster than a remake. I was meaning more of a remake something like the FF7 remake but maybe not on that large of a scale, or for a better Remaster with 4k sprites/textures/music/voice acting/ect.
Second Evolution isn't a remake or a remaster, it was a PSP port with a couple of extra features. First Departure R isn't even a remaster, just a HD port.
I’m 33 now and I rented star ocean 2 roughly 3-4 times until I had beaten the game. I enjoyed just about everything about it. Practically had to beg my mother to purchase the guide so I could enjoy it more. Really had a great time watching your video and quite nostalgia feelings from it. I still in fact have my save from my first game I started. It’s very difficult for me to try and start new on it these days can’t really say I was huge fan of the others. Especially the ps2 one 🤮
Nice and concise video. Well done. You pretty much convinced me with your ranking. My ranking is quite similar. I have similar memories regarding Star Ocean 2. It was an impulse buy which I’m glad I stumbled into. Turned me into a big fan of Tri-Ace and the Star Ocean series. It definitely deserves a remaster as well.
Back when Blockbuster was the mainstay, my older brother recommended I get Star Ocean instead of whatever I had decided to rent. I was hesitant, but boy it turned me not just into a fan of the series but a fan of Tri-Ace.
Brock Shake lucky break for you. They’re such an underrated developer. For me, I was looking for the next best RPG. Was fresh off Final Fantasy VII which made me interested in the genre. I was window shopping when Star Ocean 2’s cover caught my eye. And that was that.
Well to me, 5th place is Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness (Don't like that most characters have the same attack and skills from Star Ocean Till the End of Time and sucky story which this game needs to be remade), 4th place is Star Ocean The First Departure, 3rd place is Star Ocean The Last Hope (Love the gameplay but don't like the rush mode in battle and favorite character is Reimi), 2nd Place is Star Ocean Till the End of Time (Mostly my favorite game because love the optional boss of Lenneth and Freya, the story, and best character I mostly like is Maria. Also, wish there was a part of story of finding Maria's real parents fix the battle since you can get ambush or rear attack when you are in front of them), and 1st place well of course it is Star Ocean The Second Story or Second Evolution. Hope there is Star Ocean 6 that is coming in the future that is better than Star Ocean Intergrity and Faithlessness.
Should I play the fan translation of the first game or should I play First Departure? I don't really like using fan translations, so if there's a mod for the original that injects the translation from First Departure, then I'll gladly play that version.
I 100% agree with your rankings. I was going to be arguing if 2nd story didn’t hit number 1. I have been waiting for a carbon copy remake with todays framework. Like 4s combat 2s story. Not too mention the replay ability. Not only can you play the game from two perspectives but the vast cast of characters that can only be received if and only if you do certain things. Claude, Dias, Ashton, Rena was super fun to play… but then going with Opera instead of Ashton really turned things up. Swap out Dias for Leon by starting the game as Claude and you had a completely different team with an insane amount of content. The abilities were amazing for its time. This video just made me nerd out and it’s old as F! Lol. Going to need to replay the 1st one… I saw it on the shop the other day. But agree with the rankings. Hopefully the remaster is what the first one needed.
Nice video. It is a quirky series. I am playing Second Story tight now, but it is not as good as Til the End of Time. Thanks for covering these games. Star Ocean, Suikoden and Xenosaga make up my holy trinity of underrated JRPGs.
Nice to hear positive comments on SO5, definitely agree with most of them, even if it's still my least favourite. Battle system would have been even better imo if it had SO3's fury system and less intensive special effects, by the time I was most the way through SO5 I found it really hard to see what was going on between all the light and explosions haha
I agree on the effects. You seriously can't tell which way is up once everyone gets brawling in the game. Still, I did appreciate getting to use so many characters at once instead of being limited to 3 or 4.
Yeah, a lot of folks don't like 4 and 5. I can see why. Even I'm not crazy about all of 4, but I play it all the time. I don't know why. It's probably the one I've put the most time into, even if it isn't my favorite.
@@BrockShake totally respect it. I have a few friends who have only played 4 and love it. so I know there is something there, perhaps im just biased or have some idea of what a SO game should be and it holds me back.
Did I say I hadn't beaten the game? I am pretty sure I had beaten the game (or else I wouldn't have ranked it). Are you talking about First Departure? I have beaten that one, but not the original SNES Star Ocean.
Now this is how you do a top listing without going too overdrawn on. Subscribing to your content. I haven’t been too fond of this series. I got the #5 game for switch and I agree as well but will give it a chance. Here’s to hope the #1 spot gets a switch port one day.
I'll have to heavily disagree about First departure and it's because I have beaten it multiple times to the point I broke the system. I enjoyed it mostly because of it's multiple characters that need to be unlocked during multiple playthroughs like in Second Story. This gives the game multiple endings and many private actions that flesh out the characters. Many say that it's worse version of Second Story and to some point I must agree, Second story is more grandiose. However, if you drop the expectations for FD to match SS then there's a good game behind it.
I don't understand how anyone can say SO3 has great story. That twist totally kills the whole series and breaks suspension of disbelief. Seriously. It's part of the reason SO5 was bad. Nothing matters in the games before SO3. It's all just a manipulation. A "game". Yes, the game that becomes self aware. How this is good story for anyone is beyond me. It was good in the first disc, but second was a tragedy. I like Second story best and SO4 second. 4 had some annoying characters but the call backs to previous titles and the section where youvisit earth were very memorable. Even though the story was predictable, it was enjoyable. The combat was the best in the series. I have not yet played through the first. I loathe the third as you can guess. Ruins the whole series for me. I would be so happy if it was declared non-canon.
It's not for everyone. I think the third game can be pretty divisive. I didn't mind the twist, but I can see why folks disliked it. I wonder if perhaps SO3 was intended to be the end of the series and that is why they made that decision. Of course, that gets all messed up when they keep making new Star Ocean games. My guess is that they will conveniently never mention the Eternal Sphere and 4D beings ever again.
My best pal back in the day told me the twist while I was in the middle of the game. I was so grateful! lol I put the game down and never played again. I wasn't big on it anyway, having played after SO2, but the twist made it impossible for me to continue.
Its weird people praise valkyrie profile but never experience how good SO second story'was... Also i played all final fantasy series and nothing beat SO2
Here I my own list (note: I don't dislike any Star Ocean game) Star Ocean Blue Sphere (only played GBC version) Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness Star Ocean (played SNES and psp version) Star Ocean Last Hope (only played International version) Star Ocean Til the End of Time Star Ocean the Second Story (played ps1 and psp) With Second Story being my second favorite game of all time... next to The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past.
@@BrockShake I feel it was worth waiting for an English patch, (I bought a patched repro) but overall feels more like a side story like it was meant to. Oh and if you play it there is no leveling up stats depend on skills, which I think is an I threshing take.
I just finished SO First departure in one week after puchase on PS4 (30 hours)..My rating is 5 - SO5 .... 4 - Star Ocean 3 .... 3 - Star Ocean 4 .... 2 - Star Ocean 1 ... 1 - Star Ocean 2
In my opinion Star Ocean 3 will always be my favorite Star Ocean title. It has some odd issues like the game randomly crashing, odd audio balancing during cutscenes, and even some strange no movement glitches which can be exploited to make bosses easier. Although it isnt perfect, the games story, characters, visuals at the time, and perfect music all make up for it in my opinion. I understand you said this is your opinion but I would like to point out Fayt is actually one of the better characters in Star Ocean 3 combat wise. Fayt Is very well balanced. I feel Albel and Roger are way worse then Fayt in terms of attack functionality. Thanks for the video!
You're absolutely right that Fayt is well balanced. He is (to make a goofy comparison) sort of like Mario in Mario Kart: balanced. However, depending on what you're working on, I think Fayt just barely gets nudged out. If you're going for the no-damage BTs on Galaxy mode, you absolutely want to use Fayt. But, if you're playing on 4D, I found that a party of Cliff, Maria, and Sophia made more sense. If you could use 4 party members in SO3, I think Fayt would be a logical choice, but there is a lot of competition for those 3 slots. And yes, party members like Roger absolutely suck. Haha.
So3 is my personal fav in the series. 2nd favorite story and the absolute best combat mechanics of the series, I couldn't get into So5 because they stripped the combat to bear bones instead of polishing what worked. The ai isn't terrible when lvled though the Ntsc version has trouble with some cancel combos. I'd advise getting the pal version as it doesn't have this problem.
Star Ocean: Second Story is the best in the series for a number of reasons, but Star Ocean/First Departure R is a close second and in some ways has better characters (Ratix/Roddick is far better than Claude) and down rating the game because the REMAKE is more similar to the excellent Star Ocean: Second Story is one of the most confusing things I've ever heard of. First off.. the original game exists and should be judged on its own merits. And it was a hell of a revolutionary Super Famicom title. Graphics, sound (music and voice acting), gameplay.. it stood out as something before its time. With Star Ocean: Second Story being the best in the series.. the remake of the first game really bumped it up a notch with adding virtually all of the major improvements the second game saw. As for the rest of the list.. Star Ocean: The Last Hope International is the third best, but it's pretty far off. It has pretty good combat, weird visuals, a mediocre story. Honestly, nothing after Star Ocean: Second Story has ever felt like Star Ocean. They originally felt like a sister series to Tales but eventually hurt itself in trying to find its own identity. Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is fourth, but really only because it can't possibly be worse than Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. I&F has okay visuals, a few neat gimmicks that didn't turn out too well and an okay but subpar plot. The combat is decent. The option for Japanese voice acting was a blessing. It's a solid 5 out of 10. But Till the End of Time. My god. What a heinously bad game. I'm not just talking about the horrible twist ending or the buggy, worst-in-series combat that literally saw probably half of its players never get beyond the tutorial. I'm not even talking about the cringey voice acting (that its only saving grace is it can be disabled in the menu). The story is just bad. Every single character is terrible, every shred of dialogue is horrendous and Fayt is one of the worst JRPG protagonists in the history of the genre. The game is just bad. My only hope is they remaster Star Ocean: Second Evolution and give it a modern release and maybe that will inspire them to take the series back to its roots.
I would personally be putting Last Hope last simply because compared to the other combat systems Last Hope was not very good. It felt clunky and unintuitive and the targeting system was actual garbage. I dont know how they could mess up auto targeting the closest enemy but they managed it somehow. I&F being almost a clone of Till the End of Time was a let down but not entirely a bad thing. And of course SS... It is perfect in my eyes. Have yet to find a more enjoyable RPG to this day.
Till the end of Time was a great game I just wish there were more character interactions and getting Sophia and Peppita and Mirage on disc one. You get them off way late in the game where you basically are left with 3 stages and done. Such a great game loved the uniqueness on items and synthesis.
Star Ocean last hope on xbox360 way better then star Ocean 2 in my opinion is number one and better then the playstation3 version as well. Number one - Star Ocean last hope xbox360 Number two - Star Ocean End of time.
I bought a used copy of legend of dragoon but couldn't play it because my playstation had a chip in it. My mom brought back star ocean 2 in exchange because it they were both 25 bucks. We lived outside the city and I was pretty young, and my own money, so it was big deal to me. A random mistake led to one of my favorite video games of all time
The only Star Ocean I haven't beat is 3. The combat is just to slow and frustrating for me. That said, I think the most important part of a game is the game play, followed by likable characters, presentation (cant stand not being able to see my characters in battle, and they need to have animations. visual weapons and armor go a long way too.), art style, story, and finally graphics. The best Star Ocean is Infinite Undiscovery(yes, I know it isn't part of Star Ocean) even though I pretty much hate Cappel as a character.
I never played the games after Till the End of Time, but I always wondered: Is the huge twist in SO3 ever actually addressed in any of the later games? Or do they just pretend it never happened?
I agree with your #1, and your thoughts on FD make sense. If they make it more like SO2 than SO1, well, it's harder to rank it accurately, as it isn't really the original game.
Woot! Star ocean till the end of time was my favorite. I did use fate a lot or the little purple cat girl. Also the music slaps. Not as hard as rogue Galaxy but pretty dang hard for tri ace.
Star Ocean The Last Hope would always freeze on me in the final extra dungeon. I was playing on a PS3 so I don't think the PS3 version fixed the freeze issue.
Gotta say I agree with you, I loved the second story and it was the first star ocean game I played too, I didn't really enjoy the others that much but I did really like the last hope
You're right about First Departure. That's because someone thought that it would be a great idea to remake the original game from the Super Famicom using the engine of Star Ocean 2. And the new script is complete cringe - the new "official" names are even worse. Best bet is to find the ROM of the Sfc (aka Snes) version and the English patch by DeJap to run on an emulator. I'm impressed that Star Ocean 3 is smack dab AT number three on your list. So many swear it's the best game in the series (it's really not), so seeing something that puts it in its place is wildly refreshing. And Star Ocean 2 at the top is exactly where it should be. Period. Awesome story, kickass combat, fantabulous soundtrack (EXCEPT that title screen song; "At The Crack of Dawn" is like nails on a chalkboard compared to Star Ocean 1's title screen theme "Departures"...and the First Departure/First Departure R remake ruins that with an anime intro... that has a song that doesn't even mesh well with "Departures"), and the voice acting IS cheesy, but it was still the 90s... just ask Resident Evil. 😏😏😏😏😏
I love that game. It had such an incredible charm and level of detail for its time. The characters felt more unique, too. I wish First Departure had included the original game.
TTEOT was what really got me into the star ocean series, and yeah it is quite buggy, but overall i loved the story and the characters were so colorful, almost every other game pales to me lol
When you were talking about Last Hope, you had the battle theme blasting in the background. Well that is a fantastic point of the game right there. I also loved how the classic themes are reused.
Sorry if I haven't balanced the audio very well. Still learning. I'm glad the music can bring people together. SO5 even has some good music (including the reused stuff).
I dunno man, First Departure is my favourite. There is so much to do and you can have so many different character interaction. I don't really care for the main story, because it's your typical early jrpg. I would put second evolution at 5th - so boring, it took me an year to force myself to beat it
The only good thing I could say about Star Ocean 5 was I actually liked the characters as drab as they were, I prefer them over the mostly unlikeable cast of Star Ocean 4. Overall I just believe Star Ocean 2 was the peak of the entire series with Star Ocean 3 as a very close 2nd (plot twist and all).
I only included mainline games that were officially released. Sadly, the original SO never made it to the states, so I didn't include it. While I respect fan translations, they are not official products, so, in my opinion, they don't count.
@@BrockShake I suppose, but it adds new features that the original didn't have. In particular, better voice acting. So I don't think it is a straight port at least.
I believe I read once that the game was recreated from scratch, even though it looks identical. Don't quote me. I guess that's why I consider it a port, because it looks the same. I'll admit that the voice acting is far more professional sounding, but would you think me crazy if I told you I liked having to read the dialog more? It contributed greatly to my enjoyment of the Second Story, having to read. Second Evolution kind of took away from that. I'm a believer that not every game needs full voice acting. Does that make any sense?
@@BrockShake It's a normal feeling, but I think you can turn the voice acting off. My PSP is long dead, but as a massive fan of Second Story, I remember thinking Second Departure was the better version, because the optional dungeon didn't have the ps1 crash issue, and in general it just had more in it, even if I didn't care for the new playable character. Being on the PSP was the only downside for me.
@@BrockShake Even if you consider it just a port, it isn't. Not only is it not a remaster, it's a remake. Admittedly it's a very game remake deliberately made to look as close to the original as possible, using the upgraded First Departure engine, but it is still a remake and brings with it new content. Though I'd like to see a Second Evolution R on Switch soon.
I LOVE Star Ocean the second story so I agree with your number one spot. I sunk hundreds of hours into the PSone version and played around with Gameshark on it too. However, I personally disliked The Last Hope but I played it on X360 with the disc swapping as you mentioned and hated the character acting / English voices a LOT. I also wasn't fond of Private Actions being on the ship in that game for some reason? I preferred Star Ocean characters interacting in towns. I also hated that everyone just seemed to tag along in the party no matter what if I recall correctly but Myuria and Arumat were pretty cool. Star Ocean 5 is beautiful and could of used a much better plot and it would of been saved. And yeah I also changed Fayt as my main fighter in SO3 and mainly used Nel or Albel. I'd personally go as number one being best: 1. SO2 2. SO3 3. SO1 4. SO5 and last SO4 (might of been different if I had played PS3 version).
You've ranked them rather interestingly. I don't know that the PS3 version of The Last Hope would've made any difference for you, but considering you can swap the dialog to Japanese, maybe 😊
