Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I'm in the process of begging Square-Enix for a review copy. If I don't receive one by the time I'm through with Persona 3, I'll just plunk down the cash; it'll be worth it anyway, I've never been disappointed with a Star Ocean game (except for the story, of course).
 
I bought it yesterday, but I wont be able to give it a try until i get off my ass and fix my xbox again.
 
phobic said:
I'm only a couple of hours in but I will say that Lost Odyssey definitely has better voice acting hands down. I'll post more later as I progress but I am liking the combat system a lot at the moment.
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Yeah, the voice acting is definately not that great but the backstory of ww3 and going to the stars is much better imo. Plus lost odyssey had just a terrible cast of characters.
 
phobic said:
I'm only a couple of hours in but I will say that Lost Odyssey definitely has better voice acting hands down. I'll post more later as I progress but I am liking the combat system a lot at the moment.
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SE localized game with bad VA. Nothing new.

heatsinker said:
I'm in the process of begging Square-Enix for a review copy. If I don't receive one by the time I'm through with Persona 3, I'll just plunk down the cash; it'll be worth it anyway, I've never been disappointed with a Star Ocean game (except for the story, of course).
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How do you get in touch with companies to get review copies? Does your site/publication have to be semi-popular before hand or is there some secret hand shake? Do I have to take some kind of blood oath?

Seriously though, who do you contact at these companies to try to get review copies of games? I'd really love to know so I can do this when the time comes for the small site I work with to get in contact with these companies and try to get review copies of games.
 
Derangel said:
How do you get in touch with companies to get review copies? Does your site/publication have to be semi-popular before hand or is there some secret hand shake? Do I have to take some kind of blood oath?

Seriously though, who do you contact at these companies to try to get review copies of games? I'd really love to know so I can do this when the time comes for the small site I work with to get in contact with these companies and try to get review copies of games.
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To be perfectly honest, I've never actually successfully scored a review copy. Mostly because this is actually the first time I've contacted companies about them. I've read that even plain bloggers can get review copies if they ask, so I can't say for certain if the quality of the site has anything to do with your rate of success. Needless to say I waited until my site has evolved a little further before actually contacting the publishers; never hurts to have a pretty face, I've always thought.

If the company has a marketing or PR department, I usually send them an email first; otherwise I just send an email to whatever address they have listed. I suppose snail mail could also work, but from what I've read email is their preferred form of communication. I've only contacted Square and SEGA so far, but I may shoot Atlus an email as well for a copy of Persona 4 even though I may not play it for a while; their site has a lot of their contact info, unlike the other two companies.

Square-Enix replied to my email and said it was forwarded to the corresponding department with no ETA for a response; dunno if that means I'll get one, but I'll keep hoping! I'll be sure to post if I get anything though!
 
heatsinker said:
To be perfectly honest, I've never actually successfully scored a review copy. Mostly because this is actually the first time I've contacted companies about them. I've read that even plain bloggers can get review copies if they ask, so I can't say for certain if the quality of the site has anything to do with your rate of success. Needless to say I waited until my site has evolved a little further before actually contacting the publishers; never hurts to have a pretty face, I've always thought.

If the company has a marketing or PR department, I usually send them an email first; otherwise I just send an email to whatever address they have listed. I suppose snail mail could also work, but from what I've read email is their preferred form of communication. I've only contacted Square and SEGA so far, but I may shoot Atlus an email as well for a copy of Persona 4 even though I may not play it for a while; their site has a lot of their contact info, unlike the other two companies.

Square-Enix replied to my email and said it was forwarded to the corresponding department with no ETA for a response; dunno if that means I'll get one, but I'll keep hoping! I'll be sure to post if I get anything though!
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Thank you for the detailed response. Yeah I know myself and the EiC/owner want to wait until we have a more steady stream of content before we try to get in contact with publishers. I mean we only have one review posted so far and a weekly podcast. We only have three "employees". Myself, the owner, and the owner's brother/site designer. Though sadly none of us get paid. I'd like to be able to get some of the publishers to buy ad space from us too, but thats in the future.

I like the look of your site, by the way.
 
Well I just picked this up, I had a hard time deciding between last remnant and this. Can't play for a couple hours, but I hope I'm not disappointed.
 
Draax said:
Well I just picked this up, I had a hard time deciding between last remnant and this. Can't play for a couple hours, but I hope I'm not disappointed.
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I think you made the right choice. I can't say I've heard any good things about Last Remnant.
 
heatsinker said:
I think you made the right choice. I can't say I've heard any good things about Last Remnant.
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I didn't find LR to be a bad game. It has its problems, namely the engine they picked, but people judge it more harshly because its SE. It was never meant to be this huge game. The battle system is like it or hate so that doesn't really help much.
 
So I'm a couple hours in, just found the second ship and fought the first boss. The graphics, especially the cut scenes, are phenomenal. The battle system is interesting and keeps you engaged.

I will have to play it some more to give any kind of informed review.
 
Draax said:
So I'm a couple hours in, just found the second ship and fought the first boss. The graphics, especially the cut scenes, are phenomenal. The battle system is interesting and keeps you engaged.

I will have to play it some more to give any kind of informed review.
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That first boss was tough! I find this game to be challenging which is a nice change of pace, too many games that come to america feel dumbed down and too easy. I look forward to replaying the game at a harder difficulty as well.
 
Everything is so shinny! Whoever decided that Lym should talk like that in both the Japanese and English dubs needs to die, kay?
 
MooMooCow said:
Everything is so shinny! Whoever decided that Lym should talk like that in both the Japanese and English dubs needs to die, kay?
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Yeah I had the same thought. Every time she talks I cringe. Edgie! Reirei!.... :(
 
MooMooCow said:
Everything is so shinny! Whoever decided that Lym should talk like that in both the Japanese and English dubs needs to die, kay?
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I initially stated the characters werent that annoying...that little girl....I have thought of twisting her head off her shoulders multiple times. I literally will not allow her to be in my party in any form because she is so annoying. The only characters that match her annoyance are the twins in lost odyssey. Get with the program devs, the last cool kid combo was final fantasy 2 and even that wasnt so great. Anyway I am glad to be mostly rid of her.
 
poor decision on xbox exclusive it only sold 160k in japan first week =/
 
PeeWeePee said:
poor decision on xbox exclusive it only sold 160k in japan first week =/
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You realize that means it outperformed the first week numbers for Street Fighter 4 on both systems in Japan right? Kinda useless to spout out numbers with no reference point.
 
if you compare that number with some other major rpg title sales in japan it isn't much
i'm just saying they are missing out on so much sales by making it exclusive to 360 at least for japan
 
PeeWeePee said:
if you compare that number with some other major rpg title sales in japan it isn't much
i'm just saying they are missing out on so much sales by making it exclusive to 360 at least for japan
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They (Square|Enix) didn't miss out on the bankroll MS gave them to launch the game on the 360 though. Besides, isn't Japan losing the title for "Biggest game market" anyway? I'm pretty sure the EU has a lot more game buyers now.

Anyway, I'm slowly getting addicted to the game which is something that hasn't happened to me for a while. I just got the Bacchus guy which quickly replaced that horrible excuse known as Faize. Seriously, Faize is worthless IMO.
 
PeeWeePee said:
if you compare that number with some other major rpg title sales in japan it isn't much
i'm just saying they are missing out on so much sales by making it exclusive to 360 at least for japan
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Are you comparing it to recent generation titles? Valkyrie Chronicles sold about 80k in Japan the first week, and Disgaea 3 sold around 60k. Tales of Vesparia sold 100k, so by the sounds of things Star Ocean had a rather successful launch. So unless you can provide a PS3/360 RPG that sold more I'm going to have to assume you're comparing it to PS2 titles which isn't really valid.

As far as the game itself, I think it will be my next RPG purchase for the 360 (might get Valkyrie for the PS3 first). I'm still playing though Blue Dragon though and I'm only 3 hours in so it may be a while before I get Star Ocean. I'm trying to keep one 40 hour time sink on my plate at a time, if I stockpile too many I'll never get to them.
 
even white knight chronicle which turned out to be really shitty sold extremely well despite being ps3 exclusive in japan it sold 130k FIRST day 210k FIRST week it had sold total of 320k so far
just think of extra 320k sales from ps3 users in Japan with so many star ocean fans
 
PeeWeePee said:
if you compare that number with some other major rpg title sales in japan it isn't much
i'm just saying they are missing out on so much sales by making it exclusive to 360 at least for japan
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That goes for all exclusive titles. Having any exclusive be non-exclusive would have them sell more.
 
IcedEmotion said:
Are you comparing it to recent generation titles? Valkyrie Chronicles sold about 80k in Japan the first week, and Disgaea 3 sold around 60k. Tales of Vesparia sold 100k, so by the sounds of things Star Ocean had a rather successful launch. So unless you can provide a PS3/360 RPG that sold more I'm going to have to assume you're comparing it to PS2 titles which isn't really valid.

As far as the game itself, I think it will be my next RPG purchase for the 360 (might get Valkyrie for the PS3 first). I'm still playing though Blue Dragon though and I'm only 3 hours in so it may be a while before I get Star Ocean. I'm trying to keep one 40 hour time sink on my plate at a time, if I stockpile too many I'll never get to them.
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VC and D3 are not good comparisons. SRPGs are never big sellers, unless you attach the FF name to it.
 
PeeWeePee said:
even white knight chronicle which turned out to be really shitty sold extremely well despite being ps3 exclusive in japan it sold 130k FIRST day 210k FIRST week it had sold total of 320k so far
just think of extra 320k sales from ps3 users in Japan with so many star ocean fans
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Have you played WKC or are you basing that on the worthless Famitsu review?
 
PS3's install base in Japan is far larger than the 360's. Of course the RPG that Sony has been boasting about for nearly 2 years is going to sell more than ToV and SO4.

However, Japan isn't the entire gaming market, with 360's 8 million users ahead of the PS3 in the world wide install base it's not too hard to see why SO4 on the 360.
 
I'm 20 hours in, and it's fricking amazing. I'm going to have to go back and finally finish SOTET later.
 
Spoiler alert!!!!


The characters were pretty lame the first 5-10 hours but after that big event where the main character made a big mistake I felt the depth of the character went pretty deep. To see his regret unfold the next several hours really made him 3 dimensional and you actually care and understand his plight.

Great game so far, my only sadness is I am kicking ass in battles and wish I could turn up the difficulty. If you didnt learn blindsides and chain combos yet you need to visit the battle trainer.
 
Very excited for this game, still, with having JUST got Killzone 2 and am still playing through the single player, and ranking up in Co-op. I'll probably wait for this one to drop in price before grabbing it. Looks great though.
 
3 week break from school going to pass this game in 3 weeks.

Star Ocean is huge in Japan probably second behind Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy comparing it's sales to Desgea3 is silly.

It sold very well for only being on Xbox360 but if it were released on PS3 as well it would have sold well over double.

But it wasn't a bad move its the best thing for Square is to get paid for exclusives they get the money upfront without having to sell anything.
 
where are your numbers that say they'd have doubled their numbers if it was multiplatform? like which source told you that?

it's a great game, i love the bonus board, and it's a shame it's not multi platform, cuz my friend w/ a ps3 can't play it, and he really wants to. but where are those numbers
 
Dome said:
where are your numbers that say they'd have doubled their numbers if it was multiplatform? like which source told you that?

it's a great game, i love the bonus board, and it's a shame it's not multi platform, cuz my friend w/ a ps3 can't play it, and he really wants to. but where are those numbers
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Why do you need numbers? It's common sense that the ratio of PS3's to 360's in Japan is kinda high... and it's common sense that they probably would have sold twice as many if it were multiplatform.
 
common sense? that's nonsense. who's to say that if it were multi-platform, that 360 might not see many sales at all, and rather they'd just move to the ps3, remaining the same?

that's why sources are important, because people arbitrarily place numbers on whatever they feel like. like how many units of a game would sell if...or how much a game should be worth before they actually buy it...etc
 
One can assume some of those Japanese X360 owners also have a PS3. One can also assume some would have bought the PS3 version instead, and a MP release would have simply cannibalized X360 sales, but I have to agree with stevedave's prediction.

The install ratio in Japan is such that, it's highly likely Star Ocean 4 would have sold at least twice as many copies there, had it been multiplatform. This is a safe prediction because there is approx 3x as many PS3s as X360s in Japan, and both systems appeal to a similar crowd.

As long as the game could be predicted to sell approximately as well to the Japanese PS3 owner demographic, as to the X360 owner demographic, even if hypothetically every one of those X360 Star Ocean 4 sales got cannibalized by the PS3, the total sales would go up considerably.

Let's say half of those X360 Star Ocean 4 purchasers may have considered the PS3 version instead. So a MP release cuts X360 sales in half. But the total sales weren't affected since the other half bought it for PS3. And now since it's multiplatform, the game is available to millions of new PS3 only or PS3/Wii owners, who didn't have an option to purchase it before.

Now depending on Square's financial arrangement with MS for exclusivity, and considering the added development costs, they might not have necessarily had more net income with a MP release, but he only said the game would sell twice as many copies in Japan. That's a logical, reasonable guess. And probably a bit on the safe side.
 
ps3 users in Japan are hungry for good RPG
look how many ps3 user bought White Knight Chronicle (320k copy) and it was pretty shitty rpg game
 
Perhaps sales figures should be discussed in a different thread ...
 
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