Let's talk about Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope (for xbox in japan lololol) OFFCIAL

[Bebpo]

I don't get how they can actually get the voice acting to be that bad. Are they trying to emulate the Japanese voices, or something? I really don't get it. Even shit VA directors working on a dime would have it in them to get something better even out of a shit group of voice "talent."

In this case they are trying to emulate the Japanese voices, which...doesn't really work.  I've been playing SO4 in Japanese and while the voices are better, some are still awful like Sara above and the cat girl.  Edge is ok, the cyborg is good, the elf guy is really good, the loli is lol in a good way, and the main girl is generic but so is her character.  But yeah, the angel girl/cat girl have terrible voices in Japanese too.

All the youtube cutscene videos are in english so I can't link to any :\

[Junpei the Tracer!]

You guys standards are too high.

Who the fuck are you

 :'(

Just got Meracle. She's pretty great and I was looking at the battle trophies, some of that stuff is fucking crazy.

[BlueTsunami]

Your going to fantasize about Meracle's kitty pooper, all night

[Jansen]

i was breezing thru the game until nox. now the enemies are hitting me for 1000hp + at a time forcing me to either grind or hunt down ingredients to create new armour.

fucking lame

[Bebpo]

i was breezing thru the game until nox. now the enemies are hitting me for 1000hp + at a time forcing me to either grind or hunt down ingredients to create new armour.

fucking lame

Sounds like what happens in SO3 after the hooded tornado guys show up.

[tiesto]

Just made it to disk 3... some nice story turns here beforehand, and the final dungeon on disk 2 had a cool design.

[Van Cruncheon]

why does sarah in so4 look an awful lot like a winged version of sarah from lost odyssey

oh yeah, moribund character design in jappy games

[MCD]

because feel+ was involved here somehow.

[recursivelyenumerable]

that is true, but i somehow doubt it has any connection

[tiesto]

why does sarah in so4 look an awful lot like a winged version of sarah from lost odyssey

oh yeah, moribund character design in jappy games

I'm really hoping there are some Sarah cosplayers at the next anime convention I go to...

[Jansen]

i beat it...

even with all the technical faults and terrible (but funny) cutscenes i'd give the game a 7/10. the gameplay just won out in the end

i can't believe i need to play thru multipule times to the extra ending cutscene for each character. i just wanna know if arumat changed his mind about dying or not. anybody know?

[MCD]

i can't believe i need to play thru multipule times to the extra ending cutscene for each character.

lol tri-ace.

[demi]

You can get every character ending on a single playthrough

[Jansen]

there's no new game+? all i can do is carry over dictionary shit?! lame

You can get every character ending on a single playthrough

do you have a link to a faq explaining how?

[demi]

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?p=1652620

All of the endings are short sections that play after you've beaten the game for each of the main characters and two small epilogues that will play after the credits. It is possible to unlock all nine in one playthrough. You will have to be very careful to follow the instructions for Crowe and Faize, and be diligent to find as many PA's as possible for the other characters to get them all at once. The later someone joins your party, the harder it is to get their achievement. If you follow the guide I've made here, you will get all nine at once.

Following the guide linked above will only be half the battle. The other half is to refrain from pickpocketing. If you do this often, your friends will see and lower their affinity for you. If you do choose to pickpocket (or just to get an extra affinity boost), using a Love Potion No. 256 can help.

[Jansen]

thanks. now i know how i fucked up so badly cuz i was a pickpocketing fool

[Junpei the Tracer!]

Disc 2 came outta fucking nowhere. 

[Junpei the Tracer!]

The cutscene after the phantoms was so long my controller turned off due to inactivity. I thought my game froze, I got so worried I'd have to do that fight again.

[Jansen]

the disc switching is some bullshit and totally killed my desire to do another playthru

rating changed to 5/10

[Van Cruncheon]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/644-Star-Ocean-The-Last-Hope

[billyofcourse]

I do have to agree that the disc switch location between disc one and two was one of the single most random places for a disc change ever in the history of gaming.  I'm just walking along the map, minding my own business, when wtf....switch discs?

[Bebpo]

I just did the big dungeon on disc 2 where you have to save Sara.  Please tell me that was the worst dungeon/part of the game and it will only get better.

That dungeon went on and on and was so ugly looking.  The whole "1 charge per crystal" thing was fucking distinguished mentally-challenged and just made to artificially lengthen the dungeon out.  The axe armor puzzle was neat once, maybe twice.  By the end when you're going down corridors to find all the pots it was absolutely horrid.  The boss fight was pretty terrible too as once he started doing laser blasts all my AI people just would get totally dead even with HP boost and around 6-8k life.    Since I had limited revive items that meant mainly me spamming him with Edge.  Then again is there any point to having AI characters alive in this game?  I swear my team does nothing in both normal battles and boss battles.  I always see them hitting the boss for like 20 damage while I'm doing thousands and they never seem to heal themselves, myself, or cure any status ailments.  They also don't have any intelligence at all so they just run repeatedly at enemies in rush mode and get themselves killed by simple flying bees or something. 

I swear SO4 is like the closest to a 1 person party rpg I've ever played.  I just gotta make sure I have enough HP and do enough damage to do everything myself with Edge.

Also is there any way to avoid cheap shit of getting hit when you are knocked down and the enemy is firing some big ass attacks over and over and you just keep getting hit until you are dead?  The best I've figured out is to not press anything and you glow invincible for like 1 second when you get up, but if the boss/enemy is spamming, their attacks usually last more than that 1 second and you get hit anyhow and are knocked down again.  Since there's no block button and the B jump dodge doesn't take you that far away (plus you lose your invincibility after you do it), is there any strategy to press if you get hit and knocked down?

[Jansen]

uh if sarah isn't healing you might have her tactics set wrong. btw you do know you can switch characters during battle. i didn't know i could switch to someone else midbattle until i was quite a ways into the game

set her to stay out of trouble and she'll do a reasonable job of keeping ya fixed up. or at least she did for me. you'll still have to switch to her every now and them to get what ya need done asap

as for boss fights they're pretty much just up to whatever character you have selected because most of them have a weak spot to exploit and the ai is too dumb to exploit em. the ai provides a nice distraction so you can get what you need done

you should have attackers set to fight freestyle and healers/spellcasters set to stay out of trouble. if you use gang up with full force they will rush in like distinguished mentally-challenged fellows with no regards to their safety

[Bebpo]

Well, I haven't gotten Sarah as an actual party member yet.  So she's the main healer I should keep around?  I've been using Reimi but she likes to spam electric arrow at nothing instead of ever healing.

In terms of AI options, which is the "stay out of trouble"  I'm playing the Japanese one and the only AI options I have under strategy are:

-Fight 100% against everyone! (I assume this means use all MP and attack different enemies)
-Fight 100% against one enemy! (same but one enemy)
-Don't USE MP and fight everyone!
-Don't UES MP and fight one enemy!
-Aim for a single unit's destruction!
-Do nothing!

So either I'm reading these wrong, or every option is "kill the enemy" except "do nothing" which wouldn't help me either.

I think a guide for which characters to use, which spells/skills to turn OFF, and which AI strategy to set them on would help me a lot cause seriously I feel like all I do is baby sit these idiots while I do the fights myself.  Which is pretty much how I felt about SO3 as well.  SO3 imo had the worst party ai in a game and SO4 seems to do everything to win that title back.  I wish SO games gave me the party AI options that Tales games do.

[Jansen]

alright that's it. i'm done buying jrpgs on release for current gen consoles

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Ocean-Last-Hope-Xbox-360/dp/B001LGFPSY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1239206012&sr=1-1

[Bebpo]

Since you bumped it I'll mention that I found out what you were talking about with "minimize damage" AI setting.
Why only certain characters have that selectable is beyond me.  Reimi doesn't have it and she was my main healer until I got Sarah.

Also considering that IU dropped to $17, TLR to $30 all within like a month or two of release, SO4 dropping is no surprise.  Hell it's not even just jrpgs.  Most x360 games these days are dropping pretty fast, which is awesome if you can hold off a month or two.  PS3 3rd parties drop well too, but stupid 1st parties take forever >_<

[Jansen]

i think only three characters have that setting. pretty dumb. but this game is chalk full of some of the poorest decisions for an rpg so it's not surprising

i'm not shocked at the price drop. i really just need to convince myself to wait for them

[Junpei the Tracer!]

I just fought a boss for around 30 minutes. :/ 

[BlueTsunami]

You needed to attack its weak point probably, which boss was it?

[Junpei the Tracer!]

It was the boss in the cave after you get Arumat. It was his weak point, after finding that out five minutes later he was dead. The worse part is that I have the guide and if I would've read it, I wouldn't have had that problem.

[tiesto]

The boss after that guy is a real HP-sink... was fighting him for like 15-20 min. Looks like I'm in the final stretch with this game, but I think I'll need to do some synthesis if I want to take on the secret dungeons (at least I'm gonna do the first secret dungeon).

[BlueTsunami]

If I remember correctly, its the boss that puts an orb around it? Yeah, that one confused the hell out of me. When it goes into orb mode, apparently thats when its at its weakest. So go all out with techniques.

[MCD]

that orb guy was weak thanks to that huge phoenix like monster near it that nets you 15k+ exp points.

[Fragamemnon]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/644-Star-Ocean-The-Last-Hope

awesome

"how long are you going to keep treating me like a child?" - animu girl
"YOU'RE BOTH TWELVE!" - Yhatzee

A+ stuff

[Bebpo]

It was the boss in the cave after you get Arumat. It was his weak point, after finding that out five minutes later he was dead. The worse part is that I have the guide and if I would've read it, I wouldn't have had that problem.

I'm about to fight this boss.  What was the weak point and what level were you?  I was backing up dvds off my hard drive today so I just ran around and grinded before the phantom soldier fight until everyone was about lvl.42 with Edge at lvl.48.  That phantom soldier fight wasn't hard but it was pretty annoying.  I swear half the time I hit them I wouldn't do any damage but I couldn't tell why.

[Error2k4]

If you bothered to Analyze the Phantom Soldiers one of the factors says "Resistance against physical attacks" or some shit like that. What you do is equip the critical hit skill with anyone that has it, since critical hits ignore defense... Reimi has that skill equip plus her Special Arts tend to do a bunch of critical hits often because most of her Special Arts hit a bunch of times, so she is a good choice for that fight. Magic works well against them, too.

If you are getting gangbanged by the enemy you can either A)active rush mode to break their combo or B)Switch to another party member.

[demi]

Error do you feel silly knowing IU is better than this?

[Error2k4]

SO4 is way better than IU.

Anyway once you get Sarah, she is your dedicated healer. Turn off her offensive spells (they are shit anyway) and leave the buffs and healing spells on. Put her AI setting on Stay away from trouble.

I didn't have any problem with the AI at all :shrugs.

[Bebpo]

If you bothered to Analyze the Phantom Soldiers one of the factors says "Resistance against physical attacks" or some shit like that. What you do is equip the critical hit skill with anyone that has it, since critical hits ignore defense... Reimi has that skill equip plus her Special Arts tend to do a bunch of critical hits often because most of her Special Arts hit a bunch of times, so she is a good choice for that fight. Magic works well against them, too.

If you are getting gangbanged by the enemy you can either A)active rush mode to break their combo or B)Switch to another party member.

I don't control anyone other than Edge in battles.  I don't like playing as the other characters at all.  Spamming projectiles or magic from a distance is no fun.  I don't play as other characters in Tales games either really.  I only like playing melee combo characters in realtime rpgs.

I would have put the critical skill on Edge except for the fact that there are no shops on this planet and I never bought the skill.  Whoops.  I don't understand why there isn't a generic shop on the ship for when you are stuck places without shops.

[demi]

SO4 is way better than IU.

I played both... IU is so much better than this. The AI is better in IU, the graphics are above SD, the story is better, the characters are above the age of 12... IU is probably Tri-Ace's best game since Valkyrie Profile DS

[Error2k4]

There was a shop in Roak that sold that skill.

[Bebpo]

There was a shop in Roak that sold that skill.

And that helped me when I was on Aeos...how?

[Error2k4]

You can put shops in your ship, but I don't think there's a Skill shop. Only item shops.

...I don't think the game is to blame if you didn't bother to buy the skills when you could.

[demi]

Error is your favorite character Lymle?

[Bebpo]

You can put shops in your ship, but I don't think there's a Skill shop. Only item shops.

 

How?

[Error2k4]

Demi: No, I never liked any SO character. I just play the games because they are fun to me.

You can create the devices via Item Creation, using engineering.

[demi]

Is the game fun because you get to play as Lymle?

[Bebpo]

Demi: No, I never liked any SO character. I just play the games because they are fun to me.

You can create the devices via Item Creation, using engineering.

I can't create anything decent with IC.  I wanted to create a new sword for Edge because I haven't upgraded his in like 2 planets and it's only around 200atk but the sword recipes I come up with are like 80atk swords wtffffffff.  I hate IC in SO so much.  It's amazingly overpowered and useful if you can actually use it right and make godly equipment/items.  It screws you over every minute of the game if you can't because the game expects you to be making good equip/items and hardly has any shops selling that stuff.

[Error2k4]

if you have Sarah you can use synthesize, so you can power up your current equipment without the need to purchase new equipment.

[Bebpo]

if you have Sarah you can use synthesize, so you can power up your current equipment without the need to purchase new equipment.

I looked at that a little and it seemed like small upgrades.  ATK+2 and stuff.  Is there a trick to really upping the power of your weapon?

[demi]

Lymle

[Error2k4]

Yeah, what you'd like to synthesize for weapons should be increases in % like Atk +20% instead of Atk +20.

Also I'd suggest taking an anti-paralysis amulet and synthesize it with anti-silence one, so you'd have both effects equipped at once. Useful for your dedicated healer, or any character.

demi: I don't play as mage-type character, kay?

[Junpei the Tracer!]

It was the boss in the cave after you get Arumat. It was his weak point, after finding that out five minutes later he was dead. The worse part is that I have the guide and if I would've read it, I wouldn't have had that problem.

I'm about to fight this boss.  What was the weak point and what level were you?  I was backing up dvds off my hard drive today so I just ran around and grinded before the phantom soldier fight until everyone was about lvl.42 with Edge at lvl.48.  That phantom soldier fight wasn't hard but it was pretty annoying.  I swear half the time I hit them I wouldn't do any damage but I couldn't tell why.

Edge was 53 and everyone else 51 and lower. His weak point is his tail, you have to blindside him but if his tail isn't down you'll just be attacking air.

[Bebpo]

I have to admit, for every battle in SO4 people who like the game will have made a smart strategy and have had a rewarding battle.  This means the battle system is good if you can find it...

Meanwhile I just blindside and mash one combo over and over and since I don't die because the game isn't that hard, I'm not forced to think up a strategy and I just come away from the fight thinking it was tiresome and annoying. 

I can't tell if the game just needs to be more difficult to force players to use strategies, or if it needs to be more intuitive in the strategies so players will realize them and use them.  Like in an FF game if you fight a robot you realize you should use lightning, or in Megaten you realize when you are doing NO DAMAGE that you should find the weakness.  But in SO it's like you're doing 300 damage and maybe you should be doing more?  But maybe that's because your levels just suck.  Or your equipment is not up to IC standards.  Or your skills or too low.  Or maybe it's because you're not using the right strategy.  I guess unintuitive is how I would describe SO2/3/4 battles.

[Error2k4]

Levels never matter much in SO because the stats increase is pretty small. It's equipment+skill setups that make a difference.

[Bebpo]

What should I be doing using SP on btw?  Right now I've maxed or am close to maxing on everyone:

-HP Boost
-All special attacks/magic spells
-Link combo
-Their IC ability

And I've pretty much ignored everything else.  I'm going to try to get critical and start maxing that on everyone next I guess.

[Bebpo]

Also what's the best way to get party SP?  I used it all on HP Boost for everyone on Roak and don't have enough to make IC recipies now ^^;

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I dunno.  The boss battles in this game make no sense.  I just did that cave boss and this is what happens:

-I'm busy blindsiding and fighting the boss and I look around a few mins in and notice ALL MY PARTY MEMBERS ARE DEAD. 
-I revive them and what as they get horribly murdered by the small scorpion enemies
-I kill the small enemies, then go back to the boss
-boss just makes more small enemies
-so I just fight the boss and watch as my party members keep dying while I revive them every once and a while
-I'm not sure if I'm actually doing much damage to the boss because the boss's HP meter DOESN'T GO DOWN
-Also I can't get more than 1 link combo off after a blindside to the boss's tail because a stupid small scorpion will shoot spikes at me and knock me out of my combo
-I try killing the small ones but the big one just keeps remaking them so no point
-So I just keep blindsiding and doing 1 link combo while my party members lye on the floor dead
-After I kill the main boss, but before I kill the small enemies, I revive my parties members so they can get exp

I dunno, that just seems...wrong.  Like I don't understand why my party IS ALWAYS DYING.  They are fucking useless completely.  I could understand them dying against major boss attacks but they always die from normal enemies in rush mode because they aren't smart enough to RUN THE FUCK AWAY when enemies go into rush mode. 

Oh and that cave dungeon was long and confusing and I didn't enjoy having to bring the menu up after every battle on the entire planet to cure someone of poison.  Bleh.

[Error2k4]

that fight was fuck easy.

just set your party AI to attack other enemies. lock on to the boss, blindside him and slash away. Meracles's Comet Impact or whatever, does a bunch of damage and it has a low CP so you can put it on a lot of slots to link it and increase its damage output. you'll kill the boss in like 2 minutes.

Also what's your party right now?

as for skills, no guard(guardless in the JP version)+critical hit are the best for melees.

And if poison is bothering you, anti-poison amulets?

And I've pretty much ignored everything else.  I'm going to try to get critical and start maxing that on everyone next I guess.

... wow. is this your first rpg? HP boost is a complete waste of SP. It's not even that useful, considering there are other more useful skills.

[Bebpo]

HP Boost is really useful I dunno what you are talking about.
My AI people last an extra minute with 15k HP instead of 5k HP.

And there is no way to tell the AIs to only attack the other enemies.  You can't choose which enemy the AI is going to attack afaik.

I didn't have anti-poison amulets and if you noticed there were no shops on that entire planet.