Let's play Star Ocean 3! Part 1

[TBA: link to opening cutscene video (transcribed below)]


Sophia: I was waiting for you, but you never came! You said you'd play a few games and then head right over...
Fayt: Uh... I'm sorry! I didn't plan on staying so long, but I got kinda sucked in...
Sophia: All right, well, that's what I thought happened. Didn't you say you had 'tons of homework to do' before we came to Hyda, anyway?
Fayt: But I was fighting so well today! And I leveled up a lot too, you know.
Sophia: Yeah, yeah. How nice for you.
Fayt: Hmm, someone's in a bad mood today...
Sophia: What do you expect!? You'd rather play games than hang out at the beach with me!
Fayt: Sophia?
Sophia: Hmph!


Sophia: I'm not mad!
Fayt: Do you... wanna go to the beach?
Sophia: I swam enough. While somebody I know was having the time of his life, playing games all by himself!
Fayt: So... Do you want to take a walk through the hotel? I bet it'll be fun. What do you say? C'mon! Please! Pretty please!?
Sophia: Hmm, well, if you want to hang out with me that badly, I guess it's all right...
Fayt: Great, let's go. Time's a wastin'!
Sophia: Okay!



Fayt: Took you long enough! What were you doing all that time?
Sophia: Just changing. I didn't take that long did I? Besides, you kept me waiting -- how long was it? Serves you right!
Fayt: Right, right...



With that we're given control of our protagonist Fayt, and we've got (mostly) free rein to explore the hotel alongside Sophia. She'll follow us along wherever we go, and has different dialogue for every room/area in the hotel. There's a decent bunch of NPCs to talk to in the hotel, but I won't cover them in here unless they're especially amusing or pertinent.

As soon as the game starts, we have access to our first Private Action (PA for short), which are either dialogue choices or optional interactions. Each PA affects how party members feel about each other and about Fayt (regardless of whether they're already in the party or not), and their opinion of Fayt is what determines which epilogue cutscenes you get.

I'll cover most PAs in this guide, other than ones that are just really uninteresting and/or kind of uncomfortable, like the first one which is literally just Fayt making a fatphobic joke at Sophia. At least she slaps him and almost every party member dislikes him for it. Some of the early PAs I'll only include as video though since there's 16 of them in roughly the first hour of gameplay and it would really destroy pacing. Or I can make an extra post later with just the PA screenshots.

There's 6 rooms in the hallway we're in right now. One of them is Sophia and Ryoko's (Fayt's mom) and the other is Fayt and Robert's (his dad). We can explore both of those as well as the 4 other rooms that strangers are currently staying in. Sophia starts asking Fayt if he doesn't remember their room number if he goes in those. Room 102 features a short little man in a fancy coat who enjoys having youngsters barge in unannounced, and asks Fayt if he's free to watch a show tomorrow.

Leaving the area of the hotel with the rooms, we can visit the lounge (which features games, not that Fayt's allowed to play right now, and snacks) or go down to the beach where Fayt's parents are.


[TBA: link to flirt PA (described but not transcribed below)]
If we go visit the beach, one of the PAs involves talking to a girl on the beach who's trying to get a boyfriend and asks whether Fayt's single and who's the girl besides him. You can say Sophia's your girlfriend, causing her to stammer and the flirt to leave, or you can call her "a little kid" or your younger sister, which will make her mad and cause the flirt to get annoyed by your public shouting match and also leave. If you made Sophia mad, leaving the beach will prompt another cutscene where Fayt apologizes to her and they make up.

Talking to Sophia on the beach before talking to Fayt's parents is a PA, and will have her admit she's nervous about trying to live up to their example given that they're both established scientists. Fayt doesn't really care. Talking to Fayt's parents (whether before or after talking to Sophia) has them sound disappointed but not surprised that he's been playing all day.



Also, dolphin boy is here for the first time! We'll see him a handful of times throughout the game and all his lines are absolutely delightful, he's one of my favorite NPCs.



Visiting the beach and most areas of the hotel is completely optional, with progress being found in a room just off the hotel lounge.

[TBA: link to cutscene (transcribed below)]

Peppita: Oh, I know! You want my autograph, don't you! Ah well, gotta keep the fans happy...


Fayt: Ah... Umm... You said the Rossettis?
Peppita: What? You didn't know our troupe's name? don't go forgetting it, now! Say, what's your name?
Fayt: Fayt... But...
Sophia: I'm Sophia.
Peppita: Right.


Peppita: From the Fairy of Illusions, Peppita Rossetti... All done!


Fayt: Ah... Hey! You can't just draw on somebody's shirt!
Peppita: Huh? What? I thought you wanted my autograph!?
Sophia: Nobody said anything about wanting an autograph!
Peppita: Huuuuh!? But... I mean... wha-!? But I thought... Then... you want my mama's autograph? Or... my papa's?


Peppita: ... right?
Fayt: No, we're not really looking for anyone's autograph...
Peppita: Huh! Well, what then... are you a salesman!? Nah... Come to think of it, you look like the kinda guy who's never done an honest day's work in his life.
Peppita: I know! You're here to collect on a loan! You're too early! That loan's good until next month, they promised!!!
Fayt: No... no!
Fayt: Who are the Rossettis, anyway? And what's with this 'Fairy of Illusions' stuff?
Peppita: Hmmmmmm... okay, soooo, umm... You two are just lost!?
Fayt: Well, we're not really lost...
Peppita: Oh no! You're robbers!
Fayt: No, not that either.
Peppita: Then what are you!?
Peppita: You're not one of my fans, you're not here to collect on our loan, you're not lost... So what do you think you're doing barging into our room like this!?
Fayt: Um, I'm sorry for barging into your room. We were just taking a little walk, checking out the place...
Fayt: Isn't that right, Sophia?
Sophia: Mmm-hmm.
Peppita: A walk!?
Fayt: Yeah, a walk.
Peppita: Barging into people's rooms isn't called 'taking a WALK!'
Peppita: That's for burglars, or lost kids, or stalkers, or groupies...
Fayt: Uh... okay. Then... We're lost.
Sophia: (whispering) Let's get out of here, Fayt.
Fayt: (whispering) Good idea.


Fayt: You're a performer?
Peppita: That's right.
Peppita: We're the Rossetti Troupe, and we bring you a fleeting vision of the future! I'm your fairy guide, Peppita Rossetti.
Peppita: Well, if you want to hear it in plain Terran, we're a circus troupe, and I am sort of the host.
Fayt: Oh... So this shirt with your signature's going to be worth something?
Peppita: Of course! It's the first autograph I ever signed!
Fayt: The first!?
Peppita: Tomorrow's my debut. In six months, why, you could buy a whole planet with that shirt!
Fayt: Oh yeah? Amazing. An entire planet. I guess I'll have to take good care of it.
Peppita: Hey... You don't believe me!?



[If we choose No, I believe you.]
Fayt: No, I believe you. I'm sure you'll be dynamite on the stage.
Peppita: Teehee... Thanks!
Peppita: I'm in a good mood, so I'll give this little present to you, my first fan!
Fayt: Huh... A ticket?
Peppita: Yeah, our show's tomorrow! You'd better not miss it! After you see us do our thing, you'll want to treasure that autograph for the rest of your life!
Fayt: Gee, thanks. I'm looking forward to the show.
Peppita: Great! See you later, Fayt!

[If we choose You're exaggerating a bit, aren't you?]
Fayt: Buy a whole planet? Aren't you exaggerating, just a little bit?
Peppita: What! You don't believe me!?
Fayt: It's not a question of believing you or not believing you. It's just... that's too ridiculous...
Sophia: Now that's just plain rude, Fayt...
Peppita: Hmph!

Peppita throws something at Fayt.

Fayt: Ouch!
Peppita: You think I'm kidding? Come see the show! You'll be begging my forgiveness, then!
Peppita: Got that, Fayt!? You'll want to hang onto my autograph as your greatest treasure, your whole life, after you see us perform!
Fayt: Uhh, umm, whatever you say!

Regardless of which dialogue option you go for, you end up with a Rossetti Performance Ticket.

You can now walk around in Peppita's room, and walking to the blocked off door there will lead her to tell you to not go there because that's where the tigers are and she doesn't want you to scare them.

Peppita's also got this gem if you talk to her again.



Next time: Fayt tries to play video games.

Let's play Star Ocean 3! Part 2

Up until this point, if we had gone into the section of the lounge with video games, Fayt wouldn't have said anything special and would've just commented that it's a game. Now, though, he's gone game-free for more than a couple minutes and that's more than he usually does, so when we re-enter the lounge we get:

Fayt: (I just remembered this hotel has one of those new combat simulator games. We have some free time, so maybe I should try to get Sophia to play a game or two with me.)

And talking to Sophia in this room gives us this:
Sophia: Fayt... You sure do love your games. I can't believe you could love anything that much. I supposed I should admire you for such dedication, but...

Anyway, we can interact with one of the game room panels now that we've seen the cutscene with Peppita.


Sophia: Keep playing games all the time like that and you'll turn into a brainless muscleman!
Fayt: (Hmm... What to do?)

[If we choose Give up for now.]
Fayt: You're right. Why don't we walk some more?
Sophia: That's better. For a minute I thought you wanted to play games all day.
Fayt: But... I might come back to play later.
Sophia: What!? You still wanna play?
Fayt: Wait a sec! Why don't you play too? I'm telling you, you'll like it if you try.
Fayt: Okay? Come on! I always wanted to try it with somebody other than my college buddies.
Sophia: Hmm... O-kay. I'll give it a shot.

The cutscene stops at this point and you can go back to walking around again. It's not a PA, it's just an option to keep walking around since starting the game is a point of no return.

[If we choose Try to persuade Sophia.]
Fayt: Why don't you give it a try, Sophia? It's really fun.
Sophia: But isn't this one of those combat simulators? Don't you have to fight? No can do... I don't like these kinds of games.

[If we choose Don't worry. I'll protect you.]
Fayt: Don't worry. I'll protect you.
Sophia: But...
Fayt: I'd never let you do anything dangerous, I promise. C'mon, try it!
Sophia: Well... Okay. If you say so... I guess I could give it a try.
Fayt: Then it's settled.

[If we choose I see. You don't like hanging out with me.]
Fayt: Oh... So... you don't like playing with me.
Sophia: No, it's not like that at all.
Fayt: It's okay, really. If you can't handle it.
Sophia: B-but I can handle it!
Fayt: Really?
Sophia: Y-yeah. Really.
Fayt: Great! Then let's play!
Sophia: Hey! That's not fair!
Fayt: But you said you can handle it...

[Both choices merge here]

Fayt: Let's start at an easy level since you're a beginner. You'd prefer a character that uses symbology from a distance rather than one that fights up front, right?
Sophia: Yeah... Well... It won't hurt, will it?
Fayt: Don't worry. Beginner's level doesn't hurt at all, really.
Sophia: Okay... I'll give it a try.

Fayt types on the console next to the door.

Fayt: All right then, we're about ready.


Fayt: What do you wanna do, Sophia? Let's start from the beginning... You wanna take a look at the instructions?
Sophia: I dunno... Should I?
Fayt: You probably should. Otherwise it won't be much fun.
Sophia: Okay. I will.

At this point we're bombarded with 50 text boxes about what Battle Trophies are (the game's equivalent of achievements, since this was on the PS2), and a lot of menu options to go through the battle tutorial. Fun fact: choosing to watch tutorials or not is a private action and some characters will dislike you if you look at the game tutorial before playing. I think this is extremely dumb and also absolutely rules. On this note, we'll be given the option to do more than one fight - which is ALSO a PA. And losing any fights is ALSO another PA. There's like 4 PAs inside the battle simulator itself, not even counting the dialogue to enter it. You're half a galaxy away from some characters and if you lose a fight they sit there thinking "wow this fayt guy sounds like a fucking wimp" it's great.

Back on track - I'm not going to look at the tutorial because I've finished this game too many times already. I'd recommend giving it a look if you're going to play it yourself though. The general gist is that it's real-time, instanced action combat with up to three party members. Characters have both HP and MP, and both can be used to cast skills (it depends on the skills), and either reaching 0 will knock your character out. Yes, MP-KO is a thing in this game, both for your party members and for enemies. Some bosses are notably easier to MP-KO on account of having high HP but low MP. Some enemy attacks will also cause MP damage, so you have to be pretty careful. It's infuriating on a first playthrough if you don't understand how it works but once you're used to it it's actually pretty neat.
Fury is basically just stamina: it drains when you attack, and if it's at 0% you can't attack anymore. Running caps it at 99%, and you can only regenerated it when you're standing still. If an enemy attacks you with a light attack and you're at 100%, you'll get a shield effect and whatever aura you have equipped will affect the enemy (the default aura is a stun and we'll be using it for most of the game). Using a heavy attack on someone at 100% will break through that shield and stagger them.

With that, we decide to just start the game.

Fayt: All right, let's play. Computer, start.


Computer: Battlefield Remote City of Listia
Computer: Monster level E
Computer: Setup complete. Continue?
Fayt: Okay. We're ready.
Computer: Preparing to commence. This Simulation System may abort a game if it detects that player safety is at risk.
Fayt: I already know that. Just start.
Computer: Confirmed. Commencing game.


We fight a bunch of bugs.

Sophia: *sigh*... That wore me out...
Fayt: But wasn't it fun?
Sophia: Well, it wasn't too bad, I guess.



[If we choose Let's try again.]
Fayt: Computer, start the next battle.
Sophia: Whaaat! We're gonna play again?
Fayt: Don't worry. It's basically the same as last time.
Sophia: O-kay...

Fayt is completely lying here, because this fight is actually significantly harder than the previous one and you're fairly likely to lose especially if it's your first time playing. I'm not going to go for it on this LP.

[If we choose Let's just give up.]
Fayt: What do you say we stop now and go get a bite to eat or something? You look pretty bushed.
Sophia: Yeah, I'm beat.
Fayt: Ha hah, you need more exercise!
Sophia: Hmph. Guess I'm just a fatty.
Fayt: No one's saying that. Sheesh...
Fayt: Hey! Let's go find my mom and dad.
Sophia: Right.

A loud siren starts blaring.


Fayt: An earthquake?
Fayt: (But Hyda IV is a stable world with tectonic activity! There shouldn't be any earthquakes.)


Fayt: Woah!
Computer: This is an emergency alert. Hyda IV is currently under attack by unidentified spacecraft. All civilians should follow immediate evacuation instructions on the nearest console. I repeat: All civilians...
Fayt: Computer! What's going on!?
Computer: Remote Station #7, Hyda III, and Hyda IV are currently under attack by unidentified ships. Remote Station #7 has scrambled its own ships to mount a counterattack, but they are outnumbered and therefore unable to provide evacuation assistance to Hyda IV.
Fayt: An attack by unidentified ships!?
Computer: Stand by for video display.



Fayt: I don't believe it...
Computer: As an emergency measure, all transporters have been directly linked to the Evacuation Terminal. Please commence evacuation by following the established route. I repeat: Please commence...
Sophia: Fayt...
Fayt: Don't worry, Sophia. I'll stick with you.
Sophia: Th-thanks.
Fayt: (But who could be attacking us? Never seen ships like those before... I wonder if Mom and Dad are all right?)
Fayt: (First things first. We gotta get out of here.)
Fayt: Let's go.
Sophia: Yeah.

We can talk to people out in the lounge as we're all evacuating. Like the computer said, transporters were linked to the evac terminal so the beach and our rooms are now closed to us. We can go check on Peppita though, if we'd like (which is another PA), in which case she'll say she's waiting for her mama and papa to meet up with them before the whole troupe evacuates together. As we exit the lounge, Sophia starts talking:

Sophia: Hey, Fayt. I'm really worried about your mom and dad. Do you think they're okay?
Fayt: I don't know. But at any rate, we gotta get somewhere safe fast. Sure, I'm worried about my mom and dad, but we need to think about ourselves right now.
Sophia: Yeah. You're right. Let's go.

They both run out of the lounge and the cutscene shows the other guests there following us out. Regardless of who we try to talk to on our way to the transporters, entering the transporter room starts another quick cutscene.


Short-Haired Hotel Employee: where a large transporter waits to take you to the Emergency Shelter. After the arrival of all guests at the shelter has been confirmed, the transport jammer located in the evacuation facility will be activated. Please evacuate in an orderly and speedy manner.

Taking the transporter proper takes us to the emergency corridor, where we find the first save point of the game (because we're about to have our first non-tutorial fight of the game, and this game is from the era where game overs will force you to reload a save).

Next time: some more cutscenes and a real fight for once.