Star Ocean 4 JP site open. Release Feb 19=Japan, Feb 24=NA, April 24=PAL

Had to post this rpgmonkey, sorry!

rpgmonkey said:
Meracle Chamlotte added to Characters. Rush Mode, Special Attacks, Symbology, Link Combo, and BEAT system added to Battle.

Game is 8,925 Yen (about 96 dollars. Jesus, guess this means FFXIII's price will be freaking insane unfortunately, as I planned on importing it...), and comes on 3 DVD ROMs.

Rush Mode

When in Rush mode you get two special effects added. "Perfect Guardless" and "Speed Up". Perfect Guardless reduces the damage received, while Speed Up increases movement and attack speed. Keep in mind enemies can use Rush Mode too, so watching their Rush Gauge will be pretty crucial to survival, especially against the tougher enemies.

Special Attack

Pretty self explanatory if you've ever played a game in the series. Special attacks character can use to fight. They consume MP, are learned through leveling up, and can linked into a combo (explained later). They have Skill Levels, which makes them stronger and stuff.

Symbology

Similar to Special Attacks, except they're the magic of Star Ocean. They have chanting times as always, and you use them in Link Combos. As if most people didn't expect this, they don't stop time in battles like SO1 and 2. They have Skills Levels as well.

Link Combo

Set skills to the L and R triggers to makes combos with them. It's possible to make combos with all skills, so I'm sure it encourages playing around with the system.

Spell combos also have been sped up to (or maybe even beyond) SO3's speed. After casting the second spell, you get instant cast (zero chanting time).

It's possible to have a maximum of six skills in a Lin Combo. And you don't have to use L->R->L->R sequences for a combo either. You can do things like L->R->R->L to mix things up. This should be really awesome with mages, since you can just put faster spells first, then let instant cast kick in for the more powerful (and slower) spells.

BEAT System

BEAT (or Battle Exalted Action Type...) is a new system created for you to customize characters to your style, and make up for a character's weak points. By participating in numerous battles with your BEAT type, your rank will go up. This will allow you to get new actions and increase your abilities.

One BEAT type is BEAT S, which specializes in the Sight Out system. It's a style that focuses on the enemy's blind spots with the Sight Out System and stats like Evasion and Attack. It's a technical style that ignores defense in favor of attack. As you can see in the pic, his stats go up with your BEAT ranks increases as well. You also gain new actions like "Sight Off" from it, which is an upgrade of Sight Out from repeatedly using it, and increases damage to the enemy when performing it.
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Link combo sounds hot! I like how you can mix up your combos. L->R->L->R->R or R->R->L->L->L. I like what I'm hearing about mage type characters, too. In SO3 or shit any game like this, it's not fun using mages because the melee fighters are faster with their attacks and stuff, I'm glad they are trying to make them fun to use. Faize seems like a combination of close range fighter mixed with magic based character.

It's going to be fun messing around with skill setups.
 
famitsu has their new SO4 stuff online.

New Character
so01-1.jpg

so02-1.jpg


BEAT system
so06-1.jpg


BEAT. S
so03-1.jpg


BEAT. B
so04-1.jpg


BEAT. N
so05-1.jpg
 
Error said:
In SO3 or shit any game like this, it's not fun using mages because the melee fighters are faster with their attacks and stuff, I'm glad they are trying to make them fun to use.
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I dunno, I had tons of fun using Sophia in SO3 pretty much since she joined, and doing Thunder Flare and Eruption all the way up Sphere 211 for insane battle chains.... :D

Really enjoying what the new battle system sounds like, especially for mages. It may be impossible not to buy a 360 for this.
 
The more I see of this game the more I forget about IU and the other mishap JRPGs this generation. Looks really fucking good. All over my face.
 
If this game has at least half of the replay value of SO3, I'll shit my pants.

I dunno, I had tons of fun using Sophia in SO3 pretty much since she joined, and doing Thunder Flare and Eruption all the way up Sphere 211 for insane battle chains....
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Well, true. But come on, a fighter+mage character? that'll be so awesome! Hopefully that's what Faize is, as that type of character has never been done in the series before. Adray sucked so much lol.
 
This game looks so awesome in battle, but I hate the VA and character models. Who cares though this game looks ace.
 
I actually think the english VA is nice. :shrugs

Definitely better than IU. lol
 
Llyranor said:
"I'm going, grampa. 'kay?"
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Voice actors can't do much if the script is crap.

I give you that line, but the rest sounded good to me.
 
Probably won't be day 1 for me, but I'll be keeping an eye on player impressions on these parts.

I loved Valkyrie Profile, thought SO2 was good enough but not particularly great (4's battle system better be a lot more refined), and enjoyed IU for what it was. Not a major Tri-Ace lover, so I can't blindly jump in this one.
 
SO4 is building on SO3 battle engine, and SO3 battle engine is pretty different from SO2 (some people hated it, others loved it).

So I don't know, depends on what you expect.
 
john tv said:
She speaks like that in the Japanese, too, FWIW.
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I wouldn't put it past them, tri-Ace isn't exactly known for awesome scripts. Well, I doubt they are actually doing scriptwork for this, prolly outsourced to edgeworks like they've been doing since Radiata Stories.

defending the english script... is this a semi-confirmation that 8-4 is handling SO4? :O
 
Well 8-4 did have a
secret SE game that they were working on during GiantBomb's TGS visit.
Is there ever going to be a point where you can be public about what it was?
 
Error said:
edgeworks like they've been doing since Radiata Stories.
Click to expand...
IU was outsourced to ORG.

We still don't know who's handling SO4's script. But as long as tri-Ace doesn't do it, things should be decent.
 
Error said:
Well, true. But come on, a fighter+mage character? that'll be so awesome! Hopefully that's what Faize is, as that type of character has never been done in the series before. Adray sucked so much lol.
Click to expand...
We can only hope. Ugggh, Adray.... the only thing about him that didn't suck was his alternate costume with the giant Clair tattoo.
 
That's...kinda awesome. :o

I have a feeling NA's gonna get something that kinda moves away from the sci-fi feel this did so well though. :/

And Reimi can kick? That's pretty cool.
 
Cool boxart.

Error said:
defending the english script... is this a semi-confirmation that 8-4 is handling SO4? :O
Click to expand...

I don't know if it was known before this interview, but it's a definite yes:

We're currently wrapping up Star Ocean: The Last Hope with Square Enix, which we're really excited about.
Click to expand...

And for the record, I definitely prefer the English VA from IU to this trailer, but this trailer suffers from a. stupid Presea like girl and b. being a trailer, and not a full game. Not that it'll matter in the end.
 
Rpgmonkey said:
That's...kinda awesome. :o

I have a feeling NA's gonna get something that kinda moves away from the sci-fi feel this did so well though. :/

And Reimi can kick? That's pretty cool.
Click to expand...

NA boxart will probably be Hero + Heroine cut and pasted in front of a space background with some lens flare. :(
 
Nif said:
NA boxart will probably be Hero + Heroine cut and pasted in front of a space background with some lens flare. :(
Click to expand...

Don't forget the floating heads of insignificant characters in the background.
 
My birthday! Will buy!

For Star Ocean vets, this is my first foray into the series, will I be lost or should I catchup by watching some videos online?
 
it's a prequel in terms of story, don't think you'll miss anything. probably references scattered around for vets of the series, but nothing big. All SO games stand alone fairly well.
 
Error said:
it's a prequel in terms of story, don't think you'll miss anything. probably references scattered around for vets of the series, but nothing big. All SO games stand alone fairly well.
Click to expand...

But I heard somewhere the last game was a cliffhanger? Am I confusing different RPG series then?
 
I'm just going off of the screens shots, but the shine and look of this game feels like Dreamcast RPGs. It's what I'd expect from the Dreamcast 2. That isn't a bad thing since I love(d) the DC.
 
This game is one of the main reasons i bought a 360. I hope the europe release date is announced soon, or even better the NA game is region free.
 
FFChris said:
EU getting fucked over again, dammit.

Looks so good as well! Will I be able to use the other vesions on my PAL 360?
Click to expand...

wait, do we know anything about the PAL release? And I wouldn't count on any other version to work, be it the US version or the asian one. If anything, it will be region free between NTSC-J & NTSC-US but incompatible with PAL systems, just like Last Remant. Infinite Undiscovery is completely region locked.

edit: I wonder if we'll get it before Tales of Vesperia. oh wow... don't know whether to laugh or cry
 
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