Even though Star Ocean the last hope has been out for a while on the XBOX 360 i shall be reviewing it for the PS3

Well i’m sure a lot of you are familiar with the Star Ocean series original made by Tri-Ace and Published by Enix (now Square-Enix) it follows the same premise as the other games, exploring space.

In the fourth instalment you are sent out into the vast star ocean to  find a new world for a slowly dying earth, The cause of the earth dying was the third world war which after happening forced what remained of earths population to live underground.

Onto the game-play the battle system plays a lot like the previous three you take control of one character and the battle AI takes control of the other three, You can take control of the other three at anytime simply by using R1 or L1 on the controller.

You can assign special abilities to the R2 and L2 buttons for quick use, you can access other skills from the in-battle menu. 

A new feature to the Star Ocean series is the Battle Exalted Action Type shortened to BEAT in game these fall into three categories BEAT.S is a type of offense fighting style, BEAT.B is a type of defense fighting style and the final one is BEAT.N which is a neutral style of fighting as it doesn’t upgrade any particular ability, but combines the stat enhancements from the other BEAT styles.

Start Ocean 4 is in fact a prequal set before the first Star Ocean game set in the year S.D 0010 well theres not much else i can talk about really the soundtrack is composed by Motoi Sakuraba, who also composed the soundtrack for the previous games and overall it is very pleasent to listen to.

well thats it for me i hope this review (though short and not  necessarily full of information) was a pleasent read and i hope you will read my next review which, with any luck will be longer and a lot better organised hopefully i will get back into the swing of things soon.

Thanks for reading
RikkidoSeph

When I decided to start this blog with Terry (who has posted NOTHING) I intended to not only write about my adventures in Japan but also about the random things I love, videos games, films, music, novels etc.. So after neglecting my blog and only making half-arsed posts I decided to follow through and actually write something… starting with one of my favourite novels!

I was never really a big fan of mystery or detective novels… until I found the Roy Grace series written by the amazingly talented Peter James. The novels are set in Brighton and Hove (one of the main reasons I started to read them in the first place) and follows the story of a Brighton Police officer as he investigates some rather nasty and horrific cases. The first novel in the series is  ‘Dead Simple’  in which Roy Grace who is haunted by his own dark past must find out what happened on the night of Michael Harrison’s stag night, the only things known are Michael Harrison is missing, four of his best friends are dead and the only person who should know the man’s whereabouts isn’t saying a word. The novel is so fast paced, chilling and full of twists and a great start to a wonderful series.

Each and every character is well fleshed out and you generally care about what is happening to them.
Grace who is great at finding the small details within each case is similar to the legendary Sherlock Holmes, they really do share the ability of sharp observation. In my opinion this can only be possible because of the amazing way the novel is written and how well fleshed out Grace is, not just anybody can create a character with such an ability.

Peter James does a huge amount of research for each of his novels such as working with the police reguarly and being locked inside a coffin. This really shows within the books, while I was reading about a man locked inside a coffin I could really imagine it so clearly… it’s scary stuff!

So as you can tell by this point, my writing skills are poor but the reason I made this post is really to tell everyone to give this series a try even if you think “ahhh its not my thing” it really is fantastic!

I absolutely cannot wait for the sixth novel  ‘Dead like You’  it will surely be another great summer!! =D

Anyway, I can’t believe this time one year ago I was sitting in Harrow Halls being called ‘babycakes’ being a pervert with Cuu and spooning with Jack…! Crazy times!

So what’s it like actually living in the country I love? well it’s crazy and like anything the novelty does wear off, but there are still moments where I think to myself ‘wow I am in Japan’. But that doesn’t mean it’s not incredible and awesome! Ohhh no, while there are certainly things that tick me off for example the smoking laws, the businessmen that think they can be absolute cocks and the severe lack of baked beans in this bloody place… (seriously, what is a fry up without baked beans?) I still love Japan to pieces!
Interestingly though in my local supermarket they are selling ASDA chocolate.. can that be classed as interesting?
Overall living in Japan is a really wonderful experience but its the whole married life and being a father thing that is the greatest experience of all.

So, please comment and tell me whether all this is actually worth blogging!
If you have any questions about Japan/life in Japan, ask away!

Anyway I miss you all!

So, as most PSP gamers out there know, Kingdom Hearts – Birth by Sleep has recently been released for the PSP in Japan and has already sold over half a million copies in one week!

(Sorry for the bad quality photos, my camera is not cool…)

I purchased my copy from a local game store on the day of release.. I was very lucky as by the time I had arrived there were only two copies of the game left!!
So enough about that, lets talk about the game itself! As I said in the title ‘No Spoilers’ just some information on the battle system, Command Board, Mirage Arena, etc…

To be honest, when I first started the game I wasn’t too sure about this new battle system, but after a while I realized that it is absolutely amazing.. I wish the previous games were like this, the way the battle system is designed makes battles a lot more fun and you can easily find time flying as you battle away at the Arena. Unlike previous Kingdom Hearts games you do not have Attack, Magic, Summons, Items panels but instead you have a list of attacks and magic that you can completely customize to your liking, pressing the circle button (X button when the game is released in US/EU) will do an average attack (just like the normal attacks you do in KH1/2) but pressing the Triangle button will let you use your customized attacks and magic. While you use different commands your command guage fills up and if certain requirements are met you will change your style, for example Ven’s style can change into Fire Blazer or Diamond Dust (and several others) it’s very similar to the Drive forms in Kingdom Hearts 2… just a lot more fun and rewarding!! (You also level these styles up)
There is so much to level up in this game and that in itself is great fun!

Another new feature is you are able to combine the abilities you have levelled up and create new and more powerful attacks, you can also add an item to them as well for example an item that gives you more HP or more EXP, this allows you to not only level your character but also each individual attack.

…OK well I am going to stop there, if anyone has any questions or wants me to update this post give me a comment and I will give you more info!