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Star Ocean: The Last Hope International Review:

After a painfully long wait for many, the PS3’s version of Star Ocean: The Last Hope is finally here with Star Ocean: The Last Hope International. The new edition of the game boasts Japanese voice tracks and anime menus that were cut out of the English version. Even with the late port and high price, this action RPG is worth a look.

 

In the year 2064 the Earth almost destroys itself in a massive nuclear world war, forcing humans to begin searching for a new home in space. Enter Edge Maverick, a seemingly average young pilot in the SRF (Space Reconnaissance Force) with an inferiority complex. Together with his childhood "friend" Reimi Saionji, Edge travels space exploring new planets for potential human colonization. Along the way Edge and Reimi meet the expected anime clichés (the cat girl, the android, the annoying child, the disgruntled badass, etc.) and continue their travels with their ragtag crew. Eventually the inevitable great evil threatening the whole universe pops up, and Edge and crew set out to stop it.

There is nothing extraordinary in the plot, and character development is poor at best. Often characters will actually regress in maturity. Edge spends a few hours halfway through the game being an incredibly annoying and depressed prick, and right as he manages to come out of it another crew member decides to make himself the most annoying character in the game. Some of the character interaction is good, although there are more cringe-worthy moments than genuinely good ones. The plot itself isn't particularly bad, just very predictable. That said, the game clearly tries to find a deeper message than it really has to give at the end, and ends up being wordy without really saying much at all. There is enough between the character interaction and the plot to keep the player going, but thankfully The Last Hope has a lot more going for it than its narrative.

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