IGN: Star Ocean: The Last Hope Hands-on

A few years ago, people would have laughed in your face if you told them the Xbox 360 was going to be the platform of choice for Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs). But here we are with a solid library of Square Enix, Mistwalker and Namco Bandai RPGs already out and one more about to be added to the list. Star Ocean: The Last Hope is the fourth installment in tri-Ace's sci-fi franchise and it's coming exclusively to Xbox 360 on February 24.

I've been playing through the final, US version of the game and have made it through the first of three discs.

[kodiak]

Its 360 exclusive
With Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Star Ocean 4 and soon FFXIII, xbox360 has the best JRPG lineup of this gen.
PS3 just Got White flop chronicles 29/40 70/100 and flop souls

cry me a river playslaves

[Kamikaze135]

White Knight Chronicles is the highest selling JRPG in Japan right now. FFXIII is also on the PS3 as well as FF VS XIII (PS3 eexclusive)

[Obama]

LO and BD got 70ish on meta, so they are pretty much mediocre. PS3 on the other hand got VC, the best rated jrpg this generation. Go suck a **** bot.

[lord_of_balrogs]

I thought the game not sales mattered?

[OmarJA]

Another retarded xbot has been owned...

not even this game can save the 3fixme in Japan, another childish story style JRPG...

the last one sucked balls especially the story this one will be the same...

can't wait to play WKS online.

[Obama]

Quality > Quantity. I would rather play the best rated jrpg than a bunch of 60-70ish rated mediocre rpgs really.

[Johnny Rotten]

LOL that's around 21gbs of install space.

But seriously though this is the first time I've checked it out and it looks pretty cool. The real time fighting is a bonus!

[pumpkinpunker]

"Square Enix lists the game at about 40 hours, but I'm nearing the 20 hour mark and have only just finished the first disc. There is no shortage of things to do and I have barely even dug into the side quests yet."

Nice.

[kewlkat007]

I put over 90+ hours in Lost Odyssey, so I take my time with JRPGs. I play in between shooters, platformers, and fighters for a change of pace.

I have to finish up Unfinite Undiscovery(This game is not that bad), Prince of Persia and Fallout 3..before this hits.

[green]

Lost Odyssey took me 84 hours and approximately 4 months to complete because i also used to play it in between other games as well.If Star Ocean can leave up to 80% of my experience with Lost Odyssey then i would be one happy gamer.

[SaiyanFury]

Looks good. Because it's never been confirmed as a 360 exclusive, I'll wait for the PS3 version.

[Foxgod]

Well, then keep waiting forever, in the meantime, the rest of it will be playing it in a few weeks.

[thats_just_prime]

The game sounds good from what they were saying about it. LO and IUD are waaaaaaay underrate I played both (beat LO) and enjoyed both of them

[FarEastOrient]

I can't wait for the PS3 version, what troubles me is that on my share holder report that Square Enix isn't making as much money from their Xbox 360 ventures as they are with the PSP / PS2 lineups. What is also interesting that they keep saying "don't worry" Final Fantasy XIII is coming out on the PS3 at the end of the year which is expected to have higher profit margins than all the "next-gen" games released thus far combined.

Geeeeezzz you are admitting to your shareholders that you made some interesting yet not profitable decisions regardless how much one of the companies are paying you to make games "multiplatform." Next shareholder elections is in march, interesting....

[J@D]

Count me in for the PS3 version if really comes at the end of the line if not... torrent it’s my answer on my bro xbox360 ^^ but I need to swap my PS3 for his xbox360 >.<

P.D. (ON ADVANCE)
If you disagree with my POV if ur problem not mine cuz I luv my PS3 and its really sad that many RPG's are only coming on one console instead on both as certainly RPG company strategy to publish on both console as they promise *cough* so alas If not comes to PS3 I'm sooo download it without a doubt XD

[Silver360]

This is a decision about market share. Square wants to be a larger part of the western market. The US is the largest gaming market with the EU quickly gaining. Soon Japan will be left behind, so Square has to start having major hits for the western markets because Japan will soon no longer be able to support them in the changing future. That is why they don't mind releasing FF13 on PS3 in Japan only because that game is a guaranteed success. But the are hedging their bets in the west by going multi-platform. Install base and market share mean more to them than profit margins right now.

[Rhezin]

another FLOP just like all the JRPGS on 360 you listed, kodiak.

[N4Garbage]

I think this game will deliver past LO.

So that means win for us lol.

[FantasyStar]

No way, the cut-scenes for SO4 looks so crappy. Pales in comparison to LO in just about...everything!

[N4PS3G]

http://xbox360media.ign.com...

looks great!

[Snow]

LOL!

[Spike47]

However, they say the game is all around good for a jrpg fan.

sounds familiar,*looks at LO's "averageness"

[swiftshot93]

6GB left, is that enough to install?

[idiealot]

sorry man i doubt it. delete something you dont play.

[DarK-SilV]

I think this game will deliver,this game will be better then LO and all JRPG that have been released on X360,
day one for me

[kewlkat007]

That's just me...

when you have Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the famed Final Fantasy series and Nobuo Uematsu; world acclaimed JRPG music god, on the same project, well at least for me, that's tough to beat.

Like I said I like Infinite Undiscovery so Tri-Ace is not bad at all. A lot of these games are collaborations though.

[labwarrior]

It is huge, looks stunning and has real time exiting combat, my most wanted JRPG in 2009 by miles

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Good impressions.

I'm going to make my roommate rent this one. I've been a Star Ocean fan for awhile. I just hope this one can maintain that storyline. The cutscenes looked a bit underwhelming...but IGN is saying it's good. I'm going to have to try it out.