Famitsu 360 gives Star Ocean IV 34/40

VG247: The latest issue of Famitsu 360 has award Square Enix's über-RPG Star Ocean IV: The Last Hope a highly respectable 34/40.

Capcom's Strret Fighter IV scored the same whilst Ninja Gaiden-alike Ninja Blade also scored highly, receiving 33/40.

Star Ocean IV is set be released in Japan on February 19.

Full scores below:

[CrazyOrange]

that just weird hard to trust their review just yet.

Last Remnant got 39/40!!

and im still buying it.

[InMyOpinion]

Famitsus reviews are as credible as Hiphopgamers headlines.

[MegaMohsi]

HAHA, that was good, Famitsu is a joke why do they even bother posting this here.

[IzKyD1331]

They gave WKC a 29/40 I think, while they gave Infinite Undiscovery a 38/40

Pretty suspicious.....

[InMyOpinion]

WKC is probably a better RPG than Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant.

[Hiruma Youchi]

error.

[Hiruma Youchi]

maybe Besides Graphics WKC aint All that , smell me?

[hay]

9988 is a good score. The question is how this game will fit into western market.

[ganaeshd]

I don't know about Infinite Undiscovery (not interested in it at all, looks like a typical output from Square-Enix),but in the case of White Knight Chronicles, there was a 2-page online article written by Nick Des Barres from 1UP. It talks in great length about the character creation mechanic, the gameplay and the story progression, based on the Japanese version of the game.

A two-page article that speaks about the single-player mode in great detail, versus four one-paragraph snippets in Famitsu. Which one would you trust more?

[Saigon]

I agree, until proven otherwise

[Sarcasm]

"Famitsus reviews are as credible as Hiphopgamers headlines. "

LOL that made me crack up. For once I agree with Jenzo.

[JaggedSac]

Wow. All 360 articles get warmer because PS3 fanboys come in spewing their bile. Pathetic.

[aspergersyndrome]

Though online problems have been blamed on the muted reception. The biggest problem with White Knight Chronicles is the story. It has an appalling twist half way through and ends the game on a cliffhanger.

This was not much of a problem with Halo 2, as Halo 3 was 100% guaranteed a release.

With White Knight, would you play it knowing the story does not end and with no information about a sequal?

[blackpanther25]

yeah thanks for spoiling it. I think FF 10 ended on a sad note before they announced a sequel

[GameGambits]

This is the only 360 game of 2009 I am heavily excited to play. So far 2009 exlusives really belong to the PS3 to get hyped on.

Seems Microsoft is going to try to ride the year out on multiplatform games, but try to get a little extra DLC for each that Sony can't touch.

I do hope though that 360 hits up more exlusives this year that actually look enjoyable, because Halo spin offs aren't even on my rental list let alone must buy. :/

[Abash]

Haze got a 34/40 from Famitsu too.....

[CrazyOrange]

WKS got 29/40

[ReTarDedFisHy]

Lair got a 34/40 from Famitsu too...

[Blaze929]

Vampire Rain got a 35/40

[Nicolator]

UWE BOLL got 38/40 from Famitsu too

[Sheddi]

OK, Uwe Boll takes the price!
How the F*** did they rate him that high? Are they insane?!?!?!

[bomboclaat_gamer]

i dont trust thier reviews. they nearly tricked me into buy last remnant.
japanese and western taste is games are very different.

[N4PS3G]

This is Famitsu 360! not regular Famitsu

[Hiruma Youchi]

FAMITSU knows how to review japanese games because they are Japanese as well! I trust them with that! SO4 day 1 purchase for me you cant tell me NUFFIN!

theres also those other scores where you can see that Demon soul scored 29/40

http://neocrisis.com/conten...

edit @ below:Well my response to your question is: Maybe WKC aint all that after all. Wussup?

[nycredude]

How do you expain WKC then?

[lonestarmt]

you have already been told whats up. Look at all the examples. haze and lair had just as good scores as this game. I'm not saying this game isn't great, but you can not trust famitsu. The biggest proof WKC is "all that" is because its in fact the best selling RPG this gen and actually sold more than MGS4 in Japan. It also sold more PS3's than MGS4 and the second week sales were just as good which never happens in Japan. Need I say more.

[BananaSlug]

if you read the WKC review, they did not review the single player campaign

[rawd]

Floppble dopple bleeble blabble

[Ryuk]

Kinda like white knight huh??..Ok then, shut it up

[kewlkat007]

I'm still getting this game regardless, so it doesn't matter.

I can't just look at a number without substance. I know they are Japanese and know their genre but still..I know JRPG's too

[Namikaze_Minato]

Another fantastic JRPG ONLY ON XBOX 360!

And the PS3 stays on the 29/40... uhuhauhauha!

[Hiruma Youchi]

29/40 the new trend on them PS3 games ! WKC 29/40 Demon Soul 29/40

Meanwhile SO 34/40
Ninja Blades 32/40

Who was talking about Ninja blade being wack? F1cK BOYZ

[Obama]

who actually trust Famitsu? It gave haze, lair, sonic, vampire rain, and last remant really high scores, and we all know how those turned out.

By the way, the best jrpg is Valkyria Chronicles, which is not on the flopbox :)

[Says you]

White Knight Chronicles a 29 and we all know how that turned out even if they are a Japanese magazine I think even the Japanese themselves know that was a full load of crap whats next there going to give Final Fantasy XIII Versus 29/40 Star Ocean series is not that popular compared to Final Fantasy series so there just giving this game a 34/40.

[dredgewalker]

Maybe Famitsu's reviewers are just plain weird and considering Japanese tastes on games i dont really know what to expect with their reviews.

[Darkseider]

Seeing as how Famitsu has been spot on lately (/sarcasm). This game should be pretty good after all!

[gametheory]

meh

[Maywell]

Famitsu getting worse...

Star Ocean series are always make up as one of the best game for each game generation. Nintendo, PS, PS2, and now they enter this generation...

tri-Ace won't fail on SO4... mark my words.

[Foxgod]

Only your confusing Famitsu weekly with Famitsu XBox.

[Deviant]

3rd part wasnt that great ...was it?

[blackpanther25]

For the love of god do not mention that game. It totally destroys the whole series including part 4.

[Chrisy]

LOL even From Software seems to be a better dev than Level 5.

I never thought an xbox console would be a better choice than a playstation for japanese gamers. Ps3 is completely irrelevant over there now.

[OmarJA]

Hahahaha... ur comments alway makes me laugh, then i guess Vampire Rain is a better game...

once SO4TLH flop in sales like all the 360's jrpgs, SE will consider bringing it to the PS3 with exclusive content.

[dredgewalker]

I dont know why i got a disagree but i didnt even say anything about the game, and i was criticizing Famitsu's reviewing methods.

[Stryfeno2]

And here comes the HATERS...This is going to push some 360s in Japan. E3 2009 should bring even more JRPGs to the concave beast.

[CAPT IRISH]

Famitsu? After their latest scores, who is going to trust them?

[DA_SHREDDER]

Japanese people have bad taste period. Squeenis has made crappy games since FF11

[abcd]

This is Famitsu XBOX. Not Famitsu Weekly.

[thehitman]

is 40/40????

[Vecta]

10/10 x 4 = 40/40. 4 people review the game. Simple maths.

[indyman7777]

Yeah 4 people rate best out of ten DUH! Plus isn't most schools a grade scale of 4? Thought so.

[cyrus228]

star ocean has never had a bad score, from 1 to 3 they have been good aswell as both valkyrie profile games those r tri-aces gems, why does every one want star ocean 4 to fail lol

[Foxgod]

This game is so gonna own, anyone who knows the Star ocean series will know it will own.
I love the combat system, the item creation, the relationship system, the over the top matrix like story lines.

Gonna be awesome from beginning till end.

[FinalomegaS]

gonna get regardless of Famy's review : )

[velcry]

While the scores in Famitsu or Dengenki or other Japanese gaming mags may help shed some insight into how the Japanese audiences would receive the games, it does not mean that much with regards to how other audiences would receive them.

Not all games have universal appeal, and one man's food may be another man's poison. It is more important to focus on the technical aspects of the reviews, since such feedback tend to be taste-blind.

I mean, it doesn't matter if you have Japanese or American or whatever tastes in games, bugs and glitches irritate all alike.

[felidae]

so .. there are a lot of high quality games for the 360 this year.

can't wait for Star Ocean + Ninja Blade

oh .. and Alan Wake (damn this game looks good)

[indyman7777]

That is part of why they have different ratings. The other part is they like cerebral games, and Americans prefer twitch games. They love JRPG's Americans hate them(at least the American reviewers don't) Don't listen to the people putting them down. It is all because the xbox360 games are getting good reviews on that site. Famitsu is big because they are though on games. It is hard to get a decent score on famitsu. So don't believe the fanboy put downs. If I had not believed Famitsu over these same liars (I mean fanboys) I would have missed out on blue dragon and lost oddyssey the best RPG's since Finaly fantasy VII thru IX.

[Perjoss]

this is really weird, no one has posed the obligatory "isn't _________ owned by microsoft?" comment yet.

[frictionini]

TLR got a higher score than SO4?

BLASPHEMY!!!

Famitsu reviewers are NUTS I say!

[labwarrior]

But was nice to score great anyway

[kodiak]

lol

good score
way better than white knight fail 29/40 roflmao

ps3fanboys are crying right now

[Mr_Potato_]

Go play your 2/5 rated Fallout DLC since that's all you've got this year.

Best RPG is Valkyria Chronicles last time I checked on Metacritic, and the best games are LBP and MGS4.

But ok, you've got Too Human.

Which of your 3 studios left MS closed today ?

[dash--]

Imagine that

[user3915800]

Suck it up, its an outstanding franchise and if you dont like it talk to my avatar.

[Enate]

No it wasn't good that's wait I'm failing to see the hype for this game at all. I honestly had to force myself to finish SO3 but maybe I'm missing something by not playing 1 an 2 maybe that's where the hype is coming from. We will see some real talk reviews once the stateside reviews start coming out, I'm interested to see if the entirety of the game has changed as much as some people think it will. Though from what I've seen so far it resembles SO3 with a slightly more flashy combat system closer to Tales of Vespira an of course a graphics upgrade.

[CobraKai]

Such an odd rating system. Out of 40? Weird.

[Cyrus365]

You guys realize that this is Famitsu 360 (Not famitsu the mag). This is like the 360 edition, and they generally give 360 scores slightly higher scores than the general famitsu mag.

Case in point, Famitsu 360 gave Star OCean 34/40, i believe the Famitsu normal gave it a 32/40 (8/8/8/8).

[RPG Guy]

34/40 = highly respectable

29/40 = uber flop

you know where I'm going with this...

Good score, definite pick up!

[Figboy]

but moreso disputing Famitsu's CRITERIA for their scores.

for example, they gave The Last Remnant a 39/40

most of us know The Last Remnant simply wasn't a very good RPG

they gave Infinite Undiscovery a 38/40

we all know that Infinite Undiscovery isn't exactly an amazing RPG either

they gave White Knight Chronicles a 29/40

looking at Level 5's track record, and hearing things like,"WKC is better than Rogue Galaxy," a 29/40 score does not compute.

what i'm getting at is, i highly doubt the Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery are better RPGs than Star Ocean IV. that also doesn't compute, considering the track record of the series and the developer.

if Star Ocean IV is a 34/40,and WKC is a 29/40, but Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery are 38/40 and 39/40 games, then i'll eat my hat. well, if i owned a hat, i'd be eating it.

the problem with ONLY seeing the score, and not the context of the review, is that it's hard for us to form a true opinion about the game.

for example, WKC's review said, "it's like every other Level 4 game." for a Level 5 fan like myself, that's a GOOD THING. i like Level 5 games, hence my interest in WKC. when they say, "it's better than Rogue Galaxy," i say, "AWESOME!" since i loved Rogue Galaxy.

but when all we see is a 29/40 (which isn't a bad score, anyway), with nothing else to support or justify it. you have to scratch your head.

like i said before, i seriously doubt that Star Ocean IV is a worse RPG than Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery. hell, maybe it is, but i just can't see it that way.

i'm really looking forward to it, and it has my interest more than LR and IU did, so i'll be checking it out when it finally releases again.

like i said in an editorial i wrote a few months back on my site - gamers need, no, DESERVE, some CONSISTENCY and standards when it comes to reviews.

you have games from all over being held to different standards and criteria in reviews.

Call of Duty 4 gets a pass on having a 5 hour campaign, but a game like Uncharted or Heavenly Sword do not. multi-player does not justify this. what if you don't LIKE multi-player? what if you enjoy single player experiences? i NEVER touched the MP in Call of Duty 4. i watched my roommate play, and it looked fun, but it wasn't my type of MP. i played the single player campaign, and walked away unfulfilled. so, should me, and other gamers like me be forced to play online (and thankfully i didn't play it on the 360, because then i'd have to PAY to play online) to get our money's worth?

Resistance 2 had it right in that it offered 3 distinct gameplay experiences; the single player for folks like me. the co-op for folks like me that prefer working TOGETHER to accomplish a goal, instead of against one another, and the 60 player skirmish, for people that love to battle one another (i admit, i played the Skirmish mode, and it was very fun, but i'm still a single player gamer, and hardly touch competitive MP).

anyway, if we knew what Famitsu's stance on RPGs were, we'd be able to fully understand why they review some games like they do.

what are they looking for in an RPG?

a good story?
good controls?
a good battle system?
good acting/audio/musical score?
multi-player or co op?
good graphics?

without those modifiers, it's hard to really get a grasp on what a 29/40 or a 34/40 score really MEANS to them.

and when a complaint isn't CONSISTENT across games in the same genre (for example, Gears of War got a LOT of free passes for framerate issues and horrible online lag, but SOCOM: Confrontation, which initially suffered from the same issues, got reamed for it - the Gears issues got addressed also, by the way, but reviewers weren't rating the game down for it like they did SOCOM: Confrontation) it leads to confusion amongst us gamers.

Bioshock got passes for lack of Multi-player, but Uncharted got reamed? WHY? why did it bother your for this game, but not the other? inconsistent double standards. that's the state of gaming reviews this generation. and i'm being NICE here. i was more scathing in my article. lol.

[Lord Xire]

I watched a friend play WKC that he imported.

It's really not good at all.

It's fighting system is clunky and slow...

Plays like a gundam simulator.

Besides graphics the game has nothing going for it...

That's why I can't wait for it to drop in the U.S. because it's terribad.