Here’s a bit of news which should make Xbox 360 owners happy, especially those who love Japanese RPGs. Star Ocean: The Last Hope will ship on March 3, 2009. The Japanese release date is just before that, at February 19, 2009. Usually we don’t see Japanese games in America for a few months, so the small amount of time in between the two release dates for this game is a welcome relief. The Last Hope is a highly anticipated prequel which combines sci-fi and fantasy elements. The Last Hope will be the first of the Star Ocean series to appear on the Xbox 360. The gameplay will feature four party members and team oriented combat, similar to what you’d see in Final Fantasy. However, The Last Hope will feature a real time combat system, similar to what’s featured in previous games. To better cement the series on the hi-definition 360, the cut scenes are being done by Visual Works, which is the studio responsible for the cut scenes for many Final Fantasy games.

A trailer for the game is being shown at the Tokyo Game Show, so expect videos to surface on the internet. The game will also be playable at the Microsoft booth, so there should be plenty of bootleg gameplay footage popping up on YouTube as well. Keep your eyes peeled!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Square Enix, Star Ocean. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.