Now that this is aside i'll start by a short introduction regarding why i chose Star Ocean: Last Hope and Mass Effect series in this comparison.
First of all .. there are many similarities between the two games specially in themes, in both you get your own space ship at the beginning of the game, start with an all human crew only to later travel the galaxy and recruit alien crew members from many different spieces, you stumble upon a danger that can wipe all life from the galaxy but no one believes you so you have to take matter in hand and stop it with help from your crew and friends .. etc etc etc
Point is .. both games are built around the same concepts but use different game mechanics to deliver the experiance ... but there is one thing/mechanic that i liked so much in Star Ocean and would like to see in ME3 .. that's interaction between NPCs .. firstly among each other (namely your crew) and between your character and them.
Let's see how NPC interact with each other in Star Ocean:
What makes NPC interactions very interesting in SO:Last Hope is that they really interact with each other like real people, they don't stand stiffly in the same location in the ship doing the same thing during the entire game like in ME2 or ME .. they walk around .. they quarrel .. they argue .. they talk ... they do stuff ... and not in cut-scenes .. but rather in real-time while you can walk around engage in conversations with them and ask them questions or answer their questions (all while waiting for your ship to warp from location to another in space .. or you could skip it and Sleep/Hibernate XD)
While your ship is warping every time you interact with some of you crew around the ship .. time skips and you are closer to your destination and also your crew members are all doing different new things ... this really makes them feel alive an human way more than the (standing juke box) approach that ME2 and ME uses with characters on the Normandy .. they never interact .. you never see them do it .. they rarely state any opnions about each other .. they rarely do anything varied (just the same thing they are doing ever since they came on board) ... in SO:Last Hope you can even choose a room-mate and arrange the others as couples in the rest of the cabins/rooms on the ship (as they need some place to sleep) .. which causes some interesting situations and results in one of many different endings .. hmmm ... anyone wondered where Garrus sleeps!!? .. or does he ever stop doing caleberations!!? XD
Hope to see more interesting NPC interactions in ME3 and hope they get to move around the Normandy .. talk with each other .. do different kinds of stuff ... form opinions about each other .. not just stand in one location like a talking juke box ... and ME universe has lots of chances for great NPC interactions.
Other stuff i want to see from SO:Last Hope in ME3:
-An indepth item/weapon customization system .. goes well with the new weapon system in ME3
-Arena mode .. both for practice, as a challenge mode and for the heck of mindless blasting fun, similar to pinnacle station, ME expansion.
====================================================================================
Well ... That's all .. opnions are welcome .. and if anyone found another RPG that handels NPC interaction better than ME and SO:Last Hope .. please share
Retour en haut
