Star Ocean: The Last Hope - International - PS3

The Last Hope marks the return of a Square Enix series dear to many gamers' hearts - Star Ocean.

The game takes players back to before the first game, offering insight into the universe of Star Ocean. Players take on the role of Edge Maverick (who, by the way, must have the best name ever) in the year S.D. 10. It's the aftermath of World War III, and mankind is searching the stars for a home to replace the devastated Earth and hopefully, a second chance.

Despite the grand Space Operatic premise, the game quickly abandons science in favour of more tried and tested Japanese RPG territory - archaic weapons and magic. It's the use of these weapons that makes The Last Hope stand apart from many of its contemporaries. Rather than the traditional turn-based system or Active Time Battle mechanism, The Last Hope serves up real time combat. Despite that, there's a healthy dose of strategy involved, and players will be able to swap between four party members, as well as issuing commands to those they aren't directly controlling and swapping new party members into the pack.

All this is set against a suitably epic storyline and lush graphics that look a bit like a psychedelic Star Wars, with cut scenes handled by Visual Works (of Final Fantasy fame) promising a rich visual experience.

The most notable enhancements are the player choices in the sound and graphics departments. Choose between Japanese or English voices, six different languages for non-voiced dialogue (English, French, German, Italian, Japanese or Spanish), character graphics (classic anime 2D or more modern 3D) as well as several new soundtracks. The menu system has been completely revamped, and the battle targetting system has been improved. Four NPC characters (non-controllable) have been added to the story: Irene, Crowe, Welch and Giotto.