Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Almost, but not quite"

First of all, this is my first Star Ocean I have played so I don't know anything about the older ones so if there are references or changes from gameplay I will not post that in this review.

Now, onto the review, let's say that The Last Hope is a fun game, fun because if you are looking for depth then I guess you can't find it here.

Story: The story of this game is well... laughable if you don't want to say something worst. The game starts when an organization from the Earth send ships to investigate a planet called Aeos. In the travel something bad happens and all the ships are damaged when they land on Aeos. The captain of the ship Calnus ask a young man called Edge Maverick to investigate the planet along with his best and childhood friend, Reimi Sanjonji. In their travel they discover something bad and after a while Edge starts being the new captain of Calnus and he alongside with Reimi and a new friend they find in Aeos embark on a new journey for see what is happening to other planets. Perhaps it might look interesting but honestly, this story is filled with clichés and it isn't funny at all. Also the game doesn't have any memorable moment so don't expect something interesting later.

Graphics: One good point of the game and at the same time one bad point. The places look great with all those different colors, lightning, shadows, etc., but the character models are well, not the best. The facial animation is almost non existent and the developers instead of creating new enemies they started to recycle the models. As I said, in the environment part it is great but not the best meanwhile the animation part and character models it is bad.

Sound: The music is good, you will not disappointed by hearing the tones when you are fighting or something like that. Now, the voice actors, you may say what you want but even the japanese cast is annoying sometimes. Take for example Sarah or that little brat Welch, when they talk it is annoying as hell. I don't know how the english cast is but some parts of the japanese cast are bad. Well, at least the seiyuus of some other characters like Bachus, Arumat, Myuria and others did a good job.

Gameplay: Finally, the best part of the game. Star Ocean The Last Hope has (as I have been told) the very same gameplay of the old games, real time battle with the bonus board. This is when the fun starts but if you don't like it then I guess you should turn away because it is repetitive. Also you can do quests, create items, harvest materials and create recipes.

Replay Value: The main story takes like 20 hours and add more if you need to grind, do quests, get the battle trophies... Well, it might take you more than 40 hours and let's not forget that there is post game content, yeah, you don't have to download DLC for get more content after you finish the game. I'm pretty glad that Tri-Ace did that because that is how the games should be, not paying for get more content. Even more, you can unlock more stuff like increase the level cap if you get the battle trophies for each character.

Overall: Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a good game but not the best. It lacks the complexity in story, the characters aren't memorable at all but it can be forgotten if you like the battle system. As a JRPG it does its job but I think they could have done better in the story. Any fan of any JRPG will like this game and if you aren't at least you should give it a try and if you want to waste your time in a game.