Current Events > Star Ocean is my personal saddest fall from grace

(+) Yeah! (+)

That serious was primed to blow up after 3 classic games. Tri-ace was on fire, even releasing the Valkyrie Profile classics around the same time.

Then Star Ocean 4 came out and everything started fell apart. I had one last hope for Star Ocean 5 until I came to terms with the fact that it also danced on the the corpse of the series.

Do you have a video game series that you used to love but sadly watched collapse?

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I mean, p much all JRPG series collapsed at the same time, though.

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The game's director only wanted a trilogy, which is why 3 had such a note of finality to it (hence the mega twist). However, publishing arm Square Enix wanted a continuation. So, we got shitty 4 and even worse 5.

Nah, fam. Star Ocean is tragic, but Breath of Fire is my vote here. BoF1 was a strong start, with each game building on its predecessor greatly. All 4 games are great. What did Capcom do next? Dragon Quarter, a mobile game, and nothing since. Garbage.

Honourable mention to Grandia.

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Personally I didn't mind the fourth one. Yeah it had it's problems but I enjoyed it a little better then the third one. Third one just didn't do it for me.

Then there's the fifth one. At first I enjoyed it, but after awhile it went downhill fast.

Second one is still my favorite.

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This is a surprising take, usually most people whine about SO 3 and say that one ruined the series and 2 is oh so amazing.

For the record I also liked the 3 games and I've only played those 3. Never bothered with 4 and wouldn't play it even if you paid me. And only recently found out there was a 5 which just made me lol. I dont see why you'd need to consider them, my headcanon includes the first 3 games only and I'm fine with that. Same with how kingdom hearts ended after 2 and final fantasy ended after 12. It's really much better to ignore tripe from the defunct square enix

At least 5 has that big butt fat titty catgirl waifu

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Alucard188 posted...

Honourable mention to Grandia.

Grandia Xtreme is great. :P

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I didn't love it, but seeing what happened to the Sims is just painful. They changed their expansions to way more expensive (and way less content) dlc, and they're notorious for that "dlc for a dlc" mess.

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Shotgunnova posted...

Grandia Xtreme is great. :P

Mark Hamil as General Kroitz was the only saving grace of the voice acting in that game lol

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gunplagirl posted...

I didn't love it, but seeing what happened to the Sims is just painful. They changed their expansions to way more expensive (and way less content) dlc, and they're notorious for that "dlc for a dlc" mess.

What EA did to The Sims is outright criminal. The latest Sims game was a fucking travesty. They took everything that they added to 3, ripped it all out and then some, then sold it back as DLC in 4. And yes, DLC for DLC is absolutely a thing with them. Garbage.

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Dark Cloud I guess? Never really got another game after 2 but its spiritual successor White Knight Chronicles was hot garbage.

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End of Time was awful.

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Ps2Twilight posted...

Mark Hamil as General Kroitz was the only saving grace of the voice acting in that game lol

Yeah, I don't remember VA stuff being that great, but most other aspects are fairly enjoyable. Better than Grandia 3, at any rate.

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star ocean 2 is one of the greatest games of all time imo and far ahead of its time in many areas

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4 is fine if you leave it in Japanese Dub and don't break your combo meter....

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IMNOTRAGED posted...

Dark Cloud I guess? Never really got another game after 2 but its spiritual successor White Knight Chronicles was hot garbage.

Which is a travesty because Like SO2, the second game is near perfect. And yet SO at least got s chance with more sequels. Dark Cloud never did and I'm still angry to this day

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Alucard188 posted...

What EA did to The Sims is outright criminal. The latest Sims game was a fucking travesty. They took everything that they added to 3, ripped it all out and then some, then sold it back as DLC in 4. And yes, DLC for DLC is absolutely a thing with them. Garbage.

That's why The Sims 3 will be the only Sims game I deal with; though I haven't even touched it since I got my new PC in 2017. Guess I burned myself out.

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world of warcraft

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Turbam posted...

At least 5 has that big butt fat titty catgirl waifu

Just looked this up and holy shit. I don't even know if we can post some of her official artwork here. Girl just walking around with her kitty hanging out. I'll be in my bunk
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Despite all the negative things I've heard, I still really want to play 4 and 5 someday lol. With subtitles.

Suikoden didn't fall from grace but Konami just stopped making them.

gunplagirl posted...

"dlc for a dlc"

What in the goddamn ....

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At least it's not Ultima.

Mine is Suikoden because they stopped after 5 which was amazing.

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fire_bolt posted...

Just looked this up and holy shit. I don't even know if we can post some of her official artwork here. Girl just walking around with her kitty hanging out. I'll be in my bunk

Does she have green hair?

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Iodine posted...

Does she have green hair?

Yup

Fiore something or other is her name
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Remember when Hrist finally got her own Valkyrie Profile game? Oh wait, she didn't and now the series is confined to gacha.

SO2 is the only one that I really treasure and I keep playing the new ones hoping to recapture a little bit of that magic. Instead I play through garbage...k.

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Star Ocean 4 is probably my most disliked game of all time, I genuinely hate that game's characters. It's also the only game I'eve ever played where I turned off the voice volume completely because the voice acting was unbearable

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What the hell happened to Harvest Moon.

Those games were fucking great but Animal Parade on the Wii was the last good one.

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Star Ocean 4 could certainly get pretty cringy and dumb. I also remember the final boss in that game being frustrating as hell since you had to fight one form of the final boss, deal with some BS maze where you potentially fought older, tough bosses, then finally got to the final form which was itself really hard. No checkpoints at any point either IIRC. I'd rather deal with SO2's true final battle than that shit again.

never ecen touched SO5. Largely because I don't have a PS4, but even if I did I don't know if I'd bother.

While the characters sucked and the story line was trash, SO4 has outstanding graphics and excellent gameplay.

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I've slowly been working my way through 4 on universe difficulty. Having the adlay gems really helps since there's no better accessory until late game crafting with rare drops.

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Alucard188 posted...

Nah, fam. Star Ocean is tragic, but Breath of Fire is my vote here. BoF1 was a strong start, with each game building on its predecessor greatly. All 4 games are great. What did Capcom do next? Dragon Quarter, a mobile game, and nothing since. Garbage.

hey at least DQ was good imo compared to the mobile game and i still love it you guys over hate that game and just compare it to 3 too much

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Star Ocean 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. The board was so active abd full of characters here on gfaqs, and we posted so much random shit, they created separate Social boards for it. Pretty sure we were one of the first, along with FF7. Those were good times, getting banned was like a status symbol.

Anyways, my vote is for Square Enix. I was a total Squaresoft fanboy back in the day, everything i played of theirs was incredible. FF7,8, 9, Tactics. Vagrant Story, Secret of Mana, Brave Fencer Musashi, Chrono Cross. All those games kicked fuckin ass.

Then they merged with Enix which was always a shit company imo, and the games nose dived. They had great graphics and the rest was soulless to me. FF10 was ok, I didnt even bother completing it, i didnt give a shit about Zanarkand. X2 ftr was amazing, yes i admit i played that. It was was about the last Square game i enjoyed. I played 12 and it was so tedious i quit playing near the end and only remember like 3 characters. Didnt even touch 13 or the one with the Bro squad. And Mankind Divided can suck it, they even fucked up Deus Ex. Although HR was incredible.

That being said FF7R has single handedly rekindled my love for Square. Ive been playing p much only Fromsoft casually for like 5 years. FF7R is so good i literally smile as im playing it, i wasnt even excited for it because i thought Square woukd fuck it up again. I was wrong, its a must play for any classic Square fan. And hopefully a sign of things to come. If they remake FF8.... Oh man. That would be a dream. But yea, Square fell, now hopefully they back.

So there is actually a Star Ocean sale on PlayStation 4 right now until the end of tomorrow, every game but 2 is on there. Just picked up the remake of the original.

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Keith_Valentine posted...

Then they merged with Enix which was always a shit company

lmao

Really not a fan of SO3. It was the first SO game I ever played and it completely turned me off the series. Tales of is considerably better when it comes to characters, their designs, and interactions, and it went on to have considerably better more engaging combat in the 3D entries starting with Vesperia. The only thing SO has over Tales is world building and that alone can't save SO. Hopefully SO is dead for good. Square Enix and Tri-Ace need to make a new JRPG series that hopefully doesn't suck.

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Veggeta X posted...

End of Time was awful.

Yeah, and yet SO fanboys consider it one of the best. When your series has shit like that as one of it's best games is it really worth defending?

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Number090684 posted...

Tales of is considerably better when it comes to characters, their designs, and interactions, and it went on to have considerably better more engaging combat in the 3D entries starting with Vesperia. The only thing SO has over Tales is world building and that alone can't save SO. Hopefully SO is dead for good. Square Enix and Tri-Ace need to make a new JRPG series that ho

Weird post, I feel almost completely the opposite. Tales of Generica bores me as much as the Golden Sun series, just very regurgitated run of the mill stuff.

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BignutzisBack posted...

Weird post, I feel almost completely the opposite. Tales of Generica bores me as much as the Golden Sun series, just very regurgitated run of the mill stuff.

lol Your commitment to a nearly dead series has blinded you to the truth is all. I mean the proof is right in front of your eyes. Tales is still alive and well, having main game releases every few years and a new main game in development, while Star Ocean is on it's last legs, and who the hell knows when it's next main release is? If there will ever be one. Hahaha

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Number090684 posted...

lol Your commitment to a nearly dead series has blinded you to the truth is all. I mean the proof is right in front of your eyes. Tales is still alive and well, having main game releases every few years and a new main game in development, while Star Ocean is on it's last legs, and who the hell knows when it's next main release is? If there will ever be one. Hahaha

k

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BignutzisBack posted...

k

k hahaha

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