Okay, so back when Star Ocean 3 came out, it was a genreally properous time for games. And as such, I attempted to play through SO3 and got hung up at a point in the game, unable to continue.

It was a point in which two dungeons were linked together... and I was suck at the boss with no MP or items to be able to continue. Also, I couldn't survive the trip back to town to re-supply. So I quit.

Recently, I've picked the game back up because Star Ocean 4 is due out and I wanted to have played all three before the fourth installment is ready to go. So I started a new game (on easy instead of normal... which is more like how normal should have been. Which, if you think about it, "normal" mode was like the galaxy mode in SO2.)

Anyway, I finally made it back to the area in which I quit last time and made it past that boss... only to find there was a THIRD dungeon right behind that boss. This is just borderline bullsh*t right here. Not that it was difficult... it just wasn't fun.

And to add to that, there is so much Dragon Quest style running around that it's not even funny. You'll have to walk across a town 5 times just to get a scene to activate. Or your party of 6 will split up in a town and you'll have to speak with them all before you can continue. Or you have to talk to a random person in which the game really didn't tell you that you needed to speak to, to be able to continue.

But with all this... at least the story was half way okay, right?

Very wrong.

From here on out is spoiler. I'd much rather type it out now instead of putting it all in text you have to hover the mouse over. SK and Insult really need to read this as they haven't beaten 3 yet... nor shoul they. And here's why.

Well, after spending over half the game on a single planet that's pretty much medieval time period, you finally get to honestly continue the main plot... which just floored me. You find out that you have some great power that's suppose to take out some unknown force that'll destory the galaxy right? Well, this unkown force reveals themselves as the "Creator." Stereotypical badguy greater-than-thou-art right? NO.

They really mean creator. Turns out the Star Ocean 3 pretty much rips off the Matrix. Yep... the Matrix. You are all programs in the "Eternal Sphere" and the Milky Way is just one location of that programmed. But the AI (which is you and your party, btw... as well as all living things as you knew it) became to smart for their own good, so they are pretty much "terminating" you.

By some unkown and vaugely discribed method, you can go into the REAL world (known as 4D space, or the 4th demension) and are going to destory the "creator" to libirate your "world" from being deleted or whatever. Not making this up.

That's the point in which I am right now. The people of 4D space watch your world like it's some reality TV show or some crap. And the party in 4D space is just finding this out. I wanted to like this game. The first Star Ocean was great. The second was even better. But the third? It hurts my soul. I can only hope that the 4th will be much more like it's older installments. So if you are like me and love Star Ocean, and feel the need to play SO3.... don't.

I'll probably post again after I finish the game.

Wow

... As painful as it was to hear, thank you for the warning.

Now I understand why, in spite of my having thought SO3 was quite good all the way up until the point where I left off almost four years ago, I could never bring myself to pick up the controller again; it was as though an angel were guiding my steps until a time when someone else could confirm for me that the game eventually becomes an atrocious suckfest almost solely on account of the storyline. The story as you have described it just seems utterly ridiculous, and makes it impossible for me to even have any drive anymore to play through the entire game in hopes of eventually facing off with its host of nightmarish optional bosses. .... Ugh! .... Why?! Why do the gaming gods mock us?!



... The player's guide for this game goes on the Amazon.com marketplace listing on my seller's account tomorrow.


... And good riddance.

Well, I'm still playing now, and we've once again returned from the "real" world back into the program world AKA the Milky Way. We recieved a uninstall program to get rid of the "Execusioners" and such that were sent to delete everyone.

The chick who gave us the uninstall program came into our world and... wait. A living person from the real world is now walking around in the program?! Damnit. This is just dumb. Anyway, she said that the owner (AKA the creator) is also now in the world and we need to go beat him.

But wait, it gets better. Instead of just doing that, we have to Dragon Quest our way to him. That's right, we have to go back to planet we've already been and collect sh*t before we can even face him. WHAT FUN! In fact, I can't even go back to that plannet till I go around and talk to EVERY NPC on the ship for some stupid ass reason.

I'm really worried about how Star Ocean 4 is going to be now... =(

Too be fair, SO2's story wasn't all that great either. The Wisemen... really? Stereotypical group of lunatics? Yep. As for the game at hand, I didn't have much of a problem with the stuff you said. I did get frustrated at the point you just described, though. I was suppose to find this object to let me face that guy or whatever. Then I went to the place that it was suppose to be and it wasn't. I stop playing the game and never touched it since. Later on I found out I was in the wrong place and I was pissed because I was sure that was the right place. I didn't care enough to tread to find out where it really was.

I completely disagree with you. Star Ocean 2's story was better than 3's by 50 fold. At least 2 didn't rip off from the Matrix. Not like the Matrix is all that great to begin with.

Well, yes SO2 story is better, I'm just saying it isn't all that.

If you'd like to do some more comparisons, there's also the fact that there are no skills to upgrade. Yes you have moves, but you don't have skills to make you better at writing, cooking, and smith work. Nor skills like Flip, Motor Mouth, Counter... all those lovely things 2 had to offer. Instead skill points just go to 1 of 4 stats: HP, MP, Att, and Def.

What's worse, to USE your cooking and smithing skills, you have to be at very few locations. Unlike 2 were you can just pull up your menu at any time and attempt to use your skills. Not sure who thought that would be an improvement to the 2nd.

Lantis, just to let you know, I do feel about the same way about the game as you do.

As for SO2 smith menu... I looked all through out the menu for one and never found it. So I got annoyed and decided the smith deal was pointless bs because it didn't actually exist. Yes, I know it does, but if one can't find it then it is just the same.

I am very sad to hear this...

A good friend of mine loves this game. He also loved SO2 even more so I trust his opinion. He never said he enjoyed the story though. Mostly the battling and system overall. He has voiced his concerns about SO4's story. Now I see why. I know the end of the SO3, but I had no idea about the Matrix crap.

YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! OH, DAMN YOU! gosh darn YOU ALL TO HELL!

And yet all of ya' all are going to still fork over your money for Star Ocean 4 no questions asked.

Probably. But then again, it's not like marrage or anything. It's a game. If it's so bad, I can just sell it back online and recover my losses as best I can. I guess I'm trying to think that 4 will be closer like the first two.

Remember the Devil May Cry series? Remember how DMC2 sticks out like sore thumb? Maybe that's the way 3 is for Star Ocean... maybe.

Anyway, back on 3's progress. When I said that you had to Dragon Quest your way to the final boss, I was kind of under estemated it. Not only did I have to walk to and from an old dungeon to collect sh*t to get to the boss... I also had to take that crap to the end of ANOTHER dungeon I had already completed earlier in the game.

And when I finally got there... it didn't even take me to the final boss. EVEN THE CHARACTERS IN THE GAME WERE LIKE, WTF... THIS IS BULL. I kid you not. What the storyline was that after you get the items and go to the gate with them, it opens up a portal to the "Creator's" firewall... yes, just like a computer's firewall. What it is, however, is an overly complex dungeon. And even after get to the end, beat the boss of the "firewall" you still aren't at him. You are in the final, final place... which I'm not even sure what they are calling it. I looked at the walkthrough and said it was another dungeon you have to crawl through... 10 floors.

That's when I said screw it for tonight. I should be able to finish it this evening though. I would like to say that maybe the ending has some redeeming value to it, but I highly doubt it.

But it isn't just the loss of money, it is the enablement of the game designers to put out a crappy product, from story to gameplay, because they know the brand name will sell it to those who refuse to wait, read reviews, and possibly never buy it altogether if it is not worthy of purchase.

The game makers have less incentive to make a good game when people are not critical in their INITIAL purchases.

And even though SO3 may be a soar thumb, it also may be that the makers of SO1 and SO2 are no longer on board and SO4 is more closely related to its more recently released title...SO3.

My point is simply to be patient and make sure it is something you really want rather than just be used as a consumer.

You know... Enix made SO1 and 2. SO3 was after the merge with Square Soft. You may be on to something...

That's a good point. That damn merger may have killed our series.

I will still buy SO4 day one on faith.
Especially after seeing how well the remakes of SO1 and SO2 are being done.


One thing I really hated was that damned circus crap in the beginning. Reminded me too much of PSU. Don't ask why but it did.

Well, it's over. And the ending was pretty damn bad too.

One of the best lines was screamed by the main antagonist right before the last fight, "You are only a bunch of 1's and 0's!!!!"

Anyway, so after you beat him... he deletes everything. Like the entire universe (AKA the eternal sphere). *in exagerated tone* But your will to live and definance of being deleted stopped it! WOW!

Anyway, so after the credits, you find out what all the characters are up to. The main protagonist, Fayt... joins the mother f*cking circus. The one mentioned at the beginning of the game with that Peppetta chick.

And there you have it. I truely love the star ocean series, which is why this has my feathers ruffled so much. *sigh*

... Please tell me you are not serious.


(Don't answer that ....)

I answer you in form of video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlH7DT0M3YY He leaves Sophia to travel back to her own home planet by herself. Which happened right before this video. lol.

I'm hoping... praying that this star ocean has multiple endings and I just got a really crappy one.

*looks around youtube*

Well, they ARE multiple endings. But I could care less.

::edit::

And by the way. Remember how Fayt had this unnatural distructive power that you saw him you ONCE in the game to get rid of the Vendinee ship? That power was suppose to be used to save the world... but he never uses that power again for the rest of the game. Yeah... makes sense.

::editx2::

Okay, I don't know why I did, but I ended up watching most of the other endings. There seems to be an ending with Fayt and a single other party member. And if it was a chick, he hooked up (or it was obvious he would hook up) with that chick. Well except Sophia... that would be in-breeding. Though I'm a bit suprised he didn't anyways. Even in one of the guy's endings... he ends up hooking up with his dauter, a NPC from the game. The only half-way decent endings are Fayt and Cliff or Fayt and Sophia.

My dissapointment over the game is probably greater than how bad the game actually was... but I had high expectations. This is what you get for expecting good things.

Almost nothing hurts me more than seeing someone dissapointed. Unfortunately video gaming as an industry excels in this endeavor because it is so heavily based on unrealistic promises of breakthroughs and advancements and also because it relies heavily on loyalty to get fans of originals to buy the sequels even though sometimes they don't deliver on their end.

In this hobby, business, and endeavor, it really is best to be cautiously optimistic, or purely realistic rather than having overly optimistic expectations, because this prevents you from being disappointed time and time again, allowing you to enjoy and patron only quality enjoyable games.

Hey, which Star Ocean is 3 and which is 4 (with respect to the subtitles)?