Star Ocean 4 not the last game in the series

In a new developer Q&A with GameSpot, the tri-Ace development team confirms that Star Ocean: The Last Hope is not the last game in the Star Ocean series, contrary to what many have thought.

When asked how it feels to be working on the last game in the series, the team stated that “We haven’t yet decided what lies in the future for the Star Ocean series.” The team reconfirmed it in the next question responding, “As mentioned above, Star Ocean: The Last Hope is not the final installment in the series, so it hasn’t quite reached the end of the road yet.”

Regarding The Last Hope, the team said that even though the Star Ocean saga concluded with the third game, the team “wanted to tell the story behind things, like how the Pangalactic Federation came to be and how the Star Ocean world was created. This desire to tell the full story resulted in the creation of Star Ocean: The Last Hope.”

Even though the battle system is familiar, there are also many changes. “The real-time action, battles, skills, and special attacks that have been part of Star Ocean‘s system have been carried on. In addition to these traditional elements, Star Ocean: The Last Hope incorporates a sense of depth to the Star Ocean world with more three-dimensional aspects, such as jumping, and a new system called “blindside” that enables players to jump out of an enemy’s line of sight to make a defensive to offensive switch in a matter of seconds. There are also new systems called “rush combo” and “BEAT system” that will give players a chance to enjoy the game in an intuitive or strategic light. ”

Regarding the length of the game, it could take up to “40 to 50 hours” playing straight through the story, according to the team. However, including “immersive elements, such as item creation and collection, side dungeons and quests”, the team says that “players could probably continue for months”.

Since Star Ocean: The Last Hope is about on the verge of release, GameSpot asked if tri-Ace has already moved on to their next project? “tri-Ace has just been released from a long period of development. We have not started thinking about future projects at this point, but I am confident that we’ll be able to introduce great games with the signature ‘tri-Ace flavor’ in the near future. Please keep an eye out for them.”