Peter

Great game. I’ve been going through it slowly, pretty much killing everything I see in sight and talking to everyone, cause I find it just that enjoyable. Some people I read seem amazed that after 10 hours of playing, they’re still on the first Disc. What’s the rush?! Welp, I’m up to 9 hours now and probably getting closer to next boss battle of the second planet.

Now *this* RPG really feels like my kind of RPG. I don’t have to worry about setting character attributes, the game provides alot of money with the bonus board lit up and from all the battles I jump into. Those two things bug me with some RPGs. Did others mean you put items in their shop for you to feel hopeless to purchase, or do they really think they’re making a korean grind mmo?

The battles I’ve had so far have been fairly easy and tends to get easier on the planet you’re staying at very quickly. It’s still very early in the game, so its definitely going to get more interesting later, but while its still easy breezy, I’m practicing on doing those blindsides! There’s still something about it I’m not getting down completely, though I think I will over time. What is it you exactly look for? You only have split second to react to the flashing guard indicator. Instead I’ve just been watching the monster itself for the moment its about to attack my character. That makes sense anyway right? Confusing tutorial o_o;

The voice acting is ok. The acting in the voice is good. It’s just the sound of some characters may be just too silly to bear. I’ve yet to see that though. From video’s I’ve seen online, I think the angel character will be the only one to bother me cause she might be so high ptiched sounding. Why can’t they just use a normal voice?

I feel I have to give graphics a rating here. I can’t rate anything else without having played through the whole thing. Mostly cause I heard a friend told me that another friend couldn’t stand the graphics, so I gotta say something here. I had the opportunity to play Enchanted Arms first before this and I still have to beat it so I can give it back to my college at work. To me it feels old, but I think Star Ocean beats it by a long shot, *most* of the time. Characters are fun to look at and really well detailed, more than you could really notice in battle. They could sometimes look like puppets for Thunderbirds - I don’t care for that though. I joke with my bother one some scenes, making right arm flap all around my head as if the string for it has malfunctioned. In one cut scene a close up of one of the monsters really surprised me. That big blue blob thing. A Gametailer review said that the maps sometimes were dull/bland, I think they’re ok, alot better than Enchanted Arms. Some places reminded me of the nice areas in Guild Wars. In the end, I’d give 7.5 or even 8 for graphics, cause its good, but not mind blowing.

I like that consoles encourages doing multi-player with someone next to you. Star Ocean is definitely not for that though. I feel that’s kind of unfortunate, cause the cut scenes are great and I’d like to watch them together with another person. Whenever I feel a cut scene coming up, I would tell whoever is closest to come watch. I think I’d be “hun fok” if I had a gamer girlfriend who would love watching as much as playing along… XD

I’ll say that this isn’t my full review and end it here. I’m gonna write more about Star Ocean when I feel like it ^^. You know, its a whole different perspective to know when a friend just burned the game to play while you bought it and really enjoy it. Not that I never realized this feeling would come, it doesn’t worry me much, but if Mahmud is reading this, he’s right, sometimes I just gotta be careful.

Anyway, there’s a whole ocean to explore! Calmus… engage!