Part of that comes from the voice acting. A few do decent enough jobs, but most of the performances feel phoned in, and a lot of the recording sounds unnatural. I don't know how they recorded the lines, but it sounds like they were recorded on a line-by-line basis and then stitched together in production, rather than recorded like an animated film or cartoon, with actors performing all the lines in any given scene in real time. The result is plenty of lines that not only sound bad acting-wise, but also come off as if they're being coached by the text-to-voice application in Windows.

Still, the game isn't all bad. One such area is the graphics, which can be jaw-dropping. The many environments throughout the universe and many of its inhabitants look great, and there's an obvious attention to detail present. While I didn't particularly enjoy all of the character art of the playable cast, the models and animations of the monsters you fight are very impressive. I'd even go as far to say that of the recent JRPGs on the market, The Last Hope tops the bunch in terms of enemy appearances.

The area the game shines most, though, is the combat. Star Ocean has always been heralded for its combat, and even with other games trying to copy its fast-paced, hybrid action, it's still the king. Once you enter into a fight, you have four characters present, and you'll be able to switch between them very easily. Buttons perform different actions, and by stringing together normal and special attacks, and "magic,' you can create unique (and devastating) combos. Essentially the combat is a better-looking and performing version of that found in Star Ocean 3, but The Last Hope also introduces two new combat features: Rush and Blindsiding.

Rush is like the Limit Break from Final Fantasy. As you attack and defend, a meter will build up, and once full you can activate it to increase your dodging, critical rate, unlock special attacks, etc. Blindsiding is essentially a glorified parry-type move, and by holding and releasing a button at the right time, you'll dodge enemy attacks and wind up behind them, where you can sneak in some critical blows. The fighting was already fast-paced and entertaining as it was, but tossing in these new elements adds yet another layer to the possibilities inherent in each fight, and helps keep it refreshing no matter how long you've been playing.

It's just unfortunate that Star Ocean: The Last Hope can't blindside its problems. I don't know if the awkward pacing and repetitive nature of the story is mostly the fault of the localization or if it's just a problem in the original text itself, but the shortfalls of the game's writing and acting detract from what could otherwise be the best JRPG on the Xbox 360.

Instead of that, it ends up in the middle of the pack. If you have the patience to put up with some very slow plot points, have never been bothered by an overuse of clichés in the JRPG genre, and are more interested in a JRPG with refreshing combat than a refreshing narrative, you'll get a kick out of The Last Hope. Thankfully, there's no Star Ocean 3-esque twist in this one that will ruin it for series fans who can put up with its faults.

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