Star Ocean: The Last Hope Over 40 Hours, Romance, More
A new reader interview of Star Ocean: The Last Hope at IGN has been posted today, answering many of your questions on the game. First off, the team has once again confirmed that “There are currently no plans for a PlayStation 3 version.”
The game is using the same engine as Infinite Undiscovery. It is a custom engine developed by tri-Ace, not Unreal Engine 3.5.
You won’t be able to select the Japanese vices over of the English voices, for all you Jap-fans out there. However, you will be able to play as over seven characters. They will not level up unless you use them actively in battle, so choose who you use wisely. Your party can have up to four characters.
All you collector’s out there, unlike Star Ocean 3, Star Ocean 4 will not have a collector’s edition.
The game is 40 hours long, spanning three discs. There are many bonus features to find as well as hidden elements. The team said they’ve created the game to accommodate multiple playthroughs.
The game will not feature a multiplayer mode, as the devs say that it “does not mesh well with games like Star Ocean, which have a high range of freedom (as opposed to a style like a FPS, in which players clear missions to progress), and incorporate a system in which players jump to the battle scene after coming into contact with enemies.”
The battle system has the same basics as the battle system for Star Ocean 3. However, the battle system is enhanced, with the ability to jump now, as well as Rush and Blindside and much more.
There will be a romantic element in Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Between who, however, is for us to find out.
For those hoping for optional bosses from different tri-Ace games, for now you’re out of luck. There is some good news though: “Gabriel Celeste, Ethereal Queen, and other familiar characters will definitely make an appearance, but these characters are originally from the Star Ocean series. There are no plans for characters from outside of the series to make an appearance.”