Which characters were implied for that? I do recall the implication that player characters existed and were running around in the universe before the current crisis, but I don't recall anything pointing to any of the previous characters/games even when such would explain things like the escape of the Ten Wise Men.
Star Trek meets D&D - the Star Ocean Series Megathread
- Thread starter Kanata.EXE
- Start date
- Megathread
-
- Tags
- dungeons & dragons
Which characters were implied for that? I do recall the implication that player characters existed and were running around in the universe before the current crisis, but I don't recall anything pointing to any of the previous characters/games even when such would explain things like the escape of the Ten Wise Men.
AmineHsu
A worm, not a man, scorned and despised.
- Location
- NoVA
At least Ronyx from Star Ocean 1, I forget who else.
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We all know the only actual player is Welch, who doesn't give a damn about plot or gameplay and just wants to do crafting minigames and ship the NPCs.
I'm not seeing a source for that anywhere, and honestly it doesn't make to much sense for Ronyx because everything we see about him is pretty close to his Federation upbringing. We don't see him doing any weird and wacky stuff like Welch gets up to for example (such as somehow being alive in games hundreds of years apart and always finding where ever the plot action is), nor does he have any non-sequiturs that stand out in his dialogue.
Welch is most definitely an example of this, and there's a some others that could maybe be one.
Lymle from 4 has potential as pulling new magic out her ass as the plot demands that directly interacts with system resources/mechanics and summoning extra dimensional mythological demons (which we've never seen people use outside of gameplay before to my knowledge) is the kind of nonsense we would expect from one of them. She also explicitly opened a portal into a demonic realm that exposed to her significant emotional damage (it's how she got Cerberus and it's what messed up her aging). Which could easily have caused some interaction from 4D Space but that's just speculation even if it is about the only thing I can think of to explain the anti-aging effects.
Relia in 5 is an interesting example with powers well outside of what is normally done via symbology but pretty blatantly has brain/memory damage. Manipulating space/time like she does is something we've only seen done via 4D Space methods before. However, given the kind of things we see the three test subjects do in the third game and the fact that she and her sister underwent a similar experimental regimen, this could be just someone mucking around with genetic symbology a few generations ahead of schedule. I suspect that the experiments along the same lines as what the Liengods were doing is a better explanation, but being a 4D Space person/avatar is also possible.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
Ah, the common goal of MMO players - muck about with time-waster mechanics and enjoy spending time with your favourite characters
- Location
- Texas, US
SO3 sold very well and SO4 sold decently well. SO4 did so well that Square even decided to remaster it for PS4/Steam while SO5 is still just on the PS4.
SO3 is hot garbage and I hate it but I hate it mainly because it was talked up so much by a ton of JRPG fans I knew growing up in the 2000s. It's a very popular game. SO4 is a thornier issue but it came from an era where it was really cool to hate on JRPGs with fanatical zeal even when this did not reflect in sales. It's not like FFXIII sold poorly, and neither did SO4.
Also, for all the talk of "Star Trek with Magic" SO4 remains the only game in the franchise where you travel on a spaceship all game, going from different world to different world. It's part of why I like it and forgive it its faults. (We don't have much in the way of scifi JRPGs - Xenosaga spoiled me in so many ways growing up.) That's what I'm waiting to see from SO6, will we actually get to see the star ocean?
The music was also incredibly good in The Last Hope
View: https://youtu.be/DnD-o5FI4zo
View: https://youtu.be/kN78MPuVquQ
Last edited:
For all that I have some serious issues with the writing, the gameplay was smooth, some of the plot was redeemable, and the music was awesome. I regard SO4 as the worst game in the series, but that says more about how much some of the writing twists pissed me off than anything.
Last edited:
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
I thought SO4 was mechanically the worst game in the series. I thought Blindsides were a mistake, I hated feeling like I had to play a certain way to rebuild the Bonus Gauge every session just to get healing after battle, and I really didn't enjoy the enemy AI targeting priorities and the battle flow.
All fair criticisms honestly. The Bonus Board was a great idea in theory but caused some issues in practice because some of the tiles you could add really didn't belong there like End of Battle Healing. Money is largely irrelevant in this game past a certain point, and the Skill system encourages grinding for those skill points anyway, but the numbers were clearly balanced with a Board full of extra skill point tiles in mind making it a really grindy proposition to get anywhere with those in the early game.
AI Targeting felt ok to me? As long as I was being sufficiently aggressive as Edge I usually did an ok job at holding aggro, but there will be occasions where you need to swap party members and control the members the enemy is targeting manually.
That is one HUGE credit to 5 though. The Role system made all of that so much easier by being able to assign skill and targeting priorities to your party, as well as actually effective defenders for the non-direct combatants like Relia. And the expanded roster in battle means that you have the man power to actually assign someone to defending the casters if you are feeling the need while still having a few beefy front line fighters.
The Role System is the number one thing I want carried over from 5 to 6 bar none.
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
After a boss battle where I spent 20 minutes able to do nothing but jump cancel with Reimi because the boss was doing nothing else but rushing me down solely, I got more or less fed up enough to quit. I never had anywhere near as much trouble keeping distance with Maria or Opera, in comparison.
It is entirely possible I wasn't playing correctly but I wasn't having any fun.
Yeah, I never had that problem because I was habitually in the boss's face and fully expected to be targeted in response. Hopping to the casters to occasionally issue orders and then hopping back to Edge/whoever to go back to slugging it out was second nature after a certain point.
I guess I naturally would have dodged an issue where the enemy is set up to target the player specifically, which would make trying to main one of the casters/longer range party members a lot harder.
Mission Report: #2 D.U.M.A. and Vanguard Assault
Kanata.EXE
Programmer
- Location
- Indonesia
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
A new trailer dropped, showing off the crafting system, sidequest, party interaction and a few new characters.
View: https://youtu.be/cpG7ePQlNnI
That merchant girl is a player in the lore, right?
View: https://youtu.be/cpG7ePQlNnI
That merchant girl is a player in the lore, right?
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Its never stated outright, but she's appeared on multiple pre-contact planets, during time periods hundreds of years apart, is always the same age, always seems to be a native to said pre-contact planets but has tech knowledge or tech greater than the locals, and when she's been part of a space-capable civilization, she consistently displayed more interest in shipping the main characters than concern for the apocalyptic crises that were ongoing and which the organization she was nominally a part of was dedicated to.
So... implicitly, yes.
Last edited:
That's been my reading of Welch since that was a known thing, yes.
There's a few other people that reasonably could be Players, but she is by far the number one candidate.
There's a few other people that reasonably could be Players, but she is by far the number one candidate.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
Was the player thing hinted at before SO3? I've only really played the first two games on PSP, iirc, and maybe one more? Can't recall.
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
She wasn't originally in 1 and 2, AFIK - she was added to them with the remakes, made after SO3.
So having watched the 5 minute trailer on Steam, some comments and probably minor spoilers:
Honestly, that trailer gave me more hope for this game than all the media we've seen so far combined.
The Kenny woman is clearly switching sides half way into the game.
I love the bit where the Federation guy says "Roxas Kenny set foot on the forbidden planet Styx, and his son Claude violated the law and brought back unheard of knowledge of symbology! This proves that violating the law is needed for progress!" or something close to that. It shows that the devs clearly thought about the implications of the previous game's plots on the UP3 and how a self serving patriot
would view them. Tackling the UP3 as a moral quandary has always been a big part of the previous game's themes, and this shows they are putting thought into the past context of the series.
I love the bit where the Federation guy says "Roxas Kenny set foot on the forbidden planet Styx, and his son Claude violated the law and brought back unheard of knowledge of symbology! This proves that violating the law is needed for progress!" or something close to that. It shows that the devs clearly thought about the implications of the previous game's plots on the UP3 and how a self serving patriot
would view them. Tackling the UP3 as a moral quandary has always been a big part of the previous game's themes, and this shows they are putting thought into the past context of the series.Honestly, that trailer gave me more hope for this game than all the media we've seen so far combined.
Last edited:
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
Mission Report 5 has dropped, just a few days before the game is released.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbTZsqU-LLU
*watches video*
Seems one of the cast is a princess, and joins up with us after some clash between her kingdom and an empire. Said empire might also have a mind-controlled leader, going off the fact he changed 'ever since those stars fell from the sky' - likely aliens from the sci-fi part of the setting.
There's a weird type of being known as Scorpium, neither carbon nor silicon based, which may be damaging the fabric of the universe. One of our companions actually ended up fused with them, becoming a cyborg of sorts, which looks pretty neat. Mecha samurai ho!
The boss monsters look pretty neat, with a mix of mechanical and biological critters. They even have weak points, ala Zelda, which are hidden from view until x condition triggers. One of our buddies can analyze foes and find their weak spots, too. Boss are also vulnerable to us breaking their body parts, limiting the attacks they can use or rewarding nifty drop items.
There's a 'boss arena' dungeon of sorts called the Den'morh Delve, which the video makes a point to mention as a level-grinding spot. Also loot, what with the boss part drops mechanic.
Overall the game looks pretty decent, on a gameplay front, although my general awareness of the plot remains kinda vague. Anyone gonna nab it when it releases? Kinda poor timing on the release date, with Pokemon coming out just a few weeks away, but I guess they're pretty different genre overall - both JRPG, but this one's hack 'n slash sci-fi vs turn-based combat collect-a-mon.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbTZsqU-LLU
*watches video*
Seems one of the cast is a princess, and joins up with us after some clash between her kingdom and an empire. Said empire might also have a mind-controlled leader, going off the fact he changed 'ever since those stars fell from the sky' - likely aliens from the sci-fi part of the setting.
There's a weird type of being known as Scorpium, neither carbon nor silicon based, which may be damaging the fabric of the universe. One of our companions actually ended up fused with them, becoming a cyborg of sorts, which looks pretty neat. Mecha samurai ho!
The boss monsters look pretty neat, with a mix of mechanical and biological critters. They even have weak points, ala Zelda, which are hidden from view until x condition triggers. One of our buddies can analyze foes and find their weak spots, too. Boss are also vulnerable to us breaking their body parts, limiting the attacks they can use or rewarding nifty drop items.
There's a 'boss arena' dungeon of sorts called the Den'morh Delve, which the video makes a point to mention as a level-grinding spot. Also loot, what with the boss part drops mechanic.
Overall the game looks pretty decent, on a gameplay front, although my general awareness of the plot remains kinda vague. Anyone gonna nab it when it releases? Kinda poor timing on the release date, with Pokemon coming out just a few weeks away, but I guess they're pretty different genre overall - both JRPG, but this one's hack 'n slash sci-fi vs turn-based combat collect-a-mon.
As this is their first real Steam release, I intend to play on that platform day 1, though it will need to wait till I get home from work.
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
As with most non-top-billing JRPGs, my plan is to add it to my steam wish list and snag it when either I'm very bored/depressed and desperate for a new JRPG fix between major releases, or else when it's on sale for a big enough discount for what I'm willing to spend at the moment it goes on discount, whichever comes first. I only get stuff on release for the games so big I have to get it on release to have a shot at playing the story before absorbing the entire story by osmosis at this point.
- Location
- SMS Odette II
I will be abusing my powers as a Moderator to make this the general Star Ocean megathread on account of the exciting news:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9j7mP9Nr9g
Star Ocean 2 is getting a remake!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9j7mP9Nr9g
Star Ocean 2 is getting a remake!
It's a pretty good update too! Voice Acting, new additions to the sound track, and a new quest system.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
Where'd you hear that? The trailer above just shows off the environments, battle system, and sprites a bit.
I'm pretty fond of Star Ocean since I played the 1-2 remaster on PSP, so tis nice to hear it's getting another release. Seems to be going for a chibi design as overall artstyle, too? Not sure that's working as well as what the PSP version went with. Least dialogue has a full-size anime portrait for talking, vs continuing the chibi theme.
*checks*
Oh, PSP had chibi as well, guess my memory was just funky and I forgot.
Actually, looking at the trailer again, the backgrounds are quite detailed vs the chibi character sprites. Kinda reminds me of Octopath Traveler in art direction. 2.5D, I think it's called?
Rearranged Star Ocean The Second Story R Soundtrack Includes New Songs
Composer Motoi Sakuraba is back for the Star Ocean The Second Story R soundtrack, which will also include new songs.
www.siliconera.com
For the new songs and rearranging of the sound track.
You have seen the new environments, and the new talking heads.
Star Ocean The Second Story R Has Added New Quests Due To Slightly More Challenging Battles - Noisy Pixel
Famitsu recently interviewed the Star Ocean team regarding the newly announced Star Ocean The Second Story R. One question...
noisypixel.net
And here for the new quests, though we know very little about this part. It could be a system or just a smattering of new side quests, but given that the original had basically no formal quests at all, I'm guessing there will at least be a menu and such for this one.
Last edited: