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[Alex]

Is anyone actually still playing this? There seem to be fairly frequent opinions from a few forum-goers.

Mostly Dark and Brandon F who is apparently the rabid fanboy for the games English release (No Shouta?)

After reading over opinions and watching movies of Shadow Hearts 2 again, I dunno, it's just not clicking interest for me, some of Bebpo's (once again) wonderful review turned me off pretty well for as much as it impressed me. As I have pretty specific preferances as far as JRPG's go after 14 years. That and I'm, once again, not clicking with the odd fusion of typicalish looking JRPG characters with occult fantasies, which I was the same with in the original. But that's just me.

So, I went ahead, and took my (fairly recent) pre-order off the game, and after finishing off Fable, and making fun of Battlefront's epic glitchyness, had nothing else in gamedom to kill time with.

And after Brandon F's rambling over XBox Live about great item synthesis, 200 floor dungeons, and a fantastic sounding Valkyrie Profile cameo, I went ahead, caved, and bit.

And I'm having a blast so far, it's been a pretty weird year for me as far as dissapointments and pleasent surprises in gaming go. And Star Ocean 3 is sitting uncomfortably high in the pleasent section.

It's so weird, there's something about the game that I am not surprised in the least with the ammount of enjoyment folks like Brandon F and Shouta have derived from it.

Espically, since I'm almost feeling like an apologist about some of the flaws, whereas, I lambast the hell out of Symphonia's (despite loving past Tales games, and hating SO2, mind you).

But it's really been drawing me in. The characters, story, visuals, settings, great dungeons, flawed, but forgivingly (probably not a word) engaging battles, fun side bits, and an overal much more inspiried and coaxing feel.

It's probably one of the weirder games for me lately, being such an elitest asshole for the genre. But I'm fully entranced, and look so, so forward to the crazyness Brandon was rambling on about in great detail.

I'm calling nerd preferance on this, and in the short 10ish hours I've sunk in, it's been one of the most enjoyable RPG's for me of recent years. Freaky. SO3 + 1.

Any other whacky SO3 opinions, good or bad? Anything I should know for later in the game, also, is the guide quality stuff?

Thankies.

 

[nitewulf]

im chugging through it...i dont play regularly though. im about 30 hours in, take off 2/3 hours where the game was idled as i did other stuff. the graphics and music are lovely. i didnt really mind the sci-fi to medieval change in the beginning, but they should have reverted to the main story arc before making you play through for so long. i mean i didnt really think it'd take this long to get going.
the towns/castles/dungeons are absolutely immense...for the first time i actually feel like they are castles, dungeons and towns. i bashed the hell out of FFX for being so linear, having no dungeons and being easy...but im almost caving by SO3's hardcoreness. part of it is due to the fact that i just am not all that passionate about gaming as i used to be...i just dont have the patience nowadays. but still im grinding my teeth and chugging through SO3 for it is fun to play. however, i could see myself absolutely loving this game 3/4 years ago.
one bad thing about these immense areas is that entry/exit points are not marked once you have traversed through them. since they are not, navigation is very frustrating. there are no markers anywhere in fact, aside from doors...so when running across a forest you will get lost. again, its more due to my own shortcoming that i hate these things, as actually by making you lose your way inside a forest, the game IS immersing you in. so its a prefference thing as to whether you'll be annoyed by this or not...
the battle system is very flawed. it becomes more apparent later on as you face tougher enemies. initially you end up just mashing buttons, and before you know it enemy groups get destroyed, including bosses. later on it becomes irritating. the enemies fall after 2/3 hits constantly, messing up your specials, and combos. you end up wasting HP (casting specials) for no reason, as you do the moves on a fallen foe who does not get hit. spells take a while to cast, and you lose out if you get hit. and since gauging enemy spell/attack distance is tough you have to run all the way on the other side of the battle field to make sure you get enough time to cast. sometimes you are too far for offensive spells. its frustrating and takes some trial and error to get used to. some bug casues my characters to revert to "do nothing" at times, so after those battles i have to get back in the menu and switch them to "attack with all your might" (which seems to be the only useful option anyway).
i feel the "fury" system is more frustrating than useful, the battle system is kinetic, so standing still for 100% fury in order to cast some special 100% fury spell isnt very intuitive. on the other hand, enemies break your combos and stun you ALL THE TIME using 100% fury. i just dont like the fury system that much. i also feel the 15 sp points limits the evolution of special techniques, sometimes you wanna power up "critical hit" or something, yet since other offensive techniques might be more useful at battles you end up equipping them instead. so unless you keep leveling up by fighting, theres no good way to evolve your special techniques.
anyway, those are some of my feelings on the game so far.

 

[Dragona Akehi]

I need to get this game. Hopefully soon, but I just can't afford it right now. I am definately interested, but after seeing a movie with that HORRIBLE english angsty voice acting ("who am I....!!!) with the wings/feather scene, it kinda turned me off. Still very interested.

 

[belgurdo]

Everything except the stuff that deals with Elicoor (this includes character from there) is interesting. I really could have done without being saddled into trudging through generic fantasy planet for half the game

 

[jiggle]

I like SO3 Shocking.

I thought they did a good job with the AI of the other two members. VERY rarely do I have to babysit them. In the beginning, they were handling fights better than I could. Even afterward, I would sometimes let them fight by themselves, so I wouldn't accidently break off my chain bonus.

I wish there weren't so many filler playable characters though. Especially when they're introduced at times that render them useless.

The story started out prettty good, but I gotta agree with alot of the reviews that it drags in the middle. But the plot twist near the end was nice. There's something very lacking in the actual storytelling though. It just doesn't have the dramatic flare like those found in other Square games, or even Tri-ace's own VP.

The environments are nice, but the character models need more polygons. And wtf with using low poly models for the FMV, when the ending shows they made high poly version of them. weird...

 

[Shouta]

Too many games to get, I'm waiting until its cheap to play through the English version ;p.

 

[Brandon F]

97 hours and counting. It's freaky really, despite the obvious flaws, a JRPG of this type hasn't yanked on my nuts for this long since...well, ever. Why do all the B-grade games get the most playtime? DQ7 took 90 hours of my life not long back as well...

Lenneth is going down...after I spend another 2 hours synthesizing my uber sword.

 

[Alex]

Oh, god. DWVII. So many flaws, so archaic, but I ate it all up. It was the series that got me into RPG's though, and had been years since DWIV. (The DWVII manual back still makes me ANGRY) but I'm not really a nostalgic person, I just genuinely enjoyed the 50 tons of classic RPG goodness.

 

[Mejilan]

I got roughly 30 hours into this game and just couldn't take it anymore. (SO3, not DWVII).

 

[Tabris]

Pluses

Battle System (I enjoyed all aspects of this, including the cheeziness you can reap on your enemies), Graphics (Progressive scan and amazing backgrounds) and Music (Amazing!).

Neutral

Story (I'm near the end and I don't know how I feel about that twist)

Minuses

Characters (except for Albel and maybe Cliff, the rest are either annoying or shallow. Fayt occasionally has good moments, but then he's back to being shallow and boring), Slow pace for most of the game, enemies not hopping up fast enough, lack of 2 player during in-game battles, and HORRID AI.

 

[Dead]

I start to fall apart laughing when I hear the name "Cliff Fitter" :lol

 

[dark10x]

I'm sitting somewhere around 75 hours or so. I still can't get enough...

Honestly, I tried to play more Symphonia today...but it just isn't holding me. The battles are solid, but everything else is just so...bland. Will I ever pass 25 hours? I dunno, maybe someday...

 

[Tabris]

Maybe I like Cliff so much not for his actual character, but for his prowess in battle!

 

[Brandon F]

Cliff is a combo machine no doubt. Probably the most effective close range fighter in the entire troupe. Plus he is surprisingly smart at healing with a cure spell equipped. Deep in one of the bonus dungeons you earn his 'Infinity Kick' ability which I imagine lives up to it's name quite proudly.

As much ass as I was kicking with him, I eventually traded him up for Maria cause she's a cutie-pie with a big laser gun.

 

[Alex]

Bleh, I'm going to wait another day or so before I post more on the game. I wanna get to the meat of the game before joining into useless conversation, whee.

Between bitching (and then trading in) Battlefront, finishing Fable, and...other stuff, I didn't get to sink much time in. Mostly just today. Taking a few days off every now and then rox. Taking too long and having them void your sick days sucks.

"Honestly, I tried to play more Symphonia today...but it just isn't holding me. The battles are solid, but everything else is just so...bland. Will I ever pass 25 hours? I dunno, maybe someday..."

I think I'm finally done trashing Symphonia. Yeah, it's flawed, not nearly as good as Eternia, and the second half of the game is all kinds of bad, but I've said that enough! I managed to beat it though.

"Lenneth is going down...after I spend another 2 hours synthesizing my uber sword."

Jeez, how long does it take to synth crap? Do you need to build skill for it, or is just some kinda weird, drawn out process? I'm more interested as of recent FFXI follies, I'm getting more and more into weird item creation. Satasfying to fight with your own hand-made crap...Someday I'll get out of my lazy funk and make my (serious) ground-up Ranger, oh well.

 

[Diomedeskun]

I absolutely adore the game (Star Ocean 3). It is much closer to hard Sci-Fi than previous Star Oceans, which were Star Trek + fantasy. The Elicoor section is also one of the very few games that has ever had a fantasy world that seems truly medieval (all explained by the sci-fi terms in the in-game dictionary).

While the clothing is not very European, the overall feel of the world is much closer to medieval Europe than any game other than Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story, or Vandal Hearts 2 (all start with Vs, how odd).

I am personally rather tired of the usual anime style pseudo-medieval style that little resembles past Europe. Some serious research into history, physics, and Western written sci-fi novels was performed for this game.

Star Ocean is so far looking like it will be my favorite RPG this generation (up until now). It has some amazingly large, realistic towns and the finest dungeon design in years as well.

 

[Suikoguy]

102 hours.. yep, i'm glad I ignored the rabid haters
I loved the twist personally

And with the exception of Farleen, which arguably, had some of the worst voice acting possible. The game was Ace for me.

 

[Alex]

If the game rounds itself out and delivers like Brandon says it does, it'll probably be one o' my favs as well.

Current fav-o-rite list being Dragon Quarter, Dark Cloud 2 and Grandia X. And with this pending and Nocturne coming soon, PS2 is turning into the solid RPG machine PSX was.

And Dragon Warrior VIII and Radita Stories (though I may be alone on this ) are still coming, huzzah?

Oh well. I'll trudge back down and pick up the guide tommorow, susposedly the charts and side content coverage is quite nice? Maybe I can also finally trade in that massive stack of games too, and pay off Nocturne and it's expensive ass uber guide (21.99 here, yes, my GameStop seems to suck that much ass unless they're mistaken).

 

[Lonestar]

I've liked the game so far (40 hours in or so) just starting to get into synthing. All I have to show is...Spicy Cake. And Thin Armor. ROCK.

I control on Cliff mainly, and throw in those 1-2 combo's hitting for 500-900 each time. Lately though, I've equipped him with the MP damage, and just do quick taps (little jabs) that take off 36-50 mp per hit, usually giving me quicker battles.

 

[dark10x]

102 hours.. yep, i'm glad I ignored the rabid haters
I loved the twist personally

And with the exception of Farleen, which arguably, had some of the worst voice acting possible. The game was Ace for me.

I can't say for certain, but someone was claiming that the VA for Farleen actually sounds very much like that in real life. >_< If that is true, I seriously feel sorry for her.

 

[Brandon F]

Jeez, how long does it take to synth crap? Do you need to build skill for it, or is just some kinda weird, drawn out process? I'm more interested as of recent FFXI follies, I'm getting more and more into weird item creation. Satasfying to fight with your own hand-made crap...Someday I'll get out of my lazy funk and make my (serious) ground-up Ranger, oh well.

There is a sort of in-game probability formula that dictates the success of synthing/crafting(guide describes it). Problem is, there is always a percentage of failure factored in that rises with more attempts. Hard to describe until you've done it yourself, but the 2-hour thing I said is overblown really. It's possible to spend that much time if you are building a weapon and -all- the other items you plan to synth onto it from scratch though.

Yet there are times where the game just gets finnicky and won't follow procedure and math despite the odds being on your side. The ultimate weapons I am discovering now in the post-game dungeons have negative abilities grafted onto them which require mucho cash to remove, it's been a long annoying process getting them off simply because luck isn't on my side :grumble:. You are at the whim of invisible dice rolling that can get very expensive and time-consuming particularly in the lategame with more attractive goods. But with powerful NPC inventors on your side, and a purse full of cash, it's rarely burdensome to make stuff. Don't stress.

 

[Suikoguy]

I can't say for certain, but someone was claiming that the VA for Farleen actually sounds very much like that in real life. >_< If that is true, I seriously feel sorry for her.

So do I, she sounds like a horrible version of Elmo

 

[nitewulf]

should i start synthing w/ the holy sword? im not even sure which weapons to upgrade...should i wait for a more "ultimate" sword?
i'm starting to use cliff more as well, just got his fists of fury tech, which is pretty awesome.

 

[jiggle]

should i start synthing w/ the holy sword? im not even sure which weapons to upgrade...should i wait for a more "ultimate" sword?
i'm starting to use cliff more as well, just got his fists of fury tech, which is pretty awesome.

Synth 1 orichalcum to the holy sword or radiant sword 1 time and 1 time only(second time gives you some fury thing) for +400atk. Then refine it 7 times. Gives that weapon +4000 attack Or synth a orichalcum to each of the 3 characters you're using and refine it a few times(unless you have lots of fols)

Lasers are better candidate for synthing cuz it has like 600atk, along with the additional 4000 plus everyone can equipe it, but you won't get it for a while. You can synth ur refined weapon to the laser later and get the same ability anyway.

Don't bother waiting for the ultimate sword and other weapons, you won't get them until you beat the game once.

(if you don't know what weapon to improve on, imo, just do it with ur strongest weapon atm, with the 4000+ atk attached, even the metal pipe can be super strong. I did the Radiant sword, Galting Guantlet, and some cheapo weapon for nel I bought in Airglyph. Just make sure you have a "0" next to the weapon so you can get 8 +400atk.)

 

[nitewulf]

well, i was wondering whether the holy sword is a good candidate or not, because when you start the game you see some expensive weapons, i havent checked and bought any of them yet...i was just using the "bastard sword" so far, till i got the holy sowrd from the optional dungeon. but thax for the tip, i think ill do it...BTW, where would i find a orichalcum?

 

[Brandon F]

I synthed Orichalcum to the Holy sword myself. It adds +500 atk up to 8 times if you decide to use Specify plan to replicate it. Raw power there...(oh right, forgot about the 50% revive too)

Later on you'll find better swords and weapons, but the Holy sword lasts a good while. I recommend just having fun and slotting whatever onto your weapons. Money is generally not difficult to come by particularly abusing the 200% fol battle bonus, so you might as well do something to the weapons you use, why let the free slots go to waste?

When it comes to the crazier unique weapons in the post-game, you have to plan out your synthing a bit more considering you can't just buy or craft a new one if you want to make changes. But go nuts now!

 

[jiggle]

well, i was wondering whether the holy sword is a good candidate or not, because when you start the game you see some expensive weapons, i havent checked and bought any of them yet...i was just using the "bastard sword" so far, till i got the holy sowrd from the optional dungeon. but thax for the tip, i think ill do it...BTW, where would i find a orichalcum?

Holy sword with +4000atk is enough for you to breeze thru the rest of the game, assuming the other characters' weapons are upgraded too. Something to keep in mind if you want to be challenged

For orichalcum
You need the alchemist's stone from Mosel Dunes.
And recruit Mackwell and Misty Lear.

Have those two and Maria use alchemy in Airyglyph to create orichalcum at around 5700 fols.

 

[djtiesto]

It's my favorite PS2 RPG ever... though SO2 is still my favorite game of all time.

The Good:
-The design of the dungeons and tows is very inspired... very detailed, nice use of distance (Moonbase and the Surferio Ruins dungeon especially).

-The music kicks ass... I prefer the electronic sounding stuff (Moonbase once again, and that strange boss song with the early 90's house music rap in it) to the buttrock stuff (that I normally like, it's just been done too many times in RPGs, and Ys still does it best).

-Upgrading your guys and making them uber-powerful is always fun.

-The story is pretty interesting and unique as far as RPG stories go... Though some parts seem rather slow, and a lot of the story seems to happen all at once

-Sphere... hehehehehehe (am I the only one who got this? it's obvious!) Lots of subtle in-jokes for tri-Ace/RPG fans

-I like how private actions are more subtle in this game, but they should be a bit more frequent

-Lots of subquests and bonus dungeons

The Bad:
-I hate how some characters start out at low levels... I see no reason to use Sophia, Peppita, Roger, etc... especially when my Fayt, Cliff and Nel are uber-powerful. Did everybody just use Fate, Cliff and Nel, or are you guys doing something different?

-I hate enemies with rapid fires

-Knocking the enemy down is annoying, as is waiting for your FURY to power up

Seriously, if you put in the SO2 skills system (Pickpocketing... kick ass!) and battle system... this would be my favorite game of all time

Oh yeah, what's with those 1/1 bunnies, slowing all your guys down... is there any point to them? Or should I just sell it and use the money to refine my weapons with more Orihalcum?

 

[Brandon F]

-I hate how some characters start out at low levels... I see no reason to use Sophia, Peppita, Roger, etc... especially when my Fayt, Cliff and Nel are uber-powerful. Did everybody just use Fate, Cliff and Nel, or are you guys doing something different?

Oh yeah, what's with those 1/1 bunnies, slowing all your guys down... is there any point to them? Or should I just sell it and use the money to refine my weapons with more Orihalcum?

Sell the 1/1 bunnies. They fetch 82k and seem to serve no other purpose. Irritating that you don't get more interesting rewards for 'clearing' out map areas.

Though your benched party members are way behind the curve, it's actually very easy to build them up if you want some variety. I switched Maria in for Cliff about halfway through, and it was stupidly quick to get her up to speed. It's always good to switch in a low level character in the late game also just to get that bonus gauge up and running. Your frontline members will likely be too strong to actually activate the gauge themselves at a certain point, it's standard practice for me in the bonus dungeons, though I always try to make sure that low-level character dies before the battle ends so they don't net xp and jump 20+ levels screwing up the trick. (BTW, there is a battle trophy award for a character jumping 20 levels in a single battle)

 

[Tabris]

I use Cliff, Albel (or Fayt) and Sophia.

 

[Shouta]

Man, you guys are synthing whores. I did minor synthing in my run through the game but otherwise I played through the game with just default weapons and I beat the game =O!

I used Cliff, Nel, and Fate for the bulk of the game but I had used Souffle and Sophia (Sophia is pretty nasty and Souffle has some decent abilities along with some fucking insane in-battle animations) as well after I got them. Roger is supposedly really powerful after some bulking up. I don't know about the two Director's Cut characters (Mirage and what's his name).

 

[Alcibiades]

I saw a buddy of mine play Star Ocean (for about an hour), and the voice acting was LMAO-material, atrocious (but then again, I've haven't played an RPG since the SNES days, so I guess the only comparison I have is US-animated movies, since I watch anime subbed-never-dubbed)...

I haven't gotten Tales of Symphonia, but if it's anything like Star Ocean 3, I think I'll stick with text-based RPG's in my backlog on old systems and wait till it's $20.

BTW, how is the voice acting is Skies or Arcadia (or is there none?). I prefer no voice acting over even decent-to-slightly good, but at least I can find it for $20 now.

 

[dark10x]

I saw a buddy of mine play Star Ocean (for about an hour), and the voice acting was LMAO-material, atrocious (but then again, I've haven't played an RPG since the SNES days, so I guess the only comparison I have is US-animated movies, since I watch anime subbed-never-dubbed)...

I haven't gotten Tales of Symphonia, but if it's anything like Star Ocean 3, I think I'll stick with text-based RPG's in my backlog on old systems and wait till it's $20.

BTW, how is the voice acting is Skies or Arcadia (or is there none?). I prefer no voice acting over even decent-to-slightly good, but at least I can find it for $20 now.

First of all, most of the voice acting is pretty good in SO3. I don't know what part you heard. Both ToS and SO3 have solid voice acting (though I think SO3's was a bit better).

However, in both SO3 and ToS, you can play in text only mode. Voices are an option...

 

[Alcibiades]

that's pretty cool, I guess I could always do that... Now the ultimate option would be Japanese voices w/ subtitles, but I'm think I heard they didn't do it for Tales...

I can't remember the part exactly in SO3, but it was in the part where some queen was going to allow the blue-haired main character to stay in the kingdom even though it meant they were going to get attacked by some space ships, and then the blue-haired dude is supposed to not be feeling well in the bed (or sitting), but either way it's totally not-believable acting (just recently I've seen some Jimmy Neutron and Pocahontas, one kids comedy and the other action-adventure animated properties, and they had way better voice acting). Maybe in comparison to Saturn/PS-X RPG's the voice acting is better though...

 

[Shouta]

It's a matter of better voice-directing for those shows in general. I've said it a billion times, voice-actors are as competent as their director and Grandia Xtreme is a great example of this. You have Mark Hamill, Dean Cain, and Lisa Loeb who all do fine jobs in acting/voice acting (Mark Hamill especially since he was the Joker in Batman: TAS) but Grandia Xtreme still sounded like shit.