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First of all, incredible retrospective. The entire thing was grrat. Second, I never played the original Second Story but I am playing Second Story R and Jam telling you straight up, it's one of the best RPGs I ever played and one of my favorite games of the year. To a point where I played this game until my Switch's battery died...twice. Also I was playing First Departure R and I stopped playing it because this game plays so much better. I highly recommend this game. Great music, story, characters. I loved Dias and Claude. I am going to give The Last Hope another shot after I beat Second Story R
690 I have played two of them on the PlayStation 2 and my first introduction was Star Ocean the Second Story on the ps1. My favorite was the second story.
The Quality of life changes are superb too. Skip buttons, skip cutscenes for magic, speed up dialogue, a dialogue log that you can check, mass crafting, fast travel, etc... All the good stuff you expect from modern games.
The last hope is my favorite. Till the end of time is second favorite. The story in till the end of time has quite the plot twist and ramps difficulty after that event
I CANNOT make it past the characters and their voices in The Last Hope. Any tips? I love pretty much every other installment (never played Faithless)@@Amatiel12
Till the End of Time was my first Star Ocean, I didn't know the series before then. Loved it. Since I've been looking for RPG games with the same or similar combat system, combat is what sold it for me to begin with.
im kinda hoping that SO2R leads to newer sprite based starocean games, im not saying they have to do away with the 3d looking games but i'd love for them to go back to the spritebased starocean games, SO1 and SO2 are legit my favorites of the series
I think given the way the remake looks which is beautiful. They should remake the old final fantasy and all there retro game that Pixel based sprite games.
@@TheTboy103 i'd be ok with that, but there are just other games i want to see more than FF remakes ya kno, like i want to see lufia make a come back (which square has rights to iirc) and star ocean i'd love to just see like new games in the series that lean more towards this style (not all the new games have to do it but...some ya kno) and suikoden games im so lookin forward to the remakes of those, maybe other games like illusion of gaia or terraenigma, or breath of fire games. FF series is great i just want more of my other favorite series too hahah
Oh yes no I completely agree , if they could do this with a secret of mana, Chrono, trigger and all the other Ip's that are all great pixel art based games. I think that Squarenix could probably make a huge profit off of it. Along with just redoing some of the o s t's and some of them. I would love to hear an orchestrated version of the complete chrono trigger soundtrack.
@@shionsonozaki5730 umm thats cool, im personally just not a big fan of 3-6 i'd say 4 and 6 were pretty good but they had so many things that made them no where near as enjoyable as 1 and 2 for me but i mean thats just me ya kno. like i said i'd DON'T think they need to do away with 3d staroceans i'd just like to see some more staroceans that goes back to sprite based
Having played Star Ocean till the end of time on PS2 back in the day and absolutely loving it I've kind of lost track of the series but I do have the majority of the games on console. This art style and the new Star Ocean 2 that was just released a few days ago is absolutely beautiful and in the vein of that style along with 2.5D and octopath traveler style designs I really hope more games from yesteryear get remade in those art styles as they are absolutely perfect for that design. We don't necessarily need full on final Fantasy remake style games done to older ones but the 2.5D style fits extremely well.
Til the End of TIme is... quite infamous. It's an entry that makes choices the series still hasn't addressed in it's next three entries, due to them having to resolve or deal with it. I can see why, though I think it's still an outstanding entry.
(Potential SO6 spoilers) - I feel like they vaguely hinted at it with the enemy in The Divine Force, with all the story beats about becoming gods through a simulation. Would love to see them address it properly though.
To this day I still think Till the end of time is the best or rather is my favorite entry in the whole franchise, but SO 2 R is just incredible, fixed simbology too so is more fun to use spellcaster now but fighter are still super strong and some character got buff like Ernest. Great retrospective.
Thank you for covering one of my favorite RPG series! Star Ocean was my first RPG for the PlayStation and I poured so many hours into it, more than any other game. After watching your video, I plan to get to the other games in the series I have fully played. Thank you for your review! I was looking forward to watching it. ☺️
I just started with First Departure R and Divine Force and they are both awesome games. Thank you for the retrospective as a new fan of the franchise i appreciate it.
Thanks so much for this video. Star Ocean: TIL the End of Time was honestly the 1st and only Star Ocean I’ve played so far. It may honestly be one of the longest square enix games I’ve ever played. I still love it to this day and this video makes me want to download it into my PS5 and play it all over again lol
You should be very proud. This IS the best retrospect I've seen on Star Ocean, without spoilers and fascinating til the very end. I'm playing Second Story R currently and just love how grand it feels. The PSP version never felt this open, but its a good version nonetheless. Here's to Tri-Ace having some new Star Ocean ideas and to you for putting together a vid covering each one of the previous titles. Great work.
Its good to see my adventures recorded in this retrospective (kidding aside, I am very glad you made this, which would take research that someone who wasn't there awhile to figure out. I had to explain Star Ocean's origins several times.)
I am a huge fan of the SO series. Started with SO 2 back in the day with SO 2 and played all of them in order too. I played SO 1 on PSP though. SO 2 remake is amazing. Everyone should play it. It is just excellent. Best in the series and one of the best JRPG's ever made too.
Awesome coverage video of the series. I still have to play SO6 but it looked great in the video so I can't wait to get started on it. Personally I liked SO2R and SO4 best. SO2R had a great story and funny PAs. Plenty of moments that tugged your heartstrings too. My favorite character from SO2R is Ashton. SO4's story and cast was great. I had some issues with the gameplay such as blindsiding but I got the hang of it later in the game. The PAs weren't as funny as in SO2R but still pretty entertaining. Each and every character that had a role in the story were great, especially Elena Farrence. She was a lil rough around the edges but she had a very good script. My favorite major characters from that game are Bacchus and Sarah and my favorite minor characters are Elena and Giotto. SO4 really got me interested in the Morphus since there are hints in the game that indicate they have a shared history with another race that resembles them.
For all you Star Ocean 3 players, tell me if this sounds very familiar... "SIDE KICK! DIMENSION... DOOR! SIDE KICK! DIMENSION... DOOR! SIDE KICK! DIMENSION... DOOR!"
Second story R really is Tri-ace's big chance to reignite the franchise. And it really hope they manage to get it done. SO2 has always been my favorite Action RPG of all times since I first played it on PS1 as a kid.
I’ve seen quite a few retrospectives on RUclips, but this was one of the best by far! It’s a shame it seems like you never got a chance to play Star Ocean Anamnesis when it came out. I know it was a mobile game, but it had the best combat of all the many mobile games I’ve played, such a shame it got shut down.
Till the end of time is my absolute favourite in the series and favourite game of all time. All other games don't even come close. Integrity and faithlessness was so bad that I gave up on the series. (Even more when the producer mentioned that he was HAPPY with how the game turned out) Because of this, I didn't even give SO6 a chance. The second story remake however was so good that it made me buy SO6 anyways >__
Its a bit sad you didnt go over Star Ocean Anamnesis. It was a mobile gacha game for the Star Ocean franchise with its own story but you can summon a lot of characters from all of the games. For me it was the best mobile game i have ever played and even when I was home we played that game in multiplayer for hours on a Discord Fan server. Sadly it has been discontiniued but it is somewhat important as it was actually very active and close to the producers, which did a lot of questionaires. Espacially at the end of the game, a lot of these have been about what we as fans want and it included stuff like SO2 remake and a new SO title... and well we got SO6 as well as SO2R afterwards. And the producers actually explained that they will discontiniue to fully focus on the new title. So yes it was a long time between 5 and 6 but thats actually somewhat filled by Anamnesis
Star Ocean The Last Hope still holds a special place in my heart. It was the first SO I beat and since beating it I’ve beaten it 4 more times. SO3 was my first SO game but I could never get into it. When 5 came out I played it non stop that summer and it was the closest to platinuming a SO game I’d come until I got the platinum to SO2 last night. I also just played through SO1 and I honestly hated it. It wasn’t what I expected in terms of scifi after playing 3-6.
Star Ocean has been one of those series that I thought about in a bittersweet way, mostly because it had been dormant for a long time. Porting the first Star Ocean and the remake (of the remake) to the Second Story gives me hope that we'll see more from this series in the future.
Two Games I want you to talk about Metal Saga for the PS2, a very strange RPG that actually was the first Metal Max game we got and Altier Iris also for PS2, a pretty awesome RPG for the PS2 that introduced me to the franchise
I would say Star Ocean The Last Hope International has so far been my favorite, followed by Till The End Of Time and Second Story. I really like the Sci-Fi elements, Anime portrait choice over the xbox 360 version, the battle system, different worlds to visit, and story over the others. On the flip side, I really disliked Integrity Faithlessness. I really couldnt get into it at all after a few hours. The Second Story on the PS one in the late 90's was my introduction to the series.
I remember loving Star Ocean 3 right up to the twist and then never playing it again XD It really took me out of the game and I never bothered with series after that
Well, I am sold on the second story remake now I have to play it. My very first RPG was till the end of time and oh my god was I lucky.. totally a coincidence that my reasoning for buying the game was the adorable graphics of character designs, I was totally judging by the cover- and honestly the name of it just sounded so fantastical, but to be fair I did read what I could about the story even though there wasn’t much on the box I’m pretty sure I bought back in 2005(?) had a book in it.. to this day I haven’t been able to beat that game, I was probably about 13 or 14 at that time and now I am 33 😂💔 I just could not get past Luthers second phase, and now I don’t even have this saved anymore, so I just have to make it to the end again… I’ve played and beaten, the last hope and integrity and faithlessness - the thing I love about these games is that certain aspects relate to the other games like the names of planets or places, i’ve never been one to pay too much attention to consistency in game mechanics within franchise. It’s all about aesthetics to me, but I do notice certain things if I am familiar with them and I can see how it would be important to fans❤ Am I the only one that was creeped out by Welch in S05? I could have just not connected the voice actor with her very well. I mean, the one in the last hope was odd, but immediately her voice matched her personality. I have not played the first two main line games, but I loved 3&4 definitely staples Integrity and faithlessness was incredibly disappointing… Reviews definitely have influenced my opinion, but as I said, before, aesthetics are very important to me, and characters are more important to me, then the actual game so yeah 😅 My motto is if the characters are not aesthetically pleasing and interesting to look at I am not interested- Insta ocean is always on top of it with that, usually😂 I haven’t even tried 6 yet and honestly, I don’t know if I will
Really well done. I would like to see Star Ocean Till the end of Time get a proper remaster or remake like 1 and 2 did before a new entry to round off all entries getting proper HD versions. I know about the PSN version with trophy support but they can do more.
Last Hope was the only one I played, but it made a great impression on me because of its flawed story, a team of misfits exploring the stars and fighting evil, it made me want to write it one for myself
"Magneti-" "Energy Burst!" "I shall cleave unto your flesh! Behold, my godlike power! Nibelung Valesti!" "I shall purify you! Behold, my godlike power! Ether Strike!" Just a few memories from SO3 that someone is very likely to have burned into their memory. EDIT: It is worth mentioning that both SO and SO2 received ports to the PSP, in First Departure and Second Story, where the voice acting was originally added. Ronyx has the same English VO in both. There is a remake version for SO: FD available for the PS4.
SO4 made me genuinely uncomfortable. When I saw the pre-pubescent girl in the cat themed bondage gear, I was worried that I was now on some kind of list because i owned this game.
19:10 Mario RPG doesn't have combo stringing at all between characters because its a turn based rpg. The only move you do 'combos' with is Mario's super jump and ultra jump. Not really a good comparison.
2 & 3 were bloody fantastic, 1 was good, and lets not talk about the other 3 but at least 6 was infinitely better than 5 but 5 did set the bar pretty freaking low.
My favorite has to be The Last Hope, i really loved the characters, story, battle system and music, and being a prequel to the overall story of the series, it was awesome to revisit planet Roak and meet Ratix's ancestor Eleyna. As a whole i really like all the games but i have a soft spot for the first one as it was the first i played back in the day.
Star Ocean 1 was really awesome for the SNES. It was a technical marvel. That said I found it overall pretty boring and generic, in terms of story. It REALLY squanders its (at the time) relatively unique for jRPGs, sci-fi space opera setting. It jut ends up feeling like a relatively generic RPG with a minor space opera redeco in places. Star Ocean: The Second Story is my favorite of the series. I just absolutely LOVED the story, characters, world, and mechanics of the the game. Rena and Ashton (and his dragon heads) are my favorite characters in the series. I also really liked how it took advantage of it's sci-fi setting. Honestly it feels like the only one truly firing on all cylinders to me. Star Ocean 3 was my introduction to the franchise, and I really enjoyed the story & music. That said, I also kinda hate it because the way it recontextualized the series cheapens ALL the previous games' stories/events. It also made it impossible to continue the series as it basically chucked the series' entire universe in recycle bin. There just wasn't any real way to continue the story after that other than a prequel. Star Ocean 4/The Last Hope has my favorite combat of the entire series. Overall it felt like a true evolution of Second Story's combat, and took it to the next level. The depth and possibilities created by the chain, rush, and blindsiding systems just made it sooo damn satisfying. They also created a ridiculously steep learning curve. Thankfully the game actually provided you a training simulator to teach the the ins & outs & advanced applications of the mechanics to help you get over said curve. I also really liked its heavier focus on sci-fi elements. That said, the story, dungeon design, and graphics left a LOT to be desired. The felt EXTREMELY paint by numbers and formulaic. It also had an english dub that made you want to drill out your eardums. Luckily the International version fixed that by including the original Japanese audio. As for Integrity and Faithlessness... call me back when those faithless curs show a little integrity actually FINISH it. Tri-Ace should be ashamed of releasing such an obviously unfinished pile of trash. I haven't played the others.
Props to your self control, getting through the entire SO4 section without a single complaint about Lymle, most people can’t resist. When I first played SO5, I went in so excited, because I could see how much of it was inspired by SO3 (my personal favorite in the series) but I definitely came away feeling disappointed. The story and characters were so bland and forgettable, and I absolutely hated what they did to the cutscenes. As you said, it made it to where I couldn’t even feel a sliver of attachment to any of the characters. In terms of the battle system, for a long time the main thing I could remember about it was a major complaint I had: why would they go through the effort to make Fidel a carbon copy of Fayt (which I had no problem with really - as he’s my favorite character in the series, and from my favorite game in the series) but then they go ahead and screw it up in two major ways. First, they make it to where you can’t get Air Raid until way late in the game (by the way, I also hated how you can only learn moves from skill books as opposed to just leveling up) and then they go and cut a key element of his basic attack combo!! Allow me to explain - Aside from special moves, the coolest thing Fayt can do is his long range O attack where he sends enemies flying in the air - this can then be followed up by another short range O attack in which (here’s the important part) he does a FREEKIN BACKFLIP to send them flying again, before following up with two short range X attacks to stab the enemies twice in the air. Freekin sick combo. Then SO5 cuts everything past the initial hit to launch enemies into the air. What the crap were they thinking!? All that being said, I will say, I gave SO5 a replay just last year (first time since it first came out) and it’s definitely not as bad as I remember. Sure there are all those things I complained about, but I forgot how awesome the roles system was, and between that and the better parts of the combat, it’s still a perfectly fine game - albeit easily the worst in the series. By the way, anyone ever figure out a connection between General Alma and D.U.M.A. from Divine Force? I noticed while playing through SO5 in preparation for Divine force that General Alma (the main antagonist from SO5) has a jacket/cape that he wears and on the back it specifically says “D.U.M.A.” on it. It’s way too big a connection to be coincidental, but I haven’t actually been able to track down a connection.
The plot twist of Star Ocean 3 killed all the hype I got for the franchise tbh. I also likes Star Ocean 5 but damn it was a very short game and the story was kind of rushed.
Enjoyed this, but theres a slight dissonance. Its clear you didnt enjoy the divine force and you went into a lot of detail as to why but then you say "better than integrity and faithless". Which I agree with you about. The segment on integrity and faithless had less negative critique than what you put about the divine force and felt like you glossed over the many egregious issues it had. Like it felt more like divine force got railed on more for the parts of it you disliked than is comparable with your segment on integrity and faithlessness. Which wouldnt have been something that stuck except for that throwaway "Its better than integrity and faithlessness" Id honestly say your review would have put divine force below integrity and faithless if not for that. Feels off?
I liked the combat system better in Integrity and Faithlessness, but I liked the story, characters, and advancement system more in The Divine Force. I think that's consistent with what I said in the video.
I can't help but hope that SE taps Gem Drops again to do a remake of SO3. They don't even have to make it into a PS5-quality game. If it can at least match the visual quality and refinement that SO4 had over SO3, while preserving the overall feel and all the things that makes SO3 stand out compared to other installments, that alone would be perfect in my eyes. I wonder what kinds of things they would do with it after seeing the direction they took with SO2R.
I've only played Till the End of Time, The Last Hope and Integrity and Faithlessness. My favorite is Till the End of Time, I didn't get very far in The Last Hope before quitting for something else and I started getting turned off from Integrity and Faithlessness the moment the line about seeing that childhood friend as a sister was said. That whole sister line is something where I go "oh, it's going to be THAT twist" and when it happened, I was done. I knew then I would never see it as all that good, especially next to Till the End of Time. I'm tired of the whole childhood friend that's like a sister until she get's injured then the main character realizes he's in love with her thing. It also feels like quasi incest to me personally. So no thanks, I don't want that type of storyline, I want something more organic. That's why I really enjoy the relationship between Fayt and Sophia, it just feels natural to me with my limited knowledge about childhood friends. I like how they are simply friends and it never goes any further.
@@Xygor Yeah, though I had no idea there were 19 endings. I might have to try to see all of them. Luckily I still have the game and a PS2. The discs are in excellent shape and the console works perfectly. Integrity and Faithlessness is easily the worst of the three, so bad I got nowhere near the end. I was only at the part where the UP3 had just been full on broken. I decided it wasn't worthwhile since it was so corny and predictable. Funny, an adult game pulled off the basic concept of the sister figure thing far better. No injuries, just two people who hadn't seen each other in years and were both in a bad mental state.
Till the end of time was my favorite. Played it a bunch as a kid. Second story was good too, and the last hope was decent but wasn't quite as good as the others. Hoping that a remake gets made for till end of time soon.
I've only played 2 Star Ocean games. Divine Force and Second Story R. DF was super fun with the combat and exploration... but I did eventually put it down and didn't finish it, I may go back eventually. The small text really hurt the game, even while in the maps I couldn't see what it said. I also didn't like the character models, they seemed really stiff with animations which is something I'm ok with in older games but this one just made it feel uncanny. However, Second Story R is amazing so far and I'm loving it. Haven't finished it yet, but I know I will.
I loved Star Ocean 3 until that damn plot twist. Anyone who's played through it knows what I mean. It was actually so bad, it killed the whole series for me.
I played Star Ocean: First Departure R and was rather disappointed and only beat just to see it through to the end. It starts off with easy then once you get to the third continent the enemies constantly curb stomped me and I had to grind almost twenty levels to usually survive. It was really frustrating, you have know how to cheese the skills system and when exactly to attack since you can't cancel attacks. Hearing that the second game is the basis for the changes in its battle system I don't think I want to try that one after all.
I picked up SO 2 on the playstation when it came out years ago. If yall didn't know they have a SO 2 anime that can be watched on RUclips. Just fyi the didnt do the full story though.
I did. I first watched the subbed version and years later when I wanted to rewatch it I couldn't find it anymore so I went to watch the dub instead which wasn't so bad at all. Ashton actually had a better voice than in the game xD
I completed the cave of trials once. I had attempted Gabriel celesta's evil twin a few times (though never defeating her). Alas, I broke the memory card losing that save. It hurt.
Only finished SO Second Story version Claude story Barely started First Departure & Rena story in Second Evolution version Played a bit of Till the End of Time too, but stuck midway due to other commitments and my PS2 got some issues
51:00 I understand as a avid fan but cmon they need nee players to make new star oceans and after the second story r it looks like the series is revived lol i love dark souls so im bias but im 34 so im old school too
I don't have much nostalgia for the series. I played 3rd game and some mobile gacha type game. I wanted to try out other games on ps4, added them to my wish list, but unfortunately store died on me faster than i was able to buy them (yeah, i'm from Russia). Maybe one day in the distant future, who knows. I mean i can bypass the blockage, but i'm lazy to do so... I liked the 3rd game, when i played it on ps2. I think i still have a disk somewhere, maybe i'll replay it 'cuz i don't remember the plot like at all. The mobile gacha was actually fun as well. I never knew Star Ocean had so many cool characters. But the game was too heavy for my phone so i deleted it eventually.
I tried to play those games. I finished first departure R and Divine force...it ain't for me unfortunately..the artificial difficulty and the overall difficulty spikes leading to unbelievable grind is such a deal-breaker to me
After I saw the text size of star ocean 6, i uninstalled it. It was a blind buy, after star ocean 5 wasnt that great... my bad. They really have to patch this. Then i will play it someday. But i guess that will never happen.
Star Ocean till the end of time is a good game but hard to go back to and play. Because of two parts, one is the Dragon bone flute part where you have 4 different tunes you have to play with only two button and the difficulty spike when you are head to the Time Gate.
Till the end of time deserves a remake, its an amazing game ! I reccomend anyone that enjoys Staroceans try the Tales of Destiny Directors cut PS2 english patch
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Which Star Ocean game did you like best, and why?
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First of all, incredible retrospective. The entire thing was grrat. Second, I never played the original Second Story but I am playing Second Story R and Jam telling you straight up, it's one of the best RPGs I ever played and one of my favorite games of the year. To a point where I played this game until my Switch's battery died...twice. Also I was playing First Departure R and I stopped playing it because this game plays so much better. I highly recommend this game. Great music, story, characters. I loved Dias and Claude. I am going to give The Last Hope another shot after I beat Second Story R
690 I have played two of them on the PlayStation 2 and my first introduction was Star Ocean the Second Story on the ps1. My favorite was the second story.
Second Story but I'm pretty sure it's nostalgia bias. Loving Divine Force picked it up from gamestop 10 bucks
star ocean 3 till the end of time why? the soundtrack and the story
soon i have star ocean the second story remake for nintendo switch
Def SO2 perfect in every way. Story was insane plot twist
Man, the star ocean till the end of time was my first star ocean. Still play it every now and then
Same for me
Second Story R was such an incredible remake. Kept everything we loved about the game but made it all better as well.
I agree!
The Quality of life changes are superb too. Skip buttons, skip cutscenes for magic, speed up dialogue, a dialogue log that you can check, mass crafting, fast travel, etc... All the good stuff you expect from modern games.
Playing star ocean for the very first time. Star ocean first departure R. Love it!
Devine Force got me into the series. I'm getting all the games as soon as I can find them. Even Faithless.
Glad you’ve gotten into it!
The last hope is my favorite. Till the end of time is second favorite. The story in till the end of time has quite the plot twist and ramps difficulty after that event
I CANNOT make it past the characters and their voices in The Last Hope. Any tips? I love pretty much every other installment (never played Faithless)@@Amatiel12
Till the End of Time was my first Star Ocean, I didn't know the series before then. Loved it.
Since I've been looking for RPG games with the same or similar combat system, combat is what sold it for me to begin with.
For sure!
Till the end of time is legit one of my favorite games and is one of the big reasons I still have my ps2 spite also having it on my ps5
It’s an excellent game!
im kinda hoping that SO2R leads to newer sprite based starocean games, im not saying they have to do away with the 3d looking games but i'd love for them to go back to the spritebased starocean games, SO1 and SO2 are legit my favorites of the series
I think given the way the remake looks which is beautiful. They should remake the old final fantasy and all there retro game that Pixel based sprite games.
@@TheTboy103 i'd be ok with that, but there are just other games i want to see more than FF remakes ya kno, like i want to see lufia make a come back (which square has rights to iirc) and star ocean i'd love to just see like new games in the series that lean more towards this style (not all the new games have to do it but...some ya kno) and suikoden games im so lookin forward to the remakes of those, maybe other games like illusion of gaia or terraenigma, or breath of fire games. FF series is great i just want more of my other favorite series too hahah
Oh yes no I completely agree , if they could do this with a secret of mana, Chrono, trigger and all the other Ip's that are all great pixel art based games. I think that Squarenix could probably make a huge profit off of it. Along with just redoing some of the o s t's and some of them. I would love to hear an orchestrated version of the complete chrono trigger soundtrack.
Star ocean 1 is one of the worst imo but the sprites are cool
@@shionsonozaki5730 umm thats cool, im personally just not a big fan of 3-6 i'd say 4 and 6 were pretty good but they had so many things that made them no where near as enjoyable as 1 and 2 for me but i mean thats just me ya kno. like i said i'd DON'T think they need to do away with 3d staroceans i'd just like to see some more staroceans that goes back to sprite based
Having played Star Ocean till the end of time on PS2 back in the day and absolutely loving it I've kind of lost track of the series but I do have the majority of the games on console. This art style and the new Star Ocean 2 that was just released a few days ago is absolutely beautiful and in the vein of that style along with 2.5D and octopath traveler style designs I really hope more games from yesteryear get remade in those art styles as they are absolutely perfect for that design. We don't necessarily need full on final Fantasy remake style games done to older ones but the 2.5D style fits extremely well.
Til the End of TIme is... quite infamous. It's an entry that makes choices the series still hasn't addressed in it's next three entries, due to them having to resolve or deal with it.
I can see why, though I think it's still an outstanding entry.
(Potential SO6 spoilers) - I feel like they vaguely hinted at it with the enemy in The Divine Force, with all the story beats about becoming gods through a simulation. Would love to see them address it properly though.
To this day I still think Till the end of time is the best or rather is my favorite entry in the whole franchise, but SO 2 R is just incredible, fixed simbology too so is more fun to use spellcaster now but fighter are still super strong and some character got buff like Ernest. Great retrospective.
Ty for covering star ocean! Such an underated series!
You're welcome - I agree that it's so underrated!
Thank you for covering one of my favorite RPG series! Star Ocean was my first RPG for the PlayStation and I poured so many hours into it, more than any other game.
After watching your video, I plan to get to the other games in the series I have fully played. Thank you for your review! I was looking forward to watching it. ☺️
Glad you enjoyed it!
I just started with First Departure R and Divine Force and they are both awesome games. Thank you for the retrospective as a new fan of the franchise i appreciate it.
Glad you like them!
Thanks so much for this video. Star Ocean: TIL the End of Time was honestly the 1st and only Star Ocean I’ve played so far. It may honestly be one of the longest square enix games I’ve ever played. I still love it to this day and this video makes me want to download it into my PS5 and play it all over again lol
SO3 was honestly one of the best games on PS2, I still love going back and revisit this game every few years
You should be very proud. This IS the best retrospect I've seen on Star Ocean, without spoilers and fascinating til the very end. I'm playing Second Story R currently and just love how grand it feels. The PSP version never felt this open, but its a good version nonetheless. Here's to Tri-Ace having some new Star Ocean ideas and to you for putting together a vid covering each one of the previous titles. Great work.
Thank you, glad you like it!
SOTET was my favorite and my entry into the series. Hugely influenced my childhood growing up
Such a great game!
Gem Drops might be the new Blue Point studio, IMO. I'm really looking forward to their next project.
Its good to see my adventures recorded in this retrospective (kidding aside, I am very glad you made this, which would take research that someone who wasn't there awhile to figure out. I had to explain Star Ocean's origins several times.)
Glad you liked it!
Just a note on SO2; Claude and Rena character recruitment only affects Dias v Leon early second half of the game. :)
True!
I am a huge fan of the SO series. Started with SO 2 back in the day with SO 2 and played all of them in order too. I played SO 1 on PSP though. SO 2 remake is amazing. Everyone should play it. It is just excellent. Best in the series and one of the best JRPG's ever made too.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the best one!
The amount of work this video must have taken 🤯. Respect 🤜🤛
Thank you! The whole channel is a labor of love!
Please do more of these long form videos. They rock!!
Awesome coverage video of the series. I still have to play SO6 but it looked great in the video so I can't wait to get started on it.
Personally I liked SO2R and SO4 best. SO2R had a great story and funny PAs. Plenty of moments that tugged your heartstrings too. My favorite character from SO2R is Ashton. SO4's story and cast was great. I had some issues with the gameplay such as blindsiding but I got the hang of it later in the game. The PAs weren't as funny as in SO2R but still pretty entertaining. Each and every character that had a role in the story were great, especially Elena Farrence. She was a lil rough around the edges but she had a very good script. My favorite major characters from that game are Bacchus and Sarah and my favorite minor characters are Elena and Giotto. SO4 really got me interested in the Morphus since there are hints in the game that indicate they have a shared history with another race that resembles them.
Thank you for the praise, and for leaving your memories of your favorites here!
blue sphere looks amazing. hard to believe it's a gbc game
Definitely one of the best looking GBC games!
Crosell theme from til the end of time was one of the best tunes
For all you Star Ocean 3 players, tell me if this sounds very familiar...
"SIDE KICK! DIMENSION... DOOR! SIDE KICK! DIMENSION... DOOR! SIDE KICK! DIMENSION... DOOR!"
Sounds right!
Unlocked a core memory I didn't even realize I had
@@justinreyes2064 That right there is the sound of optimal move choice. xD
Second story R really is Tri-ace's big chance to reignite the franchise. And it really hope they manage to get it done. SO2 has always been my favorite Action RPG of all times since I first played it on PS1 as a kid.
But SO2R was developed by Gemdrops Studio. tri-Ace's fate is still in the air, it seems.
I’ve seen quite a few retrospectives on RUclips, but this was one of the best by far!
It’s a shame it seems like you never got a chance to play Star Ocean Anamnesis when it came out. I know it was a mobile game, but it had the best combat of all the many mobile games I’ve played, such a shame it got shut down.
Till the end of time is my absolute favourite in the series and favourite game of all time. All other games don't even come close.
Integrity and faithlessness was so bad that I gave up on the series. (Even more when the producer mentioned that he was HAPPY with how the game turned out)
Because of this, I didn't even give SO6 a chance.
The second story remake however was so good that it made me buy SO6 anyways >__
I know I’m in the minority, but I adore The Last Hope and how it connects to the first game. Kay?
Its a bit sad you didnt go over Star Ocean Anamnesis.
It was a mobile gacha game for the Star Ocean franchise with its own story but you can summon a lot of characters from all of the games.
For me it was the best mobile game i have ever played and even when I was home we played that game in multiplayer for hours on a Discord Fan server.
Sadly it has been discontiniued but it is somewhat important as it was actually very active and close to the producers, which did a lot of questionaires.
Espacially at the end of the game, a lot of these have been about what we as fans want and it included stuff like SO2 remake and a new SO title... and well we got SO6 as well as SO2R afterwards.
And the producers actually explained that they will discontiniue to fully focus on the new title.
So yes it was a long time between 5 and 6 but thats actually somewhat filled by Anamnesis
Star Ocean The Last Hope still holds a special place in my heart. It was the first SO I beat and since beating it I’ve beaten it 4 more times. SO3 was my first SO game but I could never get into it. When 5 came out I played it non stop that summer and it was the closest to platinuming a SO game I’d come until I got the platinum to SO2 last night. I also just played through SO1 and I honestly hated it. It wasn’t what I expected in terms of scifi after playing 3-6.
SO 3 has 3 bonus dungeons. You have Ursa cave temple too
That's true
Integrity and Faithlessness was the only SO I’ve ever played. It’s crazy it’s the black sheep of the family. I did enjoy it and beat it!
Love your content bud keep up the great work!
Glad you enjoy it!
Star Ocean has been one of those series that I thought about in a bittersweet way, mostly because it had been dormant for a long time. Porting the first Star Ocean and the remake (of the remake) to the Second Story gives me hope that we'll see more from this series in the future.
Thanx to you, i buy this game on a Steam,and i really likes it. A great addition to my library...😊
Great, which one are you buying?
I need star ocean 3 to be remade 🎉
That would be a good one!
Two Games I want you to talk about
Metal Saga for the PS2, a very strange RPG that actually was the first Metal Max game we got
and Altier Iris also for PS2, a pretty awesome RPG for the PS2 that introduced me to the franchise
Two series that I loved so much! *Chef kiss*
I would say Star Ocean The Last Hope International has so far been my favorite, followed by Till The End Of Time and Second Story. I really like the Sci-Fi elements, Anime portrait choice over the xbox 360 version, the battle system, different worlds to visit, and story over the others. On the flip side, I really disliked Integrity Faithlessness. I really couldnt get into it at all after a few hours. The Second Story on the PS one in the late 90's was my introduction to the series.
I remember loving Star Ocean 3 right up to the twist and then never playing it again XD It really took me out of the game and I never bothered with series after that
The last hope is the only star ocean game I have ever played and I never heard of the series before that.
Give the others are try!
The last hope was my first and most favorite one!!!
Glad you love it!
Well, I am sold on the second story remake now I have to play it. My very first RPG was till the end of time and oh my god was I lucky.. totally a coincidence that my reasoning for buying the game was the adorable graphics of character designs, I was totally judging by the cover- and honestly the name of it just sounded so fantastical, but to be fair I did read what I could about the story even though there wasn’t much on the box I’m pretty sure I bought back in 2005(?) had a book in it.. to this day I haven’t been able to beat that game, I was probably about 13 or 14 at that time and now I am 33 😂💔
I just could not get past Luthers second phase, and now I don’t even have this saved anymore, so I just have to make it to the end again… I’ve played and beaten, the last hope and integrity and faithlessness - the thing I love about these games is that certain aspects relate to the other games like the names of planets or places, i’ve never been one to pay too much attention to consistency in game mechanics within franchise. It’s all about aesthetics to me, but I do notice certain things if I am familiar with them and I can see how it would be important to fans❤
Am I the only one that was creeped out by Welch in S05? I could have just not connected the voice actor with her very well. I mean, the one in the last hope was odd, but immediately her voice matched her personality.
I have not played the first two main line games, but I loved 3&4 definitely staples
Integrity and faithlessness was incredibly disappointing… Reviews definitely have influenced my opinion, but as I said, before, aesthetics are very important to me, and characters are more important to me, then the actual game so yeah 😅
My motto is if the characters are not aesthetically pleasing and interesting to look at I am not interested- Insta ocean is always on top of it with that, usually😂
I haven’t even tried 6 yet and honestly, I don’t know if I will
Really well done. I would like to see Star Ocean Till the end of Time get a proper remaster or remake like 1 and 2 did before a new entry to round off all entries getting proper HD versions. I know about the PSN version with trophy support but they can do more.
Agreed!
Amazing content
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Last Hope was the only one I played, but it made a great impression on me because of its flawed story, a team of misfits exploring the stars and fighting evil, it made me want to write it one for myself
"Magneti-"
"Energy Burst!"
"I shall cleave unto your flesh! Behold, my godlike power! Nibelung Valesti!"
"I shall purify you! Behold, my godlike power! Ether Strike!"
Just a few memories from SO3 that someone is very likely to have burned into their memory.
EDIT: It is worth mentioning that both SO and SO2 received ports to the PSP, in First Departure and Second Story, where the voice acting was originally added. Ronyx has the same English VO in both. There is a remake version for SO: FD available for the PS4.
SO4 made me genuinely uncomfortable. When I saw the pre-pubescent girl in the cat themed bondage gear, I was worried that I was now on some kind of list because i owned this game.
19:10 Mario RPG doesn't have combo stringing at all between characters because its a turn based rpg. The only move you do 'combos' with is Mario's super jump and ultra jump. Not really a good comparison.
2 & 3 were bloody fantastic, 1 was good, and lets not talk about the other 3 but at least 6 was infinitely better than 5 but 5 did set the bar pretty freaking low.
My favorite has to be The Last Hope, i really loved the characters, story, battle system and music, and being a prequel to the overall story of the series, it was awesome to revisit planet Roak and meet Ratix's ancestor Eleyna.
As a whole i really like all the games but i have a soft spot for the first one as it was the first i played back in the day.
Has the link for the Blue Sphere disappeared? I'm not seeing it in the description.
Star Ocean 1 was really awesome for the SNES. It was a technical marvel. That said I found it overall pretty boring and generic, in terms of story. It REALLY squanders its (at the time) relatively unique for jRPGs, sci-fi space opera setting. It jut ends up feeling like a relatively generic RPG with a minor space opera redeco in places.
Star Ocean: The Second Story is my favorite of the series. I just absolutely LOVED the story, characters, world, and mechanics of the the game. Rena and Ashton (and his dragon heads) are my favorite characters in the series. I also really liked how it took advantage of it's sci-fi setting. Honestly it feels like the only one truly firing on all cylinders to me.
Star Ocean 3 was my introduction to the franchise, and I really enjoyed the story & music. That said, I also kinda hate it because the way it recontextualized the series cheapens ALL the previous games' stories/events. It also made it impossible to continue the series as it basically chucked the series' entire universe in recycle bin. There just wasn't any real way to continue the story after that other than a prequel.
Star Ocean 4/The Last Hope has my favorite combat of the entire series. Overall it felt like a true evolution of Second Story's combat, and took it to the next level. The depth and possibilities created by the chain, rush, and blindsiding systems just made it sooo damn satisfying. They also created a ridiculously steep learning curve. Thankfully the game actually provided you a training simulator to teach the the ins & outs & advanced applications of the mechanics to help you get over said curve. I also really liked its heavier focus on sci-fi elements. That said, the story, dungeon design, and graphics left a LOT to be desired. The felt EXTREMELY paint by numbers and formulaic. It also had an english dub that made you want to drill out your eardums. Luckily the International version fixed that by including the original Japanese audio.
As for Integrity and Faithlessness... call me back when those faithless curs show a little integrity actually FINISH it. Tri-Ace should be ashamed of releasing such an obviously unfinished pile of trash.
I haven't played the others.
Ngl, I feel so vindicated in knowing that I was not the only one who considered the text size in The Divine Force an actual warcrime.
I really enjoyed the Last Hope. I felt the Voice Acting was awesome especially Remi's VO in the last scenes. Such amazing delivery.
And crow is the first protagonist ancestor
Props to your self control, getting through the entire SO4 section without a single complaint about Lymle, most people can’t resist.
When I first played SO5, I went in so excited, because I could see how much of it was inspired by SO3 (my personal favorite in the series) but I definitely came away feeling disappointed. The story and characters were so bland and forgettable, and I absolutely hated what they did to the cutscenes. As you said, it made it to where I couldn’t even feel a sliver of attachment to any of the characters. In terms of the battle system, for a long time the main thing I could remember about it was a major complaint I had: why would they go through the effort to make Fidel a carbon copy of Fayt (which I had no problem with really - as he’s my favorite character in the series, and from my favorite game in the series) but then they go ahead and screw it up in two major ways. First, they make it to where you can’t get Air Raid until way late in the game (by the way, I also hated how you can only learn moves from skill books as opposed to just leveling up) and then they go and cut a key element of his basic attack combo!! Allow me to explain - Aside from special moves, the coolest thing Fayt can do is his long range O attack where he sends enemies flying in the air - this can then be followed up by another short range O attack in which (here’s the important part) he does a FREEKIN BACKFLIP to send them flying again, before following up with two short range X attacks to stab the enemies twice in the air. Freekin sick combo. Then SO5 cuts everything past the initial hit to launch enemies into the air. What the crap were they thinking!?
All that being said, I will say, I gave SO5 a replay just last year (first time since it first came out) and it’s definitely not as bad as I remember. Sure there are all those things I complained about, but I forgot how awesome the roles system was, and between that and the better parts of the combat, it’s still a perfectly fine game - albeit easily the worst in the series.
By the way, anyone ever figure out a connection between General Alma and D.U.M.A. from Divine Force? I noticed while playing through SO5 in preparation for Divine force that General Alma (the main antagonist from SO5) has a jacket/cape that he wears and on the back it specifically says “D.U.M.A.” on it. It’s way too big a connection to be coincidental, but I haven’t actually been able to track down a connection.
Man, The Last Hope still looks good. Yeah, it's been enhanced for PS4/PC but still. Great art is great art.
53:15 With the small text size, the game's build for the Steam Deck, I guess.
The plot twist of Star Ocean 3 killed all the hype I got for the franchise tbh. I also likes Star Ocean 5 but damn it was a very short game and the story was kind of rushed.
"SIDE Kick! SIDE Kick! Izzat all you gart?! SIDE Kick! Izzat all you gart?! SIDE Kick! SIDE Kick!"
- Fayt Leingod
with second story R i wonder will they do blue sphere or go straight to till the end of time for remasters/remakes.
Star Ocean 3 is the best game in the series
You didnt try the gacha? It was pretty good
No, didn't know about it
i want a steam port of tillt he end of time so bad
That would be great!
33:14 - 33:20 33:46 - 33:49 Which game is this from?
Enjoyed this, but theres a slight dissonance. Its clear you didnt enjoy the divine force and you went into a lot of detail as to why but then you say "better than integrity and faithless". Which I agree with you about.
The segment on integrity and faithless had less negative critique than what you put about the divine force and felt like you glossed over the many egregious issues it had.
Like it felt more like divine force got railed on more for the parts of it you disliked than is comparable with your segment on integrity and faithlessness. Which wouldnt have been something that stuck except for that throwaway "Its better than integrity and faithlessness"
Id honestly say your review would have put divine force below integrity and faithless if not for that.
Feels off?
I liked the combat system better in Integrity and Faithlessness, but I liked the story, characters, and advancement system more in The Divine Force. I think that's consistent with what I said in the video.
I can't help but hope that SE taps Gem Drops again to do a remake of SO3. They don't even have to make it into a PS5-quality game. If it can at least match the visual quality and refinement that SO4 had over SO3, while preserving the overall feel and all the things that makes SO3 stand out compared to other installments, that alone would be perfect in my eyes. I wonder what kinds of things they would do with it after seeing the direction they took with SO2R.
I've only played Till the End of Time, The Last Hope and Integrity and Faithlessness. My favorite is Till the End of Time, I didn't get very far in The Last Hope before quitting for something else and I started getting turned off from Integrity and Faithlessness the moment the line about seeing that childhood friend as a sister was said. That whole sister line is something where I go "oh, it's going to be THAT twist" and when it happened, I was done. I knew then I would never see it as all that good, especially next to Till the End of Time. I'm tired of the whole childhood friend that's like a sister until she get's injured then the main character realizes he's in love with her thing. It also feels like quasi incest to me personally. So no thanks, I don't want that type of storyline, I want something more organic. That's why I really enjoy the relationship between Fayt and Sophia, it just feels natural to me with my limited knowledge about childhood friends. I like how they are simply friends and it never goes any further.
Till the End of Time is definitely the best of those three!
@@Xygor Yeah, though I had no idea there were 19 endings. I might have to try to see all of them. Luckily I still have the game and a PS2. The discs are in excellent shape and the console works perfectly.
Integrity and Faithlessness is easily the worst of the three, so bad I got nowhere near the end. I was only at the part where the UP3 had just been full on broken. I decided it wasn't worthwhile since it was so corny and predictable. Funny, an adult game pulled off the basic concept of the sister figure thing far better. No injuries, just two people who hadn't seen each other in years and were both in a bad mental state.
Till the end of time was my favorite. Played it a bunch as a kid. Second story was good too, and the last hope was decent but wasn't quite as good as the others. Hoping that a remake gets made for till end of time soon.
I've only played 2 Star Ocean games. Divine Force and Second Story R. DF was super fun with the combat and exploration... but I did eventually put it down and didn't finish it, I may go back eventually. The small text really hurt the game, even while in the maps I couldn't see what it said. I also didn't like the character models, they seemed really stiff with animations which is something I'm ok with in older games but this one just made it feel uncanny. However, Second Story R is amazing so far and I'm loving it. Haven't finished it yet, but I know I will.
Glad you like Second Story R! They sure did that remake well.
38:35 casually 😂
Which final fantasy are you going to recap next 5, 8, 12, 13, 15, or 16
5
Ok
I loved Star Ocean 3 until that damn plot twist. Anyone who's played through it knows what I mean. It was actually so bad, it killed the whole series for me.
You want to know what's really disappointing? Real life science dummies are making the case that our reality is more likely to be a simulation.
Wish you would have talked about Star Ocean Anamnesis. :(
I played Star Ocean: First Departure R and was rather disappointed and only beat just to see it through to the end. It starts off with easy then once you get to the third continent the enemies constantly curb stomped me and I had to grind almost twenty levels to usually survive. It was really frustrating, you have know how to cheese the skills system and when exactly to attack since you can't cancel attacks. Hearing that the second game is the basis for the changes in its battle system I don't think I want to try that one after all.
I picked up SO 2 on the playstation when it came out years ago. If yall didn't know they have a SO 2 anime that can be watched on RUclips. Just fyi the didnt do the full story though.
I did. I first watched the subbed version and years later when I wanted to rewatch it I couldn't find it anymore so I went to watch the dub instead which wasn't so bad at all. Ashton actually had a better voice than in the game xD
"Didn't change into an action game and alienate fans" shots fired FF16
True!
I completed the cave of trials once. I had attempted Gabriel celesta's evil twin a few times (though never defeating her). Alas, I broke the memory card losing that save. It hurt.
In which of the Star Ocean games?
@@Xygor Second story
Only finished SO Second Story version Claude story
Barely started First Departure & Rena story in Second Evolution version
Played a bit of Till the End of Time too, but stuck midway due to other commitments and my PS2 got some issues
Whos your favorite character
51:00 I understand as a avid fan but cmon they need nee players to make new star oceans and after the second story r it looks like the series is revived lol i love dark souls so im bias but im 34 so im old school too
I’m glad to hear that you are not a big fan of SO6 battle. I could not continue playing the game because it plays differently from classic SO.
Yeah, it's such a bummer!
So it's:
Star Ocean 4: New Hope
Star Ocean
Star Ocean 2
Star Ocean5
Star Ocean 3: end of time
Star Ocean 6: the Divine Force
Thanks for sharing your ranking!
Never even heard of this game.😂
Which one?
I don't have much nostalgia for the series. I played 3rd game and some mobile gacha type game. I wanted to try out other games on ps4, added them to my wish list, but unfortunately store died on me faster than i was able to buy them (yeah, i'm from Russia). Maybe one day in the distant future, who knows. I mean i can bypass the blockage, but i'm lazy to do so...
I liked the 3rd game, when i played it on ps2. I think i still have a disk somewhere, maybe i'll replay it 'cuz i don't remember the plot like at all. The mobile gacha was actually fun as well. I never knew Star Ocean had so many cool characters. But the game was too heavy for my phone so i deleted it eventually.
It seem that i'm the only person that didn't had any proble reading the text in Divne Force and in Integrity and Faithlessnes.
I guess so!
Yeah. Star Ocean 2 and 3 were my favorites of the series. Everything else that came after them were.... not so great. Sure looked pretty though.
I tried to play those games. I finished first departure R and Divine force...it ain't for me unfortunately..the artificial difficulty and the overall difficulty spikes leading to unbelievable grind is such a deal-breaker to me
Not sure how this is a "complete retrospective" as you never talked about anamnesis. But otherwise its a decent video on the star ocean franchise
Gabriel celesta and her evil twin
After I saw the text size of star ocean 6, i uninstalled it. It was a blind buy, after star ocean 5 wasnt that great... my bad. They really have to patch this. Then i will play it someday. But i guess that will never happen.
The 1st game looks like it has too much stuff to do at the same time
It's so fun though!
I liked 5 it just felt incomplete and bland. Like there wasnt enough content and areas.
I thought so too, almost as if they kind of mailed it in on the story.
Pear into peaches
Star Ocean till the end of time is a good game but hard to go back to and play. Because of two parts, one is the Dragon bone flute part where you have 4 different tunes you have to play with only two button and the difficulty spike when you are head to the Time Gate.
Pretty sure it's pronounced like Liv a live
Till the end of time deserves a remake, its an amazing game ! I reccomend anyone that enjoys Staroceans try the Tales of Destiny Directors cut PS2 english patch