How does this series go

[Purrz]

I haven't played Star Ocean before but it was something always in my radar just never got around to playing it. Now with this game I've seen a lot of hype from different people on it and it does look amazing. But Im going to be completely honest: I have no idea where i should start in the series or if it even matters to the plot. Thanks

[Powersword]

Play the demo. Explains everything. Live the game

[Purrz]

Originally posted by UnholyBlood:

Play the demo. Explains everything. Live the game

Oh yeah true. for some reason i forgot about that.

[PityClassy]

Originally posted by Purrz:

Originally posted by UnholyBlood:

Play the demo. Explains everything. Live the game

Oh yeah true. for some reason i forgot about that.

so this is a remaster of second story and a very well redone.. the only one i liked more than this one was first departure. but star ocean kinda took the non turn base combat and made it their own and the game also has a ton of endings and characters you can recruit.. these old ones are known as the best in the series. its kinda like final fantasy where you dont have to play the other ones to know whats going on.

[Second Duke Revier]

You can start with this game. It works well as a standalone story, and the first game is only mildly referenced.

[Purrz]

Originally posted by PityClassy:

Originally posted by Purrz:

Oh yeah true. for some reason i forgot about that.

so this is a remaster of second story and a very well redone.. the only one i liked more than this one was first departure. but star ocean kinda took the non turn base combat and made it their own and the game also has a ton of endings and characters you can recruit.. these old ones are known as the best in the series. its kinda like final fantasy where you dont have to play the other ones to know whats going on.

Ok good to know thanks

[Purrz]

Originally posted by Second Duke of Aeria Revier:

You can start with this game. It works well as a standalone story, and the first game is only mildly referenced.

great thanks!

[khl8101994]

i suggest you just ignore star ocean 3
(star ocean 3 has an infamous plot twist, do not find out for your better experience)
just jump into star ocean second story
btw, star ocean 2r blows star ocean 6 divine force out of water

[Doom_Cookies]

Meanwhile, I suggest you do not ignore Star Ocean 3 due to the infamous twist that is actually just standard scifi fare. Many players completely misunderstand it because they mentally check out over disappointment during the big reveal about three quarters through and don't really think about what the ending really means later on.

2 and 3 were easily the best overall games in the series (especially with this remake of 2), so it would be a shame if you ignored the latter just for that. If you can handle playing an older 3D title from the PS2 era, and you end up liking SO2R, then it's worth a playthrough sometime.

[IceWolf]

Star Ocean 3 is dogwater. The generic "Lol, it's all a simulation" Twist is pure tripe.

[valium]

Indeed, no setup for the "twist", no proper build up. Just out of left field, last leg of the game lazy writing.

[Doom_Cookies]

You probably should spoiler that.

But yeah, some build up sure would have been nice. The plot twist itself is perfectly fine, but the execution was awful. Still a fun ride, though.

The Star Ocean series as a whole kind of suffers from that. It's basically the same problem in each one. 1 has the sudden Fargett reveal, completely disparate from virtually all of the plot thus far. 2 has the Ten Wise Men and Nede come out of almost nowhere, with only the most scant hint that something was going on behind the scenes with the Sorcery Globe. 3 had its plot twist. 4 had the Missing Procedure as an intelligent entity kind of come out of nowhere.

The only SO games that didn't have a contrived plot twist were 5 and 6. They had other issues with their writing, what with 5's near lack of story and 6's sympathetic villains' motives not making much sense, but that wasn't really one of them.

I think 3's main problem was that the story meandered on Elicoor II for too long instead of actually setting up for the plot twist.

[Almighty Boof]

Originally posted by Doom_Cookies:

2 and 3 were easily the best overall games in the series (especially with this remake of 2), so it would be a shame if you ignored the latter just for that. If you can handle playing an older 3D title from the PS2 era, and you end up liking SO2R, then it's worth a playthrough sometime.

I haven't played 5 (does anyone really count 5 for anything?), that aside, I think 3 is actually one of the weakest in the series and the plot twist isn't the reason why. The IC system was completely ruined and you needed to "recruit" NPCs to craft certain items. The majority of playable characters are lackluster, boring, and unlikable (a trend that was refined, condensed, and perfected for Lymel, in 4). The MP death mechanic was horribly implemented and so was using HP OR MP as a special move resource. The Bonus Battle gauge was clearly in it's infancy (it has been vastly improved upon since). Changed to have only 3 party members in battle. It had an amazing post-game, though.

If we are discarding poor story design choices and looking at pure gameplay mechanics, 4 is vastly superior to 3 (even though the garbage IC trend continued). Don't get me wrong, I like 3 just fine, but even if we ignore the reason others hate on it, you can see the game hasn't aged well.

[restarter]

Originally posted by IceWolf:

Star Ocean 3 is dogwater. The generic "Lol, it's all a simulation" Twist is pure tripe.

dude?!!?

[Doom_Cookies]

Originally posted by Almighty Boof:

If we are discarding poor story design choices and looking at pure gameplay mechanics, 4 is vastly superior to 3 (even though the garbage IC trend continued). Don't get me wrong, I like 3 just fine, but even if we ignore the reason others hate on it, you can see the game hasn't aged well.

I actually liked most of the things you disliked about 3, so to each their own. I thought the whole crafting minigame with recruiting the NPCs was super cool. My only complaints with the IC system was that you couldn't set the fol amount you wanted to throw at it and that it could have afforded to be a little less obscure about when you have an item still yet undiscovered for a team. I even kind of liked the whole MP death deal, and enjoyed about half the characters on the roster (it was definitely weaker than the prior games' casts). The bonus bar drove me nuts, though.

But I agree that 4 has amazing combat, if nothing else. I still think it's the best combat of the series, with 6 being a close second. I'd rate the rest as: 3 > 2R > 5 > 2 = 1FD > 1.

That said, I also have to agree that it hasn't aged all too well. It feels kind of clunky to go back and play it in modern day - the combat does, at least.

Originally posted by Almighty Boof:

I haven't played 5 (does anyone really count 5 for anything?)

As someone who's played all the main series titles from top to bottom, even I'll tell you not to worry about 5. Especially if you played 3. It feels like they tried to rehash 3, but watered down and barring the plot twist, so they could re-establish genetic symbology as a core story concept to a new generation of gamers and possibly move the plot beyond 3 chronologically. Which they then didn't follow up with, probably considering how much of a flop 5 was with fans.

The gameplay and characters weren't interesting enough to make up for the lackluster plot, either.

[Second Duke Revier]

I don't know too much about the series myself but I've definitely seen that the third and fourth game burned through a lot of fan goodwill. It sounds like with the third game they tried to radically change the mechanics, to mixed results.