Reviewed on Xbox 360

The fourth entry to the Star Ocean series. Now, this isn't the remastered edition that you can get now but I'm looking at the Xbox 360 entry when it came out. My first issue is that it is three discs. That's a red flag right now when the game can't fit into a single disc, but that was the limitation of the Xbox 360, it wasn't build to handle big RPGs such as this. So from a playability perspective, you have to swap discs while progressing through the game, but worst, if you want to travel back to a previous place. This for me, turned me off from going backward and sure there are a ton of side quests that I missed, I just moved forward in a very linear way. The re-releases and I did get the remastered edition for the PS4 that I have yet to play, obviously addresses that, so perhaps my perspective will change then, but I am commenting on my experience playing this specific version of it.

From a JRPG perspective, or Star Ocean perspective, it's got the same mechanics. It's a very deep game full of customizations and sidequests, multiple endings, all the Star Ocean fanfare that you can imagine. From a gameplay perspective, it is actually one of the easiest RPGs ever played. You have AI controlling your party members which are fine, but when you play your character, it feels so overpowered even without having to grind, so the game felt like something of an easy mode, where you're simply enjoying the story and the gameplay isn't a challenge. It's enjoyable but very easy. Especially when you customize, synthesize, and really maximize the options in the game. 

The voice acting is something to be desired. It gets to passable to absolute cringe-worthy and you just have to stomach through it. The other thing about the cut scene is some are short and decent and some are just way too long. I generally play games at night and think, I can squeeze in an hour or two before I sleep, and then the cut scenes go on so long for unknown reasons, especially the ending. I was just beginning for it to just cut to the credits so I can save.

Being that I really enjoyed the second and third Star Ocean games, I was super excited to know this is the fourth one but it was a letdown. Though my expectations were rather high to begin with. Perhaps that'll change once I play the Remastered edition on the PS4, maybe this year I will get around to it and I'll enjoy it in a different light, and have a different party lineup as well.