Star Ocean: The Last Hope | Xbox 360

About the Game

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a single-player, role-playing game released exclusively for the Xbox360 system. The Playstation 3 version, Star Ocean: The Last Hope International , released one year later, is a different game because of its additional content and features, although it shares the story. The narrative takes place prior to all other games in the series thus far - Stardate 0010.

Gameplay & Core Systems

The opening video segment shows the Earth being bombarded by nuclear weapons during a world war. The main character is Edge Maverick who starts out as a crew member but soon becomes captain of the SRF ship, the Calnus, which players will control. The ship has different rooms for item creation crafting, "Private Action" between characters, or picking the next travel destination. Edge and his companions will visit more than six planets, explore towns and dungeons and meet alien races, both friendly and hostile. There is exploration, character interaction, conversation and team-oriented combat in real-time.

Standout Features

• To save our species, a decision is made - a new homeland must be found for humanity.
• The numerous cut-scenes can be skipped if desired, and saving the game is only possible at designated spots on the map.
• When a battle begins, players can choose which character to control.
• Depending on players' progress in the game, there can be as many as 8 characters travelling in the party, but only 4 can take part in combat.
• Some are better with melee attacks while others rely on shooting projectiles or on spellcasting.
• Fighting styles can be customized quickly to suit the particular battle with use of the new B.E.A.T. system (Battle Exalted Action Type).
• There is also auto-targetting which can be manually changed if the wrong opponent is auto-selected.
• English: The North American release featured computer generated (CG) graphics with localized speech in English.

Presentation & Atmosphere

Japan's version, however, had the more traditional anime graphics and contained Japanese speech and text.

Display support includes HDTV 720p, HDTV 1080i, and HDTV 1080p. Audio support includes Dolby Digital.