The PS3 version of the game will be out in February 2010 and will feature additional languages and additional characters in the hopes that you'll make this title an addition to your game collection.

Star Ocean The Last Hope, it has been previously announced, is truly international. Along with both English and Japanese, the game will also feature German, French, and Spanish.

Along with the previously discussed battle system tweaks and menu changes, the official announcement says the game now features "amazing graphics through Blu-ray Disc".

The game also sports "overhauled menus" and "additional characters".

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International Has Extra Characters [Siliconera]

Dubbed Star Ocean: The Last Hope International, the game will be hitting the PS3 February 4, 2010 and priced at ¥8,190 (US$90). The game features reworked menu screens and a tweaked battle system with auto-targeting. SO4: International also features English and Japanese voice acting options. It really is international!

According to a listing from online retailer and rental service Gamefly, a PlayStation 3 port of Star Ocean: The Last Hope is on its way. The date is still "TBD" and Square Enix hasn't announced said port—it wasn't on the list of titles the company planned to show at Gamescom—so we're taking it with a grain of salt.

On the other hand, Microsoft's window of exclusivity for the newest Star Ocean game could be winding down soon. Plus, Gamefly's pretty accurate about leaking unannounced titles. If a PlayStation 3 release is planned, it wouldn't surprise us one bit.

We've asked Square Enix what the deal is with the PS3 version, but haven't yet heard back.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope [Gamefly via Siliconera]

The childhood friends are both around 8 inches tall and come in window box — each with their own weapons*. Those interested in picking them up can find them online or at your local Japanese figure shop or both.

*stars and planetary terrain not included

Star Ocean 4 -The Last Hope- Play Arts Reimi Saionji & Edge Maverick action figure by Kotobukiya [Neko Magic]

Recently, an Xbox 360 truck outfitted with LCD TVs and demo games hit the streets of Hong Kong to promote the console. There was also a cosplayer dressed as Reimi from Star Ocean 4. See that Xbox 360 badge? So official like.

Xbox 360 Truck Visited By Star Ocean Cosplayer [Siliconera]

This is actually a quotation from a conversation I had when I was still talking with Enix before the company merged with top management people. I said yes, maybe one day I would like to try something more adult content. That's true! But that's not to say that we wanted to create something erotic and ended up with Star Ocean: the Last Hope. That's not the case.

Oh no. Sure, we believe you.

Yamagishi also talks multi-platform. Star Ocean 4 is an Xbox 360 game and, according to the producer, runs on an game engine that makes it technically possible to do a PS3 version or a PSP or a DS version.

Star Ocean 4 Interview [Videogamer]

Sure, there are challenges, but Yamagishi thinks game storytelling can eventually superseded other mediums. "As opposed to films, books and TV, as a medium it is more of a challenge to produce a game in order to tell a story," he says. Obviously, in theater, film and TV, the creator has greater control in how the story is presented to the view. Thus, it's easier to control the viewer's feelings and emotions.

"But in [a game developer's] case we always have to think about how players might react to each depiction of a character or storyline, and that's the part we can't predict," Yamagishi continues. "Nevertheless we have to make these predictions to a certain degree, and incorporate this into our work." He adds that this is more of a challenge.

"But if we manage to get over this hurdle," Yamagishi says, "then I regard video games as a greater medium to provide people with deep emotional and exciting experiences."

It's just a matter of getting over that hurdle.

Square: Game storytelling can surpass film [CVG via Dtoid]

While the Xbox 360 has been successful abroad, the console traditionally has had difficulty cracking the Japanese market. Recently, Microsoft has made in-roads with consumers in The Land of the Rising Sun thanks to titles like Star Ocean 4 that appeal to Japanese gamers.

In its first four days on sale, Star Ocean 4 has sold 166,027 copies in the sales week that began February 16 and ended February 22.

According to sales data from Japanese publisher Enterbrain, here's how Star Ocean 4 compares to the estimated total sales of the other top two Xbox 360 games in Japan.

1. Blue Dragon 203,740 copies
2. Tales of Vesperia 170, 024 copies
3. Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope 166,027 copies

During Star Ocean 4's first week at retail, Xbox 360 console sales reached 24,584 units. The game goes on sale today in North America.

『スターオーシャン4』の初週販売本数は16万6027本、Xbox 360用ソフトではトップクラスの出足に [Famitsu]

Below is a batch of Star Ocean: The Last Hope screenshots. Granted, they are taken out of context, and the game has been given a parent friendly CERO B rating.

That doesn't stop these images from appearing somewhat saucy.

「スターオーシャン4」はCERO『B』なのにベッドシーンがある問題作 [はちま起稿]

There will be two types of character portraits in the battle scenes — one for each region. One is getting anime faces, and the other is getting CG models.

Likewise, the menus will be different. So which is which? (Hint: Look for THE JAPANESE WORDS.)

Different Region, Different Star Ocean: The Last Hope Interface [Siliconera]

Sarah Jeland (literally, "Sara Jerando" in Japanese katakana — not sure about the English romanization) hails from the in-game planet of Roak is a Virgin Mary type character with wings. She can't fly, though. At least she's got fancy spectacles!

Click through the gallery below to check out Star Ocean 4's various planets.

Before the event began, numbered tickets were passed out to those lining up, and only 100 posters were handed out. Players experienced a 15 minute demo session. According to Famitsu, the event was a success — though, Famitsu.com does not provide any headcount estimates.

The faceplate included in the upcoming "Arcade Star Ocean 4 Premium Bundle" pack was on display as well.

整理券が配布されるほどの盛況ぶり！ Yodobashi-Akibaで『スターオーシャン4』先行体験会 [Famitsu]

Slated for February 19, the Arcade Star Ocean 4 bundle is priced at ¥24,800 (US$265) and comes with a Star Ocean 4 soundtrack and faceplate.

The Resident Evil 5 bundle comes with a 60GB HDD, a 48 hour LIVE Gold member trial member card, and the RE5 deluxe edition with collector's tin and soundtrack. It goes on sale March 5 for ¥34,800 ($373).

You may remember something I said the other day about how I am often paid to do push-ups in the middle of boardroom tables during serious business meetings so that the executives present can be motivated by my existence. In addition to not being a lie, that story was also the cold, hard truth. One such day while I was doing ferocious explosive clapping push-ups on a boardroom table, my iPod battery died and I overheard the old men talking, in grave tones:

"YouTube — it's dangerous. We have had men assess it, and they cannot discern any objective way to make money out of it."

Still, companies like Square-Enix jumped in and registered YouTube accounts, as you can see by the registration date on Square-Enix's channel home page. Notice how they have a logo which has the word "Channel" written in the famous font in which "Square-Enix" is always written. Notice how the letters are reflected in a nonexistent shiny black floor. Notice the lens flare on the right. They pulled out all the stops; they put PhotoShop through its paces here.

I tried to save the "Square-Enix Channel" banner for use in this post; oddly, right-click saving was disabled. I used my elite hacker skills to obtain the image you see on this page.

Let's backtrack a bit. How did I become aware of the Square-Enix Channel today? It was through a routine reading of Famitsu Dot Com. Right there, on the front page, was the following headline:

"Latest Star Ocean 4 Trailer Released on YouTube".

Investigating the story leads to a neat little puzzle. The story says: You can view this new trailer only here, on YouTube, or by downloading it from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

The quality of the YouTube version of the trailer, for starters, is atrocious. There's a reason for this, probably. I will bet you five dollars Square-Enix has a whole thirty-slide PowerPoint presentation explaining why the quality absolutely must suck.

Square-Enix is the company who puts more "NO PHOTO" signs in their Tokyo Game Show booth than every other game publisher combined. They are the company who forces convention attendees to line up for an hour at the very beginning of an event just to receive tickets to a "Mega Theater" where they show . . . the same trailers they've been showing for a year, maybe plus three seconds of new pre-rendered footage.

Now they're finally getting with YouTube. This is a big step for them! A huge step, even.

So here's the funny part: on the video page, you will notice that comments and ratings are disabled. There you have it, folks — incontrovertible proof that Square-Enix Does Not Care What You Think (unless what you're thinking is that Dissidia Final Fantasy or any other Square-Enix title is worth buying (new, not used)).

The name of the battle system is BEAT, which stands for — get ready —

Battle
Exalted
Action
Type

Okay, so, uhh, what does that mean? Based on the demo at Tokyo Game Show, I dare say that the battle system in Star Ocean: The Last Hope feels a lot like the battle system in Star Ocean 3. If the name is different, though — and probably trademarked twice — then there must be something amazingly new and innovative about it.

I wish to take this opportunity to point out the following things:

1. In the Eskimo language, there are a thousand words for "snow" and zero words for "hello"; in Japanese, there exist tens of thousands of words that mean roughly the same thing as absolutely nothing at all

2. There's a chance that the game-designers at work here don't understand what "exalted" means. Here, I've looked it up on Dictionary.com for them. Now they can pretend that they meant to use the "rapturously excited" meaning all along.

3. "Beat" is also the name of an internet-based time standard invented by Swatch in 1998. Unlike Square-Enix, though, Swatch didn't try to make an acronym out of the letters.

Maybe if this battle system were somehow rhythm based, or something, it would be excusable, though really, what's the point of giving a name to the battle system? Battle systems in RPGs are placeholders, anyway. Giving them names is a lot like giving a brain tumor a name. That's not helping the problem!

Furthermore, why do we still have huge anime portraits of the characters at the bottom of the screen? Really, do we need to be able to see the anime faces of the characters, when we've got expressive, fully-animated, dynamically battling character models ping-ponging all around the screen in high-def glory?

Japanese RPGs have been in the practice of giving terrible names to their battle systems for a long time now, ever since Final Fantasy IV introduced a time element and called it, humbly, the "Active Time Battle (ATB)". Now nearly two decades later, there is no end in sight for this terrifying pissing contest, and we've got

1. A game called Infinite Undiscovery

2. A battle system which is literally called "Evolved Flex-Range Linear Motion Battle System" (EFR-LMBS) (from Tales of Vesperia)

3. And now this Battle Exalted Action Type system in Star Ocean: The Last Hope.

[Jerry Seinfeld voice] What's the deal with crazy battle system names?

My guess is that it has something to do with absolute terror — the same business thinking that forces a Japanese man to consider opening a ramen shop next door to another ramen shop — and nowhere else — forces makers of RPGs to write insane English bullshit on the back of the box. Seriously, the back of Tales of Vesperia's box literally lists "Evolved Flex-Range Linear Motion Battle System" as a "feature", right up there with "720p".

Why name these things at all? It's creepy. Really. And stop putting huge words on the screen. The most recent screenshots on The Magic Box depict the words "SIGHT OUT!" appearing in the middle of the screen. What the hell does that mean? Do Japanese people know what it means? Do us English-speakers? (Cue joke re: Star Ocean 4 being out of sight.)

A final note: two years ago, Xbox 360 had Lost Planet and Lost Odyssey. Now it has Last Remnant and Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Maybe the Xbox isn't winning in Japan because they keep naming games as though they're already lost, or as though there won't be any room for a sequel. (Also, people hear "last", and they think "last place".)

In the comments, I want you to do this:

1. Think of a daily task (hygiene / work / study related)
2. Think of a ridiculous battle system name to describe said task
3. Have fun fielding guesses as to the identity of your

I'll go first!

"Propulsive Ejection Natural Intelligent System".

[via Famitsu]

It’s shaping up as a safe, safe game. Like most Japanese games on the showroom floor, if you stripped back the graphical improvements a new generation of hardware has brought, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were playing a PS2 game. You still wander a linear overworld, you still encounter enemies, you still engage in closed-off battles with your party, the action is still punctuated by text-based conversation.

Basically, if you like Star Ocean – or JRPGs in general – you know what you’re getting yourself into before you even drop the disc into your 360.

What you won’t be ready for will be this game’s graphics. The in-game action looks crisp and clean, with a vibrant colour palette and bold character designs helping the game stand out on the 360 amongst the its Square Enix & Mistwalker competition. Cutscenes using the in-game engine look even better, with so few ragged edges around the player models that they trump many other game’s rendered sequences.

As for Star Ocean 4’s rendered sequences…they’re simply amazing. I didn’t catch many on the showroom floor, but in an interview with the game’s producer Yoshinori Yamagishi, they had a 50” LCD running the game’s intro sequence. And I know, this was so rude, but I couldn’t help but be continually distracted by it. If you’re the type to grind through a JRPG for the fluff sequences, you won’t find many better than those in this game.

As for the mechanics of the game, new nuts & bolts, etc, sadly the demo ran for only 10 minutes or so, enough time to only get a few quick battles in and go for a run outside before the game shut down. Still, from what I saw, I didn't notice much new stuff. Combat did seem a little easier than previous games, with switching between characters being a lot faster, and there were a range of new charged attacks available for each character, and…that was about it.

As with most JRPG titles this generation, it seemed a case of same old gameplay, shiny new graphics. Which may seem lazy to most (including myself), but hey, to Star Ocean fans, it’s probably exactly what you’re after.

『ラスト レムナント』と『スターオーシャン4』は東京ゲームショウにプレイアブル出展 [Famitsu]