Star Ocean The Last Hope: Interational's hero, Edge Maverick.
If Japanese role-playing games aren't your bag, there's little chance that Star Ocean The Last Hope: International will convert you.
A prequel to previous Star Ocean games that sees humanity travelling outside the solar system for the very first time, this slightly beefed up version-denoted by the increasingly popular "International" designation-of the latest entry in Square Enix's long-running series arrived earlier this month on the PlayStation 3 (the original edition was released for Xbox 360 last year), and it is unabashedly Japanese in look, feel, and design.
Our first clue to the game's geographical origin is its primary male hero, Edge Maverick, who has androgynous-going-on-effeminate facial features. (My daughter was certain that-despite his decidedly manly monicker-he was in fact a young girl.) He and most of the rest of our protagonists wear bizarre, impractical, and sometimes revealing multi-piece outfits that seem to defy both logic and physics.
Perhaps even more Eastern than character design is the game's plot and pacing. This is a long, slow-moving adventure featuring extended narrative scenes with plenty of melodrama, no small amount of playful flirtation between characters, and seemingly endless discussion about what has just happened and must happen next. Most of these sequences are accompanied by painfully overacted voice dialogue and vague, imprecise body language.
It might seem that I'm lambasting the game, but that's not my intention. I grew up with Japanese role-playing games, and I find these elements of the genre to be as familiar and welcome as a well-worn shirt. My point is simply that Star Ocean: The Last Hope's almost defiantly Eastern sensibilities won't do much for anyone who has previously tried a JRPG and decided it wasn't his or her cup of tea.
Those who cue to this sort of thing, on the other hand, will likely feel at home right from the get-go, and not just because of the game's Japanese aesthetic and method of storytelling.
The real-time battle system features the sort of depth and richness that fans of the genre know and love. Lower calibre action RPGs often tend to degrade into button mashing frenzies, and consequently grow dull in short order. In contrast, The Last Hope's system is loaded with intricacies that will take players the better part of an hour just to understand in a training simulator, and the rest of the game to master.
You can simply hammer buttons to pummel your foes into submission, and in most cases it works. However, more skilled players will charge their attacks as their enemies approach, then perform a quick dash to their flank-called a Blindside in the game's parlance-to deal more damage. This tactic is critical when fighting some of the game's bosses and stronger field enemies.
These players will likely also take the time to string together powerful chain combination moves, which can be activated via the shoulder buttons and attack button, and make strategic use of the game's Rush metre, which must charge before being unleashed to allow characters to move more quickly and create even more powerful combinations.
However, the most compelling battle element is the Bonus Board, a series of hexagons on the right side of the screen that fill with different colours as you successfully execute specific kinds of attacks. Each coloured tile represents a bonus, such as a boost to experience, magic points, or cash awarded after battle. What's more, the Bonus Board carries over from one battle to the next, so long as your characters don't suffer a critical hit.
The brilliance of this system is that it not only gives players something to think about during battle aside from just jamming on the attack button, but also makes them consider strategy between battles. You'll choose the wandering enemies you run into more carefully based on how you think fights will play out and the current status of your Bonus Board.
As is often the case with JRPGs, there's far too much to get into in a simple blog post. The ability to warp our spaceship from one planet to the next is fun, but a finicky camera that's the source of much aggravation in cramped spaces isn't. Crafting our own items can be an engrossing activity for the detail-oriented among us, while others will be disappointed by the creeping pace at which we find useful pre-made items.
Here's what it boils down to: Players with an appetite for Japanese role-playing fare will likely find something soothing in the game's predictable plot, goofy but affable protagonists, and finely tuned combat. It's an imperfect game, but one from which many fans will surely be able to wring dozens of hours of entertainment.
For those of readers who haven't tried this sort of game but might classify themselves as JRPG-curious, I recommend sitting this one out and waiting just a couple of weeks for what will surely be the genre's main event of 2010: Final Fantasy XIII. It, too, will have a decidedly Eastern vibe, but, based on a couple of brief demos I've been shown, I think its production values, plot, and personalities will be at least a little more attuned to Western tastes.
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