elitehebrew said:
Star Ocean 2's battle system never felt un-responsive or clunky ever. I played the game up to lvl.255 and never noticed anything bad at all about it. I just wanna hear what you mean...maybe i just overlooked something.
Well, it wasn't really bad (I still enjoyed it), but I had played Star Ocean 1 prior to Star Ocean 2 and the battle system wasn't nearly as smooth. It's still a fun system, but for some reason, it just didn't feel that snappy. SO1 and 3 both just feel a lot quicker. I can't really explain it.
Not really. You may not have liked it, at all, but ToS wasn't broken. ;p
Sure it is, just not nearly to the same degree. Like Alex (and others), my experience with the AI has been less than postive...and since the playing fields are so tiny, it's easy to get caught up in corners (making those flaws more annoying). It isn't a hard game (at least during the 15 hours I've played), but the battles always seem to play out the same. Well, I feel kind of bad for the game...so I might continue. However, the story is going NOWHERE, the music is HORRIBLE, and the world looks the same no matter where you go. I just can't understand why anyone would continue. I mean, in games like Wild Arms 3 (which suffered from the same progression problems), at least you had reason to continue just to solve the rather interesting dungeons and hear the music.
Of course, I'll never understand the hype it recieved because it plays almost exactly the same as Eternia and the prequels. It isn't even quite as full featured. It was misleading to me, because I am not a Tales fan. Pretty much EVERY Tales game has left me bored simply because the battle system is the ONLY good thing about them. With all the hype, I expected something new...but it's the same old game...again. Surely you can see that much. They built it on an ancient model, so it better not be broken.
Perhaps I'm being a bit too harsh as a result of this, though. I don't feel it deserves the praise it is getting when other games (which are basically the same) in the series recieved very little attention (in the US).
The cutscenes are really longass, the character models aren't even attractive to look at, AND the director sucks at making the scenes remotely interesting.
This is something I thought about...
It seems like they simply tried to walk the line between normal RPG dialog and more advanced cutscenes. Think about it, how many other RPGs deliver cutscenes on par with Xenosaga (in terms of technical execution)? Virtually NONE. I mean, FFX has a lot of the same problems as SO3 does, and that was considered a cinematic RPG. Really, SO3's cutscenes seem like they simply chose to zoom the camera in on conventional RPG conversations. It's just the fact that they HINT at being cinematic that you start to wish they were more so. How many other RPGs can you think of that even begin to approach Xenosaga in terms of cutscene execution? Few, I'd imagine. I don't think we can expect that from most devs (though it would be nice).
Think about last gen, though. You really didn't have anything like that. Characters would usually just, well, sit there on the map while you cycle through dialog. SO2 was extremely verbose, for example, so there was a LOT of dialog to go through. Xenogears story was presented almost entirely in this fashion (text boxes). Grandia took it a bit further when they used varying expressions on the characters that were actually effective. SO3 is just an extension of this type of cutscene. It's mostly characters standing around talking with a bit of action or animation here and there. It's more animated and active than most RPGs.
Not only is the battle engine of SO3 broken
It's a shame, as it is feels so good to play. I look forward to every battle as a result. However, there are a lot of problem areas with it that disappoint. If only they could finish what they started. It has the base of a good battle system, I think, but it just isn't finished.
I agree that item creation sucks ass, though.
