Board 8 > Tri-Ace drags out the corpse of Star Ocean to desecrate it one more time.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hopefully, at least.

https://youtu.be/lwlduVD_aqc

Just embarrassing at this point.

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lol

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I can't believe there was a time when I thought of Tales and Star Ocean as rival series competing with each other

I'm pretty harsh on Tales of Arise, but it's embarrasing how far that series has come while Star Ocean seems to actively get worse and worse

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I havent tried a Star Ocean since 4, but that's just because 4 sucked and I haven't heard that the rest are any better. Hopefully they can evolve the franchise, but we'll see...Trailer looks pretty whatever

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Possibly hot take Star Ocean was never even great back when it was good

Since I am the one person on earth who thinks 4 is the best star ocean, and that Star Ocean 5 is still pretty good, this is great news for me!

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swordz9 posted...

Possibly hot take Star Ocean was never even great back when it was good

no, this is probably accurate. I owe my positive feelings toward early Star Ocean to two main things:

1) a preview in Nintendo Power for the first Star Ocean which made me really wish it had been released in the U.S.

2) Star Ocean 2 being the best "action rpg" I had played at its release. It was quickly eclipsed.

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How many Tales games are inferior to Star Ocean 2?

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Mainline?

I would put SO2 over Zesteria and Legendia....maybe Xillia?

OK SO2 wasn't a GREAT game but it was a GOOD game for the time.

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Phantasia?

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It really tickles me that Star Ocean has gotten 1 game each generation since the 16 bit era.

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At least in their original versions, Phantasia and Destiny are definitely worse than Star Ocean 2.

Possible marketing reasons aside, I feel there are very clear quality reasons those two got remakes while Namco thought Eternia was still good enough in 2006 to be a normal PSP game (though admittedly Sony of America seemed not to agree!).

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redrocket posted...

Phantasia?

Haven't played it.

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Isn't the actual "good" one the only one they don't have available to buy on the damn PS store. Star Ocean collection incoming?

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AxemRedRanger posted...

Possible marketing reasons aside, I feel there are very clear quality reasons those two got remakes while Namco thought Eternia was still good enough in 2006 to be a normal PSP game (though admittedly Sony of America seemed not to agree!).

Eternia may be rough but it is definitely the first actually playable Tales game. And hey, it does kinda slap. It's got a party member that mostly just says "Yeah!!!" and shoots a huge gun. That's quality.

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I saw "Let It Die" trending with the Playstation event and thought it was referring to Star Ocean.

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Star Ocean might be a series of mostly bad rpgs but there's still something endearing about it..

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I am nostalgic towards Star Ocean 2, but it was never my favorite RPG of that era
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Star Ocean 2 was always on the same level as Lunar 2 for me. Yeah it's not perfect but I fucking adore it.

Genoard posted...

Star Ocean might be a series of mostly bad rpgs but there's still something endearing about it..

It literally tricked me into considering Tri-Ace a valuable developer for a decade.

Even though everything else they make is also trash.

It took White Knight Chronicles for me to give up.

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Should've been a Radiata Stories sequel tbqh.

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What's the connection between White Knight Chronicles and Tri-Ace?
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Oh woops. That was the game that got me to give up on Level 5, lol. Infinite Undiscovery was Tri-Ace.

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Infinite Undiscovery sounds like a game that should be amazing.

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Is there a reason people ITT aren't talking about Valkyrie Profile as the best Tri-Ace game? I thought that was everyone's favorite.
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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Star Ocean 2 was always on the same level as Lunar 2 for me. Yeah it's not perfect but I fucking adore it.

It literally tricked me into considering Tri-Ace a valuable developer for a decade.

Even though everything else they make is also trash.

Hey now, Valkyrie Profile was good for a couple games.

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Star Ocean 3 was basically cliche but fine enough, but then the plot twist from hell happened. Since then, they've occupied that, "Isn't that cute, BUT IT"S WRONG!" meme from 2 Stupid Dogs.

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I've never played this series, is it the one where it's all a video game?

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5 was a big step up from 4 so sure I'll give this a shot

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Anagram posted...

I've never played this series, is it the one where it's all a video game?

Yes, specifically it's what Strife alluded to
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I honestly don't think it's all a video game is an intrinsically bad plot idea. You can do some cool stuff with that.

The execution was VERY bad though.

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I literally couldn't stand more than 8ish hours of Star Ocean 5. It looked and felt like it was made from a literal game maker template. The most forgettable cast imaginable. Nothing about it even gave if a hint of being halfway decent.

SO4 was trash but I still managed to get all the way through it.

If SO5 has some huge redeeming moment where it suddenly gets good, I'm all ears, but everything I experienced felt like it was a parody of an RPG, like some kind of inside joke.

"Hey, let's see how bad a game we can make and see if people will buy it!"

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actually I should finally get around to working on that platinum for the HD port of SO1

fingers still crossed they bring over SO2 since the HD port of that only released in Japan

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Mac Arrowny posted...

Is there a reason people ITT aren't talking about Valkyrie Profile as the best Tri-Ace game? I thought that was everyone's favorite.

Ive only played VP1 and the first two Star Oceans but sure, Id agree.

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KamikazePotato posted...

I honestly don't think it's all a video game is an intrinsically bad plot idea. You can do some cool stuff with that.

The execution was VERY bad though.

It honestly didn't bother me when I was playing SO3 in high school.

Same with FF8's orphanage twist.

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Didn't finish valkyrie profile but it was hella cool

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Mac Arrowny posted...

Is there a reason people ITT aren't talking about Valkyrie Profile as the best Tri-Ace game? I thought that was everyone's favorite.

Hot take: VP2 s***s all over VP1.

VP2's battle system is amazing.

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Mac Arrowny posted...

Is there a reason people ITT aren't talking about Valkyrie Profile as the best Tri-Ace game? I thought that was everyone's favorite.

Because Valkyrie Profile had the dignity to go and die, so it's merely remembered as a good game series instead of a 'remember when it wasn't complete trash'.

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KamikazePotato posted...

I honestly don't think it's all a video game is an intrinsically bad plot idea. You can do some cool stuff with that.

The execution was VERY bad though.

Honestly, the twist was fine. The bad part was that half the game had nothing to do with the other half.

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Lord Bob Bree posted...

Honestly, the twist was fine. The bad part was that half the game had nothing to do with the other half.

so basically like Star Ocean 2 then
and Star Ocean 1s finale vs. the rest of the game

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KamikazePotato posted...

I honestly don't think it's all a video game is an intrinsically bad plot idea. You can do some cool stuff with that.

The execution was VERY bad though.

Maybe as an idea in general, but as a third act twist it's hard for me to imagine a way it can be executed well.

And that's ignoring putting it in the third game of a series with a shared universe.
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Lord Bob Bree posted...

Honestly, the twist was fine. The bad part was that half the game had nothing to do with the other half.

Now extrapolate that to the series as a whole. How in the hell do you continue the series after that bomb? I mean, without actually having the balls to continue acknowledging it and working with it in every game going forward.

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I can think of one good example but it's at least sort of foreshadowed through weird fantastical shit happening in a setting where it hasn't previously.

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kevwaffles posted...

Maybe as an idea in general, but as a third act twist it's hard for me to imagine a way it can be executed well.

And that's ignoring putting it in the third game of a series with a shared universe.

Well yes, these are parts of why the execution was so bad!

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Im legitimately excited about this

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My main problem is not only is the reveal itself anti climactic, (because dorky kid in a random town, the final boss is computer programmer dork. YOU:RE JUST DATA!? Like come on.

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I really like Star Ocean Series.

I dont get why 4 gets so much hate. The battle trophies were helluva annoying in that one but the hate seems to stem much deeper. I think its probably my favourite of the series in fact.

Admittedly 5 felt like it was not long enough, even in comparison to the earlier games let alone other RPGs at the time, but I still enjoyed it. I need to do the replays on higher difficulties to get the platinum.

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I only played 4 for like an hour, kay? I'm normally good with dubs, kay? But there's one character in particular that really sucks, kay?

And well...Welch in 4 made me quit too. So, it's not just the "kay" girl...but it's mostly the kay girl...

They really should know better. SO3, plot twist aside, had good enough voice acting. You'd think they'd know how to direct them better. My guess is SO4 has way more issues than dub direction, but it doesn't help. When you make Matt Mercer and Laura Bailey led games sound stupid...you fucked up. I also remember some late game cutscene plot twist being memorable for all the wrong reasons. I mean, not SO3 levels franchise breaking, but it was laughable. DIdn't get to it obviously, but I remember someone posting it somewhere. It was something like a planet blowing up or something and they stare at it on the bridge and they just mope and cry for a minute or two after some realization they caused it...or something. Shows you how much I remember about the scene in question....

The worst thing I can say about SO5 is they didn't have any production value and made a climactic scene a forced Star Trek bridge sequence...and reusing SO3 music at points like it was Dragon Quest or something. But SO5 was "fine."

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Strife2 posted...

I only played 4 for like an hour, kay? I'm normally good with dubs, kay? But there's one character in particular that really sucks, kay?

And well...Welch in 4 made me quit too. So, it's not just the "kay" girl...but it's mostly the kay girl...

fsir enough, kay!

she was annoying at first but, for me at least, u sort of got used to it, kay?

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Welch's redesign in 4 was the bigger offender to me

At least in 5 they got her back looking more in line with her original look even though the character herself was still redesigned

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ninkendo posted...

Welch's redesign in 4 was the bigger offender to me

At least in 5 they got her back looking more in line with her original look even though the character herself was still redesigned

ninkendo posted...
Wasn't she some Disgaea looking AI cornball in 4? I remember she was also different in 3, but a muted secretary/overworked office worker lady, which was ok enough.

I know 5 made her a blonde inventor again

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