Star Ocean: The Last Hope International uses the CG menu interface Square Enix designed for the West. The Japanese press release highlighted it as one of the new features in Star Ocean: The Last Hope International.
It didn’t highlight the original look as one of the features, but a battle screenshot with anime portraits was also included with the announcement. The official site, specifically the page that mentions manual targeting with the start button, has battle screens with anime art too.
Did Square Enix quietly add an option to switch between CG models and anime art? If so, the anime look is a new feature for North America.
We asked Square Enix if this was the case, but haven’t heard back from them at press time. If we get a response we’ll post an update.