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[ourumov]

Just bought it today since I saw it pretty cheap...actually I went for a copy of Shadow of the Colossus but there was no longer any stock of them...
Bought it for my brother who is a RPG-nut...but I wonder if he'll like it...

 

[BlueTsunami]

Horrible Story, Horrible Twist, Great Battle System, Great Secret Dungeons and Item Customization (though not as good as Star Ocean 2)

 

[SuperSonic1305]

It's great

 

[Teasel]

could somebody please spoil the story for me? i always heard of this "horrible plot twist" and always wanted to know what is it so...

 

[belgurdo]

A failure through and through

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Hmm I haven't beaten it(my copy got stolen) but I guess I could reccommend it to a RPG nut.

Generally I loved the battle system and most of the characters. It also felt like it had a decent level of difficulty in some spots.

I thought the story started off good, and I actually liked the twist. I dunno why, but I didn't think it was as bad as other said. But unfortunately it looked like the story was just getting worse after that.

 

[BlueTsunami]

could somebody please spoil the story for me? i always heard of this "horrible plot twist" and always wanted to know what is it so...

Spoiler

The twist is that the world Fate and the whole cast is from is some type of virtual world that was created by another world. They eventually find this out and break out of the virtual world into the real world. I think they try to save the virtual world from being destroyed or something (haven't played the game in a while)

Think The Matrix...and you've got the gist of the story (its not about enslaving people though)

The story got really boring though. Its more or less the fact that you stay on that primitive world for SOOOO LONG. You also have to back track here and there. It got annoying.

What I do love is how the Battle System feels. Star Ocean has always had this in its pocket. The Secret Dungeons also rock hard. You also see a few familiar faces in the Secret Dungeons (from the Tri Ace universe).

Its technically a fun game...just a chore to get through the start.

 

[BobTheFork]

I'm just about done with disc 1 now. Its not bad, but I will agree the story sucks, I just kept waiting for them to get to the point.

 

[ourumov]

Bebpo, I summon you !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kiriku]

It has one of the most hilarious/unexpected plot twists I've ever seen in an RPG. But in all its silliness, I thought it was cool in a refreshing kind of way...like the devs went "I'm tired of all this cliché shit, let's do something REALLY wild, let's surprise the hell out of these fuckers!". :lol

But about the game, it is kind of relaxing...rather slow-paced overall, with the soothing, dreamy music I've come to expect from Sakuraba. Story is decent albeit with slow progression, and I expected it to grow a lot bigger and epic than it did, seeing as the game is set in space and all.

Battle system is a bit confusing at first, but it grows on you. A couple of hours into the game I was rather accustomed to it and enjoyed it, save for the occasional idiocy of my AI-controlled party members ("hey, let's keep running in this corner while my team-mates are getting their ass kicked!").

Another thing I didn't like about Star Ocean 3 was the maps, and running back and forth on them. Thinking back, it felt like a passed the same areas over and over again. And I would still get lost at times, because there was no map over the entire continent (just for each overworld area, so to speak). I thought that was really silly...how hard would it be to just add a big map (unless I missed it somehow??)? And some of the dungeons were just boring and frustrating.

But the game did get me engrossed for hours at times, and I had some decent fun levelling up and tuning my characters and setting their abilites exactly the way I wanted them. An above average RPG IMO, but nothing amazing.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

It has one of the most hilarious/unexpected plot twists I've ever seen in an RPG. But in all it's silliness, I thought it was cool in a refreshing kind of way...like the devs went "I'm tired of all this cliché shit, let's do something REALLY wild, let's surprise the hell out of these fuckers!". :lol

But about the game, it is kind of relaxing...rather slow-paced overall, with the soothing, dreamy music I've come to expect from Sakuraba. Story is decent albeit with slow progression, and I expected it to grow a lot bigger and epic than it did, seeing as the game is set in space and all.

Battle system is a bit confusing at first, but it grows on you. A couple of hours into the game I was rather accustomed to it and enjoyed it, save for the occasional of my AI-controlled party members ("hey, let's keep running in this corner while my team-mates are getting their ass kicked!").

Another thing I didn't like about Star Ocean 3 was the maps, and running back and forth on them. Thinking back, it felt like a passed the same areas over and over again. And I would still get lost at times, because there was no map over the entire continent (just for each overworld area, so to speak). I thought that was really silly...how hard would it be to just add a big map (unless I missed it somehow??)? And some of the dungeons were just boring and frustrating.

But the game did get me engrossed for hours at times, and I had some decent fun levelling up and tuning my characters and setting their abilites exactly the way I wanted them. An above average RPG IMO, but nothing amazing.

I also thought the plot twist was kind of silly, but in a good way. I really don't see why it gets so much criticism. Well okay I guess I can see it, but it is much better than some Tales cliche plot(yes I called them out). <shrug>

 

[J-Rzez]

Oh... it's a good game for a RPG fan... it's really not all that bad to be honest... the battle system is a nice break to the turn-style system, and, it's actually done right... it's fun to battle... the characters are pretty cool though i don't care for Maria that much... hehe... but how can she stand up to Nel Zelpher? The item creation is fun, yep, fun following along with all those wacky announcements that buzz in... though this can lead to an ultimate cheat in the game with the orichalum stuff on the weapons, making it too easy... There's a trophy system for certain accomplishments, like, beating so and so in less than a minute, not taking damage, being ambushed 10 times from the rear, etc... The graphics are pleasant too... and the music is pretty good too...

The story is love/hate... i personally didn't mind it... don't get me wrong, i though "WTF" at the one spot everyone knows about, but, other than that, not bad at all... It's fairly original i guess... and that you can set up the "personal" outcomes at the end of the game is pretty cool too... You'll get a decent amount of game-time outta it too...

overall... for $20... you can't really go wrong... heck, if i knew i would've enjoyed it this much, i would've picked it up at release at full price...

I hope to see a SO4, and that it doesn't stray far from SO3... and somehow keep Cliff and Nel in there... oh... Albel too...

 

[BlueTsunami]

Man...I still remember the combos I would pull off with Fate and damn...forgot their names. I'll say it again but the Battle System really really rocks. I remember hearing how people disliked it (when it first came out), saying how hard it was but once you get the hang of it...its sort of like being in the Zone.

I was angry at the time how Character Customization and Item Creation deviated from SO2. I love how Star Ocean 2 allowed you to profess in Cooking or Metal Work or a multitude of other traits. SO3 didn't allow this...only physical traits could be augmented. I really really hope that in SO4 (if there is one) brings back the customization system of SO2.

 

[My Arms Your Hearse]

I would agree that the characters and story mostly suck.... horribly. However, SO3 isn't about the story. It is about the combat system, which is great, and all the secret areas/additional difficulty levels.

SO3 on 4D mode is not something to be taken lightly.

Best replayability this generation.

 

[WrathOfOtaibah]

It sucks.

Its just so bland.

 

[ourumov]

Wow...I wonder if he will finish it...My brother is a bit weird since he enjoyed Skies of Arcadia / Tales of Symphonia which IMO are boring as hell but, on the other hand, he disliked games like Valkyrie Profile or Cronno Trigger.
Anyways, I suppose he'll play through it...at least that's what I expected from a guy that beats Persona 2 without any japanese knowledege and just a language FAQ.

 

[Beowvlf]

It was decent at best. It starts off rather strong, but the initial period of time you spend on Elicoor is ridiculously drawn out and overlong. Few of the characters are very interesting at all, and the narrative throughout the first 20 hours or so has little to do with with the overarcing story that began the game.

The game then picks up a bit when you get off Elicoor and the infamous 'twist' is actually handled rather well, and for those not in the know, is quite a surprise. It begins to wear down again however, with a few substantial plot holes still remaining at game's end (I never actually got to the very end, but I was close and other's have filled me in on what happens).

Gameplay-wise the game disappoints on about the same level as the narrative. There is too much backtracking, the difficulty is wildly unbalanced (most bosses are easier than the normal enemies in the area), the battle system is repetitive and is limited by the substandard AI of your teammates, and the item creation system is overly complex, and only enjoyable if you devote a lot of time to it (and it doesn't help that I rather easily got to the end of the game without utilizing it once).

I bought the game when it hit GH, and it was passable at that price point. It's not the worst RPG on the PS2 by a long shot, but it's easily one of Tri-Ace's weakest efforts, and there are many others I'd recommend first on the system.

 

[BlueTsunami]

I recommend people pick up Star Ocean 2 and try it out (after or before playing SO3). Shit...download the original SNES Star Ocean (with the DeJap translation patch). I think both those games are much better than SO3.

 

[S. L.]

i love it (really!)
SCATTER BEAM!

 

[Beowvlf]

Oh, and I forgot to add that MP deaths are an interesting-on-paper-crap-in-execution type of idea, and one I really hope doesn't show up in any other RPG ever again.

 

[EOGamer]

I ended up frothing for it through many a delay, having been a huge fan of SO2 on Playstation. I do mean huge, I really genuinely love that game, it's bliss. I also ended up finding it massively dissapointing. Horrifically dated graphics, poor sound work, poor story, and the AI controlled characters were seemingly much more stupid and unworkable than in SO2. Not worth the wait, not at all.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Oh, and I forgot to add that MP deaths are a interesting-on-paper-crap-in-execution type of idea, and one I really hope doesn't show up in any other RPG ever again.

:lol

I never never never died of an MP death. Now the AI controlled characters is a different story. They would always die in the Battle Arena from being sapped of their MP. But yeah, for the people that get owned by MP deaths alot...It must really suck.

 

[ourumov]

I recommend people pick up Star Ocean 2 and try it out (after or before playing SO3). Shit...download the original SNES Star Ocean (with the DeJap translation patch). I think both those games are much better than SO3.

I am not an RPG-nut, like I said I bought it for my brother...but when you see a Square-Enix at 19€ you wonder if it's either a bomb or shit. Both Unlimited Saga and FF-X2 where shit and were pretty cheap.

Anyways I played SO1 with the Dejap translation back when it was released and it was pretty fun (but I never finished it, I was much more interested in the Tales translation )

 

[BudokaiMR2]

I recommend people pick up Star Ocean 2 and try it out (after or before playing SO3). Shit...download the original SNES Star Ocean (with the DeJap translation patch). I think both those games are much better than SO3.

This is true, SO2 really is one of my favorite RPGs ever, even though I never actually finished it....

Dammit I vow to go back and restart that game. SO3 really falls on its's face when compared. The only thing they really improved upon was the Battle system.

I mean I didn't really mind the characters in SO3, but they are crap compared to the ones in SO2...

Oh and yeah MP deaths were stupid as hell.

 

[My Arms Your Hearse]

:lol

I never never never died of an MP death. Now the AI controlled characters is a different story. They would always die in the Battle Arena from being sapped of their MP. But yeah, for the people that get owned by MP deaths alot...It must really suck.

You never fought

Spoiler

Freya

then.

 

[J-Rzez]

i dunno why ppl knock the battle system though really... it's the best real-time system i've played so far in a RPG... and it has the lil' quirks that are cool too... Like if one of your team gets off'd that the characters are close to by emotion points, they get pissed... you'll hear, for example, Nel dies, Fayt may chime in and say "Oh no, you'll pay for that", and his stats will go up temporarily... nice lil touches...

lets get this straight... SO3, is not DQVIII, no where really near it, but, it IS a good RPG none the less, and well worth $20...

and the music's good too... "Bitter Dance" FTW...

 

[BlueTsunami]

You never fought

Spoiler

Freya

then.

I'm actually scared to fight her. I heard about how....powerfull...she is and I know i'll be yanking my hair out. All this talk of SO3 is going to get me back into it though.

 

[My Arms Your Hearse]

On 4D, probably the most difficult boss this generation. Every attack is a one hit kill.

Even with a stacked MP tank on the lower levels she can one hit kill your entire party.

How far did you get?

Spoiler

Lenneth

is nasty too, especially on 4D.

Oh, and it should probably be mentioned that the "guaranteed one hit party kill" move is not something that is just used now and then. It is, by far, the prominent attack used.

 

[BlueTsunami]

How far did you get?

Spoiler

Lenneth

is nasty too, especially on 4D.

I think I only got as far as this underground dungeon that had water and you had to drain it. I then had to fight these glowing orbs. I lost interest after that though. Unfortunatley I spoiled myself with those two characters by reading through walkthroughs.

 

[Tarazet]

I hate it, but I'm still very, very tempted to trade in my red-label one and snag the factory-sealed, original boxed copy that my local Music for a Song has had since the game's launch. I'll need to talk them down from the $49.99 sticker price though. :/

 

[johnjohnson]

The first few hours were terrible, but then I started to like it. And it has those extremly addicting battles with tripple exp and double fol. Some of the characters were awesome too.

 

[My Arms Your Hearse]

I think I only got as far as this underground dungeon that had water and you had to drain it. I then had to fight these glowing orbs. I lost interest after that though. Unfortunatley I spoiled myself with those two characters by reading through walkthroughs.

Ah, not too far then. You really should replay the secret dungeons... they're really what the game is about. The "story" is just foreplay. And that water dungeon doesn't even remotely give you an idea of what you will face later on... Needless to say, you are hours and hours away from

Spoiler

Freya

But I would DEFINITELY suggest using gamefaqs extensively or you will miss a boatload of stuff. Also, at least the last time I checked, the SO3 community!!!! (yes, the messageboard!!!!) is actually quite awesome and active, and the posters there will help you. You can pretty much get a (helpful) instant reponse at any hour.

 

[John Harker]

It's terrible, please save yourself!

Such a shame, SO2 was so good. Hell, I even watched the entire anime series.

It crushed my faith in tri-Ace, but Radiata Stories restored a large part of it.

 

[OniShiro]

Underrated game, it's a nice classic RPG, nothing too fancy, but definitely fun to play unless you are too picky.

 

[keeblerdrow]

I physically fell asleep playing it, back when it came out. At 3:30 in the afternoon. In direct sunlight.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Oh, and I forgot to add that MP deaths are an interesting-on-paper-crap-in-execution type of idea, and one I really hope doesn't show up in any other RPG ever again.

It would have, if other features entered in weren't. It was one of those things where good new ideas didn't mesh well with each other, and there was ALOT of instances of interference here.

Examples: You may allocate stat points! HUZZAH...oh, wait; you can die from HP deaths or MP deaths, gotta stock up on both anyways. Oh, and "Offense" and "Defense" don't affect stats, they affect AI (thanks for mentioning that, Tri-Ace). Read them as "Suicidal" and "Chickenshit".

Combos that technically ain't true combos, Spell Link attacks vampirically draining the user of steadily more and more if they dare do them, making the act suicide, giving you level 1 characters with only deadly as fuck 30s to fight at the time, etc; there's alot of unfortunate design decisions here that dropped this to a personal score of 6.5, low for an RPG for me.

 

[callous]

It starts off rather strong, but the initial period of time you spend on Elicoor is ridiculously drawn out and overlong. Few of the characters are very interesting at all, and the narrative throughout the first 20 hours or so has little to do with with the overarcing story that began the game.

I stopped playing because I simply got tired of Elicoor. The whole thing started out so great and I just wanted to get back in to space, but instead I was stuck on this stereotypical dungeons and dragons planet and it didn't seem to have an end.

 

[Brandon F]

Really enjoyed it. The plot is all kinds of retarded in Disc 2, but the early stuff I found interesting. Neat music, massive dungeons, and a combat system where chained hit counters can potentially reach the thousands.

You are stuck prioritizing a few battle skills from a pretty large pool, rendering so many great skills bench-fodder. This does make the fighting somewhat redundant, you will focus on retrofitting a single battle plan that mutilates stuff as effectively as possible and running with it for long periods of game play. May get tiresome, but fine-tuning that path of perfect destruction can also be pretty addictive all the same.

Much needs to be said about the invention system, extremely unintuitive without a proper faq handy, but it's a requirement for the gear driven gamer. It can be a real timesink dealing with the archaic design and probabilty tables, but the rewards are unbelievable. I personnally couldn't stop inventing and perpetually crafting obscene loot drove my addiction to this game long after the plot turned into soup. Very demanding though(strat guide is recommended) and will probably turn many gamers off.

 

[Drinky Crow]

S02 was good WHAT? S02 was miserably ugly and had some of the most hatefully stupid characters in any RPG, ever.

 

[MoxManiac]

On 4D, probably the most difficult boss this generation. Every attack is a one hit kill.

Hitoshura from DDS1 would like to have a word with you.

 

[BlueTsunami]

S02 was good WHAT? S02 was miserably ugly and had some of the most hatefully stupid characters in any RPG, ever.

>:|

 

[distantmantra]

Battle system is a bit confusing at first, but it grows on you. A couple of hours into the game I was rather accustomed to it and enjoyed it, save for the occasional of my AI-controlled party members ("hey, let's keep running in this corner while my team-mates are getting their ass kicked!").

This is pretty much why I hate the game. At many times I felt like I had no real control over the outcome.

 

[Belfast]

I loved it. Despite its flaws! I don't even care about the twist! I thought it was cool. As other people in the thread have already said, it's a little silly, but I liked that the devs had the balls to pull somehting like that off. Overall, I liked the game enough to invest quite a bit of time into it and go through all of the bonus dungeons within the span of about a week.

 

[Shouta]

Examples: You may allocate stat points! HUZZAH...oh, wait; you can die from HP deaths or MP deaths, gotta stock up on both anyways. Oh, and "Offense" and "Defense" don't affect stats, they affect AI (thanks for mentioning that, Tri-Ace). Read them as "Suicidal" and "Chickenshit".

Err, I'm pretty sure those stat areas actually do affect your primary stats in a way. I've heard of the "Affect AI" theory but it's largely unfounded for SO3.

 

[Monk]

Dungeons were just too long for me.

 

[emomoonbase]

I'd give it like a 7/10. It's ok but not really notable.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Err, I'm pretty sure those stat areas actually do affect your primary stats in a way. I've heard of the "Affect AI" theory but it's largely unfounded for SO3.

I tested it when I didn't notice any increase in damage mitigation for Cliff and Fate; my numerical stats did not increase as I allocated points into Defense and Offense. I am almost 100% assured of this, (sold the game a year ago).

However, as I continued to allocate skewed towards Defense, I noticed more and more that my AI guys would flee in terror unless the enemy was near dead or a few levels lower or more. By the 2nd disc they'd just backpedal till the monster cornered them and wailed on them. Fiddling with the commands from the Menu didn't really faze their behavior much, either, until I tossed in enough of the mirror stat to "balance out their personalities".

 

[Brandon F]

I pretty much kept AI behavior on full aggression and they did their job accordingly. Even healed properly. Occasionnally I did notice a glitch where they stop fighting completely and back off into a corner, but a quick trip to the menu and toggling the AI settings off and on fixed that up immediately.

 

[mollipen]

I almost always hate random battles in RGPs - they're boring and worthless. SO3 actually made me enjoy them. The battle engine for the game is easily one of my favorite RPG battle engines ever, and makes me not want to go back to playing most other RPGs. The one complaint I had in that regard was that while I love how the other party members were AI controlled, they could be utterly stupid at times, and there aren't enough options for you to determine how they act. If more work had been put into that element, the game would have been much better.

There were only one or two times the backtracking really got to me. Otherwise, I didn't mind, and I prefer that to RPGs where the world seems to be just one linear path from one corner of it to the next.

People make FAR too big of a deal over the storyline twist. It's a bit out there, but I thought it was interesting. At least it isn't another "I / my girlfriend washed up on shore one day, conveniently have amnesia, and who would have guessed, I / my girlfriend end up being the key to saving the world."

I also liked the cast, and Cliff especially cracked me up.

The sound has some problems, especially in some cutscenes where the voices are way too low compared to background music / sound effects. There really needed to be an option to adjust the volume level for voices and sound.

Let it be known, however, that I purchased SO2 back in the day, played it for a while, and then let it collect dust on my shelf until selling it many years later.

 

[Kiriku]

I almost always hate random battles in RGPs - they're boring and worthless. SO3 actually made me enjoy them.

I'm not sure what you mean with random battles...but just to make things clear to people who haven't played the game - there aren't any random encounters in SO3, you can avoid any enemy (at the very least theoretically) on the overworld map except for the bosses.