Albel is mine favorite character in Star Ocean. He's Ruthless and rude but at the same time he loyal to his country and will protect the people he cares for.
I LOVED albel. Played the game through 9 times( going for endings) including post game each time, and almost always brought albel. I loved that he wasn’t just a sterotypical “good guy” fighting for peace and justice, and that fact he is just a grownup angsty teen with an inferiority and superiority complex at the same time, with daddy issues. And his fighting style with the chain slashes was so smooth. Have to control him though cause his AI has brain damage
@@reginaldbanks3383 It's my least favorite Star Ocean out of the whole series. Just because it's your favorite doesn't mean it's one of the GOAT. It's meh.
Might be in the minority, but this is my favorite Star Ocean game and one of my favorite rpgs. It might be my favorite if they didn't do my girl Mirage dirty.
For my team I usually ran Fayt, Cliff, and Maria until Sophia joins. By end game Fayt, Maria, and Sophia and I usually play as Sophia because I love mages and healers. My Sophia always hits like a truck and can mp kill really quickly. Always found Adray to be redundant and slow, and wanted another character in his place 🙃🙃
Yeah, i do love the magic in these games, especially the new Star Ocean 2 Magic effects, but i always hated that 3 only had 3 person parties and focused on pure attack power instead of letting you mix and match different playstyles.
I always wish this game could get a remake with redone character balance. I wouldn't mind if the top 3 stayed as they were since at this point they're as much apart of the games identity as anything else but things like symbology being mega weak, character levels not being scaled up to where the current party is when characters rejoin, certain enemy attacks and ai and half the roster feel like they could use an update. Still love this game but it'd be nice to get those things.
I definitely agree especially about mages being weak. That has been an issue tho not just in this one but the other Star Ocean games as well. Magic users are OK at first, but eventually you get your melee fighters so OP that magic/symbology may as well be fireworks to entertain the kids while the enemies get smashed by fighters/ninjas instead. The only exception to that is using mages to cancel enemies attacks. lots of micro-managing necessary to do that tho. I have to say Divine Force I think think tried to to fix that issue.
@@danielzelpher7335 I really like how they handled Midas in DF since you can use duma to re-position yourself while casting with him. Only problem is that without item factors, a lot of his stronger spells come out to late you could've already killed most regular enemies with somebody else.
What's funny is that the version released outside of Japan already DID have a balance pass made on it. The version we got was released in Japan as the 'Director's Cut' of the game. I don't know what all got changed exactly, but I know Nel got nerfed into the ground. Anyone who could deal high amounts of MP damage in the original build of the game got slapped around, but Nel got it in particular because Flying Guillotine was pretty much a win button. Even in the Director's Cut/western release it was still a pretty good move for enemies with relatively low MP.
@@danielzelpher7335 Yeah i always hated that the magic casters were not very optimal in the first 3 Star Ocean games, especially with how cool their effects were, I think looking back i realize that Casters are really strong for people who don't min-max, because when i was a kid playing Star Ocean 2 i always had 2 casters in my party because Leon can wipe things out with Daemon Gate, but once you get into postgame its basically useless. The remake kind of fixed this, the problem with Star Ocean 2 is Bloody armor/helmet being the easy win button and in the remake its even better cus you can just throw MP drain on your melee weapons and use the Bloody helmet, where you don't really lose much from it, statwise. As far as 3 goes, i honestly hope it gets the same treatment as Star Ocean 2 R, I feel like changing party size to 4 (even if that means you need to add 25% to all the monster HP or whatever) and rebalancing all the characters(maybe not the top tier, just bring the rest up to Fayt's level)
I think you missed out on Albel’s endless attacks if you create a good weapon for him. I’m talking not stop slashes at 1% fury per, clearing anything in the main game with ease.
Maria, paired with a tri emblem and the victory trophy from the Gemity Coliseum, is my favorite combo. Her normal attacked discretion is at +3 and the freezing effect from the trophy allows you to freeze long range enemies thanks to Maria's weapon of choice. This leaves all weapon slots open for synthesis. Paired with energy burst this combo is deadly, the only flaw is energy burst will randomly freeze and unfreeze the enemies. When I was a teenager, I was using this strategy to solo Gabriel Celestie because he kept killing the AI 😅 so that imo makes Maria the best characted.
U can actually get Sophia's magic damage to 9999 and buff elemental damage by 50% (it stacks) then prioritize lowering fury cost and chain cast her explosion skill repeatedly, which has infinite range and one of the highest aoe spreads. To be honest though if you're willing to spend countless hours crafting you can make any build broken.
ehh, with a guide it's not even countless hours though. early on you can craft equipment that can get you to the end of the main storyline at which point you can start crafting truly busted gear.
Ok, Peppita is more than just a support. She is a POWERHOUSE HP/MP damage with her strong counter, Magic Hammer and Faerie Friend. Her charge could combo welll with Fayt Charge to play volleyball on Freya and loot her ass. There is a reason why Peppita, Cliff and Maria are considered the trinity of DPS for a long time. A lot of LV1 and LV10 trophies are done by her for a reason. Oh, for Maria? I got 3 words for ya, POINTBLANK SCATTER BEAM!!!! Can even DESTROY super bosses on 4D under 30 secs.
Peppita is one of the only characters in the game with a full invincibility counter just on her regular attacks , fayts side kick being second, and Albels side jump normal attack being third but you can still get hit in his. Peppita is NUTS with attack decision increase, and fireworks(look it up) with increase hp/mp damage. She can be an Mp tank with no guard into convert damage preserve Hp and her dances have Invincibility windows and are busted at high skill level especially power dance and she can heal and restore MP and inflict chaos damage. Fairy friend and dream hammer are nuts and dream hammer has an invincible setup, instanto blast has infinite range and splash damage at high skill level. I HAVE USED HER COUNTER THROUGH FREYAS ETHER STRIKE AT POINT BLANK RANGE. There’s almost nothing they DIDNT give this character it’s ridiculous. And her ai is great, if you don’t give her moves and level up her Ai it will use her counters by itself. She is by far my favorite char in this game and can be a monster at level 1 because IC is a thing and can do multiple battle trophy runs by herself.
@@cyrusstevenson880 I mean there is a reason why if you chose her, you forgo the other 3 optional characters. A Team of the trinity would break ANY superbosses. IC Cliff, Maria and Peppita ARE NUTS!!!!
@@zhaoyun255 you might as well just let those 3 auto the game. Give Maria healing, and put the controller down lmao. IC in this game let’s you run such busted setups
True story. Loved this game, especially it's post game dungeon crawling. All the way till I got to the very last super boss Freya. Kept kicking the crap out of me until I finally bothered to play as Maria. Then it was an easy win.
The only character I won Freya with is Albel. I put something on him that decreases enemies stamina - The bar that regenerates shield over time, whenever he hits a foe. I just spammed that to death never letting her use her one shot kill on me. Took me a good 30 mins probably lol.
a tierlist of this game falls short without considering the key to Peppita's strength, which is not her dances or her killer moves, but her counterattacks during normal moves. with some timing, she can become basically invincible. add HP and MP damage to her heavy and she is easily one of the top three strongest characters in the game. not as op as maria, but probably stronger than cliff.
I am surprisingly OK with the tiers. Usually everyone has his own preferences and takes, but on a generalistic view, giving some regard to character tankiness (for AI control is important), lock ability and and endgame scaling the list is pretty much on point. I would rank Peppita a bit higher due to how broken she can be if player controlled and you know how to abuse her, but that's about it.
I used to use roger albel and fayt but now albel fayt and Maria. I used to like roger I would put the extra attacks on rogers weapons and do his spin attack and it would melt people. I had to use other characters because of how it locks you into picking two. Albel I like to use his long slash you can spam it really quickly with a lower stamina use skill. Ha but honestly I've always loved samurais so really biased and I mained him
For peppita, while being an annoying character...her Roe tablet and Dream hammer is the top tier damage and she can evade almost all bosses attacks with her basic acrobatic dancing attack.. beside Maria's almost infinite Energy burst... you clearly don't know the games mechanics....
PS2 was just magical for JRPGS. FFX/X2, Kingdom Hearts 1&2, Radiata Stories, Star Ocean 3, Xenosaga, Suikoden 3, these were just some of the many stories I got to experience that really just stuck with me.
This is one of my fave games, but the cast definitely had huge gaps in strength in my eyes. I used Fayt, Cliff and Maria for most of the game. Nel was good until Maria joined. Everyone else though wasn't that impressive.
I completely disagree with Albel. If you know how to use him and build him right, he can even solo the final boss of the game. Which is what I did on hard mode too.
With Maria the question is how do you choose to cheese the game... do you combo aiming device into energy burst or do you combo magnetic field into energy burst?
Or maybe scatter beam into scatter beam, or crescent locus into gravity bullet or triple kick, or even aiming device into itself or magnetic field into itself or radiation bots my god Maria was BUSTED. There was no reason for them to make almost every move she had just the cheapest easy win buttons in the game, like she low diffs the whole game, I have soloed all super bosses with her it’s ridiculous! She’s a human, cliffs race is supposed to be the super strong people!
Ive been using Fayt, Albel and Sophia, I control Albel. It's not the ideal team, but Sophia usually stays out of the way and keep things in place for all of Albels big moves like dragon roar, and Fayt might have the best ai in the game once you turn off his symbology. The ai chains Side kick to air raid or blade of fury consistently and dimension door is great at long o.
Sophia made for a good medic when it came to her revive and healing abilities I'd arguably say better then Nel magic wise even if you get her late places like moonbase make for a good spot to level her up quick
Makes me want to replay this game. I used Fayt, Albel, and Cliff. I only didnt use Maria because I really didnt like her character but I want to try minmaxing this time
I used to play as Roger and only had Charge, raging helmet and flying torpedo on him, don't remember his equipment, but endgame bosses would'nt last long because of how I synthesized his weapon to do ridiculous HP and MP damage. Man, now I want to replay the game...
Wait, can't Roger absolutely body end game bosses with Flying Torpedo? I've seen him make mockeries of Gabriel Celeste and Ethereal Queen using that tactic alone (though it takes a long time admittedly)
Abel is probably the one I used a lot. Because of its weak attack continuous swipes I would make take MP instead of HP. As long as I break the shield bar. Would take them out in easy.
When I played this game, I loved Fayt, Cliff, and Nell. I never looked at Maria, but seeing some Speedruns and fast boss kills with her, I learned I was missing out.
First of all: I notice based on the character names in some cutscenes that you've used clips from omegaevolution's gameplay footage, and from stew904's battle skills exhibition. I assume there's more in here being used without proper credit. Next time, consider bothering to produce your own footage. MeykTaruka appears to have taken the footage for you without proper attribution; not sure why you're thanking 'em when they've done you a disservice. Second: Your discussions of each character showcase some... pretty unusual commentary. • Roger isn't a stunlocking character. You've got Cliff's Fists of Fury, Sophia's Thunder Flare chains, and Maria's Scatter Beam or Energy Burst as top tier picks for that. Roger is generally considered bad, though his short minor, Charge chains, and Bug Triad are all quite decent. Some skills that could give him ranged options like Shield and Cannon have way too high CP costs to use effectively, and he's got far too many elemental skills or skills with heavy delays (though Flying Torpedo's grab effect has some uses on enemies). His best stunlocking skill might be his short minor which hits twice and is by no means good for the job. Roger actually does have a very specific use though: he's by far the fastest item user in the entire game, which makes him a potential top tier support pick if you're making heavy use of Stun Bombs or Roe Tablets. • Adray is bad due to rather iffy battle skills and a lack of armor options. It's worth noting that he casts all healing spells faster than Sophia naturally does though, but this isn't generally worthwhile as you mentioned. • Mirage isn't awful compared to Cliff. The only things she loses out on are Cliff's main stunlocking tool, Fists of Fury, and his postgame Max Shockwave. Mirage's elemental postgame skills are a disappointment, but she still has access to fairly strong options like Hammer of Might for fire susceptible enemies, Aerial Assault, Infinity Kick, and also (as Maria's teacher) brings Crescent Locus and Triple Kick. Maria and Mirage together can do some impressive Triple Kick juggling. Mirage has considerably better balanced defensive stats, making her less susceptible to MP kills, and she has very effective normal minor and major skills much like Cliff. Cliff is already considered quite good even if you're not using him for stunlocking, after all. • "Peppita is a lesser Sophia with short ranged attacks" is the sort of commentary I'd expect from someone who's never played Peppita or Sophia. Peppita's dances have some niche uses if you build up proficiency, with Power Dance being by far the most immediately potent of them, but her real benefits put her squarely as top tier material if you play as her. Her AI doesn't handle her well and doesn't know how to make use of her best chains, but Instanto Blast chains, Charge -> Kaboom are both insanely good and carry chances to instant kill at high proficiency, and her short minor and major counterattacks that give her full invulnerability, add MP damage, and can inflict Chaos on enemies allow her to do stuff like dodge boss attacks like Insanity Prelude. And then there's Dream Hammer, which is arguably the best battle skill in the entire game as it has very low fury costs with the right equipment and allows you to use Roe Tablets while she's attacking, giving you a whopping 30 seconds of nonstop offense. She's every bit as insanely good as Maria is, albeit for entirely different reasons. • Sophia's AI is far better than Albel or Nel, and her stunlocking doesn't risk triggering AAA counters. Why she's considered equal in terms of utility to Albel and Nel in this ranking I don't understand. The complaint about having to level her is fairly minor given that Moonbase, the first place you can use her, hands out an insane amount of EXP. Her damage tends to suck due to Symbology getting the short end of the stick in terms of how attacks scale, but her attack range and stunlocking are unsurpassed, and Thunder Flare or Explosion chains are about as good as it can get with long ranged stunlocking. • You complain about how "Nel doesn't scale" in the endgame but you don't actually get into specifics about this. It's worth a mention why she's generally considered a liability. Mainly, she has the highest stagger time out of the entire cast, so it takes her longer to recover whenever she's hit and is the most susceptible to stunlocking. Otherwise, she's solidly mid tier as you state, and has some decent battle skills if you're controlling her. She doesn't fare well under AI control though (a problem many of the characters share), which Cliff/Maria/Sophia do, another reason they're often considered very useful.
Well... this tier list could have been better, which has me scratching my head because we've had this game figured out for many years now. Honestly your game knowledge came off pretty lacking, no offense. For example, Dimension Door and Air Raid are not top tier skills, they're useful for specific strategies that usually aren't optimal. And you didn't even mention one of his best skills that can hard carry you for half the game, Side Kick (i-frames + good stunlocking). You didn't talk about Peppita's counters, which is what makes her top tier outside of power dance. Maria doesn't have the highest damage throughout the entire game, she is actually weaker than the likes of Albel and Roger when you first get her. You talk about tanking multiple times when that's really not a thing in this game, especially in 4D difficulty. I could go on, but instead here's a more accurate tier list. The middle of the pack is debatable (the only thing differentiating B from C is early/mid game usefulness imo), though the top 3 and bottom 2 are pretty much set in stone. S: Maria, Cliff A: Peppita (arguably S, I'm just not a fan) B: Fayt, Nel C: Sophia (A in postgame), Albel, Mirage F: Roger, Adray
Fayt and Maria are definitely best character but Maria is such a the top best character along with Reimi in the star ocean series. I do love Peppita like her moves is definitely good because she does have invincible dancing move but gotta use it the perfect timing because Lenneth and Freya can definitely destroy her dancing. The problem of I have with Fayt is he's kind of a slow combat but he running speed is a god tier like damn but Freya can definitely still hit him from far range. Love Nel since her move of Mirror Slice and Divine Wrath are such a badass move. Sophia is good like I mostly play as her like Fayt, Maria, Peppita, and Nel but her AI along with some of them definitely wish they were better and wish they add more spells for the symbologist character like SO2 like they removed few many spells and elements.
Loved this game so much until I remembered the last parts of it which explains why I haven't bothered replaying. But I guess I'll be doing that since this video gave me the necessary nostalgia dose.
I'm usually skeptical about re-releases and remakes, but this I think is a good candidate for a remaster/re-release. Especially since Lost Hope is available on Steam and all.
Nel is usually everyone’s (who write their own guides) S-Tier character since she’s pretty broken once you go from mostly taking HP Damage and start using the Skill to convert it into MP Damage…and if you know what you’re doing, like you would with Maria, her later skills (and some of her earlier ones) can SHRED ENEMY MP and make most bosses and Post-Game Dungeon enemies a total joke. Her/Sophia, Maria, and Cliff/Fayt are unstoppable as a team once you start playing with MP Damage as your priority
Albel is deff top tier, decent ranged attacks skills, even in his light attacks with a multi hit ability that closes the distance and knocks most enemies into the air if you distance him correctly. With a good weapon you can chain his Light attack stun almost endlessly far surpassing what even Cliff can do. His hand of doom is also insane burst damage in addition to a crazy MP drain. My end game party usually was Albel (main), Sophia and Fayte. Although on some replays I swap Marie in for Sophia.
funny how years ago this was my team and i never made it far. if i recall with that dowsing thing u can do with investing money i got like a really good gauntlet for cliff and he was just a beast.
One of my favourite games. Just started playing on it on my ps4. I still have the ps2 disc version with my memory card saves. Be great for a remake with added extras in this game rather than these new ones they making. Unless they make something bigger and better.
Oof... Star Ocean 3 instead of 2 lol Since you're putting the character's AI into account, I can see why Peppita ranked so low. However, if you take control of her, she's actually one of the best fighters in the game not because of her skills, but because some of her attack animations have invincibility frames. Paired with her attacks holding magic fireballs or ice balls as counters every time she "dodges" while dancing in this animation, and you have yourself an character you can't be killed while the enemies, even bosses, slowly kill themselves trying to hit her
My personal tier list would be (Broken : Manuel, Sh*t: Auto). The star ocean games feature speed, stunlocks, control in combat over everything else. I can't fathom thinking about defense when characters like cliff can die to MP loss. I think you should maybe try doing post game tier lists, due to how so many characters get an undeniable power boost. I personally would lower fayt and put peppita and sophia higher but then again juggling a boss from 100% to 0 in manual is a thing.
You also forgot to mentions fayts Sheer tanking ability with max range O input since you're invincible (except to symbology, but you won't get stun locked) until his sword actually changed position
Or level up stun on his short x repeated slashes. It’s nuts. Yes, leveling up stun is a timesink but when you put multi attack decisions and fireworks on his weapon while all his hits stun lock, he’s a monster
The biggest issue with Star Ocean 3's plot twist was not the actual plot twist itself but rather their unwillingness to expand upon it in future installments of the series. It has so much potential, but they refuse to do anything with it.
The only jrpg to this very day besides tales of the abyss, that I've done multiple playthroughs on. I might have to start another playthrough, and main peppita since she's the last character i haven't really played with. 😅 I really hope the new star ocean game is good, i didn't really like the last 2 that came out. 4 was missing alot of staples in star ocean like multiple endings, and i just comparing 5 to 3 but a little worse with the battle system. Loved the characters though, and at least the way 5 let's you customize your party members was pretty good.
The funny thing is, I used Roger And Adray a lot and used them at post game against Lenneth and Luther & Fayt lol. They are not poop tier, its how you use them and I make use of everyone even in post game. Peppita was one of my top favs including Mirage and Albel. Heck, I love all the characters
This was my favorite game and i have to agree with this tier list. However I also think mirage is top tier with her blazing cannon which does insane damage.
Nel is best. I am not sure why that is even up for debate. Don't ask me why I say that, pretty sure it is apparent. Seriously tho use her as your primary and see the ass get kicked. Edit: gotta say I do agree with your opinion on Cliff, he is legit based and also his sense of humor is top notch, always loved him. "The whips on this planet hurt too" XD
Maria is a MUST. Fayt's Sidekick is just a useful build up skill. I always chose Nel over Mirage and Cliff simply for preference in style. And one character I wish could have been recruitable is Clair: Adray is amusing, but aside from a one liner of comic relief - never really contributed much story wise. Though my younger weeabo would have had Clair simply because she was my bae - even though she only showed up for so little time.
"Peppita is a lesser Sophia" Have... have you ever tried playing Peppita seriously? She's quite literally the best character in the game, even better than Maria is under the right setup. When played by a human, her two fully invulnerable counters are insanely powerful and work against everything, including bonus bosses, she gets two battle skills that get instant kill properties (Kaboom and Instanto Blast), she has an abusable long range attack (Instanto Blast) and the single best skill in the game in Dream Hammer which combines with Roe Tablets for unheard of abuse to tear through even 4D Freya if you want. She also has tons of MP meaning convert damage to turn her into an MP tank is an amazingly good strat. Her dances aren't even the best parts of her moveset. Panic Dance is highly situational, Healing and Magical Dance are inferior to healing symbology, regeneration symbols or items, and Power Dance eventually loses steam when you're near the attack cap. It's very strong early on and as cancel fodder in the PAL version where it instant cancels, but her moveset is still rock solid even without Power Dance. Her AI sucks so you need to main her to work properly for the most part, but that's fine. Peppita doesn't even have symbology naturally except as a bonus boss in the post game where she has Dark Sphere. None of her abilities overlap with Sophia's.
Funny once I got Maria saw her style and try her a litle my first reaction was "OK She's busted, that waifu is not getting off my party" XD. Admitadly that game ended up being a let down to me (I like the first third, really loved the second third but absolutly hated the last third that plot twist was dumb as fuck to me) so I never bother with the post-game, but yeah I noticed fast that Cliff and Maria were the MVPs here, I'll add for Cliff that he also has the benefit to be the second character that is the most present during your playthrough (second only to Fayt).
Yeah she's crazy. I personally don't really like Star Ocean. Every title i've played has ultimately been a let down. Star Ocean V may be one of the worst JRPGs I've ever beaten (in my humble opinion.)
@@locloudanerpg OH Don't worry for Star Ocean V it's not just your opinion Star Ocean V is notorious to be one of the biggest let down ever, it clearly show a lack of Budget and Rush development, in fact it was so bad that everyone thought the series would never come back after it, thankfully we were wrong and the next Star Ocean game to come called Divined Force so far looks much MUCH better. As far as the rest of the series goes I loved Star Ocean 2, one of my favorite JRPG ever plain and simply, Star Ocean 4 has the best gameplay of the franchise IMO the game is incredibly fun to play and I never got tired of it which to me makes up for the lackluster story, haven't played the first one yet.
@@nesoukkefka1741 I agree with SO2 being the best, followed by SO1. I'll admit that the plot twist of SO3 really made me hate the series there on, felt pointless. I even was liking SO3 up until the plot twist. :/
@@AkaiAzul Honnestly I feel the same like SO3, like a really the all part before the plot twist was really epic with a sense of urgency never reach in the series before, I was truly thinking during that part that the game was on to become my favorite game of the series.... and then the plot twist happened and I was so disappointed, my biggest disappointment with the plot twist is it could still have work if they had crafted a truly unique story with it and there was so much room for it, but instead they went with the same old time cliche of God is an asshole let's go kill him, cause that's truly all the villain of SO3 is just an asshole god to kill with no other personnality, what was the point of ruining the entire series just to do nothing fresh with it.
I LOVE SO3. It was my intro to the series and even in spite of its flaws I still find it to be a great game. I mostly agree with this list too. I have played through this many times, I always control Maria at the end. She isn't just the best fighter, she is the best character imo. Fayt was always on the team as well. The last spot changes. Sometimes Cliff, sometimes Peppita, sometimes Sophia. This is a game I would love to see a remake for. Not an FF7 style remake but a true one with some improvements. Fix the item creation, everyone who has played this game knows what I am talking about. Rebalance the characters, I don't want to see the strong ones nerfed but rather the weaker ones buffed and made more viable. And balance the enemies around that. Also make MP killing a viable strat, it was a good idea but the MP values in endgame started outpacing the MP damage compared to hp by a really large margin. And finally address the twist. Don't get rid of it. Its not a bad thing. Its implementation was bad. There was no real exploration of the consequences or of the characters feelings on the matter. If you talked to them in town after you could get some thoughts on it but that really isn't enough. Nor did it do a very good job of exploring the main trio's (as late as she comes into the game for real, Sophia is still part of the main trio due to story reasons) feelings on what was done to them. The game basically just said "here is the plot twist, now get on the bullet train to the end of the story". Unless you side tracked for mini games and the like. The twist can work, if done properly. Also address the ending, A much better and more logical solution as to why they survived would be Blair managing to back up the Eternal Sphere simulation before it got deleted. Gives her a better role and makes a hell of a lot more sense than what we did get lol. Doesn't necessarily have to be that, just something that actually makes sense. Oh and keep a similar art style. Though do fix some of the body proportions. Seriously, I was playing through one time and saw Sophia at the very start of the game and noticed her neck is way to long and thin for the size of her head. And now I can never unsee that. And for anyone planning to play through this game again and hadn't noticed that, have fun with that lol.
You are wrong. Ai in this game is very well done and it is one of the few jrpgs that let you level them up. At max ai level, they are basically unstoppable.
The fact that you think Star Ocean 3 has AI is why you think it’s crap. It’s just an archaic algorithm that operates on yes, if, and, or, no commands in a logic chain. I did love your tier list and ranking though. It felt very accurate
Very great tier list. Even if roger ist at the lowest place, he also is crazy with his reging helmet. This games battle system and skills are so unique like no other game ever.
Adray can cast spells MUCH faster than Sophia. His weapons don't give magic stats up which will make him a better healing/support and he can't equip stronger spells in quick slots (x&o) unlike sophia. Sophia for DMG and healing.
Adray got done SO dirty. He’s “the best swordsman in all of aquaria” with NO SWORD SKILLS. He’s built like a pro wrestler with horrendous defense stats and no armor upgrades past halfway through the game. Most of his skills are unsafe and leave him vulnerable or are elemental so things absorb his damage or half it, the best dps he has is just aerial chains at point blank range with no guard, and you have to control him for that, and dear god his AI smokes crack, because if you don’t have his numbers very specific for attack or defense he will either stand COMPLETELY STILL the entire fight and get murdered or just run away and backstep the whole fight. He has such a cool design too….
![Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time - Review [Is this the best in the series?] (PS2, PS4)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dIn0GvBTZAU/mqdefault.jpg)
Albel is mine favorite character in Star Ocean. He's Ruthless and rude but at the same time he loyal to his country and will protect the people he cares for.
I LOVED albel. Played the game through 9 times( going for endings) including post game each time, and almost always brought albel. I loved that he wasn’t just a sterotypical “good guy” fighting for peace and justice, and that fact he is just a grownup angsty teen with an inferiority and superiority complex at the same time, with daddy issues. And his fighting style with the chain slashes was so smooth. Have to control him though cause his AI has brain damage
@@cyrusstevenson880 albel is 24
@@kefkarothsephka7708 I did say he was a GROWN UP angst teen
Respect for doing a tier list of a game this old.
Thanks!
I mean this is one of the greatest games of all time and my all time personal favorite
@@reginaldbanks3383I agree bro, this is my favorite and the best Star Ocean of the series
@@reginaldbanks3383 It's my least favorite Star Ocean out of the whole series.
Just because it's your favorite doesn't mean it's one of the GOAT. It's meh.
Might be in the minority, but this is my favorite Star Ocean game and one of my favorite rpgs. It might be my favorite if they didn't do my girl Mirage dirty.
Fayt Cliff and Maria were my team till the end. Even as I kid I just felt they were so useful compared to the others.
For my team I usually ran Fayt, Cliff, and Maria until Sophia joins. By end game Fayt, Maria, and Sophia and I usually play as Sophia because I love mages and healers. My Sophia always hits like a truck and can mp kill really quickly. Always found Adray to be redundant and slow, and wanted another character in his place 🙃🙃
Yeah, i do love the magic in these games, especially the new Star Ocean 2 Magic effects, but i always hated that 3 only had 3 person parties and focused on pure attack power instead of letting you mix and match different playstyles.
I wish Clair had been an option instead of Adray.
Maria is a goddess. Aiming Device and Energy Burst together are a great combination.
All I remember about this game was “blade of fury.” I got lost in the mines.
This was a tough one to get through for me. The difficulty spikes are insane...
@@locloudanerpg oh man are they ever. I never did finish the game, it kinda lost steam for me. And those difficulty spikes contributed.
It's the worst dungeon In the game. Lol and this game along with most if the series has terrible dungeons.
Anyone who has played this game knows for certain that you played this game from those 2 sentences alone.
I remember HAMMER OF MIGHT HAMMER OF MIGHT HAMMER OF UUUAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHH (Cliff dies by running out of MP)
Diaz was my favorite character back in Star Ocean 2 , so Albel became my main in SO3
Just got done playing through SO3 gor the first time since it came out. I enjoyed it just as much this time through
I always wish this game could get a remake with redone character balance. I wouldn't mind if the top 3 stayed as they were since at this point they're as much apart of the games identity as anything else but things like symbology being mega weak, character levels not being scaled up to where the current party is when characters rejoin, certain enemy attacks and ai and half the roster feel like they could use an update. Still love this game but it'd be nice to get those things.
I definitely agree especially about mages being weak. That has been an issue tho not just in this one but the other Star Ocean games as well. Magic users are OK at first, but eventually you get your melee fighters so OP that magic/symbology may as well be fireworks to entertain the kids while the enemies get smashed by fighters/ninjas instead. The only exception to that is using mages to cancel enemies attacks. lots of micro-managing necessary to do that tho. I have to say Divine Force I think think tried to to fix that issue.
@@danielzelpher7335 I really like how they handled Midas in DF since you can use duma to re-position yourself while casting with him. Only problem is that without item factors, a lot of his stronger spells come out to late you could've already killed most regular enemies with somebody else.
What's funny is that the version released outside of Japan already DID have a balance pass made on it. The version we got was released in Japan as the 'Director's Cut' of the game.
I don't know what all got changed exactly, but I know Nel got nerfed into the ground. Anyone who could deal high amounts of MP damage in the original build of the game got slapped around, but Nel got it in particular because Flying Guillotine was pretty much a win button. Even in the Director's Cut/western release it was still a pretty good move for enemies with relatively low MP.
@@danielzelpher7335 Yeah i always hated that the magic casters were not very optimal in the first 3 Star Ocean games, especially with how cool their effects were, I think looking back i realize that Casters are really strong for people who don't min-max, because when i was a kid playing Star Ocean 2 i always had 2 casters in my party because Leon can wipe things out with Daemon Gate, but once you get into postgame its basically useless. The remake kind of fixed this, the problem with Star Ocean 2 is Bloody armor/helmet being the easy win button and in the remake its even better cus you can just throw MP drain on your melee weapons and use the Bloody helmet, where you don't really lose much from it, statwise. As far as 3 goes, i honestly hope it gets the same treatment as Star Ocean 2 R, I feel like changing party size to 4 (even if that means you need to add 25% to all the monster HP or whatever) and rebalancing all the characters(maybe not the top tier, just bring the rest up to Fayt's level)
Somehow, Roger was the character that got me my "Not hit" run on the fairy boss. Did not expect them to have mp that low.
I think you missed out on Albel’s endless attacks if you create a good weapon for him. I’m talking not stop slashes at 1% fury per, clearing anything in the main game with ease.
Yeah this strategy was the only thing that made me kill Freya. Lmao.
Albel max stun on short x and o with max hit decision increase and maybe fireworks, Sophia and adray thunder flare. RIP ethereal queen.
He also didn't mention his MP hits.
Agree mid to high tier
Maria, paired with a tri emblem and the victory trophy from the Gemity Coliseum, is my favorite combo. Her normal attacked discretion is at +3 and the freezing effect from the trophy allows you to freeze long range enemies thanks to Maria's weapon of choice. This leaves all weapon slots open for synthesis.
Paired with energy burst this combo is deadly, the only flaw is energy burst will randomly freeze and unfreeze the enemies.
When I was a teenager, I was using this strategy to solo Gabriel Celestie because he kept killing the AI 😅 so that imo makes Maria the best characted.
I would still sacrifice Cliff in order to use Sophia because I want to have the Destruction - Alteration - Connection trio
U can actually get Sophia's magic damage to 9999 and buff elemental damage by 50% (it stacks) then prioritize lowering fury cost and chain cast her explosion skill repeatedly, which has infinite range and one of the highest aoe spreads. To be honest though if you're willing to spend countless hours crafting you can make any build broken.
ehh, with a guide it's not even countless hours though. early on you can craft equipment that can get you to the end of the main storyline at which point you can start crafting truly busted gear.
Sophia can be also quite tanky with damage conversion to mp (and some mp regen) and extra mp from fruits.
Ok, Peppita is more than just a support. She is a POWERHOUSE HP/MP damage with her strong counter, Magic Hammer and Faerie Friend. Her charge could combo welll with Fayt Charge to play volleyball on Freya and loot her ass. There is a reason why Peppita, Cliff and Maria are considered the trinity of DPS for a long time. A lot of LV1 and LV10 trophies are done by her for a reason.
Oh, for Maria? I got 3 words for ya, POINTBLANK SCATTER BEAM!!!! Can even DESTROY super bosses on 4D under 30 secs.
Peppita is one of the only characters in the game with a full invincibility counter just on her regular attacks , fayts side kick being second, and Albels side jump normal attack being third but you can still get hit in his. Peppita is NUTS with attack decision increase, and fireworks(look it up) with increase hp/mp damage. She can be an Mp tank with no guard into convert damage preserve Hp and her dances have Invincibility windows and are busted at high skill level especially power dance and she can heal and restore MP and inflict chaos damage. Fairy friend and dream hammer are nuts and dream hammer has an invincible setup, instanto blast has infinite range and splash damage at high skill level. I HAVE USED HER COUNTER THROUGH FREYAS ETHER STRIKE AT POINT BLANK RANGE. There’s almost nothing they DIDNT give this character it’s ridiculous. And her ai is great, if you don’t give her moves and level up her Ai it will use her counters by itself. She is by far my favorite char in this game and can be a monster at level 1 because IC is a thing and can do multiple battle trophy runs by herself.
@@cyrusstevenson880 I mean there is a reason why if you chose her, you forgo the other 3 optional characters. A Team of the trinity would break ANY superbosses. IC Cliff, Maria and Peppita ARE NUTS!!!!
@@zhaoyun255 you might as well just let those 3 auto the game. Give Maria healing, and put the controller down lmao. IC in this game let’s you run such busted setups
Also giving cliff extra hits and spamming X point blank will always be funny
True story. Loved this game, especially it's post game dungeon crawling. All the way till I got to the very last super boss Freya. Kept kicking the crap out of me until I finally bothered to play as Maria. Then it was an easy win.
Haha yup.
The only character I won Freya with is Albel. I put something on him that decreases enemies stamina - The bar that regenerates shield over time, whenever he hits a foe. I just spammed that to death never letting her use her one shot kill on me. Took me a good 30 mins probably lol.
@@yaboilascall almost everything freya did on anything above galaxy WAS a one shot kill lol
Get Maria, level up scatter beam, end of game. Get energy burst, end of postgame.
@@yaboilascall so you didnt know you can break the game with Meria and her mulit shot blast
Peppita can be strong and her buffs are pretty decent,but there is no denying that Maria is God Tier.
Also Cliff and Fayt are at the right place.
Fayt cliff and Maria with occasional Sophia sub in is basically all you need to run the game
a tierlist of this game falls short without considering the key to Peppita's strength, which is not her dances or her killer moves, but her counterattacks during normal moves.
with some timing, she can become basically invincible. add HP and MP damage to her heavy and she is easily one of the top three strongest characters in the game. not as op as maria, but probably stronger than cliff.
Peppita is better if you control her, her counter is great. My party was Peppita, and Maria and Fayt on AI.
I am surprisingly OK with the tiers. Usually everyone has his own preferences and takes, but on a generalistic view, giving some regard to character tankiness (for AI control is important), lock ability and and endgame scaling the list is pretty much on point. I would rank Peppita a bit higher due to how broken she can be if player controlled and you know how to abuse her, but that's about it.
I used to use roger albel and fayt but now albel fayt and Maria. I used to like roger I would put the extra attacks on rogers weapons and do his spin attack and it would melt people. I had to use other characters because of how it locks you into picking two. Albel I like to use his long slash you can spam it really quickly with a lower stamina use skill. Ha but honestly I've always loved samurais so really biased and I mained him
My party was Maria, Sophia, and Fayt. The three chosen for story purposes
For peppita, while being an annoying character...her Roe tablet and Dream hammer is the top tier damage and she can evade almost all bosses attacks with her basic acrobatic dancing attack.. beside Maria's almost infinite Energy burst... you clearly don't know the games mechanics....
Maria and Opera having that Energy Burst type skill alone make them so OP
PS2 was just magical for JRPGS. FFX/X2, Kingdom Hearts 1&2, Radiata Stories, Star Ocean 3, Xenosaga, Suikoden 3, these were just some of the many stories I got to experience that really just stuck with me.
Make sure you check out my "Beat every PS2 RPG series" I just started. I posted my Grandia 3 video and am working on Stella Deus next!
Ty for covering star ocean 3. I love this game!
Also Adray casting speed is way faster they Sophia so he can pulling off spells faster than she can
This is one of my fave games, but the cast definitely had huge gaps in strength in my eyes.
I used Fayt, Cliff and Maria for most of the game. Nel was good until Maria joined. Everyone else though wasn't that impressive.
I completely disagree with Albel. If you know how to use him and build him right, he can even solo the final boss of the game. Which is what I did on hard mode too.
With Maria the question is how do you choose to cheese the game... do you combo aiming device into energy burst or do you combo magnetic field into energy burst?
Choices choices choices
Or maybe scatter beam into scatter beam, or crescent locus into gravity bullet or triple kick, or even aiming device into itself or magnetic field into itself or radiation bots my god Maria was BUSTED. There was no reason for them to make almost every move she had just the cheapest easy win buttons in the game, like she low diffs the whole game, I have soloed all super bosses with her it’s ridiculous! She’s a human, cliffs race is supposed to be the super strong people!
I'm currently replaying this game!
My favorite in the series!
Ive been using Fayt, Albel and Sophia, I control Albel. It's not the ideal team, but Sophia usually stays out of the way and keep things in place for all of Albels big moves like dragon roar, and Fayt might have the best ai in the game once you turn off his symbology. The ai chains Side kick to air raid or blade of fury consistently and dimension door is great at long o.
Sophia made for a good medic when it came to her revive and healing abilities I'd arguably say better then Nel magic wise even if you get her late places like moonbase make for a good spot to level her up quick
I said the same especially end game and post game wise sopiha became a must
@@glezard212 absolutely
Makes me want to replay this game. I used Fayt, Albel, and Cliff. I only didnt use Maria because I really didnt like her character but I want to try minmaxing this time
I'll be doing my own play through shortly as well.
I used to play as Roger and only had Charge, raging helmet and flying torpedo on him, don't remember his equipment, but endgame bosses would'nt last long because of how I synthesized his weapon to do ridiculous HP and MP damage. Man, now I want to replay the game...
Wait, can't Roger absolutely body end game bosses with Flying Torpedo? I've seen him make mockeries of Gabriel Celeste and Ethereal Queen using that tactic alone (though it takes a long time admittedly)
Abel is probably the one I used a lot. Because of its weak attack continuous swipes I would make take MP instead of HP. As long as I break the shield bar. Would take them out in easy.
When I played this game, I loved Fayt, Cliff, and Nell. I never looked at Maria, but seeing some Speedruns and fast boss kills with her, I learned I was missing out.
Hmmm i suppose. My team was Nel Maria and Sophia. I mained Nel as soon as i got her. I struggled a bit late game but was doable 🤔
God I used to play the hell out of this game…
First of all: I notice based on the character names in some cutscenes that you've used clips from omegaevolution's gameplay footage, and from stew904's battle skills exhibition. I assume there's more in here being used without proper credit. Next time, consider bothering to produce your own footage. MeykTaruka appears to have taken the footage for you without proper attribution; not sure why you're thanking 'em when they've done you a disservice.
Second: Your discussions of each character showcase some... pretty unusual commentary.
• Roger isn't a stunlocking character. You've got Cliff's Fists of Fury, Sophia's Thunder Flare chains, and Maria's Scatter Beam or Energy Burst as top tier picks for that. Roger is generally considered bad, though his short minor, Charge chains, and Bug Triad are all quite decent. Some skills that could give him ranged options like Shield and Cannon have way too high CP costs to use effectively, and he's got far too many elemental skills or skills with heavy delays (though Flying Torpedo's grab effect has some uses on enemies). His best stunlocking skill might be his short minor which hits twice and is by no means good for the job. Roger actually does have a very specific use though: he's by far the fastest item user in the entire game, which makes him a potential top tier support pick if you're making heavy use of Stun Bombs or Roe Tablets.
• Adray is bad due to rather iffy battle skills and a lack of armor options. It's worth noting that he casts all healing spells faster than Sophia naturally does though, but this isn't generally worthwhile as you mentioned.
• Mirage isn't awful compared to Cliff. The only things she loses out on are Cliff's main stunlocking tool, Fists of Fury, and his postgame Max Shockwave. Mirage's elemental postgame skills are a disappointment, but she still has access to fairly strong options like Hammer of Might for fire susceptible enemies, Aerial Assault, Infinity Kick, and also (as Maria's teacher) brings Crescent Locus and Triple Kick. Maria and Mirage together can do some impressive Triple Kick juggling. Mirage has considerably better balanced defensive stats, making her less susceptible to MP kills, and she has very effective normal minor and major skills much like Cliff. Cliff is already considered quite good even if you're not using him for stunlocking, after all.
• "Peppita is a lesser Sophia with short ranged attacks" is the sort of commentary I'd expect from someone who's never played Peppita or Sophia. Peppita's dances have some niche uses if you build up proficiency, with Power Dance being by far the most immediately potent of them, but her real benefits put her squarely as top tier material if you play as her. Her AI doesn't handle her well and doesn't know how to make use of her best chains, but Instanto Blast chains, Charge -> Kaboom are both insanely good and carry chances to instant kill at high proficiency, and her short minor and major counterattacks that give her full invulnerability, add MP damage, and can inflict Chaos on enemies allow her to do stuff like dodge boss attacks like Insanity Prelude. And then there's Dream Hammer, which is arguably the best battle skill in the entire game as it has very low fury costs with the right equipment and allows you to use Roe Tablets while she's attacking, giving you a whopping 30 seconds of nonstop offense. She's every bit as insanely good as Maria is, albeit for entirely different reasons.
• Sophia's AI is far better than Albel or Nel, and her stunlocking doesn't risk triggering AAA counters. Why she's considered equal in terms of utility to Albel and Nel in this ranking I don't understand. The complaint about having to level her is fairly minor given that Moonbase, the first place you can use her, hands out an insane amount of EXP. Her damage tends to suck due to Symbology getting the short end of the stick in terms of how attacks scale, but her attack range and stunlocking are unsurpassed, and Thunder Flare or Explosion chains are about as good as it can get with long ranged stunlocking.
• You complain about how "Nel doesn't scale" in the endgame but you don't actually get into specifics about this. It's worth a mention why she's generally considered a liability. Mainly, she has the highest stagger time out of the entire cast, so it takes her longer to recover whenever she's hit and is the most susceptible to stunlocking. Otherwise, she's solidly mid tier as you state, and has some decent battle skills if you're controlling her. She doesn't fare well under AI control though (a problem many of the characters share), which Cliff/Maria/Sophia do, another reason they're often considered very useful.
Well... this tier list could have been better, which has me scratching my head because we've had this game figured out for many years now. Honestly your game knowledge came off pretty lacking, no offense. For example, Dimension Door and Air Raid are not top tier skills, they're useful for specific strategies that usually aren't optimal. And you didn't even mention one of his best skills that can hard carry you for half the game, Side Kick (i-frames + good stunlocking). You didn't talk about Peppita's counters, which is what makes her top tier outside of power dance. Maria doesn't have the highest damage throughout the entire game, she is actually weaker than the likes of Albel and Roger when you first get her. You talk about tanking multiple times when that's really not a thing in this game, especially in 4D difficulty.
I could go on, but instead here's a more accurate tier list. The middle of the pack is debatable (the only thing differentiating B from C is early/mid game usefulness imo), though the top 3 and bottom 2 are pretty much set in stone.
S: Maria, Cliff
A: Peppita (arguably S, I'm just not a fan)
B: Fayt, Nel
C: Sophia (A in postgame), Albel, Mirage
F: Roger, Adray
Yeah, I agree with that. Not much else to say
Fayt and Maria are definitely best character but Maria is such a the top best character along with Reimi in the star ocean series. I do love Peppita like her moves is definitely good because she does have invincible dancing move but gotta use it the perfect timing because Lenneth and Freya can definitely destroy her dancing. The problem of I have with Fayt is he's kind of a slow combat but he running speed is a god tier like damn but Freya can definitely still hit him from far range. Love Nel since her move of Mirror Slice and Divine Wrath are such a badass move. Sophia is good like I mostly play as her like Fayt, Maria, Peppita, and Nel but her AI along with some of them definitely wish they were better and wish they add more spells for the symbologist character like SO2 like they removed few many spells and elements.
Good list, only thing I would change fayt to god tier. His post game skills invalidat any challenge the game could ever have, even on 4d
Loved this game so much until I remembered the last parts of it which explains why I haven't bothered replaying. But I guess I'll be doing that since this video gave me the necessary nostalgia dose.
That’s why we’re here!
Roger exists, but i still like him.
Peppita should be a lot higher but otherwise decent list. You're 100% right about Maria and Cliff.
I'm usually skeptical about re-releases and remakes, but this I think is a good candidate for a remaster/re-release. Especially since Lost Hope is available on Steam and all.
There is somewhat of an hd remaster on the PlayStation store out. It’s good, smoothed graphics look a little funny but it runs well
Nel is usually everyone’s (who write their own guides) S-Tier character since she’s pretty broken once you go from mostly taking HP Damage and start using the Skill to convert it into MP Damage…and if you know what you’re doing, like you would with Maria, her later skills (and some of her earlier ones) can SHRED ENEMY MP and make most bosses and Post-Game Dungeon enemies a total joke.
Her/Sophia, Maria, and Cliff/Fayt are unstoppable as a team once you start playing with MP Damage as your priority
I know you gave reasoning for Peppita but I disagree. She can hold her own in a team of Fayt, Maria, and Cliff
She was a hard one honestly. Disagreement is totally legal here haha
Albel is deff top tier, decent ranged attacks skills, even in his light attacks with a multi hit ability that closes the distance and knocks most enemies into the air if you distance him correctly.
With a good weapon you can chain his Light attack stun almost endlessly far surpassing what even Cliff can do.
His hand of doom is also insane burst damage in addition to a crazy MP drain.
My end game party usually was Albel (main), Sophia and Fayte. Although on some replays I swap Marie in for Sophia.
I'm bringing my boy SIR Roger all the way to the end and nobody can stop me.
funny how years ago this was my team and i never made it far. if i recall with that dowsing thing u can do with investing money i got like a really good gauntlet for cliff and he was just a beast.
Nice video make i always use fayt and maria my fav character in game
Bruh Maria is the best character in the game period IMO.
One of my favourite games. Just started playing on it on my ps4. I still have the ps2 disc version with my memory card saves.
Be great for a remake with added extras in this game rather than these new ones they making. Unless they make something bigger and better.
Oof... Star Ocean 3 instead of 2 lol
Since you're putting the character's AI into account, I can see why Peppita ranked so low. However, if you take control of her, she's actually one of the best fighters in the game not because of her skills, but because some of her attack animations have invincibility frames. Paired with her attacks holding magic fireballs or ice balls as counters every time she "dodges" while dancing in this animation, and you have yourself an character you can't be killed while the enemies, even bosses, slowly kill themselves trying to hit her
Yeah I figured she would be the one I would get in trouble for in this list haha. We'll definitely hit up the other titles in the series!
Disagree with the Mirage take, she is actually much quicker than Cliff.
I really love this series. Please make the video for second and first series of star ocean.
My personal tier list would be (Broken : Manuel, Sh*t: Auto). The star ocean games feature speed, stunlocks, control in combat over everything else. I can't fathom thinking about defense when characters like cliff can die to MP loss. I think you should maybe try doing post game tier lists, due to how so many characters get an undeniable power boost. I personally would lower fayt and put peppita and sophia higher but then again juggling a boss from 100% to 0 in manual is a thing.
As I'm watching this, I noticed these clips with the characters attacking (mostly those hedgehogs) look strangely familiar... xD
Haha I gave you a shout out in the description! Great channel my friend.
Fayt, Maria, and Cliff was my party setup lol.
Peppita is broken. Should be higher. Albel too
Yeah. Decided to try Maria out and it was the best decision I've ever made. Except my team was Fayt, Mirage, and Maria.
"MAGNETIC FIELD"
"ENERGY BLAST"
"SIDE KICK"
If you want to play this game, beware that you have to listen to those three quotes for the ENTIRE GAME
You think maybe Mirage would be rated higher if she got an equivilant to Fist of Fury?
Probably. You get her late but her tankyness plus Cliff stunlocking would be kinda nuts.
All she needed was chun-li’s kicks man
@@cyrusstevenson880 That would be pretty awesome.
You also forgot to mentions fayts Sheer tanking ability with max range O input since you're invincible (except to symbology, but you won't get stun locked) until his sword actually changed position
Don't understand Albel's stunlock capabilities. I remember using him to get the highest combo battle trophy.
It was hi firework setup and Aura Wall skill.
Or level up stun on his short x repeated slashes. It’s nuts. Yes, leveling up stun is a timesink but when you put multi attack decisions and fireworks on his weapon while all his hits stun lock, he’s a monster
The biggest issue with Star Ocean 3's plot twist was not the actual plot twist itself but rather their unwillingness to expand upon it in future installments of the series. It has so much potential, but they refuse to do anything with it.
Uhh... Peppita in low tier? I'm not sure how experienced you actually are with her, but she's nowhere near low tier.
Atleast we can agree she is lower than Cliff, Fayt, and Maria.
The only jrpg to this very day besides tales of the abyss, that I've done multiple playthroughs on. I might have to start another playthrough, and main peppita since she's the last character i haven't really played with. 😅
I really hope the new star ocean game is good, i didn't really like the last 2 that came out. 4 was missing alot of staples in star ocean like multiple endings, and i just comparing 5 to 3 but a little worse with the battle system. Loved the characters though, and at least the way 5 let's you customize your party members was pretty good.
I disagree with Mirage in the low tier. She my personal favorite in the game.
The funny thing is, I used Roger And Adray a lot and used them at post game against Lenneth and Luther & Fayt lol. They are not poop tier, its how you use them and I make use of everyone even in post game. Peppita was one of my top favs including Mirage and Albel. Heck, I love all the characters
Endgame i used fayt cliff and Maria. Dunno if it’s the best but it was awesome.
I know almost nothing to the game and i already want to do a Albel solo run hope he’s not optional
I’m sorry to tell you he is
@@cyrusstevenson880 he’s what
@@sag2057 optional
@@cyrusstevenson880 oh yeah but i know how to get him now
Laser girl is always OP
This was my favorite game and i have to agree with this tier list. However I also think mirage is top tier with her blazing cannon which does insane damage.
Nel is best. I am not sure why that is even up for debate. Don't ask me why I say that, pretty sure it is apparent. Seriously tho use her as your primary and see the ass get kicked.
Edit: gotta say I do agree with your opinion on Cliff, he is legit based and also his sense of humor is top notch, always loved him. "The whips on this planet hurt too" XD
Can’t say can’t say Sophia is low tier because for end game wise you need her to res, heal and EXPLOSION! To put nel higher seems wrong
Healing is worthless when MP damage kicks in.
@@CynicalGamingBlogTerry309 hey gl when you have 3 fighters and no on to Rex you
Awesome review, love your content!
You should do the Mary Skelter series!
Gah, if I’m going to do a rpg like that I think I’d start with unchained Blades. But I’ll put Mary Skelter down!
Maria is a MUST. Fayt's Sidekick is just a useful build up skill. I always chose Nel over Mirage and Cliff simply for preference in style.
And one character I wish could have been recruitable is Clair: Adray is amusing, but aside from a one liner of comic relief - never really contributed much story wise. Though my younger weeabo would have had Clair simply because she was my bae - even though she only showed up for so little time.
I remember Albel’s aura wall being god tier in the Gemini S rank arena.
Who is the pink hair girl at the beginning of the video?
"Peppita is a lesser Sophia"
Have... have you ever tried playing Peppita seriously? She's quite literally the best character in the game, even better than Maria is under the right setup. When played by a human, her two fully invulnerable counters are insanely powerful and work against everything, including bonus bosses, she gets two battle skills that get instant kill properties (Kaboom and Instanto Blast), she has an abusable long range attack (Instanto Blast) and the single best skill in the game in Dream Hammer which combines with Roe Tablets for unheard of abuse to tear through even 4D Freya if you want. She also has tons of MP meaning convert damage to turn her into an MP tank is an amazingly good strat.
Her dances aren't even the best parts of her moveset. Panic Dance is highly situational, Healing and Magical Dance are inferior to healing symbology, regeneration symbols or items, and Power Dance eventually loses steam when you're near the attack cap. It's very strong early on and as cancel fodder in the PAL version where it instant cancels, but her moveset is still rock solid even without Power Dance. Her AI sucks so you need to main her to work properly for the most part, but that's fine.
Peppita doesn't even have symbology naturally except as a bonus boss in the post game where she has Dark Sphere. None of her abilities overlap with Sophia's.
Funny once I got Maria saw her style and try her a litle my first reaction was "OK She's busted, that waifu is not getting off my party" XD.
Admitadly that game ended up being a let down to me (I like the first third, really loved the second third but absolutly hated the last third that plot twist was dumb as fuck to me) so I never bother with the post-game, but yeah I noticed fast that Cliff and Maria were the MVPs here, I'll add for Cliff that he also has the benefit to be the second character that is the most present during your playthrough (second only to Fayt).
Yeah she's crazy. I personally don't really like Star Ocean. Every title i've played has ultimately been a let down. Star Ocean V may be one of the worst JRPGs I've ever beaten (in my humble opinion.)
@@locloudanerpg OH Don't worry for Star Ocean V it's not just your opinion Star Ocean V is notorious to be one of the biggest let down ever, it clearly show a lack of Budget and Rush development, in fact it was so bad that everyone thought the series would never come back after it, thankfully we were wrong and the next Star Ocean game to come called Divined Force so far looks much MUCH better.
As far as the rest of the series goes I loved Star Ocean 2, one of my favorite JRPG ever plain and simply, Star Ocean 4 has the best gameplay of the franchise IMO the game is incredibly fun to play and I never got tired of it which to me makes up for the lackluster story, haven't played the first one yet.
@@nesoukkefka1741 I should play iv next. The new one looks pretty good. I’ll be interested to see how it reviews.
@@nesoukkefka1741 I agree with SO2 being the best, followed by SO1. I'll admit that the plot twist of SO3 really made me hate the series there on, felt pointless. I even was liking SO3 up until the plot twist. :/
@@AkaiAzul Honnestly I feel the same like SO3, like a really the all part before the plot twist was really epic with a sense of urgency never reach in the series before, I was truly thinking during that part that the game was on to become my favorite game of the series.... and then the plot twist happened and I was so disappointed, my biggest disappointment with the plot twist is it could still have work if they had crafted a truly unique story with it and there was so much room for it, but instead they went with the same old time cliche of God is an asshole let's go kill him, cause that's truly all the villain of SO3 is just an asshole god to kill with no other personnality, what was the point of ruining the entire series just to do nothing fresh with it.
That mtf pistol 😂😂😂 Im like I can't wait till the next star ocean pistol character come
Fayt, Cliff, and Maria were my final and post party.
We could debate this tier list until the end of time, however, not a single person didn't put Adray and Rodger at the bottom, We all agree? Good.
You did my girl Mirage dirty!
No I didn’t! Didn’t you see that picture?!!!
Damn i always tried to unlock Nel's maid uniform. But never managed to unlock it :(
Roger is bad but I like his personality. I make him work.
Yu Yu hakusho is one of my favorite anime next to cowboy bebop and FLCL!
I LOVE SO3. It was my intro to the series and even in spite of its flaws I still find it to be a great game. I mostly agree with this list too. I have played through this many times, I always control Maria at the end. She isn't just the best fighter, she is the best character imo. Fayt was always on the team as well. The last spot changes. Sometimes Cliff, sometimes Peppita, sometimes Sophia.
This is a game I would love to see a remake for. Not an FF7 style remake but a true one with some improvements.
Fix the item creation, everyone who has played this game knows what I am talking about.
Rebalance the characters, I don't want to see the strong ones nerfed but rather the weaker ones buffed and made more viable. And balance the enemies around that. Also make MP killing a viable strat, it was a good idea but the MP values in endgame started outpacing the MP damage compared to hp by a really large margin.
And finally address the twist. Don't get rid of it. Its not a bad thing. Its implementation was bad. There was no real exploration of the consequences or of the characters feelings on the matter. If you talked to them in town after you could get some thoughts on it but that really isn't enough. Nor did it do a very good job of exploring the main trio's (as late as she comes into the game for real, Sophia is still part of the main trio due to story reasons) feelings on what was done to them. The game basically just said "here is the plot twist, now get on the bullet train to the end of the story". Unless you side tracked for mini games and the like. The twist can work, if done properly.
Also address the ending, A much better and more logical solution as to why they survived would be Blair managing to back up the Eternal Sphere simulation before it got deleted. Gives her a better role and makes a hell of a lot more sense than what we did get lol. Doesn't necessarily have to be that, just something that actually makes sense.
Oh and keep a similar art style. Though do fix some of the body proportions. Seriously, I was playing through one time and saw Sophia at the very start of the game and noticed her neck is way to long and thin for the size of her head. And now I can never unsee that. And for anyone planning to play through this game again and hadn't noticed that, have fun with that lol.
You are wrong. Ai in this game is very well done and it is one of the few jrpgs that let you level them up. At max ai level, they are basically unstoppable.
He's not wrong. Most players play with everyone turned to manual to avoid the AI screwing them over.
@@CynicalGamingBlogTerry309 gotta love Sophia running face first into ether strike as the last character alive in the party 🙄
Adray is the top of tops. Can kill by way of mp damage with his cross something or other move.
The fact that you think Star Ocean 3 has AI is why you think it’s crap. It’s just an archaic algorithm that operates on yes, if, and, or, no commands in a logic chain. I did love your tier list and ranking though. It felt very accurate
Very great tier list. Even if roger ist at the lowest place, he also is crazy with his reging helmet. This games battle system and skills are so unique like no other game ever.
Adray can cast spells MUCH faster than Sophia. His weapons don't give magic stats up which will make him a better healing/support and he can't equip stronger spells in quick slots (x&o) unlike sophia. Sophia for DMG and healing.
Adray got done SO dirty. He’s “the best swordsman in all of aquaria” with NO SWORD SKILLS. He’s built like a pro wrestler with horrendous defense stats and no armor upgrades past halfway through the game. Most of his skills are unsafe and leave him vulnerable or are elemental so things absorb his damage or half it, the best dps he has is just aerial chains at point blank range with no guard, and you have to control him for that, and dear god his AI smokes crack, because if you don’t have his numbers very specific for attack or defense he will either stand COMPLETELY STILL the entire fight and get murdered or just run away and backstep the whole fight. He has such a cool design too….