Thoughts on Star Ocean 3

[Evil_Althena8]

Wow, what an amazing game. 116 hours and there's still some more stuff to do. Compared to SO2, its pretty good. I didn't like the item creation as much as in SO2, and the skill system sucks also. In fact, there are no out-of-battle skills like in SO2. Other than that, the game delivered. The fact that there are 2 more difficulties, Universe and 4D, is insane. I don't think i could restart on either. I like that fact that they added 2 new playable characters to the NA version....although Adray was quite useless. The story was pretty odd. I can't reveal the major spoiler, but for those of you who played it, I'm sure you know. Kinda matrix-esque, i believe? The secret dungeons and bosses were ridiculous. Do you know how long I toiled over Freya!? It took me over 20 fucking battles to kill that stuck-up goddess. 20,000,000 HP....IMO the hardest secret boss ever for any game I've played. I've actually thought about creating a FAQ just for defeating Freya, so other players don't have to go through the anger that I did. Lenneth was quite hard also, I loved how chibified she was! I thought the Battle Trophy thing was interesting also. Meeting certain requirements in battle unlocks extra costumes for characters, and also unlocks Universe and 4d modes, harder difficulties, as well as the music test.

I guess it lived up to my expectations. I have extremely high expectations for Tri-Ace games, after playing SO2 and Valkyrie Profile, which till this day remains one of my favorite games of all time.
Definately a great game, a must for RPG fans.

[Shattered_weasel]

Hmm I thought the game was...decent. The battle system got old. When you get your battle gauge thingy all the way up what do you do so you don't get hit. Go to your far away fighter and pelt people with magic. Get's VERY old after a while. Also being able to make your best weapon in the middle of the game made it easy also.

The story is what I liked. Though I have heard from alot of people that it was plagerised.

[_Sinue_]

Personally, I liked the gameplay much more than the storyline. The story could have been really good.. and had some good basis in long standing philospicle ideas.. but the execution of them is just... poor. Expecially in the ending. The game assumes that the player is already familiar with these ideals, so it doesn't explain how they're relevant to the game. It takes the over-all theme of the game, and turns it into a major plot-twist at the end without giving the player any preperation or explanation of how it works in the game's setting. That's just poor writing IMO. The voice acting is also pretty bad.. expecially the pauses. It gets a little better if you turn off the subtitles, but not much. It's not like the dialouge itself really helped matters either, with charming little lines like...

Cliff: Damn, these things are tight. I can't move at all!

Fayt: Uh, yeah, that's why they call them "Restraints".

Yeah.. ok.. that doesn't exactly scream quality to me. But I did enjoy the real-time battles. Sure they get kinda old fairly quickly, but they still stay much fresher than the battle systems in many other RPGs. Expecially FF, who's battle systems haven't really changed much since the series inception.

The invention mechanics, longevity, and replayability are all excellent aspects of the game though. It almost reminds me of Sega's habit of rewarding good gameplay and effort with tougher challenges and more stuff to unlock. That's something I always liked about Sega - and I like about Star Ocean 3. Whereas some games reward you with galleries, music tests, FMV's, ect... SO3 rewards you with more game to play. In fact.. the game doesn't even really begin IMO until you've defeated the final boss.

So yeah, it has it's problems.. but it's a great game none-the-less. I'd recommend it.

[Deathscythealpha]

My flat mate is really into SO3, so i tried giving it a go. Looks nice, but I couldnt get passed the tremendous amounts of text/talking. It may be wierd to say this about an RPG, but it just felt like there was way to much text holding the player back from getting into the game. I like my story in a game, and i like a good set up, but when the game seems to be turning into a really long film/anime, i just loose interest. I would like to actually play the game, not have a ten minute talk about walking into peoples rooms (even though i did find that scene funny, but still way too drawn out).

Some people may say you have to play the game longer to really get into, but i think the game maybe a bit too hardcore RPG for me.

[Dhylec]

this game look nice, i heard good thing about it..
too bad i'd have to wait a bit longer to play it =|

[DarkEpyon]

Star Ocean 3 eh? I really enjoyed this game, dispite it having one of the most bizarre plot twists in RPG history (I'll leave it at that for safety sake).

As for the characters, I like Nel - A LOT. Two words - Flying Guillotine. One of the best skills in the game.

For the xmas crowd, remember this - Orichalcum is your friend.

One final thought...
Mmmmmmmmm... Nel Zelpher.... <3

[_Sinue_]

I liked Stanice better than Nel. Sure she was just a side character used only for inventing - and a poor one at that. But damn.. I can't resist a girl with wings like that. Angels are pretty. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

Also, Mirage's invention picture looks like Mahoromatic - which can't be a bad thing.

[Evil_Althena8]

On 2004-12-30 20:47, DarkEpyon wrote:
Star Ocean 3 eh? I really enjoyed this game, dispite it having one of the most bizarre plot twists in RPG history (I'll leave it at that for safety sake).

As for the characters, I like Nel - A LOT. Two words - Flying Guillotine. One of the best skills in the game.

For the xmas crowd, remember this - Orichalcum is your friend.

One final thought...
Mmmmmmmmm... Nel Zelpher.... <3



eh, I'm more of a fan of Maria. Her energy burst is probably the best attack in the game. It can mow down any non-freya/lenneth/ethereal queen enemy, including enemies on the top floors of sphere 211, in seconds. She's also got super-cool costumes. I love the short-blonde hair maria!

[kazuma56]

Just finished it yesterday and I have to say it was decent like someone before me had said, like TOS the ending was kinda mediocre and needed more work IMO.

I like Sophia, although quite annoying on the VA side her spells make her quite potent IMO, I took care of both of the first 2 enemies in Kirlsa' dungeon pretty easily because of Laser Beams.