This week I decided to play Star Ocean: The Last Hope on the PS3. The mechanics of the game are similar to Namco’s Tales series mostly in terms of combat. You travel around an open world and battle enemies when you encounter (touch) them. During combat, you can use items and use skills that will cost MP. There are also chests and other items laying around the land that you can open to get more items. The spacecraft used to travel to different planets and also a place to interact with different characters. You can assign each character to their own rooms and pair up anyone you want. Certain combinations may lead to character specific events or cutscenes and may change the ending of the game with different cutscenes being shown.
Overall I enjoyed the game, but had some problems playing it. I found some of the bosses to overly difficult probably because I did not farm/grind enough, but common enemies became a challenge even after grinding for over an hour so I had to avoid them most of the time. Despite that, the main issue I had with the game was its save system. In order to save the game, you have to find and locate a save points. You cannot do it manually or whenever you want. The problem was their locations. They are mainly located in the beginning and end of an area or dungeon and sometimes in the middle. The distance between them is very long and each area takes a while to travel through, so I found myself doing a lot of back tracking to the save point at the entrance because there are none near by. So I had to go through each dungeon in one play through since I had no where else to save except at the very end.
The art direction of this game is very detailed and the settings vary depending on what planet you are on and have their own unique environment. Some planets had a lot greenery, some seem more dry like a dessert, and some were covered in ice and snow. They also have their own residents of different race that live on each planet. Detail was put into everything, from the texture of the ground to the characters and enemies making look almost realistic. Each planet has very big and open areas to travel through so you can explore each planet and see its unique design and qualities that make it different from another planet.