KaiTenSatsuma
05-01-2006, 08:15 AM
The Star Ocean games have always been great Role Playing games, usually including deep stories and increasingly interesting mechanisms
ironically i dont know jack about that part, because this is the first Star Ocean game i have played :Braces for Flamers:
either way now it is time to start the review.
The Star Ocean:Till the End of Time game, Director's Cut (if you somehow CANT find one... DC i mean) includes many additions such as extra characters and more pretty cinamatics.
Of course, i havnt gotten that far in the game yet, but feel it is my duty to review the game ANYWAY.
So far from what i have seen this game is stellar, like Disgaea Stellar. The framerate (measured by some other guy) is usually at a constant 60 FPS and the character models themselves are highly detailed (for a game that came out in 2004 i think) and suprisingly maintain their creativity while allowing you to understand the characters themselves. There is no "World Map" but instead areas to explore in between towns and dungeons (which is enough to quench my thirst for exploration, unlike in FFX-2.) which resemble basically feilds chock full of monsters, and treasure chests. Completly exploring a map results in a reward of a 1/114, 1/60 , 1/X number model bunny which increases movement speed of your party by 5% each.
and are worth 9000 cash if you want to sell them, weeee cash!
of course, 9000 cash isnt exactly worth alot, in fact, its damn poor later in the game for one reason...
Inventing!
Inventing is much more complicated in this game (so i am told) you start off with 3 inventors... each character that is in your part at that point, you apply to become an inventor in the inventor's guild in town not too far in the game, and you automatically get 3 rival inventors you can recruit if you aquire certain items, or pay enough cash, or in one case, i heard, have certain inventors already.
Each inventor, excluding the player character inventors specialise in one certain type of inventing, compounding,alchemy,smithing,cooking,synthesis,wri ting or engineering (post if i missed some) they generally have higher skill in the inventing skills they are part of than the characters do, or have special invention ideas.
at the beginning many inventors have weaker skills than most of your player characters have, but they usually have more invention ideas.
each inventor has certain ideas for inventions.
inventing is pretty simple though, you pick up to 3 inventors, tell them what to work on, they give you a general price (for an unknown at then item) and work on that for a while untill 1) you run out of cash or 2) run out of quality to make the item.
the cheaper the item, usually the worse the item, but the higher your chance to make it, i suggest you make every low price at the beginning and have it lisenced in your name so you dont pay full price to buy it (this is especially useful for armor,weapons and books) you can then sell your item back to a shopkeeper for about 2x the inventing price, and the price you will pay if you lisenced the item.
inventing yeilds in (hopefully) powerful weapons, strong armor and useful items, i know i really like the enemy freeze potion against monsters like the zombie dragon.
The story in this game isnt the most obvious thing you will ever have the honor to play through, i myself am still guessing in what will happen next, and it will definatly cause some laughs in certain parts, and generally it gives you the feeling of being in a vast universe, or being stuck in one place.
The battle system is comparable to the "Tales of" games, it is real time, free movement battle, two buttons are used for attacking, and at certain distances different attacks are yeilded (example, at long range the strong attack launches the enemy high into the air, this can be followed up with another knock up attack via pressing the strong attack button then a double stab attack as they come back by pressing the weak attack button twice, good combo at the beginning of the game) Also there are attack enhancer abilities that can be tied to each range / strength and special attacks which also can be tied to each range/strength, allowing combos of power attacks and attack boosters.
Included in abilities is the ability to "Cancel" attacks, this yeilds a bonus in damage to the special attacks you do, this is done by using one weak attack, following it up with a weak skill, then a strong skill, and another weak skill, ahh screw it, read the little box in the battle section, youll be confused untill you do it.
Voices in this game are well fitted to most characters and music is present and fitting to the areas you walk into, though if you get stuck in a town and cant find your way to the next section, i suggest getting headphones or turning the volume off, that IS just me because i get headaches playing deep into the night and need to turn sound off.
Included also in the director's cut is the new "Battle Trophies" which are awarded for meeting requirements in battle including acts such as "Beating an enemy in X amount of time" or "Beating enemy with a Metal Pipe" and also of course, various other ones such as "Ambushed 10 times" which will with proper percentage of (300 god damn awards to collect) yeild awards such as other difficulty levels and costumes.
Scoring will be done in my study hall since Computer Math is about to end.
ironically i dont know jack about that part, because this is the first Star Ocean game i have played :Braces for Flamers:
either way now it is time to start the review.
The Star Ocean:Till the End of Time game, Director's Cut (if you somehow CANT find one... DC i mean) includes many additions such as extra characters and more pretty cinamatics.
Of course, i havnt gotten that far in the game yet, but feel it is my duty to review the game ANYWAY.
So far from what i have seen this game is stellar, like Disgaea Stellar. The framerate (measured by some other guy) is usually at a constant 60 FPS and the character models themselves are highly detailed (for a game that came out in 2004 i think) and suprisingly maintain their creativity while allowing you to understand the characters themselves. There is no "World Map" but instead areas to explore in between towns and dungeons (which is enough to quench my thirst for exploration, unlike in FFX-2.) which resemble basically feilds chock full of monsters, and treasure chests. Completly exploring a map results in a reward of a 1/114, 1/60 , 1/X number model bunny which increases movement speed of your party by 5% each.
and are worth 9000 cash if you want to sell them, weeee cash!
of course, 9000 cash isnt exactly worth alot, in fact, its damn poor later in the game for one reason...
Inventing!
Inventing is much more complicated in this game (so i am told) you start off with 3 inventors... each character that is in your part at that point, you apply to become an inventor in the inventor's guild in town not too far in the game, and you automatically get 3 rival inventors you can recruit if you aquire certain items, or pay enough cash, or in one case, i heard, have certain inventors already.
Each inventor, excluding the player character inventors specialise in one certain type of inventing, compounding,alchemy,smithing,cooking,synthesis,wri ting or engineering (post if i missed some) they generally have higher skill in the inventing skills they are part of than the characters do, or have special invention ideas.
at the beginning many inventors have weaker skills than most of your player characters have, but they usually have more invention ideas.
each inventor has certain ideas for inventions.
inventing is pretty simple though, you pick up to 3 inventors, tell them what to work on, they give you a general price (for an unknown at then item) and work on that for a while untill 1) you run out of cash or 2) run out of quality to make the item.
the cheaper the item, usually the worse the item, but the higher your chance to make it, i suggest you make every low price at the beginning and have it lisenced in your name so you dont pay full price to buy it (this is especially useful for armor,weapons and books) you can then sell your item back to a shopkeeper for about 2x the inventing price, and the price you will pay if you lisenced the item.
inventing yeilds in (hopefully) powerful weapons, strong armor and useful items, i know i really like the enemy freeze potion against monsters like the zombie dragon.
The story in this game isnt the most obvious thing you will ever have the honor to play through, i myself am still guessing in what will happen next, and it will definatly cause some laughs in certain parts, and generally it gives you the feeling of being in a vast universe, or being stuck in one place.
The battle system is comparable to the "Tales of" games, it is real time, free movement battle, two buttons are used for attacking, and at certain distances different attacks are yeilded (example, at long range the strong attack launches the enemy high into the air, this can be followed up with another knock up attack via pressing the strong attack button then a double stab attack as they come back by pressing the weak attack button twice, good combo at the beginning of the game) Also there are attack enhancer abilities that can be tied to each range / strength and special attacks which also can be tied to each range/strength, allowing combos of power attacks and attack boosters.
Included in abilities is the ability to "Cancel" attacks, this yeilds a bonus in damage to the special attacks you do, this is done by using one weak attack, following it up with a weak skill, then a strong skill, and another weak skill, ahh screw it, read the little box in the battle section, youll be confused untill you do it.
Voices in this game are well fitted to most characters and music is present and fitting to the areas you walk into, though if you get stuck in a town and cant find your way to the next section, i suggest getting headphones or turning the volume off, that IS just me because i get headaches playing deep into the night and need to turn sound off.
Included also in the director's cut is the new "Battle Trophies" which are awarded for meeting requirements in battle including acts such as "Beating an enemy in X amount of time" or "Beating enemy with a Metal Pipe" and also of course, various other ones such as "Ambushed 10 times" which will with proper percentage of (300 god damn awards to collect) yeild awards such as other difficulty levels and costumes.
Scoring will be done in my study hall since Computer Math is about to end.