Star Ocean: The Last Hope for spring

By Robert Purchese Published 29 January, 2009

Europe finally on radar.

Square Enix has said Star Ocean: The Last Hope will arrive on Xbox 360 in Europe this spring. America and Japan will get the game on 19th February.

The Last Hope acts as a prequel to the popular role-playing space opera series, detailing events immediately after World War III that forced humankind into space in search of a new home.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope, as the first of the series for the new consoles, will focus on looking pretty in high definition. But there will also be numerous gameplay advances, such more team-oriented play for bigger parties of four.

Apparently we'll also be able to control our own spaceship and fly from planet to planet.

Other than that, Square Enix has kept the (so far) Xbox 360-exclusive game under wraps, releasing only splatters of screenshots and trickles of trailers.

These you can find over on our Star Ocean: The Last Hope gamepage.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (28) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MasterNameless #1 3 years ago

    Yay \o/ Never played a Star Ocean game before, but heard lots of great things, and am very much looking forward to this! Although, hopefully it'll be multi-region anyway and I'll just import it from the US. :)

  • FeralUK #2 3 years ago

    "Other than that, Square Enix has kept the (so far) Xbox 360-exclusive game under wraps"

    So this may appear on PS3.

    /looks forward to 360 fanboys stating the opposite.

  • MasterNameless #3 3 years ago

    Oh for god's sake, just because it's an exclusive, do we really have to start talking about fanboys straight away?

    /is probably not helping

  • Malek86 #4 3 years ago

    FeralUK: I think so. But I wouldn't get my hopes up. It depends on how much MS paid, and we have no idea of knowing that :p

  • Vistrix #5 3 years ago

    Someone tell SE that all the Star Ocean fans are waiting patiently on the PS3.

    Until then, we'll keep playing Star Ocean on the PSP.

  • Vistrix #6 3 years ago

    Ive got this really horrible feeling that it may die a slow death on the 360 like all the other JRPGs that are switching platforms.

  • NegativeZero #7 3 years ago

    I find it very hard to believe that any of the big-name 360 'exclusive' JRPGs are going to stay exclusive forever.

    Glad that Squenix aren't giving us the usual interminable wait. Spring is what, somewhere around April? Not too bad. Personally I'm lucky enough to have an NTSC-J regioned 360 so I was seriously considering grabbing the asian english release when it comes out, but if there ends up only being a few extra weeks to wait then it's probably not worth the hassle.

  • FeralUK #8 3 years ago

    "Someone tell SE that all the Star Ocean fans are waiting patiently on the PS3"
    That sums me up. I've got a 360 as well but i just don't like playing them on it.
    360 is for my action / shooter games.

  • MasterNameless #9 3 years ago

    @Vistrix

    I thought that the JRPG's sold pretty well on 360 tbh, Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata, two of the biggest ones both sold well. Even looking at VGChartz, Eternal Sonata 360 outsold Disgaea on the PS3, and Disgaea is a hugely popular long running series! So what you are saying seems quite wrong.

    Edit: They were the closest example I could think of, although it should have tipped more in the PS3's favour as Disgaea definitely has a lot more die-hard fans. You're more than welcome to prove me wrong with different examples though. :)
    Edited by 2 at 29/01/09 @ 14:54

  • myiagros #10 3 years ago

    Disgaea 3 also isn't out in europe yet, which won't help it figures much.

    edit: VGCharts doesn't seem the best comparison as it doesn't include Eu figures for Eternal Sonata, or JP figures for Disgaea 3.
    Edited by 1 at 29/01/09 @ 15:04

  • Widge #11 3 years ago

    Your figures there have Eternal Sonata data from the US and Japan while Disgaea is missing Japan. The Japanese market would be larger than the US.

    Be interesting to see if SO4 is any good, I played the 3rd one but kind of drifted away from it. The battles gradually became a case of mash X to win.

  • Widge #12 3 years ago

    Here you go, Valkyria Chronicles:

    [link url=http://www.vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=18897®ion =All
    ]http://ww w.vgchartz.com/games/game.php?i...[/link]

    That matches Eternal Sonata in Japan and US figures, plus there is the EU amount on top of that.

  • Earlyflash #13 3 years ago

    Really hope that this is region free. I'm hoping, but not holding my breath.

  • johnboy_johsnon #14 3 years ago

    @ Widge, please don't depress me with those miserable sale figures for Valkyria. Best game I played last year by a long shot.

  • kissthestick #15 3 years ago

    @ Early, unfortunetly every SE game on 360 has been region locked, april aint a bad date for this anyways

  • Widge #16 3 years ago

    Yeah, VC deserved much more. I think the look of the game puts people off. More textures and Unreal needed obviously. Must look realistic.

  • andywilkie35 #17 3 years ago

    good stuff, this is my most anticipated game this year. I look forward to it

  • MasterNameless #18 3 years ago

    Yeah, I spotted they were selling in different regions, but as both version sold in the US, thought it'd be a good enough rule of thumb :) I forgot about Valkyria Chronicles, but it still isn't that far off in terms of overall sales, not in the western regions anyway! And certainly doesn't prove Vistrix's original point that all JRPG's "die a slow death on the 360 like all the other JRPGs".

    I have actually been trying to get hold of Valkyria Chronicles the last week too funnily enough, but no bloody shop sells it! GAME said that they never had any new copies of the game, only second hand copies, which is quite odd. I will no doubt end up ordering it online.

  • Widge #19 3 years ago

    Lost Odyssey did a bit well! Thats got to be the best of the gen so far?

  • gman7714 #20 3 years ago

    I apologise in advance for my ignorance but in my defence I've never played any JRPG's.

    Is this game going to employ turn based combat?

    Not really keen on turn based games, but would love another space opera epic RPG.

  • Vanmunt #21 3 years ago

    I hope this is good, I could really tuck myself into a nice rpg... the only problem with Xbox exclusives is having to wait for a european release date.. why region lock, so bloody annoying.

  • Widge #22 3 years ago

    Well in Star Ocean 3, you set up your character to have attacks on certain buttons... you'd hit an encounter and it'd go into a battle screen arena, within that you can dash about and smash things up to your hearts content without a turn interrupting.
    Sadly I found one combination of moves very early on that literally spanked the opposition without me having to think. Made the game a bit of a 'going through the motions'. Same criticism I had for Crisis Core except Star Ocean 3 didn't have the strength of story to back it up.

  • ParanoidZombie #23 3 years ago

    I just hope SO4 has a better story than SO3, that was definitely the weak spot of this otherwise stellar RPG.The premise was very intriguing, but it all went to shit quickly, with a big ugly twist that really put me off.

  • Fayt #24 3 years ago

    That twist ruined of what I thought, up until that point had been a great storyline. I really hope that the Last Hope doesn't have such stupidity going and spoiling things.
    Edited by 1 at 29/01/09 @ 21:02

  • Scimarad #25 3 years ago

    Star Ocean fans are just weird - That twist was the best bit of the game!

  • NegativeZero #26 3 years ago

    I have actually been trying to get hold of Valkyria Chronicles the last week too funnily enough, but no bloody shop sells it! GAME said that they never had any new copies of the game, only second hand copies, which is quite odd.

    This is the problem all across the PAL areas. Sega released hardly any copies with no advertising and no fanfare, then complained that the game didn't sell any copies.

    @farticusmaximus: your really like Infinite Undiscovery? I found it to be pretty terrible, personally. Maybe I'm missing something.

  • ParanoidZombie #27 3 years ago

    @scimarad: back in 2003, after 3 entries of matrix and the infamous MGS2 , this twist felt neither innovative, smart nore welcome.
    Edited by 1 at 30/01/09 @ 12:38

  • gman7714 #28 3 years ago

    @ Widge - Thanks

    I think I might try before I buy though