The Star Ocean Series

That reminds me of how all I know about Star Ocean: The Last Hope is when Edge blows up an alternate Earth by accident and accidentally makes a pun about his own name.

Yeah, being hung up on the twist kinda makes the whole point of the characters believing they exist regardless misses the point of the Aesop. Besides, the whole thing is practically the usual RPG trope of adventurers fighting God, except recontextualized.

Finally! Thank you!

Plus the fact that they literally enter 4D Spce, fought their creators, and even the universe manages to exist in spite of Luther’s attempts are destroying it as his final act. Basically showing it’s grown beyond just an MMO meant to control people.

The big problem with 3's Twist is it adds a video game element to every twist, like in 4 when they visit that alternate earth in the 60s... that's just a test realm and all weight about what goes on there vanishes.

Honkai: Star Rail honestly is doing the same concept so much better 4D beings 'this is a game' concept right with the people of Punklorde, not by making them 'higher plane of existence, this universe is just an MMO' but by making them have the powers that this is a game but one they live in as if its real. A Punklorde hacker can literally hack the universe and telefrag people or add additional weaknesses and such. (spoilered for context of 3's twist, no Star Rail spoilers present)

Edited by Memers on Jun 22nd 2023 at 10:43:39 AM

People hated it immediately. There was no need for 4 for there to be hate so that's not true.

I for the record LIKED the twist in 3 for the context of 3.

When you look at other entries, 3's twist is a plot tumor hanging over every other entry

Why? Can you explain?

Apparently it's canon for every other game in the series too, if I understand right. (One of the first things I asked was if it was a twist only for 3 and was told it hung over every game in the series.)

The answer seems pretty obvious to me: Set games AFTER 3 when the universe doesn’t end but still exists without being chained down by someone whose attempt to destroy it all failed.

Yet they keep setting games BEFORE it.

Given the current move towards AI, 3's twist will be seriously recontextualised when we look back.

Its canon. They blatantly hint about it in 4 with the alt Earth.

Essentially why things in Star Ocean are so RPG like and such is excused away with 3's twist.

[1]

Funny you mentioned Star Rail's Punklorde thing because that's the exact same comparison I made when I found out Punklordians are essentially the equivalent to Star Ocean's 4D beings with their ability to hack reality and treat their universe like a video game. If anything, Star Rail's take on the "universe is a video game" concept is more of an exaggerated parody, likely as a Take That! to Star Ocean 3's plot twist.

confirmed in an interview

The devs also seemed to be divided on whether to even add the 4D Beings twist or not.

Edited by ScubaWolf on Jun 23rd 2023 at 12:55:29 PM

invoked Honestly, one of my biggest issues with Till the End of Time and how it handled its Shocking Twist is that it... ultimately feels like a massively wasted opportunity to build upon what had previously felt like one of the series' strongest selling points.

Second Story was my introduction to the series, and one of the elements that I really fell in love with was how you had two different protagonists to pick from, and how much their perspectives naturally diverged and differed from each other. I wish that SO3 had kept with that theme and incorporated the 4-Dimensional beings better by having some of your player characters be in-universe player characters.

Meaning that when you travel into 4D space, those characters can't come with you, and you instead wind up meeting their players. I feel like that sort of thing could have helped build upon what the twist revealed, by offering more angles and perspectives.

Like, imagine if it turned out that Cliff was a player character. The guy who came and rescued Fayt when he was stranded, and helps introduce him to the greater overarching storyline... think of what a shock to the system it would be for Fayt and the others to learn that from Cliff's perspective, it was all just a game the whole time. Imagine how Cliff's player would be freaking out to realize what he'd thought was just an elaborate quest line he'd been following had such massively high stakes, and that people he'd assumed were other players were actually real, living residents of a world he'd thought was just an MMORPG...

I think Cliff was fine enough as he already was, I love some of his scenes that are totally imcompatible with your version... But I STILL LOVE your version.

Oh, yeah, there's definitely parts of Cliff's character that wouldn't work. I'm mostly just using him as an example since his position in the game is the most... easily converted, I suppose? He's introduced early enough, and isn't one of the Optional Party Members. That's pretty much exactly what you'd need for the Twist to make the most impact: somebody who has been there for as much time as possible.

From Second Story. So any items that become unavailable aren't available then?

Edited by electricmastro on Jun 23rd 2023 at 1:59:16 PM

The plot has never been the strong suit of Star Ocean anyway. It has always been the gameplay and Motoi Sakuraba's score that made it the success it is. The one time people complained that a game was awful was when the gameplay couldnt save the horrid story.

I like Til the End of Time, but the plot is oddly-structured even without the odd twist.

Now that you mention it, there WERE a few mandatory areas that felt like they'd be side stuff in other Star Ocean games.

Edited by ScubaWolf on Jun 23rd 2023 at 7:37:46 AM

Yeah the first English release was spotty with the translation. VP was their first release that had a more solid script.

Oh with SO 2 remake coming, if you own a PS 4 you can play all SO games!

Edited by Ookamikun on Jun 23rd 2023 at 9:23:42 PM

The Second Stories 2.5D OP.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Sep 11th 2023 at 3:11:27 AM

I have to be honest, that opening feels kind of weird to me. Like, it's really detailed, but the amount of actual animation is kinda low.

High Detail Low Movement animation isnt too uncommon, its really good to use it in older RP Gs where high quality static art is like one of the only ways people know the characters aside from sprites. Also it doesnt break the bank.

Trails of Cold Steel's opening is another example.