A demo of Star Ocean: The Last Hope wasn't ready to be shown in E3 2008, but Square Enix and developer tri-Ace were happy to share a few details on it. UGN posted a report earlier with the following information:

• Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a prequel to the first three installments in the series. It will feature mankind's exodus from post-World War 3 Earth and the journey into the stars to find a new world.
• tri-Ace says that there will be plenty of allusions to the first three Star Ocean games.
• The story in this RPG will be "easier to understand" than those of its predecessors.
• Multiple planets will be explored instead of just one big world to roam around.
• Fighting will be similar to that of the third installment in the series. Action will be flashier and faster this time, says the devs.
• Item creation mechanics should be expected.
• Star Ocean: The Last Hope will be "closer to reality" because it is more chronologically proximate to modern times.

That's just about all we have coming from tri-Ace at this point. We'll catch more details soon and we'll tell you about it as soon as we can.

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