encephalon
Member
I tried again, but I wasn't happy with how many items I ended up using so I made the mistake of trying to restart and better equip myself, before the portal disappeared again. : (
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Star Ocean 5 : Integrity and Faithlessness - Import Impressions
- Thread starter Parakeetman
- Start date
I tried again, but I wasn't happy with how many items I ended up using so I made the mistake of trying to restart and better equip myself, before the portal disappeared again. : (
SO4 had the best healer AI I've ever encountered in an ARPG.
Hopefully this game comes close to it.
Keep changing maps until it's there again.
I have found the Healer AI to be really good in this, I find that I am not getting overhealed or anything, especially on trash mobs for example, I am not getting spammed with heals or anything like that. I find the MP consumption to be very well balanced as well, the only problem I would say is I'd like them to run around a bit more and avoid enemies, I gotta stay close to them as they have a tendency to tank.
Have to take care of some stuff, so enough playing for now.
Impression from today so far:
- Don't be afraid to use food before hard boss fights. Food effects last for a few battles and can be a great help.
- I guess the level cap in this one is way above 100 like in the previous entries, because so far I'm ~12 hours into the game and my whole party is around level 50.
- New roles usually unlock when you get others to level 3. I have so many now that it's really hard to choose something for everyone.
- Optional dungeons seem like wasted potential. I like the idea and having to defeat strong enemies for a good item (the amount of experience is a bit disappointing), but all 3 dungeons looking the same so far have been a disappointment design-wise.
All in all I'm enjoying the game much more than during my first day/two, mostly because of battles with the full party. While chaotic and sometimes annoying (multiple enemies when you have to protect a character make it really hard to see what's going on and so far led to 2-3 game overs), they can feel really good once you get the hang of it.
Impression from today so far:
- Don't be afraid to use food before hard boss fights. Food effects last for a few battles and can be a great help.
- I guess the level cap in this one is way above 100 like in the previous entries, because so far I'm ~12 hours into the game and my whole party is around level 50.
- New roles usually unlock when you get others to level 3. I have so many now that it's really hard to choose something for everyone.
- Optional dungeons seem like wasted potential. I like the idea and having to defeat strong enemies for a good item (the amount of experience is a bit disappointing), but all 3 dungeons looking the same so far have been a disappointment design-wise.
All in all I'm enjoying the game much more than during my first day/two, mostly because of battles with the full party. While chaotic and sometimes annoying (multiple enemies when you have to protect a character make it really hard to see what's going on and so far led to 2-3 game overs), they can feel really good once you get the hang of it.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Honestly combat is still garbage for the most part. As this 2 skill system is fairly useless. Not to mention the animations to activate skills all take far too long. Can see why they did it in order not to have people grinding the bonus bar way up high too fast. But really makes the actual "fun" involved with combat suffer. As this is very basic stuff.
It appears that they designed the system with in mind you should constantly switch around the characters to use their skills to make up for the gross lack of skills in general per character and "attempt" to reposition them to take advantage of the near / far 2 x 2 skill set. But even then with how slow the skills activate along with how scrolling through the characters to switch it does not make up for the overall lack of skills a player can activate per character in general. That and you really do not want to be jumping all over the place from character to character anyways.
Just go to the inn. Resting in the Inn resets everything if you sleep.
It appears that they designed the system with in mind you should constantly switch around the characters to use their skills to make up for the gross lack of skills in general per character and "attempt" to reposition them to take advantage of the near / far 2 x 2 skill set. But even then with how slow the skills activate along with how scrolling through the characters to switch it does not make up for the overall lack of skills a player can activate per character in general. That and you really do not want to be jumping all over the place from character to character anyways.
Just go to the inn. Resting in the Inn resets everything if you sleep.
As for the combat, MC's skills are mostly useless aside from 1 maybe 2, so I could currently see that asca problem for maybe 1-2 other characters.
Also, changing maps is enough to make dungeons pop/reactivate PAs if there are any left.
Bonus dungeons are just a series of small rooms which all look the same which consist of a few arena fights and one boss fight after which you get a chest with a neat item. The idea is neat, execution not so much.
Did you unlock it
for good
I hope so but I'm not sure, it's story related so can't say much.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Thing is though, is if you are going after dungeons you might as well reactivate the harvesting points also with the inn.
That might just be a new feature they added in addition to the standard postgame dungeons, no?
When I was able to access fast travel,
they soon took it from me and I didn't get it back since
Just unlock the equipment strengthening (accessory) from Welch, time to create OP accessories!
Yeah, I'm talking about further in the game.
Yeah, I'm talking about further in the game.
Streaming again. ~12 hours in. https://youtu.be/xpVgQ6u8o-8
I've been enjoying it so far (3 hours), and haven't played an SO since 2. The camera is a bit jerky, so I'll try turning down the sensitivity. One thing that has been odd is that there is very little intro to characters before they are dropped into your party. I know there are a lot of characters that need to join, but they could have tried a little harder at having characters join your team organically.
Also, the skill mapping thing is annoying. Unless I'm misunderstanding, you only get to map 4 battle skills (not magic) per character, 2 to X and 2 to O, and they active depending on whether you're close or far from the enemy? They should've just mapped them to other button combos.
Also, the skill mapping thing is annoying. Unless I'm misunderstanding, you only get to map 4 battle skills (not magic) per character, 2 to X and 2 to O, and they active depending on whether you're close or far from the enemy? They should've just mapped them to other button combos.
Sir_Crocodile
Member
So...is it anywhere close to as good as 1 or 2?
Do the ranged characters stay out of harm's way? I hated how the ranged AI work in SO4.
encephalon
Member
Lol I wonder if those who are oh so eager to bring up plot to explain Fiore's outfit can explain why the male mages in the game are covered from head to toe.
The camera feels like a robot that's constantly following behind you. It doesn't float; it's connected to the ground.
The camera feels like a robot that's constantly following behind you. It doesn't float; it's connected to the ground.
I noticed that the only reason why boss fights are so hard is because AI gets killed all the time by the boss aoe attacks.
Huh, weird. I just checked a wiki to see how far I am and looking by the number of phases, I'm 2/3 done? If that's the case I can the game being 20-25 hours long if you don't go out of your way to finish all kill X/bring Y items quests or level all party skills to the maximum.
Huh, weird. I just checked a wiki to see how far I am and looking by the number of phases, I'm 2/3 done? If that's the case I can the game being 20-25 hours long if you don't go out of your way to finish all kill X/bring Y items quests or level all party skills to the maximum.
encephalon
Member
I had a feeling the game was on the short side. It's too bad it looks like it was so rushed.
Good luck with that. It's much easier to drag a boss furthercaway since melee characters who will be hit by the attack have higher defense.
Dwight Schrute
Member
Woah, that (field) song was in SO4 right ? It's like written deep in my head
I really like the battle theme.
encephalon
Member
Maybe it's just because of the low, low expectations, but something about the writing does seem better than I anticipated. I haven't played much of SO3 and I avoided 4, but it does remind me of SO1 - the SFC version. The ship and general map design surrounding a small number of kingdoms reminds me heavily of it. But whatever happened to the story altering cutscenes? Is that happening without me knowing it?
Also, I want to set the BGM to SO2. : ( Do I have to unlock it?
Also, I want to set the BGM to SO2. : ( Do I have to unlock it?
GET2DAACHOPPAAAA
Member
Does Santa make an appearance?
SatelliteOfLove
Member
They really are doing this in the vein of 3! *spits at SO3*
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
This game has way too many palette swap enemies...
Seriously. You have to visit the same ~6 locations all the time and durig each visit you fight recolors of the same monsters. Of course there are exceptions, but those are few and far between.
What difficulty are you playing on?
Normal, I think it was called Earth.
Iirc you have only 2 difficulties to choose from when you start - easy and normal.
Reading the "helpful" Amazon reviews: no volume, disappointing story, failed battle system, horrible camera, cheap cut-scenes... Tri-Ace, what happened to you?
That sounds about right for Tri-Ace, actually.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
this project seems to more have the issues of attempting western game design and falling straight on their asses with it.
Well, I was expecting at least the usual 40-50 hours length and a good battle system.
The length, if what has been said is true, is very strange and disconcerting. Maybe they decided to use SO1/SO2 and Infinite Undiscovery as length examples instead of 3 and 4? That would be weird though.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Tri-Ace is known to make pretty good battle systems actually. This honestly does not feel like something that Tri-Ace does its so off the mark.
Oh man, the more I read about this the more disappointing it sounds Lack of game length, lack of interesting side quests, bad camera, tacked-on Item Creation system, laggy input combat. They definitely seemed like they went with my least favorite of the series SO3 as an inspiration (except SO3 was pretty long) Someone assuage my fears
Lack of game length, lack of interesting side quests, bad camera, tacked-on Item Creation system, laggy input combat. They definitely seemed like they went with my least favorite of the series SO3 as an inspiration (except SO3 was pretty long) Someone assuage my fears Young Magus
Junior Member
ULTROS!
People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
So the battle system is all good? I guess that "helpful" review was just a negative nancy all along!
I don't think the main story took me very long, somewhere in the 20s in hours, I believe.
Some Nobody
Junior Member
Had to take a short break, but the Star Ocean 5 stream continues. https://youtu.be/foSGnGF4ltA
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
No the battle system is not good honestly. Which is a bad thing considering how much you will be fighting in this game.
Considering I have all of the crafting stuff maxed out for a while now, am seriously losing interest in this game due to how its designed. Only thing that is keeping me in is the characters and story are at least not bad. The voice work is good too for the main story characters, but a lot of other things really works against that.
Honestly if I do stop playing this and shelve it for whatever reason Ill go play 2 or 3 instead.
Need to go look where I put the DC of 3. As the original 3 had some game breaking bug at the end of the game of all places.