Japanese console RPG fans rejoice, as you are not alone in this corrupt world of casual gaming and first-person shooters (no offense to those lost souls). Worry not, as one of your brethren is here with the Good Word... the good word on Star Ocean 4.

A few of our other "brethren" have sent in scans from the latest issue of Famitsu (see below). Thanks to all that did so. The scans don't show much, but they're still worth a look. And why is it that no one is facing the camera?

Also, Square Enix has launched a Japanese Star Ocean portal site called Eternal Sphere. It has teasers and information on the upcoming games from Square Enix's "other, other" RPG series.  Unfortunately, there are only teaser splash pages for the titles we really want to know about, namely Star Ocean First Departure and Second Evolution (both for PSP), and of course, Star Ocean 4. All three of these will make a showing at this years Tokyo Game Show. 

The last bit of news comes to us from Next-Gen.biz, as they came across something we must have missed. They say that Star Ocean 4 will be a PS3 exclusive title. It's a bit surprising to hear that, as most of Square Enix's other properties seem to be going multiplatform. Star Ocean has always been a PlayStation series, so the fourth one should be right at home on the PlayStation 3.

Next-Gen is also saying that Star Ocean 4 has the potential to be for the Star Ocean series what Oblivion was for the Elder Scrolls games. I don't know that we've seen enough of the game to say that yet, but let's hope that this is true.

We'll be able to bring you more details on the two PSP remakes as well as Star Ocean 4 later this month from TGS.